Hywel Dda, or Hywel the Good (?-?950), was a king of Wales and a lawgiver. Hywel probably succeeded his father, Cadell, as ruler of Ceredigion in about A.D. 909. By 930, Hywel also ruled several other small kingdoms in southern Wales. In 928, he made a pilgrimage to Rome. Upon his return, he kept close contact with the Anglo-Saxon court. The king of Gwynedd, in northwestern Wales, died in 942. Hywel then extended his rule over much of central and northern Wales. He devised a unified body of laws for Wales to replace tribal codes.
