3Gruffydd ap Llywelyn (c. 1007 – 1063/1064) was the ruler of all Wales from 1055 until his death, the only Welsh monarch able to make this boast. Called King of the Britons in the Annals of Ulster and Brut y Tywysogion, he was great-great-grandson to Hywel Dda and King Cadell ap Rhodri of Deheubarth.

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Gruffudd ap Llywelyn
Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, (1007-63) was King of all Wales only from 1055-63, yet he was the only Welsh ruler to unite the ancient kingdoms of the whole of Wales. Gwynfor Evans points out that though for five centuries the people of Wales had shared a common language, culture, history, religion and for the most part a common law, it was only under Gruffudd ap Llywelyn that it had a single sovereign, and thus a measure of political unity. Gruffudd was a grandson of Maredudd ab Owain, King of Deheubarth and the son of Llywelyn ap Seisyllt, ruler of Gwynedd. By force of arms, he seized Gwynedd and Powys, and overthrew Deheubarth, Gwent and Morgannwg. Walter Map, in "De Nugis Curalium" (c.1180), recorded the kings' account of his military campaigns against his fellow Welsh: "Speak not of killing. I do but blunt the horns of the offspring of Wales, lest they should wound their dam."

Gruffudd was even successful in reclaiming lands east of Offa's Dyke from the English settlers. He established his court at Rhuddlan, in the heart of an area settled by Mercians, and his conquests of areas of Northeast Wales formerly part of the earldom of Chester meant that they would remain Welsh as parts of the later counties of Flintshire and Denbighshire. His very successes, however, led to the invasion of Wales by Harold, Earl of Wessex. During the fighting, Gruffudd was assassinated by a fellow Welshman. Wales was never again wholly united under a single sovereign though Llywelyn ap Iorweth's successes over a century later surpassed those of his predecessor.

116General:
Gruffyd brought Gwynedd, then Deheubarth, and finally (though briefly) the whole of Wales under his dominion. The devestation wrought on the English borderland, still not erased at the time of the making of Domesday Book (1086), was probably in large measure due to him. His death meant that the most powerful ruler of independent Wales was destroyed only a few years before the coming of Norman forces to the Anglo-Welsh frontier.

3Common-law wife of King Harold
She bore Harold several children and was his common law wife (according to Danish law, by a civil "handfast" marriage) for over 20 years. Though she was not considered Harold's wife by the Church, there is no indication that the children she bore by Harold were treated as illegitimate by the culture at the time. In fact, one of Harold Godwinesson and Edith Swan-Neck's daughters, Gyda Haraldsdatter, (also known as Gytha of Wessex), was addressed as "princess" and was married to the Grand Duke Of Kiev, Vladimir Monomakh.
Though King Harold II is said to have lawfully married Edith of Mercia, the widow of the Welsh ruler Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, (whom he defeated in battle), in 1064, this is seen by most modern scholars as a marriage of political means, or even dismissed as misunderstanding or propaganda.[citation needed] Since at the time Mercia and Wales were allied against England, the political marriage would give the English claim in two very troublesome regions, as well as give Harold Godwinesson a marriage deemed "legitimate" by the clergy of the Church, something his longtime common law wife, Edith Swan-Neck unfortunately could not provide.
Edith Swan-Neck would be remembered in history and folklore for one very important thing: it was she who identified Harold after his defeat at The Battle of Hastings. Harold's body was horrifically mutilated after the battle by the Norman army of William the Conqueror and despite the pleas by Harold's own mother for William to surrender Harold's body for burial, the Norman army refused even though Harold's mother offered William Harold's weight in gold. It was then that Edith Swan-Neck walked through the carnage of battle so that she may identify Harold by markings on his chest known only to her. It was because of Edith Swan-Neck's identification of Harold's body that Harold was given a Christian burial by the monks at Waltham. This legend was recounted in the well-known poem by Heinrich Heine, "The Battlefield of Hastings" (1855), which features Edith Swan-neck as the main character and claims that the 'marks known only to her' were in fact love bites.