Gruffudd ap Llywelyn (c. 1013-63) was the king who came closest to becoming Wales's Alfred, yet - 1,000 years after his birth - the would-be nation builder is all but forgotten. Gruffudd united Wales and conquered border land that had been in English hands for centuries, turning the Viking threat into a powerful weapon. In 1055 he led a great army and fleet into England, burning Hereford and forcing King Edward the England, burning Hereford and forcing King Edward the Confessor to seek peace. Having emerged as a war leader, Gruffudd would prove to be much more: he was a patron of the arts and of the Church. In 1063 he was betrayed and beheaded by the forebears of the princes who have entered history as Wales's national heroes, leaving the country in chaos on the eve of the arrival of the Normans. But Gruffudd's death would also lead to the downfall at Hastings of the man who engineered it - Harold II, England's last Anglo-Saxon king.