Background
Llwyd was born at Foxhall, his family"s estate in Denbigh, the county seat of the then county of Denbighshire. His father, Robert Llwyd, was descended from Harry Rossendale, henchman and grantee of the Earl of Lincoln.
Llwyd was born at Foxhall, his family"s estate in Denbigh, the county seat of the then county of Denbighshire. His father, Robert Llwyd, was descended from Harry Rossendale, henchman and grantee of the Earl of Lincoln.
Brasenose College.
His motto was Hwy pery klod na golyd ("Fame lasts longer than wealth")
The first of the family that came to Wales from England appears to have been Foulk Rosindale, from whom Foxhall, or Foulk"s Hall, was called. Einion Evell, Lord of part of Cynllaith, resided at Llwyn y Macn, in the parish of Oswestry. As a young man, he was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford and fared so well in the sciences and engineering that he was given a position as a physician to the Earl of Arundel during the Earl"s tenure as Chancellor of the university.
He was Minister to Parliament for East Grinstead during Elizabeth I"s first parliament (1559).
In 1563, Llwyd returned to Denbigh and lived at Denbigh Castle at the permission of Sir John Salusbury who was then the Lord of the Manor of Denbigh. That year, he was elected Member of Parliament for Denbigh Boroughs during Elizabeth"s second Parliament where he promoted an act allowing the translation of the Bible into Welsh.
From 1566 he toured Europe, including Brussels, Augsburg, Milan, Padua and Venice. In Antwerp, he learnt from, and collaborated with, map maker Abraham Ortelius.
In 1567, when Llwyd returned to Denbigh, he was given a stipend from the Crown to create the first printed map of Wales.
Llwyd died in 1568 and is buried in Whitchurch, a small chapel on the outskirts of Denbigh. A Victorian-era monument honoring him still exists in Saint Marcella"s Church, Denbigh.
He was a leading member of the Renaissance period in Wales along with other such men as Thomas Salisbury and William Morgan.