Full text of "A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest"

See other formats

)

}

(oOj

;/6'

A HISTORY OF WALES

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE
EDWARDIAN CONQUEST

JOHN EDWARD LLOYD, M.A.

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH WALES, BANGOR

IN TWO VOLUMES
Vol. II

WITH MAP

SECOND EDITION . *?) ^/i -y

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

191 2

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

CHAPTER XI.
THE NORMAN CONQUEST— FIRST STAGE.

PAGE

1. Gruffydd ap Llywelyn 357

2. The Normans and the Welsh March 371

3. The Normans in North Wales 378

4. Rhys ap Tewdwr 392

CHAPTER XII.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST— SECOND STAGE.

1. The Struggle at its Height 400

2. The Predominance of Powys 411

3. South Wales under Henry 1 423

4. The Subjugation of the Welsh Church 447

Note to § iv. — Bishop Sulibn and his Family .... 459

CHAPTER XIII.
THE NATIONAL REVIVAL.

1. The Recovery of Gwynedd 462

2. The Great Revolt 469

3. The National Awakening and the Church 480

Note to § iii. — The Alleged Archbishopric of St. David's . 486

CHAPTER XIV.
OWAIN GWYNEDD.

1. The Rivals of Owain 487

2. The Victories of the Sons of Gruffydd ap Rhys . . . 500

3. The Triumph of Owain 505

4. The Literary Revival 523

VI CONTENTS OF VOLUME IT.

CHAPTER XV.
RHYS AP GRUFFYDD.

PAGE

1. The Greatness of the Lord Rhys 536

2. GiRALDUS CaMBRENSIS 554

3. Wales in ii88 : Climax of the Power of Rhys .... 564

CHAPTER XVI.
THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY.

1. Old and New Leaders 573

2. The Rise of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth 587

3. The Monastic Revival 590

4. Welsh Society in 1200 604

CHAPTER XVn.
LLYWELYN THE GREAT— EARLY MANHOOD.

1. The Rivalry of Llywelyn and Gwenwynwyn .... 612

2. The Fight for the Freedom of St. David's 623

3. Llywelyn in Conflict with John : Peace of Worcester . . 631

CHAPTER XVin.
LLYWELYN THE GREAT— MATURITY.

1. From the Peace of Worcester to the Kerry Campaign . . 655

2. From the Kerry Campaign to the Pact of Middle . . . 669

3. Wales under the Rule of Llywelyn 682

4. Closing Scenes 692

CHAPTER XIX.
BETWEEN TWO TIDES.

1. The Struggle of David for Independence 694

2. Wales again in Subjection 706

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. vii

CHAPTER XX.

LLYWELYN AP GRUFFYDD.

PAGE

1. The Conquest of Powys and the South 716

2. Llywelyn and Earl Simon 729

3. Peace and Supremacy 74^

4. The Downfall 754

Genealogical Tables 7^5

Index 773

MAP.

Medi/bval Wales End of the Volume

CHAPTER XI.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE.

(In a paper on " Wales and the Coming of the Normans," included in the
Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion for 1899-1900, I have
discussed in some detail the events of the period 1039-93, snd I may perhaps
be pardoned if I refer the reader to this essay for a full account of the evidence
on which I have relied in writing this chapter. As an appendix to the paper, Ann.
C. MSS. B. and C. for this period are printed in parallel columns from the original
MSB.)

I. Gruffydd AP Llywelyn.

Both in England and in Wales events were ripening in the CHAP,
middle of the eleventh century for the revolution known as the ^^'
Norman Conquest. Instead of the ruin and devastation caused
by the attacks of a savage enemy who could not be overthrown
and yet knew not how to turn his victories to any beneficent
purpose, there was to be submission to a foreign foe who with
the yoke imposed order and civilisation. But, notwithstanding
the likeness of their fortunes in this respect, the two countries
were governed during the years which preceded the coming of
Duke William by men of a very different temper, and the
difference affected vitally the course of the ensuing struggle.
England had as king the half-Norman Edward, a foreigner by
breeding and in sympathies, who familiarised the English with
Norman ideas and institutions ; when the combat came, it was
fierce, but short and decisive, and the Norman invaders soon
became absolute masters of the country. Wales was during
the same period under the sway of as striking a personality as
any to be encountered in Welsh history — a strong and passion-
ate ruler of men, who struck boldly for the national cause and
rekindled the dying fires of patriotic enthusiasm. In Wales,
therefore, the battle between the new-comer and the native raged
obstinately and long and left the Norman in possession of a

VOL. II. I 357

358 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, portion only of the field for which it had been fought. The
Norman Conquest of Wales was not, indeed, completed until
long after the name of Norman had been merged, so far as
Britain was concerned, in that of Englishman.

After the meteoric careers of Llywelyn ap Seisyll and
Rhydderch ab lestyn, there was a return, both in North and
South Wales, to the ancient dynasties ; lago ab Idwal, a great
grandson of Idwal the Bald, was chosen to rule over Gwynedd,
while Deheubarth acknowledged the lordship of Hywel and
Maredudd, grandsons of the Einon ab Owain who fell in 984.
This was, however, but a brief triumph for legitimacy, for in
1039, after a reign of six years, lago was slain by his own men,
and the only son of Llywelyn ap Seisyl^ who bore the name
Gruffydd, stepped into the position which his father had once
filled with such distinction.-

Border traditions, preserved by the facile pen of Walter
Map, have handed down a vivid portrait of Gruffydd ap
Llywelyn, of which the clear-cut outlines in nowise run counter
to the facts recorded of him in history, but rather derive con-
firmation from them. As a youth he was, we are told, sluggish
and unadventurous, given to loafing around the paternal hearth

and insensible to the charm of a dangerous enterprise a lad

whose want of spirit seemed disgraceful to the kinsfolk who saw
in him the natural successor of his father as king of Gwynedd.
But one New Year's Eve,^ driven out of doors by the reproaches
of his sister, he had an experience which wrought his conver-
sion into a bold and strenuous warrior. The night was a night
of signs and omens ; in many ways might a man learn on this
last evening of the year what should befall him in the coming
twelvemonth, and Gruffydd chose the least perilous, that of
eaves-dropping. He planted himself against the wall of a house
where a company were intent upon the process of boiling large

1" Cum sis unicus et haeres regis " {De Nugis, 97). For Map's evidence
see Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 127.

2 " laco ri bretan a suis occisus est," say Tighernach {Rev. Celt, xvii p
378), Ann. Ult. s.a. 1039 and Chron. Scot. 1037 (= 1039). Only B. Saes. (a
late translation, be it remembered) asserts the complicity of Gruffydd.

3 " Nocte ante circumcisionem," says Map {De Nugis, ut supra) but he
probably confounded the Celtic and English New Year's Day. The former was
ist November, and its eve was a recognised time for seeking omens {Trans. Cymr
1899-1900, 128).

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 359

pieces of beef in the family " callor " or cauldron. " Strange," CHAP,
said the cook, " but here is one piece which, however firmly I
drive it down with my fork, always persists in coming to the
top." Gruffydd drank in the words, convinced that they were
prophetic of his own future, and from that moment was another
man ; what taunt and reproach could not do was brought about
by the spur of ambition and the vision of coming greatness.
The man who thus attained the full measure of manhood in
a moment of transformation was cast in a large mould. He
had courage, persistence, a quick imagination, the tyrannous,
masterful spirit, impatient of all rivalry, and — what is often
found in conjunction with this last — a cordial and easy manner,
the expression of a nature at ease in the confidence of its own
strength. Neither in love nor in war would he brook any effort
to supplant him, and young men who might grow to be a men-
ace to his power were marked for destruction. But his wit
played like a lambent flame around the darker aspects of his
career. " Speak not of killing," said he, " I do but blunt the
horns of the offspring of Wales, lest they should wound their
dam." Nor was he without those generous impulses which
often redeem the violence and cruelty of passionate, forceful men.
Map tells the tale how, on the occasion when Gruffydd and
Edward came together to negotiate a treaty of peace, neither
would at first cross the Severn to meet the other, lest this should
be construed as an admission of inferiority, until at last Edward
threw dignity to the winds and entered the ferry-boat, whereupon
Gruffydd, completely won over by this humility, plunged into
the waters to meet the boat, embraced it fervently as it came
up and carried the king ashore on his shoulders. One whose
better nature could be thus aroused by the sight of virtue
in others was clearly not altogether the tyrant and man of
blood.

In 1039 Gruffydd became king not only of Gwynedd, but
also of Powys (unless, indeed, he was already possessed of
this region), and he was thus enabled at the outset of his reign
to strike a blow at Mercia which by its boldness and vigour
drew attention at once to the rise of a new power in Wales.
At Rhyd y Groes on the Severn, a ford in the neighbourhood
of Welshpool, the situation of which cannot be more precisely
indicated, he suddenly fell upon a Mercian army which had no

36o HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, warning of his approach and inflicted upon it a crushing defeat.*
Its leader Edwin, brother of Earl Leofric of Mercia, and other
men of note were slain, and so complete was the victory that
Grufifydd had no need to guard its fruits by assuming the de-
fensive, but was able to pass on to other designs. The stroke
was such as to raise the Welsh king forthwith to the position
he occupied in regard to England until the year of his death —
to make him the terror of the border, portentous and in-
vincible, against whom reprisals were of little avail.

For the next few years Gruffydd's chief concern was to
make himself master of Deheubarth. Maredudd ab Edwin
had been slain in 1035, and it was, therefore, with Hywel ab
Edwin he had to contend, a prince who, as representative of
the ancestral line of the district, was by no means easy to dis-
lodge. Gruffydd attacked his territories in the year of Rhyd
y Groes, invading Ceredigion and ravaging the lands of the
church of Llanbadarn Fawr, and the sudden onslaught was for
the moment successful. But Hywel was soon able to recover
his position, as may be seen from the fact that he met Gruffydd
in battle in 1041 ^ at Pencader, near the spot where Dyfed,
Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi meet. The king of Gwynedd
was the victor and carried off his defeated rival's wife — a deed
which, though duly apologised for by the author of the
" Gwentian Brut," ® is quite in keeping with Map's portrait of
Gruffydd as the fiercely jealous husband of a very beautiful
bride. Notwithstanding this defeat, Hywel was still lord of
Dyfed and Ystrad Tywi, in 1042, for in that year he met a host
of Danish marauders at Pwll Dyfach, some 5 miles north-
west of Carmarthen, and signally overthrew them. An un-
recorded reverse followed, so that in 1 044 he is found returning
to Deheubarth as an exile and entering the mouth of the Towy

*Cf. with the Welsh notices A.S. Ckr. MS. C. s.a. 1039, Fl. Wig. s.a. 1052
(where "per insidias" is important), and Heming's Cartulary (Oxford, 1723),
278. For the reasons which make it impossible to locate this battle at Upton
on Severn (Norm. Conq. i. (3), p. 506), see my paper, 129-30, Rhyd y Groes was
near Gungrog and Cefn Digoll (Mab. 146, 148) ; the fact that it was on the
Severn at once excludes the place of this name east of Forden (Mont. Coll. vii.
(1874), 163-72), and 1 cannot find any good authority for the view that it was
the ford to the west of that village.

5 For the chronology of this reign see Ann. C. as printed in Trans. Cymr.
1899-1900, 166-71, and the notes thereto. B. Sues, is two years in arrear.

8 " A thyna'r unig weithred, o'r holl weithredoedd a wnaeth Ruffydd, a bcris
anfoddlondeb i'r doethion " (s.a. 1038).

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 361

with the aid of a Danish fleet. It was his last enterprise ; CHAP,
Grufifydd offered a stout resistance to the invaders, and the
death of Hywel in the fray at last gave him the crown for
which he had so long striven.

The line of Hywel the Good had at this time no candidate
to offer in the room of Hywel ab Edwin, and it might have
been supposed, therefore, that Gruffydd had a clear course
before him. But in the year following the victory of Aber
Tywi a new rival showed himself, in the person of another
Gruffydd, son of Rhydderch ab lestyn, and thus able, equally
with the king of Gwynedd, to appeal to the memory of a
father who had ruled gloriously. The local associations of
this family were with the regions of Erging and Gwent Uchaf,^
but Gruffydd ap Rhydderch nevertheless found means of stirring
up on his behalf the provincial feeling of Deheubarth, and
organised a formidable movement against the intruder from
North Wales. So threatening was it that in 1046 Gruffydd
ap Llywelyn had recourse to English help ; the intervention of
Earl Swegen, son of Godwine, whose earldom included Here-
fordshire and Gloucestershire, was secured, and king and earl
went together through South Wales, hoping no doubt to crush
the movement in favour of the son of Rhydderch.^ The peace
which followed was but the treacherous lull before a storm ;
next year the " uchelwyr " " of Ystrad Tywi, now as ever un-
tamable in their independence, suddenly fell upon the " teulu,"
the household guard,^*' of the northern leader, and slew 140
of their number. Gruffydd can scarcely have been far away,
and probably escaped with difficulty from the trap which had
been laid for him. It was in vain that he punished the daring
attempt by a general devastation of Dyfed and Ystrad Tywi :
his authority in South Wales was for the time being shattered,
and for the next eight years it is Gruffydd ap Rhydderch who
appears as king of Deheubarth.

■^ hih. Land. 264-5 shows " Riderch rex filius gistin" as witness to a grant
of land "iuxta lannbocha" (St. Maughan's. nr. Monmouth) made to Bishop
Joseph of Llandaff. His son " Grifud rex morcanhuc filius riderch " attests
anotiier grant to Joseph of land " super ripam mingui (the Monnow) ex alia parte
lanncinlall (Rockfield) " {ibid. 264).

M.S. Chr. MS. C. s.a. 1046.

8 The " uchelwr ' or " breyr " is regularly •' optimas " in the Latin versions
of the laws.

1" See pp. 316-7.

362 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. If he had not been overshadowed and ultimately over-

whelmed by a prince of the calibre of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn,
Gruffydd of South Wales might have played no mean part in
the history of his country. He showed in his brief reign an
abundant energy and something of the daring of his greater
namesake. In 1049 he was confronted with the peril of a
Danish invasion ; the heroic remedy was adopted of removing
all available plunder from the coast region to the inaccessible
woods of thei interior.^^ Not content with this, Gruffydd re-
solved to make common cause with the pirates and to divert
their operations from his own shores to those of his neighbours
in Gwent and the Forest of Dean.^^ Gwent Iscoed had been
seized about 1040 by the house of Morgannwg; Meurig ap
Hywel ab Owain, who, owing to his father's advanced age,
had assumed the sovereignty some years before the death of
the latter in 1043, had possessed himself of the region by force
and now ruled it through his son Cadwgan.^^ Gruffydd, there-
fore, led with alacrity the thirty-six ships of the pirate fleet to
the mouth of the Usk, and, when they had done sufficient
mischief there, passed with them across the Wye to the great
English manor of Tidenham, which was also ravaged without
mercy. Bishop Ealdred of Worcester summoned the shire
forces of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to meet the invasion,
but the response was feeble and the Welsh of the border in-
cluded in the levy played their comrades false and gave
information to the foe. The result was that Gruffydd was able
to surprise the English camp, in the early dawn of a summer's
day, and to scatter with great slaughter the force assembled for
his discomfiture. This victory, it is certain, was turned to good
account by the southern king in the next few years ; it was
no doubt with his support and encouragement that the ravages

^^So I interpret the notices of Ann, C. M3S. B. and C. The latter has:
'• Hoc anno tota dextralis patria (i.e., Deheubarth) deserta est metu gentilium ",

^* For the incidents of this campaign see /I. S. Chr. MS. D. s.a. 1050 ( = 1049;
Plummer, i. 165 ; ii. 228-9) and Fl. Wig. i. 203, with the comments in Trans.
Cymr. 1899-1900, 133. Freeman's discussion of it in Norm. Conq. ii. (3), 612-5
suffers from the attempt to connect it with the mishap to the Danish fleet in 1052,
which B. Saes., hereabouts two years in arrear, dates 1050. There is nothing to
support his view that Gwent was at this time in EngHsh hands.

13 Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 145-6. Lib. Land. 255-7, O"^ authority for this
incident, shows that it took place before the death of Hywel (" De laicis mouricus
rex et hiugel pater suus").

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 363

were committed for which in the first week of 1053 his brother CHAP.
Rhys ap Rhydderch suffered death at the bidding of Edward,^'* ^^"
and it is difficult not to trace the hand of Grufifydd in the
sudden raid of the same year upon Westbury on Severn, a
little to the west of Gloucester, when the Welsh slew a number
of the " wardmen " who guarded the city against surprise on
the side of the Forest of Dean.^^

There is little to indicate how Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was
in the meantime employed. During the reign of Grufifydd ap
Rhydderch he appears but once upon the stage, in an attack
upon Herefordshire, delivered in the early summer of 1052.^®
It may well be believed that the occasion for the striking of
this blow was the rise in this part of the border of a new and
formidable force in the Norman settlement which for some
reason or other found Herefordshire specially congenial soil.
Earl Swegen, Gruffydd's former ally, had been forced to abandon
the realm, with all his kin ; his place at Hereford was filled by
Ralph, son of the count of the Vexin and King Edward's sister,
and with this Norman kinsman of the king's had come others
of the same alert and daring race, Richard son of Scrob, who
built himself a castle a little south of Ludlow, Osbern, sumamed
Pentecost, who may have been the first builder of Ewias Harold
Castle, and a Robert who has not been identified. Gruffydd
was keen enough to discern that neighbours of this type were
far more to be dreaded than the thegns and ceorls of Mercia,
and his foray was probably quite as much defensive as offensive
in its purpose. He had almost reached Leominster when a
mixed force of Normans and English gave him battle, only
to suffer a crushing defeat, which enabled Gruffydd to return

i*^.S. Chr. MS. C. J.a. 1052 (really 1053, since C.'s year ends at Easter
(Plummer, ii. cxl), MS. D. s.a. 1053; Fl. Wig. i. 211 [%.a. 1053). Fl. says
definitely that Rhys was " Griffini regis Australium Walensium frater," and this
is supported by Lib. Land. 278 (" grifudi filii riderch, caratoci fratris ejus, et ris
similiter") and by the mention of a Meirchion ap Rhys ap Rhydderch in B.T.
and B. Saes. s.a. 1074 (= 1076). Gw. Brut (s.a. 1056) talks of "Rhys ap
Llywelyn ap Sei'iyllt"; the author had probably nothing but Powel's "brother
of Gruffyth king of Wales " (p. 72) to guide him and made one of his usual
unlucky guesses. Wm. Malm. G.R. 237 (330) had made the same mistake.

^^A.S. Chr. MS. C. s.a. 1053.

1" A.S. Chr. MS. D. s.a. 1052 (second and correctly dated notice); Fl. Wig.
i. 207. Ralph's parentage may be learnt from Ord. Vit. vii. 14 ; for the Norman
settlement in Herefordshire see Round, Feudal England (London, 1895), pp.
317-26.

364 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, triumphantly with his spoil, his renown not a whit abated, but
rather enhanced by his victory over this new foe. As men told
the story with trembling lips, it was not forgotten that the fatal
day was the thirteenth anniversary of Rhyd y Groes.

The culminating period of Grufifydd's reign is now ap-
proached, during which he was master of the whole of Wales,
as well as of much which until his appearance had been English
soil. In 1055 ^^ he compassed and brought about the death of
his rival, Gruffydd ap Rhydderch, and thus was enabled to add
Deheubarth once more to his dominions. He had not been
many weeks in the enjoyment of his new position ere the
vicissitudes of English party politics gave him an ally from an
unexpected quarter. At the time of the expulsion in 1051 of
Godwine and his sons, ^Ifgar, son of the great Earl Leofric of
Mercia, had received Harold's earldom of East Anglia ; this he
had been forced to resign on Harold's return with the rest of
the family in 1052, but it had again been bestowed upon him
when Harold succeeded his father as Earl of Wessex in 1053.
At a council held at London on 20th March, 1055, charges of
treason were brought against ^Ifgar which there are no means
of testing, but which, whether well founded or not, were but
weapons in the party strife between the house of Leofric and
Godwine.^^ Deprived of his earldom and outlawed, the baffled
noble sought help in the first instance, as Harold had done
under similar circumstances in 105 1, from the Danes of Ireland ;
he soon had at his command a fleet of eighteen ships, conveying
a considerable body of hired troops. Something suggested to
him at this point an alliance with Gruffydd ap Llywelyn ; ^^ the
bargain was soon struck, and the united force of Welshmen, Irish
mercenaries and followers of iElfgar made a most formidable
combination. It was agreed by the conspirators that no more
damaging attack could be made upon Edward and his realm
than one which should shake to its foundations the Norman

^^ For this dating see Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 170, note.

" The events of this year are narrated in A.S. Chr. MSS. C. D. E. and Fl.
Wig. i. 212-4. Fl- Wig. has the fullest account, which is only marred by the dis-
position to make the most of Harold's achievements. C. is, as usual, hostile to the
house of Godwine, E. is friendly and D. trims.

^» The sources imply that ^Ifgar and Gruffydd did not come to terms until
the former had returned from Ireland, and so the view oi Conq. Eng. pp. 563-4
that their earlier relations had provoked the attack upon ^Ifgar, is to be rejected.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 365

settlement at Hereford. They marched, therefore, on 24th CHAP,
October upon this city ; the troop of defenders which Earl Ralph
put into the field a couple of miles from the place was soon
scattered in flight, with the maladroit earl at their head, the
castle was taken with a rush ere its terrified inmates had time
to rise from their meal,^^ and Hereford was given up to fire and
plunder. Not even the new cathedral, which Bishop Athelstan
had recently built on a spot overlooking the full-flowing Wye,
was spared from pillage ; seven of its canons were killed as they
strove to bar the doors against sacrilegious attack ; its rich
vessels and furniture were carried off, and all that did not tempt
the spoiler perished in the general conflagration. The city
itself fared no better ; booty and captives in abundance loaded
the train of Gruffydd and yElfgar, as they made their way back
to Wales.

This bold defiance of the power of the English king did not
fail to evoke a speedy answer. Earl Harold, now the chief
figure at Edward's court, was commissioned to avenge the insult,
and gathered a force at Gloucester for the purpose. But he
was not able to penetrate further into the enemy's country than
a few miles beyond the valley of the Dore ; ^^ the secret of
Welsh campaigning had not yet been revealed to him, and his
final resource was to fortify Hereford against future raids of the
kind, leaving Gruffydd untouched in his mountain stronghold.
It was clear that peace must be concluded with iElfgar, whose
help made the Welsh chieftain doubly dangerous ; after much
parleying, an agreement embracing all parties was drawn up
at Billingsley, near Boulston in Archenfield,^'^ which for the
moment restored peace. It was altogether to the advantage
of .^Ifgar, who regained his earldom and his former position,
nor is it to be supposed that Gruffydd's interests were ignored
in a settlement so favourable to his ally, — he, too, was no doubt
allowed to retain the conquests he had won along the border.
How considerable these were will appear from a brief survey
of the state of affairs in the march during the latter part of
Gruffydd's reign.

2' B.T. and B. Sues. {s.a. 1054) speak of the capture of the "gaer," and the
latter adds that it was done " tra uuant ar ev bwyt ".

" "Ultra Straddele " (Fl. Wig.) ; cf. Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 134, note 2.

^ Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 134. Billingsley may be lound in the old one-
inch Ordnance map (sheet 43).

366 HISTOR V OF WALES.

CHAP. Rhuddlan on the Clwyd, which had once been held by the

Earls of Mercia, was in 1063 a royal seat of Gruffydd's, where
his ships could lie safely in the mouth of the river, ready to
bear the king to whatsoever port of his dominions he might
choose.^^ The whole country from here to the vale of Maelor,
as far as Wat's Dyke to the east, had been cleared by Gruffydd
of its English settlers, who no longer tilled the fields of Preston
(Prestatyn), Merton (Mertyn), Whitford, Bruncot (Broncoed)
and Hope. At Bishopstree (Bistre) he had another residence,
to which his vassals in the region of the Alun brought their
dues of beer, butter and the like. The Maelor district had for
many years formed the English hundred of Exestan, and in
958 King Edgar of Mercia is recorded to have bestowed upon
St. Werburgh's Abbey, Chester, the hamlet of Hodeshlith
(Hoseley) within its bounds.^* But under Edward the Con-
fessor the whole of this fertile plain, in which " ham " and " ford "
and " stock " bear witness to an English settlement of long
standing, was in the hands of Gruffydd ; it had, indeed, been
formally bestowed upon him by Edward, it may be in 1055,
but in any case, as the recognition of an accomplished fact.
Almost the whole hundred of Mersete, lying around Oswestry,
was in the like case, and one learns that the English loss was
recent from the statement made in Domesday that Whittington,
Maesbury and Chirbury, which in 1066 yielded no revenue
whatever to the crown, had between them furnished half a
night's ferm in the days of Ethelred. The Severn was still the
boundary between the two races fromi Melverley to Leighton,
but further south evidence of the aggression of Gruffydd is
again forthcoming. Not only Chirbury, but a score of villages
round about, where the English system of hidage had been in
full force, had been rendered uninhabitable, and, instead of fifty
hides paying the king's taxes, there was nothing but a great
forest. Along the Herefordshire border, signs of the activity
of Gruffydd are, as might be expected, everywhere visible. A
line drawn from Brampton Bryan on the Teme to Willersley
on the Wye would roughly indicate the western limit of English

^ This paragraph is based upon an examination of the Domesday evidence
as to border vills T.R.E. which will be found in Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 138-46.

"^^ Cart. Sax. iii. 245-6 (No. 1041). " Odeslei " was in the possession of the
abbey T.R.E. and T.R.W. (Domesd. 263a, 2).

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 367

occupation at this time ; all the English villages between this CHAP
and Radnor Forest — Knighton, Radnor, Kington, Huntington ^ '
and a score of others — had been abandoned to the Welsh,
largely, no doubt, as the result of the raid of 1052. South of
the Wye, again, the country bore vivid witness to the work of
1055 ; only a few villages lining the south bank of the river
are entered in Domesday as yielding an income to English
lords under the Confessor, and of Archenfield or Erging as a
whole it is said that, though at one time paying rent and
service to the English king, it had been so devastated by
Gruffydd and his successor Bleddyn as to be of no value to the
crown in 1 066. This remarkable tale of border conquest may
fitly close with a reference to Gruffydd's position in Gwent,
where he drove out, not the English, but the local dynasty,
represented either by Meurig ap Hywel or by his son Cadwgan.^^
No precise date can be fixed for this event, but the Domesday
notices of Nether Went show that the Welsh leader was firmly
established in this region at the time of his death ; they speak
of certain Welshmen, among them Abraham, Archdeacon of
Gwent, and Berddig, the king's poet, whose lands had been
granted to them by King Gruffydd free from the payment of
dues.^^ Thus Gruffydd ruled from sea to sea, king of the four
realms of Gwynedd, Powys, Deheubarth and Morgannwg, and
master of many a mile to the east of Offa's Dyke.

The peace of Billingsley was of little avail in ending the
border warfare between English and Welsh, for in a few
months the conflict was renewed.'^" There is good reason for
supposing, however, that on this occasion the English were the
aggressors. In the February following the sack of Hereford,
Bishop Athelstan died, after forty-four years' tenure of the see ;
a chaplain of Harold's named Leofgar was appointed in his
stead, who was very loth, despite his promotion to high ecclesi-

"^ Meurig was still in power at the time of the election of Bishop Herwald
of Llandaff {Lib. Land. 266), but this may have been several years earlier than
his consecration in 1056 {Reg. Sacr. (2), 36), since the previous bishop, Joseph,
had died in 1045 {Ann. C. MS. B.). The " Grifido monarchia britonum prepol-
lente " of this election may for the same reason be either Gruffydd ap Rhydderch
(so index to Lib. Land. 400) or Gruffydd ap Llywelyn.

^To this period no doubt belongs the document in Lib. Land. 269-70, for
I cannot accept the view of the editor (index, 400) that this Gruffydd is also
Gruffydd ap Rhydderch.

"M.S. Chr. MSS. C. D. s.a. 1056 ; Fl. Wig. i. 214-5.

368

HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP.
XI.

astical office, to abandon the secular habits he had followed as
a priest. He gave great offence by refusing to shave his
moustache,^^ and further scandalised the devout by leading in
full military array an army against the Welsh, with the sheriff
vElfnoth and the priests of his cathedral. A fighting prelate of
this pattern, with the injuries of his see to avenge, was not
likely to wait for an attack before taking up arms, and the im-
pression that it was he and not Gruffydd who threw down the
gage of battle is confirmed by the fact that the two armies met
in the valley of the Machawy, some distance above GJasbury,
and many miles to the west of the line which then parted Welsh
and English.^^ The day was the i6th of June,^*^ and once again
Gruffydd won a brilliant victory ; bishop and sheriff were
among the slain, and those of the host who escaped slaughter
were scattered in flight. An attempt was made, as in the
previous year, to wipe out the stain of this defeat by a regular
campaign against the ever-victorious Welshman, but the march-
ing and encamping had no result save the loss of men and
horses, and in the end it was resolved to try the effect of
negotiation. So serious had the situation become that the
greatest men in the land concerned themselves in the pacifica-
tion, Earl Harold, the old Earl Leofric of Mercia, and Ealdred
of Worcester, soon to become Archbishop of York. By their
joint efforts a settlement was arrived at ; Gruffydd swore to
be faithful as an under-king to King Edward and in return was
no doubt suffered to retain his conquests. If the meeting
between the two rulers described by Map is a historical incident,
this was in all likelihood the occasion when it took place ; as
lord of Gwent, Gruffydd had easy access to Beachley, near
Chepstow, where he is said to have awaited Edward, and Aust,
just across the channel, whence the English king sailed, was
within easy reach of Gloucester.

By the death of Earl Leofric, husband of the renowned
Godgifu or Godiva, and himself one of the commanding figures
of this period, vElfgar became in 1057 Earl of Mercia. Gruff-
ydd's ally was thus brought into close neighbourhood with him,
for their territories now marched from Hawarden to Ludlow.

28 Plummer, ii. 246.

2" For the site of the battle see Trans. Cymr. 1899-igoo, 135.

^^ Fl. Wig. and Plummer, ii. cxlix.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 369

A still closer tie was formed by the marriage about this time CHAP.
ofGruffydd and ^Ifgar's beautiful daughter, Ealdgyth,^^ and
the birth of a daughter Nest, to be a fresh pledge of amity
between the houses of Gwynedd and of Mercia. Thus when
once again, in 1058, the enemies of ^Elfgar procured his banish-
ment, he was once more, as in 1055, reinstated with the aid of
Gruffydd ; some help was also given on this occasion by the
fleet which Magnus, son of Harold Hardrada of Norway,
brought into the Irish Sea with a vague idea of conquering
England ; the major purpose was not achieved, but incidentally
Magnus weakened Edward's position by contributing to the
triumph of the two allied powers of the West'^

iElfgar and Gruffydd as confederate neighbours were for-
tified against all attack, and accordingly nothing is heard of
any further movement against Wales until the end of the year
1062. It is in this year, about Easter, that the last reference
occurs to the earl,^^ and, in the absence of any record of the
date of his death, he may safely be assumed to have died not
many months later. His young son Edwin succeeded to the
earldom, and Gruffydd was at once made to feel how moment-
ous for him was the removal of the strong hand, of his friend.
Earl Harold obtained the king's leave to try what could be
effected by one bold stroke, a bolt from the blue launched at
the Welsh chief in the ease of his palace, ere he had time to
plan means of escape.^* The plot was all but successful ;
directly afterthe Christmas festivities of the.court at Gloucester,
at a season when campaigning in Wales was most unusual,
Harold rode with a small force of huscarls to Chester, where

■''1 William of Jumieges, vii. 31 ; Ord. Vit. iii. 11 (II. 119), iv. 4 (II. 183). Ord.
is of course wrong in making Bleddyn (Blidenum) a son of Gruffydd's, but, as
Gruffydd certainly left a daughter Nest (Gir. Camb. vi. 28-g (Itin. i. 2)), he is
probably right in his account of her parentage.

^A.S. Chr. MS. D. s.a. 1058; Fl. Wig. i. 217. Doubt has naturally been
raised with regard to this second banishment and return of /Elfgar, which is
mentioned in one only of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, and that very summarily
{Norm. Conq. ii. (3), 443). But the Chronicle, Fl. Wig., Ann. C. MSS. B. C, B.T.
and B. Saes. 1056 (= 1058), and Tighernach {Rev, Celt, xvii. p. 399) furnish
the outlines of a consistent story, though each has a special point of view.

8* See William of Malmesbury's life of Wulfstan of Worcester in Anglia
Sacra, ii. 251.

^*A.S. Chr, MS. D. s.a. 1063; Fl. Wig. i. 221. For the later events of
1063 see also B,T., B. Saes., Ann. C, Gir. Camb. vi. 217 (Descr. ii. 7), Gaimar,
w. 5071-84, John of Salisbury's Polycraticus, vi. 6, with the notes in Trans.
Cymr. 1899- 1900, 137-8.

370 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. yElfgar could no longer bar his progress, and thence made a
dash for Rhuddlan, hoping that the suddenness of the onslaught
and the swiftness of his movements would enable him to swoop
upon his prey ere it was startled into flight. But Gruffydd
received timely warning of the approach of the foe, and, hastily
boarding one of the vessels that floated with the tide beneath
the ramparts of his castle, slipped through the " Forryd," the
" seaward ford " of the Clwyd, into the open sea ere his pur-
suers were upon him. The smoke of his burning ships and
houses and halls curling up into heaven told him afar the story
of Harold's disappointed rage.

But the respite which Gruffydd won by his promptitude
was brief. His overthrow was now a prime object of the Eng-
lish government, and, as soon as the returning spring made
operations in Wales practicable, an expedition was organised
against him. Tostig, Earl of Northumberland, brought a force
of cavalry into the country, probably skirting the northern
coast, with Anglesey as his goal, while his famous brother led
a body of light armed troops, specially fitted to traverse the
rough Welsh mountains, from Oxford to Bristol, and there at
the end of May embarked with his men in a fleet which carried
him round the greater part of Wales to meet the northern con-
tingent. The course of the campaign cannot be outlined with
any certainty, but it would seem likely that, in the first place,
the appearance of Harold's armada in the Bristol Channel
deprived Gruffydd of such support as he had in South Wales ;
at the touch of the foreigner, provincial jealousy awoke in full
vigour ; the men of Deheubarth gave hostages to Harold and
threw off the yoke of Gwynedd. In the second place, there are
evidences of a struggle in North Wales, in which the light in-
fantry of Harold no doubt did great execution. The fastnesses
of Snowdon were penetrated, the Welsh king was driven from
one hiding-place to another, and his subjects were sore beset
on every hand. In this extremity Gruffydd, who must have
had enemies in abundance, was deserted by those nearest
to him ; he fell on 5th August, 1063,^^ as the result of a plot,

^* Fl. Wig. and Ann. Ult. place the death of Gruffydd in 1064, and John of
Salisbury's " expeditione in biennium prorogata" points in the same direction.
But I prefer to follow the explicit statement of the English Chronicle D. (" on Sis-
san ilcan geare "), supported as it is by B, Saes. (1061 = 1063) and Ann. C.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 371
and his head was forthwith sent to Harold as the price of CHAP.

XI.
peace.

Such was the tragic end of a career recognised alike by

English and Welsh as one of exceptional brilliancy. " He was

king," says the English annalist, "over all the Welsh race."

The Welsh chronicle styles him " head and shield and defender

of the Britons," and expatiates, with unaccustomed rhetoric,

upon his melancholy fate ; " and now was left in solitary glens

the man erst deemed invincible, the winner of countless spoils

and immeasurable victories, endlessly rich in gold and silver

and precious stones and purple apparel ".^^ He founded no

dynasty, but he bequeathed to the Welsh people the priceless

legacy of a revived national spirit ; in his vigour and daring

the nation felt its youth renewed and no longer harboured the

hidden fear that it had grown old and effete among the peoples

of the earth.

n. The Normans and the Welsh March.

The overthrow of Gruffydd and the subjugation of Wales
must be regarded as a military triumph of the first order. Futile
as the previous attempts of Harold had been to curb the power
which threatened the peace and good order of the whole Eng-
lish realm, he had at last succeeded in putting an end to the
Welsh peril ; in the phrase of the Anglo-Norman poet Gaimar,
"there was no more heed paid to the Welsh ".^^ So deep was
the impression made upon the English by the achievements of
the earl and his light armed infantry that in the next century
the incidents of the campaign, passed on as they were from lip
to lip, became involved in a mist of legend, such as ever gathers
around the telling of deeds which nourish a nation's pride.
Gerald of Wales speaks of pillar-stones, almost certainly mythi-
cal, which were erected by Harold to mark the scenes of his
victories, each one bearing upon it the inscription : " Hie fuit
victor Haroldus ".^^ John of Salisbury depicts a slaughter which

^^Bruts, 267 (B.r. 45).

^ Gaimar, v. 5084 (" Vnc puis de Waleis nout reguard ").

■*** VI. 217 (Descr. ii. 7). No trace of any inscription of this kind has ever
been found. The notion perhaps took its rise from the discovery of some early
inscription running: "Hie iacit Victor . . .," Victor (= Gwythur, Mots Latins,
215) being a name which occurs in this type of monument (at Clydai in Pembroke-
shire, W. Ph. (2), 275 ; Inscr. Chr. vi. No. no; Lap. W. 123).

37a HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, swept away nearly the whole of the male population ot the
country, so that the women had to beg the special permission
of the king to marry Englishmen. ^^ Exaggerations such as
these serve to show how vividly Harold's successes appealed to
the imagination of his fellow-countrymen and how they recog-
nised in him the saviour to whom it was but meet to ofifer the
crown he had so manfully defended.

Nevertheless, Harold did not conquer Wales in the sense in
which this was done by Edward I., or even obtain the hold
upon the country which was acquired by Henry I. What he
achieved was the reduction of the Welsh question from one of
national importance to its old status as a mere border difficulty.
New rulers were placed in power ; Bleddyn and Rhiwallon, the
sons of an unknown Cynfyn ap Gwerstan by his wife Angharad,
the widow of Llywelyn ap Seisyll, submitted to Harold and
from him received Gwynedd and Powys, swearing to be faithful
to King Edward in all things and to pay all renders which in
the past had been yielded to the English crown.*** At the same
time, or, it may be, somewhat later, the line of Hywel the Good
was reinstated in Deheubarth in the person of Maredudd ab
Owain ab Edwin, a nephew of the Hywel ab Edwin whom
Gruffydd had crushed in 1044.*^ Cadwgan ap Meurig came to
his own again in Morgannwg,*^ while the line of Rhydderch ab
lestyn, though excluded from Deheubarth, put forth a vigorous
shoot in Caradog ap Gruffydd ap Rhydderch, who held Gwynllwg
and Upper Gwent.*^ From none of these new men was there
reason to fear attacks on the grand scale, such as had made the
late leader so formidable, but they were under no greater restric-
tions than the predecessors of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, and had it
in their power to harass the marches no less persistently than in
the days of yore. One incident of the border strife which an
English chronicler has recorded may be cited to illustrate the
position." It would appear that in 1065, two years after the

*8 Polycraticus, lib. vi. c. 6.

*'>A.S. Chr. MS. D. s.a. 1063. "Blethgente" and " Rigwatlan " represent
the old Welsh forms Bledgint and Riguallaun.

*i B.T. gives his ancestry s.a. 1068.

*2 For Cadwgan see Trans. Cynir. 1899-1900, 147, note.

** Lib. Land. 278.

**A.S. Chr. MSS. C. D. s.a. 1065. D. probably derives its account from C.
(Plummer, ii. 251). "PortascihS" is the "Forth Ysgewin" of mediaeval Welsh
literature, the southern limit of Wales (Gir. Camb. vi. 165 {Descr. i. i) ; Triad i. 5

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 373

fall of Gruffydd, Harold led an expedition into Nether Went and, CHAP,
having subdued it, ordered the building of a royal residence for
the Confessor at Portskewet. So confident was he of the suc-
cessful accomplishment of his work that he arranged that Edward
should pay a visit that summer to his new hunting-lodge, and
saw to it that the place was fully provisioned. But on the 24th
of August, as the builders were still at their task, Caradog ap
Gruffydd made a sudden descent from the hills, slew the work-
men and their few defenders and carried off with much glee the
stores of food and drink which had been got. 'together for the
use of the royal household. The chronicler does not suggest
that any vengeance was taken or found possible ; notwithstand-
ing the great campaign of 1063, the spirit of the Welsh was
still unbroken and their independence was scarcely less ample
than before.

Such was the footing on which relations between England
and Wales stood when the events of 1066 brought about a com-
plete change of scene, and in the space of a few short months
radically altered the situation with which Welshmen had to deal.
The conquest of England by Duke William of Normandy meant
far more for the Welsh than the substitution of a strong for a
weak king of England ; accompanied as it was by a great influx
into the island of the duke's adventurous subjects and neigh-
bours, it meant that, instead of a sluggish, home-keeping race,
who had for ages given up colonisation, Wales must now face
the onset of a crowd of busy pioneers, the flower of a people
pre-eminently gifted as colonists, men not in the least afraid of
the difficulties and dangers of Welsh campaigning. The struggle
with the Norman began almost immediately, and for the next
thirty-five years it is the topic of primary interest in Welsh
history. At one period, the centre of the movement is to be
found in North Wales ; later on, it is in South Wales that the
foreigner makes most headway, but alike in North and South the
presence of the Norman is the dominant factor in the situation,
and all is confusion and disorder until a rough equilibrium is
established between the two contending races.

It has been shown that the Normans had already obtained

= iii. 65 ; Myv. Arch. i. 270 (193)). The Domesday form is Poteschiuet (i. 1620, i).
There were still four vills in Gwent in 1086 which had not recovered from the
devastation " per regem Caraduech ".

VOL. 11. 2

374 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, under the Confessor a firm foothold in Herefordshire. One of
• the earliest steps of King William was to make sure of this
valuable starting-point for further operations by bestowing the
earldom of Hereford upon one of his ablest and most trusty-
lieutenants, William fitz Osbern, lord of Breteuil, his second
cousin and hereditary steward of Normandy.*^ The new earl
lost no time in bringing home to the Welsh the fact that an era
of conquest had begun, and, short as was his tenure of the earl-
dom and important as were his responsibilities in other parts of
the kingdom, effected so much in four years as to show that
with longer life he might have anticipated by a couple of
decades the winning of South Wales. This is the more re-
markable in that all this time a bitter struggle was going on to
the north of Hereford for the possession of the border. William's
first measures excited a revolt, wherein was witnessed for the
first time that co-operation between the Mercians and the Welsh
which is an outstanding feature of the next few years ; Bleddyn
and Rhiwallon joined the great Mercian landowner, Eadric the
Wild, who had broad estates on the borders of Wales, in an
attack upon Herefordshire and Hereford Castle which did
serious damage to William and his followers in the summer of
1067.*^ In the following year there was still a more formid-
able combination ; Earl Edwin of Mercia, who had submitted
to the king and accompanied him upon the visit to Normandy
which occupied most of the year 1067, broke out into revolt
with his brother, Earl Morcar of Northumbria, enlisted Bleddyn
in his cause, and made ready for a great effort on the part of
North and West to shake off the Norman yoke.*^ But Edwin,
though an attractive and popular leader, was weak and irre-
solute ; he had scarcely entered upon the struggle ere he laid
down his arms and made his peace with the king. Others were
not so easily daunted ; Eadric, in particular, carried on the war,
with the aid of his Welsh allies, into the year 1 069, when from
north, south and west a combined onslaught was made upon
the royal garrison at Shrewsbury. Earl William was able to

*^Dict. Nat. Biog. xix. 188; Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 148-50 ; Eng. Hist.
Rev. XV. (1900), pp. 76-7.

*^A.S. Chr. MS. D. s.a. 1067; Fl. Wig. ii. 1-2.

^■^ Ord. Vit. iv. 4. In his account of the years 1066-71, Orderic follows the
contemporary narrative of William of Poitiers (see iv. 7).

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 375

bring reinforcements upon the scene which saved the castle,*^ CHAP,
but the situation was still precarious until, at the beginning of
1070, the king, after his famous mid-winter march across the
bleak and rain-swept Pennines, made his appearance for the first
time at Chester, the centre of the Mercian resistance, and took
measures to place his supremacy both here and at Shrewsbury
upon a firm and settled foundation. When Eadric a few months
later, recognising the futility of further conflict, made his final
submission to the Conqueror,*^ the subjection of the border was
at last complete, and Wales was thrown, in its opposition to
Norman rule, henceforth entirely upon its own resources.

Fitz Osbern's busy career was now almost at an end, yet, not-
withstanding the difficulties of what may be called the aftermath
of Hastings, he had achieved great things as Earl of Hereford.
His dashing leadership drew around him a great number of
adventurous knights, whom he lavishly rewarded out of the
royal coffers, not altogether to the satisfaction of the careful
king.^^ With their aid he protected the earldom from the
ravages of the Welsh by building strong castles along the
border, at Wigmore, Clifford, Ewias Harold, Monmouth and
Chepstow, each becoming the centre of a Norman settlement."
In the case of Wigmore and of Clifford he is known to have
provided for the economic needs of the castle by establishing
beneath its shadow a chartered borough, to which he no doubt
granted those liberal " customs of Breteuil " already conceded to
the Norman burgesses of Hereford. ^^ Nor was he content with
a purely defensive policy ; a vigorous attack was made upon
Maredudd ab Owain of Deheubarth, his brother Rhys ab Owain
and Cadwgan ap Meurig of Morgannwg.^^ As a result, the
whole region of Gwent fell into William's hands ; ^* from his two
bases at Monmouth and Chepstow he pushed forward as far as
the Usk, and finally destroyed Welsh independence in this
ancient border realm. The inhabitants were treated with some

«8 Ord. Vit. iv. 5. <» Fl. Wig. ii. 7.

oo Wm, Malm. G.R. 314 (431). " Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 148-9.

" Eng. Hist. Rev. xv. (1900), pp. 302-3.

03 «' Guallorum reges Risen et Caducan ac Mariadoth aliosque plures pros-
travit" (Ord. Vit. iv. 7 (ii. 219)).

"Lift. Land. 274 speaks of " Rogerii filii Willelmi filii Osberni " as " domini
Guenti, ' and the title is implied in what is said in Domesday of the doings of
William in this region.

376 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, consideration ; many of them were allowed to retain their lands
on the easy terms which had been conceded to them by
Grufifydd ap Llywelyn, and the Welsh " praepositi " or maers
were left undisturbed in their offices. ^^ While Gwent was thus
annexed, William seems a little time before his death to have
come to terms with Maredudd and to have adopted, with the
sanction of the king, the policy of protecting the marches from
the rapine of the Welsh chief by giving him lawful possession
of certain English manors. Three hides at Ley, on the river
Lugg, were granted to Maredudd free from the payment of geld
with this end in view,^" nor was this an isolated gift, for lands
at Kenchester" and elsewhere are known to have been con-
ferred upon him as part of the same policy.

At the end of the year 1070 Fitz Osbern left England, and
on 20th February, 1071, was slain in battle near Cassel in
Flanders. His earldom and his English possessions passed to
his second son Roger, who had neither the ability nor the
fidelity of his father; in 1075 he plotted unsuccessfully against
King William and brought down with a crash the edifice of
power so skilfully raised by the first earl. Lifelong imprisonment
and forfeiture of all his lands and dignities were the penalties
paid by Earl Roger for his rash enterprise, and many of his
father's knights who had joined in the conspiracy were involved
in the ruin which befell him.^^ A catastrophe of these dimen-
sions must have had a chilling effect upon the ardour of the
colonisers of the South Welsh border ; the king marked his
distrust of the situation by creating no new Earl of Hereford,
and it may be conjectured that the sudden fall of the house
of Breteuil was in a large measure responsible for the arrest at
this point of the advance upon South Wales which had pro-
mised so well under Earl William.

"'In a grant of land at Llangwm Isaf made in 1071-5, the lay witnesses
include {Lib. Land. 274) " elinui filius idnerth," "ithail filii teudus," and
" guassuith," who are clearly the "prepositi" called " Elmui," " Idhel," and
" Wasuuic" in Domesd. (" Castellum de Estrighoiel," i. 162a i). " Elinui" also
occurs in a grant made by Caradog ap Gruffydd (273), and Ithel not only in this,
but also in one of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn 's (270).

"* Domesd. i. 1876, i (Terra Grifin filii Mariadoc; Lege).

^"^ Ibid. i87a,i (Terra Hugonis Lasne; Chenecestre).

"8 " lUi tres cum multis aliis exhereditati sunt " (Lib. Land. 278). It should,
however, be noted that what Powel (82) says of the share of the Welsh in the
" Bridal of Norwich " rests on a misunderstanding of the " Bryttas " (= Bretons)
of the A.S. Chr.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 377

The figures of Maredudd, Cadwgan, and Bleddyn disappear CHAP,
from the stage shortly after that of William fitz Osbern and
thus the men who were concerned in the early struggle for
ascendancy along the march give place to a new generation.
Maredudd was attacked in 1072 by Caradog ap Gruffydd of
Gwynllwg, who brought the Normans, no doubt from Gwent,
to his assistance and slew his rival in a battle on the banks of
the Rhymni.^^ The realm of Deheubarth then passed to Mare-
dudd's brother Rhys, who was too weak to defend it from- Nor-
man raids; twice, in 1073 and 1074, Ceredigion was ravaged
by the men of the Earl of Shrewsbury, who descended upon it
from the mountains of Arwystli.*" About the same time
Cadwgan ap Meurig, the last of the old dynasty of Morgannwg,
slips out of sight,*^ his place being taken, it would seem, by the
irrepressible Caradog ap Gruffydd."^ The last of the three to
quit the scene was Bleddyn, who was slain in 1075 by Rhys
ab Owain and the " uchelwyr " of Ystrad Tywi, perhaps in an
attempt to make himself master of Deheubarth. Bleddyn had
ruled for twelve years not ingloriously. He had defended his
crown in the battle of Mechain in 1070, and, though he had lost
his brother Rhiwallon in the fray, had then rid himself of two
dangerous rivals in the sons of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, who
had perished, the one in the battle and the other of exposure
not long afterwards. His efforts to check the growth of the
Norman power in the West have already been recorded. But
more than this ; he belonged, it is clear, to the gentle and high-
minded type of ruler so signally illustrated by Hywel the Good,
" He was the mildest and most clement of kings," says The
Chronicle of the Princes, preserving, no doubt, a contemporary
Llanbadarn record, " and did injury to none, save when insulted,
nor loved to avenge the insult when it came ; to his kinsmen
he was gentle ; widows and orphans and the weak he defended ;
he was the support of the wise, the glory and corner-stone of
the Church, the delight of all lands, open-handed to all, terrible
in war, but in peace beloved." ^' If this eulogy should seem

''"For the date see Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 148, note (2), and the texts
printed as an appendix to the paper.

^'^ Ann. C. *^ Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 147, note.

^'^So I understand the "Caratocvs rex morcannuc " oi Lib. Land. 272. The
names of the witnesses show that the grant is oi this period.

s^B.r. s.a. 1076 (=1078, battle of Goodwick) ; Bruts, 269.

378 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, overstrained, it is to be remembered that Bleddyn ap Cynfyn is
* one of the very few Welsh princes who are known to have in-
troduced amendments into the law of Hywel ^^ and that there
is, therefore, solid evidence of his interest in the welfare of his
people. His spirit of charity and benevolence supplies the
best explanation of the fact that his murder was regarded as
an outrage, and that, though he had no claim to rule on the
score of birth,^^ he established a dynasty in Powys which lasted
until the fourteenth century.

III. The Normans in North Wales.

The year 1075 ^nay be regarded as marking an epoch in
the progress of the Norman Conquest alike in North and in
South Wales. In South Wales the fall of Earl Roger and the
decision of the crown to appoint no successor to the earldom
helped to bring about a halt in the victorious progress of the
Normans along the South Welsh border which lasted for many
years. In North Wales the death of Bleddyn encouraged a
competitor for the crown of Gwynedd to assert his claims, who,
though at first dogged by ill-fortune, finally triumphed over all
difficulties and not only ousted his rival but won successes
against the Norman invaders which for ever defeated their am-
bitions in this part of the country.

Although Bleddyn left a numerous family, it would appear
that no son of his was old enough at the time of his death to
be put forward as a claimant for the crown, and Gwynedd was
therefore seized by one Trahaearn ap Caradog, who claimed
as Bleddyn's first cousin,*'^ and whose original seat of power
was the cantref of Arwystli. Although the connection between
Arwystli and Gwynedd was close,^^ it was locally a part of
Powys, and thus the accession of Trahaearn was not cordially
welcomed by the sensitive provincial feeling of Mon and Arfon,

^"^LL. i. 166,252; ii. 198,678.

*' Mostyn MS. 117, written in the last quarter of the thirteenth century,
traces the lineage of Cynfyn through mythical ancestors to Beli Mawr (Evans,
Rep. i. p. 63), but B.T. merely calls him " cynuyn ab gwerstan " [Brufs, 303). Cyn-
fyn had, however, married the widow of Llj'welyn ap Seisyll, King Maredudd's
daughter Angharad, and thus Bleddyn and Rhiwallon were uterine brothers of
Gruffydd ap Llywelyn (Bruts, 281, 296-7, 303).

*8 " Consobrinus " (Ann. C. MS. C.) ; "y gefynderw " (Bruts, 268).

*'' See chapter viii. p. 249.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 379

especially as he brought in his train another chieftain from CHAP.
Powys, namely, Cynwrig ap Rhiwallon of Maelor,*^^ who lorded ^^'
it over the men of Lleyn. At this opportune moment Grufif-
ydd ap Cynan, the representative of the ancient line of Gwynedd,
stepped upon the scene to claim the inheritance from which
his family had for so many years been excluded. Not since
1039, when his grandfather lago ab Idwal had been assassin-
ated, had any member of this house borne rule in North Wales,
and so little was it known in the country that at his first ap-
pearance Gruffydd was styled, not " son of Cynan," but, after
a fashion most unusual among the Welsh, " grandson of
Iago".«^

Gruffydd has the unique distinction among Welsh princes
of being the subject of a biography, which, though it is not the
work of a contemporary, for it was composed during the reign
of his son Owain, was written sufficiently near his time to be a
valuable historical authority.'*^ Despite some inaccuracies and
the inevitable disposition to magnify the deeds of its hero, the
Ancient History of Gruffydd ap Cynan ap lago tells a story
which is in general conformity with what is known of the history
of the time, and in the following pages the evidence yielded by
it is used without hesitation. According to the life, lago's son
Cynan had found during the ascendancy of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn
a safe retreat in the Danish kingdom of Dublin, and had married
Ragnhildr, a grand-daughter of King Sitric of the Silken Beard."
Gruffydd was born in 1054 or 1055 in the city of Dublin ;^^
under the system of fosterage, 'which prevailed among the Irish
no less than the Welsh, he was brought up under the care of a
family who lived at Swords, some miles to the north of the city,
but within the limits of the Scandinavian settlements^ As
Gruffydd grew to manhood and leaint the history of his house,
his eyes turned more and more to Wales and to the kingdom

'* Palmer, Ancient Tenures of Land in the Marches of North Wales (Wrex-
ham, 1885), pp. 87-8.

69"Grifud . . . nepos lacob " (Ann. C. MS. C). See Traris. Cymr. 1899-
1900, 154.

■"• For the text and a translation of this life, with historical notes, see The
History of Gruffydd ap Cynan, by Arthur Jones (Manchester, 1910).

''^ See note in Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 153. " Ragnell " (Evans, Rep. i. p. 339)
no doubt represents the well-known form, Ragnhildr.

'''^ Ibid, note 2.

'''^ Ibid. 154, note i. Gruflfydd's foster-father, " Cerit," was at Bron yr Erw.

380 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, of which he was the rightful heir. No great career was open
to him in Ireland ; his grandfather Olaf had long been dead,
and the family of Sitric had by this time ceased to hold power
in Dublin/'* while the death of his father Cynan, of whom he
was probably bereft at a tender age, left it to him to prosecute
the claim to the throne of Gwynedd. When the news was
brought him of the death of Bleddyn, he deemed that the hour
had come to strike a blow for legitimacy and ancient blood.

Recognising that the chief force in his favour would be the
tribal spirit of independence which made Mon and Arfon and
Lleyn disdain to take orders from Powys, he landed at Aber
Menai, the port and ferry at the western mouth of the Menai
Straits, which gave ready access to the first two of these regions/^
He was gladly welcomed by the leading men of the district, and
preparations were made for a determined attack upon Trahaearn
and his ally Cynwrig. Help fromi any and every quarter was
acceptable in such a conflict, and Gruffydd did not hesitate to
take ship to Rhuddlan, where Robert of that ilk was already
established, and beg the aid of the foreign invader, which was
most cheerfully accorded, against the holder of the crown of
Gwynedd. On his return to Aber Menai, a small but carefully
chosen band of warriors, sixty men from Robert's lordship of
Tegeingl and eighty from Anglesey, was rapidly despatched to
Lleyn under the guidance of the three sons of Merwydd, notable
gentlemen of that cantref who had sought shelter from the op-
pression of Cynwrig's followers in the sanctuary of Beuno at
Clynnog Fawr. The onslaught was so sudden that Cynwrig
was without difficulty surprised and slain, and the sons of Mer-
wydd regained their old position and authority. It was now
resolved to press home the advantage which had been thus
gained and to march upon the second and more formidable of
the usurpers who held Gwynedd captive. With a large force
Gruffydd made his way south, and in the cantref of Meirionydd
came upon Trahaearn, who was no doubt advancing to meet
his rival from Arwystli. The battle was fought in Glyn Cyfing,

''* Eachmarcach son of Ragnall, a cousin of Gruffydd's grandfather, was
driven out in 1052 by Diarmaid Mac Maelnambo, who held Dublin until his death
in 1072 (War of G. and G. p. 291 ; Tighernach in Rev. Celt. xvii. p. 410).

■"> For the events of this year Buck. Gr. ap C. is relied on. Ann. C, B.T. and
B. Sues, merely mention Gruffydd's seizure cf Anglesey, the death of Cynwrig,
and the battle of Bron yr Erw.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 381

perhaps the narrow glen now known as Dyffryn Glyncul/^ CHAP,
and at a spot known to posterity as Gwaeterw, or the " Bloody
Acre," a victory was won by Gruffydd which for the moment
gave him all he desired and drove Trahaearn in headlong flight
to his native Arwystli.

Seated on his ancestral throne, the new ruler of Gwynedd
inaugurated his reign by an attack upon the Norman settlement
at Rhuddlan, holding himself in nowise bound to friendship
with Robert because of the help he had a little earlier received
from him. In truth, the activity of the Normans along the
northern coast of Wales was at this time a most dangerous
menace to Welsh independence. Since the beginning of 1070
Chester, no longer held by the friendly Earls of Mercia, had
been the centre of a power which knew no rest in its strenuous
efforts to win territory from the Welsh. William I. had in the
first instance given the city and county, with the title of earl,
to Gherbod of Flanders, but after a brief tenure of power he
had been succeeded by Hugh of Avranches, one of the most
powerful of the barons in the royal train.^^ For thirty years
the figure of Earl Hugh dominated the northern march of
Wales ; his gross, unwieldy bulk, whence he derived the nick-
name of " Hugh the Fat," '^^ did not more surely fix the be-
holder's gaze than did his restless activity make itself felt from
Snowdon to the Peak. He was devoted to sensual pleasures,
and ever had those around him who could minister to them,
yet, despite his corpulence and love of ease, he was no sluggish
idler, but shared to the full the energetic Norman temper.
Formidable in war, liberal to his followers, beset by a crowd of
eager young retainers, he was well fitted to carry on an active
crusade against the Welsh, and it was no fault of his or of his
lieutenants that Gwynedd and the Middle Country did not fall
permanently under Norman rule. Of these lieutenants the
chief was the Robert of Rhuddlan already mentioned, a cousin
of his, who had been trained in arms at the court of the Con-
fessor, and after the victory of Hastings had attached himself

"® There was a mill of " Kevyng " in this neighbourhood (^Rec. Cam. 275).

'^ Ord. Vit. iv. 7 ; vi. 2.

^•^ Given him by the Welsh (" Hugo Crassus," Ann. C. s.a. iioi ; " hu vras,"
Bruts, 27s) and the Danes (" Hugoni Dirgane (from Norse "drjugr"?) id est
Grosso," Ord. Vit. x. 6). There is no ancient authority for the epithet
"Lupus".

38a HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, to the service of Earl Hugh.'® His merits as a soldier secured

for him the post of danger, which was also that of greatness
and power for the successful holder ; at KinguWilliam's com-
mand a castle was built on the site of the stronghold of Gruffydd
ap Llywelyn at Rhuddlan, and Robert was placed in charge,
with instructions to use it and the adjoining cantref of Tegeingl
as a base of operations, first against Rhos and Rhufoniog, and
later against Anglesey and Snowdonia. This was in 1073 ; ^'^
it must have been very shortly afterwards that Robert entered
upon his obstinate warfare with the North Welsh princes, at-
tempting to capture Bleddyn by surprise and narrowly missing
complete success ; the king escaped, but Robert's little band
carried off much booty. ^^ Thus the war between Robert and
the Welsh had just begun when in 1075 Gruffydd ap Cynan
made a raid upon the new castle at Rhuddlan, destroyed its
outworks and slew many of the defenders, and returned home
with valuable spoil, but without having captured the solid keep
which was the nucleus of the fortress.^^

It soon appeared that Gruffydd, remarkable as his first
successes had been, had not really won a lasting victory, and he
returned from Rhuddlan to find disaffection seething in his
realm. This was largely due to his retention among his " teulu "
or household troops of many of his Irish followers and com-
panions, whose alien speech, dress, equipment and manners were
a constant offence to the people among whom they lived,
superadded to the unpopularity of the turbulent class to which
they belonged. The grievance was especially felt by the men
of Lleyn and Eifionydd, who were not attached to Gruffydd's
house by the same long tradition of obedience and respect as
bound to him the islanders of Mon,*'* and the murder of fifty-
two Irishmen of the royal warband, as they slept unsuspectingly
in their quarters in the villages of Lleyn, was the signal for a
revolt which threw the king on the defensive in the cantref of

" Ord. Vit. viii. 3.

*" This is the date implied in the "per xv annos" of Ord. Vit. viii. 3 (III.
284, first line) and it is in harmony with Buck. Gr. ap C. and with the reference
to " Blideno " in Rooert's epitaph.

*i " Praecipuam, pulchro Blideno rege fugato, Praedam cum paucis cepit in
insidias " (Epitaph in Ord. Vit. viii. 3).

^"^Buch. Gr. ap C. clearly distinguishes "y baili" from "e twr" (38 (725)).

*^ The native line of Eifionydd had become extinct about 930; see chap,
viii. note 57.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 383

Arfon. Trahaearn awoke to his opportunity, secured the aid of CHAP,
his neighbour, Gwrgeneu ap Seisyll of Powys,^* and appeared
with an army in the revolted cantrefs. The insurgents were
met by Grufifydd, who had, save his Danish henchmen, only the
dwellers of Mon and Arfon to support him, at Bron yr Erw,
above Clynnog,^^ just as they were descending from the
border pass of Bwlch Derwin into the low-lying plain of Arfon.
Gruffydd's valour, which is duly set forth by his zealous bio-
grapher, availed him nothing ; his troops were overwhelmed
and he himself fled to Aber Menai, whence he was borne across
the sea to the Skerries and finally to Wexford. Thus within
the limits of this eventful year he had won, enjoyed and lost a
kingdom.

For the next six years (1075-1081) Trahaearn was the chief
ruler of Gwynedd. But, though he was strong enough to lead in
1078 an expedition into Dyfed, of which more will be said anon,
his power rested on most insecure foundations, and was con-
stantly menaced, on the one hand by Gruffydd, who did not
cease harassing him by sea, and on the other hand by the
Normans, who saw in the divided state of the country the best
of reasons for pushing on their schemes of conquest. The Life
of Gruffydd speaks of a great Norman raid upon Lleyn, in
which Earl Hugh, Robert of Rhuddlan, Warin of Shrewsbury,
ajid a certain Walter, perhaps Walter de Lacy, were at this
time concerned ; with Gwrgeneu and the men of Powys as
their guides, a host of knights and foot soldiers crossed the
passes of Eryri and encamped for a week in the hapless can-
tref.^" But ravages of this kind, blighting as they were in their
immediate efifects, were less dangerous to the freedom of the
Welsh than the slow but continuous progress of the foreigner
along the northern coast. To this neither Trahaearn nor Hywel
ab Ithel was able to oppose any effectual resistance ; Robert
from his base at Rhuddlan seized the latter's territories of Rhos
and Rhufoniog, and, having imprisoned him, built at Degannwy
on the site of an ancient British fortress, a new castle which
was to serve as the starting-point of the conquest of Gwynedd

** He was slain in 1081 {Ann. C. MS. B. ; B.T. s.a. 1079). Nothing is
known of his ancestry or local connections.

*' Cyff Beiino (Tremadog, 1863), by Eben Fardd, 32.

88 " Guallter yarll henford " (Buck. Gr. ap C. 42 (726)) is, of course, a mis-
description.

384 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, above Conway. ^^ It would, no doubt, have fallen to the lot of
^^* Trahaeam to be the next victim of Norman aggression, had not
Gruffydd ap Cynan cut short his career and forestalled the in-
vader in 1 08 1.

This was the year of the memorable battle of Mynydd Cam,
in which all the leading figures of the period took part, and
which left its impress permanently on the history of Gwynedd
and of Deheubarth.^^ On the one side the combatants were
Gruffydd ap Cynan, seeking the crown which had slipped from
his grasp, and Rhys ap Tewdwr, king of Deheubarth, over whom
ill-fortune had also for the moment triumphed. On the other
were Trahaearn, Meilyr, son of Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn, and
Caradog ap Gruffydd, now lord of Morgannwg, and probably
bent upon adding the rest of South Wales to his realm.
Gruffydd joined his ally at Forth Clais, near St. David's, where
Rhys had been compelled to seek sanctuary ; he brought to his
aid a valuable contingent of troops from Ireland, with whom
he had sailed from Waterford harbour, Danes wielding two-
edged axes, Irish footmen with darts and war-flails (which
flourished spiked balls of iron), his own warriors with shield
and glaive. The host marched out from St. David's with the
solemn blessing of Bishop Sulien and his clergy, and at the
close of the day came upon the enemy's camp at Mynydd
Carn, a spot which unhappily has not been identified, though it
cannot have been far from the borders of Dyfed. Rhys, if one is

*^ " Duxit captivum, lorisque ligavit Hoellum,

Qui tunc Wallensi rex praeerat manui " (Epitaph in Ord. Vit. viii. 3).
I take this to be the Hywel ab Ithel of Ann. C. s.a. 1099 (= B.T. s.a. 1097) and
1118 (= B.T. s.a. 1115); the Hywel ab Owain of South Wales who was killed
in 1078 is not likely to have had any relations with Robert of Rhuddlan. Ord.
Vit. mentions (viii. 3) the building of " Dagaunoth " and (in the epitaph) Robert's
success against " Trehellum ".

^^'The authorities for the battle of Mynydd Carn are Ann. C. s.a. 1079 (for
the true readings see Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 176-7), B.T., B. Saes.,Buch. Gr.
ap C, and the poem by Meilyr Brydydd in Mvv. Arch. I. 192 (142). The
latter is the earliest piece of Welsh verse of which the date can be fixed by means
of its historical allusions ; its references to Gruffydd's transmarine allies — " Irish
black devils; savage Scots" — are explicit. Stephens' translation {Lit. Kym. (2),
11) obscures the fact that the poet chooses to speak as a prophet of what is to
come. As to the site of the battle, Carno (Powel, 85 ; Gw. Brut. s.a. 1080 ; Penn.
iii. 194) does not suit the conditions, nor is this form to be found in any ancient
authority for Mynydd Carn. Phillimore {Cymr. xi. 167) cites a passage from
L. G. Cothi (215) which seems to connect Mynydd Carn with southern Ceredigion,
but it is not clear that the reference is more than a bit of rhetoric, to be
coupled with the mention of Camlan a little later.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 385

to believe the Life (none too impartial a witness), was not will- CHAP,
ing to engage that night, but Gruffydd's impetuous passion ^^'
would brook no delay, and he rushed in the fading light upon
his foes. They were soon broken and scattered ; Trahaeam,
Meilyr and Caradog all fell in the fray, and Gruffydd had a
clear course before him. He made haste to ravage Arwystli
and thereafter, Powys, the lands which had sent oppressors to
Gwynedd, and then entered triumphantly into possession of his
own. It was, perhaps, a secondary result of the victory that
Gwrgeneu of Powys was slain by the sons of Rhys Sais.

Notwithstanding this signal victory, the hour of Gruffydd's
final triumph had not yet come. He had disposed of his rival,
but he had still to contend with the tide of Norman invasion,
which was now reaching its high-water mark in North Wales
and threatening to engulf the whole region. Earl Hugh had
no intention of recognising Gruffydd as prince of a country
which he hoped soon, through his cousin Robert, to hold in the
hollow. of his hand, and, with the help of Earl Roger of Mont-
gomery, he contrived to inveigle him to Rhug in Edeyrnion,
where he was taken prisoner and his Irish bodyguard broken
up.^^ It was not the Norman custom to shed the blood of a
captured enemy ; the humane teaching of the Church had to this
extent borne fruit. But life-long imprisonment was the common
lot of the man who had fallen into the power of his foe, and it
is no matter of surprise that Gruffydd was carried off to the
earl's castle at Chester, there to spend many a year in close
confinement.

Little is recorded of the movements of the principal men in
North Wales during the next few years. But at this point
a most valuable witness as to the precise position of affairs on
the border appears in the Domesday survey, or " description of
all England," compiled, as is well known, in the year 1086.
While a detailed discussion of the notices in this record bearing
upon Wales would carry us beyond the scope of the present
work, it will be of great assistance to collect at this point the
evidence which it affords as to the progress of the conflict
between Norman and Welshman in North Wales, and, later on,
to deal similarly with its testimony as to the South. The first

^'^ Buck. Gr. ap C. 112 (728). " Hu " did not become " iarll amwythic"
until 1093, so that his father Roger is probably intended.

386 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, point to which attention may be directed is the strong position
held by Earl Hugh. "In Cheshire," runs the record, "the
bishop of the city holds of the king all that pertains to his
bishopric. All other land in the shire is held of the king by
Earl Hugh and his men." ®^ Thus the great men of the shire,
Robert of Rhuddlan, Robert fitz Hugh of Malpas, William
Malbanc of Nantwich, and others, were tenants of the earl and
bound to serv'e him in his enterprises. His resources are thus
seen to have been such as to make him a most formidable
antagonist. From his central stronghold of Chester, his power
radiated in all directions. Not only the whole of our Cheshire,
but also the modern county of Flint, both east and west of
the Dee, with the intervening portion of Denbighshire, was
under the authority of Earl Hugh. The northern part of this
region formed the ancient English hundred of Atiscross,^^ so
called from an ancient cross near Flint which no doubt marked
the meeting-place of the men of the hundred. The heart of
the hundred, namely, the strip of coast from Basingwerk to
Hawarden, which was guarded on the west by a great forest,
had never ceased, since its first occupation by the Mercians, to
be tilled by English farmers, and what is witnessed here is
the transference of manors, after the fashion which prevailed
throughout England, from English to Norman lords. Earl
Hugh came into Earl Edwin's demesne of Hawarden ; Robert
of Rhuddlan succeeded two English landowners at Leadbrook.
But the outlying portions of the hundred, as has been shown
above, had been annexed by Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, and the
next point which deserves notice in the Domesday evidence is
the extent to which the work of Gruffydd had in the twenty
years following his death been undone.

Rhuddlan, where Gruffydd had held court, was now the
centre of the movement (5f aggression against the Welsh of
Gwynedd.®^ Around Robert's castle was a little borough, in
which eighteen burgesses, brought thither for the comfort and
convenience of the garrison, had trading privileges such as
those which were enjoyed in the boroughs founded by William

»• i. 2626 (2).

91 i. 2686 (2). For Atiscross or " Croes Ati " see Harl. MS. 473, cited in Owen,
Cataloguey 152, and Penn. i. 71.
»« i. 269a.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 387
fitz Osbern in Herefordshire.^^ They had their church, their CKAP.

mint, their mills and fisheries in the Clwyd ; trade was again
springing up in the district, and its mineral wealth was not
neglected. Of the surrounding agricultural region part was
held by the Earl and part by Robert, but everywhere, at
Prestatyn, Halkin, Whitford, Bodfifari and Caerwys, the plough
was at work and a servile population was paying its dues to
Norman superiors. Such was also the case in the valley of the
Alun, where Gruffydd's manor of Bistre had been parcelled out
among various lords. ^* The hundred of Exestan, held by
Gruffydd under a formal grant from the Confessor, had in like
manner been recovered from the Welsh ; Gilbert de Venables
was lord of Hope,^^ and three Norman tenants of Earl Hugh
divided between them the extensive lands of the manor of
Gresford.»«

The losses of the Welsh were, however, not to be measured
merely by the gains of Earl Hugh. Beyond the river Clwyd,
the limit of the old English settlement, the authority of the
Earl of Chester did not extend, and all that was conquered to
the westward of this river fell directly to Robert of Rhuddlan,
whose aim was to make himself lord of Gwynedd, with no
homage to render save to the crown. The two cantrefs of
Rhos and Rhufoniog were already in his possession, and,
though the fact does not appear from the survey, the new
castle of Degannwy was, no doubt, complete. The rest was in
process of being absorbed, and Robert had taken the precaution
to secure a legal title by obtaining from the king a grant of
the whole of " Nortwales," i.e., Gwynedd, in consideration of
an annual rent of £^0. Only the lands of the see of Bangor,
for which it was no doubt hoped to provide a Norman
occupant, were exempted from this grant.^^ After the fall of
Trahaearn and the capture of Gruffydd, the English govern-
ment clearly regarded the crown of Gwynedd as having es-
cheated to the feudal overlord, and, passing over all Welsh
claims, bestowed the dignity upon Robert, who thus succeeded

8* " Ipsis burgensibus annuerunt leges et consuetudines que sunt in hereford
et in bretuill" (269a (2)). Cf. note 52 above and Eng. Hist. Rev. xv. (1900), pp.
306-7.

** i. 26ga (2), (Biscopestrev). *" i. 2670 (i).

»8i. 268a (i), (Gretford. In Extan hd.).

'^i. 2690. See Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 156-7.

388 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, to all its pretensions. He made haste to enforce them to the
full, and in the survey itself he is found registering a claim to
the cantref of Arwystli, which was then in the occupation of
Earl Roger of Shrewsbury, but which Robert's Welsh tenants
averred was a member of the realm of Gwynedd.

It now remains to speak of the second great lord of the
North-Welsh march, Roger Montgomery, the friend and coun-
sellor of the Conqueror, who bestowed many lands and privileges
upon him, and finally, about 1071, made him Earl of Shrews-
bury. Earl Roger's lordship of the lands of Shropshire was
not quite so absolute as that of his neighbour in the adjoining
county of Chester. In addition to the bishops of Chester and
of Hereford, there were other magnates who held Shropshire
manors directly of the king, notably Ralph Mortimer, whose
broad lands in the valley of the Temei were partly within the
county, but were not held of the earl.'^ Nevertheless, the
position of Earl Roger was little removed from that of a pala-
tine earl, ruling the shire as freely as the king his kingdom.®*
Nearly all the leading men of the shire were his vassals, ably
seconding him in his warfare with the Welsh. Such was the
position of Warin the Bald, to whom he gave the office of
sheriff and the hand of his niece Amieria, of William Pantulf,
of Corbet, and of Robert of Sai, commonly known as Picot.^"'^
In the fifteen years which elapsed between Earl Roger's estab-
lishment in the shire and the compilation of Domesday some
changes, as was but natural, took place ; Warin was succeeded
on his death by Rainald of Bailleul, who married his predeces-
sor's widow,^*^ while Roger and Robert fitz Corbet appear in
1086 in their father's stead. But the system remained the
same ; the earl had everything in the shire which had been
King Edward's,^**^ and, while retaining for himself some royal
manors, such as Whittington and Chirbury, granted others
to his lieutenants to be the foundation-stones of new depend-

88 " Hie annotantur tenentes terram de rege in Sciropescire. . . . Comes
Rogerius quod reliquum est tenet cum suis hominibus " (i. 252a (i)). The manors
held of the king are separately entered on pp. 260a and b.
»9 See Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. (3), pp. 271, 364.

"0 Ord. Vit. iv. 7.

101 See entries under "Dodefort" (i. 254a (2)) and "Etbritone" (2556(1)),
with Ord. Vit. v. 13 (II. 414) and Mon. Angl. iii. 518.

102 » jpse comes Rogerius tenet de rege ciuitatem Sciropesberie et totum
comitatum et totum dominium quod rex Edwardus ibi habebat " (254a (i)).

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 389

ent baronies. It was thus that Rainald was enabled in Maes- CHAP.

XI
bury to build the new castle of L'CEuvre and lay the foundations

of the lordship of Oswestry ,^*^^ and that Roger fitz Corbet ob-
tained " Alretone " as the basis of the lordship of Cause. ^^*

A force so well equipped for attack was hardly likely to
leave the Welsh of Powys undisturbed. The name of Mont-
gomery became, indeed, one of mournful import throughout
the whole of Mid Wales, and at one time it seemed impossible
to say to what heights of greatness it might not attain in the
country. Already in 1086 there had been considerable en-
croachments upon Welsh territory. The commote of lal had
been seized ; this Earl Roger had granted to Earl Hugh, no
doubt because it marched with the hundred of Exestan.^*'^
Edeyrnion, the scene of the capture of King Gruffydd, and
Cynllaith had been subdued and annexed to the Oswestry fief
of Rainald the sheriff. A certain " Tuder Wallensis " held a
Welsh district as the vassal of the earl ; he has been identified,
on good grounds, with Tudur ap Rhys Sais and his territory
was probably Nanheudwy.^"^ In the hundred of Mersete,
which had been almost wholly lost to the English under the
Confessor, Rainald was lord of a compact group of manors, in
which the immigrant Welsh were retained as tillers of the soil.
Along the Severn there had been little change ; Roger fitz
Corbet was powerful around the Breiddin, but had not crossed
the river into Powys. The Chirbury district was, however,
one of the areas recaptured by the Normans ; Earl Roger re-
stored the place, which was the ecclesiastical centre of a wide
region, ^*'^ to something of its old importance, and not far off,
in the border forest which three English thegns had used as a
great chase, built a castle to which he gave the name of the
family seat in Normandy. The new Montgomery was de-
stined to have a history no less famous than that of the old, and

JOS Eyton, Shrops. x. 320-1. ^°* Ibid. vii. 5.

loi Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, i6o, note.

108 Mr. Tait's objection (Historical Atlas of Modern Europe, ed. R. L. Poole,
introd. to map 17) to Eyton's identification of this " finem terrae Walensis" with
Maelor Saesneg (x. 315) is based on good grounds. Nanheudwy, on the other
hand, is not otherwise accounted for, and, as Mr. Palmer points out {Cymr. x. 44),
most of the old Welsh families of the Chirk district traced their descent from
Tudur ap Rhys Sais.

10^ It is the mother church of Churchstoke, Forden, Hyssington, Snead and
Montgomery {Welsh SS. 345).

VOL. II. 3

390 HISTOR Y OF WALES.

CHAP, it became at once the starting-point of organised attacks upon
^^* Welsh territory. Ceri and Cydewain were at the mercy of
Earl Roger, and, after the fall of Trahaeam at Mynydd Cam,
Arwystli, too, could offer no resistance to his victorious pro-
gress. The year of the survey found him posted on the borders
of Ceredigion, ready for the Montgomery invasion of Deheu-
barth for which seven years afterwards the way was opened.

The historian is fortunate in being able to use the evidence
of Domesday to illustrate the power of Robert of Rhuddlan, for
in two years after the date of the survey he disappears from
the scene, and this without transmitting his great authority to
any bearer of his name. Serious disorders broke out in Eng-
land soon after the death of the Conqueror in September, 1087 ;
the Norman magnates, for the most part, resented the arrange-
ment which he had made for separating the duchy from the
crown and flouted the authority of the new king. The
malcontents included nearly all the great men of the Welsh
border ; only Earl Hugh was sincerely loyal to the cause of
William Rufus. Earl Roger had three sons among the
rebellious company who held out in Rochester Castle,^**^ and,
though he joined the king in the siege, clearly did so as much
in the interests of the besieged as of the leader whose banner
he professed to follow. Such, too, was the attitude of Robert
of Rhuddlan, who returned to the Vale of Clwyd in the early
summer of 1088, after the complete triumph of the king, to
find out that the Welsh had taken advantage, as was ever
their wont, of the quarrels of their oppressors to ravage and
plunder the conquered territories.^"^ Rhuddlan had suffered
severely, and the mortified Robert, his spirit embittered by the

"M.S. Chr. MS. E, s.a. 1087 (Plummer, i. 224).

"9 Ord. Vit. viii. 3 is our authority for the circumstances of the death of
Robert. The topographical questions involved are discussed in Trans. Cymr.
1899-1900, 157-8. The mention of " Grithfridus rex Guallorum " as the leader
of this raid has naturally led to its being regarded as an exploit on the part of
Gruffydd ap Cynan. But to this view there are weighty objections. Buck. Gr.
ap C. makes Gruffydd a prisoner for twelve (or, according to another passage,
sixteen) years after 1081, and, if it be rejoined that a mistake in the figure may
easily have been made, there is the more serious difficulty of the absence of any
reference to this incident of 1088 in the " Buchedd ". Had Gruffydd really won
this triumph, it is scarcely conceivable that the affair could have escaped the
notice of his official panegyrist, writing in the reign of his son Owain. As
Orderic is the sole authority for the story, it seems most likely that he had been
misinformed as to the chief who led the Welsh on this occasion.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 391
failure of the baronial movement, laid his plans for a ruthless CHAP,

revenge. But all his threats came to nought. On the 3rd of
July he was taking his midday sleep in the castle of Degannwy,
with no thought of danger or of warlike alarms, when news
was hurriedly brought him that three Welsh ships had been
beached at the foot of the Great Orme's Head, and that their
crews were scouring the tableland above and carrying off cattle,
with women and children, as plunder to their vessels. His
first step was to send out messengers to call together the
armed forces of the district to repel this daring raid. But he
soon perceived that they would come too late ; the marauders
had already got their booty aboard and only waited the rising
of the tide to float their vessels from the position in which they
had grounded them earlier in the day. From those towering
limestone cliffs he could watch them at their work, and the
spectacle filled him with dire indignation. He refused to
regard the situation as hopeless, begged the few unarmed
retainers he had around him to join him in attacking the
plunderers, and, when they declined the desperate enterprise,
threw prudence to the winds, and, attended by a single knight,
himself made his way down the steep mountain path towards
the shore. Instantly the darts and arrows of the whole troop
of Welshmen were directed against him, and, as he wore no
armour, his shield soon fell from his nerveless hands and he
sank to the ground in death. The enemy were upon him in a
moment ; his head was cut off, and in barbaric triumph fixed
as a trophy to the mast of the leading ship. By this time the
tide was beginning to set the vessels free for their voyage
home ; they were already afloat and speeding westward when
Robert's men began to assemble- on the shore of the Conway,
filled with grief at the sudden loss of their lord. The sight of
his bleeding head spurred them at first to attempt pursuit, but
the Welsh had gained a good start, and, when the head was
by a counsel of prudence thrown into the sea, the men of
Degannwy desisted from a chase which had but a bare chance
of success.

Notwithstanding this achievement of the Welsh, the pro-
gress of the Normans in Gwynedd was in no degree checked.
Earl Hugh forthwith stepped into the place of his relative,
receiving, it may be, a formal grant from the qrown of the

39* HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, independent lordship which had been held by Robert.^^" He
it is, at any rate, who during the next few years is found
actively engaged in the conquest of Mon and Arfon. According
to the life of Gruffydd ap Cynan, castles were built by Earl
Hugh at this time in Meirionydd, in Arfon — the one at Car-
narvon and the other at Bangor — and in Anglesey, the last
being, no doubt, the castle at Aber Lleiniog mentioned elsewhere
in the life.^^^ This evidence is amply confirmed by other
sources. It is known that a Breton named Herv6, who must
have owed his elevation entirely to Norman influence, was
consecrated bishop of Bangor in 1092.^^'^ In the following
year the earl refounded St. Werburgh's house at Chester as a
Benedictine abbey ; among the grants which he makes to the
monks are two manors in Anglesey and one in Rhos, the tithe
of the fisheries of Rhuddlan and of Anglesey, and the right to
have engaged in the latter a ship carrying ten nets.^^^ At the
beginning of the year 1094 the Norman Conquest of North
Wales appeared almost complete, and the observer who did not
look below the surface might well have supposed that the days
of Welsh independence were numbered in this, its ancient and
impregnable stronghold. But, in point of fact, the Normans
had reached the zenith of their success in Gwynedd ; in the
years that followed, their forces were, first, challenged and
attacked, and, finally, driven altogether out of this region.

IV. Rhys ap Tewdwr.

While North Wales was in the grip of the invader, South
Wales was ruled by a Welsh prince who had considerable
success in the difficult task of holding the Normans at arm's
length. Until his fall in 1093 Rhys ap Tewdwr was as fortun-
ate as his fellow-ruler Gruffydd ap Cynan was unlucky.
Deheubarth, it has been shown, was in 1075 in the possession
of Rhys ab Owain, who was responsible in that year for the
much lamented death of Bleddyn, Retribution followed with
no halting foot; in 1078 Trahaearn of North Wales invaded

"" Gaimar (v. 6043) says Rufus gave Hugh " Nort Wales ".
"1 Buck. Gr. ap C. 114 (728). '♦ Hen gaer Custennin " is said of Carnarvon
on the authority of Hist. Britt. c 25.

"2 See p. 448. J13 Mon. Angl. ii. 386.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 393

Dyfed, defeated Rhys in the battle of Goodwick, not far from CHAP,
Fishguard,^^"* and, having put all his "teulu" to the sword,
drove him, as the " Chronicle of the Princes " puts it, " o'er rocks
and through brakes, like a frightened stag before the deer-
hounds ".^^^ At the end of the year he and his brother Hywel
were killed by Caradog ap Gruffydd, and the throne of Deheu-
barth was vacant. It was claimed by Rhys ap Tewdwr, a
great-grandson of the Einon ab Owain ap Hywel Dda who fell
in 984,^^® and for a year or two this claim seems not to have
been seriously contested.^^'^ In 108 1, however, the ambition of
Caradog ap Gruffydd impelled him to attempt the conquest of
Deheubarth, and Rhys was so hard pressed as to be forced to
take refuge in the church of St. David's. Here he was joined
by Gruffydd ap Cynan, with whose aid he won the historic
victory of Mynydd Carn — a victory which not only disposed of
Caradog, but also firmly established Rhys upon his throne.

The year of Mynydd Carn witnessed another event which,
whatever its precise occasion, was undoubtedly of great import-
ance for South Wales. It was in 1081 that William the
Conqueror paid his one visit to Wales, which he penetrated
as far as St. David's. The Welsh and the English accounts of
this expedition do not depict it in quite the same light ; accord-
ing to the monks of St. David's, the king's journey was a
pilgrimage, undertaken out of respect for the memory of their
saint ; ^^^ according to the English chronicle which records the
visit, it was made at the head of an armed force and it resulted

11'* Fenton's identification of "Pullgudic" {Ann. C.) with Goodwick in
Pembrokeshire (second ed. p. 7) is made certain by the fact that Mostyn MS. 116,
the probable original of the Red Book copy of B.T., calls this battle "urwydyr
Llan wnda" (Evans, Rep. i. p. 57).

"^B.r. s.a. 1076 (= 1078).

"® For the correct pedigree, Rhys ap Tewdwr ap Cadell ab Einon ab Owain
ap Hywel Dda see Gir. Camb. vi, 167 {Descr. i. 3), Mostyn MS. 117 (Evans,
Rep. i. p. 63), and Jesus Coll. MS. 20 in Cymr. viii. 88 (No. xxiv.). The omission
of Cadell, as in Powel (85) and Dwnn (ii. 16), led to Rhys being regarded as the
son of the Tewdwr ab Einon who died in 994 and as performing, therefore, the
achievements of his reign between the ages of eighty-five and one hundred !

1" Gw. Brut, s.a. 1077 says he came from Brittany (cf., however, "Brut
leuan Brechfa," in Myv. Arch. H. 520 (719), which brings him from Ireland), and
in lolo MSS. 2x5, it is added that he brought with him the " System of the Round
Table ". Notwithstanding the reliance placed upon these statements by Stephens
{Lit. Kym. (2) 322, 405-6) and others, it will be seen that they come from
thoroughly untrustworthy sources.

118" Causa orationis" (Ann. C. MS. B., with which MS. C. agrees).

394 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, in the " freeing " of many hundred men.^^^ There can be little
doubt that the second is the more reasonable presentment of
William's purpose ; devout as he was, he had other work to do
than pay his court to remote and unfriendly sanctuaries, and his
real motive was, no doubt, to impress the chieftains of South
Wales with a due sense of his power and to relieve the small
bands of Normans which were shut up in isolated castles, out of
reach of the border. But he did not omit to pay reverence to
the shrine of the great Dewi, and, what is more, it is most
likely that he met in this neighbourhood the new ruler of
Deheubarth and concluded with him a peace which lasted
during William's lifetime. In the survey of 1086, it is said
that " Riset " of Wales renders to the king an annual ferm or
rent of ;^40.^^^ Now it will be noticed that this is the precise
sum paid by Robert of Rhuddlan as lord of Gwynedd, and it is,
therefore, an almost certain conclusion that the item represents
the rent of Deheubarth, paid by Rhys ap Tewdwr under a
compact which protected him in the enjoyment of his ancestral
possessions. That he was so protected is suggested by many
facts in the history of the period, and, if a formal agreement be
presumed, no time is so likely to have produced it as the year
of this expedition undertaken by the Conqueror to the utter-
most parts of Dyfed.

Five years after the journey to St. David's the Domesday
survey shows the position of affairs on the South Welsh border,
and demonstrates that there had been little advance on the
part of the Normans since the death of William fitz Osbern.
There had been no effective occupation of any spot within the
modern counties of Radnor, Brecknock and Glamorgan. Certain
Norman lords laid claim in virtue of royal grants to Radnor,
Knighton, Norton, Cascob and the surrounding districts, but
the region had not yet recovered from the ravages of Gruffydd
ap Llywelyn, and there were no Norman settlements in these
villages.^^^ Matters had apparently stood still for some ten or
fifteen years, except for certain conquests in Ewias and Gwynllwg

"M.S. Chr. MS. E. s.a. 1081.

^20Domesd. i. 179a (2), (Herefordscire). Cf. Tram. Cymr. 1899-1900, 163.

^21 Raddrenove (iSia (2)), Chenistetone (2606 (2)), Nortune (ibid.), and
Cascop (2600 (i) and i86i (2)) were all waste in 1086. The first three were
claimed by Hugh the Ass (Lasne), the last by Osbern fitz Richard.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST. -FIRST STAGE. 395

which may have been of later date. Wigmore, ClifFord, Ewias CHAP,
Harold and Caerleon were the westernmost outposts of Norman
rule, and the conquest of Brycheiniog and of Morgannwg had
not yet been seriously undertaken.

This halt in the process of conquest was more probably the
result of want of royal encouragement than of any lack of
enterprise in the marcher lords. Powerful barons were seated
on the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire border. Osbern
fitz Richard was lord of Richard's Castle and Byton, and claimed
many vills on the confines of Maelienydd which at the time
yielded him nothing but the game he hunted in their wooded
glades.^^^ He had succeeded his father, Richard fitz Scrop, in
the time of the Confessor, and had married a daughter of
Gruffydd ap Llywelyn.^^^ At Wigmore was Ralph Mortimer,
first of that famous English house ; the Conqueror had about
1075 established him as a great border magnate by bestowing
upon him a number of Shropshire and Herefordshire manors
set free by the treason of Earl Roger and the death of the
Confessor's widow.^^* Cleobury and Leintwardine were his,
and he had claims, not yet substantiated, upon vills like Pilleth
and Waterdine which bordered upon Maelienydd.^^^ The
valley of the Clun was the domain of Picot of Sai.^^* The
castle and lordship of Clifford had been given to Ralph ot
Toeni,^^'^ whose principal interests lay elsewhere and who does
not, therefore, play a conspicuous part in the doings of the
march. Not so was it with Roger de Lacy ; he had just
succeeded in 1086 to the lands bestowed upon his father
Walter for gallant service against the Welsh ^^^ and was himself
an active marcher lord ; his chief seat was at Weobley and the
Welsh commote of Ewias was in his hands.^^® The castle of

1" i. 1866 (2), 260a (i). Richard's Castle is " Avretone " (i.e., Overton).

I''* Osbern held most of his lands T.R.E. as well as in 1086, and Ord. Vit.
viii. 2 (III. 270-1) calls him " Osbernus Ricardi cognomento Scrop filius ". For
the marriage see note 135 below.

12'' Diet. Nat. Biog. xxxix. pp. 130-1.

125 i. 1836, 260a, b. Pilleth is " Pelelei," with which cf. " Mair o bilale " in
Pen. MS. 147 (Evans, Rep. i. p. 915) and " Pylaley " in Dwnn, i. 258.

"6 i. 258a. 127 i, 1830(2).

128 Ord. Vit. iv. 7. Walter died on 27th March, 1085 (Diet. Nat. Biog. xxxi.
p. 389).

i2» Weobley is the " Wibelai " of 1846 (2) ; the " terram Ewias dictam "
is carefully distinguished (184a (i)) from the " castellaria de Ewias," which was
at Ewias Harold.

396 HISTORY OF WALES,

CHAP. Ewias was the centre of a separate lordship, held in the year
of the survey by Alfred of Marlborough, in succession to his
uncle Osbern Pentecost.^ ^"^ The valley of the Dore and most
of Archenfield were parcelled out among various holders, who
received from the Welsh inhabitants the old honey renders
which had formerly been paid to Welsh princes. But in the
angle formed by the meeting of the Monnow and the Wye a
Norman settlement had taken root, with Earl William's castle
of Monmouth as its centre. After the catastrophe of 1075,
the king had put the place in charge of the Breton Wihenoc,
who, on becoming a monk, had transmitted his position to his
brother's son, William fitz Baderon, ancestor of the later lords
of Monmouth.^"

If it be added that Earl William's conquest of Gwent had
been fully utilised, but that further progress in this quarter is
at most represented by Turstin fitz Rolfs castle at Caerleon,
with a little tilled land around it,^'^^ it will be seen that there is
ample warrant for the view that at the death of William I. the
South Welsh border stood much as it did in 1071, and that the
conquest of South Wales had not begun. It can scarcely be a
coincidence that immediately on the accession of William Rufus
a change of attitude is to be observed. There is no reason to
think that the new king refused to recognise the position of
Rhys ap Tewdwr and repudiated the arrangement made by his
father ; indeed, the contrary is suggested by the fact that the
wholesale conquest of Deheubarth did not begin until after the
Welsh leader's death. But Rufus could not hold the reins of

130 i. i86a (i). Cf. Round, Feudal England, p. 324.

^31 The early history of Monmouth is outlined in Lib. Land. 276-8, where
it is said that the castle was built by Earl William, and, on the fall of the house of
Breteuil and its adherents, given to " gueithenauc," who became a monk and
was succeeded, first by " Randulf de Coliuil " and then by " Willelmus filius
Batrun ". The charters of Monmouth Priory corroborate this account in several
particulars, showing that " Wihenocus " became " sancti Florentii monachus "
and was succeeded by his nephew, William fitz Baderon {Cal. Doc. Fr. 406-7).
William was the castellan and local magnate in 1086 (i. 1806 (2)).

^^^ There are two notices of this holding, one under Herefordshire (Terra
Willelmi de Scohies, 1856 (i)) and another under Gloucestershire (Isdem
Turstinus habet sex carucatas terrae ultra Huscham, 162a (2)). They differ
somewhat in detail, but neither betokens a settlement of any importance. Hence
the view, founded on Ann. Marg. s.a. 1081 (Et aedificata est villa Cardiviae, sub
Willelmo primo rege), that the Normans had already reached the Taff appears
very questionable. See Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 162.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 397

discipline with the firm hand of his predecessor. In the out- CHAP,
break which followed his accession, nearly all the powerful men
of the march, as has been pointed out above, were ranged
against him. The barons of Herefordshire and Shropshire,
including Roger de Lacy, Ralph Mortimer, Osbern fitz Richard
and his son-in-law, Bernard of Neufmarche, made a determined
attack upon the city of Worcester and brought their Welsh
tenants in great force into the fray ; only the constancy and
high spirit of the saintly Bishop Wulfstan saved the place from
the violence of this motley company of rebels.^^^ One need
not be surprised, therefore, to find evidence in this year 1088
that a beginning is being made of the conquest of Brycheiniog.
The records of the abbey of St. Peter's, Gloucester, assign to
this year the gift to the abbey by Bernard of the vill and church
of Glasbury, a place which lies well within the border of
Brycheiniog, being about 4 miles south-west of Hay.^^*
Bernard was the son of Geoffrey of Neufmarch6 and first
appears in England at the end of the Conqueror's reign. By
his marriage with Nest, a daughter of Osbern fitz Richard, he
obtained a footing on the Welsh border and was enabled to
undertake the conquest of the ancient realm of Brychan.^^^
Entering the country at its most vulnerable point, where be-
tween the Black Mountains and the Wye a passage lies open
to the Llyfni valley and thence to the vale of Usk, he had
already made considerable progress and probably occupied
Talgarth, the Welsh capital of the district, at the time that the
death of Rhys ap Tewdwr in 1093 gave him the opportunity
of winning a completer triumph.

133 A.S. Chr. MS. E. s.a. 1087; Fl. Wig. s.a. 1088 (ii. 24-6) ; Ord. Vit. viii.
2 (III. 270-1).

1'^ Cart. Glouc. i. 80. For the importance of the church see chap. viii.
note 249.

135 Some account of Bernard will be found in Ord. Vit. vi. 8 ; the statement
that he served three kings of England is confirmed by the fact that he is one of
the witnesses (Bernardus de novo mercato) to a charter executed by William I.
in 1086-7 in favour of Battle Abbey {Mon. Angl. iii. 245). He does not seem to
have held any English lands in 1086. As to his marriage, there is, in addition to
the fact that Fl. Wig. calls him son-in-law of Osbern fitz Richard, the evidence
of the charters of Brecon Priory, which show that his wife Agnes gave to the
priory the manor of Berrington, near Tenbury, held by Osbern in 1086 (Domesd.
i. 1766). See Arch. Carnb. III. xiv. (1883), 141-2 ; Mon. Angl. iii. 244, 264. Gir.
Camb. vi. 28-9 {Ititt. i. 2) further shows that Agnes was also called Nest and
that she was the daughter of another Nest, a daughter of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn,
whose marriage to Osbern is thus established.

39* HISTORY OF WALES.

^xf ^' ^hile Brycheiniog was thus feeling the first edge of the

Norman Conquest of South Wales, the greater part of Deheu-
barth continued, even under Rufus, to acknowledge the authority
of Rhys. He had on two occasions to do battle for his crown,
but on both his antagonists were Welshmen and not Normans.
In 1088 he was attacked by the sons of Bleddyn, who now
ruled over Powys ; at first defeated and forced to take refuge
in Ireland, he speedily returned with the aid of a Danish fleet
and overthrew his rivals in a battle in which Madog and Rhiryd
ap Bleddyn fell, their brother Cadwgan escaping with his life.i'*''
In 1 09 1, on the death of Cydifor ap Gollwyn, a powerful mag-
nate of Dyfed, his sons threw off their allegiance to Rhys and
offered the crown to Grufifydd ap Maredudd, who since his
father's death in 1072 had been an exile in England, in occupa-
tion of the Herefordshire manors bestowed upon Maredudd
by Earl William.^^T Qnce again Rhys was triumphant ; in the
battle of Llandudoch, fought near the mouth of the Teifi,
Gruffydd was defeated and slain.

But in the Easter week (i7th-23rd April) of 1093, Rhys at
last met his fate. He was killed by the Norman invaders of
Brycheiniog, not far, it would seem, from the new castle they
were attempting to build at Aberhonddu.^^s Whether he fell
in fair fight or by treachery is uncertain ; ^^^ all that is clear is
that his death opened the flood-gates of Norman rapacity in
South Wales, and that its many trickling rills now united in one
great deluge which swept the country from end to end. The
idea that with him had disappeared such legal right as had any
claim to respect from the dwellers on the march finds expression
in the Welsh as well as in the English chronicles. If Florence
of Worcester tells us that " from that day kings ceased to bear
rule in Wales," it is in the chronicle of the Princes (Brut y
Tywysogion) that the statement is made that with Rhys " the

"" The name of the place at which the battle was fought is not to be recog-
nised in the corrupt forms which have come down to us, viz., " penllecheru "
(An7t. C. MS. B. in Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 176), " penlethereu " (MS. C.
177) and "Ilychcrei" (BruU, 270); " llech ryt" (B. Saes. s.a. 1087), though
adopted by Powel (88) and others, does not seem to me a happy conjecture.

1" Domesd, i. 1876 (i).

"8 Fl. Wig. s.a. 1093 ; Ann. C. and Bruts.

139 Fl, Wig. says "inpugna," Gir. Camb. " dolo suorum " (vi. 89; Itin.i.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— FIRST STAGE. 399
kingdom of Wales was overthrown ".^**' Neither assertion has CHAP,

any point for the observer who can take a wide view of Welsh
history, but they signify that in the eyes of contemporaries the
death of Rhys put an end to a period of orderly, legitimate rule ;
there was no one who had a rightful claim to the position which
he held, and force was to be henceforth the sole arbiter of the
affairs of the distracted and unhappy country.

140 i« Ac yna y dygwydawd teyrnas y brytanyeit " {Bruts, 270). B. Saes. (s.o.
logi) has : " ac yna y syrthws brenhiniaeth kymre " — obviously another transla-
tion of the same Latin sentence.

CHAPTER XII.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE.

(For the history of the period 1093-1135 I have used Annates Cambria
and the Bruts, the life of GruflFydd ap Cynan, and the usual English sources. I
may express here my general obligations to the work of Mr. J. Horace Round,
whose minute and accurate knowledge of this period is so well known.)

I. The Struggle at its Height.

CHAP. The years 1093- 109 9 may be regarded as the crisis of the
Norman attempt to subjugate Wales. Now that the obstacle
had been remov^ed which was created by the position of Rhys
ap Tewdwr, a united effort was made to carry the whole
country by storm, and scarcely any part of it escaped invasion.
On the other hand, the Welsh were now fully alive to the
danger which threatened their existence as a nation, and the
national resistance was as general in extent and as resolute in
spirit as the occasion demanded. At the beginning of the
twelfth century the struggle had been fought out and its broad
issues decided, however much it might rest with later genera-
tions to settle matters of detail ; North Wales, it was decreed,
was to retain substantially its Welsh rulers and its independ-
ence, while most of what was best worth having in the South
was to fall into the hands of the invader.

In little more than a week after the fall of Rhys,^ Cadwgan
ap Bleddyn took advantage of the situation to ravage Dyfed,
hoping that the overthrow of his rival might serve to aggrand-
ise his own power and that of the kingdom of Powys. But it
was reserved for a greater than Cadwgan to reap the benefit
of the new turn of affairs. Earl Roger now moved from his

^On 30th April. " Pridie Kal. May" (Ann. C. MS. B.) is rendered wrongly
in B.T. ("yr eildydo vei "), but with fair accuracy in B. Sues. (" ychydic kyn
kalan mei ") — one of the many proofs of their independence.

400

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 401

base in Arwystli and at the beginning of July occupied Cere- CHAP,
digion, in which he built the first Norman castle, near the
mouth of the Teifi, at a spot then known as Din Geraint
(Geraint's fastness), but in later times as Aberteifi and Cardigan.^
Thence the Montgomery hosts poured into Dyfed, which was
soon in their power from sea to sea ; the land was conferred
by the king upon a younger son of Earl Roger's, named Arnulf,
who fixed his capital at the place ever since known as Pembroke,
a name which, like Builth and Kidwelly, transfers to the Nor-
man castle the ancient appellation of the surrounding district.^
The first Pembroke castle, which Arnulf entrusted to the
custody of his chief follower, Gerald of Windsor, was hastily
and roughly constructed in the form of a stockade,* but it was
erected on a position of great natural strength, and it was
partly to this that Pembroke owed its singular fortune among
Welsh castles, in that it never fell, even temporarily, into the
hands of the Welsh. In the eastern end of Dyfed, William
fitz Baldwin, sheriff of Devon and a mighty man in that county,
was commissioned by Rufus to plant another Norman post,
which he established at Rhydygors, a ford on the Towy a
mile south of the old Roman fort of Carmarthen and the
church of Llandeulyddog.^ In all this no regard was paid
to the claims of the two young sons of Rhys ap Tewdwr ;
Gruffydd, the elder, was carried off by his friends in alarm to
Ireland, while Hywel, less fortunate, was seized by Arnulf and
kept in close confinement.^

2«' Geir Haw aber teifi (the river-mouth, not the town) yny lie aelwir dinge-
reint. y He y grwndwalassei roger iarll kyn no hynny [i.e., before mo) gastell "
{Briits, 289; B.T. 105, where Robert is Ab Ithel's mistake for Roger). In
spite of the delusive similarity of the names (Cilgerran is from CerrsLtt, with the
feminine inflexion, not from Geraint; cf. " castell cerran"m Lib. Land. 126,
and the note on names of this type in Owen, Pemb. i. 422), Dingereint cannot
be, as maintained by J. R. Phillips (History of Cilgerran, London, 1867, p. 84),
the modern Cilgerran, for this is not in Ceredigion, nor is it " close to the fall of
the Teifi into the sea ". Cardigan is a corruption of Ceredigion, formed on the
analogy of Carnarvon and Carmarthen ; as the name of the town, it first occurs,
in the form " Caradigan," in Cont. Fl. Wig. s.a. 1136.

sBruts, 295; B.T. 121. For Arnulf see Ord. Vit. v. 13, 14; viii. 16,
25 ; Cal. Doc. Fr. i. 165.

*Gir. Camb. vi. 89 (Itin. i. 12).

''For William fitz Baldwin see J. H. Round, Feudal England, pp. 329-30
(note).

8 Their early history is to be gleaned from B.T. 119, 121 (Bruts, 294-5),
where it is told in connection with their appearance in arms in 11 15.

402 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Deheubarth having thus become altogether the prey of the

invader, it was not to be expected that the regions lying be-
tween it and the English border should escape. Rhys was
slain, it has been seen, in a conflict with the Normans of
Brycheiniog, and it cannot be doubted that one of the earliest
results of his death was the occupation by Bernard of Neuf-
march6 of the whole of the three cantrefs of that district. The
date of the conquest of Glamorgan is not known, but, while
there is no reason to think that the task had been commenced
under the Conqueror,^ it was in all probability not long delayed
after the accession of Rufus and may have been well advanced
by the year 1093. The last Welsh ruler of the country was
lestyn ap Gwrgant, who represented no ancient claims, but had
seized power on the fall of Caradog ap Gruffydd in 1081.^ In
spite of the laborious particularity with which tradition tells the
story of lestyn's defeat and overthrow, it still remains a subject
upon which history is perforce silent." All that can be said
with any confidence is that the Norman leader was Robert fitz
Hamon, a scion of a noble house who won the special favour
of Rufus and by him was enriched with valuable possessions in
Gloucestershire.^" Starting from this base, he no doubt began
operations by building a castle at Cardiff, which became the
capital and centre of his lordship ; from the banks of the TafF
he and his attendant knights swept the whole country as far
as the Tawe, and the history of the Welsh principality of
Morgannwg was for ever closed. It was probably about the
same time that the Norman Conquest of the cantref of Buellt,
or Builth, was achieved. About 1095, Philip of Briouze, who
had just succeeded to the lands of his father, the great Sussex
magnate, William of Briouze, is found established at Radnor,
which was no longer debatable border land, but the centre of

' See chap. xi. note 132.

8 Trans. Cymr. 1899- 1900, 145 (note), 162.

» The legend of the conquest of Glamorgan is given diversely by each of the
following four authorities, none of them of older date than the sixteenth century :
Humphrey Llvvyd in Powel's Historie, 89-90 ; Sir Edward Stradling in the same,
90-107; Gw. Brut, s.a. 1088; lolo MSS. 15-16. There is only one point at
which it comes into contact with contemporary records, and this is its account of
the death of Rhys ap Tewdwr. Here it is demonstrably wrong, since Rhys fell
in battle with the Normans of Brecknock, and not with the followers of Fitz
Hamon.

"Dtcf. Nat. Biog. xix. pp. 159-62 (Prof. Tout).

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 403

a Norman lordship.^^ It is known that the lords of Radnor CHAP.

. XII

held Builth from the first years of Norman predominance in

South Wales/^ and thus one is prepared to find Philip addressed

about 1 1 00 as one of the principal holders of land in the diocese

of St. David's.i3

The subjugation of Wales had thus made very substantial
progress when in the spring of 1094 Rufus left England for
Normandy.^^ At once the Welsh, driven to despair by the
rapidity with which their enemies were sweeping all before them,
resolved to rise in revolt. The movement began in Gwynedd,^^
where in a short space of time all the castles built by Earl Hugh
to the west of the Conway were carried by assault, the island of
Anglesey was recovered, and a Norman army which was des-
patched to retrieve these losses was defeated at Coed Yspwys
by Cadwgan ap Bleddyn.^^ The Earl of Chester appears to
have been engaged at this time in continental affairs ^'^ and the
defence of the northern march devolved upon another Earl
Hugh, namely, the second son of Roger Montgomery, who had
just succeeded his father in the earldom of Shrewsbury ; ^^ a

'^^Cal. Doc. Fr. i. 401 (No. 1120). No. 1118 (p. 400) shows that William of
Briouze was still living at the end of 1093 ; in 1096 Philip, who had meanwhile
succeeded his father, seems to have joined the First Crusade (No. 1119). Cart.
Glouc. ii. 103 affords evidence of the existence of a borough at Radnor, of which
Philip was lord,

^^ Gir. Camb. vi. 16 {Itin. i. i).

1^ A letter of Anselm's addresses and enjoins obedience to the Welsh Bishop
Wilfrid upon " Roberto Comiti (i.e., Robert of Belleme, now Earl of Shrewsbury)
et fratri ejus Ernulfo comiti et Radulfo de Mortuo Mari et Philippo de Braiosa et
Bernardo de Novo Mercato " (H. and St. i. 300; Migne, clix. 214). The dis-
tricts involved were probably Ceredigion, Dyfed, Maelienydd, Buellt and
Brycheiniog respectively. As to the date, H. and St., in suggesting 1095, over-
looked Robert's title, which imposes the limits 1098-1102. It will be observed
that the letter gives Arnulf also the title of " comes," supporting the testimony of
Eadmer (Rolls ed. 419) and Ord. Vit. (v. 14; viii. 25). But that he was Earl of
Pembroke is a mere conjecture.

"At Mid-Lent (A.S. Chr. MS. E. s.a. 1094).

i^This is stated by Fl. Wig. s.a. 1094 (" primitus North- Walani," ii. 35) and
confirmed by Ann. C, MS. C, B.T. and B. Saes.

i« " Koet yspwys " {Bruts, 271) or " koet yspes " (B. Saes. s.a. 1092) has
not yet been identified.

17 See A.S. Chr. MS. E. s.a. 1094.

18 But whether in 1093 or 1094 is uncertain. The former date is given for
Earl Roger's death by Fl. Wig. and derives support from the statement of Ord.
Vit. (v. 14; see Le Prevost, II. 422, where the date 1094 >s said to be an inter-
polation in the text) that Roger survived the Conqueror six years. On the other
hand, as the day was certainly 27th July (ibid.), very little time is left for the

404 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, victory won by him over one body of insurgents ^" was small
amends for the loss of Gwynedd and the ravaging of many
villages on the Cheshire and Shropshire border. Of the Welsh
leaders, Cadwgan was certainly the most prominent and per-
haps did most to animate his countrymen to resistance. '■^'^ But
it is just to observe that this is the year in which GrulTydd ap
Cynan reappears upon the stage, and one cannot doubt that
the presence among them of their hereditary chief was a special
encouragement to the men of M6n and Arfon. It is not
possible to say how long he had been a prisoner,^^ nor can ab-
solute confidence be placed in the romantic story which tells us
how Gruffydd escaped through the daring of young Cynwrig
the Tall of Edeyrnion, who carried him off in his fetters from
Chester market-place, while the burgesses were at dinner, and
bore him on his shoulders to a safe retreat without the city.
But the account of his later wanderings in Ireland, in Ceredigion,
in Ardudwy and in Lleyn, a homeless and hunted, but not
friendless man, is probably trustworthy, and from it one learns
that the help of Godred Crowan, king of Man,^^ was first in-
voked by Gruffydd against the Norman garrison of Aber
Lleiniog, and that, when this plan failed, he landed at Nevin,
gathered a great host of the men of Gwynedd and took the
castle with the slaughter of its custodian and a hundred and
twenty other knights. Thus Gruffydd played an honourable
and strenuous part in this conflict, which ended so signally in
favour of Gwynedd as to give that region immunity from
further attack for rather more than twelve months. ^^

The example of revolt was speedily followed by the men of
South Wales, who fell with such fury upon the castles lately
planted in their midst in Dyfed and Ceredigion as to destroy

earl's operations in Ceredigion in that month, and one inclines to the later year,
which fits in with another passage of Ord. Vit. (x. 6) giving four years (i.e., 1094-8)
as the length of Hugh's tenure of the earldom.
19 /I .S. Chr. ut supra.

20 "Caduugaun," says A.S. Chr. MS. E. s.a. 1097, was the worthiest of the
Welsh elders ; he was the son of Gruffydd's (half) brother.

21 See chap. xi. note log.

^ " Gothrei vrenhin," who rules " enyssed denmarc " {Buck. Gr. ap C. 116 ;
G^-othrei in Myv. Arch. 729), can hardly be any one else. Godred died in 1095
{Orkneyinga Saga, ed. for the Rolls Series, vol. i. (1887), pp. xliv. 413).

^23 Until Michaelmas, 1095. The " dwy vlyned" of Buch. Gr. ap C. is an
overstatement.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 405

all save Pembroke and Rhydygors. Even the return of the CHAP
king to England at the close of the year ^* had no effect upon
the movement, for there was disaffection among the Norman
magnates, and in 1095 Earl Robert of Northumberland took
up arms against Rufus and sought to place Stephen of Aumale
upon the throne. The greater part of the year was devoted to
the suppression of this rebellion, which had in another respect a
bearing upon Welsh history, in that it brought about the fall
of Roger de Lacy ; for his share in this conspiracy he was dis-
inherited and driven from England, while his possessions were
given to his brother Hugh.^^ Thus it was not until the end of
the year that the king was free to undertake operations against
the Welsh. Little had been done meanwhile by the barons of
the march ; Glamorgan and Brecknock were still firmly held,
and from these lordships attacks were directed upon Gower,
Kidwelly and Ystrad Tywi, but the ardour of the insurgents
was in no way abated and the capture of the border castle of
Montgomery, to the imminent danger of South-western Shrop-
shire, was the deed of daring which convinced Rufus that he
must throw the power of the crown into the quivering
balance.^"

The expedition which followed was in no way remarkable,
and belonged, indeed, to a type of which the next two centuries
were to furnish many examples.^'^ It entered North Wales in
the month of October in formidable strength, divided among
a number of detachments, which were to move along various
roads converging upon Snowdon. Woodcutters cleared the
tangled thickets and clumps of woodland which not only
hindered the progress of the English, but provided excellent
cover for their foes. About 1st November the whole force
assembled at Mur y Castell in northern Ardudwy. It was
then realised that the campaign, instead of being closed, ac-
cording to anticipation, in time for a retreat before the rigours

24 Dec. 29 (Fl. Wig.).

25 Ord. Vit. viii. 23, where it is said that the king also fined Earl Hugh of
Shrewsbury £3000 for his part in the revolt.

2M.S. Chr. MS. E. s.a. 1095.

'"Details are supplied by A.S. Chr. MS. E. s.a. 1095 and Buck. Gr. ap C.
118-20 (730-1). The latter allows the spirit of panegyric to carry it so far as
gravely to assert that it was only the magnanimity of Gruffydd which saved the
life of Rufus, as David had spared that of Saul 1
VOL. II. 4

4o6 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, of winter, was merely beginning ; the Welsh, with the mobility
^^^" characteristic of a people having little but portable property,
had deserted their homesteads before the advance of William's
troops, carrying off their cattle and household goods, and,
having transferred these belongings to safer quarters in Mon
and in Eryri, were now harassing the invaders by a succession
of ambushes. Rufus resolved to rest content with the display
of power which he had made, and returned to Chester without
having checked in any degree the violence of the storm which
was raging in the country. .

Throughout the year 1 096 the tide of revolt ran high. On
the death of William fitz Baldwin, the garrison he had placed
in Rhydygors abandoned the castle, and thus another Norman
outpost, the last except Pembroke in this region, was swept
away. Emboldened by the success of their comrades in the
north and the west, the Welsh of Brycheiniog, Gwynllwg and
Gwent threw off the yoke and won victories which at the moment
made no small stir, though their ultimate effect was small, owing
to the failure to capture the castles in these districts.^^ The
men of Gwent repelled an army which had marched upon them
from Glamorgan ^^ and inflicted great slaughter upon it at Celli
Carnant.^" The men of Brycheiniog, led by Gruffydd and Ifor,
sons of Idnerth ap Cadwgan,^^ fell upon another host which
had issued from the same region and totally routed it at Aber

28 B.r. and B. Saes. (both s.a. 1094) have different renderings of the passage
about the castles and the men of the country, but they agree that the castles were
not taken.

2" That the armies which in 1096 invaded Gwent and Brecknock came from
Glamorgan is an inference, but one which seems to fit in well with the facts of
the case.

30 The forms of the name (Cellidarnant, Ann. C. MS. B. ; Kellitaruant MS. C. ;
Kelli carnant, Bruts, 272 ; Kelli camawc, B. Saes.) vary so widely that it is diffi-
cult to fix the spot,

^^Cadwgan was the son of Elstan Glodrydd (Bruts, 302, and Mostyn MS.
117, as cited by Evans, Rep. i. p. 63. II. d), who is well known as the founder of the
fifth of the " Royal Tribes " of Wales, but of whom nothing is recorded on any
good authority. Besides Idnerth, Cadwgan had two other sons, Goronwy and
Llywelyn (Jesus Coll. MS. 20 in Cymr. viii. 88, Nos. xxx. and xxxii.), who appear
in 1075 and 1077 as opponents of Rhys ab Owain (Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 174,
note). Goronwy, or Gronw (d. iioi), was the father of the Hywel ap Gronw men-
tioned in the text of the above paragraph (d. 1106) ; Llywelyn was slain in 1099
by the men of Brycheiniog. The sphere of influence of the family was Buellt
and Rhwng Gwy a Hafren ; from it, through Madog ab Idnerth (d. 1140), sprang
the later princes of Maelienydd and of Elfael.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 407

Llech, about three miles north-east of Ystrad Gynlais.'^" It CHAP,
seemed possible that even Pembroke, stoutly as it was defended
by Gerald, might fall into Welsh hands ; Uchtryd ab Edwin
and Hywel ap Gronw,^^ with the aid of the " teulu " of Cadwgan
ap Bleddyn, invaded the peninsula and closely beset the castle,
while the country around was ravaged far and wide. The siege
was a notable one and many tales were told in later years of
the skill and courage of the castellan.^* So dark was the out-
look that a number of knights made ready to escape from the
fortress in a little vessel while the seaward passage was still
open ; Gerald frustrated their purpose and punished them by
investing their squires with their lands and dignities. The last
four flitches of bacon which the garrison possessed were cut into
pieces and flung from the battlements into the midst of the
besieging army, in order to give the impression that food was
abundant within and that it was, therefore, useless to expect to
starve the men of the castle into surrender. A more subtle
device was the plan adopted by Gerald of writing a letter to
his superior Arnulf, to the effect that he need not trouble to
relieve him for four months, and then contriving that the bearer
of this missive should lose it at Lamphey, some two miles away,
where Bishop Wilfrid, then in residence at the place, was soon
put in possession of it and did not fail to communicate its tenor
to the Welsh leaders. Whether as a result of this manoeuvre
or not, the siege was unsuccessful ; Uchtryd and Hywel, having
amassed a great quantity of booty, gave up the more important
task of reducing their enemies' stronghold and retired with their
plunder, leaving Gerald once more master of the shores of Mil-
ford Haven. This failure to capture Pembroke was a turning-
point in the history of the South Welsh revolt. It left to the

^"^ For the river Llech see Breconsh. (2), p. 490.

^'Hywel's ancestry is given in note 31 above; Uchtryd and his brother
Owain are said to have been the sons of Edwin ap Gronw ab Einon ab Owain ap
Hywel Dda, an unattested but not an impossible pedigree. Edwin married
Iwerydd, a half-sister (on the father's side) of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn {Bruts, 303) ;
it has been conjectured that he was the freeman of the name who held " Coleselt "
(= Coleshill, near Flint) both under the Confessor and in 1086 (Domesd. i. 2686
{2); Taylor, Historic Notices of Flint, London, 1883, p. 10).

^* Gir. Camb., who relates these anecdotes (vi. 89-90 {Itin. i. 12)), does not
supply a precise date, but the siege of 1096 is the event with which it is most
natural to connect them. Wilfrid's " hospitium " is also not indicated, but, as it
was clearly not far off, there is little risk in supplying the name of Lamphey.

4o8 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Normans a most important base of operations, from which the
process of reconquest might be carried on. At the beginning
of 1 097 Gerald was sufficiently secure of his position to venture
upon a raid into Pebidiog, intended, no doubt, as an act of re-
taliation for the favour shown by Bishop Wilfrid towards the
insurgents. The spring saw Rufus once more in Wales.^^
Though the Welsh and the English chroniclers agree that the
expedition was as barren of results as that of 1095, the castles
which the king ordered to be built must have had some effect
upon the situation, and all the signs henceforward point to a
gradual subsidence of the revolt in the South, leaving the Welsh
at the end of the reign in possession of Ceredigion and Ystrad
Tywi only.

But in the North the issue of the conflict was very different.
In the summer of 1098 Earl Hugh of Chester resolved to make
a serious effort to repair the losses he had sustained at the hands
of the Welsh in the region of Mon and Arfon.^" He obtained
the service as guides of Owain and Uchtryd ab Edwin, men
who in all probability were tenants of his in Tegeingl and whose
ambition was no doubt tempted by the hope of large rewards.
Earl Hugh of Shrewsbury joined forces with his brother earl
and the army made for the shores of the Menai Straits. Gruffydd

35 According to Eadmer {77-9, 377), the Welsh expedition came between
William's return from Normandy (just before Easter, A.S. Chr.) and the Whit-
suntide court, held this year at Windsor. A.S. Chr. MS. E. and Fl. Wig. also
place it after Easter, but the former has a further note of time, pointing to the
month of July. For this reason, Freeman (William Rufus, i. pp. 572, 583 ; ii. pp.
iio-ii) suggested a double campaign, divided by Whitsuntide. But it is strange
that no Welsh or English authority should mention such a break in the operations,
and I adopt the simpler solution of supposing that an error has crept into the
A.S. Chr. There is a further doubt as to whether the king in this year visited
South or North Wales, a point as to which no direct evidence is available. It is
in favour of the South that Buck. Gr. ap C. only speaks of one invasion of
Gwynedd by Rufus and that Gir. Camb. (vi. log-io (Itin. ii. i)) has a story which
brings the king to the neighbourhood of St. David's.

38 For the events of this memorable year see Ann. C. MSS. B.C. s.a., B.T.
and B. Sues. s.a. 1096, Buch. Gr. ap C. 120-4 (731-2), Fl. Wig. s.a., Ord. Vit. x.
6, Gir. Camb. vi. 129 (Itin. ii. 7), Corpus Poeticum Boreale, ed. Vigfusson and
York Powell (Oxford, 1883), ii. 242, and Orkneyinga Saga (ed. Vigfusson for the
Rolls series), i. 69-70. Ord. Vit. gives the date of Earl Hugh's death (" circa finem
Julii mensis "), but his account of the campaign is coloured by his desire to re-
present the earl's action in the best possible light ; the expedition to North Wales
was, according to him, designed to prevent Magnus from invading the realm.
Wm. Malm. ("Angliam per Anglesiam obstinatus petebat" — G.R. ii. 376
(ii. 506)) has the same story, but it is most improbable and reads like an after-
thought.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 409

ap Cynan and Cadwgan ap Bleddyn, as leaders of the Welsh CHAP,
resistance, adopted the policy of withdrawing, with all their
people, into the isle of Anglesey, and there, with the help of a
hired fleet from across the Irish Channel, defending themselves,
in the expressive language of Gruffydd's biographer, " as in a
fortress girt by the ocean ". It was a wise movement, had the
honour and good faith of the Danish mercenaries been proof
against, corruption, but, when the two earls encamped on the
coast of Arllechwedd, it soon appeared that the foreign fleet
was open to consider a higher offer, and ere long Gruffydd found
his allies turned against him and the Normans pouring into the
island. Thinking that all was lost, he and Cadwgan fled in a
panic to Ireland, and the triumph of the invaders was for the
moment complete. There followed a week, perhaps more,^'' of
rapine and carnage, when even the protection of religion was of
no avail. Men especially remembered, in the light of his tragic
fall so soon afterwards, the impious violence of the Earl of Shrews-
bury, how he had made the church of Llandyfrydog a kennel
for his dogs and had cruelly mutilated an aged priest who had
given counsel to the Welsh. When the riotous fury of the
victors was at its height, a sudden change was wrought by the
appearance off Priestholm of a strange flotilla. It was that of
Magnus Barefoot, king of Norway, who in the course of a great
raid upon the islands of the West had reached Man and was
now making for the sister isle of Anglesey. He had no special
quarrel with the Welsh or their oppressors, but in the true pirate
spirit at once attacked the force which he found in possession,
and the " battle of Anglesey Sound " began. It is described in
lively terms by the king's poet, Gisl Illugisson, who tells how
" the men of Magnus scored many a target with their bright
spear points," and how " the king shot with both hands . . . the
white arrowheads sped from the bow he drew ". The Earl of
Shrewsbury, known to the Norsemen as " Hugh the Proud,"
was a conspicuous figure on the Anglesey shore, clad in full
armour and riding hither and thither in the swirling shallows.
In the midst of the conflict he fell, pierced through the eye by
an arrow which was universally believed to have been aimed by

"Fl. Wig. says Hugh fell on the seventh day after the outrage upon
" Cenred " the priest ; Gir. Camb. dates the event " infra mensem " from the de-
secration of Llandyfrydog.

4IO HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Magnus himself; the sea closed over his body, which was not
recovered until the retreating tide left it where it sank. This
disaster spread consternation through the ranks of the invaders,
but the king took no advantage of his success ; the fleet sailed
away as suddenly and with as little purpose as it came, and the
Normans were once more in control of the island.

Yet it would seem that their position had been seriously
imperilled, and that the attempt to convert Anglesey into a
Norman settlement was now to be finally abandoned. The
captives, young and old, whom they had gathered together in
the course of the expedition, were carried off across the Conway,
but it does not appear that any substantial body of troops was
left to occupy the conquered districts, and, if there was any
representative of Earl Hugh's authority in M6n and Arfon at
the end of the year, it can only have been the Welshman Owain
ab Edwin, whose resistance to any movement in favour of
independence was not a thing to be reckoned upon.** Most
truly is it said by Giraldus Cambrensis that the power of the
English in Anglesey ceased from the hour of the death of Earl
Hugh. If at first sight the event appears too casual to have
brought about so complete a change in the position of affairs,
one must take into account the importance of sea power as a
necessary element in every scheme for the conquest of the lands
lying west of the Conway. Without control of the sea passage
to Chester, Rhuddlan and Degannwy, the Norman holder of
Anglesey was in a helpless plight, at the mercy of countless
foes who could bar every road whence he might expect supplies
and reinforcements. The attack of King Magnus, though the
danger in this case had so suddenly passed away, showed how
a real and formidable peril might arise, and it was decided that
the risks of campaigning in Gwynedd were too great to warrant
any further attempts at conquest.

The fruit of this decision is seen in the following year,
when Gruffydd and Cadwgan, learning that the skies had
cleared, returned to Wales. Gruffydd recovered Mon, most
probably with the consent of the Earl of Chester ; Cadwgan
was invested by Robert of Belleme, the new Earl of Shrewsbury,

38 The passage about Owain does not occur in either MS. of Ann. C. and is
differently rendered by B.T. and B. Saes. Hence it is not easy to define his position
after the withdrawal of the Normans.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 4"

with Ceredigion and his share of the family inheritance of CHAP.
Powys. While the Normans showed no disposition to relax
their hold upon such regions as Glamorgan, Brecknock, Dyfed,
Tegeingl and Rhos, the years of the revolt had taught them
that there were others, such as Anglesey, Powys and Ceredigion,
which they could not retain in their own hands without serious
risk of disaster.

II. The Predominance of Powys.

The salient feature of Welsh history during the first half of
the reign of Henry I. is the prominence of Powys and its ruling
family, the house of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn. Exposing to England
a long frontier, which was pierced by valleys giving access to
its inmost recesses, the realm of Powys was not fitted by nature
to play a heroic part in the conflict between Welsh and English ;
its chieftains had no Eryri in which to entrench themselves in
the hour of danger, and they usually appear, therefore, as allies
of the foreigner, or, at the best, as vassals of the stronger state
of Gwynedd. During the opening years of the twelfth century,
however, Powys, under the guidance of the sons and grandsons
of Bleddyn, enjoyed a brief predominance, and the deeds of its
rulers furnish for a time the central point of interest in the
history both of North and South Wales. At first sight this
may be supposed to be due to the fact that the house of
Bleddyn had a chronicler, the cleric of Llanbadarn Fawr who
kept the record now embodied in " Brut y Tywysogion," ^'-^ a
man who had a particular kindness for the family and a special
pride in its achievements. But this fact is an index merely to
one of wider significance ; the church of Llanbadarn did but
honour the dynasty which was supreme in its own land of
Ceredigion, and this position, an altogether exceptional one
for Powys, well illustrates how in this age that kingdom was
extending its influence in all directions. Fortune for a few
years favoured the land of Cadell and Tysilio ; the temporary
suspension of the line of Deheubarth, the ruin, which Gruffydd
ap Cynan was slowly and painfully repairing, of the realm of
Gwynedd, and the fall, in the height of its power and glory, of
the house of Montgomery, all gave for the time being an

3" For the home of the writer of B.T. at this time, see that work, pp. 130-4.

412 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, advantage to the rulers of Powys which they did not enjoy
under I ordinary conditions.

' In 1 098 Robert of Belleme had succeeded his brother as
Earl of Shrewsbury, and thus the eldest and, by general ad-
mission, the most bloodthirsty and tyrannical of the sons of
Earl Roger was brought into close relations with the Welsh.
His four years' rule of the border was no doubt marked by
violence and oppression,*" but the building of a new castle at
Carreghofa, intended to command the valleys of the Tanat
and Vyrnwy, is the only measure undertaken by him against
the Welsh of which there is specific record.*^ On the other
hand, his cession of Ceredigion to Cadwgan has already been
mentioned, and his relations with the sons of Bleddyn were on
such a footing as to make it possible for him to win their sup-
port in the hour of need. His ruin was in truth wrought, not
by his cruelty and misgovernment, but by his overweening am-
bition, which from the first months of the new reign attracted
the jealous eye of the king, a monarch who would tolerate no
rival in his dominions. The crash came in the summer of
1 102, when the earl, having been summoned to Henry's court
to answer charges which he could not meet, resolved to appeal
to arms and put all the castles of his various lordships in a
state of defence.*'^ Henry first took measures for the reduction
of Arundel in Sussex and Tickhill in Yorkshire ; he had then
before him the more difficult task of breaking down the strong
position which Robert had made for himself in his earldom of
Shropshire. Not only was Shrewsbury strongly fortified and
the new castle of Bridgenorth made almost impregnable, but
the Welsh vassals of the earldom, Cadwgan, lorwerth and
Maredudd ap Bleddyn, were induced by gifts and promises of
freedom to throw in their lot with their feudal lord. Robert
led them to the pillage of Staffordshire and encouraged them
to carry off their booty to the Welsh hills, where there was
small chance of its being recovered. As Robert's brother

^'Ord. Vit. says (x. 7 (IV. 32)) " per quatuor annos immania super Gualos
exercuit," but gives no details.

*i " Coepit etiara in Walonia aedificare aliam (arcem), in loco qui Caroclove
dicitur" (Fl. Wig. s.a. iioi). Carreghofa is a township in the parish of Llany-
mynech. For the history of the castle see Mont. Coll. vii. 377-88.

*2 For the fall of Robert and his brother Arnulf see Ord. Vit. xi. 3 ; Fl. Wig.
s.a. II02 ; B.T. and B. Sues. s.a. iioo.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 413
Arnulf was a confederate with him in his rebellion and could CHAP.

■VTT

command Dyfed and assistance from Ireland, the king was
confronted by a serious situation ; for the first (but by no means
the last) time in the history of the border, baronial pride had
come to terms with patriotic enthusiasm, and the combination
threatened to leave him little he could call his own in the
western parts of his realm. During the siege of Bridgenorth
the position was anxiously reviewed ; it was finally resolved to
endeavour to detach the Welsh from a cause which could
ensure them no lasting advantage, and William Pantulf, a large
holder of land in North-east Shropshire,"*^ whom Robert had
dispossessed, was deputed to win over lorwerth, deemed the
most influential of the three brothers. The plan was completely
successful ; before Earl Robert, or, indeed, the other two
leaders of the men of Powys, who were still working in his in-
terest, had time to realise that a change of front had taken
place, a great Welsh host was ravaging Shropshire at the bid-
ding of lorwerth, and the earl's Welsh alliances had become a
rope of sand. After this, the surrender of Bridgenorth was not
long delayed, and when Henry marched upon Shrewsbury,
Robert accepted defeat as inevitable, resigned himself to the
king's mercy, and was allowed to leave England, shorn of all
his possessions on this side of the Channel and under sentence
of perpetual banishment from the realm.

The fall of Robert involved all the members of his house
who held English land in the like doom, and Arnulf had soon
to abandon Dyfed. During the struggle he had not only forti-
fied Pembroke, but had also entered into an alliance with
Murkertagh O'Brien, the powerful ruler of Dublin and of a
great part of Ireland, whose daughter he married.** But he
had reaped no advantage from the Irish connection, for the

*^ Domesd. i. 257a (2), h (i).

'^ The account of the Bruts as to the relations between Arnulf, Murkertagh,
and Magnus appears to be fairly accurate, except that Arnulf married one daughter
(called " Lafracoth " by Ord. Vit.) and Sigurd Magnusson another (whom the
Orkneyinga Saga calls " Bjadmunja "). On the other hand, the story of Ord. Vit.
(xi. 8) is difficult to accept, especially when it is remembered that Magnus fell in
a chance skirmish near Downpatrick, which was not within the territory of Murker-
tagh. At the same time, it is right to say that the difficulties have been needlessly
enhanced by the general assumption (Freeman, William Rufus, ii. p. 624 ; Diet.
Nat. Biog. xlix. p. 103) that the " regi " to whom Arnulf was finally reconciled was
Murkertagh, and not Henry I.

414 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, reappearance in the Irish Sea of the great Magnus Barefoot
had raised for Murkertagh a problem far more urgent than was
presented by the difficulties of his son-in-law. The King of
Norway spent the winter of 1 102-3 in the Isle of Man, building
castles for which the material was partly obtained from the
forests of Anglesey,*^ nor was it until he fell in August, 1103,
in the course of a raid upon Ulster, that Murkertagh once more
breathed freely. Meanwhile the house of Montgomery had
been overthrown, and, though Murkertagh wrote to Arch-
bishop Anselm to thank him for his kindly intervention on be-
half of Arnulf,*' he took no active steps to aid his son-in-law in
his resistance to Henry. Pembroke was resigned to the king,
and its first Norman lord spent the rest of his days in compara-
tive obscurity among his own people, his unconsidered old age
a pathetic contrast to the splendour and ambition of his prime.*^
Many changes resulted from this uprooting of the most
powerful family in Wales and its borders. Following the
example of the Conqueror in 1075, Henry refrained from filling
the va:cant earldom, and, while still treating Shropshire as a
marcher lordship rather than as an ordinary shire, governed it
through ministers of his own. It was probably not long after
1 102 that he set over it as viceroy or justiciar one Richard of
Beaumais, a clerical retainer of the Montgomery family who
had given proof of business aptitude.*^ In 11 08 Richard was
raised to the see of London and for the next fifteen years he
exercised with vigour and success the not very consonant
functions of bishop and warden of the march. As for the
Welsh lands of Robert and Arnulf, it had been part of the
bargain with lorwerth that these should be conferred upon
him ; Powys, Ceredigion, Ystrad Tywi, Gower, Kidwelly and
Arnulfs half of Dyfed (the other was vested in the Fitz Baldwin
family) had all been promised to him. He was soon to learn
that he had been duped and that Henry had quite other plans
for most of these districts. About Powys and Ceredigion no

45 '< A gwedy torri llawer o wyd defnyd " {Bruts, 277). According to the
Chronicle of Man (ed. Goss for the Manx Society (vol. xxii. of series), Douglas,
1874, p. 58), Magnus had in 1098 similarly obtained timber from Galloway for
the building of his Manx forts.

■"• " Genero meo Ernulfo auxilio et interventione . . . succurristi " (Letter of
Murkertagh to Anselm in Migne, clix. 243 (IV. 85)).

*'' For Arnulfs later life see Eadmer, 41Q-20 ; Ord. Vit. xi. 3, 8 ; xii. 8.

■•8 Eyton, Skrops. ii. pp. 193-201.

THE NORMA N CONQ VEST. —SECOND STAGE. 41$

difficulty was made, and the arrangement under which Cadwgan CHAP
took from his brother the latter region, with a share of the
family realm, was confirmed. But when lorwerth, having
handed Maredudd, as a dangerous disturber of the peace, to the
royal custody, appeared to claim the rest of the expected
reward, he found that Pembroke was to be given to a Norman
knight named Saer,*^ while Hywel ap Gronw was to be lord of
Ystrad Tywi, Gower and Kidwelly. Such treatment of a man
who knew well how valuable the service he had just rendered to
the king was not likely to quicken his loyalty to the crown, and
it is only what one would expect that in 1 103 lorwerth should
be arraigned at Shrewsbury before a royal tribunal and on
conviction thrown into prison.

Yet, if lorwerth and Maredudd failed personally to profit by
the revolution which had come about, Cadwgan was able to
take full advantage of it and held for some years a very strong
position. Hywel ap Gronw did not live long to enjoy the
broad lands Henry had bestowed upon him in Deheubarth ; in
1 105 ^^ Richard fitz Baldwin took steps to reassert his rights in
Eastern Dyfed and rebuilt and replenished the castle at Rhyd-
ygors which had been destroyed on the death of his brother
William in 1096.^^ Only the river Towy parted the castle from

^^ Nothing is known of this knight, though the name as given in the Bruts is
clearly genuine.

''"Between 1102 (fall of Earl Robert) and 1114 (Henry's first Welsh expedi-
tion) MSS. B. and C. of Ann. Camb. disagree in their chronology, and at first
sight it is difficult to say which has preserved the true dating. But it is to be
observed that, while B. has correct dates for several of its entries hereabouts which
can be checked, e.g., the notices of the conquest of Normandy (1106), the founda-
tion of St. Mary's, Southwark (1106), the council of London (1107), the plague of
1112, and the admission of St. Bernard to Citeaux (11 13), none of these are to be
found in C. or the Bruts, so that it is clear they were inserted at some time in the
original chronicle and afford no guarantee of the correctness of the dating in other
respects. On the other hand C. is correct in the dating of three events which
also appear in the Bruts and in two cases in B. also, viz. : (i) Capture of Duke
Robert in 1106 (first notice s.a. 1105 in B., in which there is through confusion a
double entry). (2) Death of King Edgar of Scotland in 1107 (B.T. only). (3)
Capture of Robert of Belleme in 11 12 (B. has 1113). It is to be concluded, there-
fore, that C. is the MS. which preserves the order of the original compiler, and I
have followed it in the text. As B. Saes. has omitted the blank year 1104, its
dates, in and after 1102 = 1105, are three, instead of two, years in arrear up to
1118 = 1121. These, it is to be remembered, are the dates printed by Ab Ithel in
his edition of B.r.

^1 Richard succeeded his brother as sheriff of Devon and died in 1 136. Refer-
ences to him will be found in Round, Feudal England, pp. 330, 472-3, 486, and
Peerage and Family History (1901), p. 214.

4i6 HISTORY OF WALES,

CHAP. Hywel's domains in Kidwelly, and hostilities between him and
the garrison were inevitable. By the foul treachery of Gwgon
ap Meurig, who was foster-father to his son and in whose house
he was sleeping in all confidence, he was in the following year
done to death, and thus one possible rival to Cadwgan was
removed by Norman violence. In 1105 Saer was also dis-
possessed of Pembroke, and the custody of the castle and the
surrounding region was given by the king to Arnulfs old
castellan, Gerald of Windsor. Gerald had about 1 1 00 married
Nest, a daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, in order to buttress his
position as officer by means of something like a territorial
claim,^^ but he had not the prestige of the name of Montgomery
to support him in his difficult position, so that he was not at
first a serious check upon the power of Cadwgan. In North
Wales that prince was even more securely established. Owain
ab Edwin had died in 1105, having profited nothing by his
adhesion to the foreign cause in 1098. His brother Uchtryd
became Cadwgan's vassal, receiving from him Meirionydd and
Cyfeiliog on the purely feudal condition, of which this is the
first example in Welsh history, that he would be faithful to his
lord and render him succour against all his enemies.*^ Hywel
ab Ithel, the hereditary lord of Rhos and Rhufoniog, who had
been forced to flee to Ireland in 1099,^* was established on his
return in so much of these cantrefs as was not actually held by
the Normans, and the power behind his little throne was that of
Powys and the sons of Bleddyn.^* Grufifydd ap Cynan, under
whom Gwynedd was after the lapse of many years to regain her
ancient predominance, is admitted by his panegyrist to have held
during this period a quite modest position as the lord of the
seven cantrefs west of the Conway and north of the Mawd-
dach.^" Only in Arwystli, where the sons of Trahaearn ap

" Gir, Camb. vi. gi {Itin. i. 12).

•^'This appears from an observation made by the writer of the original of
B.T. and B. Saes. in narrating the events of 1116; see Bruts, 303, B.T. 140,
Myv. Arch. II. 552 (674, col. 2).

■'*Ann. C, and Bruts. See chap, xi., note 87.

'* " Kanys oe hamdiffyn wynteu (Maredudd and the sons of Cadwgan) ae
kanhaledigaeth yd oed ef yn kynnal y gyfran or wlat a dathoed yn ran idaw "
{Bruts, 303 ; B.T. 142 (1115 == 1118)).

88 Buck. Gr. ap C. 124 (732-3). The account of Gruffydd's progress is not
quite clear, but it is implied that he reached in a few years the position indicated
in the text.

THE NORMA N CONQ VEST. —SECOND STAGE. 41?

Caradog were now beginning to assert themselves, was there CHAP,
dangerous opposition to the influence of Powys, and the
slaughter of Meurig and Grififri, sons of Trahaearn, in 1 106 by
Cadwgan's son Owain was the first incident in a long feud
between the two houses.

In spite of the favours heaped by fortune for a time upon
him, it cannot be said that Cadwgan showed himself the man to
profit by his good luck and to wrest still further advantages
from the capricious hand of fate. His was a weak character,
amiable, no doubt, but wanting in the sterner qualities which
were demanded by the problems of statecraft in that turbulent
age. The very vigour and energy of the house of Bleddyn,
which might have proved so serviceable under the control of a
recognised head, was under the lax rule of Cadwgan turned
suicidally against itself, and the violent family quarrels of the
next thirty years supply the readiest explanation of the speedy
decline of Powys as the dominant power in Wales. Besides
lorwerth, who was still a prisoner of the king's, and Maredudd,
who escaped from captivity in 1107, there were the numerous
sons of Cadwgan, led by Owain his heir,^^ and two sons, Madog
and Ithel, of the Rhiryd ap Bleddyn who had fallen in 1088 in
battle with Rhys ap Tewdwr. It was no light task to check
the warring ambitions of this group of kinsmen, and Cadwgan's
failure to achieve it brought its certain penalty with it in loss
of territory and finally of life itself The first disturber of the
peace was Cadwgan's own son Owain, whose bold and romantic
abduction of Nest in 1 109 was an act of reckless defiance to the
English king ; fascinating as is this story of passion and daring,
which breathes the spirit of the early heroic age, and which

"The Bruts {Bruts, 302; B.T. 138-40; B. Saes. s.a. 1113 (= 1116) in
Myv. Arch. II. 552 (674)) have a list of the sons of Cadwgan. Besides Owain,
whose mother is not named (the " Iweryd verch Edwin " of B. Saes. is clearly a
misunderstanding of a passage about Uchtryd ab Edwin given fully by B.T,), they
were: (i) Madog, by Gwenllian, daughter of Gruffydd ap Cynan. This connec-
tion is conhrmed by Buck. Gr. ap C. 120 (731), where Cadwgan is described in
1098 as Gruffydd's son-in-law (" ei ddaw "), but the Gwenllian intended is not the
daughter of Angharad who bore that name {ibid. 118 (730)), since Angharad,
who died in 1162 (Bruts), cannot have had a marriageable daughter at this time,
and indeed had only just been married to Gruffydd. This Gwenllian was prob-
ably illegitimate and born about 1080. (2) Einon (d. 1123), by Sanan, daughter
of Dyfnwal. (3) Morgan (d. 1128), by Ellyw, daughter of Cydifor ap Gollwyn.
(4) Henry, and (5) Gruffydd by a daughter of Picot of Sai. (6) Maredudd (d. 1124),
by Euron, daughter of Hoedlyw ap Cadwgan ab Elstan.

41 8 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Homer might well have told, its other aspect is not to be
forgotten, as a reckless escapade which was fraught with mis-
fortune for Owain's father and for his fellow-countrymen of
Powys. At a great feast which Cadwgan gave this year in one
of the courts of his land of Ceredigion,^^ Owain heard much of
the beauty of Nest, the wife of Gerald of Pembroke, and, as the
lady was his own second cousin, he resolved to pay a visit to
the castle of Cenarth Bychan,^^ where she was at the time in
residence with her husband, and see with his own eyes the
graces of form and feature which were the occasion of so much
eloquence. He found them not a whit less marvellous than
they were reported, and left the castle with the determination,
in spite of all laws and regardless of risk, to become possessor
of the fair one who has been not inaptly styled the " Helen
of Wales ". One dark night he and some fifteen companions
stealthily worked their way into the stronghold by burrowing
under the threshold of the gate ; directly they were within the
wall they rushed with wild cries upon the sleeping inmates and
added to the alarm and confusion by setting fire to the buildings.
By the advice of his wife, Gerald attempted no resistance, but
made a hurried escape through a garderobe ; thus the raiders
found their task an easy one, and, having burnt and dismantled
the castle, Owain carried off Nest and her children to Cere-
digion. The story suggests that the heroine did not play an
altogether unwilling part in the affair ; at any rate, she did not
disdain afterwards to use her influence over her lover to bring
about the return of Gerald's children to their father's roof
None the less, the outrage was a challenge to the king, of
which Henry did not fail to take prompt notice.

^^ It may well have been Aber Teifi, but the author of Gw. Brut {s.a. 1107),
followed by Laws {Lit. Etig. p. 108), is only guessing when he says so, and
guessing still more rashly when he makes the feast the occasion of a great
Eisteddfod. Powel (122) says the place was in Dyfed (Amroth, ace. to Lewis,
Top. Diet. S.V.), but there is no evidence that Cadwgan had any land in this
region.

•^* The situation of Cenarth Bychan is still an unsolved problem, owing to
the fact that the name ceased to be used soon after this event, and that no clue is
to be found to its successor. Pembroke itself (B. Sues. s.a. 1105 ; Powel, 122),
Carew {Lit. Eng. p. 105) and Cilgerran (Ann. C. MS. C.) have been suggested.
Cenarth Bychan must in any case have been so called by contrast with Cenarth
Mawr on the Teifi, and this seems to me to favour Cilgerran, which is in the
same neighbourhood and upon the same river. It lies close to Ceredigion — a
point of some weight in the argument — and is found at a later date in the
possession of Gerald's descendants.

THE NORM AN. CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 419

It was to no purpose that Cadwgan, fully alive to the danger CHAP,
of the situation, sought to induce his son to abandon his un-
lawful prize. In his infatuation Owain was blind, and soon the
blow fell. Bishop Richard turned to another branch of the
family of Powys, to Ithel and Madog ap Rhiryd, and promised
them a large increase of territory if, with Llywarch ap
Trahaearn of Arwystli and Uchtryd ab Edwin of Meirionydd,
they would undertake a I crusade against Cadwgan and his guilty
son. The result was an invasion of Ceredigion which scattered
its terrified folk in all directions ; some fled south to Dyfed and
barely escaped the vengeance of Gerald, others found shelter in
Ystrad Tywi and in Meirionydd, others met their death in
battle with the men of Maelienydd. Even the churchmen of
Llanbadarn and of Llanddewi Brefi learnt that the sanctity of
their ancient fanes was poor protection against robbery and
outrage. Owain and Cadwgan found a hiding-place from the
storm in an Irish merchant- vessel which was anchored in the
estuary of the Dovey and at the first opportunity Owain made
his escape across the channel to the hospitable court of King
Murkertagh, while Cadwgan, having no sins of his own for
which to make amends, in a short while made his peace with
the crown and was allowed to settle in the border vill which he
had received as the dowry of his Norman wife, the daughter of
Picot of Sai. In Powys, Madog and Ithel obtained Cadwgan's
lands in return for the aid which they had given to the king.

Fortune, however, gave Cadwgan one more opportunity.
The new rulers of Southern Powys were turbulent and quarrel-
some, and Henry, having no desire to add to their scope for
mischief, restored Ceredigion to its former lord, who com-
pounded for the misdemeanours of his house by the payment
of a fine of ;!f 100 and by a promise to have no dealings in
future with the exiled Owain. The bargain was no sooner
made by him than it was put in jeopardy by the return of his
son, but as he came to Powys, and not to his father's territory,
Cadwgan was not at first affected. It was to Madog ap Rhiryd
that Owain joined himself, and, as that prince had already in-
curred by other acts the hostility of Bishop Richard, the first
result was the release in mo of lorwerth ap Bleddyn, after
seven years' captivity, in the hope that he might prove a
better ruler than the other members of his dynasty. lorwerth

420 HISTORY OF WALES.

^^AP. so far justified the royal choice as, first, to appeal to Owain and
Madog to desist from the border forays they undertook for
their private benefit, and then, when this produced no effect,
forcibly to drive them from his realm. Owain was now thrown
back upon Ceredigion, and he did not hesitate to cast aside his
father's interests once again, making the land a basis for in-
cursions into Dyfed and^ carrying thither the luckless captives
whom he forthwith shipped as slaves for the Irish market. It
was not long ere Owain's excesses reached a climax in the
slaughter on the highway of a distinguished member of the
Flemish colony, one William of Brabant."" Henry was now
convinced that Cadwgan was incapable of keeping his son in
check ; he took Ceredigion from him and bestowed it upon
Gilbert fitz Richard, whose family held it until the close of the
reign. A daily allowance of twenty-four pence was assigned to
Cadwgan, to enable him to live in England, but no land was
given him, until he obtained in the following year his third and
last chance of proving his capacity for rule. As for Owain, he
deemed it wise again to seek refuge in Ireland.

lorwerth had but a brief career as prince of Powys. The
outlaw Madog contrived, after a short sojourn among the
Irish, whose manners, we are drily informed, he found wanting
in humanity, •'^ again to secure a foothold in the territory of
his uncle, who vainly strove to shake himself free from the
compromising connection. The severity of lorwerth hardened
Madog's heart against him, and he resolved to achieve his
freedom by a deed of blood. Besetting lorwerth in 1 1 1 1 in
the house in which he was staying in the commote of Caereinion,
he scattered the prince's bodyguard in flight and drove him back
at the spear's point into the flames of the burning building.
This murder was soon followed by another. The removal of
lorwerth again raised the problem, which the government found
so perplexing, of the arrangements to be made for the rule of
Powys, and no better solution presented itself than the rein-
statement of Cadwgan and the pardon of Owain. Accordingly,
Cadwgan was installed in the valley of the Severn, and it was
signified to him that he might recall his son. But he had

""JS. Saes. (s.a. 1107) has " primas o flandrys " — a form which obviously
comes from the original Latin text.

61 " Heb allel godef andynolyon voesseu y gwydyl " (Bruts, 289).

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. \2X

scarcely tasted the joys of recovered power and dominion ere CHAP,
he was struck down by Madog, into whose clutches he had
foolishly allowed himself to fall, at Trallwng Llywelyn, the
modern Welshpool,^'-^ where he closed ingloriously his chequered
and stormy career.

Bishop Richard was cynically indifferent to the crimes of
Welshmen against each other, and thus Madog profited by his
deeds of treachery so fari as to obtain a portion of Powys, which
is described as including Caereinion, a third of the commote of
Deuddwr, and the tref of Aberriw.'''^ To the rest Owain suc-
ceeded, returning from his second exile in Ireland to wield an
authority which was not impaired until his death in 1 1 16. He
was more successful as an independent prince than while sub-
ject to his father's tutelage. He appears to have taken his
uncle Maredudd into his service as " penteulu," or captain of the
guard, *^* and Maredudd in return, while engaged in 1 1 1 3 upon
one of the usual raids upon Arwystli, laid hands upon Madog and
sent him in chains to Owain, who, after the barbarous manner
of the age, avenged his father's death by blinding him. In
1 1 1 4 his power was put to the severe and unusual test of a
royal invasion of the country. Henry's Welsh campaign of
that year ^^ — the first of his reign — was directed not merely
against Gruffydd ap Cynan, though it will be seen in a later
chapter that its chief object was to limit the Venedotian power,
but also against Owain of Powys and his uncle Maredudd, who
now held Caereinion.^** Owain was, obliged to retreat with his
people and their movable goods into the fastnesses of Gwynedd,
having no safe hiding-place in his own land, but, when Gruffydd
came to terms with the king and so put an end to farther re-
sistance, he had no difficulty also in winning the royal favour.
His Llanbadarn admirer and panegyrist treats it as a high

8^ See chap. viii. note iii.

^^Bruts, 292; B.T. 112. B. Saes. is in agreement.

••^This affords the most natural explanation of Maredudd's action in 11 13,
as described in B.T. s.a. mo. For the position of the "penteulu" see p. 316
above.

®'The expedition is mentioned in A.S. Chr., Fl. Wig. and Hen. Hunt., and
supplies a fixed point in chronology. The dating of Ann. C. MS. B. is hence-
forth correct to the end of the reign, while B. Saes. (followed by Ab Ithel in B.T.)
continues to be three years in arrear until 1132.

**B.r. 139. The Red Book text has, incorrectly, " Kereinawc " {Bruts,
302).

VOL. II. 5

422 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, compliment that Henry took the prince of Powys with him
^^^* when he crossed over to Normandy in September, but one may
be permitted to see also in the step a measure of precaution.
Be this as it may, Owain received the honour of knighthood
and returned to his dominions when the king came back to
England in July, 1115. He met his death in the following
year in the king's service. The rising of Gruffydd ap Rhys
had thrown Deheubarth into a ferment, and the king resolved
to make use, not only of the Norman garrison of the district,
but also of the jealousy and rivalry of other Welshmen to crush
a claimant who threatened to be a serious danger. Owain ap
Cadwgan and Llywarch of Arwystli were induced to bring
their forces into the field, and in the midst of the operation the
former came suddenly into the grasp of the man he had so
sorely wronged, namely, Gerald, the Constable of Pembroke.
They were fighting on the same side, and Owain was retiring
in leisurely fashion with but ninety men to defend him and the
booty with which he was laden, when at Ystrad Rwnws, near
the confluence of the Towy and the Cothi,®'^ he was overtaken
and beset by a great company of Flemings, whose hostile pur-
pose was not to be mistaken. The unsleeping vengeance of
Gerald at last attained its end and his archers laid Owain low.
The death of Owain, whom Florence of Worcester dignifies
with the title of " King of the Welsh," ^'^ may be regarded as
closing the period of the supremacy of Powys. No other figure
stands out, among the posterity of Bleddyn in this age, with
the same air of distinction and power. His possessions were
divided among his brothers, Einion, Morgan, and Maredudd,
and Powys was thus greatly weakened and exposed more than
ever to the evils of intestine strife. The future rested with
Maredudd ap Bleddyn, who until now had held but a poor posi-
tion in the matter of territory, but who henceforward profits by his
policy of waiting, as his younger rivals gradually quit the stage.

*'' The Bruts do not indicate the scene of the encounter, though they suggest
it was not far from Carmarthen. Ann. C. M3. C. has, however, " Owein a
Flandrensibus in Estrat Brunus occiditur," and thus recalls the " lann teliau
mainaur brunus " of Lib. Land. 254 (cf. 62, 125, 287), which was Llandeilo
Rwnws (for Frwnws), an extinct chapel in the parish of Llanegwad (Rees,
Welsh SS. pp. 247, 330), formerly standing near the bridge over the Towy at
Dolybont (Spurrell, Carm. 96). The name Ystrad still survives in the immediate
neighbourhood.

68 •< Owinus rex Walanorum occiditur" (s.a. 1116).

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 423

III. South Wales under Henry I. chap.

xn.
While the house of Bleddyn was working out its troublous

destiny in Central Wales, the South was slowly but steadily
being subjected to foreign rule. The conquests of the reign of
Rufus were but the prelude to a thorough and systematic pro-
cess of settlement and subjugation which went on throughout
the reign of Henry and left South Wales at his death with
scarcely a corner under the sway of a native prince. Except
for the outburst of 11 16, there is nothing to show that this
onward movement was contested ; under the firm and resolute
guidance of Henry, it advanced with the calm and resistless
might of an incoming tide. To fight it seemed almost as futile
as to contend with a law of nature ; for the average denizen of
the South, as for the chronicler of Llanbadarn, Henry was " the
man with whom none may strive, save God Himself, who hath
given him the dominion ".^'^

A general survey of the Norman colonies of this period will
bring out clearly the extent to which they ultimately covered
the ground, leaving hardly a single foothold for Welsh independ-
ence. It is natural to begin with Pembroke. Here Gerald of
Windsor was in authority for the greater part of the reign^
holding the castle for the king. The neighbouring fortress of
Carew, or Caeriw, was apparently the family seat, for it was.
from it they took their territorial name ; as the reign advances,,
the sons of Gerald and Nest, William and Maurice, take their
father's place as the defenders of Norman prestige. ^'^ Not far
off was the castle of Manorbier, the home of Odo of Barry ;
about 1 1 30 Odo was succeeded by his son William, who married
Gerald's daughter Angharad and became the father of Giraldus
Cambrensis.'^^ Whether or not it was held as an earldom by

69 <i Y gwr nys dichawn neb ymoscryn ac ef eithyr duw e hun. y neb a rodes
y medyant idaw " (Bruts, 298).

""> Gerald is last mentioned in connection with the death of C^wain ap Cadw-
gan in 1116. " Filii Geraldi " first appear in Ann. C. MS. B. s.a. 1136. " Odo
de kerreu " (Gir. Camb. i. 26) was the son of William fitz Gerald ; from him
issued the Carew family, for whom see Fenton (2), 138-9. The Welsh form of
the name appears to be, not Caerau, but Caer Rhiw ; see Bruts, 374 (gaer riw)
and 384 (idem).

" Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I. 137, shows that in 1130 " Willelmus filius Odonis de
Barri " paid, through the sheriff of Pembroke, £<^ out of a sum of ;^io due from
him "pro terra patris sui". Gir. recounts his parentage in the first sentences of
•' De Rebus a Se Gestis" (Wks. i. 21). The family took its name firom Barry
Island on the coast of Glamorgan.

424 HISTORY OF WALES.

C^AP. Arnulf Montgomery, the whole region was certainly organised
on the footing of a shire, of which 'one Hait was in 1130
sheriff, accountable for dues which reached the respectable
figure of £60?"^ Not only the ancient cantref of Penfro was
included in his jurisdiction, but also those of Rhos and
Deugleddyf,"^ which were about 1 108 converted into outworks
of the royal stronghold at Pembroke by a remarkable piece of
colonisation.^* Large numbers of Flemings, who were appar-
ently already in the country, were transported by King Henry
into this corner of Wales and established as possessors of the
soil. They formed no military aristocracy, content to be
maintained and served by the native population, so long as
power and wealth were exclusively theirs, but were an indus-
trious community of farmers, traders and woollen manufacturers,
whose settlement involved as thorough a displacement of the
ancient inhabitants as did the English conquest of South-eastern
Britain. It was thus that Southern Dyfed lost its Welsh
character ; the Welsh language ceased to be spoken there, and,
English having gradually taken the place of Flemish, it became
" Little England beyond Wales " ; nearly all the Welsh place-
names disappeared, and the vills took their names from their
new settlers, a Lambert, a Hubert and a Jordan, for instance,
giving new titles to Lambston, Hubberston and Jordanston
respectively.^^

The principal castle of Rhos was at Haverford,^" at the
head of the estuary of the Western Cleddau. During most of

''^ Pipe Roll as above, 136-7.

'^ Mention is made in the account of a " Godebertus Flandrensis de Ros,"
and it includes payments made by Walter fitz Wizo of Deugleddyf.

'* For the Flemish settlement see Ann. Camb. s.a. 1107; B.T. and B.
Saes. s.a. 1105 ; Fl. Wig. s.a. mi (the date 1108 is preferred in the text as that
of the local chroniclers); Ord. Vit. xiii. 16; Gir. Camb. vi. 83-4 {Itin. i. 11) ;
Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, fourth edition (1905),
i. p. 641 (Appendix E.). The importance of sheep and wool in the economy of the
settlement is illustrated by Gir. Camb. i. 24-5 ; vi. 87-8. A marginal note in Cott.
MS. Domitian i. fo. 145a (= Ann. Camb. MS. C), which may be assigned to the
sixteenth century, says that the Flemings of the district were even then distin-
guishable as " male Anglice loquentes ".

" These are " Villa Lamberti," " Villa Huberti " and " Villa Jordahi " in
Tax. Nich. 275, and it is interesting to observe that Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I. men-
tions among the men of the shire a " Hubertus," a" Lambertus Echeners" and a
'• Jordanus filius Alwini ".

'* Haverford became on Welsh lips successively Hawrffordd (" hawrfort " in
"YCanu Bychan" in Myv. Arch. I. 303 (214)), Hawlffordd ("hawlfford" in
Bruts, 359) and Hwlffordd.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 425

this reign, it was in the custody of a certain Tancard, who was CHAP,
powerful throughout the cantref and who died not long before
1 1 30, leaving several sons, none of whom, except the youngest,
Richard, survived their father for more than a few years."
Deugleddyf fell mainly into the hands of a Fleming named
Wizo, who built the castle of Wiston, known to the Welsh as
Castell Gwis, and was succeeded there by his son Walter.^^
According to tradition, the first Norman lord of the cantref of
Cemais was one Martin of Tours,'^^ but there is nothing to show
that the district was conquered in his time rather than in that
of his son Robert fitz Martin, who is found in possession about
1 1 1 5. It is not, indeed, very likely that this region, which was
separated from Southern Dyfed by a range of mountains, was
permanently occupied by the Normans before its flanks had
been secured by the seizure of Ceredigion in mo and the
succession of a Norman bishop at St. David's in 11 15. Its
central stronghold was at Nanhyfer (or Nevern), where extensive
earthworks are still to be seen on the hill above the venerable
church of St. Brynach. Emlyn was probably seized about the
same time by Gerald of Pembroke, whose heirs are found in
possession of the lordship in the latter half of the century. The
rock of Cilgerran, towering high above the wooded gorge of the
Teifi, was the perch on which the lords of Emlyn fixed the keep
designed by them to secure the humble obedience of their new
subjects. ^°

''"' Gir. Camb. vi. 85-7 (Itin. i. 11) gives some account of the family, which
was connected by marriage with his own {Wks. i. 26). Tancard survived the
monk Caradog, who died in 1124, but I suspect that he is the " Tanchelinus "
whose son and land were in 1130 in custody in consequence of the father's death
(Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I. 137).

''s In 1 130 " Walterus filius Witsonis '' was in possession of his father's lands,
while " Aluredus filius Wihenoc " had married the widow of " Witsonis Fland-
rensis " and obtained her dower (Pipe Roll as above, 136). That these lands lay
in Deugleddyf is known from Cart. Glouc. i. 228, 264-6. " Castellum Wiz "
{Ann. C. MS. B. s.a. 1148; B.T. has " castell gwiss " — see Bruts, 314) is first
mentioned by that name in 1147.

''^ Camden, Britannia, 583 ; Owen, Pemb.i. 437. Martin of Tours appears
to have succeeded to the Devonshire manors of William of Falaise, as entered in
Domesd. i. ma {cf. Owen, Pcnib. i. 430-2), but there is nothing which clearly
connects him with Cemais. His foundation of St. Dogmael's rests only on the
authority of Thomas Lloyd, precentor of St. David's from 1534 to 1547 (Mon.
Angl. iv. 129), and there is no hint of it in the early charters of the monastery.

8" If Cilgerran was the site of the castle of Cenarth Bychan, it may be sup-
posed that it was not reoccupied for some years after the attack of 1109, and
hence, it may be, the change of name.

426 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. The tale has already been told of the transference of

XII

Ceredigion from the weak hands of Cadwgan to the masterful
control of Gilbert fitz Richard. The new ruler came of a not-
able Norman family ; his grandfather, Count Gilbert of Brionne,
had played a conspicuous part in the civil wars which raged
during William the Conqueror's minority ; his father, Richard
of Bienfaite, had joined in the invasion of England and after-
wards received many favours from the king. Among them
had been the gift of the manor of Clare in Suffolk, and thus
arose a family name which during many centuries was famous
alike in England and in Wales. Gilbert succeeded to the
English estates of his father about 1090, but his career was
undistinguished until Henry gave him his opportunity in 1 1 10.®^
He forthwith took possession of the whole of the four cantrefs
and built two castles to secure his prize, " the one," as the
local annalist tells us, " over against Llanbadarn, near the
mouth of the river called the Ystwyth, and the other near the
mouth of the Teifi, at the spot known as Din Geraint, where
Earl Roger had formerly placed a castle ".^^ The latter, it has
been shown at the beginning of this chapter,^^ was the castle of
Cardigan, posted on a little hill which commanded the tidal
reach of the Teifi just where it was crossed by the bridge giving
access to Cemais and the south. ^* The former was the first
castle of Aberystwyth, but its site was clearly not that of the
existing ruin, nor was it within the limits or in the outskirts of
the town, which, though it has long been known by the name
of Aberystwyth, is much more fitly described as Aberheidol.
It can be inferred with certainty from the minute account of
the attack upon it in 1 1 16 given in the pages of the Llanbadarn
chronicler that the original fortress of Aberystwyth crowned
the slight eminence at the back of the farm of Tanycastell,
which lies in the Ystwyth valley a mile and a half to the south
of the town.^^ Aberystwyth and Cardigan were, however, far

81 For the Clare family see Diet. Nat. Biog. x. p. 375 (articles by J, H. Round)
Feudal England, pp. 472, 574-5.

82 B.T. 104 ; Bruts, 289. 83 Note 2.

8* The bridge was already in existence in 1136 (Cont. Fl. Wig. s.a.).

^^ B.T. describes the castle as on a hill which sloped to the river Ystwyth
and which faced Ystrad Antarron (Bruts, 299). The Tanycastell height exactly
fulfils these conditions ; there is the further evidence of the name and of the
earthworks still visible on the summit.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 427

from being the only strong places erected in the district to CHAP,
ensure its thorough subjugation. Gilbert brought with him
many followers, for whom he provided dependent lordships ;
thus at the end of the reign Walter de Bee had a castle in
Geneu'r Glyn, near the church of Llanfihangel,^^ Richard de la
Mare had another in the centre of the county, a certain Humph-
rey was established in the valley of the Cletwr,"''^ and a certain
Stephen had a fortress which may perhaps be connected with
the bridge over the Teifi at Lampeter known as Pont Stephan.^*^
Peithyll, Ystrad Meurig, Blaen Forth were also fortified places
during this period ; to no quarter of Wales did the title of " a
land of castles " more truly appertain than to Ceredigion during
the quarter of a century which followed its conquest by Gilbert.
On the death of the first Norman lord in 1117,^^ it passed
without question to his eldest son, Richard fitz Gilbert, and
nothing seemed wanting to make it as Norman as Penfro or
Morgannwg.

In the valley of the Towy the castle of Rhydygors and the
claims of Richard fitz Baldwin disappear together in the year
1 1 06, and, when light is next thrown upon the affairs of the
district, in the year 1 1 09, the local fortress is Carmarthen, and
a representative of the king, Walter, the sheriff of Gloucester,
is busying himself there in the royal interest.®" The new

^'^ Ann. Camb. MS. B. s.a. 1136 mentions "castello Walter! de Bek . . . et
castello Ricardi de la Mare ". The situation of the former is indicated by the
alternative name of Llanfihangel Castell Gvvallter for Llanfihangel Geneu'r Glyn
(Carlisle); that' of the latter is uncertain, but it seems to have stood between
Aberystwyth and Caerwedros, if one may judge from the narrative cited above.
" Walterus de Beco" (who is confused by Powel (p. 138) with Walter Espec, the
founder of Rivaux Abbey) appears in Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. 1. 102 (Bucks) ; according
to Lib. Nig. 221, he was a tenant (" Walterus del Bee") of Earl Ferrers in this
reign.

8'' " Castellum hunfredi " (Ann. Camb. MS. B. s.a. 1137) was in 1151 rebuilt
by Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd and thus acquired its more familiar name ot
Castell Hywel (B.T. 180).

*^ " Castellum Stephani " [Ann. Camb. ut supra) is not likely to have been
Llanstephan, which is always described in the chronicles by that name (= St.
Stephen's). The guess in Gw. Brut, s.a. 1137, may for once be right, though the
connection with King Stephen is, of course, imaginary.

«Mmm. C. s.a. B.T. (MSS. B. and C.) and B. Saes. {s.a. 1114) say he died
of a lingering complaint.

*""' Ef adamweinawd dyuot Gwallter ucheluaer kaer loyw y gwr a orchymy-
nassei y brenhin idaw llywodraeth (kaer loyw) ac amddiffyn lloeger hyt yg kaer
vyrdin " (Bruts, 283 ; B.T. 88). B. Saes. calls him " escob caer loyw," and other-
wise mangles the passage. For the position and history of Walter see Feudal
England, p. 313 ; Round, Anc. Charters, pp. 4, 18, 19-20; Cal. Doc. Fr. 167.

428 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, stronorhold was not built within the walls of the Roman fort,
where stood the church of Llandeulyddog,^^ but on a height
close by, which looked down upon the waterway of the Towy,
here affording easy access to the sea for vessels of light
burthen.®'' Henceforward, Carmarthen is always a royal fort-
ress, and in 1130 it is disclosed by the one Exchequer record
of the reign which has survived as an important, administrative
centre, where a considerable revenue was collected for the
crown. Thus Alfred son of Anschetil is returned as owing ;^3
for his father's lands, which were in the neighbourhood of
Llangain ; ®^ the men of Cantref Mawr owe a fine of forty
shillings for the slaughter of a vassal of Bishop Roger of
Salisbury ; ^* Bleddyn of Mabudryd, the country around Pen-
cader, with his brothers, is mulcted in seven silver marks for
the abduction of the daughter of Bledri.®^ This Bledri, in full
Bledri ap Cydifor,®" appears to have played the difficult part
of intermediary between the two races ; while he figures, as
" Bleheric the Welshman," among the knights of the " honour "
of Carmarthen,®^ he is elsewhere styled Blederic Latimer, or
the Interpreter, as though it were his special duty to convey
the royal commands to his fellow-countrymen.®^ His lands lay

'* See chapter viii. note 218. " Veterem civitatem de kermerdyn " was held
by the priory (Carm. Cart. p. 28).

^* There is no evidence of the existence of a bridge at Carmarthen in the
early Middle Ages. Giraldus crossed the ferry at Llanstephan (vi. 80 — " tran-
seuntes . . . navigio") and the bridge ol 1233 was a temporary one, set up to
block the waterway.

*3"Alur. filius Anschet. Driue debet Ix. s. pro terra patris sui " (Pipe Roll,
31 Hen. I. 90). Cf. No. 34 in Carm. Cart. p. 10, in which " Alfredus Drue"
gives to Carmarthen priory the chapel of St. " Keyn " (" Egluyskeyne " in No. 78
on p. 28) " que est in feudo meo," with land in the vicinity.

"^ " Homines de Cat (for CdJitre) maur debent xl. s. pro homine Episcopi
saresburiensis quern occiderunt " (Pipe Roil 90). The bishop was lord of
Kidwelly, which at Abergwili was only separated from Cantref Mawr by the
Towy.

^' " Blehien de Mabuderi et fratres sui debent vii m. argenti pro filia Bieheri
quam vi rapuerunt " (Pipe Roll go).

88 "Bledri uab Kediuor" had charge in 1116 of a Norman castle near Car-
marthen (Bruts, 297 ; B.T. 126). There is no evidence to show that he was the
son of Cydifor ap Gollwyn, the Demetian magnate who died in 1091.

97 Pipe Roll 8g.

** No. 33 in Carm. Cart. (p. 10) is a confirmation by Henry I. of the gift to
Carmarthen priory of four carucates in " Eglusnewit " by " Bledericus Latemeni "
(" Latem^ri " in No. 78). The attestations show that the document belongs to
1129-1134.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 429

in the neighbourhood of Newchurch, a little to the north of the CHAP,
town. ■^"•

The reference above to Cantref Mawr may suggest, what
was certainly the case, that it enjoyed during this period a
greater amount of freedom than any other portion of South
Wales. Its wooded glens and solitary moorlands alone gave
scope under Henry's iron sway for the development in the
region south of the Dovey of a life moulded in accordance with
Welsh ideals. But even here the hand of the monarch was
visible in the partition of authority between several chieftains.
No one Welsh prince was allowed to tower above his fellows
even on the narrow stage of Cantref Mawr ; Rhydderch ap
Tewdwr, a brother of the late king of Deheubarth, was allowed
to hold a certain extent of land, but he was kept in check by
one Owain ap Caradog, a member of another house, to whom
Henry gave a portion of the Cantref ^^ In Cantref Bychan,
on the other side of the river, Norman supremacy was un-
disguised ; Richard fitz Pons, who had important interests
in Brecknock, had crossed the mountains and received from
the king the investiture of the district. This was before 11 16,
in which year mention is made of Richard's castle, which stood
near the meeting ground of many streams, not far from the
church of St. Dingad, and hence acquired its name of Llan-
amddyfri (now Llandovery), " the church amid the waters ".^^'^
The settlement of Cantref Bychan was not as complete, how-
ever, as that of Southern Dyfed and Ceredigion, for Richard is
not known to have had any other castle in it, and he committed
even this to the custody of a local chief, Maredudd ap Rhy-
dderch ap Caradog. After the death of Hywel ap Gronw in
1 106, the commote of Cydweli was bestowed by the king upon
his trusty and powerful minister, Bishop Roger of Salisbury,
justiciar of the realm, who built at the spot where the Lesser
Gwendraeth falls into the sea a castle which guarded the road
to Carmarthen. Around it soon sprang up the borough of

^^Bntts, 296; B.T. 125.

^"o For Richard fitz Pons see Round, Anc. Charters, p. 24. The evidence
for his tenure of Cantref Bychan will be found ibid. 8,21; Afon. Angl. iii. 448
(grant of church to Great Malvern Priory); Bruts, 296 (rickert pwnswn) ; B.T.
123 ; B. Saes. s.a. 1113=1116 (Ricard vab Pvnson). Llanamddyfri, as in Ann. C,
appears to be the original form, in which case " amddyfri " is to be taken as a
variant of " amddyfrwys " — see Evans, Diet. s.v.

43° HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Kidwelly, with Norman, English and Flemish butchers, who
before 1 1 1 5 had their own parish church of St. Mary's.^^^ The
bishop did not hold the commote until his death, for towards
the end of the reign the lordship was transferred to Maurice
of London, whose family had been for some time settled at
Ogmore in Glamorgan.^**'- Gower had also been vested in
Hywel ap Gronw, and, upon his death, had been granted by
Henry, like Cydweli, to a man in whom he had the fullest
confidence, namely. Earl Henry of Warwick, his friend and
companion, who fixed the centre of the lordship at the mouth
of the Tawe and thus became the founder of Swansea.^^'*
Through the influx of English settlers the southern or peninsular
half of the commote soon lost its Welsh features as thoroughly
as Penfro and Rhos, and the distinction was set up, which has
lasted to our own day, between Welsh and English Gower.
Henry died in 1119^''* and was succeeded in his earldom and
in the lordship of Gower by his son Roger.

It was not by arms alone, or the development of trade and
industry, that the conquerors of Deheubarth secured their hold
of the country which had fallen into their grasp. They called
religion to their aid. The devotion of the Normans as a race
to the interests of the Church, and their high respect for the
monastic or " religious " life, is one of the most familiar features
of their history, attested by a thousand acts of obsequious ser-
vice. In Wales, it is true, they paid scant regard to the ecclesi-
astical foundations they found in possession, but from the first
they followed the policy of making large grants from their con-
quered territories to houses of religion in England and in
France, and this led in many cases to the establishment in

^"1 Mon. Angl. iv. 64-5. Cf. the mention of" homine episcopi saresburiensis "
in connection with Cantref Mawr in Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I. 90. The date is based
upon the mention of Bishop Wilffre, who died in 1115 ; the grant was also made
while Turstin was still prior of Sherborne and before his consecration as abbot in

1 122.

^"^Mon. Angl. iv. 65 suggests that Bishop Roger was followed by a Richard
fitz William and that Maurice of London came next, at the very end of Henry's
reign. There is nothing to connect William of London, Maurice's father, who
died before 1126 (see Lib. Land. 29), with Kidwelly.

103 The Bruts [Bruts, 296 ; " aber tawy . . . bioed iarll aelwit henri bemwnd " ;
B.T. 123 ; B. Sues. s.a. 11 13 = 11 16) are supported by Cal. Doc. Fr. i. 106.

^"^Ann. Wint. The date usually given, viz., 20th June, 1123 [Diet. Nat.
Biog. xl. p. 317), is inconsistent with the fact that Roger witnesses as Earl of War-
wick a charter belonging to the early part of 1123 (Feudal England, pp. 482-4).

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 431

Wales of " cells " or subordinate houses, under the rule of a CHAP

XII
prior, for the management of the property and the collection of

its revenues. The cell was invariably placed under the shadow
of a castle and, as the native element found no footing in it, it
became an integral part of the Norman garrison, to the spiritual
needs of which it ministered and with the fortunes of which it
rose and fell. Monasteries of this type were to be found at
the close of Henry's reign at Pembroke, St. Dogmael's, Carmar-
then, Kidwelly, Llangenydd and Llanbadarn Fawr. The priory
of Pembroke was founded by Arnulf Montgomery in 1098,
when he gave to the abbey of St. Martin at Sees, established
by his father, the church of St. Nicholas hard by his castle and
a liberal provision of land.^"^ This monastic settlement on the
southern bank of the little stream which skirts the castle ac-
quired the name of Monkton, and its church became the mother
church of St. Mary's and St. Michael's within the walls of Pem-
broke town.^"^ The nucleus of the abbey of St. Dogmael's
was furnished by the ancient church of Llandudoch near the
outlet of the Teifi. Though its real protector was the castle of
Cardigan, it lay in the lordship of Cemais, and it owed its ex-
istence to Robert fitz Martin, who first gave the church, about
I II 5, to the new abbey of St. Saviour of Tiron, a reformed
Benedictine house, and encouraged a few monks to settle there
under a prior. In a few years he formed a larger design, pro-
vided a much ampler endowment, and persuaded the abbot of
Tiron to raise the house to the dignity of an abbey. The first
abbot, Fulchard, was installed not long after 1120.^^" At Car-
marthen the first Norman foundation was a cell of Battle Abbey
in Sussex, the great monastery reared by the Conqueror to
commemorate his victory at Hastings. Henry I. gave his
father's abbey the church of Llandeulyddog, with its venerable
associations, the new church of St. Peter which had been built
not far off, and land for the maintenance of a few monks.

looil/ow. Angl. vi. 999; Cal. Doc. Fr. i. 237-9. The statement that the
church was within the castle (" in eodem castro positam ") has caused some diffi-
culty, but it is simpler to suppose an inaccuracy in the charter than to assume
that Arnulf 's castle was at Monkton and embraced the church.

i»« Welsh SS. p. 349.

^°^The earliest charters of St. Dogmael's are those contained in the cartulary
of the mother abbey of Tiron (Eure et Loir — see Cal. Doc. Fr. i. 352-4). After
these, which belong to 1116-1120, comes that printed in Mon. Angl. iv. 130 (in an
" inspeximus "), which may be assigned to the autumn of 1121.

432 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Thus matters stood when Bishop Bernard of St. David's, desir-
ing to establish at Carmarthen a house of Augustinian canons,
cast jealous eyes upon the possessions of Battle, and, after much
negotiation, induced the monks in 1125 to abandon their
claims and dissolve the cell in return for compensation else-
where offered to them by the king. The priory thus became
a convent of black canons and was enriched by gifts from Bern-
ard, Bledri ap Cydifor, and other dwellers within the sphere
of Norman influence in this region.^*^^ Kidwelly Priory was
founded before 1 1 1 5 by the builder of Kidwelly Castle, Bishop
Roger of Salisbury, who made it a cell of Sherborne, a house
for which he had a special affection as a former seat of the
bishopric which he held. In this case, no existing church was
chosen as the site of the monastery, probably because none
was sufficiently near the castle, but a new church was con-
secrated, which served, as has already been indicated, for the
needs of the burgesses.^"® Llangenydd Priory owed its origin to
Earl Henry of Warwick, who gave the church, one of the older
sanctuaries of Gower, to the abbey of St. Taurin at Euveux ; ^^^
it was a little cell and never attained to any importance. It re-
mains to speak of the cell of St. Peter's, Gloucester, formed by
Gilbert fitz Richard at Llanbadam Fawr. Owing to the recon-
quest of Ceredigion by the Welsh on the death of Henry I., its
history soon comes to an end, but the evidence for its existence
is clear and the monks of Gloucester lost no opportunity of
reiterating their claim to hold this church and its extensive
domains. The priory was probably founded in iii6or 1117
and entered upon all the rights of the ancient " clas," including
the lordship of the manor of " Y Faenor " between the Clarach
and the Rheidol and the tithes of all Penweddig.^^^ There

i*** The early history of Carmarthen Priory is told in the Chronicle of Battle
Abbey {Chronicon de Bello, 1846, pp. 55-6, 61-2), where it is said that the king
gave Battle " quandam ecclesiam in honorem Sancti Petri apostoli fundatam apud
Walliam in civitate quae Chaermerdi dicitur " and also " aliam ecclesiam anli-
quissimis temporibus in honore sancti Theodori martiris (a bold endeavour to
make respectable the unknown and uncouth Teulyddog !) ibidem fundatam ". A
document printed in Round, Anc. Charters, p. 27, throws further light upon the
withdrawal of Battle. The cartulary of the priory was privately printed from a
seventeenth-century transcript (Hengwert MS. 440) in 1865 by Sir Thomas
Phillips ; it contains grants by Bernard (No. 26) and Alfred Drue (No. 34), and a
confirmation by Henry I. of the grant of Bledri (No. 33).

1*® See note loi above. i" Cal. Doc. Fr. i. 106.

'" The documents bearing on the history of this cell are in Cart. Glouc. ii.
73-9. Cf. Gir. Camb. vi. 121 (liin, ii. 4). Cart. Glouc. i. 106 (i.e., the " historia "

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 433

must have been some disturbance of the clergy of the old order, CHAP,
and it is not without significance in this connection that the full
Llanbadarn narrative embodied in " Brut y Tywysogion " does
not extend beyond 1 1 1 6.

By such means did Norman and Breton knights, English
and Flemish traders, gradually secure a firm hold of Deheu-
barth, as though never to be dislodged. Only once was there
a serious rising against them, and this was due to the bold bid
for power made in 1116 by Gruffydd ap Rhys. .The heir to
the wide claims of Rhys ap Tewdwr had spent his childhood
and early youth in exile in Ireland ; about 1 1 1 3 he returned,
an ambitious young man, full of the restlessness of unsatisfied
desire, to his native land of Deheubarth.^^" For some two
years he lived a roving life, the guest at times of his brother-
in-law, the castellan of Pembroke, and at others of his relatives
in Cantref Mawr. The figure of the forlorn scion of an ancient
race of kings, stripped of wealth and power and wandering
from this to that hospitable roof-tree, touched the imagination
of the men of South Wales, and Henry was warned that the
homeless lad was beginning to be dangerous to his authority.
Gruffydd did not wait to be seized by the king's officers, but,
at the first suggestion of sinister designs, made off to Gwynedd,
where he hoped for protection from the now powerful Gruffydd
ap Cynan. But the northern prince had seen something in
the previous year (i 1 14) of the might of the king of England,
and was not in the mood to court a second invasion by
harbouring a fugitive who lay under the weight of Henry's
displeasure. He promised to surrender the youth and pro-
ceeded to carry out the undertaking with little regard to the
claims of patriotism or of hospitality. Gruffydd ap Rhys
narrowly escaped capture, and, even when he had taken refuge
with the " clas " of Aberdaron, was not much more secure, for
the prince of Gwynedd, had he not been restrained by his
counsellors, would have infringed the rights of sanctuary of the
Church in order to prove his zeal in the royal service.

dates the foundation of the priory in 11 11, the year after Gilbert's acquisition of
Ceredigion, but the foundation charter in ii. 73-4 is witnessed by Bishop Bernard,
and is, therefore, not earlier than September, H15.

^^^Bruts, 294-6; B.T. and B. Sues. s.a. 1112 = 1115. On p. 118 of B.T.
(third line from the bottom), MS. B. supplies the correct reading, viz., " ebryfygu"
= to forget (Davies, Diet. s.v.).

434 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. From Aberdaron the youthful outlaw crossed Cardigan Bay

to his former haunts "'n South Wales and resolved in his des-
pair to run amuck among the Norman castles of the district,
in the hope that out of the confusion of a general rising he
might pluck some advantage for himself. In the spring of
1 1 1 6 he made an onslaught on the castle of Narberth, which
he destroyed ; next, he attacked Llandovery, which was stoutly
defended for Richard fitz Pons by its Welsh castellan, Mare-
dudd ap Rhydderch ap Caradog, so that only the outworks
were taken, the keep remaining intact.^^^ The same partial
success followed the siege of the Earl of Warwick's castle at
Swansea, nor did Gruffydd reflect how little his cause was
helped by victories which left his enemies unharmed in im-
pregnable retreats. Nevertheless, he had done enough to
arouse the enthusiasm of his countrymen ; crowds of young
Welshmen gathered around him, and the authorities began to
fear for the safety of Carmarthen. The plan was adopted of
entrusting its defence to the neighbouring chiefs, who were out
of sympathy with this ill-planned and ill-ordered revolt ; Mare-
dudd of Cantref Bychan, Gruffydd's uncle, Rhydderch,^^* and
Owain ap Caradog each undertook to keep the castle for a
fortnight. It chanced that the dreaded attack was made
during Owain's term of service and that Owain himself fell in
seeking to repel it ; the result was that Gruffydd was able
to set fire to the town and to carry 'off valuable booty to the
woods. His prestige now rose higher than ever, and he soon
found himself at the head of a very considerable force, which
he forthwith led to the plunder of Ceredigion."® After some
successes at Blaen Forth Hodnant,"*' which did not, however,
include the taking of the castle, the host marched northwards

i^^B.T. carefully distinguishes the " rac castell " or bailey from the " t^x "
or keep.

^1* Later in the year Rhydderch and his sons joined the movement and took
part in the siege of Aberystwyth.

^^i* B.T. and B. Sues, translate very differently here, but it is evident that
in the original a protest against the invasion was uttered from the point of view
of the prudent Welshmen still in undisturbed possession of Llanbadarn. That
MS. B. of B.T. (p. 128) is right in reading "kyghor" and not '• kediuor," as in
the Red Book text {Briits, 298, line 10) audits original, Mostyn MS. 116 (Evans,
Rep. i. pp. 56, 59), is clear from the agreement of B. Saes.

^^^ Now Blaen Forth simply. The river is called the Howni, for an older
Hoddni (cf. " porth hodni," i.e., Aberporth, in Buck. Gr. ap C. 114 (729)),
whence Hoddnant and Hodnant. Earthworks mark the site of the castle.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 435
to Penweddig and stormed the fortress which Razo, Gilbert's CHA.P.

XII

castellan at Aberystwyth, had built for himself in Ystrad
Peithyll. They then addressed themselves to the capture of
Aberystwyth itself. But the point had now been reached when
the inherent weakness of the movement, the lack of generalship
in its leader and of discipline among the rank and file, could
no longer be masked under superficial triumphs. Gruffydd's
negligence enabled Razo to draw reinforcements under cover of
night from the neighbouring castle of Ystrad Meurig, and his
irresolution wasted the best part of the day which he devoted
to the siege. When, at last, the attack was delivered, there
was confusion among the besieging troops, giving Razo an op-
portunity he did not neglect of scattering the loosely knit lines
of his opponents in unexpected flight. Gruffydd's army melted
away and he found shelter once again in the impenetrable woods
of the Great Cantref.

The attempt of the king to use Owain ap Cadwgan and
Llywarch ap Trahaearn for the overthrow of Gruffydd has been
already mentioned.^^^ It was unsuccessful ; Owain was cut
down in the midst of the expedition by his enemy Gerald and
Llywarch then abandoned the enterprise and went home.
Gruffydd's history during the rest of the reign cannot be
traced in detail, but he is known to have so far broken down
the king's hostility as to obtain from him a portion of Cantref
Mawr. In 1127 he was obliged, as a result of the charges of
his Norman neighbours, to seek refuge for a time in Ireland,^^^
but he would seem to have soon recovered his position. During
the closing years of Henry's reign his home was the commote
of Caeo,^^^ which occupied the upper valley of the river Cothi ;
here he settled with his wife Gwenllian, daughter of Gruffydd
ap Cynan, and here were born to them four sons, Maredudd,
Rhys, Morgan and Maelgwn,^^" of whom the second lived long
and gloriously, while the other three were cut off in their
youth.

1" P. 422. "8^„„. C. s.a. ; B.T. and B. Saes. s.a. 1124.

^18 Gir. Camb. i. 34 (Itin. i. 2). It may be added that " quartae partis " is.
due to the erroneous idea that every cantref contained four commotes and that the
editor, when he sets out here and in the index (p. 248) to correct the topography
of his author, merely gives currency to a blunder which has crept into Pen. MS^
163 and texts derived from it.

120 Cymr. viii. 88 (Jesus Coll. MS. 20, No. xxv.).

436 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Our survey of the conquest of South Wales under Henry I.

may fitly close with some account of those lordships on the
eastern march which had been conquered once for all under
Rufus, and during this reign were being consolidated and
developed. All that is known of Radnor and Builth is that
they continued to be held by Philip of Briouze until the close
of the reign,^"^^ while of the intervening region no more can
safely be said than that Hugh Mortimer, who succeeded his
father Ralph at Wigmore about 1 104, appears to have acquired
some hold upon the valleys of the Ithon and the Edw.^^^ But
no such obscurity rests during this period upon the history of
Brecknock, Glamorgan and Gwent, which are shown by con-
temporary records, chiefly monastic charters, to have been
parcelled out by their lords among a number of knights, who
made haste to extract the full advantage of their position.
Bernard of Neufmarch^ ruled Brycheiniog until about 1125.^^^
His principal castle was built where the Honddu falls into the
Usk, at a spot known to the Welsh from its situation as Aber-
honddu, but called by the English Brecon, from the lordship of
which it was the centre. As in the lordships of West Wales,
the military station became also a civic and a monastic centre ;
before 11 06 Bernard had founded a borough at Brecon and
had bestowed upon Battle Abbey the means of establishing
a cell there.^^* The narrative of the foundation of the priory
contained in the Chronicle of Battle will show how such an
institution might grow.^^* A monk of Battle named Roger is
first found staying with Bernard and obtains from him a grant
of the church of St. John the Evangelist standing near the
castle, and, for his maintenance, the site of the old Roman fort
at the confluence of the Ysgir and the Usk, known as " Vetus

1*^ There are four references to Philip in Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I. (72, 103, 126,
157). He lost his lands in mo, but recovered them in iri2 (A.S. Chr. MS. E.).

^^''See the reference in B.T. s.a. 1143 (= 1144) to the r^conquest of Elfael
and Maelienydd by Hugh, son of Ralph.

^^ Bernard appears in the list of magnates of the diocese of Llandaff (which
was held to include Ystrad Yw) addressed by Calixtus H. in 11 19 {Lib. Land.
93), but in the corresponding list of 1128 his place is taken by Miles of Glou-
cester {ibid. 37).

1" See the " secunda (really the first) carta" of Bernard in the Brecon
cartulary (^rcA. Camb. IV. xiv. (1883), 142-3), which gives " quinque burgenses ".
The limit of date is fixed by the appearance among the witnesses of " Valdrici
cancellarii " — see Feudal England, pp. 480-1.

^^'^ Chronicon de Bello (= Cott. MS. Domitian ii.), ed. 1846, 34-5.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 437
villa " or " Yr Hen Gaer "^^^ With the help of a brother monk CHAP,

XII
named Walter, Roger rebuilds the church, provides suitable

monastic quarters, and gathers in further endowments. The
lady of Brecon, Agnes or Nest, daughter of Osbern fitz
Richard, in gratitude for a recovery from sickness, gives the
manor of Berrington, near Tenbury, which she had no doubt
received from her father as a marriage gift.^'''^ Monks assemble
at the spot and finally, with the consent of Bernard and the
king, a cell of Battle is constituted, with Walter as its prior.

From the roll of benefactions made to the priory ^^^ some
information may be gleaned as to the principal vassals of the
lord of Brecknock and the houses which drew their descent
from them. The name of Picard is to be seen in the earliest
of all the Brecon charters ; ^^^ his portion of the lordship was
the commote of Ystrad Yw Uchaf,^^" and he made his home at
Tretower, in the vale of the Rhiangoll, building in all likeli-
hood the four-square stone keep of which the lower courses
still remain, and which gave its name to the " hamlet of the
tower ".^^^ Picards or Pichards dwelt here for many genera-
tions, stout defenders of the English against the Welsh cause
and generous patrons of the priory founded by their lord.
Ystrad Yw Isaf would seem to have been allotted to Robert of
Turbeville, whose stronghold was at Crughywel ; Turbevilles
were here in authority until the reign of Henry HI.^^^ La
Haie Taill6e, the " clipped hedge," a name which the Welsh
rendered " Y Gelli Gandryll," ^^^ was the seat of another castle,

126 ic Vetus villa " appears in the charters as " vastam civitatem que vocatur
Carnois " {141) and " Chaer " (146) ; the latter passage gives bounds, which seem
to be those of the township of Fenni Fach.

12'' See chap. xi. note 135.

128 The cartulary of Brecon Priory was printed by R. W. Banks in Arch.
Camb. IV. xiii. (1882), 275-308, xiv. (1883), 18-49, 137-68, 221-36, 274-311, from
a transcript made about 1710. In the notes following this it is cited as Cart. Brec.
by reference to the page, vol. xiv. being understood when xiii. is not specified.

i2» Cart. Brec. 143 (" Quidam ex meis hominibus nomine Picardus ").

130 /6/d. 167-8, 221.

131 Med. Mil. Arch. ii. 499-503; Breconsh. (2), p. 418.

132 Robert " de Turbertuulla!" was not a donor to Brecon, but he appears as
a principal tenant of Bernard's in 1121 (Round, Anc. Charters, p. 8; cf. p. 24).
Jones appears to be right in maintaining that there is no historical evidence for
the common statement that the Burghills preceded the Turbevilles at Crickhowel
(Breconsh. (2), pp. 387-8).

133 K Haia taillata " in Round, Anc. Charters, p. 8, clearly represents, as the
editor points out, " la haie taill^e " (the article was long retained, though not the

VOL. II. 6

43^ HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, which was held for Bernard by William Revel ; in this case the

XII

fief reverted ere long to the chief lord and became a part of his

demesne.^^* Talgarth, the ancient capital of Br}''cheiniog, was
retained by Bernard in his own hands. Between Brecon and
Talgarth, Roger of Baskerville held land and handed on his
name to several generations of descendants.^'^^ It is not cer-
tain when the commote called " Cantref Selyf " ^^^ — it was but
a part of the old cantref of that name ^^^ — came into the pos-
session of the Clifford family, but about the middle of the
twelfth century Walter, son of Richard fitz Pons, is in posses-
sion of it and rules it from his castle of Bronllys overhanging
the Llynfi.^^^ These were the knights who owed service to
Bernard and who some ten years before the death of Henry
saw a new lord take his place at Aberhonddu. By his wife
Agnes, Bernard had a son Mahel and a daughter Sybil. But
Mahel, after he had grown to manhood, had his inheritance
snatched from him by what was believed to be the shameless
perjury of his mother. Her anger having been stirred up
against him by the vengeance he had taken upon a paramour
of hers, she swore that he was himself the offspring of adultery
and thus diverted the inheritance from him to his sister.^^® As
Sybil was married in the spring of 1121 to one of the highly
trusted ministers of the crown, namely, Miles of Gloucester, son
of Walter the sheriff, this turn of affairs was not by any means
disagreeable to the king, and he sanctioned an arrangement
under which Miles was to come on his marriage into immedi-
ate possession of a part of the lordship and to obtain the whole
on Bernard's death.^**' Miles held Brycheiniog with a firm
grip until his death, nor was it of much account that, accord-
adjective — see Leland, Wales, pp. 10, 42, 104, 108, no, in). Walter Map's
" Sepes Inscisa (for Incisa) " (Dc Nugis, 103) is an attempt at a more elegant
translation. For Y Gelli Gandryll, see Breconsh. (2), p. 360.

1*'' Round, Anc. Charters, p. 8, mentions " feodum . . . Willelmi reuelli " in
II2I, and Cart. Brec. 48, of about the same date, shows it was Hay.

135 Round, Anc, Charters, pp. 8, 24 ; Cart. Brec. 142 (for the situation of
the Baskerville lands see 162-6).

136 For the strange form " cymwd cantref Selyf " see Domitian viii. fo. 120a
(com. Cantreselif) and Pen. MS. 147 (kwmwdkantre sely — Evans).

137 Judging from Lib. Land. 134, the old cantref extended to the neighbour-
hood of Llandeilo'r Fan.

i38Afo«. Atigl, V. 555, No. vii. (Charters of Dore Abbey.)

139 Gir. Camb. (vi. 29 — Itin. i. 2) is the authority for this story.

^^' See the king's charter in Round, Anc. Charters, pp. 8-9.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 439

ing to the well-known story told by Giraldus Canibrensis, the CHAP,
birds of Llangors lake would not tune their merry notes in
recognition of his dominion, while they instantly obeyed the
call of their true lord, Gruffydd ap Rhys.^" It was the iron
age, with no ear for the voice of sentiment.

The story of the lordship of Glamorgan is very similar to
that of Brecknock. Here, too, while the chief lord retained a
substantial part of the conquered region as his own demesne,
much of the land went to form subordinate fiefs held by the
knights in the conqueror's train. Here also the whole lordship
was carried by a daughter, on the death of the first holder, to
an outsider who was not concerned in the conquest, and in this
case was no less a person than King Henry's natural son,
Robert. Fixing upon the site of the Roman fortress at
Caerdyf ^*^ as the centre of his new domain, Robert fitz Hamon
raised there the moated mound which was the beginning of
Cardiff Castle, and upon which was placed at a later date the
many-sided keep of masonry still towering above it^^^ — the
visible sign for many generations of the authority of the lords-
of Glamorgan. Cardiff became a borough, the inhabitants of
which had two churches, the parish church of St. Mary and the
chapel of St. John ; ^** it was also the administrative centre of
the lordship, where the sheriff (for, like Pembroke, this marcher
lordship was important enough to be treated as a shire) ^*^ held
the county court of Glamorgan for the tenants of the lord's
own demesne, and where the knights who held outlying dis-
tricts as subordinate fiefs repaired to render such service as
was due to their chief.^*^ Broadly speaking, Robert retained

i"*^ Gir. Camb. vi. 34-5 [Itin. i, 2).

^^^ Caer Dyf (whence the EngHsh Cardiff) is the older form {cf. Bruts, 330,
348, 349, 350, 367; Fl. Wig. s.a. 1134); the modern Welsh Caer Dydd is a de-
rivative of it ; cf. carnddcL for camfa. For the Roman fort see p. 77.

^^^ Clark's account {Med. Mil. Arch. i. 336-50) is full, but needs to be supple-
mented by that of Ward in Archceologia, Ivii. (igoi), 335-52.

"* A charter of Robert fitz Hamon speaks of the " burgum " at Cardiff
(Curiae Glani. i. i) and another grants the two churches to Tewkesbury Abbey
[Mon. Angl. ii. 67).

^■*^ There was a " comitatus" of Glamorgan (Cart. Glouc. ii. 20) or Cardiff
(ibid. i. 347) and a " vicecomes " of Glamorganshire (ibid.) or Cardiff (Cartae
Glatn. i. 2; Lib. Land. 93, 29), but no "comes," the earldom being merged in
that of Gloucester.

I'^^For the places of the knights in Cardiff Castle see Leland, Wales, pp.
34-5 ; Powel, 95 ; Med. Mil. Arch. i. 349.

440 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, in his own hands the fertile coast region from the Rhymney to
the Afan, including the plain of Cibwyr around Cardiff, the
lands of Llandaff, Llanilltud and Llancarfan and the region of
Mai^an between the Ogwr and the sea.^*" The march between
Gower and Glamorgan, lying west of the river Neath, was given
to Richard of Grainville, a Devonshire knight who raised his
castle on the river bank.^^^ The land between the Neath and
the Afan was, with wise generosity, bestowed upon the dynasty
which Robert had dispossessed. lestyn ap Gwrgant, it is true,
is represented by tradition to have sought consolation for his
loss of a kingdom in religious seclusion, dying in the priory of
Llangenydd in Gower,^*^ but his son Caradog became lord of
Rhwng Nedd ac Afan and was the first of a line who long held
the district and its castle and borough of Aberafan.^^** Between
the Ogwr and the Ewenni lay the lordship of Coety, where Payn
of Turbeville founded the illustrious house which left its mark
so deep in the annals of Glamorgan.^" Another son of the
unfortunate lestyn, named Rhys, appears to have received the
castle and lordship of Rhuthyn.^*^ Powerful magnates in the
low-lying lands were William of London at Ogmore Castle,
Herbert of St. Quintin'sat Llanblethian, near Cowbridge, Robert
of Humfreville at Penmark, and Robert le Sor at Peterston on

'"After the extensive donations made to the Cistercian convent of Margam,
the region around Llangynwyd became isolated from the rest of the lord's demesne
and came to be specially known as " Tir yr larll " or " The Earl's Land". See
the lists of commotes; Leland, Wales, pp. 28, 33, 34; Arch. Camb. IV. ix.
(1878), 124.

'*8 See the foundation charter of Neath Abbey (1130) in Mon. Angl. v. 259.
Richard de " Greinuilla " (Grainville on the west coast of Normandy ?) appears
in the Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I. (Dorset, p. 15) and among the witnesses to a treaty
between the Earls of Gloucester and Hereford which has been assigned to June,
1142 {Geoff. Mand. 381-3).

149 Gw. Brut, s.a. 1088 (Llangenyi).

1*" Caradog first appears in Ann. Marg. s.a. 1127. He married Gwladus,
a daughter of Gruffydd ap Rhys (Gir. Camb. vi. 69 {Itin. i. 7) ; B.T. s.a. 1175 (p.
227 ; Briifs, 333)).

181 For the limits of the lordship of Coety see Arch. Camb. IV. ix. (1878),
114-5. " Pagano de Turbertiuilla " witnesses the agreement made between Earl
Robert and Bishop Urban of Llandaff in 1126 {Lib. Land. 29) ; cf. also the
foundation charter of Neath (" Torbivilla " — Mon. Angl. v. 259). It is not
clear how the family were connected (if at all) with the Turbevilles of Crickhowel
in Brecknock.

i^This is asserted by Clark in his account of Rhuthyn {Arch. Camb. IV. ix.
(1878), 12) and is confirmed by the fact that Rhys gave to Neath Abbey the church
and land of" Saint Ilith," i.e., Llanilid {Mon. Angl. v. 259).

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 44 1

the Ely.^^^ The regions of Meisgyn, Glyn Rhondda and Seng- CHAP,
henydd were left in the hands of the Welsh, who ranged over
the wide moorlands with their sheep and cattle and from time
to time reminded their more prosperous neighbours of the plain
by sudden raids upon them of the ancient and unforgotten claims
of a conquered people,

Robert fitz Hamon, fighting on the king's side against
Duke Robert in Normandy, was wounded in the head, and, after
living for some months with beclouded brain, died in March,
1107.^^* He left as heiress a daughter, Mabel, who, with her
great possessions in Glamorgan, Gloucestershire and elsewhere,
passed into the king's guardianship, so that for many years
the province was under Henry's direct rule.^^^ Finally he gave
her in marriage to his illegitimate son Robert, who, after the
drowning of the heir to the crown in the shipwreck of 1 1 20,
assumed new importance in the royal circle and was created
Earl of Gloucester.^^^ For some twenty-five years Earl Robert
bore rule at Bristol and at Cardiff as a great noble of the realm ;
it was at the latter place that he kept, within the strong walls
of his castle, that illustrious prisoner of the king's, Duke Robert
of Normandy, of whom he had charge from 1 1 26 until death
set the unhappy captive free in February, 1 1 34.^*^ No man
was more trusted by Henry and no one more fully repaid his
confidence by unswerving fidelity in later days to the cause of
the Empress Matilda. His services to letters will be spoken of

153 Herbert " de S. Quintino " and Robert " le Sor " witness a charter which
was drawn up in the time of Robert fitz Hamon {Cartae Glani. i. 2). See also the
History of the Monastery of Abingdon (Rolls ed. 1858), ii. 96, 106. William " de
lundriis " is mentioned as the father of Maurice in Lib. Land. 37, and B.T. s.a.
1113 (p. 126) shows that " gwilim o lundein " {Bruts, 297) held a castle in South
Wales in 1116. Robert "de Umfranvilla" appears in the Neath charter of 1130
{Mon. Angl. v. 259). In 1126 most of the knightly families of Glamorganiwere
in the second generation ; Maurice had succeeded William, Richard Herbert of
St. Quintin and Odo Robert le Sor. Clark {Land of Morgan, p. 31) also includes
the houses of Siward and Sully among the early settlers, but the evidence seems
weak. The Flemings, the St. Johns and the Stradlings were undoubtedly later
arrivals, notwithstanding the attempts (Powel, 90-4) to connect them with the
conquest.

15^ Wm. Malm. G.R. 475 (625); Fl. Wig.; Ann. Marg. and Ann. Theokesb.
s.a. 1107 ; Mon. Angl. ii. 60 ; Diet. Nat. Biog. xix. p. 159.

1*" Probably for ten or fifteen years (Land of Morgan, pp. 44-5).

156 Between April, 1121, and June, 1123 {Geoff. Maud. 420-34).

i»M.S. Chr. s.a. 1126; Cont. Fl. Wig. s.a. 1134; Ord. Vit. xii. 46, xiii. 9;
Wm. Malm. G.R. 463 (611).

442 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, in a future chapter, and it would seem that in his dealings with
^"' the Welsh he showed a just and tolerant spirit ; even his party-
opponent, the author of the Deeds of King Stephen, admits
that peace and tranquillity prevailed in the region which during
the civil war he brought for a time under his authority.^^^

The cantref of Gwynllwg, stretching from the Rhymney to
the Usk, was a member of the lordship of Glamorgan, held
under Robert fitz Hamon by Robert of Hay,^^® but afterwards
vested in the chief lord. Below the height on which stands
the ancient foundation of Gwynllyw or St. WooUo, the Usk
winds its way in leisurely fashion through a broad tidal channel
to the Severn estuary. Here was set up the principal castle
of Gwynllwg, which the Welsh called " Y Castell (or, in shorter
form, Y Cas) Newydd ar Wysg," but which the English styled,
from the settlement at its foot, New Port or New Borough.^^''
The broad lands of Gwent, on the other hand, formed no part
of the territory bestowed upon Robert fitz Hamon and passed
to other knights, who were of independent authority on this
western march. Henry I., at some time prior to 1 1 1 9, gave
the forfeited lands of Earl Roger of Hereford in Gwent Iscoed
or Netherwent to Walter fitz Richard, a brother of Gilbert fitz
Richard, the winner of Ceredigion, and thus established the
Clare family between the Usk and the Wye, where they long
held in their hands the key of South Wales, the rock -built keep
of Chepstow.^^^ On the banks of the Usk two brothers from
Ballon in Maine were settled by Rufus, Hamelin at Aber-
gavenny, which became the centre of the lordship of Gwent

1'* Gesta Sc. 96-7 (94). The silence of all the authorities, including Giraldus
Cambrensis, whose interest in his mother's kindred is so well known, makes it
very improbable that Robert was, as has been alleged (Gw. Brut, s.a. mo), the
son of Nest. He was born before iioo (" quern ante regnum susceperat " — Wm.
Malm. H.N. 529 (692)). See Norm. Conq. v. p. 852.

i"** " Robertus de Haia," with the consent of Robert fitz Hamon, gave Basa-
leg and other churches in this district to Glastonbury {Cartae Glam. i. 2) and St.
Woollo's to St. Peter's, Gloucester {Cart. Glouc. ii. 51). The latter grant was
said to have been made before the death of Herwald of Llandaff in 1104.

160 uy castell newyd ar wysc " may be found in B.T. 218 (where the
editor's " Newcastle upon Usk " is a pleasant invention of his own) and Bruts,
330. " Cas " in such forms as Cas Gwent (Chepstow), Cas Llychwr (Loughor),
etc., is explained m Owen, Petnb. i. 210, 410. For " port " in the sense of
town, borough, see A.S. Chr. MS. C. s.a. 1055, where it is used of Hereford,
and Plummer's note (ii. 245). The Latin rendering was " Novum Burgum ".

^*i For Walter fitz Richard see the table in Feudal England, p. 473, and
Round, Peerage and Family History (Westminster, 1901), p. 212.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.—SECOND STAGE. 443

Uchcoed or Overwent, and Winibald at Caerleon, where he CHAP,
was the successor of Turstin fitz Rolf. Hamelin disappears ^^^'
after 11 06 and before 11 19 Brian fitz Count, a natural son of
Count Alan of Brittany, takes his place at Abergavenny.
Winibald, on the other hand, seems to have held the legendary
seat of King Arthur's rule throughout the reign of Henry I.
and to have been succeeded there by his son Roger.^*^ At
Monmouth, the centre of an important marcher lordship,
William fitz Baderon was succeeded about 1125 by his son
Baderon.^^^ Ewias passed through more than one vicissitude ;
its powerful lord, Roger de Lacy, was in 1095 disinherited and
driven from England for his share in the Mowbray conspiracy
against Rufus, and his lands were given to his brother Hugh.^®^
Hugh, again, died without issue about 1 1 15, and Ewias Lacy
was bestowed by Henry L upon Payn fitz John, one of the
baronial officials upon whom he relied so much for the carrying
out of his plans for the government of the country.^^^ One
notes with interest that at the end of Henry's reign the three
contiguous lordships of Brecknock, Ewias and Upper Gwent
were held by three of his trusty counsellors and administrators,
who formed in this district a solid nucleus of resistance to
feudal unrest and disaffection.

It may be said of almost all these little kings of the south-
east, as of their comrades further west, that they believed in the
wisdom of allying their cause with that of religion by planting
colonies of monks in the territories they had acquired. The
reigns of Rufus and Henry I. saw the foundation of a number
of religious houses in the region between the Tawe and the
Wye. Robert fitz Hamon, while it was his special aim to enrich
the abbeys of Tewkesbury and of St. Peter's, Gloucester, with
the spoils of the older Welsh churches of his dominions, appears
to have founded a cell of the former house at Cardiff, the now
vanished St. Mary's serving, no doubt, as the priory church.^^^

182 For a full account of the Ballon family see Round, ut supra, chap. iv.

'^^In the letter of Calixtus II. addressed to the magnates of the diocese of
Llandaff in 1119 {Lib. Land. 93), we have " Willelmo filiobadrun," but in that
of Honorius II. belonging to 1128 (ibid. 37), " Batrun filio Willelmi ".

I'^^Ord. Vit. viii. 23 ; Feudil England, pp. 176, 312.

185 «i Pagano filio Johannis " was a magnate of the diocese of Llandaff as
early as 11 19 [Lib. Land. 93).

106 Tradition ascribes the foundation to Robert of Gloucester (Tanner, 715),
but the charter of Robert fitz Hamon printed in Cartae Glam. i. i, implies that

444 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Richard of Grainville was more ambitious; in 1130 he gave
the brethren of Savigny le Vieux, where a monastic reformation
had been inaugurated, land between the Neath and the Tawe
for the establishment of an abbey of the reformed type, which
soon became an important institution.^*^ Owing to the merg-
ing cf the order of Savigny in 1147 in the more famous fra-
ternity of Citeaux,^^^ the later history of Neath Abbey belongs
to the tale of Cistercian progress in Wales and it forms a sub-
stantial chapter in that interesting record. In Gwynllwg,
Robert of Hay made the church of Basaleg a cell of the re-
nowned abbey of Glastonbury,'^^ while Winibald of Caerleon
founded at Malpas, not far from his castle, a priory which was
dependent upon Montacute in Somerset.^^** Goldcliff, set up in
II 13 by Robert of Chandos, was an alien priory, subordinate
to the great Norman house of Bec.^^^ Chepstow was the oldest
of all the Norman foundations, for it owed its origin to William
fitz Osbem, who made it a cell of the abbey he had himself en-
dowed at Cormeilles.^"^ Abergavenny claimed Hamelin of
Ballon as its founder, who, being a native of Maine, attached it
to the abbey of St. Vincent at Le Mans.^" Monmouth Priory
was also of early origin and could boast of this distinction, that
its founder Wihenoc, the Breton who held the castle for
William I. after the fall of Earl Roger, not only gave the
church and much property with it to the abbey of St. Florent
at Saumur on the Loire, but proved at the same time the
sincerity of his devotion by renouncing his worldly honours
and entering St. Florent as a monk. With a simplicity which

there were in his time monks settled at Cardiff and holding St. Mary's for
Tewkesbury.

^*^ The foundation charter is printed in Mon. Angl. v. 259 and Curiae
Giant, i. 6-7. For the date see Ann. Marg. and Ann. Camb. s.a. 1130. Ord.
Vit. (viii. 27) tells the story of the beginnings of Savigny (on the borders
of Normandy, Maine and Brittany); cf. the charter of Hen. I. in Cal. Doc.
Fr. 287.8.

^^^Eng. Hist. Rev. viii. (1893), pp. 668-70. " Not" on p. 669 is Neath.

169 Carton Giant, i. 2; Mon. Angl. iv. 633-4.

'^''° Lib. Land. 30, 53; Mon. Angl. v. 173-4; Round, Peerage and Family
History, p. 197.

I'^i Mon. Angl. vi. 1022 ; Charter Rolls, ii. 361-3. Gir. Camb. vi. 56 {Hin. i.
5) explains the name ; cf. Coxe (2), 60-1. The Welsh called the place Gallt
Eurin (Rees, Welsh SS. p. 342).

^'^Mon. Angl. iv. 652-4.

^"^^Cal. Doc. Fr. i. 367-8; Round, ut supra, 192.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 445
was rare in the high-born Norman devotee, he outran the lavish CHAP.

VTT

gifts of his neighbours by the bestowal of himself ^'^^

There was one house of religion established by Normans
upon Welsh soil during this period in the building of which
policy had no part and which was the outcome of unalloyed
religious fervour. In an age when it was as common to endow
abbeys and priories as nowadays colleges and schools, the story
of the foundation of Llanthony was told and retold as memor-
able and unique, and drew the sympathetic attention of the
highest in the land.^''^ Llanddewi Nant Honddu, " St. David's
in the valley of the Honddu," ^'''^ was a little mountain church in
the wildest part of Ewias Lacy, at the bottom of a winding glen
which was walled in on three sides by hills towering to the
height of a thousand feet above the river below. Here came,
in the time of Rufus, a knight William who, forswearing his
military ambitions and laying aside for ever his blood-stained
arms, devoted himself to the service of God as an anchorite,
who should pray and fast in solitude in this forest hiding-
place. His fame soon spread abroad, for nothing so quickly
touched the imagination of that age as a life of exceptional
austerity, and in 1 1 03 he was joined by a companion, a priest
named Ernisius, who was one of the chaplains of Queen
Matilda. The next step was to rebuild the church ; in 1 108
the new building, erected in honour of St. John the Baptist,
the pattern of all hermits, was consecrated by Bishops Urban
of Llandaff and Reinelm of Hereford.^^^ And now the two
solitaries were urged to extend to other souls the spiritual
advantages of this holy retreat and to allow a convent of some
kind to be formed there. They yielded, decided to join the
order of Austin Canons, a body who combined the monastic

^''^ The early charters of Monmouth were printed by Marchegay in Chartes
du Prieure de Monmouth (Paris, 1879 — a reprint from the Bibliotheque de I'Ecole
des Chartes, vol. x!.). Their contents are summarised in Cal. Doc, Fr. i. 406-14,
so far as they are preserved in the departmental archives at Angers.

1" The early history of Llanthony is told by Gir. Camb. vi. 37-41 {Itin. i. 3)
and in Cott. MS. Julius D. x., the contents of which are summarised in Arch.
Camb. I. i. {1846), 201-28. Cf. also Angl. Sac. ii. 299-305, 321-2 ; Lib. Land.
63.

178 » Llantony " is an English corruption of the true name in its shorter form
" Llan Nant Honddu ".

1'''^ The MS. has apparently " Ramelino". Urban and Reinelm were conse-
crated together on nth August, 1107 {Reg. Sacr. (2), 41).

446 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, life with the exercise of priestly functions, and soon had as
' many as forty canons around them in this remote wilderness,
Hugh de Lacy gave with alacrity the necessary endowments,
and would willingly have given more had not the two founders
dreaded the growth of riches and luxury, lest their house should
degenerate and become no better than a common Benedictine
abbey. During the lifetime of Henry I. neither the prosperity
nor the reputation of Llanthony suffered eclipse ; it became
one of the most famous houses of Great Britain. Bishop
Roger of Salisbury visited it, and, on his return, astonished his
royal master by telling him that it had cloisters for the building
of which the whole treasure of the realm would not suffice,
thus speaking in a parable of its girdle of mountains. The
queen's interest was aroused, and she also paid the place a visit ;
it was long remembered how the purse of gold which she had
contrived to slip into the folds of Knight William's dress had
been, not indeed discourteously rejected, but forthwith diverted
to the adornment of the church. It was at Llanthony, rather
than in any Gloucestershire abbey, that Walter of Gloucester,
father of the famous Miles, chose to end his days,^"* and it was
from Llanthony that Miles and Payn fitz John in 1 129 desired
the king to appoint a successor to Bishop Richard of Hereford.
The prior, Robert of B^thune, selected for this honour, fought
strenuously, as became the sincere recluse, against his promo-
tion ; he prevailed upon Urban of Llandaff, his diocesan, to
refuse for a year and more the requisite assent. At last. Pope
Innocent II. intervened, and in 1 1 3 1 broke down the opposition
of the bishop and the prior. But the parting of Robert from
the loved scene of his early labours was a sore one. His bio-
grapher and companion, William of Wycombe, tells how, when
they reached the summit of Hatteral Hill and cast a last look
upon the homes of peace beneath, the troubled spirit of the prior
found vent in sobs and tears, " for it seemed to him that, like
Adam of old, he was being driven from Paradise into exile ".

178 «< In episcopatu Menevensi habitum suscepit canonici et ibi sepultus est "
{Cart. Glouc. i. Ixxvi-vii).

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 447

IV. The Subjugation of ^he Welsh Church. chap.

xn.

(The materials for the history of the Welsh Church under Rufus and Henry
I. will be found in H. and St. i. 299-344, ^^^- Land, and the contemporary
chroniclers. Newell, History of the Welsh Church, and Jones and Freeman,
History and Antiquities of St. David's, may be used with advantage.)

It was a natural result of the triumph of the Norman arms
that the Welsh should in a large measure lose control of the
agencies which provided for their spiritual needs, for, though
the Normans were devout and not divided from the vanquished
race by any serious religious differences, yet they had their own
ideas as to what was seemly and admirable in religious organ-
isation and were by no means prepared to accept Welsh
ecclesiastical institutions as they stood. While knight and
monk and trader were parcelling out the land for their enjoy-
ment, a process was going on which may be compendiously
described as the subjection of the Welsh Church. For, although
the term Church can hardly in strictness be applied to a body
which had no constitutional unity, no recognised head and no
synod for common action,^^^ yet the four Welsh dioceses, while
they had no machinery to enable them to act in concert, were
closely knit together by community of sentiment and practice,
and the policy of the conquerors towards them was in essence
the same. If not formally, yet substantially, the measures of
the Normans were directed against a national church.

Of these measures the first in order of importance was the
filling of the Welsh sees with men, who, by making profession
of canonical obedience to the Archbishop of Canterbury, put an
end to the independence of their dioceses and brought them
into the southern province of the English Church. While much
of the evidence advanced at a later time in support of the claim
of St. David's to be a metropolitan see was flimsy and un-
historical, this part of the case undoubtedly rested on a firm
foundation, that the dioceses of Wales had not before the Nor-
man Conquest generally recognised the authority of Canter-

i''^ Synods of the British Church are often mentioned in connection with the
sixth and seventh centuries ; cf. Bede, H.E. ii. 2 (ut secundo synodus pluribus
aduenientibus fieret) ; H. and St. i. 116-8, 121. But nothing of the kind appears
in later times. The " sened " of the laws {LL. i. 18, 52, 356, 476, 478, 638) is
clearly the ecclesiastical court for the trial of offences by or against clerics.

448 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, bury.^^*' The change which was now brought about was,
therefore, fundamental ; it proved irrevocable, and as decisively
marks an epoch in the history of the Welsh Church as the sub-
mission to Rome in the eighth century or the Reformation in
the sixteenth.

The first attempt to subject a Welsh bishopric to Norman
control was made in connection with Earl Hugh of Chester's
brief tenure of power in Anglesey and Snowdonia. The see of
Bangor was at this time vacant, and in 1 092 the earl procured
the election as bishop of a Breton named Herv6,^®^ who was
one of the favourite chaplains of Rufus.^^'^ Owing to the death
of Lanfranc in 1089 and the king's delay in appointing a
successor, there was at the time no Archbishop of Canterbury ;
Herv6 was accordingly consecrated by Archbishop Thomas of
York,^®^ and the question of obedience to a metropolitan is not
known to have arisen.^^* But in other ways national feeling
was unmistakably flouted in the appointment ; the election was
probably a forced one, and ten years later Paschal II. does not
scruple to describe the promotion as barbarously and absurdly
carried out, in a way only half excused by the barbarity of the
people over whom Herve was set.^^^ Bishop and flock never
arrived at an understanding ; the former adopted harsh measures
and relied for protection upon the armed bands who surrounded
him ; the latter retaliated by killing his relatives and threatening
his own life.^®^ Finally, when the Norman power waned in the
district, Herv6 had to beat a retreat ; the pitiful case of the
Welsh bishop who could not live in his diocese engaged for
many years the attention of king, pope and primate, until in
1 1 09 he was translated to the newly established see of Ely.^^^

1*" H. and St. i. 308, note to Wm. Malm. See pp. 287-8 for alleged consecra-
tions of Bishops of Llandaff and St. David's before 1066 by Archbishops of
Canterbury ; the Llandaff cases may be genuine, since the evidence comes from
Lib. Land., but the St. David's instances from R. de Diceto carry no conviction.

181 " Hervei Britonis " (Ord. Vit. xii. i (IV. 312)).

18'^ H. and St. i. 299 (from Arundel MS. 220).

183 Hist. Ch. York, ii. 104 ; H. and St. i. 299 ; Reg. Sacr. (2), 40.

18* No profession of Herv6's is to be found in the Canterbury rolls (H. and
SL i. 299).

188 i< Inter barbaros barbarice et stolide promotus est " (Letter of 12th Dec,
1102, addressed to Anselm — see Eadmer, 139).

186 Angl. Sacr. i. 678-80 ; H. and St. i. 303-6. Cf. Wm. Malm. G.P. 325-6.

187 To the foregoing references, add Angl. Sacr. i. 615-6; Eadmer, 210-1;
Migne, clix. 162-3 (Letter of Anselm to Henry L) ; Wm. Malm. G.R. 517-8 (680).

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 449

Thus the subjection of the see of Bangor under Herve was CHAP,
only temporary, as was the Norman conquest of Gwynedd
which made it possible. It was otherwise in Gwent and
Morgannwg. Not only was the conquest of Robert fitz Hamon
thorough and lasting, but, owing to its nearness to such active
centres of English life as Bristol, Gloucester and Hereford, the
see of Llandaff had for ages been in close touch with England.
The cathedral clergy were largely of English upbringing,^^^ and
during the tenth and eleventh centuries the bishops had com-
monly been consecrated by the English primate.^^^ During
the Norman invasion the bishopric was held by Herwald, a
Welshman educated in England, who had been consecrated in
1056 by Archbishop Kinsige of York,^®*' and who died at a
great age on 6th March, 1 1 04.^^^ Thus there was little resist-
ance to overcome in this region and nothing to do but await
the death of Herwald, when his place might be filled by a
prelate of a less provincial type. Meanwhile, the old man's
weakness exposed the lands of the see to indiscriminate plunder
and left the diocese without a real head.^®^ He was suspended
by Anselm for some fault,^^^ but died nevertheless in possession
of his bishopric. Owing to the quarrel between Henry I. and
Anselm and, it may be, to the illness of Robert fitz Hamon,
there was delay in appointing a successor, and it was not until
nth August, 1 107, that a young cleric of the diocese. Urban,
Archdeacon of Llandaff, was consecrated by the primate at
Canterbury.^^* There is no evidence as to his origin and he

188 <« Propter Anglorum vicinia(m), a quibus in ecclesiastico quidem minis-
terio nichil discrepabant, quia apud eosdem fuerant tam nutriti quam eruditi "
(Letter of Bishop Urban to Calixtus II. — Lib. Land. 88).

189 According to Lib. Land. 246, Gwgon was consecrated by Dunstan, at a
date which may be fixed between 963 (consecration of ^thelwold of Winchester)
and 971 (death of ^Ifheah " dux "—see Fl. Wig. s.a.). The figure DCCCCL-
XXXII is to be taken with " migrauit ad dominum " and gives the year of
Gwgon's death. Bledri was similarly consecrated by Elfric (995-1005), though
elected in 983 (Lib. Land. 252), and Joseph by ^Ethelnoth (1020-1038). The year
in the latter case cannot be 1022, as in the MS. {ibid.), for ^thelnoth was then
at Rome {A.S. Chr. MS. D. s.a.) ; Stubbs suggests 1027 {Reg. Sacr. (2), 34),
when ist October fell upon a Sunday.

1*" Lib. Land. 265-6. P. 280 shows that for 1059, 1056 is to be read (so Reg.
Sacr. (2), 36), a date which explains the part played by Kinsige, since Stigand
did not receive the pall or consecrate bishops until 1058.

i»i Lib. Land. 280. i»a Ibid. 88.

193 Migne, clix. 52-3 ; H. and St. i. 299-300.

"< Lib. Land. 280 ; Eadmer, 187 ; Fl. Wig. s.a.

45° HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, may have been a Welshman,^^^ but what is beyond doubt is that,
before consecration, he promised canonical obedience to Anselm
and his successors, and thus placed Llandafif in definite subordi-
nation to the English primate.^^^

Little is known of the doings of Urban in the early years
of his episcopate, but in the latter part of it he was a prominent
prelate of the English Church and shared fully in its life. He
attended the Council of Rheims in 1119,^®' the Council of
Westminster in 1 125,^^^ and the second Council of Westminster
in 1127,^'^ besides taking part in the consecration of many
bishops. There could be no greater contrast to the seclusion
of Herwald. Nevertheless, he was far from neglecting the
special interests of his see. His little cathedral was only some
twenty-eight by fifteen feet, not reckoning the aisles and the
porch, and he resolved, in accordance with the spirit of the
time, to undertake a scheme of rebuilding. The work was
commenced in 1 1 20,^"" but proceeded slowly for lack of funds ;
it was in progress when John of Crema, the papal legate to
England, visited Llandaff in 1125 and gave his benison to the
enterprise. ^°^ Whether Urban had the satisfaction of seeing
the building completed is not known, but to the movement
initiated by him are no doubt to be attributed the earliest
portions of the existing cathedral, and among them the beauti-
ful presbytery arch, which is believed to have been the chancel
arch of the structure of Urban's planning.^''^ He was also a
doughty combatant on behalf of the rights of his see. His
differences with the chief lord. Earl Robert of Gloucester, were

^8" Urban had a brother who bore the Norman name of " Galfridus " (hih.
hand. 360, from Cott. MS. Vesp. A. xiv.) and another called " Esni " {ihid. 85),
which is apparently English (there was an Esne, bishop of Hereford, in 786—
Reg. Sacr. (2), 15). No inferencecan be drawn from his own name, and the forms
" Worgan " (B. Sues. s.a. 1104) *nd "Gwrfan " (Gw. Brut,s.a. 1103) are of no
authority.

^8^ See the profession in H. and St. i. 303.

^^^ Eadmer, 255 ; Lib. Land. 89.

198 This may be inferred from the fact that the summons received by Urban
and the acts of the Council have been copied into Lib. Land. 49-51. The copyist
seems, however, to be wrong when he states that Urban revived his claim against
the bishops of Hereford and St. David's in this Council. See Cont. Fl. Wig.
s.a. 1 128.

199 Cont. Fl. Wig. s.a. 200 ub. Land. 86. 201 jjj^. ^g.

202 See the account by Freeman of the Norman church in Arch. Camb. II.
1.(1850), 1 13-9.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 451

amicably adjusted, and a formal agreement drawn up at Wood- CHAP,
stock in 1126,^^^ but the struggle with the bishops of St. ^^^'
David's and Hereford, which involved the question of the limits
of their dioceses, he carried on till the day of his death. Re-
ceiving no support in the matter from the English bishops, he
took the case in person to Rome in 1128, and again in 1129,
and was a third time in attendance at the papal court when
death put an end to his efforts at Pisa in the autumn of 1 133.^*'*

The next see to fall under the yoke of Canterbury was St.
David's, and this was a surrender of the highest significance.
For St. David was the best-known saint in Wales, honoured by
the largest number of churches ; his episcopal seat had for ages
been the chief ecclesiastical centre of the country, notwithstand-
ing that the bishop seems to have had none of the privileges
and to have exercised none of the rights of a metropolitan.^^^
Such ecclesiastical culture as flourished in Wales reached its
highest point at St. David's ; at the end of the eleventh
century, the tradition of learning represented earlier by Asser
was still worthily carried on by Bishop Sulien, a native of
Llanbadarn Fawr, who had spent many years in study in the
chief monastic schools of the Celtic world.^''^ Until 1093 the
surroundings of St. David's were purely Welsh, and it was the
fall of Rhys ap Tewdwr which exposed to Norman attack this
ancient stronghold of Welsh religion and ultimately led to the
loss of its independence.

The last of the independent line of bishops was Wilfrid,
who, despite his name, was a Welshman,^"" elected in 1085 on
the retirement of Sulien and consecrated, during the ascendancy

2°^ hih. Land. 27-9.

^'^*Eng. Hist. Rev. ix. (1894), PP- 53I-2. Hen. Hunt, enters the death of
Urban under the thirty-fourth year of Henry I. (253), which, in the case of an
event between 5th August and 31st December, means 1133. Roger of Wen-
dover's unauthorised 1134^ has misled many later writers.

^os On this question see H. and St. i. 148-50.

^o** For Sulien and his descendants see note appended to this chapter.

2"^ This is implied in the statements of Fl. Wig. s.a. 11 15 (usque ad ilium
episcopi extitere Brytonici) and Gir. Camb. vi. 105 (Bernardus . . . primus
Francorum apud Meneviam episcopus). The best attested forms of the name
are Wilfre (Ann. C. MS. B. s.a. 1115 ; Gir. Camb. vi. 104), Wilfridus (MS, C. ;
th Wig.; Eadmer ; Gir. Camb. iii. 152) and Wilfredus (Gir. Camb. vi, 90).
Only B.r.has leffrei (p. 118 — Bruts, 294), and only Gw. Brut Griffri (s.a. 1112),
which are to be rejected, together with the conjecture Gruffydd (H. and St. i.
301).

452 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, of Rhys ap Tewdwr, without reference to Canterbury.^"^ There
is no need to ask, therefore, to which side he gave his sympathy
and countenance in the struggle between Norman and Welsh-
man for the possession of Dyfed. During the siege of Pem-
broke by the Welsh in 1096 he was, as has already been
mentioned, in the counsels of the besieging host, and his
cantref of Pebidiog was raided in the following year by Gerald
of Windsor by way of retaliation.^"^ He is said to have been
seized on one occasion by the men of Arnulf Montgomery and
held a prisoner for forty days.^^** His relations with Anselm
are not easy to define with exactness ; the primate at first
asserted his authority by issuing against him a decree of
suspension, but in the spring of 1095 ^^e tuo came to an
understanding and Wilfrid's position was recognised, with
what sacrifice of liberty on his part it is impossible to say.^^^
Anselm, at any rate, was so far his friend as to write about
1 1 00 to the Norman magnates of Deheubarth, bidding them
respect him as their bishop and, in particular, restore to him
whatever they might have seized of the property of his see.^^^
Under Henry I. he ruled St. David's for fifteen uneventful
years, endeavouring, it would seem, to be at peace with all
men. A letter has been preserved in which he thanks the
abbot of St. Peter's, Gloucester, for the gift of a pastoral staff,
most opportunely made when he was in sore need of one, and
promises in return to protect the rights acquired by the abbey
in the church of Wiston, so long as the monks pay due regard
to his rights as bishop. ^^^ Not long after this, in 1 1 1 5, Wilfrid
died, and at once the question of the future of the see became
one of living and burning interest.

According to the Canterbury monk Eadmer, the clergy of
St. David's asked Henry to nominate Wilfrid's successor,^^* but

•"^ The idea that Sulien was succeeded by his son Rhygyfarch is due to a
slip of the copyist oi Ann. C. MS. C, who wrote ep5 (episcopws) for epT (episcopi)
in the notice " Rikewarth. f. Sulien epC mof ". Cf. also the true text oi Ann. C.
MS. B. s.a. 1085 {Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 176), which has " fre " (for Wilfre),
not "frater " (Ab Ithel's text, p. 28), assumed in H. and St. i. 297 to be an error
for " filius ". The " Rhyddmarch Escob Dewi " of Gw. Brut, s.a. 1098 is of no
authority, and the form " Rhyddmarch " is not elsewhere found.

309 See pp. 407-8 above. "lOQir. Camb. iii. 57 (/ww^cf. ii. 6).

211 Eadmer, 72. The meeting took place at the end of May on the road
between Windsor and Canterbury.

212 See note 13 above. «" Cart. Glouc. i. 265-6. "u p. 235.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 453

this must be regarded as the English official version of the CHAP,
affair, for there is good evidence that the majority of the " clas " ^^^'
resented and treated as an insult the appointment of an out-
sider.^-^^ There were among them men of learning and char-
acter whom they deemed suitable for the office, such as Daniel,
son of Bishop Sulien, who as Archdeacon of Powys played for
many years amid universal esteem the difficult yet honourable
role of mediator between Gwynedd and his adopted province.^^®
But the king was determined to make full use of this oppor-
tunity for completing the conquest of South Wales and to
place in the see a man who could be trusted to come to the aid
of Norman knight or prior or chaplain in any emergency
calling for the intervention of the Church. The representatives
of the " clas," summoned to the capital for the purpose, were
told to elect one Bernard, a chaplain of Queen Matilda's, and
on 1 8th September, 11 15, the election took place, followed on
the same day by the ordination of the bishop-elect as priest at
Southwark. The consecration was pressed on with like ex-
pedition; Sunday, the 19th, saw the ceremony performed at
Westminster, where it had been specially fixed in order to
enable the queen to attend and witness the elevation of her
old servant.^^^ It is scarcely necessary to say that Bernard's
profession of obedience to Canterbury was full and explicit.'^^^

During the lifetime of Henry I. (whom he survived), Bernard
did not fall short of the expectations formed of him as a royal
nominee. He was a good scholar, of polished and easy manners
and conversation,^^® and had no intention of treating his promo-
tion to St. David's as a sentence of banishment. Like Urban
he attended the Councils of Rheims (i i ip)^^*^ and Westminster
(1127);^^^ in 1 121 he was sent across the Channel by the

218 « o anuod hoU ys(c)olheigon y brytanyeit gan eu tremygu " {Bruts,
294 ; B.T. 118). B.T. here represents the view of the contemporary Llanba-
darn chronicler.

"BB.r. s.a. 1124 (= 1127). That he was actually elected (Jones and Freem.
270) is an unwarranted assumption, founded upon a misunderstanding of B.T.'s
description of him as " Daniel uab Sulyen escob Mynyw," which translates the
" Daniel filius Sulgeni episcopi " of ^«m. Catnb. MS. C. s.a. 1127.

217 Eadmer, ut supra. Cf. Fl. Wig. s.a. 11 15.

"1^ H. and St. i. 307.

219 ti vir curialis atque facetus et copiose litteratus " (Gir. Camb. iii. 152-3
{Men. Eccl. ii.)).

220 Eadmer, 255 ; Cont. FI. Wig. s.a. iiig. 221 Cont. Fl. Wig. s.a,
VOL. II. 7

454 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, king to conduct the papal legate Peter to England ;^^^ in 1 123,
after attending the Easter court at Winchester,^^' he went to
Rome with the new Archbishop of Canterbury ; '^^* in 1 1 29 he
was again at Rome in the spring,^^^ and in August attended
the Council of London.^'^* His controversy with Bishop Urban
took him to the second Council of Rheims in 1 1 3 1 ,^^" and in
each of the two following years he was in London upon the
same business. ^^^ But, while his career as a courtier and high
ecclesiastic of the English Church was a busy one, he found
time, like Urban, to watch over the interests of his diocese.
There is evidence that he, too, rebuilt his cathedral, though in
this case the later work of Bishop Peter has swept away every
vestige of the early Norman church.^'^® He took in hand the
reorganisation of the " clas " or cathedral chapter, which re-
ceived as a body and consumed under no fixed rules the large
revenues derived from the lands of the see, particularly in
Pebidiog. It was wasteful and wrong from the Norman point
of view that so much wealth should be lavished upon men
who were under no monastic vows and whose manner of life
was secular and not ascetic. Bernard made the " claswyr "
canons, assigning to each a fixed portion of the somewhat
slender endowment which was left after his extensive grants of
land to the foreign knights settled in Pebidiog as his vassals.^^"
In this as in other respects he was the enemy of the old order,
bent upon introducing into West Wales the ideals now gener-
ally current in Europe. He gave his full support to the new
monasteries founded by the Norman conquerors and was
himself the real founder of the house of black canons at
Carmarthen. '^^^

After the expulsion of Herv6, there seems to have been a

'22 Eadmer, 295. "' Feudal England, p. 483.

"■« Cont. Fl. Wig. j.o. ; H. and St. print (i. 315-6), from Harl. MS. 1249 (see
Owen, Catalogue, p. 236), a confirmation of the rights of the see obtained by
Bernard on 25th May, 1123, from Calixtus II.

226 Lit. Lawrf. 53, «2« Hen. Hunt. 251.

227 Lib. Land. 66. ^as Hen. Hunt. 253.

*•* See Ann. C. s.a. 1131 — " Dedicatio Menevensis ecclesiae." Jones and
Freem. do not, however, regard this notice as conclusive (140).

230 Gir. Camb. iii. 153-4 {Men. Eccl. ii.). Jones and Freem. discuss (310-14)
the questions raised by this passage. No deanery was constituted and St. David's
was without this officer until 1840 (Gir, Camb. i. 41 ; iii. 184 ; Jones and Freem.

355).

8" See p. 432,

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 455

deadlock for about twenty years in regard to the bishopric of chap.
Bangor. The Welsh of Gwynedd were not able to put forward
the name of any candidate acceptable to the king, and they
were too securely entrenched in their mountains to allow
Henry to force a bishop upon them. Whether during this
period they dispensed altogether with episcopal authority, or
actually had a bishop who had received consecration in Ireland,
must remain an open question.^^^ But early in 1 1 20 the
difficulty came to an end. Grufifydd ap Cynan procured the
election of a certain David, and Henry assented to the choice,
provided that the supremacy of Canterbury was fully recog-
nised by the new prelate. According to William of Malmes-
bury, David was none other than the Irish cleric of that name
who had accompanied the Emperor Henry V. on his famous
journey to Italy in 1 1 1 o and had written an account of the
expedition unduly favourable to his royal master.^^^ If this
was the case, it is not hard to see why the king of England
should have so readily agreed to the election of his son-in-law's
courtly chaplain. But the matter remains in some doubt,"^^*
and all that is clear is that David was of Celtic origin ^^^ and
not, like his brother bishop of St. David's, of the dominant
Norman race. Nevertheless, his consecration at Westminster
by Archbishop Ralph on 4th April, 1 1 20,^^® preceded as it was
by a profession of obedience to the see of Canterbury,^^'^ marks
the entry of the third Welsh diocese, the one best able to
preserve its independence, into the position of a subordinate
member of the English Church.

The fourth Welsh see, that of St. Asaph, was during the
whole of this period in abeyance. The position of the cath-
edral, on the border between Wales and England, had always
been unfavourable to the growth of this see, and from 1073

ana The letter of Gruffydd printed in Eadmer, 259-60, suggests that there had
been no bishop (in quibus nee chrisma habuimus nee aliquid Christianitatis vere),
but the threat to go to Ireland (quaeremus aliquem de Hibernia insula), if the
primate will not eonsecrate David, is of some signifieance in this connection.

2^^ G.R. 498-9 (655-6). Ord. Vit. (x. i) also refers to the work of the " Irensis
scholastieus ".

'^^^ See the objections of Prof. Tout in Diet. Nat. Biog. xiv. pp. 1 15-17.

23» According to Ann. Wigorn. s.a. 1120, he was a Welshman, which, with the
Scottus of Wm. Malm., may be taken to show that he was known to come from
the non-Teutonic part of the British Isles.

"8 Eadmer, 260; Cont. Fl. Wig. 5.0. 1120. "s? jj. and St. i. 314.

456 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, to 1 145 St. Asaph itself was within the Engh'sh sphere of
influence, being included in the dominions of the Earl of
Chester,^^^ while the greater part by far of the diocese as since
defined was in the possession of the Welsh. No bishop was,
therefore, chosen during this time, and episcopal duties were
performed in the district by the prelates of neighbouring sees.^^"
Tegeingl was probably treated as a part of the diocese of North-
west Mercia (having its bishop's seat successively at Chester,
Coventry, and Lichfield), and it is in keeping with this that
here only in North Wales was a foreign monastery founded
under Henry L, namely, the abbey of Basingwerk, set up as a
house of the order of Savigny by Earl Ranulf II. of Chester in
1 131. 2*" Southern Powys, on the other hand, was probably
attached for the time to the see of St. David's ; it has already
been shown that there was in this age a close political con-
nection between Powys and Ceredigion,'-^*^ and one may infer
that this extended to church government from the fact that
about 1 125 the Archdeacon of Powys was a member of the
notable family of scholars founded by Bishop Sulien of Llan-
badarn and St. David's. ^*2 yet, although this generation had
never seen a bishop of St. Asaph, the memory of the former
existence of the see had not died out. When in 1 125 attempts
were on foot to compose the eternal feud between the Arch-
bishops of Canterbury and York, it was proposed to transfer
from the former to the latter the bishoprics of Chester and
Bangor and " a third which lies between these two, but is now
vacant, owing to the desolation of the country and the rude-
ness of the inhabitants ".^" The proposal fell through, but it
was seriously entertained, and it deserves notice as an indica-

838 The first date is that of the establishment of Robert at Rhuddlan (see p.
382 above) ; the second is suggested by Owain Gwynedd's capture of Mold in
1 146 and appearance at Coleshill in 1150. Evidence as to the continued predom-
inance of the foreign element in Tegeingl under Henry I. is to be found in the
charters of St. Werburgh's Abbey. In 1119 William of" Punterleya" gives the
church and manor of Bodffari (Buttanari) and " Burell " the church of Holywell ;
under Earl Ranulf I. (112 1-8), his brother William gives the church of Diserth
{Mon. Angl. ii. 387).

^^39 Hen. Hunt, recognises only three Welsh bishoprics (10).

2*0 There is clear evidence that it was founded before 1147 {Eng. Hist. Rev.
viii, (1893), p. 66g) and by Earl Ranulf (H.) — see Charter Rolls ii. 289-91 ; Mon.
Angl. V. 262-3. The precise year is taken from Dugdale.

3*1 See § ii. of this chapter. 24a p, ^61.

^^Hist. Ch. York, ii. 211 (Hugh the Chanter).

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 457
tion of the complete indifference to national sentiment with chap,

XTT

which the authorities of the English Church at this time ap-
proached the consideration of Welsh ecclesiastical problems.
North and South Wales were to be permanently sundered in
all Church relations ; thus does the history of even the dormant
see of St. Asaph illustrate the success with which the Normans
had imposed their yoke upon the Welsh in the religious no less
than in the secular sphere.

The annexation of the bishoprics was historically the most
important feature of the Norman policy of subjugation, and a
few words will suffice in illustration of its other aspects. One
result of Norman ascendancy was the breaking up, wherever it
extended, of the old " clas " organisation. Where the " clas "
had a bishop at its head, it continued to exist as the cathedral
chapter. But elsewhere within the range of Norman influence,
it was either displaced, as at Llanbadarn Fawr and Llandeuly-
ddog, by a new monastic foundation,^*^ or else reduced, as at
Llancarfan and Llanilltud Fawr, to the level of an ordinary
parish church. For the Norman the " clas " was a college of
secular canons, a type of ecclesiastical institution which had
been much discredited, especially in the Norman world, by the
fierce austerity of the Hildebrandine movement, and he felt
under no obligation to protect it. Robert fitz Hamon gave to
the Benedictine abbey of Tewkesbury the revenues of Llanilltud
Fawr ^^^ and to St. Peter's, Gloucester, those of Llancarfan.-*^
Glasbury, the " clas " on the Wye, had been bestowed upon St.
Peter's by Bernard of Neufmarch6 at the very beginning of his
conquest of Brycheiniog.''**'^ It resulted from this action that
the " clas " as an institution survived only in North Wales and
its borders, in churches such as Holyhead, Aberdaron and
Towyn, which were out of reach of the hand of the spoiler.

Another and more straightforward form of plunder was the
seizure of Church property by individual knights and its devo-
tion to their own uses. In the confusion of the conquest it
was almost inevitable that the line of separation between
secular and ecclesiastical property should often be overstepped

'^** See pp. 431-2 above.

^*A/oM. Angl. ii. 65, 67; Cartae Giant, iii. 40. The form used is " Landil-
tuit ",

«« Cart. Glouc. i. 93. «' See p. 397.

4S8 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, and that estates in the hands of the Church should be seized

XII

no less than those yielding a revenue to civil superiors. This

was a kind of encroachment against which even foreign prelates
raised a vigorous protest,^*^ but for the most part without
effect. The see of St. David's lost, if our authorities are to
be trusted, the wealthy manors of Cenarth Mawr, Lawrenny,
Upton, Llanstadwell and St. Ishmael's, all seized by the con-
querors of Dyfed.^*^ Llandaff was so impoverished under the
feeble Herwald that its twenty-four canons had been reduced
in I II 9 to two.^^** The domains of St. Asaph for a while
totally disappeared, and in 1086 laymen held those lands at
Meliden, Kelston, Bryngwyn, Cilowain and Bodeugan which
seem to have been part of the ancient endowment of the
" clas " of Llanelwy.^^^

The last mark of subjection to which reference will be
made had no such practical bearing on the material life of
Wales as those discussed above ; it touched the realm of senti-
ment merely and yet was none the less keenly felt by a people
so imaginative as the Welsh. This was the rededication of
churches bearing the names of Welsh founders, unknown to
the Christian world at large, to saints of wider reputation,
commemorated throughout the length and breadth of Christen-
dom. In the case of the Norman, the change was dictated
by the requirements of fashion ; it was the substitution of the
modem and the civilised for the antique and the grotesque.
But in the eyes of the Welshman, it was the displacement of
the ancient presiding genius of the place ; the new patron
might be dignified and worthy of respect, but he was not, like
the old, rooted in the soil and endeared by a thousand happy
memories. Even the fame of Dewi did not protect him at first
from being eclipsed in his peculiar shrine and habitation at
Mynyw ; his church was dedicated to St. Andrew and his own
name placed second in its official title, as though his unaided

2^* See especially Migne, clix. 214 (Anselm) ; Lib. Land. 93 (Calixtus II.) ;
ibid. 37 (Honorius II.).

*»9Gir. Camb. iii. 152-3 (Men. Eccl. ii.) ; i. 309 {Sym. El. i. 31). For the
identification of " Ucketune " see Owen, Pemb. i. 294.

250 Lib. Land. 88.

2^*1 See Ruestoch (= Meliden, Thomas, St. Asaph, p. 295), Calstan, Brenuuen,
Chiluen, and Bodugan in Domesd. i. 26ga. For an early list of the possessions
of the see, see Thomas, ut supra, 180.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 459

merits were insufficient to secure honour and protection for CHAP,
the spot.2^2 Similarly at Llandafif, St. Peter took precedence
of the ancient patron of the place, St. Teilo,^^^ and at Car-
marthen, St. John the Evangelist was set before, and finally al-
together ousted, the obscure Teulyddog.^^* Glasbury, passing
under the control of St. Peter's, Gloucester, abandoned Cynidr
for the apostle honoured by its masters, though Cynidr's Well
is to this day pointed out in the parish.^^^ In many cases an
attempt was made to soften the harshness of the transition by
choosing a new saint whose name would vaguely recall that of
the old. Thus at Cilgerran, Llawddog was succeeded by St.
Laurence; 2^^ at Rockfield, Cynfal made way for St. Kenelm
(a Mercian saint, with no Welsh connections) ; ^^^ at Foy, Tyfoe
became St. Faith.^^^ In general, however, the effect was to
add greatly to the number of St. Mary's, St. Nicholas's, St.
Peter's, St. Thomas's and St. Andrew's in Wales, and to uproot
many ancient ecclesiastical landmarks, which told of the heroic
days, lying far back in the past, of the Church now fallen into
weakness and bonds.

Note to Chapter xii. § 4. — Bishop Sulien and his Family.

A twofold interest attaches to Sulien (Old Welsh Sulgen— c/. Lib. Land.
145, 154-6, etc.), the last but one of the independent bishops of St. David's; in
the first place, the testimony of B.T. as to his eminence as a teacher is confirmed
by the existence of MSS. written, as well as a work composed, under his guid-
ance ; secondly, he founded a family of scholars, known in Central Wales for

2S2 See Eadmer, 235 (sub patrocinio Beati Andreae et Sancti David) ; H. and
St. i. 315 ; Gir. Camb. vi. 107 {Itin. ii. i).

25* Lib. Land, passim. The forms " episcopus teiliav," " sacerdos teiliav,"
and " tota familia teliaui " in the Book of St. Chad show that anciently only
Teilo was recognised.

264 See Carm. Cart., in which " ecclesia sancti Johannis Evangelistae et
sancti Theulaci de Kermerdyn " is a common form, but not nearly so common as
the Church of St. John the Evangelist simpliciter.

255 See chap. viii. note 249.

256 J. R. Phillips, History of Cilgerran (London, 1867), pp. 50-2.

2" The Church of St. " Kinephaut" of* Rokevilla" is mentioned in a bull
of Urban III. (28th December, 1186) as belonging to St. Florent of Saumur {Cat.
Doc. Fr. i. 405 ; Marchegay, 14). It is the " aecclesiam Sancti Cenfaldi " of
William fitz Baderon's grant \Cal. Doc. Fr. i. 407 ; Marchegay, 18) to Monmouth
Priory (a cell of St. Florent) and, no doubt, the " merthir (or lann) cmfall " of
Lib. Land. 171, 173, 264. Round {Cal. Doc. Fr. i. li.) is in error as to the
present dedication of Rockfield (see Welsh SS. pp. 322, 344), and his " Cennfae-
ladh" (p. 407) is an Irish and not a Welsh form.

258 The " lann tiuoi " of Lib. Land. 275 is clearly Foy, now dedicated to the
virgin St. Fides.

46o HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, nearly a century, and thus his career serves to remind us that the system of
XII. hereditary succession which had rooted itself so firmly among the Welsh clergy
(see p. 215 above) had its merits as well as its defects.

According to Ann. C. and B.T. he was Bishop of St. David's from 1072 or
1073 to 1078, when he resigned and was succeeded by Abraham, and again, after
the murder of Abraham by the Norsemen, from 1080 to 1085, when he resigned a
second time. He died on ist January, 1091, at the age of eighty (so the Bruts ;
the Ixxj;. oi Ann. C. MS. C, is probably for lxx;ir.), having won the highest repute
for wisdom and given instruction to many scholars. From a Latin poem to
which reference will shortly be made some further particulars of his life may be
gleaned. He was a native of Llanbadarn Fawr, sprung, it may be, from a clerical
iaxaWy {" sapientum . . . parentum " suggests this), and early distinguished him-
self by a thirst and aptitude for learning. After some study in Welsh
(" Britannas ") schools, he sailed for Ireland, still famous for its teachers, but
was driven by contrary winds to Scotland (" Albania"), where he studied for five
years. He then carried out his purpose of visiting Ireland (" Scotorum arua ")
and remained in the island for thirteen (?) years. He returned to Ceredigion
(" ad patriam remeans") and there earned great renown as a teacher ; four sons,
Rhygyfarch the Wise, Arthen, Daniel and John, were born to him, whose educa-
tion he made his special care. In late life he was chosen Bishop of St. David's
(" Uallis Rosinae ") and held the office for twelve years, but not continuously,
for " bis revocatus " confirms the statement of the chronicles that he was twice
called to it, the second time after an interval of retirement. He resigned once
more, but was still alive (" in senio ") when the poem was written.

As to the poem itself, it was composed by Sulien's son John or leuan be-
tween 1085 and 1091, and written by him on the fly-leaves of a copy of the
De Trinitate of St. Augustine which he was at the time transcribing. The MS.
is now at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (No. 199), and the full text of the
poem may be seen in H. and St. i. 663-7. leuan copied the theological treatise
at his father's request (" genitoris nota "), and the result is of interest, not only as
evidence of the scope of the studies in Sulien's school, but also as a specimen of
old Welsh handwriting just before it was profoundly modified by Norman in-
fluences (Rhys, quoting Bradshaw, in W. Ph. (2) p. 248). Another MS. written
in the same hand and coming from the same school is the Psalter at Trinity
College, Dublin (A. 4, 20), which contains Jerome's direct translation from the
Hebrew. The scribe was apparently one " Ithael," but leuan ap Sulien was the
illuminator, and certain Latin verses in the MS. are by Rhygyfarch, another son of
the great doctor. See Arch. Camb. I, i. (1846), 117-25 (J. O. Westwood), H.
and St. i. 189-90, Bradshaw, Collected Papers, p. 477. Lastly, the well-known
life of St. David in Vesp. A. xiv., though not preserved in an eleventh-century
MS., purports to be the work of " Ricemarchus" and may safely be regarded as
another product of the activity of the school of Sulien.

The chronicles enable us to follow the fortunes of Sulien's posterity until
the middle of the twelfth century. Rhygyfarch (for his supposed episcopate see
note 208 above) died in 1099 at the age of forty-two, having received no other in-
struction than his father's and yet having won wide repute as a man of learning.
A poem of his, preserved in Cotton MS. Faustina C. i. (fo. 66a) records the tribu-
lations which befell the Welsh of Deheubarth as the result of the Norman irrup-
tion of 1093 and reproaches them for their feeble resistance to the invader. His
son Sulien, called after his grandfather, was left an orphan at a tender age and
was brought up by the clergy of Llanbadarn ("mab maeth eglvi^^s Han padarn,"
— B. Sues. s.a. 1145) ; he also cultivated learning and was much in request as a
peacemaker and a judge. He died, probably at Llanbadarn, on 22nd September,
1147, leuan died on 30th March, 1137; though his father's name is not given

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.— SECOND STAGE. 461

the man who is described as " archpresbyter of Llanbadarn " and "wisest of CHAP.
the wise " can scarcely have been other than the son of Sulien. Of Arthen XII.
ap Sulien nothing is known, but Henry ab Arthen, the " foremost scholar in
Wales in his time" {B. Sues.), who died in 1163, was no doubt his son and a
representative in the third generation of the traditions of his house. The fourth
son of the bishop, named Daniel, became Archdeacon of Powys, in the days when
there was close connection between that region and Ceredigion, and died at the
endof 1127, having played an eminent part as intermediary between Gwynedd
and Powys. His son, Cydifor ap Daniel, died Archdeacon of Cardigan in 1163
and thus the family kept up the tie with the land of their origin until their disap-
pearance from the ken of the historian.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE NATIONAL REVIVAL.

{Ann. C, the Bruts and Buck. Gr. ap C. are the principal authorities for this
section.)

I. The Recovery of Gwynedd.

CHAP. The death of Henry I, on ist December, 113 5, brought about
an immediate change in the position of affairs in Wales.
Everywhere the foreign yoke was cast off, the power of the
new settlers was dauntlessly challenged, and a new spirit of
daring and independence seemed to have seized the whole
Welsh race. It was not that advantage was taken of the
succession of a weak ruler to the throne of the indomitable
Henry, for the rising was instantaneous and it spread from end
to end of Wales long before there was time to try the mettle
of Stephen. It was not the outburst of the revolt, but its un-
checked progress, which revealed the weakness of the king.
Under any king, it would for a time have seriously taxed the
resources of the crown, for in it forces found vent which had
long been gathering strength, but had been hitherto repressed
and restrained by the personal ascendancy of Henry.

The quarter of Wales which had least felt the weight of the
late king's hand had been Gwynedd, and it was natural, there-
fore, that the new movement should find its centre and inspira-
tion here. Throughout the reign of Henry, Gwynedd had been
quietly winning back its old freedom and supremacy, which had
been so shaken by the conquests of Robert of Rhuddlan and
Earl Hugh of Chester. It will be well, before describing the
dramatic crisis of 1135-37, briefly to trace the course of
events in this part of the country, where the preparations for
the change of scene had been slowly going on, out of ken of
all but the acutest observers.

462

THE NATIONAL REVIVAL. 463

During the period 1 100-14 Grufifydd ap Cynan, with no CHAP,
rival to disturb his peace of mind, had made himself master of
the country west of the Conway.^ By the death of Earl Hugh
the Fat in 1101/ his most formidable adversary was removed
from his path ; the earldom of Chester underwent a long
minority, for Richard was only seven at his father's death.^ So
substantial had the power of Grufifydd become that in 11 14
Henry deemed it wise to lead an expedition against him.*
There was no lack of pretexts for the attack ; Earl Richard had
serious complaints to make of the way in which the king of
Gwynedd received fugitive vassals of his from Rhos, and at
midsummer a large force moved upon Wales. The princes of
Powys took fright at the invasion ; Maredudd ap Bleddyn
hastened to make his peace with the king, while Owain ap
Cadwgan transferred himself and his belongings to the moun-
tain fastnesses of the West, but the issue of the campaign shows
that it was Grufifydd who had really to dread the king's coming.
The army advanced in three detachments ; from the south
came the Normans of Deheubarth, aided by a contingent from
Devon and Cornwall,^ and at Mur y Castell, near Trawsfynydd,
joined the king, who had travelled westward by the old Roman
road across the Berwyn. The third detachment was led by
King Alexander I. of Scotland and Earl Richard, and no doubt
set out from Chester by the coast road leading to the mouth of
the Conway.^ Against so brave a muster of royal troops the

^ See note 56 to chap. xii.

Mmw. Cest. and Ann. C. s.a. iioi ; B.T. p. 66. Ord. Vit. x. 18 (IV. in)
gives the day as 27th July, and says he died in his own abbey of St. Werburgh's,
Chester.

3" Puer vii annorum " {An7i. Cest. s.a. iioi). The Welsh authorities (Ann.
C. MS. C, B.T., B. Saes.) all call him Roger, a mistake which clearly goes back
to the original Llanbadarn record.

*Ann. C. s.a. 1114; B.T. pp. 112-18 ; B. Saes. s.a. iiii ; Buck. Gr. ap C.
124 (733a) ; A.S. Chr. MS. E. s.a. 1114 {cf. also MS. H. in Plummer, i. 245) ; Fl.
Wig. s.a. 1 1 14.

■'' I cannot identify the *' Gilbert tywyssawc o gernyw " of B.T. [B. Saes.
calls him " Gilbert iarll hoU dehev Uoegyr a chyrnyw ").

^ The statement that Alexander and the earl came to "Pennant Bachwy"
(B.T. MS. C, B. Saes. — the Red Book has " Pennaeth," Bruts, 293) raises
serious difficulties. For Pennant Bachwy or Bacho is in the Plinlimmon region
(L. G. Cothi, 468), a little east of Dylife, and very far from any line which we
can suppose the Earl of Chester to have taken in his march against Gruffydd.
Either the original chronicler substituted for an unfamiliar name one with which
he was acquainted or the meeting-place of the southern contingent has been
accidentally assigned to the northern.

464 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Welsh could do little ; there was no fighting and the campaign
resolved itself into a matter of negotiations between Owain and
the king and between Gruffydd and the leaders of the northern
detachment. Owain regained the royal favour on compara-
tively easy terms, but Gruffydd, in addition to rendering
homage and fealty, had to pay a heavy fine. He lost no
territory or prestige, but it is easy to see that the expedition
made a serious impression upon him, for in the following year
he was ready to give up Gruffydd ap Rhys to Henry's
vengeance and seven years later could not be persuaded again
to take up arms against so mighty a king.

Gruffydd was, in fact, growing old ; he was not far from
sixty, and the blindness of his last years was probably already
creeping upon him. It is not surprising, therefore, that he
should begin to fall into the background of the story and play
a somewhat passive part, while the forefront of the stage is
occupied by his sons, now growing to vigorous manhood. By
his wife Angharad, the flaxen-haired daughter of Owain ab
Edwin, whom he married about 1095, he had three sons,
Cadwallon, Owain, and Cadwaladr, and five daughters,^ and
about 1 1 20 the two elder sons, it would seem, were old enough
to take the field in place of their father. The task which was
to engage them for the next fifteen years or so was the break-
ing up of the influence exercised by the house of Powys, both
directly and through dependent chiefs, upon the lands which
bordered their realm to the north-west, and the annexation of
these to Gwynedd. In the furtherance of this scheme they
were greatly helped by the weakness of the line of Bleddyn,
which after the death of Owain ap Cadwgan in 1 1 1 6 had no
able representative and was much divided in its interests.
Maredudd ap Bleddyn was the most notable figure in their
midst, a man of the older generation who by escaping ass-
assination outlived all the younger members of that turbulent
clan and died in 1 132 lord of the whole land of Powys.^ But

''Buck. Gr. ap C. ii8 {730), where Angharad is described as " walltwen " ;
B.T. 152 (s.a. 1 122). The daughters were Gwenllian (not the wife of
Cadwgan ap Bleddyn — see note 57 to chap. xii. — but of Gruffydd ap Rhys),
Marared, Rannillt (the name of Gruffydd's mother), Susanna (who married
Madog ap Maredudd) and Annest.

8 " Dux Powisorum " {Ann. C. MS. B. s.a. 1132); " tegwch a diogelwch
hoU powys ae hamdifyn " {B.T. 156).

THE NATIONAL REVIVAL. 4^5

he was in no position to contend against the rising ambition of CHAP.
Gwynedd ; when in 1 1 2 1 King Henry led an expedition against
him,^ provoked by attacks which had been made upon the
defenceless lands of Cheshire/" he was forced to retreat for
protection to the Snowdonian wilds and to appeal to Gruffydd
for support. The king of Gwynedd was not prepared to risk
anything on behalf of the rival dynasty ,^^ and Maredudd had
to purchase peace by the payment of a fine of 1 0,000 cattle.

The first advances of Gwynedd to the east were made
across the Conway, into the regions of Rhos and Rhufoniog,
lying between that river and the Clwyd. In 11 18 there had
been an important change in the political situation in these
cantrefs ; Hywel ab Ithel, who had long ruled them under the
protection of Powys,^^ made war upon his neighbours, the sons
of Owain ab Edwin, who were lords of the cantref of Dyffryn
Clwyd,^^ Hywel brought Maredudd ap Bleddyn, with 400
warriors from Powys, to his aid, while Gronw ab Owain and
his brethren had the help of Norman knights from the lands of
the Earl of Chester, which still extended as far as Rhuddlan, if
not Degannwy. A bloody battle was fought at Maes Maen
Cymro, a mile to the north-west of Ruthin,^* in which Hywel

8 For this expedition see Ann. C. s.a. 1121 ; B.T. 146-50; B. Saes. s.a.
1118; A.S. Chr. MS. E. s.a. 1121 ; Cont. Fl. Wig. s.a. 1121; Wm. Malm.
G.R. 477 (628). B.T. tells how an arrow shot at random by one of Maredudd's
skirmishers struck the king in the region of the heart, his coat of mail alone
shielding him from instant death. It makes merry over his alarm, but a differ-
ent complexion is put upon the affair by Wm. Malm., who says that Henry was
firmly convinced that the shaft was sped by a traitor in the ranks of his own army.

'^'^Sim. Dun. ii. 263. Earl Richard and his wife Matilda, sister of the
future king Stephen, were drowned in the White Ship off Barfleur on 25th
November, 1120 (Ann. Cest. s.a.\ Ord. Vit. x. 18; xii. 26; Wm. Malm. G.R.
496-7 (654)). Richard's cousin, Ranulf of Bayeux, also known as " le Meschin "
or " the younger," was raised to the earldom in 1121 [Ann. Cest. s.a. ; Ord. Vit.
xii. 28 ; Rot. Norm. ii. p. cliv). The " sons of the king of the Welsh " were prob-
ably Gruffydd and Hywel ap Maredudd, who died in 1128 and 1142 respectively ;
the two castles burnt would be not far from Maelor.

" So the Bruts ; here, as throughout the reign of Henry I., they take the
standpoint of Powys, but this testimony is to be preferred to the vague assertions
of Gruffydd's panegyrist (Buck. Gr. ap C. 126 (733)) as to his resolute resistance
in 1121.

^^See p. 416.

'^ As the cantref contained three commotes (Dogfeiling or Rhuthyn, Llan-
nerch and Coleion), it was easily divided between several lords.

^■* Maes Maen Cymro is a township in the parish of Llanynys and lies, I am
informed by Mr. Ezra Roberts of Ruthin, in the neighbourhood of Rhewl railway
station. The battleground was thus on the border between Dyffryn Clwyd
and Cymeirch (a commote of Rhufoniog).

466 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, and his forces won the day and Llywarch ab Owain was slain.
But Hywel himself was severely wounded, and his death six
weeks later turned the momentary victory into a real defeat.
There would seem to have been no one of his line to take his
place, and his overlord, the king of Powys, was not strong
enough to annex the two cantrefs to his own realm. Accord-
ingly, they fell into the grasp of the sons of Gruffydd ap
Cynan, for, though this is not expressly stated in the chronicles,
it is clearly implied in what is said of the further progress of
Gwynedd to the east.^^

The next region in which they showed their strength was
Meirionydd. This cantref, it has been seen,^^ was bestowed by
Cadwgan ap Bleddyn, in the heyday of his power, upon
Uchtryd ab Edwin, to be held as a vassal state of Powys,
Uchtryd had not served his masters with particular fidelity, and,
on the death of Owain in 1 1 1 6, he resolved to be free and be-
gan to build at Cymer, the " confluence " of the Wnion and the
Mawddach,^'' a castle which was to guarantee him his independ-
ence. Einion ap Cadwgan and Gruffydd ap Maredudd at once
took up the challenge, attacked Meirionydd, destroyed the new
castle and drove Uchtryd into flight. So far as is known, he
never regained the position of a lord of territory, but lived, a
landless man, with his nephews in Dyff"ryn Clwyd.^^ Meir-
ionydd was now made a part of the kingdom of Powys, and for
seven years was governed by Einion ap Cadwgan. But on his
death in 1123 quarrels arose among his kinsmen as to who
should succeed him. Cadwallon and Owain,^^ the sons of
Gruffydd ap Cynan, saw their opportunity and invaded the
cantref in the interests of Gwynedd. Their first step was to

i^It is to be borne in mind that the Llanbadarn chronicler is a partisan of
Powys and records nothing which can redound to the credit of Gwynedd.
Hence the story of the successes of the sons of Gruffydd has to be read into his
narrative as an inevitable deduction from the plain facts.

i^See p. 416.

1^ " Upon a little bank near the monastery, called Y Pentre, once stood
Castell Cymmer " (Robert Vaughan apud Camb. Reg. i. igoand Arch. Camb. II.
i. (1850), 202). A tumulus marks the spot.

^^ He was with them in the battle of Maes Maen Cymro.

^^ First mentioned in this annal. " Kadwalladyr " (Bruts, 307) is a slip on
the part of the scribe of the Red Book ; all the other texts, including Mostyn MS.
116 (Evans, Rep. i. p. 59), have Cadwallon. The same mistake is made by this
copyist in writing out the annal 1124. Cadwaladr was the youngest of the three
brothers and does not appear until 1136,

THE NATIONAL REVIVAL. 467

carry off the inhabitants and their property into their own C^^J'-
territories, but this can only have been a temporary measure
and must ere long have been followed by their definite occupa-
tion of the district, from which Owain sallied forth in 1 1 36, when
he opened his campaign against the Normans of Ceredigion.
The men of Powys were too weak to retaliate upon them and
could only punish their ally, Llywarch ap Trahaearn of Arwystli,
who, as usual, had taken the side of the enemies of the house
of Bleddyn.

Dyffryn Clwyd next went the way of Rhos and Rhufoniog,
In 1 1 24 Cadwallon, who was clearly as unscrupulous as he
was energetic, slew the three rulers of the cantref, Gronw,
Rhiryd, and Meilyr ab Owain, notwithstanding that they were
his mother's brothers. The annexation of this region to
Gwynedd no doubt immediately followed, for only thus can
we account for the presence of Cadwallon some years later in
the valley of the Dee and for the appearance in the following
reign of Owain's men before Mold. Thus ended the house of
Edwin of Tegeingl as a ruling dynasty ; it had striven to
use its position in the border lands which parted Gwynedd
from Powys so as to pit the one powerful neighbour against
the other, and, like the Count of St. Pol, who played a
similar part in the struggle between Louis XL and Charles
the Bold, had earned the distrust of both. Between the
upper and the nether millstone, it had been ground to
powder.

In 1 1 32 the victorious career of Cadwallon came suddenly
to a close. Still pressing eastward from the vantage-ground of
his recent conquests, he was brought to a stand in the commote
of Nanheudwy, not far from Llangollen,^^ and there defeated
and slain by an army from Powys, in which his cousin,
Cadwgan ap Gronw ab Owain, bore a part and thereby
avenged his father's death. For a time a limit was set to the
growth of Gwynedd and the men of Powys had a measure of
relief But the work had substantially been done which was
to make Owain, when he succeeded to his father's throne, the
most powerful of the Welsh princes and Gwynedd the chief

2" " Nanneudui " {Ann. C. MS. B.) ; " nanhevdwy" {B. Saes. s.a. 1129).
Ann. Cest. mentions the death of "Cadwathlan " in battle s.a. 1132, but I can-
not locate its " Wadiece ".

468 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, state of Wales. The author of the Life of Gruffydd ap CynaUy
' at the close of his narrative, allows us to hear, above the clash
of arms which fills the rest of his story, the piping notes of
peace and of jocund plenty, as he tells of the prosperity of
Gwynedd in these days of security from foreign alarms. No
longer did men build and sow for the needs of a single year,
with fear in their hearts that the raider from across the hills
might at any moment give hut and harvest to the flames.
They planted orchards and laid out gardens, set up fences and
dug out ditches ; they ventured to build in stone and, in par-
ticular, raised stone churches in place of the old timber ora-
tories. Thus arose many an " Eglwys Wen " or " White Church,"
gleaming in its coat of limewash,^^ until, as the writer puts it,
the face of Gwynedd was bespangled with them as is the firma-
ment with stars ! Gruffydd himself built great churches in the
principal royal manors, and, though none of these have survived
the rebuilding which was so general in the later Middle Ages,
the Norman doorway of Aberffraw may well be a relic of his
work.^^ It was possibly his example which stirred up the re-
ligious communities of Gwynedd to the renewing of their
ancient sanctuaries and thus produced the Norman churches,
still in a large measure intact, of Penmon, Aberdaron and
Towyn.

When Gruffydd died in 1 137,'^^ he had thus the satisfaction
of knowing that he bequeathed to his sons a wider and more
prosperous realm than any it had been his lot to rule in earlier
years. Old,'^* decrepit and blind, he had no personal share in
the great upheaval which marked the last two years of his reign,
but the successes of Owain and his young brother, Cadwaladr
(who now appears upon the scene), were all the more grateful to
him in that he knew them to rest for foundation upon his own
labours in the day of small things. He made a pious and
peaceful end, having around his death-bed Bishop David of

21 For the whitewashing of churches see North. Old Churches of Arllech-
wedd (Bangor, 1906), p. 83, and cf. Myv. Arch. I. 360 (249), where Llywelyn
Fardd describes Towyn as

" Eglwys wenn wyngalch wynhaed ".

'^'^Arch. Camb. I. i. (1846), 62.

2=1 The date comes from Ann. C. and the Brtits, the particulars from Bitch.
Gr. ap C. 128 (734).

24 <« Dwy flynedd a phetwar ugeint."

THE NATIONAL REVIVAL. 469

Bangor, the archdeacon of the diocese, Simeon of Clynnog,^^ CHAP,
and the Prior of St. Werburgh's, Chester, and leaving sums
of money for the good of his soul to many notable churches
of his own and other lands. 2" Among these he did not forget
the Danish foundation of Christ Church, Dublin,^^ where he
had worshipped as a boy. He left to his wife, who survived
him twenty-five years,^^ a suitable maintenance, including the
profits of the port and ferry of Aber Menai, the scene of many
of his youthful adventures. Welsh sentiment forbade him to
bestow the whole of his kingdom upon his eldest son, Owain,
and thus a division with Cadwaladr took place which sacrificed
the unity of Gwynedd and gave rise in course of time to serious
disputes. His remains were laid to rest in a tomb erected in
the presbytery of Bangor Cathedral, to the left of the high altar.
So rested at last a man whose life had been troubled and stormy
in no common degree.

n. The Great Revolt.

The great revolution in Welsh affairs which now took place
was long remembered by the foreign settlers as a turning-point
in the history of their adopted country. The day of Henry's
death was for them as fateful as was for another aristocracy in
a later age the day of the capture of the Bastille. Portents
were believed to have marked it, such as startled the people of
Elfael, where a lake and a reservoir both burst their banks on
this ill-omened night.^^ It was reckoned a striking proof of the
powers of divination possessed by the Flemings of Dyfed that

25"Symeon archdiagon gwr addfed o oed a doethineb." He died in 1152
(B. Saes. s.a. 1151, the " Kelynnawc " of which is to be preferred to the " Keuei-
lawc"ofB.T. 180). In Cont. Fl. Wig. s.a. 1139, he appears as the spiritual
adviser of Bishop David's successor, Meurig, who urged the new prelate not to
swear fealty to the king of England. In 1148 Bernard of St. David's invites him,
as a known sympathiser with the claims of that see, to support them in the forth-
coming Council of Rheims (Gir. Camb. iii. 59). As in St. Asaph, there was at
this time but one archdeacon in the diocese.

26 Besides Dublin, the list includes St. Werburgh's, St. Peter's, Shrewsbury,
St. David's, Bangor, Holyhead, Penmon, Clynnog, Bardsey, Meifod, Llanarmon
(in Yale?) and Dineirth (Llandrillo in Rhos). Most of the Welsh churches
named are known to have been ancient mother churches having a " clas ".

27 Founded by Sitric of the Silken Beard, it is said, about 1040.

28 See B.T. 196; B. Saes. s.a. 1161 = 1162.

29 Gir. Camb. vi. 19 (Itin. i. i). Hoare {Itin. i. 6) suggests that the lake was
Llyn Bychllyn, near Llanbedr Painscastle.

VOL. II. 8

470 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, many of them, six and even twelve months previously, had read
' the signs of the coming storm, and had thereupon without hesi-
tation sold all they had and quitted the doomed colonies, where
as yet no cloud appeared above the horizon.^**

It was immediately after the coronation of Stephen that the
first outburst took place. Hywel ap Maredudd, a Welsh chief
who had retained some authority in the western parts of Bry-
cheiniog, gathered an army in this district and descended upon
the plains of Gower, a region in which not only Norman, but
also English colonists had settled in great numbers under the
protection of the Earls of Warwick. Somewhere between
Loughor and Swansea a battle was fought on the i st of Janu-
ary, 1 1 36, in which the Welsh had their first taste of victory,
killing over 500 of their adversaries.^^ It was the signal for a
general uprising throughout South Wales. Gruffydd ap Rhys
now saw the opening for which he had long waited, and, realis-
ing that the crisis called for something more than local action,
and was, in fact, a national opportunity, he made his way with
all speed to Gwynedd and appealed to the sons of Gruffydd ap
Cynan to help him in the endeavour to rid Deheubarth of its
foreign oppressors. Meanwhile, his wife Gwenllian, who was
a daughter of the king of Gwynedd, took the field against the
foreigner and marched against the castle and town ot Kidwelly.
This romantic adventure had a tragic end ; a little north of the
town she was met by Maurice of London, now lord of the dis-
trict, and totally routed ; she herself was slain and with her her
young son Morgan, while another, Maelgwn, was taken prisoner. ^^
She had chosen to play a part which, in Wales, as in other
Christian lands, was deemed unfitting to her sex, but patriotism
has lovingly preserved her memory in the name, still borne by
the battlefield, of Maes Gwenllian.^^

The Kidwelly victory was, however, but a casual triumph

30 Gir. Camb. vi. 88 {Itin. i. ii).

aiCont. Fl. Wig. s.a. 1136, MS. G.; Gesta St. 11 (10); Gir. Camb. vi. 78
(Itin. i. 9), whose "Anglos de finibus illis" is evidence of the existence of an
English colony. The Bruts carefully distinguish Hywel ap Maredudd of Brych-
einiog from his namesake (grandson of Rhydderch ap Caradog) of Cantref Bychan.

^^ Gir. Camb. vi. 79 {Itin. i. 9). For Gwenllian and her children see Jesus
Coll. MS. 20 in Cymr. viii. 88 (No. xxv.). The mention of " Gaufrido praesulis
constabulario " would almost seem to imply that Bishop Roger had, while parting
with the lordship, retained his hold of the castle. See p. 429.

33 Hoare, Itin. i. i68.

THE NATIONAL REVIVAL. 47 ^

for the Anelo-Norman forces, and soon there followed an event CHAP,

XIII

which had the most disastrous consequences for them.^*
Richard fitz Gilbert, the powerful lord of Ceredigion, was with
King Stephen in the early part of the year, but, having failed
to extort from him the concessions he desired, returned in anger
to the marches of Wales. Upon reaching Abergavenny, on
15th April, he was warned by Brian fitz Count, ruler of Upper
Gwent, of the dangerous state of the country, and offered an
escort as far as Brecon. But Richard would have no help ;
long years of unquestioned supremacy had bred in him an over-
weening confidence, and when the thick woods of Coed Grwyne
were reached, on the borders between Gwent and Brycheiniog,
he dismissed Brian and his knights and rode unarmed with a
few followers into the forest. The tale was even told that he
bade a fiddler and a minstrel play and sing before him as he
went, so that all might see with how light a heart he undertook
this journey. He had not gone far ere he fell into an ambush
set for him by the Welshmen of Gwent under lorwerth ab
Owain, grandson of the Caradog ap Gruffydd who was so
powerful in this district in the days of the Conqueror. He and
his company were soon cut down, and the tidings spread apace
that the mightiest of the Norman magnates of Western Wales
had been laid low by the prowess of the insurgents.

No sooner did the news reach Gwynedd than Owain and
Cadwaladr prepared to invade Ceredigion, which had been thus
bereft of its lord. They were already established in Meirionydd,
on the northern side of the Dovey estuary,^^ and the fact that
Ceredigion had formerly belonged, not to Gwynedd, but to
Deheubarth, did not, it may be regarded as certain, delay their
advance for a single moment. They entered the province from

8* Cont. Fl.Wig. s.a. 1136, MS.G. ; Gesta Si. 12 (lo-ii) ; Gir. Camb. vi.
47-8 {Itin. i. 4), whose account, as it is the fullest, so also seems the most reason-
able (except for the fiddling incident, which may be an embellishment of oral
tradition). Ann. C. MS. B. and the Bruts make Morgan ab Owain, lorwerth's
elder brother, the doer of the deed ; he probably laid the plan which his brother
executed. For the ancestry of both see B.T. 210. The "evil pass " of " Coit
Wroneu " must have been near the point where the Grwyne crosses the direct
route from Brecon to Abergavenny ; for it seems clear that Giraldus and Baldwin
followed this road. Hoare's assumption (Itin. i. 93) that they went round by
Talgarth is unsupported by any evidence. His " Coed Dias " is, therefore, too
far to the north ; moreover '* dias " = vengeance is not Welsh, and the true name
of the spot is Coed Euas = the Wood of Ewias (Owen, Pemb. i. 199).

»» See p. 467.

472 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, the north, and soon stormed and burnt the castles of Walter
^^^^' de Bee at Llanfihangel ^*^ and of the Clares at Aberystwyth.
How they dealt with Llanbadarn is not on record, but the
sudden change at this point in the attitude of the Llanbadarn
chronicler is full of significance ; whereas under Henry I. he
reserves his praises for the chieftains of Powys and towards the
end of the reign grows perfunctory and lifeless in his notices,
the entry of Owain and Cadwaladr is hailed by him with trans-
ports of delight and they are lauded to the skies as " two bold
lions, virtuous, fearless and wise, who guard the churches and
their indwellers, defend the poor and overcome their enemies,
affording a safest retreat to all who seek their protection "}"
The two princes, it is clear, treated with respect the property
of Llanbadarn, while at the same time restoring to its former
position the Welsh element which had been dislodged to make
room for the monks of Gloucester. ^^ Marching southward,
they were joined by Hywel ap Maredudd of Cantref Bychan
and Madog ab Idnerth ^^ of Rhwng Gwy a Hafren and took
three more castles, that of Richard de la Mare, of unknown
situation, that of Dineirth, possibly near Llanbadarn Tref-
eglwys,*" and that of Caerwedros, at Llwyn Dafydd.^^ They
had now collected an embarrassing amount of plunder and
returned home to dispose of it before undertaking further
operations.

It was not long, however, ere they reappeared upon the
scene. About Michaelmas they again invaded the province,
accompanied not only by the princes who had been with them
in the earlier part of the year, but also by Gruffydd ap Rhys *^
All the Welshmen of Central Wales were in their train, includ-
ing not only foot soldiers innumerable, but also many hundreds
of well-armed horsemen, for the Welsh had now learnt the
arts of knighthood from their Norman masters and could
put heavy cavalry in the field as well as the old national in-
fantry.^^ The host made straight for Cardigan, the principal
castle of the province, hoping by its capture to complete the

36 See note 86 to chap. xii. ^'^ Bruts, 309. *^ See p. 432.

3» See note 31 to chap. xii. **> Meyrick, Card. (2), 262. ^^ Ibid. p. 233.

*^ Ann. C. and Bruts ; Cont. Fl. Wig. s.a. 1136 ; Gesta St. 12-13 (11-12) ;
Gir. Camb. vi. 118 {I tin. ii. 3).

*3 '• Gens haec . . . armis ... at equis a Normannis et Anglis . . . edocta
paulatim et assueta" (Gir. Camb. vi. 218 {Descr. ii. 7)).

THE NATIONAL REVIVAL. 473

conquest of Ceredigion, but was confronted at Crug Mawr,** CHAP,
two miles out of the town, by an army gathered out of all parts
of Norman South Wales. Stephen, the constable of the castle,
Robert fitz Martin, lord of Cemais, William and Maurice, sons
of Gerald of Windsor, were the leaders of the Norman array,*^
and an obstinate battle was fought, upon the issue of which
hinged the fortunes of the foreigners in Deheubarth for many
a long day. It was a signal victory for the Welsh, who drove
their enemies from the field, pursued them to the river Teifi,
and set fire to the town ; the bridge across the river was broken,
possibly by the weight of the fugitives who crowded in wildest
terror across it in their efforts to gain a safe hiding-place in
Cemais, and hundreds who escaped the sword met their death
by drowning, until the stream was clogged with the bodies of
men and of horses. Those who fled to the town were not
more fortunate ; they perished in the general conflagration,
which swept away, among other buildings, the church of Holy
Trinity founded by the colonists.^*' Only the castle stood in-
tact *^ and afforded a refuge to a small company of Richard
fitz Gilbert's people, including his widow, a sister of the Earl of
Chester. Elsewhere, all was at the mercy of the Welsh, who
pitilessly ravaged the country, carrying off to their homes, and
especially to Gwynedd, at the close of the campaign captive
women in great numbers and other spoil on which they set
special value, in particular, arms and armour and costly apparel.
The failure to take the- castle illustrates the strength in this
age of defensive works and the advantage which in ordinary
times the Normans had over their foes as the builders of

^^ This "great mound" is a knoll, now commonly called Banc y Warren,
close to the road from Aberaeron to Cardigan. " Cruc maur " in " Cereticiaun "
is one of the mirabilia of Nennius {Hist. Britt. c. 74).

•»5 MS. B. of B.T. adds"Gwilym ap Ore" (p. 158— c/. B. Sues. " William
vab ..." and Powel, 138, " William Fitziohn "), which may possibly be for
" WiUelmus filius Odonis," i.e., William de Barri of Manorbier.

■*^ See Gesta St. for the burning of " templa". According to Cart, Glouc.
ii. 74, 76, Gilbert fitz Richard gave the church " sanctae Trinitatis de Kardigan "
to St. Peter's, Gloucester, and the donation was confirmed by Henry II. The
dedication points to a Norman foundation, the old church of the district being
probably Llangoedmor. Meyrick's statement (176) that a son of Brychan named
Mathaiarn was buried at Cardigan rests on a mistranslation of the " Ceredigion "
oflolo MSS. 119.

*'' This is expressly stated by i4 MM. C. MS. B. (" castello Francis remanente ")
and explains the account in Gesta St,

474 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, massive keeps of stone. Under Henry I. the victory of Crug
Mawr would have availed the Welsh but little, for the garrison
of Cardigan would have held out until it was relieved by a
royal force bent on summary vengeance. The new fact in the
situation was the loss by the Crown of its hold over the great
barons ; suspicion and mistrust, though it had not yet broken
out into open hostility, parted Stephen and the magnates of
the West, so that joint action against the Welsh on anything
like an effective scale was impossible for them. In the present
case, the king, moved by the perilous plight of the lady of
Ceredigion, besought Miles of Gloucester to strike across
country from his castle of Brecon and bring her in safety to
England, but, though this commission was duly executed, no
further measures were taken by the rescuer than were necessary
to his task, in spite of his very direct interest as a marcher
lord in the restoration of the old order in Wales. It was much
the same with the expedition fitted out by Stephen a little
later for the reconquest of Ceredigion ; he entrusted the matter
to a deputy, who took it up without enthusiasm and abandoned
it as soon as it began to present difficulties. Baldwin was
Richard fitz Gilbert's brother *^ and had thus a family interest
in winning back the derelict lordship ; he was supplied with
light-armed knights and with 500 archers at the royal expense.
But he got no further than Brecon ; here terrible accounts
reached him of the fury and determination of the insurgents,
who had by means of felled trees rendered impassable all the
roads leading across the mountains to Cantref Bychan and
were awaiting his approach. He dallied among the men of Miles
of Gloucester in the vain hope that the obstacles before him
would in time melt away, and then, having spent his allowance,
returned ignobly to England. Robert fitz Harold of Ewias,^^
despatched to a different part of Wales, showed a bolder and

*^ For Baldwin see Geoff. Mand. 148 ; Feudal England, p. 474.

^"^ " Robertus filius Heraldi" {Gesta St. 14 (13)) is, no doubt, as suggested
by Clark {Med. Mil. Arch. ii. 43), Robert of Ewias, the founder in 1147 of the
Cistercian abbey of Dore and the benefactor of his father's foundation of Ewias
Harold {Cart. Glouc. i. 287). He was the son of Harold of Ewias, who may be
safely identified with the " Heraldus filius Radulfi comitis (of Hereford) " of
Domesd. i. 169a (2). On the death of Alfred of Marlborough, Harold had
obtained his castle and lordship in South-western Herefordshire (see page 396
above), which thus came to be called Ewias Harold by way of distinction from
the more westerly Ewias Lacy,

THE NATIONAL REVIVAL. 475

more resolute spirit, but he achieved no permanent success, chap
and Stephen in his discouragement abandoned the idea of
further expeditions and left the Welsh to themselves, cherishing
the comfortable hope that they would fall a prey to civil discord
and the evils incident to a life of idleness and rapine.

With such a spirit prevailing in the high counsels of the
realm, it is not surprising that the Welsh revolt grew more
formidable day by day. In 1 137 Gruffydd ap Rhys turned his
attention to Dyfed and swept across the cantref of Rhos, now
largely occupied by Flemish settlers.^^ An incident of the
campaign was the killing by Gruffydd's eldest son, Anarawd,
of Letard Little King, a Fleming whose name is preserved in
that of Letterston ^^ and who was clearly a man of mark in the
district. The deed was done without the sanction or knowledge
of Gruffydd, but the St. David's chronicler approves it as having
rid the world of an " enemy of God and St. David," who had
no doubt earned the title by attacks upon the rights of the
cathedral clergy in the cantref of Pebidiog. Very shortly
afterwards Gruffydd himself died, at about the same time as
his namesake of the North, but under very different circum-
stances. He was no veteran laying down his armour after a
well-fought day and entrusting to other tried and seasoned
warriors the standard he could no longer hold. He was cut
off in the flower of life,^^ when fortune was but beginning to
smile upon him and when as yet his young sons were unfit
to bear the burden which fate thus thrust upon them. The
eldest two, Anarawd and Cadell, were just of an age to take
a part in the warlike activities of the time, but the sons of
Gwenllian, Maredudd and Rhys, were children of tender years.^^

Nevertheless, there was no pause in the South Welsh
movement. O wain and Cadwaladr appeared in 11 37 for the

5** Besides Ann. C. MS. B., this raid is also mentioned by Ann. Marg. s.a.

•'^ Letterston (which is in Pebidiog) appears as " Lettardistoune " in Blk.
Bk. 0/ St. David's, 137 (cf. 95, 97, 139), as " Villa Becard " (for Letard) in Tax.
Nich. 275a, and as "Tre Letert " in Pen. MS. 147 (Evans, Rep. i. p. 917). Ivo
" filius Letardi " gave the church of Letterston to the preceptory of Slebech
(Owen, Pemb. i. 353 ; Fenton (2), 347).

"''Cont. FI. Wig. says " dolo conjugis suae circumventus " ; Ann. C. and
the Bruts give no details.

®^ Maredudd was in his twenty-fifth year when he died in 1155 {B.T. 182)
and was, therefore, born in 1130 or 1131, while Rhys was still younger (" Resus
. . . junior" — Ann. C. MS. B. s.a. 1156 = 1155).

476 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, third time in Ceredigion, and, taking the eastern instead of the
western route, destroyed in succession the castles of Ystrad
Meurig, Lampeter (if this indeed was " Stephen's Castle ") ^*
and Castell Hywel, then known as Humphrey's Castle. Em-
boldened by their success, they crossed the Teifi and made for
Carmarthen ; the capture of this important royal stronghold
was the climax of their victories and placed the whole valley of
the Towy in their power. It is noteworthy, however, that no
further advances were made in this direction ; that prudent
and cautious temper which governed all the enterprises of
Owain was perhaps at work in this instance, leading to a con-
centration of effort upon the conquest of Ceredigion and its
annexation to Gwynedd. In 1138 the two Northern princes,
aided by Anarawd and Cadell ap Gruffydd, brought a Danish
fleet of fifteen ships into the mouth of the Teifi, so as to
besiege by land and sea the little force which still held out
obstinately in Cardigan Castle.^^ It was not a successful
expedient ; the garrison were able to beat off the attack, and
the Danes, who were no doubt from Dublin, indemnified them-
selves by sacking the monastic settlement at St. Dogmael's,
on the other side of the river. The castle was not, in fact,
captured for many years ; in the meantime, Ceredigion was
divided between the princes of Gwynedd. To Cadwaladr was
assigned the northern half, from the Aeron to the Dovey, which
he ruled from the castle of Aberystwyth ; a natural son of
Owain, named Hywel, who was of age to fend for himself,
received the southern half and thus held a post, of danger
which was well fitted to put his valour to the proof. Owain
himself, as the eldest son of the late king of Gwynedd, had
now serious responsibilities at home and is heard of no more in
immediate connection with the affairs of Ceredigion.

In consequence of the Llanbadarn origin of the only Welsh
record of this period, the story of the conquest of Ceredigion is
one which it is possible to tell with some fulness, but there is

^^ See notes 87 and 88 to chap. xii.

55 Only MS. C. of Ann. C. has this notice ; the Bruts have dropped the year
altogether, and accordingly B, Saes., which is a year behind in its dating of the
events of 1 135-7, is two years in arrear from 1138 to 1140, which it divides into
two (1138 and 1139), thus returning to the old position. The eclipse of 20th
March, 1140, is perhaps assigned to 1137 (=1139) because the chronicler's year
did not end until 25th March,

THE NATIONAL REVIVAL. 477

every reason to suppose that, far from standing alone, it is but CHAP,
typical of what was going on throughout Wales during this
season of revolution. Scattered references to the revolt confirm
the impression that it extended to almost every part of the
country. The annals of Chester relate that on 3rd March,
1 1 40, the castle of Bromfeld, which probably stood at Marford
or Wrexham,^^ was burnt, as a result, it scarcely admits of
doubt, of the activity of the men of Powys. Further to the
south the castle of Cause was taken by the same agency,^'^ and
it was no doubt in this region that Payn fitz John, Sheriff of
Shropshire and of Herefordshire, was on the lOth of July,
1 137, pierced through the head and slain, as he was pursuing a
band of Welshmen. ^^ What is said by the chronicles as to
the reconquest of Elfael and Maelienydd in 1 144 by Hugh
Mortimer implies that earlier in the reign the Welsh had been
busy in this district also, where they were no doubt led by the
local chieftain, Madog ab Idnerth, and his sons.*^^ In Bryche-
iniog, though Miles of Gloucester kept his hold of the province,
a great devastation by Hywel ap Maredudd is recorded.^" In
Cantref Bychan, the other magnate of that name, son of
Maredudd ap Rhydderch, was in full revolt, and the Clifford
family, now represented by Walter, son of Richard fitz Pons,
lost all authority in the region of Llandovery. "^^ Even in the

^^Ann. Cest. Marford and Wrexham (which appear as "merfort" and
" Vnknan " in Dom. viii. fo. 119a) were the heads of the two commotes into
which Bromfield or Maelor was divided when it came under Welsh rule.

^"^ Ord. Vit. xiii. 16 (V. 43). The event appears to be assigned to 1134, but
it is far more likely that the author is describing what took place after Henry's
death than that he should be recording an otherwise unknown revolt of that
king's last days. The castle of " Caus," the "Alretone" of Domesd. i. 2536,
belonged to the Corbet family and could only have been held temporarily by Payn
(Eyton, Shrops. vii. pp. 5, 10).

58Cont. FI. Wig. s.a. 1137; Gesta St. 16-17 (i5)> with editor's note. His
possessions passed to Roger, eldest son of Miles of Hereford, who had married his
eldest daughter, Cecilia (Round, Anc. Charters, pp. 35-8).

^9 Madog ab Idnerth died in 1140. Two of his sons, viz., Hywel and
Cadwgan, were slain in 1142 by Helias of Say (Ann, C. MS. C. s.a.), who was
lord of Clun (Eyton, Shrops. xi. p. 228). A third, Maredudd, was killed by Hugh
Mortimer in 1146. The remaining two, Cadwallon and Einion, lived to rule over
Maelienydd and Elfael respectively.

6" Gir. Camb. vi. 21 (Itin. i. 2). This Hywel ap Maredudd (unless he be
H. ap M. ap Bleddyn, slain in 1142) is not heard of after 1136, though his sons
Maredudd (d. 1140) and Rhys (see Ann. C. s.a. 1145 and 1148 = 1147) are
several times mentioned.

"1 H. ap M. of Cantref Bychan (for his father see pp. 429 and 434 above)
was killed in 1141 by Rhys ap Hywel of Brycheiniog, and with him ended, so far

478 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, valley of the lower Usk, lying in the midst of the sphere of
influence of Earl Robert of Gloucester, Morgan ab Owain was
bold and aggressive ; he seized the castle of Usk "^ and con-
trived in the confusion of the time to make himself lord of
Caerleon.*^

As the tide of revolt rose, the intervention of the English
crown, the only power able to cope with it, became less and
less likely. The landing of the Empress Matilda, daughter of
Henry I., on 30th September, 1 1 39, at Arundel in Sussex,*'*
opened an era of civil war, a time of strife during which the
energies of the great men of the realm were almost fully
occupied in their mutual hostilities, so that measures against
the Welsh were only possible when a particular baron, having
for the moment no domestic feud upon his hands, was able to
devote a little individual attention to minor operations against
them. The marcher lords were nearly all partisans of the
Empress, following in this respect the example of their leader,
Earl Robert of Gloucester, who was Matilda's half-brother.
Miles of Gloucester was one of her most ardent supporters, and
was rewarded in 1141 by the revival for his benefit of the
Earldom of Hereford.*^ On the same side were Earl Roger
of Warwick,**® Brian fitz Count,**^ Robert fitz Martin,**^ and
William fitz Alan,®^ while Bishop Bernard of St. David's
was one of the few prelates in constant attendance upon
Matilda.'^*' These names account for Glamorgan, Brecknock,
Gower, Ewias,^^ Upper Gwent, Cemais, Oswestry and Pebidiog,

as is known, this branch of the posterity of Rhydderch ab lestyn. Richard fitz
Pons is last heard of in 1128 {Lih. hand. 37). For his son Walter, who took the
surname of Clifford from the home of the family, see Diet. Nat. Biog. xi. p. 81 ;
Round, Arte. Charters, pp. 21, 24.

''^Ord. Vit. xiii. 37 (V. no), where Le Prevost reads " Morgan Gualus {i.e.,
Wallensis) Ucham (tenuit) ". For Morgan's connections see note 34.

^3 He is found in this position at the accession of Henry II., when the sheriff
of Gloucester is allowed an annual deduction of 40s. for crown lands granted to
" Morgan " in " Carliun " (Pipe Roll, 2 Hen. II. 49). " Morganus filius Oweni et
Jorwerd frater ejus " were donors to Goldcliff Priory about 1140 (Charter Rolls, ii.

363).

^* Geoff. Mand. 278-83. *»Rymer, i. 14; Geoff. Mand. 123-4.

86 Gesta St. 73 (74), 80 (81).

6'? Wm. Malm. H.N. 556 (725), 573 (743) ; Geoff. Mand. 82.

68 Geoff. Mand. 94, 135.

69 0rd. Vit. xiii. 37 (V. 112-13) ; Geoff. Mand. 123, 125, 418.
" Geoff. Mand. 82-3. " See note 58 above.

THE NATIONAL REVIVAL. 479

so that it is not surprising that, in the absence of any sub- CHAP.

VTTT

stantial support of Stephen in the West, Earl Robert should
have been able, as an unfriendly chronicler admits, to preserve
in this region a " semblance of peace "7^ Gilbert fitz Gilbert,
brother of the late lord of Ceredigion, was at first attached to the
cause of Stephen, who conferred upon him in 1138 the title of
Earl of Pembroke/^ But he did not appear in West Wales for
many years after his elevation to this dignity, and in the mean-
time had ceased to be of the king's party/* Ranulf, Earl of
Chester, who had succeeded to the lands and dignities of his
father, Ranulf of Bayeux, on the death of the latter, in 1128,^^
played consistently for his own hand, but in doing so was
more often found with Matilda than with Stephen. Thus the
magnates who were concerned with Wales were substantially of
one accord in their support of the Empress and were able to
keep the war out of the Welsh borders. Nevertheless, its
existence was an effectual bar to any scheme of reconquest ; so
far as can be seen, the first important successes against the
Welsh were won in 11 44, when Hugh Mortimer of Wigmore
regained Maelienydd and Elfael, and in 1145, when Earl
Gilbert came to Dyfed and rebuilt the castle of Carmarthen.
The year 1146 supplies a concrete instance of the mutual
distrust which during this reign tied the hands of the English
and gave the Welsh their opportunity. Earl Ranulf, hard
pressed at this time by the vigorous onslaughts of the men of
Gwynedd, appealed to Stephen for support, hoping that, as in
1 1 14, a King of England and an Earl of Chester might again
march together into the wilderness of Snowdon and bring the
Welsh insurgents to their knees.''^^ Stephen was at first dis-
posed to accede to this request, but a hostile faction at his
court at once raised a great outcry, alleging that the scheme
was a traitorous plot on the earl's part to get the king into his
power. Nothing, they asserted, could be more dangerous to
the royal person than this madcap expedition into a land of
forests and mountains, destitute of food and water for the

'^''■Gesia St. 97 (94 "umbra quaedam pacis").

73 Ord. Vit. xiii. 37 (V. 112). ""^ Geoff. Mand. 178.

''^ Ann. Cest. s.a. According to John of Hexham {Sim. Dun. ii. 287), Ranulf
had narrowly escaped capture by the Welsh in 1137.

'8 Gesta St. 123-5 {121-3), where the story is told from the court point of view.
Qf. Hen, Hunt. 279; Ann. Cest. s.a. 1146.

48o HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, needs of an army and inhabited by an enemy whose wiles none
could foresee. Instead of receiving in his defence of the fron-
tier the assistance of a royal army, the earl was decoyed to
court and then thrown into prison ; the sequel was the capture
by Owain at the close of the year of the Cheshire fortress of
Mold. While party spirit reigned through the length and
breadth of England, the Welsh had nothing to fear, and they
succeeded in winning during these years advantages which
they did not again lose until the extinction of Welsh independ-
ence.

III. The National Awakening and the Church.

The Welsh revolt naturally had its effect upon the Welsh
Church. It is true that in this domain the results achieved
were not so striking as in the secular sphere, but the new spirit
of independence nevertheless made itself felt, leading to
struggles which, though in the main fruitless, kept alive the
tradition of freedom. The work of Henry I. was not undone,
but claims were advanced and hotly defended which had the
value of preserving the old conception of a Welsh national
church.

It is uncertain when Bishop Bernard first put forward the
claim of St. David's to be the metropolitan see of Wales, and
his own right, in consequence, to rank as archbishop side by
side with the prelates of Canterbury and York.^" The oldest
document bearing upon the subject is a letter addressed by the
canons of St. David's to Honorius II. (1124-30),^^ in which

'^ Almost all that is known of the history of Bernard's suit is derived from
the works of Gir. Camb., who carried on the struggle a couple of generations later.
Gerald was an unscrupulous combatant, but there is no reason to think that this
part of his narrative is untrustworthy, and I have in the main adhered to it. The
view of H. and St. (i. 317 ; cf. also 344), that Bernard "held his peace . . . un-
til the death of his patron Henry I.," is based on too rigid an interpretation of
"post annos . . . circiter viginti, defuncto rege " in Gir. Camb. iii. 49 {Invecf.
ii. i). In the earliest account given by Giraldus of the matter, it is stated in
the clearest terms that Bernard first moved in the time of Henry; see vi. 106
{Itin.ii. i). The passage was written in 1191 (editor's pref. pp. xxxiii-vi) and is
repeated in iii. 152-3 {Men. Eccl. ii), in a work composed a quarter of a century
later.

"8 Gir. Camb. iii. 59-60 {Invect. ii. 10). Cf. the life of David fitz Gerald, in
which it is said that Bernard prosecuted his claim " temporibus Honorii, Lucii,
et Innocentii paparum " {ibid. iii. 431). I know of no evidence that the matter
was raised under Calixtus II. (Jones and Freem. 278).

THE NATIONAL REVIVAL. 481

the story is told which afterwards became so familiar, of the CHAP.

XIII

transference of the archiepiscopal pall held by St. David and
his successors to Brittany by Archbishop Samson at the time
of the Yellow Plague, whereby the Menevian Church lost this
outward sign of its primacy among the churches of Wales. '^^
It seems likely that this letter was written with the concurrence
of Bernard, who may, therefore, be taken to have raised the
matter during the lifetime of Henry I. On the other hand, it
is scarcely probable that so assiduous a courtier pressed his
claim with vigour while Henry was alive, and it was clearly the
general upheaval in Wales after li 3 5 which encouraged him to
embark, as he did, on a resolute campaign on behalf of the
ecclesiastical independence of Wales. He commenced opera-
tions during the pontificate of Innocent II. (1130-43)^" and
had by the year 1 1 40 won such a reputation as a patriot as in-
duced Owain and Cadwaladr to appeal to him to support them
in their opposition to the promotion of Meurig to the see of
Bangor.®^ He carried on the war under Lucius II. (March,
1 144, to February, 1 145), who wrote from the Lateran on 14th
May in a favourable strain and promised that papal legates
about to visit England should go carefully into the case.^^ He
continued it under Eugenius III. (1145-53), whom the cathe-
dral chapter approached on the subject immediately after his
election. ^'^ At one point in the struggle Bernard seems to have
obtained the coveted dignity, but some flaw in procedure led to
the immediate reversal of the decision in his favour.^* The
matter was finally fought out, so far as Bernard himself was
concerned, in the year 1 147, when Theobald of Canterbury and
the bishop of St. David's argued their case in the presence of
Eugenius at Meaux.^^ Bernard maintained not only the his-

''^For an analysis of the St. David's claim see note appended to this
chapter.

^^ Gir. Camb. iii. 58 (Invect. ii. 7).

^^Ibid. 59 (ii. 9). For the circumstances see p. 483.

82/iid. 52-3 (ii. 3), 187 (Men. Eccl. iii.). ^'^ Ibid. 56-8 (ii. 6).

** According to Hen. Hunt. (lo), "tempore . . . nostro recepit episcopus
S. David pallium a papa, quod scilicet fuerat olim apud Kairlegion, sed statim
tamen amisit ".

"^Gir. Camb. iii. 50, 51-2, {Invect. ii. i, 2,), 180-1 {Men. Eccl. ii.). Jaff6 is
clearly right (ii. 45), as against H. and St. (i. 354-5), in assigning the pope's
letter to 1147, since in June, 1148, Eugenius was passing through Burgundy on
his way back to Italy. The letter to Simeon (Gir. iii. 59) is evidence, at the same

482 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, toric liberty of his see, but also his own freedom from any
obligation to the English primate. This was a contention
soon disposed of; Bishop Robert of Bath was able to testify
that in 1 1 1 5 there had been complete submission to the claims
of Canterbury, and that Bernard's zeal on behalf of the rights of
his church was a comparatively recent affair. On the 29th of
June the Pope wrote to say that the appellant had lost his own
case, but that it was still open to him to prosecute the claim of
his see ; 1 8th October, 1 148, was assigned for the adjourned
hearing of the suit.

For Bernard, however, the contest was at an end ; in the
summer or early autumn of 1148 he died,^" and the dispute
entered upon a new phase, it being now the object of the
Canterbury party to obtain the election of a successor who
would let the whole matter rest.^''^ The Welsh canons, deter-
mined to use their advantage to the utmost, made choice of a
man upon whom they could depend to keep the question of the
metropolitanate well to the front. But the delegates whom
they sent to England abandoned the cause and were induced
to elect instead David fitz Gerald, son of the castellan of
Pembroke, who was already a member of the chapter as arch-
deacon of Ceredigion. This was a clear victory for the English,
for, though David was, on the mother's side, of Welsh descent,^^
and a partial concession was thus made to Welsh national feel-
ing, he not only professed obedience in the fullest terms to the
see of Canterbur}', but took an oath specially tendered to him,
engaging not to raise in any form the vexed question of the
rights of St. David's. Thus secured against attack, Theobald
consecrated him at Christ Church, Canterbury, on 19th Decem-
ber, 1 148, and as he was easy-going and unadventurous, of a
wholly different type to the restless, enterprising Bernard, the
matter of the metropolitanate slumbered for many years. His

time, of Bernard's intention to raise the matter at the Council of Rheims in
March, 1148. For the testimony of the bishop of Bath see H. and St. i. 353-4;
as he had been a monk (Cont. Fl. Wig. 5.a. 1134), he is no doubt the " monachus
falsus " of the life of David fitz Gerald (Gir. Camb. iii. 431).

^^The chronology oi Ann. C. is here in disorder, but the 1147 of B. Sues.
and B.T. 176 clearly = 1148, which is also the year given by Ann. Theokesb.

^"^ B.T. 176; Gir. Camb. iii. 50 {Invect. ii. i), 154-5 (Men. Eccl. ii.), 431;
H. and St. i. 355-6 ; Reg. Sacr. (2), 47.

8* See p. 416.

THE NATIONAL REVIVAL. 483

nephew, Giraldus Cambrensis, makes the most of his freedom CHAP,

XIII
from greed and ambition, but has to admit that under his rule

the spoliation of the lands of the bishopric still continued. The
hostile critic, probably a Welshman, who has left a brief record
of his impressions of this episcopate, is more severe ; ^^ he gives
a long list of possessions alienated by David from the see and
asserts that the doors of the cathedral were closed during the
greater part of his period of office.

The spirit of the times manifested itself at Bangor also,
where a vacancy arose on the death of Bishop David, who did
not long survive his lord, Gruffydd ap Cynan.^° A Welshman
named Meurig, or Maurice,^^ was elected to the see, and early
in December, 11 39, was presented to King Stephen at Wor-
cester by the bishops of Hereford and Chichester as the choice
of the clergy and people of the diocese. ^^ At this stage, how-
ever, a hitch arose ; Meurig informed his introducers that he
was not prepared to swear fealty to the king, having been for-
bidden to do so by a man for whom he had the profoundest
veneration, his predecessor's archdeacon. It would appear that
this cleric, Simeon of Clynnog,®^ was at Bangor the power be-
hind the episcopal throne. Meurig possessed no great force of
character and his scruples were soon overborne ; he not only
swore fealty to the king, but made a full submission to Canter-
bury,^* and in 11 40 was consecrated by Theobald.®^ In conse-
quence of this surrender, or for some other reason, he incurred
the displeasure of Owain and Cadwaladr, who wrote to Bishop
Bernard alleging that he had entered the church of St. Daniel
as a thief, and not by the door, and asking for a conference on
the subject at Aberdovey on 1st November, to which the young

^® The " Vita Davidis II. episcopi Menevensis " is printed from Domitian i.
in Ang. Sac. ii. 652-3 and Gir. Camb. iii. 431-4. Brewer thought it might be by
Gir. (Pref. to vol. iii. p. xlvii), but Wharton well brings out the difference of atti-
tude (Pref. to Ang. Sac. ii. p. xxvi).

*" He is last mentioned in connection with Gruffydd's death — see p. 468.

'1 " Meuruc " (Bruts, 322) may, of course, be an attempt to give a Welsh
dress to a foreign " Mauricius ". But a Welsh origin is strongly suggested by
the relations with Archdeacon Simeon.

92Cont. Fl. Wig. s.a. 1139.

®*See note 25 above. The chronicler mentions no name, but "vir magnae
religionis . . . et praedecessoris mei David archidiaconus " can hardly be any
one else. The idea that Meurig had himself been archdeacon (B. Willis, Bangor,
pp. 61, 131) probably arose out of a confused recollection of this passage.

»4 H. and St. i. 345-6. ^^ Cont. Fl. Wig. s.a.

484 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Anarawd of South Wales should be invited.'-^" Whether the

XIII

' conference met and with what result is unknown ; the opposi-
tion would seem to have died down, leaving Meurig in posses-
sion. Here, again, the victory rested with Canterbury, but it
was of some moment that the issue had been raised and that,
at least, a Welshman had been elected.

In the diocese of Llandaff, Earl Robert of Gloucester was
during this period in undisturbed possession, and one need not
look for signs of the recovery of independence by the Welsh.
Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that Urban was succeeded by a
Welshman, a cleric of the diocese, who had been for many
years Archdeacon of Llandaff.'*" Uchtryd was consecrated by
Theobald in 1 140,^^ at the same time as Meurig of Bangor, and
made as full a profession of obedience to Canterbury ; ^^ he re-
cognised the archbishop's authority without demur in matters of
Church jurisdiction.^"'* But he was not of the ordinary type of
Norman prelate ; his enemies called him illiterate and worse,^**^
and he had a daughter, Angharad, whom he married to lorwerth
ab Owain of Gwynllwg,^**^ so that it may be supposed that the
Welshman in him overshadowed the ecclesiastic.^"^ On his
death in 11 48,^*** he was succeeded by one Nicholas,^"^ who was
no doubt more after the regular pattern, since he had been for
thirty years a monk of St. Peter's, Gloucester,^"^ and was now
specially chosen for the see by Theobald ; ^"^ yet he too was of
Welsh blood, the son of a certain Gwrgant,^"^ and could not

®^ Gir. Camb. iii. 59 {Invect. ii. 9).

^ Diet. Nat. Biog. Iviii. p. 3. Uchtryd appears as archdeacon in 1126 [Lib.
Land. 29), in 1131 (ibid. 60, 64), and in 1133 (Eng. Hist. Rev. ix. (1894), p. 532).
98 Cont. Fl. Wig. s.a. 9» H. and St. i. 346, note a.

100 See, for instance, the correspondence printed by H. and St. (i. 346-7).

loi He is, presumably, the " Henricum (for Huctritum) . . . Landavensem "
of the letter (possibly spurious) of the chapter of St. David's to Eugenius HI.
printed in Gir. Camb. iii. 56-8 (Invect. ii. 6).

^^^B.T. 212 (Brtits, 328) ; B. Sues. s.a. 1171.

103 This is also suggested by the praise of the Bruts (B.T. 176; B, Saes^
s,a. 1147). i

^"^ He died in the same year as Bernard — see note 86 above.

105 "Ac yny ol ynteu y bu escob nicol uab gwrgant " (Bruts, 315; B.T.
176 — cf. B. Saes. s.a. 1147 = 1148).

lo^See his letter of 1173-4 to Alexander III. in Cart. Glouc. ii. 173-4.

lOT " Opus enim manuum vestrarum ipse est et plantatio vestra," says Gilbert
Foliot in a letter to Theobald (H. and St. i. 356). He was consecrated at Canter-
bury on 14th March, 1148 (Reg. Sacr. (2), 46).

los Not, of course, of the father of lestyn ap Gwrgant (Camb. Biog. 266),
who cannot have flourished much later than 1050, nor yet of Bishop Urban (H.

THE NATIONAL REVIVAL. 485

have been altogether out of sympathy with the Welshmen over CHAP,
whom he was set as shepherd. ^^^^•

It was in this age of unrest that the see of St. Asaph, which
had for a long period been dormant, was revived and furnished
with a bishop. The consecration of one Gilbert to this bishopric
by Archbishop Theobald at Lambeth in 1143 is the earliest
event in its history which is attested by contemporary evidence.^"^
Why the step of creating what was practically a new diocese
was taken at this time is not easy to determine. If any reliance
could be placed upon the letter of the chapter of St. David's to
Eugenius, with its tale of an intended consecration by Bernard,
which Theobald was able to forestall,^^** one might suppose that
the scheme was a part of the St. David's campaign, designed
to add a third to the two suffragans of the would-be archbishop.
It is more probable that the move was directed against the
claims of Bangor, which no doubt followed closely in the wake
of the conquests of the men of Gwynedd. Rhuddlan and its
neighbourhood, where the cathedral stood, were still held by
the men of the Earl of Chester, but Owain was in possession of
the upper valley of the Clwyd, and it was perhaps deemed wise
to anticipate the demands which might be made on behalf of
Bishop Meurig by placing a bishop in the long-deserted throne
of St. Kentigern. That Gilbert was of the Norman, not of the
Welsh race, his name sufficiently shows ; he was succeeded,
moreover, in 1 152 by another cleric of the immigrant race, the
well-known Geoffrey of Monmouth.^^^

Thus in various ways did the Welsh uprising affect the for-
tunes of the Welsh Church, without at the same time breaking
the fetters imposed upon it in the previous reign. It was an
easier matter to shake off the yoke of the English crown than
to escape from the control of the English primate, in this age
when ecclesiastical power was at its height in England.

and St. i. 303, 387), for the form " uab gwrgant escoh " appears to be a slip of MS.
B. (B.T. 176, note i) and Mostyn MS. 116 (Evans, Rep. i. p. 60).

i"9H. andSt. i. 347-8.

^^o Gir. Camb. iii. 58 (Invect. ii. 6). Not only is the name wrongly given as
*' Ricardum," but the dates of Stephen's captivity (1141) and of Gilbert's consec-
ration (1143) do not run so closely together as to warrant the idea of a connection.

m See p. 525.

VOL. II. 9

4^6 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Note to Chapter XIII,, § i.—The Alleged Archbishopric of St. David's.
XIII.

It is undoubtedly the case that Asser (cap. 79) styles Nobis, his relative and
predecessor as Bishop of St. David's, *' archiepiscopum " ; but this title was
merely used as an honourable designation and did not carry with it the powers of
a metropolitan (see chapter vii. note 43). The British Church, in fact, inherited
the traditions of a time when the system of subordination to the chief bishop of
the province had not been developed. Consequently, no evidence exists, apart
from the worthless testimony of the letter to Eugenius in Gir. Camb. iii. 56-8
(Invect. ii. 6), that the bishops of St. David's ever exercised any kind of authority
over the other bishops of Wales. Though Rhygyfarch makes Dewi an arch-
bishop, consecrated such by the patriarch of Jerusalem and recognised by all
after the Synod of Brefi (Cambro-Br. SS. 135-6, 139), he clearly does not mean
to invest him with anything more than mere precedence over his fellows, Padarn
and Teilo. It was only when the question of subjection to Canterbury became a
burning one that the clergy of St. David's felt the weakness of their case in
having no Welsh provincial head whom they could set over against the successor
of St. Augustine. The claim to be the seat of the Archbishop of Wales was then
put forward on behalf of St. David's itself. Hereupon there arose a new diffi-
culty ; how was the undeniable fact to be got over that there was no record of
the bestowal by the pope at any time of an archiepiscopal pall upon any oc-
cupant of this see ? Some genius suggested that the pall worn at this time
(though not without opposition from Tours — see H. and St. ii. 91-6) by the Breton
Archbishop of Dol was really that of the Menevian See. Samson, the founder of
the church of Dol and popularly supposed to be its first archbishop (" sancti
Samsonis Dolensis Archipraesulis " in Hist. Reg. ix. 15), was known to have
come to Brittany from Dyfed (see page 145), and it would further appear that in
the catalogue of bishops of St. David's the name Samson was to be found. In
defiance of chronology, it was therefore assumed that the Samson of the list,
though separated from Dewi by some twenty names, was the Samson of saintly
renown, who was, in fact, Dewi's contemporary and never ruled at Mynyw at
all. Currency was first given to this story of the transference of the pall from
St. David's to Dol about 1125 ; it appears in the letter of the chapter to Honorius
II. (Gir, Camb. iii. 59-60 [Invect. ii. 10)), and is thenceforward a principal
weapon in the St. David's armoury — see Gir. Camb. vi. 102-3 (Itin. ii. i).

Geoffrey of Monmouth had no particular interest in pushing the St. David's
claim, and in the text of the Historia Regum he is silent on the subject. Accord-
ing to his scheme, the three metropolitan sees were London, York and Caerleon,
(ix. 12), and David, though he died in his favourite monastery of Menevia, was
"archbishop of the City of the Legions," and was succeeded in that office by
Cynog of Llanbadarn, In the Prophecy of Merlin (vii. 3), however, which was
probably compiled from Welsh sources, a passage occurs to the effect that
Menevia shall be clad in the " pallium " of the City of the Legions. This en-
abled the champions of the St. David's claim to reconcile their account of affairs
(as they were compelled to do by the authority of the History of the Kings of
Britain) with that given by the great romancer ; St. David, it was held, trans-
ferred the archiepiscopal dignity from Caerleon to his solitary fane in the west of
Dyfed. Eagerly accepted by Giraldus (vi. 56, loi {Itin. i. 5 ; ii. i) ; iii. 46 [Invect.
ii, i)), this theory made for itself a secure place in later Welsh literature [lolo
MSS. 82-3 ; Drych y Prif Oesoedd, bk. ii. ch. 2) and is even allowed to figure as
sober history in the learned and dignified pages of the author of the Essay on the
Welsh Saints (p, 197).

CHAPTER XIV.

OWAIN GWYNEDD.

{Ann. C. and the Bruts continue to be the primary authorities for this, as for
previous chapters. The works of Gir. Camb. are full of allusions to the period.
Of modern works which have been helpful, one may mention Eyton's Court,
Household and Itinerary of Henry II. and J. H. Round's Feudal England.)

1. The Rivals of Owain.

It was fortunate for the Welsh people that after the emancipa- cHAP.
tion at the beginning of the reign of Stephen they did not find ^^^*
themselves leaderless, a flock without a shepherd, but that a
prince arose who was able to give them wise and enlightened
guidance and to teach them how to harvest the gains they had
won. Owain Gwynedd was the first of a succession of such
leaders ; his work was carried on, almost without a break, by
Rhys ap Gruffydd, Llywelyn ab lorwerth, and Llywelyn ap
Gruffydd, to the latest years of Welsh independence — it was,
in fact, under him that the Welsh nation attained the full
measure of national consciousness which enabled it for a century
and a half successfully to resist absorption in the English
realm.

As the eldest son of Gruffydd ap Cynan, Owain succeeded
in 1 1 37 to the principal portion of his father's lordship of
Gwynedd. He was not the only Owain ap Gruffydd among
the princes of his day, for Gruffydd ap Maredudd of Powys
had, on his death in 1128, left behind him a son Owain, who
ultimately became the ruler of the southern part of his grand-
father's dominions. In order to distinguish the two, a method
not very usual in the naming of Welsh chieftains was adopted ;
territorial titles were given to them, and the one became Owain
of Gwynedd, while the other was styled Owain of Cyfeiliog,
from the commote in which he was settled by his uncle Madog

487 9 *

488 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, in 1149.^ Owain Gwynedd was also known as Owain Fawr,
i.e., " Owain the Great," ^ a description he fully deserved.
Welsh history can scarcely show a nobler or a better balanced
character. His greatness was recognised alike by bard and
by chronicler, by Welshman and Englishman, and among his
eulogists are Archbishop Thomas of Canterbury ^ and Giraldus
Cambrensis.* An outstanding feature of his character was his
wisdom and prudence;* in him the native impetuosity and fire
of the Celt were subjected to a perfect restraint, and, while he
could lead against the foe with energy and decision, he was
circumspect and cautious to a degree unusual among the high-
spirited members of his class. The same self-restraint showed
itself in his dealings with his own people ; he is praised for
justice and moderation,^ and very few of his recorded actions
seem to belong to that category of deeds of reckless violence
which covers so much of the activity of his fellow-princes.
His affections were strong, and a deep melancholy fell upon
him when in 1146 he lost his young son Rhun, and again in
1 162 upon the death of his mother;^ moreover, it was prob-
ably his love for his second wife, Cristin, which made him
oppose so resolutely the demand of the Church that he should
put her away on the ground of consanguinity.^ Altogether,
the figure of Owain stands out with a clearness of outline not
common in Welsh history and the picture is undeniably an
attractive one.

A foil to the greatness of Owain was furnished by his

^ From 1143 to 1154 the chronology of both MSS. of Ann. Camb. is in dis-
order. Nor is this surprising when it is understood that their common original
had omitted the year 1152 and attached the end of 1153 to the beginning of 1151,
as may clearly be seen from a comparison with the Bruts for the same period.
B.T. and B. Saes. seem to have the right arrangement of years, and I follow the
chronology of the latter, adding as before (see chap, xiii. note 55) one year.

2 " Oeni magni " (Gir. Camb. vi. 143).

3 See his letter to Owain in H. and St. i. 373-4, and Mat. Hist. Beket. v.
236-8.

■•vi. 143-5 (Itin. ii- 12).

■'' " Virum . . . discretum " (Abp. Thomas) ; " vir in gente sua moderantiae
magnae et sapientiae " (Gir. Camb.). B.T. (p. 206) speaks of his " brudder ".

8 Gir. Camb. (vi. 145) mentions him as one of three princes distinguished by
•• justitia, prudentia, principalisque modestia regiminis ".

' I follow B. Saes. (s.a. 1161 : " am varw y vam ") in preference to B.T. (p.
197 : " o achaws hynny," i.e., the loss of Tafolwern).

8 This is suggested by the " gi cognatara tuam diligis " of the archbishop's
letter (H. and St. i. 374).

OWAIN G WYNEDD. 489

younger brother Cadwaladr, who is first heard of in the Cere- CHAP,
digion campaigns and was a prominent personage through-
out his brother's reign, surviving him some eighteen months.
Cadwaladr was the ordinary, as Owain was the exceptional,
Welsh prince. He was restless, impulsive, quick to suspect
and hasty to strike —

In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace.

He had to a conspicuous degree the open-handed liberality
which was in popular estimation the prime virtue of a prince,'-'
but, even if some allowance be made for the trying position
of a younger son, he cannot be said to have played a patriotic
or magnanimous part. After the unsuccessful attack upon
Aberteifi in 1 1 3 8, he is next heard of at the battle of Lincoln,
fought on 2nd February, I141, where to our surprise he ap-
pears, with Madog ap Maredudd of Powys, at the head of a
great host of Welshmen brought into the English civil war by
the Earl of Chester.^" The rudely armed throng, despised as
barbarians by their knightly opponents, had the satisfaction of
joining in the rout which made King Stephen a prisoner, and
in the subsequent sack of the city of Lincoln, but it may be
doubted whether Owain approved of the adventure, which was
all to the profit of the great border lords, followers of the
Empress Matilda. Two years later Cadwaladr was concerned
in something worse than an act of vainglorious folly. His
retinue fell upon the young Anarawd ap Gruffydd of South
Wales, who was in close alliance with him and was married to
his daughter (or, it may be, his niece),^^ and treacherously put
him to death. That Cadwaladr was privy to the deed may be
judged from the righteous indignation of his brother Owain,
who resolved to strip him of his territories and at once set his
son Hywel to expel him from his possessions in the north of
Ceredigion. Marching across the Aeron, Hywel soon carried

** Gir. Camb. vi. 145 (Itin. ii. 12).

1" Ge%ta St. 69 (70), Hen. Hunt. 268, 273, and Ord. Vit. xiii. 43 (V. 126, 127)
agree that the Welsh contingent had been raised by Earl Ranulf. Ord. Vit. gives
the names of the leaders as "duofratres Mariadoth et Kaladrius"; the former
I take to be Madog ap Maredudd, who had married Cadwaladr's sister, Susanna.

" B.T. and B. Saes. differ on this point. In the text of the former {Bmts,
311), " nas " is to be supplied before " ofynhaei " (" so that he did not fear " —
see Mostyn MS. 116 in Evans, Rep. i. p. 60) and some such word as " dlgyfoethi "
after " mynnu ",

49© HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, out his orders and burnt the castle of Aberystwyth. Cadwaladr
saw himself left without a foothold in the country, and in 1144
turned for assistance to the customary quarter, bringing to
Abermenai a hired fleet from Dublin which was to compel his
brother to reinstate him.^^ It would seem that Owain was not
prepared to press matters to the furthest point on this occasion ;
the quarrel ended in a reconciliation and the restoration of
Cadwaladr to his lands, after some difficulty had been ex-
perienced in getting rid of the foreign allies, who in vain de-
manded their stipulated reward.

Harmony prevailed between the two brothers for eight
years after this encounter, though it may be conjectured that
the elements of discord were meanwhile accumulating which
were to find vent in the still more serious explosion of 11 52.
It is possible that Owain had a hand in the events of 1147,
but this is uncertain ; the attack upon Meirionydd in that year
has rather the aspect of a private adventure on the part of
his sons, Hywel and Cynan. Hywel came from the south,
from his lands in Ceredigion, Cynan from the north, where he
probably held Ardudwy, and between them they swept the
cantref from end to end. Cadwaladr had, however, built him-
self a castle at Cynfael ^^ and entrusted its defence to Morfran,
abbot of the neighbouring " clas " of Towyn ; ^* the capture of
this was no easy task, for its works were strong and the keeper
insensible alike to menaces and to bribes. At last, it was
carried by storm, and Cadwaladr ceased to bear rule in
Meirionydd, The real rupture with Owain was, however, five
years later, when Cadwaladr was driven from the isle of
Anglesey ,^^ the cradle of the royal line of Gwynedd, and, this

12 The Bruts (B.T. 164; B. Sues. s.a. 1143) mention as leaders of the
Danes Otter son of Otter (d. 1148 ? see Chroti. Scot, s.a.), a MacTurcaill (per-
haps Ragnall, who d. 1146) and a Mac " Cherulf ".

1^ Remains of entrenchments are still to be seen behind the farm of Bryn
Castell, which is not far from the Cynfal of to-day.

14 wy ty gwyn " {Bruts, 315; so also B. Sues. s.a. 1146) is always taken to
be Whitland (Y ty gwyn ar Daf) — see Gw. Brut. s.a. 1146; Carnh. 547; Gw.
ap Rhys, ii. 46 ; Hoare, Itin. i. 184 ; B.T. 175 (trans.). But it is a wildly
improbable assumption that a Cistercian abbot, in the early days of that order's
austerity, should have held a castle for a Welsh prince sixty miles from the
monastery he ruled. The difficulty is solved if we suppose the true form to be
" y tywyn " and Morfran to be the head of the " clas " at that place.

i" Powel (147) and others following him were misled by a slip in B. Saes,, or
a MS. nearly allied to it, into supposing that Cadwaladr was imprisoned by his

O WAIN G WYNEDD. 491

time fleeing east instead of west, found a refuge in England, CHAP,
where he lived for five years as an exile.

It would seem, indeed, that Cadwaladr had before his banish-
ment formed an influential English connection which would
make it natural for him to turn to England in the hour of his
need. Tradition affirms that he married a lady of the house of
Clare ^® and there is evidence in support of this view, showing
also that "Alicia de Clara" was his wife before 1153.^'^ It is
obvious that the object of this marriage, at whatever time con-
tracted, was to give Cadwaladr a better hold upon Ceredigion,
and Alice was, therefore, in all probability a daughter of Richard
fitz Gilbert.^^ In this case she was a sister of Earl Gilbert of
Hertford and a niece of Earl Ranulf of Chester,^^ so that the
exiled chief was not without powerful friends across the border.
They availed him little, however, against the firmly established
authority of his brother, which was daily extending over a
wider area.

For, while Cadwaladr had been enduring those buff'ets of
fortune which wait upon the path of the inconstant, Owain's
career had been one of steady progress. Reference has already
been made to the Earl of Chester's concern at the threatening
state of affairs in 1146; his appeal to the king for support,
whatever his enemies might say, was fully justified by the state
of the border. No sooner was news brought to Wales of the
earl's captivity in Northampton than the men of Powys crossed
the Dee and began to ravage Maelor Saesneg. They were met
at Wich on 3rd September by Robert of Mold, hereditary
steward of the earldom, and defeated with great slaughter.^*^

nephew, Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd, in 1150. It was his son Cadfan to whom
this befell, as may be seen from a careful comparison of the notices for this and
the previous year in Ann. C. and the Bruts.

^^ Powel, 148 ; Gwydir Fam. 14.

1'' See the Haughmond charter cited in Gwydir Fam. 14, note 3 (from an un-
known source), and Owen, Catalogue, ii. p. 451 (from Harl. MS. 6o58).

18 So Sir John Wynne, and Eyton, Shrops. x. p. 257. Powel's " Gilbert Earle
of Clare " is certainly wrong, for, though Gilbert fitz Richard had a daughter
named Alice, she married Aubrey de Vere and on his death in 1141 entered the
monastery of St. Osyth's (Geoff. Mand. 389-92).

19 Geoff. Mand. 160. Earls Ranulf and Gilbert and Cadwaladr are in fact
shown to have been at Chester together in 115 1 or 11 52 by a Shrewsbury Abbey
Charter (Eyton, Shrops. x. p. 257).

20 Ann. Cest. s.a. 1146. For Wich, Fulwich, Droitwich or Dritewich, on
the borders of Cheshire and the Maelor district of Flintshire, see Arch. Cantb. IV.
vii. (1876), 91-3. Nantwich, suggested by Christie, is too far east.

492 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. But meanwhile Robert's own frontier castle of Mold ^^ was being
closely besieged by the men of Gwynedd, and before the end of
the year it fell into their hands. No more acceptable Christmas
gift was it possible for them to bestow upon their lord. He
had been overcome with grief at the death in this year of his
young son Rhun, a comely, winsome lad, long of limb, fair of
hue, with flashing blue eyes and curls of gold — a Prince Charm-
ing of the genuine high-born Celtic type.^^ There had been no
consolation for the sorrowing father, cut to the heart by the
bitter stroke, until the unexpected news of the capture of the
long-coveted fortress awoke him from his stupor and reminded
him that he had still a country for which to live.

By his conquest of Moldsdale or Ystrad Alun, Owain had
1^1 within his grasp, and in 1 149 he showed his determination
to add this commote also to his dominions by building at
Buddugre within its borders a castle which commanded the pass
from Dyffryn Clwyd.^^ He thus returned to that policy of
aggression against Powys which had been in suspense since the
death of his brother Cadwallon in Nanheudwy in 11 32 and
aroused the enmity of his powerful neighbour, Madog ap
Maredudd, Madog had succeeded his father as the principal

"^ For the pedigree of the Norman lords of Mold see Helsby's edition of
Ormerod's History 0/ Cheshire, i. p. 58. Robert, hereditary steward of the earldom
of Chester, was nephew of the Hugh fitz Norman who held half of Bistre and
other lands in the Mold district in 1086 (Domesd. i. 269a (2)). Mold is " Mons
Altus," which, like the Welsh" Y Wyddgrug " (The Burial Mound), refers to the
great barrow known as the Bailey Hill, the site of the keep of the mediaeval castle.
There is nothing to support Powel's view (115) that under Rufus one " Eustace
Cruer " did homage for Mold and Hopedale.

^ His grandfather, Gruffydd ap Cynan, had " gwallt melyn " (Buch. Gr. ap
C. 114 [728]).

^^ This was the well-known Castell (or Tomen) y Rhodwydd, in the township
of Bodigre'r larll and the parish of Llanarmon. The identification will be found
in Powel (147, marginal note) and was adopted by Pennant (ii. 13). In Leland's
day (Wales, pp. 70-1) the place was used as a sheepfold; he knew it as Castell
Cefn Du and had heard it belonged to Owain Glyndwr — no doubt a popular
mistake for Owain Gwynedd. The Rev. John Lloyd of Ruthin visited it in 1693
and gave Edward Llwyd an account of it (Arch. Camb. II. ii. [i85ij,57). " Y Rhod-
wydd " is explained as " The Mound " (Goss. Guide, pp. 134-5 ; of. Arch. Camb.
V. xii. [1895], 19-20) ; if this be correct, the later form, Tomen y Rhodwydd, is an
instance of unconscious tautology. There is no sort of authority for the " Castell
3nr adwy " of the recent Ordnance Survey maps. Buddugre (for the form see Evans,
Diet. s.v. and Thomas, St. Asaph, p. 622) was at a later period divided between
the lord of the commote and Valle Crucis Abbey (Bodigre'r larll and Bodigre'r
Abbot).

O WAIN G WYNEDD. 493

ruler of Powys in this year 1132 ; although Hywel ab leuaf, of CHAP,
the house of Trahaearn, was under-king in Arwystli,^* and
although Madog gave Cyfeiliog in 1149 to his nephews Owain
and Meurig, sons of Gruffydd ap Maredudd, yet he was reckoned
overlord of the whole, and his dominions were said to extend
from Pulford (near Chester) to the extreme point of Arwystli,^^
or, as the poet Gwalchmai phrased it —

From Plynlimmon's top to the gates of Chester,
From the lights of high-roofed Bangor
To the edge of Meirionydd's limit.^^

Like other Welsh princes, Madog had profited by the disorders
of the time. His neighbour in the Oswestry district was William
fitz Alan, son of a Breton knight who had received many favours
from Henry I. and brother of the Walter fitz Alan who founded
the Scottish and royal house of Stuart.'"^" William's father had
apparently succeeded to the position of Rainald of Bailleul on
the Shropshire border,^^ and he himself entered upon it towards
the end of the reign of Henry. At first, he was on good terms
with Stephen, receiving from him in 11 37 the oflfice of sheriff
of Shropshire, in succession to Payn fitz John. But he was
married to a niece of Robert of Gloucester and this led him into
rebellion; in August, 1138, he fortified Shrewsbury Castle
against the king, and only escaped capture by a flight which left

2^ Llywarch ap Trahaearn is last heard of in 1123 (see p. 467) and the strife
among the members of his house which marked the years 1129 and 1130 was no
doubt due to his death. Ultimately, Hywel ab leuaf ab Owain ap Trahaearn
(for the pedigree see Dwnn, ii. 15) succeeded, holding the district until his death
in 1 185. That he acknowledged Madog ap Maredudd as his overlord maybe
seen from the Trefeglwys charter (" Notum sit omnibus quod Madawc Rex
Powissentium ") printed (from a lost Wynnstay MS.) in Arch. Camb. III. vi.
(i860), 330-1.

^ The romance entitled Breuddwyd Rhonabwy begins : " Madawc uab
maredud a oed idaw powys yny theruyneu. Sef yw hynny o porf ord hyt yg g wauan
yg gwarthaf arwystli " \Mab. 144). There is a Nant Bryn Gwa«on near the
source of the Ystwyth, in the extreme south-west of Arwystli.

2^ Myv. Arch. i. 202 (148). The poet's Bangor is, of course, Bangor Iscoed.
It may be noted that Madog, as the lord of the whole of Powys, could not, as has
so often been asserted (Powel, 153 ; Carnh. 565 ; Yorke (2), 45), have given his
name to Powys Fadog. The distinction between Powys Fadog and Powys
Wenwynwyn obviously arose about 1200.

^' For William fitz Alan and his family see Eyton, Shrops. vii. 211-62, and
Round, Peerage and Family History, chap. ii.

28 " Alanus filius Fladaldi qui honorem vicecomitis Warini post filium eius
[a mistake] suscepit" (Mon. Angl. iii. 519). For Rainald see page 388.

494 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, the garrison to bear the brunt of the royal vengeance.^^ Hence-
forward, he was attached to the cause of Matilda and her son,
and it is not surprising that his hold upon Oswestry so slackened
that in 1 149 Madog ap Maredudd, descending from the hills of
Cyrn y Bwch, was able to seize the place and repair the castle
as a stronghold for his own use.^** The district was for a few
years completely in Madog's power ; his natural son, Owain
Brogyntyn, was brought up at Porkington, a little to the north
of the town,^^ and the author of the tale of The Dream of
Rhonabwy makes Madog ^^ undisputed lord of Dudleston
and all the land between the Ceiriog and the Vyrnwy.^^

A prince who had won such successes was not likely to
stand idly by while the men of Gwynedd poured into a com-
mote which had for centuries been reckoned a part of Powys.^*
In the year following the invasion of IM, Owain Gwynedd and
Madog came to blows. Though there is no record of the
achievement, Owain seems about this time to have taken
Rhuddlan Castle and made himself master of Tegeingl ; ^'^
accordingly, he and Madog met at Coleshill, once a manor of
the Earl of Chester ^^ and miles away from the Welsh border,
but now, as the star of Wales rose to the zenith, to be the
battleground of the two Welsh leaders. The prince of Powys
did not rely upon his own strength, but came into the field with
the support of troops lent him by Earl Ranulf, who had good
reasons of his own for wishing to check the progress of Owain.
Nevertheless, it was Owain who won the day and thereby made
sure of his hold, not only upon lal, but also upon Tegeingl and

29 Ord. Vit. xiii. 37 (V. 112-3); Cont. Fl. Wig. s.a. 1138 (p. no).

="• See Cymr. x. 43, note (A. N. Palmer). It maybe added that Ann. Camb.
MS. C. has (s.a. 1151) the correct form " y^edificavit ".

3^ For Owain Brogyntyn see Diet. Nat. Biog. xlii. p. 395. It may be added
that " Oenus de Porchinton " appears frequently in the Pipe Rolls from 1160 to
1 169 as receiving money by the king's orders from the sheriff of Shropshire.

32 In 1 152 Madog's son Llywelyn slew Stephen, son of Baldwin (B.T, 180;
B. Saes. s.a. 1151). This was the lord of Montgomery, a castle which Henry I.
had given to Baldwin de Boilers before 1121 (Eyton, Shrops. xi. p. 120) and
which thus obtained its Welsh name of Castell Baldwyn (Bruts, 260, 295, 365,
376; Myv. Arch. I. 303 [214]). Tre Faldwyn, which is properly the vill and not
the castle, came into use later.

33 Mab. 144-5. "* See p. 244.

35 This is suggested by the fact that Geoffrey of Monmouth, who was bishop
of St. Asaph from 1152 to 1155, died without having visited his see.
3* In 1093 ; see Mon. Angl. ii. 386.

OWAIN G WYNEDD. 495

Ystrad Alun. His position became still more secure in 1153, chap.
when Earl Ranulf died, leaving an heir only six years old,^'^
who could not for many years take up the sword and defend
his father's inheritance. On the eve of the accession of Henry
n., Owain found himself possessed of almost everything for
which he had toiled ; he was freed from the rivalry of his
brother Cadwaladr and of Madog ap Maredudd and had brought
his men within sight of the red towers of the great city on the Dee.
The weakness of the central authority which had allowed
the Welsh to reap advantages so extensive came at once to an
end when Henry of Anjou obtained the crown at the close of
1154,^*^ By the peace of Wallingford, arrived at in the previ-
ous year, the party strife of the past fifteen years had been
ended ; Matilda's followers and those of Stephen agreed to ac-
cept the former's young son, who already promised to be a
ruler of vigour and decision, as unquestioned heir. Yet it is
no matter for surprise that Henry should for some time have
postponed action against the Welsh, leaving them in possession
of their conquests. He had other work to do of a more urgent
kind — order to evolve out of administrative chaos, rebellious
barons to tame, private castles to dismantle and private armies
to disband, not to speak of his important interests on the Con-
tinent, where he was lord of a domain which stretched from the
English Channel to the Pyrenees. He devoted the first year
of his reign to the restoration of the royal authority in England
and among other recalcitrant lords brought into subjection two
leading magnates of the Welsh march, Earl Roger of Hereford
and Hugh Mortimer of Wigmore. Roger had succeeded to
the earldom in 1143, when his father Miles, after enjoying the
dignity but two years, had been accidentally shot by a com-
panion while hunting in the Forest of Dean.^^ He was through
his mother Sybil of Welsh descent,*'* and he now relied upon

^■^ According to Ann. Cest. " comes Hugo ii " was born in 1147.

38 Stephen died on 25th October, but Henry was not crowned until 19th
December.

^^ Ann. Camb. s.a. ; Gesta St. 16-17 (16), 95-6(93), 103 (loi). The day was
24th December ; for the contention between Llantony and St. Peter's, Gloucester,
for his body, see Cart. Glouc. i. Ixxv. Roger afterwards raised, on the scene of
the tragedy at Flaxley, a Cistercian abbey in memory of his father (Gir. Camb. iv.
219 ; Mon. Angl. v. 590).

*^ See page 438 above. In addition to Brecknock he had from his father
the lordship of Upper Gwent, which Brian fitz Count had made over to Miles in

496 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, the Welshmen of his lordship of Brecknock to support him in
his resistance to the new king. But his friends persuaded him
to submit ; at Easter he made his peace with Henry and had
his earldom confirmed to him.*^ Hugh Mortimer gave more
trouble ; a set campaign was fought against him, and it was not
until his castles of Cleobury, Wigmore and Bridgenorth had
been taken by the king that peace was secured, in July, 1155,
along the western border."*^ The next year was devoted by
Henry to his French possessions ; he went thither in January
and did not return until April, 1 157.

It was probably at the Council of Northampton, held on the
17th of July, that measures against Owain Gwynedd were
finally resolved upon.^^ Opposition to Henry from other
quarters had now died down ; in these very months the boy
King Malcolm of Scotland met him in the Peak and resigned
to him the counties in the north which had been seized by the
Scotch during the turmoil of the previous reign. He had the
support of the other princes of North Wales against Owain, of
Cadwaladr, to whom he had given an estate worth ^J a year
at Ness in Shropshire,** of Madog ap Maredudd, of Madog's
brother, lorwerth the Red, and of Hywel of Arwystli.*'' To

1141 or 1142. See the charter of the Empress Maud in Round, Anc. Charters, p.
43, and the notes following, in which the errors are exposed of the genealogical
narrative in Mon. Angl. iv. 615.

*^ Gervase, i. 161-2 ; Eyton, Itin. 9.

^^Gervase, i. 162; R. de Torigni, 184-5 ; Eyton, Itin. 10. Hugh is usually
made out to be the son of the Ralph Mortimer of 1086 (see page 395 above), but
a generation probably intervened. Wigmore and Cleobury were old Mortimer
possessions, but Bridgenorth, then known as Brug, was a royal castle and was
accordingly resumed by the king.

*^ For the events of this campaign see Ann. Camb.; B.T. andS. Sues. {s.a.
1156); R. de Torigni, 193, 195; Wm. Newb. ii. 5; Ann. Cest.; Gir. Camb.
vi. 130-1 (Ititi. ii. 7), 137-8 (ii. lo) ; Gervase, i. 165.

*■* In the second and third years of Henry II. the sheriff of Shropshire was
allowed a deduction of £7 in respect of crown lands of that annual value given
by the king to Cadwaladr (Pipe Rolls 43, 88). After Michaelmas, 1157, the
grant appears in the name of John Lestrange (with los. added), to whom it was
no doubt transferred when Cadwaladr recovered his Welsh possessions, and the
entry in the Pipe Roll of the sixth as of succeeding years shows that it lay in Ness,
in the hundred of Baschurch. Cf. Eyton, Shrops. x. p. 255.

^''See Pipe Roll, 3 Hen. II. (1156-7), 89, for payments as follows made by
the king's writ in that year through the sheriff of Shropshire : to " Maddoch," ;^8
los., to " Geruetto," 40s., to"Hoelo filio Joaf," 40s. B.T. 186 has a curious
passage about the conduct of Madog in this struggle, while B. Sues, (followed by
Powel and others) sends him to Anglesey in command of the fleet I C/., however,

O WATN G WYNEDD. 497

reduce the prince of Gwynedd to obedience seemed, therefore, CHAP,
an easy task, and he set out from Chester in high hopes of a
successful campaign. In summoning the feudal host for the
expedition, he had greatly reduced the numbers of the levy in
order to provide for a much longer term of service, so that he
might not be hampered by its expiry before the work was half
done.*® The knights were reinforced by archers from the
Shropshire borders, brought northward by William fitz Alan,
the new sheriff of the county.*'' A fleet, moreover, was to
second the efforts of the army by operations from the seaward
side ; it was apparently manned in Dyfed and sailed to meet
Henry from the port of Pembroke.*^

Meanwhile, Owain and his sons Dafydd and Cynan pre-
pared to meet this formidable onset. Owain posted himself at
Basingwerk, or Dinas Basing, as it was styled by the Welsh,
the ancient stronghold which marked the northern end of
Wat's Dyke and barred the road to Rhuddlan. The sons
took up their position in the great wood which lay to the west,
crowning the higher ground as far south as Hawarden, and
thus opposed a barrier to the flanking of the main camp
at Basingwerk.*^ Henry knew nothing of Welsh methods of
warfare, and with youthful heedlessness walked into the trap
which had thus been laid for him. He sent his main army by
the direct road along the coast, but plunged himself, with a
body of light armed troops, into the thick of the forest, whence

Ann. Camb. MS. C. (s.o. 1158 = 1157) — " Henricus rex Anglorum movit ex-
ercitum versus Nortwalliam, adjuvante Madauc filio Maredut ". lorwerth Goch
was the son of Maredudd of Powys (B.T. 188 ; Mab. 144) ; according to
The Dream of Rhonabwy, he had no territory in the time of his brother
Madog and had to be content with the office of captain of the guard (penteulu).

•»6 Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. (3), p. 589.

*'' " Et in liberatione archiariorum regis in exercitu, 47s." (Pipe Roll, 3 Hen.
n. 8g — Salopescire).

*^ This is suggested by the names of the leaders and by the following entry
in Pipe Roll, 3 Hen. H. 108 (civitas Wintonie) — " Et in locanda una navi ad
portandum corredium regis usque Pembroc, Rogero constabulario, £^ ".

4" According to Gir. Camb., Ann. Cest. and Jocelyn of Brakelond, the
fight took place near Coleshill. MS. C. of B.T. has " Koet Kennadlaoc," a name
which probably stands for Pennardd Alaog, i.e., Hawarden, now known to the
Welsh as Penarlag (Owen, Pemb. i. 419 ; cf. also the forms of the name in MS.
E. of B.T. 372, and Pen. MS. 131, as cited in Evans, Rep. i. p. 821). Powel
(150-1) and Gw. Brut, s.a. (1156) have " Coed Eulo," which may be a guess or
from some unknown source. No precise indication of the site seems at present
possible.

49^ HISTOR V OF WALES.

CHAP, he hoped to fall upon Owain unawares. He was not long in
repenting of his folly ; the skirmishers of Dafydd and Cynan
immediately set upon him and for a little while the fate of
king and kingdom trembled in the balance. Eustace fitz
John, constable of Chester, and Robert of Courcy, another
prominent baron, were slain ; it was only the coolness of Earl
Roger of Hertford ^^ which saved the king's life, and in the con-
fusion the rumour ran wildly about that he was indeed among
the dead — a rumour which caused Henry of Essex, hereditary
constable of England, incontinently to throw down the royal
standard and flee in the utmost dismay. ^^ Little by little, how-
ever, the scattered company, and with them the king, made
their way to the shore and safely rejoined the main body of
the army. The day had been inglorious and disastrous for the
English, but it was not a day of rout ; for Owain, finding him-
self too weak to withstand the foe, left his station at Basing-
werk and retreated to the neighbourhood of St. Asaph. ^^ The
Welsh had their losses also, and Giraldus tells a touching story
of a greyhound which guarded faithfully for more than a week
the body of its master, a young Welshman slain in this battle,
and held at bay the ravenous beasts and birds of the forest.

The king's road was now clear to Rhuddlan, and, as he
reached this gate of the Vale of Clwyd, Owain retreated still
further west.^^ It was probably at this point that Henry was
informed of the ill success of his naval expedition. Instead of
meeting him at Rhuddlan or Degannwy, the ships had cast

'" Jocelyn of Brakelond gives this detail, his ultimate authority being Henry
of Essex himself; see Memorials of St. Edmund^s Abbey, edited by T. Arnold for
the Rolls Series, i. 273-4.

"^i Henry was subsequently accused by Robert of Montfort of having had a
traitorous design in this flight, and, after long delay, the matter was brought to the
arbitrament of the judicial duel in 1163, when Henry was defeated. Much to the
regret of the king, who believed his protestations of sincerity, he was forced to
retire from secular life and became a monk of Reading (R. de Torigni, 218 ;
Wm. Newb. ii. 5 ; Jocelyn, ut supra ; Eyton, Itin. 61-2).

"2 To Cil Owain, i.e., Owain's Retreat, says B.T. If, however, the chronicler
wishes to suggest that the place, which is a mile south-east of St. Asaph, got
its name from this incident, he is easily refuted, for " Chiluen " appears in
Domesd. i. 269a (i) as a berewick of Rhuddlan,

53 " Tal llwyn pina " (B.T., Bruts, 319), or " Tal llwyn pennant " (B. Saes.),
is identified by Powel with Bryn y pin (151), above Kinmel, a spot which certainly
fits in well with the geography of the campaign. There are no remains of
entrenchments.

OWAIN G WYNEDD. 499

anchor in the harbour of Moelfre,^* and the prospect of plunder CHAP,
had led to the landing of a number of knights, who had not
spared in their ravages the churches of Llanbedr Goch and
Llanfair Mathafarn Eithaf During the night there was a
mustering of the natives from all parts of the island, and on
the following day a battle was fought which vindicated the
outraged honour of the saints of Mon. The invaders were
defeated : Henry fitz Henry,^^ a son of King Henry I. by Nest
of Pembroke, fell beneath a shower of lances, and his half-
brother, Robert fitz Stephen,^® was seriously wounded and
escaped with difficulty to the ships in the roadstead. This
disaster, coupled with his own perilous experiences, no doubt
convinced the king that he had gone as far as was practicable
that year in the effort to subjugate the prince of Gwynedd and
that it was time to offer terms. Owain, on his side, had
received sufficient proof of the might of the English crown ;
ever prudent and sagacious, he saw the need of purchasing a
peace which would give him time to consolidate his power,
and thus an agreement was not long delayed.

The conditions included the tender of homage to Henry
and the delivery of hostages for future good behaviour.*'^

^''The tract "O Oes Gwrtheyrn" (Bruts, 405; Comment. (2), 155) and the
poet Gwalchmai (Myv. Arch. I. 197 [145]) both fix this battle at " Tal Moelfre,"
and I know of no Moelfre in Anglesey save the one on the east coast. The two
churches mentioned in the text are not far off ; Llandyfrydog, which was also
despoiled, according to Giraldus, is in the same district. On the other hand, it
is noteworthy that B. Saes. mentions Aber Menai as the landing place, and, if
this be correct, Gwalchmai's line —

" A menai heb drai o drallanw gwaedryar "
(And Menai ebbed not, for the inflowing of the streams of blood)

is much more to the point. " Eglwys ueir ac eglwys bedyr " can also be found at
Llanfair yn y cymwd and Newborough, though it is doubtful whether the old
church of Rhosyr was not Llananno, rather than Llanbedr.

•'>•'' " Henricus filius Geraldi . . . velut alii volunt, filius fuit Henrici regis "
(Ann. Camb. MS. B.) ; " Henricus . . . regis Henrici primi filius ... ex nobili
Nesta, Resi filii Theodori filia, in australi Kambria Demetiae finibus oriundus "
(Gir. Camb. vi. 130 [Itin. ii. 7.]). Henry fitz Henry's lands were m Narberth and
Pebidiog (i. 59 [De Rebus, i. 9]). There is no evidence as to the date of his birth,
except that it befell while Nest was the wife of Gerald. The order of names in
Gir. Camb. i. 59 seems to me geographical and not chronological.

''^Robert was the son of Stephen, constable of Cardigan in 1136, by Nest,
whom the constable may well have married after the death of Gerald. He
succeeded his father at Cardigan and also had lands in Cemais (Gir. Camb. i. 59 ;
cf. his gift of Llanfyrnach on the Taf to Slebech [Fenton (2), 347]).

®^ The sheriffs of London paid in the financial year 1 157-8 72s. for wearing
apparel for the use of Owain's hostages (Pipe Roll, 4 Hen. IL 114).

Soo HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Owain was further required to restore Cadwaladr to his former
XIV •

possessions and to resign all claim to Tegeingl, This district
reverted once more to English rule ; Rhuddlan Castle again
became a border fortress and was entrusted to Hugh of
Beauchamp ; ^^ Basingwerk was also fortified. Previous to the
Welsh occupation of this region, there had been a Cistercian
abbey at the latter place, originally founded by Earl Ranulf
of Chester in 1 1 3 1 as a house of the order of Savigny and
transferred in 1 147, with the other houses of that rule, to the
more popular order of Citeaux.^" The king, on his return to
Chester, not only confirmed to the monks what they had
previously held in Tegeingl, but gave them, out of the forfeited
lands of William Peverel of Nottingham, the vill of Glossop in
Derbyshire, as a thankoffering, it may be conjectured, for his
providential escape from death in the woods of Coleshill.""

Thus Owain lost his recent acquisitions between the Clwyd
and the Dee and was obliged again to give his protection to
his restless and troublesome brother. It has to be added, also,
ere the record of this year's transactions is complete, that, after
Henry's departure, lorwerth the Red of Powys attacked and
destroyed the castle in IM which had been built in 1149 in
token of the ascendancy of Gwynedd. Owain's sun, which
had hitherto shone so resplendently and triumphantly, was now
clouded over and its radiance dimmed. Yet it was but a
temporary obscuration ; in a few years the clouds which had
gathered are seen slowly to disperse and his career ends as
brilliantly as it had begun.

n. The Victories of the Sons of Gruffydd ap Rhys.

While Owain was thus building up a stable realm in the
north, the sons of Gruffydd ap Rhys had been no less busy and

^8 Henceforth Rhuddlan is a royal fortress and not dependent upon the
earldom of Chester.

59 The authority for the year of the foundation is Dugdale {Mon. Angl. v.
261), who quotes from a chronicle of St. W^erburgh's, Chester, not yet identified.
The house was certainly in existence in 1147 {Eng. Hist. Rev. viii. p. 669) and the
charters of Earl Ranulf are summarised in Charter Rolls, ii. 289-90 from an
inspeximus of 1285.

80Afow. Angl. V. 262-3. Pipe Roll, 4 Hen. II. (1157-8) is the first which
contains the allowance to the fermor (terra Willelmi Peurelli) of 20s. for lands
in " Langedenedale " given to the monks of Basingwerk. All trace of the house
of Templars which Henry at the same time set up between Rhuddlan and
Basingwerk (R. de Torigni) has long since disappeared.

OWAIN G WYNEDD. 50 1

almost as successful in the south. The eldest of them, de- CHAP,
scribed by the " Chronicle of the Princes " as " the hope and ^^^*
stay and glory of the men of South Wales," ^^ had, indeed,
been cut off by the crime of 1143, but, although this left the
fortunes of the family for a few years in the sole charge of
Cadell, the younger brothers, Maredudd and Rhys, were rapidly
growing out of childhood, and as early as 1 146, when the elder
of the two was about sixteen, appear with their surviving
brother at the head of the armies of Deheubarth. The activity
of the three was confined to Deheubarth in the stricter sense,
that is, to the three regions of Dyfed, Ceredigion and Ystrad
Tywi ; in eastern South Wales Hugh Mortimer had in 1144
recovered his authority in Elfael and Maelienydd, and the lords
of Brecknock and Glamorgan maintained their position without
interruption through the whole epoch of revolt. But, within
the limits indicated, the sons of Gruffydd held the country at
their command, as they swept down from the uplands of
Cantref Mawr upon castle and town and drove the Normans
who held them eastward to Swansea or westward to Pembroke
and St. David's.

In 1 145 Earl Gilbert came, it would seem for the first
time, to visit his earldom and the adjacent lands of Dyfed.
He determined to repair the breaches which had been made by
the late war and set about rebuilding the castle of Carmarthen,
taken by the Welsh in 1137. With a view to operations
against Ceredigion, which he no doubt hoped to recover for
the house of Clare, he built a castle also in the commote of
Mabudryd, at Pencader or in its neighbourhood.^^ He was
not long in learning how weak the once dreaded Norman
power had become. Cadell was provoked by these measures
into reprisals ; with the aid of the youths, Maredudd and Rhys,
he attacked in 11 46 the new castle of Mabudryd, ^^ took it
by storm and slew the garrison. Hywel ab Owain, who held
southern Ceredigion, came to his aid, and together they re-

"1 " Gobeith a chedernyt a gogonyat y deheuwyr " {Bruts, 311).

•"*'• Achastell arall ym mab udrut " (Bruts, 312; B.T. 166). For the
situation of Mabudryd see p. 267 ; Spurrell's " Castell Moei," or Green Castle
{Carm. 84), is in the wrong direction.

"3 The identity is assumed of the castle in Mabudryd and "gastell din-
weileir yr hwnn awnathoed gilbert larll " (Bruits, 312), in the absence of any
other indication of the situation of " Dinweilir ".
VOL. II. 10

so 2 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, peated the exploit of Hywel's father and captured the castle of
Carmarthen. Llanstephan also fell into their victorious grasp.
The Normans and Flemings of Dyfed, led by William and
Maurice fitz Gerald and William fitz Hai,*** did their best to
recover Carmarthen, so important a link in the chain of South
Welsh castles, but the new daring and self-confidence of the
Welsh comes to light in the bold resistance offered by the
young Maredudd, who held the place stoutly against a force
far larger than his own and flung down into the fosse the
scaling ladders up which the enemy sought to swarm into
the beleaguered fortress. These events left the Welsh masters
of Eastern Dyfed.

In the following year the unusual spectacle is presented of
a quarrel among the foreign settlers turned by the Welsh to
their own profit. Strife had arisen for some reason or other
between William fitz Gerald and Walter fitz Wizo, the lord of
Deugleddyf,^^ whereupon the former, half Welshman as he
was, turned to Cadell and his brothers for aid against his
fellow-baron. The opportunity was gladly seized ; not only
Cadell, Maredudd and Rhys, but Hywel ab Owain also came,
and the destruction of Walter's castle of Wiston, or Castell
Gwis, as it was called by the Welsh, removed one more
obstacle to the spread of Welsh influence in Dyfed. Cadell
resolved to make Carmarthen the capital of his rapidly growing
realm, and, having put the castle into a state of thorough
repair, in 1150 further protected himself by widespread de-
vastation of the region of Cydweli. At this point, however,
his career came suddenly to an end. While engaged in the
warrior's favourite pastime of hunting, probably in Coed Rhath,
the great forest which then skirted Saundersfoot Bay,*^** he was

64«]vieibon Geralt ystiwert a Gwilim ab Aed" (B.T. 168); " meibion
Gerald a William or hay" (B. Saes. s.a. 1145). " Willelmus filius Hay" was a
son of the famous Nest (perhaps by " Hait," sheriff of Pembroke in 1130), who
held St. Clears (Gir. Camb. i. 28, 59).

^5 B. Saes. treats William and Hywel as defenders of the castle against Cadell,
but its authority as a translation is inferior to that of B.T., which in this case is
supported by the evidence of Ann. Camb. MS. B. For Walter fitz Wizo see
chap. xii. note 78,

68 The conjecture is due to Laws {Lit. Eng. p. 115). For Coed Rhath see
Owen, Pemb. i. 49, 86, 315-6. Leland notices it [Wales, p. 117), though not
by name (" a wood not veri greate "). It gave its name to one of the three
commotes of Cantref Penfro.

OWATN GWYNEDD. 503

set upon in 1 1 5 i by a party of knights and archers from the CHAP,
neighbouring town of Tenby, who reckoned when they left him
they had finished their work. In this they were mistaken ;
Cadell still breathed and was in time cured of his wounds.
But he never recovered his old position ; the shock had robbed
him of his vigour and his zest for battle, and all that is hereafter
recorded of him is that in 1 153 he went on pilgrimage to
Rome "^^ and in 1175 died in the abbey of Strata Florida.
Young as they were, Maredudd and Rhys were now the sole
leaders of the men of South Wales.

No slackening of effort was occasioned by the change of
leadership. In the year of Cadell's eclipse as a ruler, his two
brothers took advantage of their hold over Cydweli to carry
their ravages yet further afield ; crossing the Loughor, they
entered Gower, and, having destroyed the castle which guarded
the passage of the river, devastated the region without mercy.
East and west their power was felt, and the year 1 1 5 3 saw
them triumph at points as far removed from each other as
Tenby and Aberafan. The attack upon Cadell was avenged
by the capture of the former of these two places, of which the
gates were seized in a night surprise — a deed of daring well
fitted to disturb and alarm the men of Penfro, who saw the
Welsh almost at the portals of their great stronghold by the
sea. It may well have been the occasion of the panic which
Giraldus Cambrensis witnessed as a boy at Manorbier, a castle
only five miles from that which was taken by Maredudd and
Rhys.®^ He was but a child at the time, but he well re-
membered the sudden night alarm, the wild rush to arms and
to the shelter of the castle, and his own singular persistency in
regarding the church, standing lonely on the hillside, as the real
place of security in this hour of peril. The excitement, he
says, soon passed away; the Welsh princes were not able to
press home their victory. In the month of May they were at
the other end of the Severn Sea, attacking the outskirts of
Glamorgan. Their conquest of Gower enabled them to threaten
this lordship, which by the death of Earl Robert of Gloucester
in 1 147 had passed into the hands of his son William, and

«■' This is the date implied by B.T. and B. Saes. Both MSS. of Ann. Catnb.
assign the event to the year before Henry's first expedition, i.e., to 1156.
•^^ De Rebus, i. i (i. 22). He was about seven years old in 1153.

10 *

504 HISTOR V OF WALES.

CHAP, they destroyed the castle of Aberafan, held at this time, it
^^^' seems likely, by Caradog ab lestyn in feudal subjection to the
earl.««

While the sons of Gruffydd ap Rhys had been thus winning
triumphs at the expense of the Norman and the Fleming, they
had been also engaged in another movement, no less profitable
to the kingdom of Deheubarth. This was the expulsion of the
men of Gwynedd from Ceredigion. The conquests of Owain
and Cadwaladr had left this province in the possession of the
northern dynasty ; Cadwaladr held the portion between the
Aeron and the Dovey, while Hywel ab Owain ruled between the
Aeron and the Teifi. In Cardigan itself it would seem as if
Robert fitz Stephen still held the castle for the Clares, for,
though Hywel and his brother Cynan in 1 145 raided the town
and carried off much booty, they are not credited with the
capture of the fortress which had so long resisted the onslaughts
of the Welsh."*' This was the state of affairs until 1149, when
Cadwaladr, having built a castle at Llanrhystud, handed it over
with his portion of Ceredigion to his son Cadfan. Hywel
deemed the moment a suitable one for aggression, and, seizing
his cousin, possessed himself in 1 150 of his land and castle ;
he was now lord of the whole province. But the southern
princes, who had long been watching for their opportunity,
now intervened ; Cadell, Maredudd and Rhys, vindicating the
ancient territorial rights of their house, attacked Hywel and
took from him all that he held to the south of the Aeron. In
1 1 5 1 they pressed their advantage still further and won most
of Northern Ceredigion, which they secured by rebuilding the
Clare stronghold of Ystrad Meurig. They did not succeed at
this time in capturing Hywel's chief castle at Llanfihangel "^^
and their conquest of Llanrhystud was only temporary, for
Hywel recovered it before the end of the year."^ But two

^^ See above, p. 440.

'" The documents given (in English) in Card. Priory, 133-4, from the muni-
ments of Gloucester Cathedral show that Gilbert Earl of Hertford (not Hereford)
about 1 145, with the consent of Bishop Bernard, confirmed to St. Peter's,
Gloucester, the church of Holy Trinity at Cardigan, then held by Edward the
priest.

^^ " Castell aoed ympenn gwern yn llan vihangel " (Bruts, 316). Pen y
warn is close to the village of Llanfihangel Geneu'r Glyn.

^2 It is not easy to understand how Hywel was able at the end of this cam-
paign of 1151, fought in North Cardiganshire, to fortify " gastell hwmfre yn

OWAIN GWYNEDD. 505

years later the reconquest was complete ; Maredudd and Rhys, CHAP
now deprived of the help of Cadell, gained entire possession of
Penweddig, the northernmost of the four cantrefs of the pro-
vince, and Ceredigion was once again attached to the crown of
Deheubarth. No serious attempt was made to challenge the
hard-won victory of the sons of Grufifydd ap Rhys ; there was,
indeed, some talk of an invasion by Owain Gwynedd in 11 56,
but Rhys forestalled matters by building a castle at the mouth
of the Dovey, probably at Tomen Las (Green Mound), near
Glandovey, where there is an ancient ford across the river, and
thus warded off the threatened blow.

Meanwhile, he had been left sole ruler of Deheubarth. His
brother Maredudd, who had lived long enough to learn a reputa-
tion not only for valour but also for wisdom, justice, and
clemency,^^ died in 1 1 5 5 , at the early age of twenty-five.
A strange fatality had pursued all the sons of Grufifydd of
South Wales, with the exception of Rhys, who, though a mere
youth, now bore, as the solitary representative of his house,
the whole burden of the southern realm. But this single living
shoot of an ancient and well-nigh blasted stock was full of
vigour, and in time it became the sturdy trunk out of which
there sprang a new and sprightly growth of branches.

III. The Triumph of Owain.

The victory of Henry H. in 11 57, though purchased at a
heavy cost, was a clear and decisive one, and it was not un-
reasonable for the king of England to suppose he had broken
down all that was formidable in the Welsh resistance. Owain
of Gwynedd had accepted his terms ; Madog of Powys was his
close ally. It was true that Rhys of Deheubarth, not having
yet experienced the weight of the royal arm, was still holding
out in the south, but the course of events soon showed that he
could not maintain a single-handed opposition. Thus not only

dyffryn clettwr " {Bruts, 317 ; cf. B. Saes, s.a. 1150), though the name of Castell
Hywel, still borne by the spot, points to a real connection. Possibly the notice
has got out of its right place.

■'^ Maredudd is praised, not only by B.T. (182-4), but also by Gir. Camb.
(vi. 145 [Itin. ii. 12]), who further notices the singular fortune of Rhys, comparing
it with the parallel case of Richard fitz Tancard, castellan of Haverford (vi. 85
[Itin. i. ii]).

So6 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Henry, but Owain also, came to the conclusion that the Welsh
XIV .

power of resistance was for the time being at an end ; the unique

opportunity of the anarchy had passed away, and every act of
the king of Gwynedd during the next eight years reveals his
conviction that nothing was to be gained, but on the other
hand everything was in danger of being lost, by a continuance
of the defiant attitude of the days of Stephen. Yet in truth
the success of the English rested on no firm foundation ; it had
been brought about by exceptionally favourable circumstances,
and, when affairs began to assume a more normal aspect, the
natural strength of the Welsh became evident, and they achieved
a triumph which had lasting results.

In the early part of 1 158 Rhys ap Gruffydd, whose career
had hitherto been one of unimpeded progress, found that the
day of reckoning with the English king was no longer to be
postponed. His first impulse was to resist, and he concentrated
for the purpose all that he and his people had in the forest re-
treats of Ystrad Tywi. But the hot fit gave way to more sober
counsels ; he was persuaded to journey across the border and
place himself in the hands of Henry. In doing so he had to
make up his mind to even larger sacrifices of territory than
had been wrung by war from Owain Gwynedd, for the restora-
tion of royal authority in South Wales meant the re-establish-
ment of the barons in the lordships from which they had been
ejected during the revolt, and notably of the Clares in Cere-
digion and of the Cliffords in Cantref Bychan. Thus it was
with sadly shorn power that Rhys returned to Deheubarth, as
the lord of Cantref Mawr and some other scattered territories
lying in the midst of baronial lands, and soon after, at the
beginning of June, the new era was marked by the appearance
in Ceredigion of Earl Roger of Hertford,''* who was come after
twenty-two years to claim his father's inheritance, and who
forthwith garrisoned the castles, so lately held by Rhys, at
Ystrad Meurig, Castell Hywel, Aberdyfi, Dineirth ''^ and Llan-
rhystud. About the same time Walter Clifford recovered

"* Roger was the second son of the Richard fitz Gilbert who was killed in
1136; his elder brother, Gilbert, the first Earl of Hertford, died without issue in
1 152 and never held Ceredigion (Geoff. Mand. 271).

'"' For this castle see chap. xiii. note 40.

OWAIN GWYNEDD. 507

his hold upon Cantref Bychan and LlandoveryJ^ The new CHAP
order was not readily accepted by the Welsh ; Rhys' s nephew,
Einon ab Anarawd, destroyed Castell Hywel and slew the
garrison, and the southern prince himself reopened hostilities
against Clifford and Earl Roger. But, when Henry came west
with banners flying for a second Welsh expedition, Rhys again
made a complete submission,'^'^ and the king crossed to the
Continent in the middle of August,'^^ no doubt believing that
he had effectually disposed of the Welsh problem for many
years.

A dramatic incident of the year 11 58 deserves to be re-
corded, not only for its own sake, but also as an illustration of
the irrepressible spirit of independence which still lived in dis-
tricts supposed to be completely subjected to baronial power. '^^
The hills of Senghenydd, between the Rhymney and the Taff,
were at this time held, as a dependent barony of the lordship
of Glamorgan, by one Ifor ap Meurig, whose wife, Nest, was
a sister of Rhys ap Gruffydd. He was short of stature, and
therefore known as " Ifor Bach," but no man excelled him
in daring and resource. He first appears on the scene as the
adversary of his next neighbour on the east, Morgan ab Owain
of Gwynllwg and Caerleon, whom he waylaid and slew in this
year 1158, with his chief bard, named Gwrgant ap Rhys.^**
No increase of territory accrued to him as the result of this
deed, for Morgan was succeeded by his brother lorwerth, who
continued to hold Caerleon under the protection of the king.

''^ There is no direct evidence of this, but an earlier date than 1158 seems
unlikely.

" The statement of the Bruts {B. Saes. having here, it would seem, the
better translation) is confirmed hy Ann. Theokesb. s.a. 1158: "Rex, facta pace
cum Reso, transfretavit ".

''s 14th August (Eyton, Itin. 40).

'''For the story of this exploit see Gir. Camb. vi. 63-4 {Itin. i. 6); the date
is supplied by Ann. Marg. s.a. 1158. B. Saes. s.a, 1175, preserving a notice
which has dropped out of the Red Book text oi B.T., explains the connections
of Ifor Bach. The sheriff of Worcestershire paid " luori paruo " four marks in
1160-1 (Pipe Roll, 7 Henry H. 55).

8»B.r. 188 (where the " Gwynedd " of MS. E. is a late blunder); B.
Saes. s.a. 1157 (= 1158). The "^rydyd" of the Red Book {Bruts, 320) is a
scribal error ; cf. Mostyn MS. 116 in Evans, Rep. i. p. 60. For Morgan and lor-
werth ab Owain see pp. 471 and 478 above. The Pipe Roll 3 Hen. H. (i 156-7)
is the last in which Morgan's name appears ; in and after Michaelmas, 1158, the
entry under " terrae datae " (Gloucestershire) is " Et filio [for fratrij Morgani
xl. s, bl. in Carliun ",

5o8 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. But Ifor now flew at larger game, and, having a quarrel with his
overlord, Earl William, as to the extent of his holding, deter-
mined to carry his point by an expedient of surpassing bold-
ness. His plan was to kidnap the earl, with the countess and
the heir to the earldom, in their castle of Cardiff, carry them off
to Senghenydd, and then make his own terms for their safe
restitution. It was a scheme beset with enormous difficulties ;
the castle was strongly walled and well furnished with watch-
men ; the town at its foot was full of knights, archers and
other troops — nothing could be done by mere force, and to at-
tempt a capture by stealth was to run the gauntlet of a hundred
accidents which could not be foreseen. Nevertheless, with the
aid of ladders, and, probably, of secret allies within the castle,
Ifor and his companions gained access to the earl's apart-
ments, seized him, the Countess Hawise, and their young son
Robert,^^ and were in their own inaccessible woods before a
hand could be lifted against them. The exploit served its im-
mediate purpose, for Ifor's demands were conceded, but it did
still more in demonstrating that the Welsh of Glamorgan,
though conquered, were not yet crushed, and that it was dan-
gerous to drive them to the wall.

An important element in Henry's victory over Owain Gwyn-
edd had been the support given him by Madog ap Maredudd,
whose sway extended over the whole of Powys. Madog had
lost something by the accession of a strong king to power, for
Oswestry was now recovered by William fitz Alan, who in
July, 1 1 55, was received into Henry's favour and reinstated
as sheriff of Shropshire. ^^ But he had gained what was of
more account — a protector against the aggression of Gwynedd,
and he continued on the best of terms with the king until his
death. This took place early in 1 1 60, when Madog was laid
to rest in the soil of the holiest sanctuary of his realm, the
church of Tysilio in Meifod.^^ The passing of so notable a

81 He died in 1166 (Ann. Marg.), leaving only sisters to inherit.

^^Eyton, Shrops. i. pp. 250-1.

8' I can find no authority for the statement of Powel (153) that Madog died
at Winchester, except the narrative of Rhys Cain (Cae Cyriog MS. in Powys
Fadog, i. 119-120), which tells an impossible story and confuses John Fitzalan
II. (tlie real son-in-law of Rohese of Verdun) with his great grandfather, the con-
temporary of Madog. See Eyton, Shrops. vii. p. 252. Gwalchmai's elegy gives
the season of the year as " dechreu gaiawys," i.e., about gth February (Myv.

OWAIN GWYNEDD. 509

prince moved more than one bard of his time to vigorous CHAP.
^ XIV.

verse : —

If hearts can break for weight of sorrow,
sang Cynddelw the Great,

Mine will be rent in twain.

Now that he was gone, men were bold against Powys, but

While Madog lived, there was no man

Durst ravage his fair borders.

Yet nought of all he held

Esteemed he his save by God's might.**

Gwalchmai, too, bemoaned the loss of " the roof timber of
Powys, the mighty dragon of dragons ".^^ The epoch was,
indeed, a notable one, affecting both the internal history and
the external policy of Powys. Madog's eldest son, Llywelyn,
described as the " sole hope " of the realm, was killed very
shortly after his father, and there resulted a division of the
territory between Owain Cyfeiliog, lorwerth the Red and Ma-
dog's other sons, Gruffydd, Owain Fychan and Owain Brogyn-
tyn, which finally broke up the unity of Powys ; never again
was it under the rule of a single prince. The policy of con-
sistent friendship with the English court also came to an end ;
though Owain Cyfeiliog and lorwerth sometimes recurred to
it, it was not even for them a uniform principle of action, and
in any case it could not be, under the altered circumstances,
the menace to Gwynedd it had been in the hands of Madog.
When Owain Cyfeiliog and Owain Fychan are found joining in
II 63 to assault and destroy the royal castle of Carreghofa, it
is clear that one at least of the conditions which gave Henry
his early advantage over the Welsh has disappeared.^^

A rch . I. 202 [149]). The churchyard of Meifod anciently included three churches,
dedicated to Gwyddfarch, Tysilio and the Virgin (Thomas, St. Asaph, pp. 777-9) ;
of these the last had been consecrated as recently as 1156 {B.T. 184).

^*Myv. Arch. I. 212 {155). ^^ Ibid. 201 (148).

^ B. Saes. s.a. 1162 has the correct reading, " Owein ap Grufud ac (not ap)
Owein ap Madoc". The Maredudd ap Hywel who acted vnth them was prob-
ably the lord of Edeyrnion who in 1176 gave " Esgen gaynauc " (Esgair
Gaenog, near Gwyddelwern) to the monks of Ystrad Marchell {Mont. Coll. iv.
[1871], 21). " Kaer offa" {Bruts, 323) is a fancy form found in the Red Book,
but not in the other texts of B.T. — see Ab Ithel's note, p. 197. The Pipe Rolls
for the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and gth years of Henry II., i.e., from 1158 to 1163,

5IO HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Owain Gwynedd was not at all slow to realise the import-

ance of the death of Madog as affecting the balance of power
between Powys and Gwynedd. The elegy of Cynddelw bears
its testimony to his aggressions —

If my noble master were alive,

Gwynedd would not now be encamped in the heart of Edeyrnion."''

Moreover, it is on record that in 1162 Owain was in posses-
sion of Cyfeiliog and its castle of Tafolwern. Hywel ab leuaf,
of the adjacent cantref of Arwystli, in that year took the castle
by surprise, but was driven out by the prince of Gwynedd,
who ravaged Hywel's lands as far as Llandinam, defeated him
with great slaughter in a pitched battle, and refortified the
captured stronghold. ^^ But Owain did not allow the changed
situation in Powys to modify in any way his attitude towards
the English government. " Quieta non movere " was still his
motto in this respect, and a diplomatic correctness the aim of
his whole policy.

In flat contrast to the prudence of his northern comrade
was the restless daring and unquenchable energy of Rhys ap
Gruffydd. The peace which he made with the king on the eve
of the latter's departure for France lasted but a few months ; in
1 1 59 the South Welsh prince was again in arms, attacking the
castles of Dyfed. He laid siege, among others, to Carmarthen
and put the place in such peril as to bring upon the scene a
powerful relieving force, led by Earl Reginald of Cornwall.^''
This proved a momentary check to his progress ; he was forced

regularly contain entries (62, 26, 38, 15, 3) of payments made by the sheriff of
Shropshire for the maintenance of the castle and garrison of" Carrecoel," but,
in conformity with the statement of the Bruts, the castle is not mentioned after
Michaelmas, 1163.

^'' Myv. Arch. I. 212 (155). It is possible that the references in Pipe Roll, 6
Hen. II. p. 26, to the repair and custody of the Castle of " Dernio" or " Der-
mant " on behalf of the crown may have to do with an attempt made by the Eng-
lish king in 1160 to protect Edeyrnion from the attacks of Owain.

^8 For Hywel ab leuaf see note 24 above. Ann. C, MSS. B. and C, and
B. Saes. have the form " Walwern," but this appears to be inferred from " cas-
tellum d^walwern," or, as the Red Book has it, " daualuern " (Bruts, 322, 325),
which in modern parlance becomes " Tafolwern ". Possibly the true form is the
" dywalwern " of Cynddelw (Myv. Arch. I. 241 [175]).

s" Pipe Roll, 5 Hen. II. 21 shows that during 1158-9 the sheriff of Somerset
paid 20 marks (due from him to the crown) towards the cost of the defences of
Carmarthen.

OWAIN G WYNEDD. 5 1 1

to retire to the wilds of Cantref Mawr and entrench himself in CHAP,
his castle of Dinweiler. But the attempt of the English to
improve upon this victory and overwhelm Rhys himself was a
notable fiasco, which only served to bring out the high courage
of the prince and the defensive strength of his position. Five
earls, namely, Reginald of Cornwall, William of Gloucester,
Roger of Hertford, Richard of Pembroke and Patrick of Salis-
bury,^" marched together to hunt Rhys out of his lair ; they
were accompanied by Cadwaladr of Gwynedd, with his nephews
Hywel and Cynan, whose presence, no doubt, signified that their
father wished to repudiate all sympathy with the rebellion. Yet,
notwithstanding this imposing array of forces, Rhys held his
ground ; his enemies found him too strongly posted to venture
upon an assault against him, and parted company without hav-
ing effected anything. A little later he agreed to a truce which
enabled him to dismiss his followers to their homes.

During the next two or three years Rhys kept comparatively
quiet. Owain Gwynedd still pursued the policy of propitiating
the supreme power ; when in 1 1 60 Cadwallon ap Madog of
Maelienydd seized his brother Einion Clud ®^ and made him
over as a captive to the northern prince, Owain promptly handed
him to the custody of the crown.^^ In 1162, however, Rhys
once again raised the banner of revolt ; he attacked and took
the castle of Llandovery. For some years the government
had recognised the insecurity of this stronghold and had dis-
bursed large sums for its defence, as though it were one of the
buttresses of the realm and more was involved in its mainten-
ance than the private interest of Walter Clifford.''^ Neverthe-
less, it fell, and the name no longer appeared in the royal re-
cords. The time had now come, however, when the king, whose

^o Ann. Camb. MS. B. and the Bruts furnish the names of three of the earls,
viz., those of Cornwall, " Bristol " [cf. " comes Bricstowensis Robertus " in Cont.
Fl. Wig. 134) and Clare. The complete list is given by the poet Seisyll Bryf-
fwrch in his reference to the repulse of the " pumieirll taer " ; he styles them
" iarll cernyw," " iarll brysteu," " iarll gwent " (Earl Richard was lord of Striguil),
" iarll padrig " and " iarll clar " (Myv. Arch. I. 340 [237]).

"1 See chap. xiii. note 59.

*2 He was imprisoned in Worcester Castle, but contrived to escape.

""In Pipe Roll, 6 Hen. \\. (1159-60), payments of ;^4i (23), £^s 3S- 6d. (28),
and ;;^i8 5s. (30) appear in respect of the castle of " Canter bohhan " ; in the next
roll (1160-1) the amounts are £63 (22), £82 12s. and £44 12s. 6d. (54), and in
that of 8 Hen. H. (1161-2), £21 (56).

5 1 2 HISTOR V OF WALES.

CHAP, long absence abroad had been so favourable to the enterprises
of Rhys,^* was again to give his personal attention to the affairs
of South Wales, and no sooner did he show himself on the scene
of action than it was seen how accurately Owain Gwynedd had
gauged the situation. Henry returned to England in January,
1163 ; a few months later he was on the way to Glamorgan,
surrounded by a force which left no doubt as to his intention
thoroughly to subdue the rebellious prince.®^ Superstition, no
less than motives of a more ordinary kind, cleared the way be-
fore him ; it was bruited abroad that he was the " freckled man
of might " of a prophecy current among the Welsh,^^ whose
crossing of the Ford of Pencarn,®^ not far from Newport on the
Usk, would be of evil omen to the land. Hope clutched for a
moment at the possibility that this man of fate might not cross
by the ancient ford, which was now usually discarded for an-
other, and that thus the spell might be broken. But, as ill-luck
would have it, Henry's horse, startled by a blast of unaccustomed
strength which was blown in honour of the king by the native
trumpeters, shied at the usual crossing place and could not be
persuaded to ford the stream, until, cantering along the bank,
it reached the ancient point of passage and thus fulfilled the
ominous prediction. Henry's progress was thereafter unop-
posed, not only in Glamorgan and in Gower, but even in Rhys's
own sphere of influence. He passed through Carmarthen, and,
crossing the defiles of the Gwili at last came upon his foe at
Pencader, on the confines of Ceredigion.

All that is certainly known of the meeting is that Rhys,
offering no resistance, surrendered himself to the king. It is
suggested in one quarter that this was done by the advice of
Owain Gwynedd,^^ but the same writer elsewhere speaks as if
the submission had been obtained by a trick.^^ Be this as it

8^ According to Herbert of Bosham {Mat. Hist. Becket, iii. 180), the mission
of Thomas of London (then chancellor) to England in May, 1162, partly arose
out of the disturbances in Wales.

8^ For this expedition and its incidents see Ann. Camb., B.T., B. Saes., Ann.
Marg., Gir. Camb. v, 374 {Exp. Hib. ii, 31) ; vi, 62-3 {Itin. i. 6), 81-2 (i. 10), 138
(ii. 10).

"6 Attributed to Merlin, but not in any known collection of prophecies bear-
ing his name.

»■' Believed by Hoare (i. 130) to be the old ford across the Ebbw. The name
Pencarn is still preserved in the neighbourhood.

»8" Interventu Oeni avunculi sui" (Gir, Camb. v. 374).

»»«« Ad deditionem dolose magiB quam virtuose compulso" {ibid. vi. 81).

OWAIN G WYNEDD. 5 1 3

may, Rhys was now a prisoner and accompanied the king on CHAP,
his return to England by way of Ceredigion, Maelienydd and
Radnor.^**" The future of Cantref Mawr was in the balance ;
should the captive prince be reinstated at Dinefwr, or an attempt
be made to reduce the district to subjection ? If one were to
believe the tale which passed from lip to lip in those days, it
would be necessary to suppose that the decision in favour of
Rhys was obtained by hoodwinking the king. He sent a Breton
knight, we are told, to survey the country, and this man was
taken by his guide, a priest of Cantref Mawr,^^^ through the
roughest and wildest parts of the cantref, until he was ready to
swear that the king had nothing to gain by the annexation of
such a desert, or by the conquest of a people so savage that at
a pinch they could subsist on roots and herbs, as he had seen
the priest do with his own eyes. A statesman like Henry, one
may confidently aver, was not thus easily misled ; his resolve
to send Rhys back to Dinefwr was no doubt based upon the
consideration that the Welsh were not to be dislodged from
their last retreat, and, if deprived of their former leader, would
merely set another in his place. Hence Rhys was allowed on
1st July to do homage at Woodstock to the king and to his
heir, with Malcolm of Scotland and Owain of North Wales,^"^
and soon afterwards reappeared at his ancestral home on the
banks of the Towy.

His experiences had in no way blunted the edge of his
appetite for war. Scarcely was he re-established as lord of
Cantref Mawr ere he began to make preparations for resuming
the conflict. It was easy to find good grounds for doing so ;
in 1 163, probably during his enforced absence from South
Wales,^**^ his gallant nephew, Einon ab Anarawd, had been
treacherously murdered as he slept by one of his own men,
Walter ap Llywarch. When the murderer was sheltered from

100 "Per Elennyth ac Mailennyth usque Radenoram " (Gir. Camb. vi. 138).
Elenydd is the Plinlimmon region ; see Gir. Camb. i. 117; vi. 119, 170, 171, 173 ;
Mab. 62 ; Owen, Pemb. i. 203 (where it is derived from the river Elan and identi-
fied with Cymwd Deuddwr).

101 '< Decani [i.e., rural dean] de Cantrefmaur." The cantref was included
in 1291 in the deanery of Ystrad Tywi, but it may well have been a separate
deanery at this date.

loaDiceto, i. 311.

103 This may be inferred from the position of the notice in the record of the
year's doings in B. T. and B. Sues.

514 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, vengeance by the power of Earl Roger of Hertford,^*^^ Rhys had
a substantial motive for attacking Ceredigion, and accordingly
in 1 1 64 he entered the province, destroyed the chief castle of
the commote of Mabwnion,^"^ and also a new one placed at
the mouth of the Rheidol,^''^ and ravaged far and wide, until
little else but the town and castle of Cardigan remained in
English hands. Henry saw that his campaign of the previous
year had been labour lost and began to prepare for another
which should do its work more thoroughly ; at the Council of
Northampton, held in October, 11 64, he asked for and was
promised a large levy of foot soldiers, suitable for Welsh war-
fare, wherewith to chastise the shameless breaker of treaties.^'^'^

But the patience of Owain and the persistence of Rhys
were now alike to meet with their reward. Even more than the
disunion of Wales, the solid unity of England under its vig-
orous and popular young king had been a stumbling-block in
the path of the Welsh patriot. It was at the Council of Wood-
stock in 1 163 that the great quarrel between Henry and Arch-
bishop Thomas took its rise ; during the ensuing fifteen months
it grew more and more formidable, and in the very Council of
Northampton at which measures were devised for crushing
Rhys, the archbishop was subjected to such persecution as to
induce him not long afterwards to quit the realm. Although
outwardly the king's power had suffered no diminution, the
controversy caused an acute division of public opinion, and
Henry had no longer the support of a united people. There
can be no doubt that it was the commotion in England which
emboldened Owain, after years of waiting, to join Rhys in
throwing down the gage of battle, and, with two such leaders
committed to an offensive policy, the lesser princes were not
long in declaring their hostility also, so that at the end of the
year, as the St. David's chronicle has it, " all the Welsh of
Gwynedd, Deheubarth and Powys with one accord cast oflf the

i"*I follow Ann. Camb. MS. B. B.T. and B. Sues, both mistranslate.

105 Pqj the situation of Mabwnion see p. 259.

106 " Castell aber reidawl " {Bruts, 323) only appears here under this name.
It would seem as if, after the destruction of the last Aberystwyth Castle of the
older situation (for this see p. 426) in 1143, the chief stronghold of the dis-
trict had been moved to the mouth of the Rheidol, a position which it ever after-
wards retained, though people still insisted upon calling it Aberystwyth.

107 Mat. Hist. Becket, iii. 70.

OWAIN G WYNEDD. 5 1 5

Norman yoke ".^"^ The decisive hour had come in the struggle CHAP,
for Welsh independence. •

Henry perceived that it was now no mere question of
putting down Rhys ap Gruffydd, but that he had to deal with
a widespread movement of most formidable proportions. He
prepared for the campaign, therefore, with all the care requisite
for a great undertaking.^**^ Troops were requisitioned from all
parts of his wide empire, from Normandy, from Anjou, from
Scotland, from Poitou and from Aquitaine.^^** Mercenaries
came from Flanders and elsewhere, and in the records of the
reign one may read how the sheriffs of London paid ;^30 for
shields and nearly £idfO for clothing for a group of these law-
less adventurers.^^^ The feudal host was summoned and the
great magnates were pressed, not only to furnish their proper
quota of heavy cavalry, but also, as had been settled at North-
ampton, to supply serving men who would fight on foot.^^^
Lances, arrows and coats of mail were sent down to Shrews-
bury ,^^^ where the host was to assemble. Messengers of the
king treated with the Danes of Dublin for the services of a fleet
to harass the coast of Gwynedd. In order that nothing should
interfere with the task set for the summer, Henry devoted
the spring to a short continental visit, during which he came to
terms with the foreign powers most likely to disturb his plans,
the king of France and the Count of Flanders,^^* When he
returned, about the middle of May, he found the war already
begun. Owain Gwynedd's son Dafydd had crossed the
Clwydian range into Tegeingl and carried back much plunder
into the cantref of Dyffryn Clwyd. The castles of Rhuddlan
and Basingwerk were in serious danger, and the king's first step
was to lead a hurried expedition to their relief, with such forces

108 ^„„. Camh. MS. B.

lo^For the events of this campaign see Ann. Camb., B.T,, B. Sues., Gir.
Camb. vi. 138 {Itin. ii. 10), 143-4 (ii. 12) ; R. de Torigni, s.a. 1164, 1165.

11" So Wm. Newb. ii. 18 — " immenso tarn ex regno quam ex transmarinis
provinciis exercitu adunato ". The "prydein" oi B.T. (Bruts, 324) is more
correctly " prydyn," as in B. Saes., i.e., Scotland {Celt. Br. (3) p. 241).

Ill " Et pro uestiendis coterellis, ;^i37 gs. 8d. per breve regis. . . . Et pro
ccc targis coterellorum Ernulfo scutario, ;^3o per breve regis" (Pipe Roll, 11
Hen. n. 31).

^^^ Feudal England, pp. 265-6, 282-4. With the " promissio servientium"
cf. the " promissa multitudo " of the Council of Northampton.

118 Pipe Roll, II Hen. II. 31, 68, 73.

ii*Eyton, Itin. 77-9. For Henry's fears see Mat. Hist. Becket, v. 174.

5i6 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, as chanced to be at hand.^^^ He only spent three or four days
in the district, for he did not wish to disarrange the elaborate
preparations which had been made for an attack upon the
grand scale. Accordingly, at the end of July he was in
Shrewsbury at the head of a great host and shortly afterwards
arrived at Oswestry,"® whence it was his purpose, no doubt, to
follow the old line of march across the mountains to Mur
Castell.

The gravity of the crisis was by no means lost upon the
Welsh. Menaced by a more powerful fighting force than had
ever been got together for the subjugation of Wales, they drew
to each other in a close union and confederacy of which earlier
Welsh history can scarcely show an example. Gwynedd,
Powys, Deheubarth, Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, presented a solid
front. In this hour of trial, the proved worth of Owain Gwyn-
edd won for him unquestioned leadership ; with his brother
Cadwaladr, he assembled the men of Gwynedd at Corwen, in
the vale of Edeyrnion, where Henry's passage might be effectu-
ally resisted, and thither there came to his aid Rhys ap Gruffydd
from the south, Owain Cyfeiliog, lorwerth the Red, and the
sons of Madog ap Maredudd from Powys, Cadwallon ap Madog
and his brother Einion Clud from the lands between the upper
waters of the Wye and the Severn. It was the crowning
moment of Owain's career, and, though he did not actually
engage the king's army at close quarters, the victory won was
more truly his than that of any other chief in the great gather-
ing of Edeyrnion.

The English army moyed westward from Oswestry and
soon found itself in the thick forest growth of the Ceiriog
valley.^^'' Here it was received by a band of skirmishers, who,
although without regular leaders, boldly harassed the invaders
from the shelter of the overhanging woods and did no small
execution. Henry ordered a general clearing of the timber, and,

115 This hasty visit to Rhuddlan is only mentioned in the Bruts, but, as
pointed out in Feudal England, p. 284, it is implied in the reference in Pipe Roll,
II Hen. II. 109 to "ii exercitibus ".

118 Henry granted a charter to the abbey of Prdaux in Normandy " apud
Album Monasterium in Valliis " {Cal. Doc. Fr. i. 116).

11'' Probably at Tregeiriog. Tradition locates the skirmish between Henry
and the Welsh at Adwy'r Beddau, near Chirk Castle (Powel, 186-7 > Penn. i.
363-4), but this spot is off the natural line of the king's march.

O WAIN G WYNEDD. 5 1 7

having thus secured an open space for his passage, began to CHAP,
ascend the bare slopes of the Berwyn range, which here rise to a
height of nearly 2,000 feet. The road along which he and his
troops made their laborious way is still known as " Ffordd y
Saeson " — the English Road ; ^^^ it leads across wild stretches
of heath and bog to the pass from which one descends to the
valley of the Dee. Here there was little to fear from the on-
slaughts of the enemy, but much from the unkindness of nature.
In a reasonably dry August the transit across these inhospitable
moors might have been easily accomplished, but on this occasion
the skies put on their most wintry aspect ; rain fell in torrents ^^^
and flooded the mountain meadows, until the English camp
became a morass. The ample scale of the expedition now
became its bane ; the host was too unwieldy to transport
across the heights in the teeth of a hurricane of wind and rain
and under the vigilant eye of an unsleeping foe. Moreover, the
problem of feeding it had become serious ; the original store of
provisions, diminished, it may be, by the ravages of the storm,
was all but exhausted, and it was idle to hope to replenish it in
the enemy's country. No step could have been more repugnant
to the king than that which he now perceived to be inevitable
— to return to his base of operations without having won even
the semblance of a victory. Yet it was all he could do ; wrath-
ful and baffled, he led his weary troops back to the Shropshire
plains, and, having failed to lay hands on the Welsh, vented his
spleen upon their unhappy hostages. Twenty-two of these,
including two sons of Owain Gwynedd and a son of Rhys ap
Gruffydd, were cruelly mutilated to satiate the king's rage.^^"
There was still one other weapon he could use, and he hastened
to Chester ^^i to meet the naval contingent from Dublin and
other Danish ports which he had hired for the harrying of the
coast of Gwynedd.^'-^^ But here again it was his fate to en-

"8 Arch. Camb. IV. xiii. (1882), 102.

"8 Gir. Camb. (vi. 143 [Itin. ii. 12]) agrees with the Briits that Henry was
turned back " subita et inopinata pluvialium aquarum inundatione ". Wm.
Newb. (ii. 18) blames the " inextricabiles locorum difficultates ".

12" C/. Ann. Waverl. s.a. 1165 : "rex . , . perdidit obsides regis Audoeni "•
Rhys had three sons named Maredudd, but this was no doubt the " Maredudd
Ddall (the Blind) " who died in 1239 (B.T.).

^^^ For this visit see Eyton, Itin. 83.

^^ Ann. Ult. s.a. 1165 refer to this campaign and the aid given by the
foreigners of Dublin.

VOL. n. H

St8 history of wales.

CHAP, counter disappointment ; the ships which found their way
• there were too few to effect his purpose, and he sent them back
to Ireland without attempting this part of his programme.

Thus the great English armament had come to nought.
Nor was its failure accidental ; Henry showed that in his eyes
the defeat was final by abandoning the idea of a conquest of
Wales. He made no preparations during the following winter
to wipe out the ignominy of his inglorious retreat, but contented
himself with strengthening the border castles,^^^ and, when the
spring came, he turned, not to Wales, but to the Continent. He
sailed from Southampton in March, 1 1 66, and was absent from
England for fully four years. Everything goes to show that he
looked on the Berwyn disaster as the grave of his Welsh am-
bitions. It was true that he had not crossed swords with the
leaders of -the Welsh, but the elements had done their work for
them ; the stars in their courses had fought against the pride of
England and humbled it to the very dust. To conquer a land
which was defended, not merely by the arms of its valiant and
audacious sons, but also by tangled woods and impassable bogs,
by piercing winds and pitiless storms of rain, seemed a hopeless
task, and Henry resolved no longer to attempt it.

The gathering of princes at Corwen broke up with the sense
that the dark cloud which had overhung their land had passed
away and that once again it was possible to breathe the air of
freedom. There were some to whom the deliverance seemed to
be the direct act of God, a manifestation of Divine displeasure
against the English. For, the night before the catastrophe, the
invaders had burnt several Welsh churches, an act which stirred
up the younger Welshmen to thoughts of retaliation, until the
wise Owain pointed out that it behoved them, as the weaker
side, to make sure of Divine favour, and that the sacrilege of the
foe was a certain presage of destruction.^^* Assured of the
safety of their land, the princes went their several ways, and,
with his usual impetuosity, Rhys ap Gruffydd took in hand
without delay the completion of the conquest of Ceredigion.

1^ R. de Torigni, s.a. 1166 (p. 226). For the efforts made to retain the castles
of Rhuddlan, Basingwerk, and Prestatyn see Pipe Roll, 12 Hen. H. p. 67 ; 13 do.
pp. 77, 140, 160 ; 14 do. p. 199.

^^^ The incident is recorded in Gir. Camb. vi. 143-4 {Itin, ii, 12), in a passage
added by the author in the segond edition of the Itinerary,

O WAIN G WYNEDD. 5 1 9

He had gained possession of almost the whole of the province, chap.
but the castle of Cardigan was still tenaciously held for Earl ^^^*
Roger by its castellan, Robert fitz Stephen. This last remnant
of Norman power in a district in which it had once been su-
preme now passed into Welsh hands ; about i st November the
castle was betrayed to Rhys by a Welsh cleric named Rhygy-
farch and was forthwith razed to the ground. The garrison
were allowed to retire from the place with the half of their
goods, but the doughty Robert was cast into prison, where he
remained for more than three years.^^s Soon afterwards Rhys
captured the Carew stronghold of Cilgerran, and thus had
Emlyn within his grasp ; his territory now embraced Ceredigion,
Ystrad Tywi and a large part of Dyfed. He had, in short, re-
covered the position which he held when Henry first encountered
him, and, as the event proved, had finally disposed of the Clares
in Ceredigion and the Cliffords in Cantref Bychan. Attempts
made in 11 66 to shake his position in the lower valley of the
Teifi were fruitless ; though a Norman and Flemish army de-
vastated the commote of Iscoed and twice essayed the recapture
of Cilgerran, he was not dislodged from his conquests. The
defeat of the king had inspired the Welsh of all Wales with
new hope and courage and in like measure had discouraged
and depressed the foreign garrison.

Owain Gwynedd was more deliberate in his movements,
but no less purposeful. He set himself to destroy the royal
castles in Tegeingl which had been built in 1157 and which
prevented the extension of his territory westward to the Dee.
First, he attacked Basingwerk and in 1 1 66 took it ; the troops
sent by the king in the autumn to rebuild it under the Earls of
Leicester and Essex were scattered by a sudden onset of the
Welsh,^^** and no fortress was ever again erected on the spot,
which was left to the monks of the Cistercian abbey. In 1 167
the more difficult problem of capturing Rhuddlan was taken up ;
the forces of Gwynedd were deemed scarcely equal to the enter-

125 vvith the accounts in Ann. C. and the Bruts cf. Gir. Camb. v. 229 {Exp.
Hib. i. 2) and B.T. s.a. 1171 (p. 212). His name suggests that Rhygyfarch may
have been a member of the famous clerical family descended from Bishop Sulien —
see note appended to chap. xii.

^2" See a letter from " frater Nicolaus " of Rouen to Archbishop Thomas
in Mat. Hist. Bechet, vi. 77. Its date is clearly November, 1166, Cf. also
Eyton, Itin. 99,

II *

520 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, prise, and Rhys ap Gruffydd was called in from the south to aid
^^V- Owain and Cadwaladr in their undertaking. For three months
the siege was carried on, months during which the garrison
looked in vain for relief, for Henry was abroad and deeply im-
mersed in his continental troubles. At last, at the end of the
year, the resistance broke down and Owain won the castle. He
destroyed it, together with the neighbouring stronghold of Pres-
tatyn, and thus gained undisputed possession of Tegeingl.^^^
The victory was one which worthily closed his military career,
for it was the culminating triumph of a long series of successes
won by him and by his father, which had extended the bounds
of Gwynedd to the Dovey and the Dee.

It was not to be expected that the close union of all the
Welsh princes which signalised the year of Henry's great attack
would survive the removal of the danger which had brought it
about. Owain and Rhys, indeed, remained firm friends and
allies, but the princes of Powys were once again divided, some
taking the Welsh and some the English side. The first to
make his submission to the government was lorwerth the Red.
lorwerth's adhesion to the patriotic cause was but a temporary
aberration; he had been with the king in 1157 and had then
received Sutton, near Wenlock, and other manors in Shrop-
shire on condition of acting as the king's " latimer " or emissary
to the Welsh.^^^ He now returned to his former allegiance
and seems to have been rewarded by being placed in pos-
session, in April, 11 66, of the border castle of Chirk.^^" His
nephews, Owain ap Madog and Owain Cyfeiliog, resented his
action, and in the same year drove him out of Mochnant, which
they divided between them, making the Rhaeadr the line of
separation. It is noteworthy that this division became a per-
manent one, dividing Northern and Southern Powys, and, in
later times, the counties of Montgomery and Denbigh. Next
year saw Owain Cyfeiliog also on the English side ; he was

"■^ One result of the victory of 1165 was that Godfrey, the Norman bishop
of St. Asaph, who had been consecrated to that see in 1160 (Gervase, ii. 385 ;
Reg. Sacr. (2), 48), was forced to retire from the district. The king gave him a
position as administrator of the abbey of Abingdon (Chronicon Monasterii de
Abingdon, 1858, ii. 234-5, 293 ; H. and St. i. 362-4 ; Eyton, IHn. 88-9).

^^^ Eyton, Shrops. ii. p. 109.

129 Cf. the entries as to Chirk in Pipe Roll, 11 Hen. H. p. 90 ; 12 do. p. 59,
and 14, p. no.

O WAIN G WYNEDD. 5 2 1

attacked by Owain, Cadwaladr and Rhys in the interest of CHAP,

• XIV

Owain ap Madog, upon whom was bestowed his commote of
Caereinion, and in his extremity turned to his English neigh-
bours, with whom he had probably already entered into re-
lations.^^** Their aid soon re-established him in Caereinion, and
henceforth he was generally on the king's side in the border
conflicts.

These closing years of Owain's life were filled with conflict
in another sphere than the military, namely, the ecclesiastical.
In 1 161 or 1 1 62 Meurig, bishop of Bangor, died, and thus the
old dispute was reopened as to the control of the English over
the see.^^^ Owain, it would seem, desired to promote to it one
of the clergy of the diocese, named Arthur,^^^ but was opposed
by the king. When the Archbishop of Canterbury was forced
to quit the realm in 11 64, the prince of Gwynedd hoped to
take advantage of the situation to checkmate Henry ; he sug-
gested to Thomas in 1 165 that the new bishop should be con-
secrated by another prelate, since he was out of reach himself,
but that he should nevertheless render canonical obedience to
Canterbury. The archbishop was too astute to agree to what
might prove to be a most dangerous precedent, and ordered
that no election be for the present made. Owain paid no
heed to this request, but, having exacted an oath from the
chapter that they would elect no one save with his consent,
obtained the election of Arthur and sent him to Ireland for
consecration. The Archdeacon David, who had sworn fealty
to the archbishop and had been entrusted by him with the
custody of the see, deserted the cause of Canterbury and
abetted these proceedings. It was in vain that Thomas, in
the early part of 1166, summoned the archdeacon and other
leading clergy of the diocese to meet him and elect in accord-
ance with his wishes, in vain that Alexander III. added to his
injunctions the weight of papal authority. Owain and the
chapter remained obdurate, nor was any bishop elected so

ISO Pipe RqIi^ J 2 Hen. W. 59, records a payment of loos., " nuntiis Oeni de
Chiuiliac " in the year 1165-6.

^31 The correspondence is to be found in H. and St. i. 364-75 ; Mat. Hist.
Becket, V. 225-38.

132 «' De Bardsey," according to B. Willis, Bangor, p. 121. The surname,
as given in the MSS. of the letters, is not to be identified.

522 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, as to win recognition from Canterbury and Rome for many
years.

The last two events of Owain's long and brilliant career
were his dispatch of an embassy in 1 168 to the court of Louis
VII., offering him help in his war with Henry II. and hostages
as a pledge of good faith/ ^^ and his steadfast refusal to put
away his wife Cristin, or Christina, whom the archbishop and
the pope required him to give up as being of kin to him within
the prohibited degrees.^^* She was the daughter of Gronw ab
Owain ab Edwin and thus was his first cousin."^ Though the
archbishop suggested that the lady might be honourably pro-
vided for out of Owain's ample possessions, if a separation were
once brought about, he refused to listen to the proposal. Nor
was he moved by the archbishop's flattering allusions to his
triumphant issue out of the difficulties of earlier days, his dis-
cretion and wisdom, his love of pious meditation, his pre-emin-
ence above all the other princes of Wales. He maintained his
attitude of resistance until his death, which took place on 23 rd
November, 1 1 70.^^" Though he had been excommunicated
by the archbishop for his disobedience in this matter and the
closely related affair of the vacant bishopric, the clergy of
Bangor gave him honourable burial in their church, building
him an arched tomb in the wall of the presbytery, close to the
high altar.^^^ Thus was laid to rest, after sixty ^^^ strenuous
years of patriotic service, the trusty pilot, whose steady hand
and watchful eye had guided the ship of state through foaming
rapids and whirling eddies into the full, smooth current of
freedom and prosperity.

^^"^ Mat. Hist. Becket, vi. 458, where the reference to " regum Gualliae "
no doubt covers Owain,

134 H. and St. i. 371-4 ; Mat. Hist. Becket, v. 236-g. Cf. also Gir, Camb.
vi. 133-4 {Itin, ii. 8).

138 Dwnn, ii. 107.

i^^R. of Torigni, s.a. 1171 (p. 251), and Ann. Cest. s.a. 1170, give the
year ; for the month see B.T., and for the day, the reference in Bruts, 405 (O
Oes Gwrtheyrn), to "wyl clemens". B. Saes., which is one year in arrear from
1140 to 1170, divides the latter year into two (ii6gand 1170) and thus gets its
chronology right. Ann. C. MS. B. is one year in advance in its dating from
1 154 to 1 180.

13'' Gir. Camb. vi. 133 (Itin. ii. 8).

138 His first appearance is in 1123 — see p. 466 — when he can hardly have
been under fourteen years of age.

0 WAIN G WYNEDD. 523

IV. The Literary Revival.^^^

The struggle for independence which absorbed the energies chap.
of the Welsh in the middle of the twelfth century had one result •^^^'
which is often found to follow in the wake of a great patriotic
movement — it led to a literary revival. To trace this revival
in detail, to weigh the value of its contribution to Welsh litera-
ture, to analyse its forms, would carry us beyond the limits
of the present work, and is a task best left to those who have
made this field of study peculiarly their own. But no account
of mediaeval Wales would be adequate which did not take
some cognisance of it, and an endeavour must therefore be made
to outline its salient features.

In the first place, however, something must be said of the
author who, though he did not write in Welsh and probably
was not a Welshman by origin, gave world-wide currency in
this age to the ancient traditions of Wales, and thereby
nourished the pride of the Welsh race, secured it an honourable
standing in the European community, and enshrined its heroes
among the valiant and worthy of all time. Geoffrey of Mon-
mouth, it is more and more being recognised, was the real fount
and source of the vogue of the Arthurian cycle of romance, the
first populariser of the legends of early Britain ; his History of
the Kings of Britain broke absolutely new ground in literature
and had an immeasurable influence upon the course of literary
movements in Western Europe.^*** He claims attention, there-
fore, at this point as a cardinal instance of the new literary
forces brought into play by the interaction of Welsh and Nor-
man life and ideas. Of his early history nothing is certainly
known, but it may be surmised from the name he usually
bears ^*^ that he was a native of Monmouth and — for a Geoffrey
at this time would scarcely be a Welshman — a member of the
foreign settlement in that town.^*^ Another name by which he

i3«For the subject-matter of section iv. the reader is referred to Stephens,
Literature of the Kymry.

1*" See, especially, Prof. W. Lewis Jones's treatment of the subject in Trans.
Cytnr. 1898-9, 52-95 ; Quarterly Review, July, 1906.

"1 " Gaufrid[us] Monemutensis " in the Berne MS. (Hist. Reg. i. i).

1*2 No weight can be attached to the statements in Gw. Brut. s.a. 1152 as to
his connection with Llandaff. Bishop Uchtryd seems, indeed, to have had a
nephew named Geoffrey; see Cart. Glouc. ii. 55 for " Galfrido sacerdote

524 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, was commonly known in his own day was Geoffrey Arthur
(Gaufridus Artur)/*^ a title understood, when he had become
famous, to refer to the great hero of his tale. But there is
evidence that he used it in the days of his obscurity, and reason,
therefore, to suppose that his father's name was Arthur.^^* If
this were indeed the case, then the presumption would be
strong that Geoffrey was the son of one of the Breton followers
of Wihenoc of Monmouth,^*^ and the problem how a foreigner
came to be so deeply interested in the legends of the old British
time would be solved. It is not without significance in this
connection that Geoffrey makes the insular often seek the aid
of the Armorican Britons ; indeed, he avers, through the mouth
of King Salomon of Brittany, that it has never gone well with
the island since the latter left it.^*^

Geoffrey first appears upon the scene in 1129, when he
witnessed, with other clergy of Oxford, the foundation charter
of Osney Abbey.^*^ These clerical witnesses are headed by
Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, and it is, therefore, probable that
Geoffrey had already attached himself to a man whom in the
History he praises as an orator of repute and a student of
history, and to whom, if we are to believe him, he was indebted
for the " British book " forming the basis of his own work.^*^
During the next ten years he was probably engaged in the
compilation of the History ; it is, at any rate, known that
in 1 139 there was a copy at the abbey of Bee in Normandy of
what looks like a first edition, which was shown at that time
by Robert of Torigni, a monk of the abbey, to Henry of
Huntingdon, the historian, as he passed through on his way to
Rome.^** One MS. of the work, preserved at Berne in Switzer-
land, has a double dedication, to King Stephen and to Earl

nepote episcopi ". But Geoff. Mon. was not ordained priest until a week before
his consecration as bishop.

1*3 So R. de Torigni, 75, 168 ; Gir. Camb. vi. 58, 179 ; Wm. Newb. p. 4.

i**The " Galffrai ab Arthur " of Gw. Brut cannot, of course, be relied upon
as evidence. See, however, Giry, Manuel de Diplomatique (Paris, 1894), p.
361, for patronymics of this form.

14B See p. 396. Arthur is a very unusual personal name among the early
Welsh (c/., however, p. 521 and Cymr. ix. 171).

""Hfs^ Reg. xii. 5.

^*'' Mon. Angl. vi. 251, where the comma is to be deleted in " Gaufrido,
Arturo ".

"8 Hist. Reg. i. i. ">♦ R. de Torigni, 64, 75.

O WAIN GWYNEDD. 5*5

Robert of Gloucester, which suggests that an edition was issued CHAP,
in 1 1 36-8, when these two potentates were on fairly friendly
terms with each other.^^'' In all other MSS. the dedication is
to Robert alone, pointing to a time when Geoffrey had chosen
his side in the great civil conflict, and, as was but natural in a
man of the western march, had chosen that of the warlike earl
who ruled both banks of the Severn.^^^ Despite his fame as
a man of letters, he had to wait long for his meed of recognition,
and, when this came in 1 1 5 2, it took the form of the bishopric
of St. Asaph, an outpost of Anglo-Norman authority, rendered
for the moment untenable by the aggressions of Owain
Gwynedd. Geoffrey was ordained priest on i6th February,
and on the 24th consecrated at Lambeth by Archbishop
Theobald, after professing the fullest submission to Canter-
j^yj-y. 152 j^ jg j^Q^ likely that he ever saw his cathedral ; in
December, 11 53, he was at Westminster in the great assembly
which ratified the peace between Stephen and the young
Henry,^''^ and in 1 1 5 5 he died,"* at a time when the Welsh
were still in possession of Tegeingl.

A keen controversy has been waged over the question of
the sources of Geoffrey's work. What was the " very ancient
volume in the British tongue," lent him by Archdeacon Walter,
which he professed to have rendered into Latin ? Did it come
from Brittany, or from Wales ? "^ Was it a copy of the
Historia Brittonum of Nennius, done into the vernacular, or

160 Xrans. Cymr. 1898-9, 64-5.

1" A difficulty is raised by the use of the imperfect tense in Hist. Reg. vii. i,
where mention is made of the stately retinue of Bishop Alexander of Lincoln
("non erat alter . . . alliciebat "), who did not die until 1148, in the year
following the death of Earl Robert. It is best met by supposing Geoffrey to
refer to a greatness brought to an end by the king's attack in 1139 ; no doubt, the
words are to be found in the same form in the Berne MS., but it is not certain
that the text of this MS. dates from 1136-8, as the dedication apparently does.

^•'"^ H. and St. i. 360 ; R. de Torigni, s.a. 1152 ; Ann. Waverl. For the position
of the see at this time see pp. 485, 494 ; the foreign origin of its first bishops is
sufficiently shown by their names — i. Gilbert, 1143- ? ; 2. Geoffrey, 1152-5 ; 3.
Richard (Gervase, ii. 385) ; 4. Godfrey, 1160-75.

16'' Rymer, i. 18.

1°^ B. Sacs. s.a. 1154 (=: 1155) > ^■'^- 184. Both have Llandaff for Llanelwy,
a slip of the original chronicler, for Nicholas was bishop of Llandaff from 1148
to 1183. The phrase "ar offeren " (at mass) of the Red Book {Bruts, 318) is
merely a misreading of " a rosser " — see Mostyn MS. 116 in Evans, Rep. i. p. 60.

^"^ For Britannia = Wales see Asser, 7, 79, 80. Welsh is called " lingua
Britannica" in Hist. Reg. ii. i.

Sa6 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, some other compilation of the kind no longer extant ? The
XIV -1

question has even been asked, had it any real existence ? was

not the whole business a bit of literary artifice ? Into these
matters it is impossible to enter here ; they are topics for dis-
cussion by the historian of the romantic literature of Europe.
But, in view of the respect with which the authority of Geoffrey
soon came to be regarded by serious historical writers,^^" it
may not be amiss to set down here two conclusions which
are of cardinal importance in this connection. The first is,
that no Welsh composition exists which can be reasonably
looked upon as the original, or even the groundwork, of the
History of the Kings of Britain. Brut Tysilio has been by
some writers raised to this position of honour,"^ but, instead
of being anterior to, it is of later date than the Welsh transla-
tion of Geoffrey's work known as Brut y Brenhinoedd, and
no MS. of it is earlier than the sixteenth century.^^^ Those
who would fain believe that Geoffrey preserves for us valuable
Welsh traditions are, therefore, confronted with this difficulty,
that there is nothing to show he did not invent everything
beyond what he got from the well-known sources, Gildas,
Nennius, and Bede.^^^ The second conclusion which affects
the historical, as distinct from the literary, value of Geoffrey's
work is that much of the detail which fills out his narrative is
beyond doubt of his own invention. The process of elabora-
tion can often be watched. Occasionally, it is true, he makes
use of a genuine local tradition, as when, in opposition to
Nennius, he links the death of Vortigern with the stronghold
on the Little Doward, near his own home at Monmouth.^*"'

1'^* Gir. Camb. (vi. 58, 179) and Wm, Newb. (procemium) were unbelievers,
but from the time of Roger of Wendover until the Renaissance Geoffrey was in
high repute as a historian. Polydore Vergil was among the first to cast doubt
upon his trustworthiness and was answered by Sir John Prise in Historiae
Brytannicae Defensio (London, 1573).

157 Myv. Arch. II. 81 (432) ; Peter Roberts, Chronicle of the Kings of Britain
(London, 1811), preface, xi.

^^^ Bruts, xvi.-xx. ; Evans, Rep. ii. pp. 39, 90.

159 Geoff, mentions both Bede and Gildas (i. i) and draws largely upon them,
taking from the former, for instance, the substance of xi. 12, 13, and from the latter
that of i. 2 ; xi. 4, 5, 6. But he is silent as to his third and principal source, the
Historia Brittonum, and it has been pointed out that his references to Gildas are
very far from agreeing with what we know of that author's work (Gildas, ed.
Mommsen, 23).

160 The Berne MS. reads as follows (viii. 2) : " oppidumque genoreu [Gan-
nerew] petivit. . . . Erat autem oppidum illud in natione hergign [Erging or

OWAIN G WYNEDD. 527

But more often he is the literary craftsman bending stubborn CHAP,
material into the shape that suits his purpose. Thus for his
marvellous array of personal names he rifles the old tribal
genealogies ; this is the source of his " Dunvallo Molmutius,"
his " Gurguint barbtruc," his " Gorbonianus," " Cursalem," and
many another sonorous title.^"^ His handling of the fall of
Allectus in A.D. 296 is very characteristic. This successor of
Carausius as independent emperor in Britain was overwhelmed
by Constantius, the founder of the Constantian dynasty, but
he had sent before him with a part of his army the able general
Asclepiodotus, who was praetorian prefect ; and thus it comes
about that in the chronicles which were current in the Middle
Ages the latter has the sole credit of the achievement.^*'^ Geof-
frey does not hesitate to style Asclepiodotus Duke of Cornwall
and to transform him into a British patriot, who kills the
Roman tyrant Allectus and shuts up the Roman garrison in
London, reigning afterwards in peace for ten years.^^^ He
treats British authorities with the same irresponsible gaiety.
The five kings attacked by Gildas, who ruled various parts of
Western Britain when the Ruin of Britain was composed,
supplied just the material which he needed ; four of them are
accordingly named by him, in the order followed by Gildas, as
successive kings of the Britons, and, with a solemn particularity
worthy of Swift or Defoe, Constantine, Conan and Wortipor
are said to have ruled three, two, and four years respectively ! ^^*
It is idle to look for history, in any guise, from a writer who

Archenfield] super fluvium guaie [the Wye] in monte qui cloartius [for ' doartius ' :
Doward seems to be from Dougarth — cf. Lib. Land. 164, 408] nuncupatur ". Cf.
Bruts, 157; Usher, Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates (Dublin, 1639), 62,
386.

^*^ The forms given are those of the Berne MS., which in its spelling of
Welsh proper names is more accurate than the printed texts. They appear in
the genealogies in Harl. MS. 3859 as " Dumngual moilmut " [Cymr. ix. 174),
" Guurgint bar(m)b truch" (178), *' Garbaniaun " (174) and " Cursalen " (173).
Sometimes Geoffrey made a mistake, as when he was misled by the appearance of
Guendoleu into taking it for a female name and bestowed it (ii. 4), as " Guendo-
loena," on the jealous wife of Locrinus. It thus happens that there is no Welsh
equivalent for the English Gwendoline.

^82 " Ipse [Allectus] post eum Britannias triennio tenuit ; qui ductu Asclep-
iodoti praefecti praetorio oppressus est " (Eutropius, ix. 22, followed by Orosius,
adv. Paganos, vii. 25). For the fuller accounts see Sextus Aurelius Victor, 39;
Panegyrici Latini, ed. Baehrens, 132-48.

"^V.4,5. 1" XI. 3.7.

528 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, allowed himself such freedom and whose first and last thought
■ was for literary effect.

One must also, on other grounds, deny the title of historian
to Geoffrey's contemporary, Caradog of Llancarfan. In the
epilogue of his work, the vivacious romancer, who has brought
his story to the death of Cadwaladr, warns off all other writers
from the special domain he has appropriated, but tells William
of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon that they may deal
with the Saxon kings, and Caradog that he may continue the
British narrative to modern times.^^^ That Caradog ever did
so there is not the slightest reason for thinking ; a life of Gildas
is attributed to him,^*"' but nothing else on any ancient authority.
In particular, it is highly improbable that he had any share
in the compilation of the Chronicle of the Princes}^'^ Both
under Henry I. and later, the centre of interest in this chronicle
is in South-west Wales, at Llanbadarn, St. David's, or Strata
Florida ; there is a complete silence as to the affairs of Gla-
morgan, and Llancarfan is scarcely once mentioned.

History, indeed, was not a specially remarkable feature of
the literary revival now under consideration, if attention be
confined to what was composed in Welsh.^^^ Poetry, oratory
and story-telling were the channels through which the newly
awakened literary interest found expression in the vernacular.
It was a popular literature which came into existence, not at
first preserved in writing,^"^ but orally transmitted, not developed
under ecclesiastical or monastic influences, but springing up
spontaneously in the courts of the princes and the homes of
the wealthier tribesmen. At the same time, though it was
meant to be heard and not read,^''" and though it appealed to

165 <« Karadoco Lancarbanensi contemporaneo meo" (xii. 20).

166 «i Nancarbanensis (for the form, see chap. vii. note 52) dictamina sunt
Caratoci " {Gildas, ed. Mommsen, 3-4, no ; ed. Williams, 412).

18^ The original of B.T. and B. Sues. Caradog of Llancarfan, who is only
known from Geoffrey's reference to him, has often been confused {e.g., by Ab
Ithel — see B.T. pref. xxiii-xxv) with Caradog the hermit, whose history has been
handed down in detail and who died in 1124 (see p. 591).

168 There is reason to think that not only the original of B.T. but also that
of Buch. Gr. ap C, was written in Latin,

189 The oldest extant Welsh MS. is the Black Book of Carmarthen, a collec-
tion of poetry put together in the latter half of the twelfth century. See Blk.
Bk. pref and Evans, Rep, i. p. 297.

IT* For the exceptional case of a story which was too elaborate to be recited
without a book see the close of" Breuddwyd Rhonabwy " {Mab. 161).

OWAIN G WYNEDD. 529

the public — a leisured public, be it remembered, for the Welsh, CHAP,

XTV

like all warlike and pastoral peoples, found time hang heavy on
their hands — and not to a cultured class, yet it was not a litera-
ture of simple, unsophisticated forms, but elaborate and full of
conventions ; it was largely, though not entirely, the concern of
a special professional order, who inherited the ancient bardic
traditions.

Evidence has already been given of the persistence among
the Welsh from Druidic times of a class of skilled singers and
poets.^"^ It was in honour and repute at the court of Maelgwn
Gwynedd ; it celebrated the fierce conflicts of Angle and Cymro
in the sixth and seventh centuries. A few verses written in a
copy of Juvencus which is now in the Cambridge University
Library show that Welsh poetry was being composed in the
ninth century.^"^ In the age of Hywel Dda the bardic order
was of recognised standing and clearly defined privileges.
Membership of it implied freedom of status ; the " bardd " or
" cerddor " (the terms were interchangeable) might be a free
landowner, or a " treftadog," having landed expectations, or
even an " alltud " or stranger, but he could not be an " aillt "
or villein, a bondsman of the soil.^'^^ The craft seems, indeed,
to have been a hereditary possession of certain families,^^*
and in the contest between Cynddelw the Great and Seisyll
Bryffwrch for the office of " pencerdd " to Madog ap Maredudd
it was reckoned an effective taunt to say —

From yon stock no bards have sprung.^''*

Beyond birth, however, careful instruction was needed to make
a mature and accomplished bard ; this was given by the
" pencerdd," or bardic president, to all the beginners of his
district, who practised upon harps strung with horsehair until
they had thoroughly learnt their business, when the " pencerdd "
admitted them, on payment of a fee of twenty-four pence, to

I'^i See pp. 86, 130, 169-71. ^'^^IV. Anc. Bks. ii. pp. 1-2, 311-14.

i"LL. i. 78, 436; ii. 18.

1^* Hence such local names as Pentref y beirdd and Tre'r beirdd (the bard's
hamlet). The former is found in the township of Broniarth, near Meifod; of the
latter there are several instances, e.g., in mid-Anglesey (Llanfihangel T. B.), near
Mold and near Llanidan. There was a " Wele Predythion " (Poets' holding) in
the vill of Gest in Eifionydd {Rec. Cam. 40).

i76jj/yj, Arch. I. 210 (154),

S30 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, the full privileges of the order.^^" They still remained under
his authority, but might now practise their craft for the ordin-
ary rewards of a fully fledged minstrel.

Both the " bardd teulu " and the " pencerdd " stood out
from among the common crowd of bards, but their position
was very different. To borrow an ecclesiastical analogy, one
was the court chaplain, the other the bishop of the diocese.
The " bardd teulu " was the chief minstrel of the court, being
reckoned among its twenty-four officers ; he had special duties
towards the " teulu " or household troops, one of which was to
sing the ancient strain entitled " The Monarchy of Pictland "
in front of the ranks as they were arrayed for battle.^'^^ The
" pencerdd " or chief poet, on the other hand, filled no place in
the service of the crown ; he was the head of the whole bardic
community within the limits of the kingdom,^''^ taking preced-
ence even of the " bardd teulu "P'^ The symbol of his authority
was the chair in which he sat ; this he won in a poetic competi-
tion, in which the award was apparently made by the judge of
the court,-'^'^ and accordingly the " pencerdd " is sometimes styled
the " chaired bard ".^^^ Unlike his modern successor, who wins
a chair in a National Eisteddfod, the " pencerdd," once success-
ful, was secure against rivalry for the rest of his life ; when the
king gave him the harp which was the perquisite of his office,^^^
he paid an " ebediw " or succession fee as though for an estate,^^^
and entered into a lordship which was as solid and permanent
in its way as that of any prince.^ ^*

1''* Ven. I. xli. 6 ; Gw. I. xxxvii. 12, 13 ; LL,. ii. 18.

^'^'^ Ven. I. xiv. ; Dim. I. xviii. ; Gw. I. xix. ; Lat. A. I. xxii. ; Lat. B. I. xxi.
g. For the meaning of " Prydein " or " Prydyn " see W. People, p. 76.

1'* He had a " swyd " (i. 388), " penkeirdaeth " (i. 678) or " provintia " (ii.
833). A " bardd gorwlad," i.e., one who came from another principality, was
not subject to his authority.

1^* This appears from Ven. I. xiv. 5 (guedy ebart kadeyryauc ebard teulu).

180 This is suggested by the fact that the " ynad llys," at the conclusion of
the ceremony, got the buffalo horn, the gold ring, and the cushion used for it
(Dim. I. xiv. 7 ; Gw. I. xiii. 25).

181 Ven. I. vi. i ; xiv. 5. Cf. Dim. I. xxv. 8 ; Gw. I. xxxvii. 8.

182 Qw_ I. xxxvii. II. LL. ii. 18 (§ 28) amplifies the old rule to suit changed
conditions.

183 LL. ii. 18 (§26).

18* For an early holder of the office see Buck. Gr. ap C. 118 (730), where it
is recorded that " Gellan telynyaur," Gruffydd ap Cynan's " penkerd," fell in the
retreat from Aberlleiniog in 1094. For the name Gellan cf. Lib. Land. 146,

154-

OWAIN G WYNEDD. S3 1

With such an organisation it is not to be supposed that CHAP.

XIV

poetical composition was at a standstill among the Welsh bards
until the revolt in the time of Stephen. Proof that the art had
not been forgotten may, indeed, be found in the life of Gwynllyw
written about 1 1 oo, where the story is told of a " Britannus
versificator," who, while composing a Welsh ode in honour of
the saint, was gravelled for lack of matter which would form an
effective close. Gwynllyw obligingly sent a flood which swept
the whole plain from St. Woollo's to the sea and spared only the
poet's house ; perched on its roof in a great waste of waters,
the good man found the poetic climax he wanted in the story
of his marvellous deliverance.^*^ Yet, whatever may have been
composed during this period, nothing has been handed down to
our day which is indubitably older than 1 135, except the little
poem written by Meilyr on the battle of Mynydd Carn.^*® It
may be fairly concluded that the court poetry of this age was too
lifeless and conventional to survive ; it was only in the white heat
of the universal national uprising that the singers of Wales took
fire and chanted deathless lays which their countrymen would
not willingly let die. Meilyr himself, the harbinger of the new
era, the earliest of the " Gogynfeirdd " of the Welsh poetic re-
nascence, sang very differently of the vanquished of 1 08 1 and of
Gruffydd ap Cynan in 1 137 ; in the interval he had learnt the
art of a sustained and trumpet-like music of which there is no
trace in his first poetic effort.

It is only possible to notice here in the briefest fashion the
singers who, rising on the crest of the movement for independ-
ence, transferred the passion of the people into song and became
the vanguard of a succession of Welsh poets which has con-
tinued to the present day. Meilyr was a man of Anglesey,
from whom the hamlet of Trefeilyr, in the parish of Trefdraeth,
took its name.^*^ After serving Trahaearn ap Caradog in his
youth, he attached himself to Gruffydd ap Cynan, becoming, it
would seem, his " pencerdd," with a seat of privilege at the

1*' Cambro-Br. SS. 151, For the date assigned to the life see Cytnr. xi.
128. The poem is of a well-known class ; in the Myv. Arch, there are poems to
St. David, St. Tysilio, and St. Cadfan.

IS"* See note 88 to chap. xi. The mythical and traditional poetry associated
with the names of Aneirin, Taliesin, etc., is here left out of account, as yielding
no certain evidence of its date.

1^" Diet, Nat. Biog. xxxvii. p. 215,

532 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, court of Aberffraw. His elegy upon Grufifydd is the first poem
written under the influence of the triumphs over the EngHsh,
and breathes a spirit of fierce daring : —

The king of England came with his battalions —
Though he came, he returned not with cattle.

Grufifydd hid himself not, but with open force
Hotly did champion and protect his people.^*^

The " Deathbed of Meilyr the Poet " is in a more placid vein
and well illustrates what was best in the religious feeling of the
age:—

In my last home may I wait the call !

My chosen sanctuary hath the sea beside it ;

'Tis a solitary, untrodden refuge,

And around the churchyard heaves the bosom of the deep.

Fair island of Mary ! white isle of the saints !

How blest to lie there against the day of uprising !

The God who did make me will to himself receive me
With the pure souled multitude of the dwellers in Enlli.i*^

Meilyr's son, Gwalchmai, was also a dweller in Anglesey, where
Trefwalchmai preserves his name.^^" He belonged to the full
tide of the poetic revival, celebrating with abundant vigour
of diction and striking pictorial power the successes of Owain
Gwynedd. He was a warrior-poet, handling the sword with
the same impetuous passion as the harp : —

Gwalchmai am I called, a foe to all English.

Bright is my sword and of dazzling fashion
In the day of battle ; my shield flashes gold.
Multitudes praise me that have not seen me —
Ladies of Gwent — I am reckoned all fury.^'^

Though the chief bard of Gwynedd, Gwalchmai sang on
occasion in honour of Madog ap Maredudd and did not stint
his eulogy : —

188 Myw. Arch. I. igo (140). The reference is probably to the campaign of
1114.

189 Af)'z>. Arch. I. 193 (142). For " marw-ysgafyn " see Mots Latins, p. 215.

19" In the fourteenth century Trefwalchmai (now Gwalchmai), in the com-
mote of Malldraeth, was shared between three kins who claimed descent from
three sons of Gwalchmai, named Meilyr, Dafydd, and Elidyr (Rec. Cam. 48}.

1" Myv. Arch. I. 194 (143).

OWAIN GWYNEDD. 533

No easier is it for thy foe to escape thy chastisement CHAP.

Than 'tis to find the sand-flat where no sand \%}^ XIV.

But the court poet of Powys in this age was Cynddelw Brydydd
Mawr {i.e., the Great Bard), who, while he addressed odes dur-
ing his long life to many princes of North and South Wales,
devoted his muse especially to the service of the land of Tysilio,
its warriors, its saints, its peculiar privileges. His contest with
Seisyll BryfFwrch for the office of " pencerdd " in Powys has
been already mentioned ; despite his lack of bardic ancestry, he
seems to have succeeded in the competition, nor will the
modern reader be disposed to quarrel with the verdict, if the
poems of Seisyll which have been preserved are fair specimens
of his bardic talent. Cynddelw was a prolific and versatile
composer ; the themes of love, war, religion and death in turn
engage his muse, and, though his power over the Welsh lan-
guage may have encouraged him to make undue use of the
poetic device of alliteration, there is much that is impressive in
the rapid, on-flowing current of his verse. Inferior to Gwalch-
mai in the gift of vivid description, he has nevertheless many a
graphic image, as in his elegy on his first patron, Madog ap
Maredudd :—

Poet's friend, poet's bond, who spoke right well,

He was a stedfast anchor in the waste of the wide sea — ^"

and in his verses to Owain Fychan of Powys : —

Leading his host mid the uproar of battle —
A roar as of torrents falling into the full sea.^**

It is a proof of the force and vitality of this poetic move-
ment that it was not confined to those who made bardism their
profession, but influenced some of the men of action of the day.
A certain degree of skill in playing upon the harp was widely
difl"used in Wales at this period ; each " uchelwr " had a harp
among his more valuable possessions,^®^ and no accomplishment
was more highly prized than ability to play upon \\.P^ One
need not marvel, therefore, to find Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd
and Owain Cyfeiliog among the singers of this age, nor will a /

"2 Myv. Arch. I. 200 (147). iss /jf^. 213 (156). i** /jj^f. 214 (156).

195 •« Try anhebkor gwrda y telyn ay ureckan ay kallaur " (Lh. i. 76).

196 II Omnes quoque de curia seu familia viri citra doctrinam omnem cithari-
zandi per se peritiam tenent" (Gir. Camb. vi. 183 \Descr. i. 10]).

VOL. n. 12

534 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, close inspection of the poems they have left behind them be
necessary to convince us that it was true poetic talent, and
not courtly indulgence, which gained for them this distinction.
Owain was a man of keen intelligence and resourceful wit ; it
was but natural he should turn his hand to the popular craft of
minstrelsy, and his " Hirlas Owain " (The Drinking-horn of
Owain ^^^) is well conceived and skilfully carried out. He bids
his " menestr " ^^^ or cupbearer fill and carry to each of his
brave comrades in turn the royal drinking-horn —

The long, blue buffalo-horn of high privilege, set with old silver.

As this is done, he recounts the deeds of each hero, and it is
not until he has said the words of praise in the case of Tudur
and Moreiddig that he remembers that they are no more : —

A deathstrain it must be, for I have lost them both.
O Christ I how I grieve for the heavy mischance,
For the loss of Moreiddig, so sorely needed.

Hywel's was a romantic and restless career and his life is re-
flected in his verse, in which he pours a wealth of poetic fancy
at the feet of his twin goddesses — Nature and Woman. The
man who took Meirionydd by storm in 1147 and made the
flames roar round its castle of Cynfael ^^^ was himself taken
captive by its delicate beauty : —

A wave of white foam sweeps hard by its hamlets,

And as it speeds it is likest the silvery rime.

I love that sea-strand of Meirionydd,

Where a snow white arm was my pillow,

I love to hear in the thickets of privet

The nightingale's note in the far famed Meeting of Waters."""

While it is chiefly the poetry of this age which has been
preserved in literary form, there is abundant evidence that this
was but one of many diverse kinds of mental discipline practised
among the Welsh. Giraldus speaks of their skill in vocal
music, which they sang in parts, and not, as elsewhere, in

^'•>T Myv. Arch. I. 265 (190).

198 The word is said to be of French origin (Mots Latins, p. 186) ; in the Laws
it is represented by " trulliad " (LL. i. 44).

i»9 See Cynddelw's reference (My v. Arch. I. 259 [187]) : —
" Twr kynuael yn kwytaw
A flameu odrum yn edrinaw."
(" Cynfael's keep topples over and flames roar above it.")
20U Myv. Arch. I. 277 (198). " Kymer deu dyfyr " is the full name of Cymer
on the Mawddach — see p. 466.

OWATN GWYNEDD. 535

unison ; 2<*i of their rhetorical powers as pleaders in their courts chap.
of law ; ""^'^ of their story-tellers,^*'^ their genealogists,^*'* their ^ '
diviners.^**^ In general, he says of them : " They are a race of
subtle and penetrating intellect. Whatever the subject of study
to which they may apply themselves, their rich natural endow-
ment of mind enables them to excel in it." Native gifts had
been developed and strengthened by the inspiration of the
great national struggle ; as in England in the days of Elizabeth,
proved ability to stand alone in the face of formidable attacks
from without had given the nation a new spirit of boldness and
self-reliance, and this found expression in a literature which,
while not altogether independent of foreign influences, was in
the main a spontaneous outgrowth of the soil.

201 vi. 189 (pe$cr. i. 13). 202 /jj^. 187 (i, 12).

203 i}}icl, 202 (i. 17), where a specially famous story-teller, Bledri, is men-
tioned, who flourished in the early part of the twelfth century. It has been
supposed that he was one of the early disseminators of stories about Arthur — see
Arth. Legend, pp. 373-4.

20* Gir. Camb. vi. 167-8 (Descr. i. 3), where reference is made to such an
early collection of royal pedigrees as may be found in Harl. MS. 3859.

208 Ibid. 194-5 {Descr.i. 16). "Awen," whence the form " awennithion,"
has lost its special meaning of " oracular frenzy " and now denotes the poet's
inspiration.

CHAPTER XV.

RHYS AP GRUFFYDD.

I. The Greatness of the Lord Rhys.

CHAP. Upon the death of Owain Gwynedd, the leadership of the
^^- Welsh passed from north to south and fell into the hands of
Rhys ap Gruffydd, who stood henceforth until the day of his
death as the unquestioned head of the princes of Wales. This
was a position which no other South-Welsh prince attained
after the fall of Rhys ap Tewdwr ; geographical conditions were
unfavourable to the rise of an independent power in the south.
The country was open to the invader ; no such natural barriers
as the wide marsh of Rhuddlan and the precipitous cliffs of
Penmaenmawr barred the way of the foreign adventurer, and
though in the heart of South Wales there was one district — the
Great Cantref — which was wild enough to give the Welsh per-
petual shelter and so keep alive the spirit of resistance, it was
too much of a wilderness to be, under ordinary circumstances,
the territorial basis of a formidable power. Snowdon, no
doubt, could match it in rugged desolation, but Snowdon had
behind it — not to speak of its own rich mountain-pastures — the
sunny cornfields of Mon, an unfailing source of strength to the
princes of Gwynedd. Thus the career of Rhys was exceptional ;
natural difficulties were overcome, in part by the virile energy
and spirit of the man, but in part also through the operation of
unusually favourable circumstances.

Among these was the quarrel between the king and Arch-
bishop Thomas, which, as was pointed out in the last chapter,
had much to do with the successful national outbreak in 1 165.
Its tragic and pitiful close on 29th December, 1 1 70,^ left Henry

^ B. Saes., hitherto one year in arrear in its dating, divides the year iiycinto
two ("Anno ix°." and "Anno dom. M°. c°. lxx°.") and is henceforth correct.
Both B.T. and B. Saes. assign the murder of St. Thomas to the beginning of
1 171, which shows that their original dated its years from the Nativity (25th Dec).

536

RHYS AP GRUFFYDD. 537

weaker than ever, a monarch so bereft of friends and of reputa- CHAP.

'\r\j

tion that the Welsh had no reason henceforth to dread his ven-
geance. It was the good fortune of Rhys not only to benefit
by this general improvement in the position of the Welsh
cause, but also by another event which was of special advan-
tage to himself, viz., the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland.
It would be no exaggeration to say that the exploits of Earl
Richard and his followers were the making of Rhys as a prince
of wide and firmly established authority. Since the days of
Giraldus Cambrensis, keenly anxious for the credit of his
family, attention has often been called to the predominant
part played in this movement by the foreign colony of Dyfed,
by the Normans and Flemings of South-western Wales. But
no stress has been laid upon the fact, which is of the highest
interest for the student of Welsh history, that this exodus
brought immediate relief to Rhys by diverting into a new
channel the energies of his ancient foes, nor has it been observed
how the king, in his jealous suspicion of the new Anglo-Irish
power, completely reversed his former policy in South Wales
and set himself to favour and exalt Rhys as a counterpoise to
the Pembrokeshire magnates.

King Dermot of Leinster,^ casting about for aid in the re-
covery of his throne, turned in the first instance to Henry II.,
and in the winter of 1 166-7 travelled to Aquitaine to engage
his interest and support.^ But he found that the courteous
reception given him on his arrival was all he was to expect
from the English king, and on the return journey through South
Wales he made efforts to enlist others in his cause. Richard of
Clare, who had succeeded his father Gilbert as Earl of Pembroke
and lord of Nether Went,* was approached by him, at the time

" The chief authorities for the story of the conquest of Ireland are Gir. Camb.
V. (Top. and Exp. Hib.) and the French poem entitled by its latest editor, G. H.
Orpen, " The Song of Dermot and the Earl " (Oxford, 1892), but formerly cited
by the name of its supposed author, Morice Regan. I have usually followed
Orpen's chronology (xxxix-xli).

^ ^ Ann. C, B.T. and B. Sues, agree in assigning Dermot's exile to the year
following the Berwyn victory, i.e., 1166. This is also the date in Ann. Ult. For
the visit to Henry see Gir. Camb. v. 227 {Exp. Hib. i. i), " Song of Dermot,"
p. 262.

■• Earl Gilbert died in 1147 (the year to be inferred from Ann. C. and B.T.)
or 1148 {Mon. Angl. v. 270). The Welsh authorities (Ann. C. MS. B. s.a. 1149 ;
Brtits, 326 ; B. Saes. s.a. 1171) call him " strangboga " and " vwa kadarn," but

538 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, with no great success,^ and he seems also to have appealed to
Rhys ap Gruffydd to set free for an Irish expedition his prisoner,
Robert fitz Stephen, who had been in the prince's hands since
November, 1 165.^ When, however, he sailed from St. David's
in the summer of 1167, he had in his train only one important
recruit, namely, Richard fitz Godebert of Rhos,^ with a small
contingent of fighting men, and accordingly he sent over in the
following year his " latimer " or interpreter, Morice Regan, with
letters to divers great men in England and Wales, appealing
for armed help. To this appeal there was a much better re-
sponse ; Robert fitz Stephen, after a three years' captivity,^ was
now released by the shrewd policy of Rhys, who foresaw that
the Irish enterprise would keep him busily employed for the
rest of his life, and early in May, 1 1 69, he landed at Bannow
Bay, not far from Waterford Haven, accompanied by his
nephews, Meilyr fitz Henry,^ Miles of St. David's,^'' and Robert
of Barry ,^^ together with one Maurice of Prendergast ^^ (near
Haverfordwest) and a nephew of Earl Richard, Herv6 of Mont-
do not apply the title to his son. Netherwent, with its castle of Chepstow or
Striguil, was held under Henry I. by Earl Gilbert's uncle, Walter fitz Richard,
the founder of Tintern, who died without issue in 1138 (Man. Angl. v. 270 — so
also B. Sacs. s.a. in an entry not belonging to the original chronicle). The lord-
ship seems to have passed, through Gilbert, to his son, who is called " comes
Strigulensis " (Gir. Camb. v. 228 ; cf. R. de Torigni, s.a. 1176) quite as often as
Earl of Pembroke. The " Tristig " of Bruts, 326, is for the " stristig " of Mos-
tyn MS. 116 (Evans, Rep. i. p. 60) and this for " striguil ".

' Gir. and the " Sorig of Dermot " agree that there was an interview with the
earl at this stage, but three years passed ere it bore any substantial fruit.

^ Again Gir. and the poet agree as to the meeting, but the former obscures
the fact that it led to no immediate result.

■^ " Le fiz godoberd ricard " {" Song of Dermot," v. 410). " Godebert," a
Fleming of Rhos, is mentioned in Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I. 137, as a landowner in
the Pembroke district. Robert son of Godebert was one of three barons who
joined in the gift of Rhosmarket to Slebech (Fenton (2), 347) ; both he and his
brother Richard took part in the Irish invasion (" Song of Dermot," p. 264).

8 " Per triennium in vinculis et carcere tentus " (Gir. Camb. v. 229 [Exp.
Hib. i. 2]).

^ Son of the Henry fitz Henry who fell in 1157 (seep. 499). Meilyr's name
points to a Welsh upbringing.

1" The " Milo Menevensis " of Gir. Camb., expressly called in the •' Song of
Dermot " " le fiz leuesque de sein daui " (v. 450), i.e., of David fitz Gerald. " M.
filius episcopi " witnesses a charter of Bishop David's granted to Carmarthen
Priory (Carm. Cart. No. 32).

11 Son of William of Barry and brother of Giraldus. See Exp. Hib. i. 4.

^2 A prominent figure in the " Song of Dermot," but only once mentioned by
Gir. (v. 230-1).

RHYS AP GRUFFYDD. 539

morency/^ sent by the earl in part redemption of his promise of CHAP,
assistance.

The invaders, though often in sore straits, had remarkable
success in their enterprise. First, the Danish city of Wexford
fell into the power of Robert iitz Stephen and was bestowed
upon him by King Dermot. Next, the arrival of Maurice fitz
Gerald, another of the descendants of Nest of South Wales,
brought an accession of strength to the company and enabled
Dermot to make a vigorous onslaught upon his enemies. In
the spring of 1 170 another of the great clan came over in the
person of Raymond the Fat, son of William fitz Gerald of
Carew, while the August of this year at last saw Earl Richard
cross the Channel to render the long-promised assistance to
the king of Leinster and to receive the reward for which he
had bargained — the hand of Dermot's daughter and the rever-
sion of his kingdom. The capture of Waterford by the earl
broke the power of another Danish stronghold in Ireland, and
it was then resolved to attack Dublin, the principal seat of the
Ostmen, ruled at this time by Hasculf mac Torkil. At the
end of September the city was taken, Hasculf finding safety in
flight. The death of Dermot in the spring of 1 171 completed
the triumph of the earl by placing within his grasp the prize
for which he had toiled — the crown of the fair province of
Leinster.

His success brought the king of England upon the scene.
Henry had apparently given no sanction to the earl's adventure
at the time it had been undertaken, and had afterwards marked
his displeasure at the whole afifair.^* When the news reached
him of Richard's succession to the crown, he recognised that
the matter had become serious and that he must act promptly,
if Ireland was not to become independent. The moment, in-
deed, was not very propitious for an expedition, for Henry
was still involved in the obloquy brought upon him by the arch-
bishop's murder and had not yet been reconciled to the pope.
Nevertheless, in Ireland he would be conveniently out of the
way while the .storm was subsiding, and accordingly, at a council

^^ For the true pedigree of Herv6 see Feudal England, p. 523.

1* See Gir. Camb. v. 259 (Exp. Hib. i. 19) for measures taken at the end of
1170. According to Gir., the earl had received some sort of a permission, but it
was " ironica magis quam vera " (p. 248 — Exp. i. 13).

S40 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, held at Argentan in July/^ he resolved to cross over, the fair
words of Earl Richard's envoys nowise deterring him from his
purpose.

Landing at Portsmouth at the beginning of August,^^ he
collected a large army, and early in September was at Newnham,
on the edge of the Forest of Dean, in readiness for the journey
through South Wales which was to take him to the fleet
assembled in Milford Haven. At this point he was met by
Earl Richard, who had resolved to turn aside the king's wrath
by a timely submission and who now made his peace with
Henry by the sacrifice of Dublin and other gains.^'^ At the
same time Rhys ap Gruffydd came into the royal presence,
relying, no doubt, upon overtures which had already been made
to him,^^ and was received into full favour on promising to
deliver twenty-four hostages and to render a payment of 300
horses and 4,000 cattle.^^ The process had begun which was
shortly to make Rhys the principal supporter of the crown in
South Wales. A minor Welsh prince, lorwerth ab Owain of
Gwynllwg, had less reason to be grateful for the royal visit.
For some fault which is not recorded, Henry deprived him of
Caerleon, a possession of the family since the days of Stephen ; ^°
it may be that he thought it unfitting that a castle so near the
high road into South Wales should be in the hands of a Welsh
custodian. lorwerth waited until the army was well on its way
to Pembroke, and then, with the aid of his sons, Owain and

15 «' Mense Julio, rex congregavit barones suos apud Argentonium et cum
ibi tractaretur de profectione sua in Hiberniam, legati comitis Ricardi venerunt
ad eum " (R. de Torigni, p. 252).

1^ Eyton, Itin. i6o.

I'' Gir. Camb. v. 273 (Exp. Hib. i. 28). The " Penbroc " of the " Song of
Dermot," v. 2230, is clearly a guess.

18 " Ris, rex Walensium, pacificatus est cum rege Anglorum," says R. de
Torigni, s.a. 1171 (p. 251), apparently referring to an early period of the year.
But perhaps the notice is out of its proper place.

19 41 Ac yna y deuth attaw yr arglwyd rys or {read ir) lie ydoed yn llwyn
danet" [Bruts, 327; B.T. 210). "Llwyn danet" occurs in Bruts, 149, as a
translation of the " Daneium (Daneum in the Berne MS.) nemus " of Geoff. Mon.
(Hist. Reg. vii. 4), which is no doubt the Forest of Dean. The forest is variously
styled " Fforest y Ddena " {Mab. 245 ; cf. " y ddena " in Cymr. ix. 331), " silva
Danubiae" (Gir. Camb. vi. 55), "Dena" (De Nugis, p. 76), and "Dene" (Lib.
Land. 333 ; Domesd. i. 1676, i).

2" See p. 478. The fulness with which B.T. and B. Sues, give the history
of this family suggests that their original had incorporated some local annals,
perhaps those of the Cistercian abbey of Caerleon,

RHYS AP GRUFFYDD. 54i

Hywel, and his nephew, Morgan ap Seisyll ap Dyfnwal of CHAP.
Upper Gwent, took vengeance in a raid upon the town he had
been forced to abandon to the king's men. The castle stood
the siege and was by the king's orders specially provisioned in
order to meet further attacks.^^ Meanwhile Henry had reached
Pembroke, spreading panic as he went by threats of punish-
ment for the neglect of the marchers to impede the progress of
Earl Richard as he set out on his campaign ^^ — threats which
came to nothing, but which clearly reveal the suspicion and
distrust now harboured by the king towards a class hitherto
high in royal favour. Contrary winds kept the expedition from
sailing for nearly a month after Henry's arrival ^^ and enabled
him to bestow some attention upon Wales. On Michaelmas
Day he paid a state visit to the shrine of St. David, somewhat
to the embarrassment of Bishop David fitz Gerald, whose re-
sources were not quite equal to the demands of the occasion.
But the king was gracious, made a suitable offering to the
cathedral altar, limited the number of the bishop's guests to
300 men, and was careful to return to Pembroke the same
night^* Although the day was wet and many had, for lack of
room at the tables, to dine standing, the affair passed off
agreeably, and no doubt the men of Dyfed, of all races, were
flattered at the attention shown to their patron saint, whom
Normans and Flemings called to their aid in their Irish warfare
with as much assurance as though they were his undoubted
fellow-countrymen.^^ More important, however, than this pious
pilgrimage was the compact with Rhys ap Gruffydd which
Henry now completed. On his arrival at Pembroke he
formally recognised his old antagonist as rightful holder of the
lands he had won ; not only Cantref Mawr was to be his, but
also Ceredigion and Cantref Bychan, despite the respective
claims of the houses of Clare ^^ and Clifford ; in addition he

21 See Pipe Roll, 18 Hen. H. (1171-2), p. 119.

22 Gir. Camb. v. 274 [Exp. Hib. i. 29).

^^ He reached Pembroke on 21st September {B.T.).

-* At Pembroke he granted a general confirmation of the rights of St. David's
(Charter Rolls, i. 258).

25 For the devotion of the invaders of Ireland to " Sein Daui " see the " Song
of Dermot," vv. 987, 1938, 3442-55.

28 Earl Roger of Hertford was with Henry and witnessed a royal charter at
Pembroke on 7th October (Round, Commune of London, p. 152).

542 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, was to have Ystlwyf and Efelffre,^'^ on the south bank of the
^^" western Taf. Emlyn, also, which Rhys had taken from William
fitz Gerald in 1165, was left in his hands.^^ In further proof
of his goodwill the king released Rhys's son Hywel, whose
long residence in England as a hostage earned for him after-
wards the epithet of " Sais," i.e., Englishman. He also allowed
the prince, ample time to make up the amount of the promised
tribute, contenting himself with a few horses in present satis-
faction of what was due. Having thus unmistakably shown
his intention to treat Rhys henceforth as a trusty friend and
supporter, he sailed for Ireland on the i6th of October, and on
the next day landed near Waterford.^^

For the rest of his life Rhys held a position of unquestioned
supremacy in South Wales. In the summer of 1171 he had
resolved to make Aberteifi the chief stronghold of his do-
minions ; on the ruins of the dismantled fortress of Robert fitz
Stephen there arose ere long a brand new castle of stone and
mortar, a visible emblem of the power of a prince who, with
the keen insight into affairs which always distinguished him,
was resolved henceforth to be recognised not only as a great
Welsh chieftain but also as a great baron of the realm. Henry's
return to England by way of St. David's and Cardiff in the
spring of 1172 gave Rhys an opportunity of still further im-
proving his relations with the English crown. The king was
by this time impatient to be back in Normandy, where the
pope's legates were ready to purge him from the stain of the
archbishop's murder. ^"^ He landed at Forth Stinan ^^ with a
small following (the bulk of his train had sailed for Pembroke)

2'' The reading of B.T. is, of course, to be preferred to the " arwistli ac
alvael " of B. Saes. Ystrad Tywi must in this instance be taken not to include
the third cantref (Cantref Eginog). For the situation of Ystlwyf or Oisterlaph
see Owen, Pemb. i. pp. 206, 213.

28 William apparently received no compensation, but on his death in 1174
(Gir. Camb. v. 310— " ob patris quem audierat obitum ") his eldest son Odo
received twenty librates of land in Braunton in North Devon " in escambium
Castelli et terrae de Emelin quamdiu Resus filius Griffini ea habuerit" (Pipe
Roll, 20 Hen. H. 89).

2» B.T., if we read "tachwed" for the obvious slip "racuyr," agrees with
Ben. Abb. (i. 25) as to these dates.

3" Eyton, Itin. 164-7.

»i Suggested by the editor (G. H. Orpen) as really meant by the " port/man "
of the " Song of Dermot," v. 2758. It lies, " a demi lui de sein daui " (v, 2761),
opposite Ramsey Island— see Jones and Freem. 13.

RHYS AP GRUFFYDD. 543

on the morning of Easter Monday (i 7th April), was received by chap.
the canons at the White or Western Gate, heard mass in the ^^'
cathedral, and having, in the absence of any other preparation,
eaten the dinner (by an august providence saved for him, says
the courtly Giraldus) of one of the minor clerics of the place,
made off with all speed for Haverfordwest.^^ Yet he was not
too busy to see Rhys at Talacharn (Laugharne) and to conclude
with him an agreement which a little later led to the appoint-
ment of the prince of Deheubarth as " justice " of South Wales.^^
Interpreted in the light of subsequent events, this somewhat
singular title may be taken to signify that Rhys was henceforth
to have under his control the lesser chieftains of South Wales,
in Gwynllwg, Gwent, Morgannwg, Elfael and Maelienydd, and
to be responsible for their good behaviour. It is the position
which seems to be set forth by another title peculiar to Rhys,
who is constantly termed by poet and chronicler " yr Arglwydd
Rhys "—the Lord Rhys.^^

It was not many months ere Rhys had ample opportunity
to show his gratitude and justify the confidence reposed in
him. The king's difficulties, far from disappearing with his re-
conciliation to the pope, were about to enter upon their most
acute stage. As he travelled home from Ireland he had re-
ceived Divine warning — so the tale was afterwards told — of the
storm which was soon to burst upon him and test to the
foundations the stately fabric of his rule. As he lingered after
mass on Low Sunday in St. Piran's Chapel within the walls of
Cardiff Castle, he had been confronted by a strange, uncouth
figure, who had ordered him to forbid Sunday markets through-
out his realm. ^^ His reply had been a jest, whereupon the un-
known monitor had promised him, ere a twelvemonth had

^ Ben. Abb. i. 30 ; Diceto, i. 351 ; Gir. Camb. v. 286-92 {Exp. Hib. i. 38,
40). For the " Alba Porta "or " Porth Gwyn " see Jones and Freem. 208.

33 "Justus yn hoU deheubarth" (Bruts, 330; B.T. 218); " vstvs a r de-
heubarth kymre " {B. Saes. s.a. 1172). The position of the notice implies that
the writ or other formal instrument was issued after the king's return to England.

3* B.T. first uses the title in its account of 1165 and thereafter has it regu-
larly. B. Saes. and Ann. C. are without it. We probably owe it in the first
instance to the poets.

38 Gir. Camb. vi. 64-5 (Itin. i. 6). St. Piran was a Cornish saint (H. and St.
i. 157) ; his chapel, according to Leland (Wales, 35), was in Shoemaker Street (now
Duke Street) — a description which does not suggest it was part of the castle
buildings.

544 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, elapsed, such trouble as would last him to the end of his life.

In the few moments which Henry took to digest this rebuke,
the man vanished from the scene beyond recall. It was in fact
at Eastertide, 1 173, that the great revolt of Henry's sons began
which combined all the king's enemies in France and Britain
against him and which was not suppressed for a year and a
half, leaving even then a legacy of bitterness and mistrust which
darkened all the rest of the reign. In this crisis Rhys was not
found wanting. At the first news of rebellion, he sent his son
Hywel to Normandy to serve in the king's train. ^^ In the
following year, when the tumult had spread to England, he
led a large force to the siege of Tutbury on the Dove, a castle
which Earl Ferrers was holding against the royal officers.'^
When the king's arrival at Northampton brought about the
submission of the earl at the end of July,^® Rhys's troops, to the
number of i ,000, were transferred to the immediate service of
the king and crossed the Channel with him in August, to fight
his battles against Louis of France. ^^ Well might the chron-
icler say that at this time Rhys was the king's " right loving
friend ".*o

In May, 1175, Henry returned to England. The skies
were now serene, and the king began once more to hold
councils for the settlement of public affairs. The assembly
which met at Gloucester on 29th June was devoted to Welsh
business and affords striking proof of the commanding position
which Rhys had now attained.'*^ He appeared at the head of
all the minor princes of the South, most of them connected
with him by ties of kinship or marriage, and all relying upon
his influence and protection to keep them in good standing
with the crown. Three of them came from the lands between

^^B.T. p. 222; B. Saes. s.a. 1173.

" Diceto, s.a. 1174 (i. 384). The Pipe Roll, 20 Hen. II. (1173-4) records
allowances made to the sheriffs of Gloucester, Oxford, and Hereford for food and
drink supplied to Rhys and his men in this campaign (21, 77, 121).

3^ Ben. Abb. i. 73.

^^ Ibid. i. 74 (" duxit secum . . . mille Walenses "). This force must have
been that of Rhys, since between 31st July and 8th August there was no time to
collect a new one.

40 41 Y gwr aoed garedickaf gyfeillt gan y brenhin yn yr amser hwnnw "
{Bruts, 333 ; B.T. 226).

■*! Ben. Abb. i. 92, whose date I adopt in preference to that of B. Saes.
(" Duw gwyl lago apostol," i.e., 25th July). B.T. and B. Saes. give the particu-
lars as to the " aliis regibus Walliae ".

RHYS AP GRUFF YD D. 545

Wye and Severn ; Cadwallon ap Madog of Maelienydd was CHAP,
his first cousin,'*^ Einion Clud of Elfael, a brother of Cadwallon, ^^'
was his son-in-law,^^ and so too was Einion ap Rhys of Gwerth-
rynion.** Two were from Morgannwg, namely, Morgan ap
Caradog ab lestyn, who had succeeded his father at Aberafan
and was the son of Rhys's sister Gwladus,*^ and Grufifydd of
Senghenydd, son of the redoubtable Ifor Bach, and another
nephew, therefore, of the lord of Aberteifi.*^ From Upper
Gwent came Seisyll ap Dyfnwal, who had married Gwladus
after the death of her first husband,*'^ while Gwynllwg was
represented by lorwerth ab Owain, the only one of the seven, it
would seem, who was not allied by some family tie to their
common lord and champion. Yet even for lorwerth, Rhys was
able to do something. Since the king had taken Caerleon from
him in 1 1 7 1 , he had maintained a constant struggle against the
royal power and had seen some changes of fortune. When
Henry was passing through Newport in 1 172, he had sum-
moned lorwerth to meet him and discuss his grievances with
him, but the unfortunate murder at this moment of the young
Owain ab lorwerth by men of the Earl of Gloucester from
Cardiff put an end at once to the negotiations and drove
lorwerth and his surviving son Hywel into the ways of rapine
and outlawry once more.*^ In 1 173 the outbreak of the revolt
against Henry gave them an opportunity which they did not

^* For Cadwallon's ancestry see chap. xiii. note 59. " Y gefynderw " implies
that Madog ab Idnerth had married a daughter of Gruffydd ap Cynan or of Rhys
ap Tewdwr. As Gir. Camb. (i. 31) claimed kinship with Cadwallon, the latter is
the more likely explanation.

•** According to Gir. Camb. vi. 14 (Itin. i. i), it was Einion ab Einion Clud
who had a daughter of Rhys to wife, and this is for reasons of chronology more
likely.

** Of unknown parentage. Gir. Camb. vi. 17 {Itin. i. i) says he was a
mighty hunter, but lost his right eye and became paralysed after shooting a
marvellous doe which had horns like a buck's.

"•* For Caradog see chap, xii, note 150.

*^ This name has dropped out of B.T. For Ifor see page 507. B. Sues.
makes Gruffydd a brother of Ifor, but from Cartae Giant, iii. 112-3 it appears that
he was the son of Ifor and Nest.

^^ Gir. Camb. (vi. 49, note 2 — the passage only occurs in the first edition)
confirms this statement as to the connection of Seisyll and Rhys. Seisyll had
been previously married to Dyddgu, sister of lorwerth ab Owain (B. Saes. s.a.
1171 — the " agharat " of the Red Book [Bruts, 328] is a slip due to the occur-
rence of the name in the previous line).

*^ B.T. and B. Saes. " larll bristaw " is Earl William of Gloucester, who
was lord of Glamorgan from 1147-83.

546 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, neglect; on 2ist July lorwerth regained possession of the
keep of Caerleon, and this success was followed on 1 6th August
by a great raid upon Nether Went which carried Hywel to the
walls of Chepstow.^^ When the turn of the tide came in the
summer of 1 1 74, Hywel had good reason to fear the king's
vengeance, but Henry's speedy return to Normandy *** relieved
his anxiety for the time. Soon after the castle of Usk which
he held was betrayed into the hands of Earl Richard's men,
while early in 1 175 he and his father lost Caerleon once again.
Hywel's cruel mutilation of a relative of whose rivalry he was
afraid had perhaps weakened his hold upon the Welshmen of
Gwynllwg, but, be this as it may, his father secured the good
offices of Rhys, and, as the result of the conference at Gloucester,
was reinstated in the much-coveted City of the Legion. Cad-
wallon and Einion Clud, who had also scores to settle with the
king, purchased the enjoyment of their lands by promising each
to pay a composition of 1,000 cattle. ^^

Notwithstanding the harmony which prevailed on this occa-
sion, the year, ere it closed, was stained by a treacherous
massacre which bred a long and obstinate feud between the
Welsh and the English of Upper Gwent. It had no effect upon
the fortunes of the Lord Rhys, but it well illustrates the difficult
task he had in hand in endeavouring to secure peace between
the two races. On the death of Earl Roger of Hereford in
1155,^2 the lordships of Brecknock and Upper Gwent had
passed to his brother Walter, who succeeded to the family

■*^ B.T. (222) is precise in its dates, and, if " yr eildyd (arbymthec — MSS.
B. C.) o vis Medi " be taken to mean xvii. Kal. Sept., will be found correct in its
mention of the days of the week. Gir. Camb. vi. 60 (Itin. i. 5) refers to the raid ;
it was foretold, he says, by Meilyr, a famous Welsh seer of these parts.

^^ This, too, was predicted by Meilyr (Gir. as above). The capture of Usk
from the Welsh by the men of Earl Richard is recorded in Pipe Roll, 20 Hen. H.
22, and also in Gir. Camb. vi. 60-1, where it is said that the seer was thereat
mortally wounded.

51 " Idem vicecomes [Wm. of Briouze, sheriff of Herefordshire] reddit com-
potum de ;^333 6s. 8d. [ = 500 marks] de fine Cadewallan et Enial Clut quem
fecerunt cum Rege de animalibus, quisque de mille. In thesauro £59 12s.
Et in Camera Curie per manum Rannulfi Poherii £63 per breve regis " (Pipe Roll,
21 Hen. II. 88-9). The balance of £210 14s. 8d. was never paid, though, in
accordance with the system of the Exchequer, it appeared regularly in the rolls,
being found as late as Michaelmas, 1189 (Pipe Roll, i Rd. I. 142).

5* Ann. Theokesb., B.T. (see Mostyn MS. 116 in Evans, Rep. i. p. 60, for the
true reading — " a rosser iarll henford "), R. de Torigni, p. 185. For charters
granted by Roger to Brecon Priory see Arch. Camb. III. xiv. (1883), 143-51.

RHYS AP GRUFFYDD. 547

estates but not to the earldom. In a few years Walter's CHAP,
death without issue ^^ caused the patrimony again to pass to a
brother, Henry, and, by a strange fatality much commented
upon at the time, Henry and a fourth brother, named Mahel,
in turn came to these lands, only to lose them in a little while
through a sudden stroke which carried them off while as yet
they were without heirs.^* Henry was slain in Gwent by
Seisyll ap Dyfnwal on 12th April, Ii75;'' Mahel a few
months later was killed in a fire which broke out at Walter
Clifford's castle of Bronllys, when a stone from the summit of
the keep fell on his head.^« It was the death of Henry which
led to the massacre of Abergavenny. Brecknock and Upper
Gwent had now come into the possession of a new family, for
when the catastrophe at Bronllys cut off the last of the male
line of Earl Miles," his inheritance had been divided, as was
the rule in such cases, between his daughters, the sisters of
Mahel, and the two Welsh lordships had been assigned to
Bertha, the wife of William of Briouze, lord of Radnor and
Builth.^^ Their son William, a man who was for thirty-five
years to play a leading part in the history of South Wales,
took over this great marcher inheritance at the end of 1 175
and signalised the beginning of his rule by exacting a pitiless

83 Walter ceased to be sheriff of Herefordshire in the autumn of 1159, and is
not heard of afterwards. For his charters to Brecon see Arch. Camb. as above,
152-4. Gir. Camb. vi. 51, note 3 (text of first ed.), appears to say he died a
sudden death after a deed of treachery against the Welsh at Abergavenny.
Upper Gwent had been acquired by Earl Miles in 1141 or 1142 (chap. xiv. note

54 Gir. Camb. vi. 29-30 (Itin. i. 2). There was a fifth son, William, placed
by Gir. between Henry and Mahel, who did not live to succeed.

5s According to a document of the time of Edward I. printed in Mon. Angl.
iv. 615, Henry was slain " a quodam satellite nomine Senell filio Donwaldi iuxta
castrurn Arnaldi," i.e., Arnold's Castle, S.E. of Abergavenny.

5«Gir Camb. vi. 30-1 (Itin. i. 2). For a charter of " Maihelus de Here-
fordia " to Brecon, see Arch. Camb. HI. xiv. (1883), 154-5- He had been given
by his father as a hostage to Robert of Gloucester in 1142 {Geoff. Mand. 382).
As " Matthaeo de Herefordia " he was a witness to the Constitutions of
Clarendon in 1164 (Stubbs, Select Charters). For the Chfford lordship of Can-
tref Selyf in Brecknock see p. 438.

57 The date of Mabel's death is not recorded, but it must clearly have been
earlier than that of the massacre. -a v, v,

58 The common account, drawn from Mon. Angl. iv. 615, makes Bertha the
consort of Philip of Briouze, but for the true genealogy see Diet. Nat. Biog. vi.
p. 229 {]. H. Round). For the Briouze family see pp. 402, 436.

548 HISTOR Y OF WALES.

CHAP, vengeance for the murder of his uncle Henry. ^® Shrewd con-
temporaries absolved him from some of the guilt of this blood-
thirsty deed, blaming the elders who advised him, his uncle,
Philip of Briouze and Ranulf Poer, a royal official of the
borders, and even holding the king in a measure responsible.
But the popular voice attributed to him the full infamy of a
crime committed in his own castle and by his own men.
Under pretext of hearing a royal ordinance as to the bearing
of arms, Seisyll, his son, Geoffrey, and other leading Welsh-
men of Gwent were lured to Abergavenny and there set upon
and slain without the slightest warning. Not content with
this, the retainers of William had forthwith mounted their
swiftest horses, and, before the tidings of their exploit had got
abroad, had spread ruin far and wide in Seisyll's country,
which was near at hand. Arrived at the court of the slain
chieftain, they had carried his wife away as a captive and had
slain in her arms his seven-year-old son, named Cadwaladr.
The border warfare was at all times savage and unpitying, but
it did not often witness perfidy and barbarity of this deep dye ;
small wonder was it, men thought, that misfortune should
beset the path of the lord of Abergavenny.

With a rapid transition from grave to gay, one passes from
this scene of blood to the great festival held by the Lord Rhys
at Christmastide, 1176. It was celebrated in the new castle of
Aberteifi, and is of special interest as the occasion of the first
Eisteddfod of which there is trustworthy record.*" True it is
that the institution does not appear under this name, but its
features are unmistakable. First of all, it was proclaimed
twelve months in advance, in accordance with a custom which
is still followed, and competitors were invited, not only from all
parts of Wales, but also from England, Scotland *^ and Ireland.
Next, one observes that a twofold competition was organised ;
the one was poetic and intended to test the mettle of bards
from North and South Wales and their skill in the Welsh

'^^ Ann. C. ; B.T. 226; B. Saes. s.a. 1175 ; Diceto, i. 401; Gir. Camb.
vi. 49-53 {Itin. i. 4).

8" The original of B.T. and B. Saes., a contemporary chronicle, is the
authority for this event. Gw. Brut is the sole authority for the eisteddfodau of
1107 (= 1109) and 1135 (= 1136).

61 i« phrydyn " {B. Saes.), " Phrydein " {Bruts, 334). See chap. xiv. note
zzo.

RHYS AP GRUFFYDD. 549

metres ; the other was musical, open, it would seem, to the CHAP,
minstrels of any nation and to the player of any instrument,
for mention is made not only of harpists, but also of crowders
and pipers. ^^ Lastly, the prize in each case was a chair, sug-
gested, no doubt, by the chair which was won by the successful
" pencerdd," ®^ and supplemented, as a mere honorary reward,
by more satisfying gifts from the hand of the bounteous giver
of the feast. The musical chair, it is recorded, was carried off
by one of Rhys's own subjects, but the poetic honours fell to
the men of Gwynedd ; thus early did the South prove its
aptitude for music and the North its skill in the weaving of
Welsh verse. North and South joined to do honour in this
memorable gathering to the prince whose gifts of leadership had
made him the first Welshman of his time.

While Rhys was thus winning triumph upon triumph,
Gwynedd had been distracted by the rivalries of the sons of
Owain.^* Civil war had broken out immediately upon the
death of the Northern hero, and the first victim was the warrior-
poet Hywel, who was overwhelmed in a battle fought near
Pentraeth in Anglesey before the end of the year 1 170.''^ His
enemies were Owain's widow, Christina, and her sons,
Dafydd and Rhodri, who thus got rid of a formidable com-
petitor for the chief place in Gwynedd. The seven sons of
Cadifor, his foster-father, bravely defended their lord : —

The sons of Cadifor, a noble band of brothers,

In the hollow above Pentraeth,
Were full of daring and of high purpose —
They were cut down beside their foster-brother.

*2 Only in B.T., but B. Sues, is much given to omitting details. Gir.
Camb. (vi. 187 [Descr. i. 12]) says: "tribus autem utuntur instrumentis ;
cithara, tibiis, et choro," and the same trio is found in LL. ii. 18 : " telyn yhun
a crud yarall a pybeu yr tredyt ". The *' crotta " (whence " crwth " and crowd)
was a British musical instrument in the sixth century (Venantius Fortunatus,
Carmina, ed. Leo, VII. viii. 64).

«=' P. 530.

^* In addition to the sons who died before him, viz., Rhun (d. 1146) and
Llywelyn (d. 1165), and the two hostages, Cadwallon and Cynwrig, blinded by
Henry II., Owain had the following sons who survived him: (i) Hywel, by
Pyfog, an Irishwoman. By Gwladus, daughter of Llywarch ap Trahaearn of
Arwystli, (2) lorwerth and (3) Maelgwn. By Christina, (4) Dafydd and (5)
Rhodri. By an unknown woman, (6) Cynan.

^^ Ann. C. MS. B. ; B.T. 206; B. Saes. s.a. 1170; poems in Myv. Arch.
I. 418, 524 (281, 346). Graves discovered in 1903 on the farm of Rhos y Gad
(Battle Moor), near Pentraeth, are supposed to be those of warriors who fell in
this fray {Arch. Camb. VI. iv. [1904], 82-4).
VOL. II. 13

55«> HISTORY OF WALES,

CHAP. It would be difficult to find a more apt illustration of the way
in which the custom of fosterage perverted the natural order
of things, taking away the affection of brethren in blood for
each other and substituting for it the attachment of ioster-
brethren brought up under the same roof®® After the battle
of Pentraeth peace reigned in Gwynedd for a season ; the re-
maining sons of Owain appear to have agreed upon a partition
of their father's lands, and the death of their uncle Cadwaladr
on the night of 29th February, 1 172,®'^ increased in a little while
the divisible stock. It has, indeed, been very persistently
asserted that lorwerth, who bore the nickname " Trwyndwn,"
i.e., Flat-nosed,®^ was excluded by his deformity from all share
in the succession,®^ and, having been driven out of Gwynedd,
came to an untimely end in Powys. But an elegy upon him
by Seisyll Bryffwrch is extant, in which he is styled " ruler of
Arfon," and his grave is said to be in Llandudclud, a church at
the head of the Conway Valley, now known as Penmachno.^*^
Hence it is certain that he was included in the general division,
and there would seem to be good ground for the tradition that
he held the commote of Nanconwy, with its castle of Dolwyd-
delan.^^ Another son of Owain, named Maelgwn, received
Anglesey as his portion, while Cynan, it may be conjectured,
was established in the regions afterwards held by his sons,
namely, Ardudwy, Eifionydd and Meirionydd.

It was the ambition of Dafydd which first led to a renewal
of strife. In 1173 he drove Maelgwn from Anglesey, and in
the following year embarked upon a much larger scheme of

88 C/. Gir. Camb. vi. 212 (D«cr. ii. 4).

67 <'0 wyl Clemens hyt yn nos ynyt [Shrove Tuesday night] a blwydyn y
bu varw cadwaladyr wedy owein " (" O Oes Gwrtheyrn," Bruts, 405). B.T.
says " vis Mawrth ". He was buried in Bangor Cathedral, by the side of his
brother (Gir. Camb. vi. 133 \Itin. ii. 8]).

^ " lerverdum Troyndun, quod Kambrice simus sonat " (Gir. Camb. vi. 134).

69 Powel, 166, followed by many others. The blemishes which excluded an
heir under Welsh law were only those which incapacitated for judicial or military
duties (Dim. H. xxiii. 9). Penn. (iii. 174-5), relying on local tradition, pointed out
lorwerth's tombstone in the churchyard of Pennant Melangell in Montgomeryshire.
But the effigy in question is of much later date than 1175 and seems to com-
memorate a thirteenth-century descendant of Rhiryd Flaidd (Arch. Camb. IV.
viii. [1877], 321).

""> Myv. Arch. I. 338 (235-6). For Tudclud see chap. viii. note 38.

''I North {Old Churches of Arllechwedd, Bangor, 1906, p. 131) believes that
the existing ruins may be in part of the age of lorwerth.

RITYS AP GRUFFYDD. 551

aggression, involving the conquest of the whole of Gwynedd. CHAP.
The death of Cynan in this year removed one obstacle from his
path, and the imprisonment of Maelgwn, who had returned from
an exile in Ireland to renew his claims, disposed of another ;
lorwerth was most probably dead, and thus Dafydd had only
to deal with his brother Rhodri and his nephews,'^^ Gruffydd
and Maredudd, the sons of Cynan. He overcame them with-
out difficulty and then bethought himself of a scheme for still
further strengthening his position. In the upheaval of 1 173-4
he had been no less loyal to Henry than had Rhys of South
Wales,'^^ and it seemed to him he might claim some reward.
He despatched a special envoy, one Simon the Monk,'* to ask
from the king the hand of his half-sister Emma, who was a
natural daughter of Geoffrey of Anjou,^^ famed for her beauty,
and now, it would seem, a widow. '^'^ Henry did not regard the
match with a very favourable eye,'"^ but Dafydd was at the
moment an important ally, and the marriage took place in the
summer of 1 174.^^ For a few months the star of the newly
wedded prince was decidedly in the ascendant, and his poet,
Gwilym Rhyfel, though he would do nothing so unbardic as
congratulate his patron upon the foreign alliance, is reckless in
the extravagance of his eulogy.^^ Dafydd has the three gifts —
the strength of Hercules, the wisdom of Solomon, the comeli-
ness of Adam. Next to the friendship of God, none is so
greatly to be desired as that of the king of Cemais, whose hand
replenishes the cups of yellow gold.

But in the following year Dafydd's greatness underwent a
considerable eclipse. To make sure of his most dangerous
rival, Rhodri, he had imprisoned him ; the captive, however,

■^" So far as is known, Dafydd had in 1174 no " ewythred " {B.T.) or
"gevynderiw" (B. Saes.^ on the male side. No doubt the chronicler meant to
say " nephews ".

■?3 Ben. Abb. i. 51.

^* Pipe Roll, 20 Hen. \\. 7, 133, records two payments made to this messen-
ger.

7B Diceto, i. 397-8. ^^ So thinks Eyton, Itin. 85, note 5.

''^ " Vix obtinuit," says Diceto.

^8 B.T. and B. Saes. assign it to 1175, Diceto to 1174 ; the entries in Pipe
Roll, 20 Hen. II. 9, 16, 94, show conclusively that it was celebrated before Michael-
mas in the latter year. The sheriffs of London provided the lady's wedding
outfit at a cost of £28 17s.

Tfl Myv. Arch. I. 274 (196-7). " Vreyenhin Kemeis " points to the two years
(i 173-5) during which Dafydd held Anglesey.

13 *

552 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, soon made his escape, and appealed so successfully to the men
of Anglesey and Eryri that Dafydd was dislodged from his
newly won gains to the west of the Conway and forced to fall
back upon the cantrefs to the east of the river, over which he
had a stronger hold. At the same time the sons of Cynan
recovered their father's lands. The point has now been reached
at which the contending forces let loose by the removal of
Owain Gwynedd attain an equilibrium. Dafydd finds him-
self unable to unite the whole of Gwynedd in subjection to
him, and agrees to a partition with Rhodri, with the Conway
as the line of division, while by common consent Meirionydd,
Ardudwy, and Eifionydd are reserved for Gruffydd and Mare-
dudd ap Cynan. These arrangements were not carried out
without some heart-burnings among those whom they forced
to a transfer of allegiance ; the poet Gwalchmai bewails the
loss of his liberal patron Dafydd : — ^^

I shall be poorly bestead without it,
The friendship of my renowned Dafydd.
Rhodri will not keep me ; he needs me not,
He sets no price upon me.

He consoles himself by recalling the names of the great ones
he has served, Owain, Cadwallon, Cadwaladr, the sons of
Gruffydd, Madog, the son of Maredudd — true lovers of his
art who knew his worth —

Well earned were their praises.

But time soon healed these wounds, and in later years Gwalch-
mai sang with all his accustomed fire in praise of Rhodri, the
" great rampart of his people ".^^

In 1 177 there was another great gathering of Welsh princes
for conference with their English overlord, representing, not
South Wales alone, as at Gloucester in 1175, but the three
provinces of Gwynedd, Powys, and Deheubarth. The first
meeting was apparently at Geddington, in the Forest of Rock-
ingham, where fealty was sworn to the king by a number of
Welshmen in the early part of May ; ^^ later in the month

80 " Awdl . . . i Dafyd mab Owain " in Myv. Arch. I. 198-9 (146).

81 " Canu . . . i Rodri fab Owain " in Myv. Arch. I. 199-200 (146-7). For
' Rodri mawr mur ciwdodoed " see v. 16.

82 Ben. Abb. i. 159.

RHYS AP GRUFFYDD. 553

there assembled to meet the king at Oxford a company which CHAP,
included nearly every Welsh prince bearing rule at the time in '

the country.^^ Rhodri, indeed, was absent, and so, too, the
sons of Cynan, the latter, as will be seen, to their cost, but
Dafydd, the prince of Gwynedd whose conduct most nearly
affected England, inasmuch as he held Tegeingl and Dyffryn
Clwyd, was in attendance. From Powys came Owain Cyfeiliog,
well known at the English court for his ready wit and his
constant loyalty to Henry, and highly esteemed by his people
as a just and enlightened ruler. ^^ His cousin and namesake,
Owain Fychan, lord of Mechain, Cynllaith, and Mochnant Is
Rhaeadr,^^ was not at the council, but Northern Powys was
represented by another of the sons of Madog ap Maredudd,
Gruffydd of Bromfield, ruler of Maelor and of lal. Madog
ab lorwerth Goch was also present, but rather in the capacity
of " latimer " or king's interpreter, which he had inherited from
his father, than as a territorial lord.^^ The Lord Rhys answered
for Deheubarth and, as became the position he had now attained,
takes the first place in the chronicler's list. Lastly, Cadwallon
ap Madog of Maelienydd came from the region betwixt the
Wye and the Severn ; the death of his brother, Einion Clud, is
recorded by the Welsh chronicles under this very year, so that
perhaps he came to court with hopes of adding Elfael also to
his possessions.**^ Other princes made their profit out of the
conference. Dafydd prevailed on the king to grant him as a
marriage gift the lordship of Ellesmere,^^ while Rhys set up a
claim, which, in the absence of the sons of Cynan, was not
contested, to the cantref of Meirionydd.

The spirit of concession shown by the crown at the Council
of Oxford marks a definite stage in the long struggle between
Wales and the English power. A period of truce has been

^ Ben. Abb. i. 162.

^* Gir. Camb. vi. 144-5 {^tin. ii. 12). He is mentioned, with Dafydd, as one
of the supporters of the king in 1173 (Ben. Abb. i. 51).

^''Cynddelw in his elegy {Myv. Arch. I. 216 [157]) calls him " arglwyt ...
mochnant," " rwyf mechein," and " keinllyw kynlleith". For the division of
Mochnant in 1166 see p. 520.

^8 Eyton, Itin. 214.

8'' I would thus explain the " rex de Delwain " of Ben. Abb.

88 The lordship of Ellesmere was given by Henry I. to William Peverel of
Dover, from whom it passed to his son, William, and his nephew, Walkelin
Maminot.

554 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, reached, during which England abandons all attempts upon
^^' the independence of its ancient foe and is content to see Rhys
ap Gruffydd and his lesser companions in arms grow strong
and rich and influential. Henry had perhaps taken to heart
the words of the wise old Welshman whom he had asked, on
the expedition to Pencader in 1 163, his opinion as to the effect
of the royal campaign. " I doubt not," was the reply, " that
now, as oftentimes of yore, this race of mine may be brought
low and much broken by the might of English arms. Yet the
wrath of man, if God's anger be not added, will never utterly
destroy it. For I am persuaded that no other race than this
and no other tongue than this of Wales, happen what may,
will answer in the great Day of Judgment for this little corner
of the earth." 8»

II. GiRALDUS CaMBRENSIS.

(The works of Gir., as edited in the Rolls Series, with the prefaces of Brewer,
Dimock, and Warner, supply ample material for the subject of this chapter.
Mention may also be made of Owen's Gerald the Welshman (second ed. 1904),
Hoare's edition of the Itinerary, and the translation of the Irish and the Welsh
treatises edited by T. Wright for Bohn's Series.)

Among the many figures which crowd the stage at this
period of our narrative, none stands out more clearly than that
of Gerald of Barry, long known to the world of letters by his
scholastic name of Giraldus Cambrensis. In the eyes of the
men of his own age he was not, indeed, a figure of the first
rank,^" and, did we depend upon his contemporaries for our
knowledge of him, we should scarcely distinguish him among
the many busy scholars and clerics of his day. But, with
prodigal self-revelation, he has told us his own story, and,
while that sure literary touch of his, inspired as it was by acute
observation and keen interest in the common things of life,
has made his epoch a living reality for us, in a way that is true
of no other period of early Welsh history, it may be said that
nothing is so lifelike in the picture as Giraldus himself The
portrait could not be improved ; a duller soul would have
painted himself in dull, conventional tones of the right clerical

88 Gir. Camb. vi. 227 (Descr. ii. 10).

»» He is not mentioned in Ann. C, B.T. or B. Saes. Gervase (ii, 411) has a
short account, strongly hostile to Gir,, of the struggle of 1 198-1203,

RHYS AP GRUFF YDD. 555

hue ; a wiser one, less charmingly open and frank in his vanity, CHAP,
would have drawn a stately and impressive figure, clad in robes ^^*
of dignity and uprightness, and would never have been be-
trayed into those disclosures of weakness and folly which make
Giraldus one of the most amusing and at the same time one of
the most lovable men of his age.

By birth and upbringing Giraldus was a member of the
foreign colony settled in Southern Dyfed. His father was
William of Barry, lord of Manorbier, where about 1 1 46 Gir-
aldus was born.^^ His mother was Angharad, daughter of
Gerald of Windsor, the castellan of Pembroke. His brother
Robert was one of the foremost of the Anglo-Norman invaders
of Ireland,^2 ^nd another brother Philip took a part somewhat
later in the same great movement.^^ Notwithstanding all this, he
had some Welsh blood in his veins ; his grandmother on the
maternal side was the famous Nest, daughter of Rhys ap Tew-
dwr, and what is remarkable is that from the first he made the
utmost of this connection, never failing to emphasise his Welsh
descent,^* regarding Wales as his beloved ifatherland,^^ and
posing as a Welsh patriotic leader. For the English as a race
he was full of contempt ; they were born to slavery and in
Wales were neatherds, shepherds, cobblers, craftsmen and what
not, plebeians of the rankest kind ; ®® the noble Norman first
claimed his admiration, and, next in order, the freeborn, fearless
Welshman, who spoke his mind unabashed in the presence of
kings.®^ He was proud of his knowledge of Welsh, though at
the same time far from proficient in the tongue, and he was
always willing to try his hand at the interpretation of Welsh
place-names, a pursuit as fascinating for him as for others in
our own day no less slenderly equipped than he was.^^ Never-

®^ De Rebus, i. i (i. 21). Manorbier (" natale solum genialeque territor-
ium") is described in Itin. i. 12 (vi. 92-3). For the year cf. i. 41 {De Rebus, i.
9), where it is said that Giraldus was not 30 (or 29 ?) at the time of his election
in the summer of 1176, and viii. 292 (Princ. Instr. iii.), where it is said he was
about completing his twentieth year at the time of the birth of Philip Augustus
in August, 1 165.

92 See p. 538. »3Gir. V. 351.

»■* " Ex utraque gente originem duximus " (Descr. ii. 10 [vi. 226]).

95 Pref. prima to Descr. '^ Invect. v. 21 (i. 150) ; i. 4 (iii. 27).

^"^ Descr. i. 15 (vi. 192-3).

9^ For his translations of place-names see vi. 36, 37, 92, 127, 131, 165, 169,
171, 172. His explanation of Ynys Lannog (see chap, vii, note in) suggests

556 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, theless, the Welsh themselves never recognised in this brilliant
cosmopolitan scholar a genuine fellow-countryman ; like some
great comet in the sky, he startled and aroused them, extorted
their admiration, and then disappeared, to be thought of no
more.

The youngest of four brothers, Giraldus was from early
youth designed for a clerical career. His uncle, David fitz
Gerald, was bishop of St. David's,^^ and it was under his rela-
tive's guidance he commenced his studies. In course of time
he found his way to Paris, then the goal of all ambitious young
scholars in Northern Europe, and spent his early manhood,
during three long terms of residence,^ ''^ in the discipline of its
schools, from which he emerged a skilled writer of Latin,
thoroughly steeped in the classical learning (by no means con-
temptible) of the day, with a mind well stocked with the most
diverse information and a fluent pen which could transmute
into literature the most unpromising material. Thus equipped
he returned to Dyfed about 1175,^°^ in readiness for the part,
for which his family influence predestined him, of the aristo-
cratic secular clerk and pluralist, the man of many benefices,
active in business, haughty in temper, of pronounced patrician
sympathies. To the end of his life Giraldus hated all monks
without distinction, and for them he reserved his choicest vials
of invective.^°^ Their ideal of seclusion from the world made
no appeal to him ; ^"^^ their aggressive claims and lofty preten-
sions moved him to indignant ridicule. Nevertheless, he fully
accepted the monastic ideal of celibacy and chastity as the rule
for the whole clerical order and in this respect was a fierce re-
former, ever thundering against the laxity which, in spite of the

that he made independent guesses and did not always follow local information.
Nevertheless, there is no record of his preaching in Welsh ; the interpreter in
1188 was Archdeacon Alexander of Bangor.
»» See p. 482.

100 (< Tresque status annorum plurium " (De Rebus, i. 2 [i. 23]) means far
more than " three years " (Brewer in loco). He was in Paris in 1165 — see note
91 above.

101 Wharton {Ang. Sacr. ii. 374) suggested 1172 and this is accepted by
Brewer (vol. i. pref. xv). But the first known event in the history of Giraldus
after his return connects him with Archbishop Richard, who was consecrated at
Anagni on 7th April, 1174 {Reg. Sacr. (2), 49).

^"2 See, especially. Spec, ii., iii. and Itin. i. 3.

103 < I Monachus . . . sui solius curam agit. Clericus vero circa multorum
curam solicitari tenetur " {Top. Hib. i. 30 [v. 176]).

RHYS AP GRUFF YDD. 557

rule of the Church, had allowed the rise among secular priests CHAP,
of real though unacknowledged marriage.^"^ It was, no doubt,
the conviction of Giraldus that, unless the parish and the cathe-
dral were above reproach in this respect, they would lose all
spiritual influence, and the actual control of the Church would
pass to the obnoxious monks, who, despite occasional grievous
lapses, paid something more than lip-service to the celibate idea.
His first public appearance in Wales was as one of a com-
mission of two appointed by Archbishop Richard to secure
that throughout the diocese of St. David's the tithe of wool
and of cheese should be paid, a custom to the contrary having
taken root in the district. It was a task which well brought
out the energy and courage of the young ecclesiastic, for
though the Welsh, who were in those days careful tithe-
payers,^*'^ fell in at once with the new proposal, there was stout
resistance from the Flemish flockmasters of Rhos, Deugleddyf,
Angle, and Laugharne, and it was only with the help of his
relatives, Philip of Barry, Odo of Carew,^^" and William fitz
Hay,^**^ that Giraldus succeeded in carrying through his task.
Such zeal deserved promotion, and the Archdeaconry of Breck-
nock offered itself as a natural reward. It had long been held
by one Jordan,^**^ whose advanced age and possession of a wife
afforded a double reason for depriving him ; with the consent
of the archbishops^® Giraldus became, in 1175, archdeacon,
with a residence at Llandduw, near Brecon,^^*' and the " golden
prebend " of Mathry in Pebidiog."^ Other churches which he
is known to have held are those of Llanwnda,"^ Angle,^^'* and
Tenby.ss*

104 For the prevalence of a married clergy in Wales, see pp. 215-6.

lo^Gir. Camb. vi. 203 (Descr. i. 18).

"8 Son of William fitz Gerald. See note 28 above.

1"' See chap. xiv. note 64.

108 II Veteranum quendam archidiaconum terrae illius concubinam suam
secum in domo publice tenentem " (De Rebus, i. 4 [i. 27]). Gir. does not name
him, but "Jordano archidiacono " attests charters of Bishop Bernard {Carm.
Cart. Nos. 26, 35), of Earl Roger of Hereford {Arch. Camb. III. xiv. [1883], 147)
and of Henry of Hereford {ibid. 151, 152). From his name one would infer that
he vv'as not a Welshman.

109 Probably obtained at the time of the Council of Westminster (May, 1175),
for Bishop David was present (Ben. Abb. i. 84).

110 /fin. i. 2 (vi. 20), 3 (47).

111 i. 32, 56 ; iii. 73, 227, 325 ; Jones and Freem. 314.

112 iii. 73, 227. 113 i. 29. 11* iii. 352.

558 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Two incidents are recorded which illustrate the vigour of

these early ofiicial days. He proposed, in the exercise of his
functions, to visit the Welsh districts of Elfael and Maelienydd,
but was informed that they were by custom outside his juris-
diction and only subject to the authority of their respective
rural deans."^ It was idle to oppose local usage in this way to
the will of a man who deemed it his special mission to reduce
Wales to ecclesiastical order, and Giraldus paid no heed to the
remonstrance. He was not even daunted when other arts
were employed and he was threatened with the consequences
of a " galanas " or blood feud alleged to exist between his
family and certain magnates of the district. Taking up his
quarters in Llanbister, the principal church of Maelienydd,^^*'
he appealed for support to his kinsman, Cadwallon ap Mad-
og,^^^ and was rewarded for his boldness by a complete victory.
Cadwallon came at once to his aid, forced the clergy of Llan-
bister to make amends for their discourtesy, and sent his son
Hywel to escort the archdeacon during the rest of his tour. A
little later he had to deal with a more formidable antagonist.
At the Council of Westminster in May, 1 175, the clergy of St.
Asaph had asked that their bishop, Godfrey, who had been
non-resident for ten years, should be compelled either to return
to his see, or to resign it.^^^ The king, in his new mood of
friendliness towards the Welsh, not only obtained the resigna-
tion of Godfrey, but appointed in his stead a distinguished
Welshman, named Adam, a canon of Paris and a well-known
teacher in the university of that city.^^^ No Welshman had

11'' They were separate deaneries in 1291 (Tax. Nich. 274), and, no doubt, in
1 175. It is possible that the division of the diocese of St. David's into four arch-
deaconries was of Norman origin and that the system had not been fully accepted
by the Welsh. The Archdeacons of Carmarthen and Brecon first appear about
1120 (Arch. Camb. III. xiv. [1883], 49). For the dioceses of Bangor and St.
Asaph see chap. xiii. note 25.

^i^The "ecclesia partium de Melenith " (i. 31) can be no other. See page
256.

"' " Cui sanguine junctus fuerat." Probably his mother was first cousin to
Cadwallon — see note 42 above.

1^8 Ben. Abb. i. 90. For Godfrey's withdrawal from St. Asaph see chap,
xiv. note 127.

^18 He was known as Adam de Parvo Ponte. See Diet. Nat. Biog. i. pp. 75-6,
H. and St. i. 387, and the Benedictine Histoire Litteraire de la France, ix. (1750),
62, 64, 70, 73; xiv. (1817), 189-90. Hoveden (ii.78) calls him '* Adae Walensi''\
Gir. knew him well : " Parisius olim sociifuerant et conscolares " (i. 34).

RHYS AP GRUFFYDD. 559

hitherto occupied this see, and it would seem that Adam hoped CHAP,
his Welsh origin might be of service in pushing its interests.
In particular, he hoped to establish its claim to include the
lands between Wye and Severn as part of the ancient realm of
PowySj^^*^ and, as a first step, he entered into relations with
Cadwallon of Maelienydd with a view to the seizure of St.
Michael's, the church of the commote of Kerry ,^^^ which was
only separated by a low range of hills from the undisputed
domain of St. Asaph in Southern Powys. The moment
seemed especially favourable, inasmuch as Bishop David fitz
Gerald had died in May, 1176,^22 ^nd St. David's had just then
no official head. But this was to ignore the zeal of the new
Archdeacon of Brecknock, within whose sphere of authority
Kerry lay.^^^ Giraldus hurried to the spot, met the bishop
face to face in the churchyard, threatened him, despite his high
office, with excommunication, and remained master of the field.
His promptitude and energy saved the church for the diocese
of St. David's, to which, in spite of political changes severing
it from Maelienydd,^24 jt remained attached until the middle
of the nineteenth century.^^s

Such a man might well seem to be marked out by destiny
for the vacant bishopric. Birth, learning, and character alike
appeared to qualify him for the post, and there was a general
expectation in Dyfed that he would receive it. But at court
different ideas prevailed. A little before the death of David,
in March, 1 1 jG, the archdeacons and canons had formally
revived, in the Council of Westminster, the long dormant
question of the metropolitan rights of their Church.^^^ Their
claim was one which Henry, with all his readiness to make

12" See p. 252.

121 " Ecclesiam S. Michaelis de Keri " (i. 33). The parish included Moch-
dref (All Saints), which is not mentioned in Tax. Nich., and it was therefore co-
extensive with the commote (Pen. MS. 147 in Evans, Rep. i. p. 915). Several of
the old lists include Ceri in Maelienydd — see Bruts, 409 ; Cymr. ix. 328.

122 u Quasi XV diebus ante Pentecosten [23rd May] " (i. 41).

123 It was in the deanery of Maelienydd {Tax. Nich. 274).

124 It was united to Cydewain and so became part of the lordship of the
Mortimers and, ultimately, of the county of Montgomery.

125 It was transferred to St. Asaph in 1849 (Thomas, St. Asaph, p. 310). At
the Lateran Council of 1179 Adam gained a temporary victory over Bishop Peter,
but the latter afterwards regained the church (i. 323).

126 De Rebus, i. 8 (i. 40). The bishop held aloof, in view of the oath he had
taken in 1148 (p. 482).

56o HISTORY OF WALES,

CHAP, concessions to Wales, was not prepared for a moment to enter-
^^" tain, and he had, therefore, no intention of promoting to the
see a man who was certain to make it a burning question and
who had already shown that he could fight to good purpose.
Moreover, Giraldus belonged to that great Pembrokeshire clan
whose Irish achievements had aroused his distrust ; whatever
he might be willing to do for the Welsh, he had no wish to
extend the power of the Normans of Dyfed. Thus the canons,
who had tried to facilitate the election of the Archdeacon of
Brecknock, were sharply brought to book, and at the Council
of Winchester, held in August, 1 1 76, required to choose Peter
of Lee, prior of the Cluniac cell of Wenlock.^^" The election
took place in the royal presence, and on 7th November, Peter
was consecrated at Canterbury, having made the usual pro-
fession of canonical obedience to the representatives of Arch-
bishop Richard.^2^ Thus ended the first struggle of Giraldus
for the bishopric ol St. David's. His disappointment was great,
but his youth — he was not thirty — and the hostility of the king
had been greatly to his disadvantage ; on a future occasion he
might hope to be more fortunate.

During the next few years he led a somewhat restless
existence, as though the defeat of his ambitions had left him
with no clear purpose or vocation. For a time he went back
to Paris, to take up once more the scholar's life ; ^^^ next, he
returned to Wales and accepted the post of administrator of
the diocese of St. David's for Bishop Peter, who found residence
there uncongenial. As was inevitable, quarrels arose ; even had
there been no question of animus against a successful rival, the
fiery and implacable nature of Giraldus made him the worst
possible intermediary between bishop and chapter, and accord-
ingly he gave up the position in disgust and turned his eyes in
other directions. In February, 1183, he went over to Ireland
with his brother Philip,^^'^ but, greatly as the country engaged

1-'^ De Rebus, i. 11 (i. 43-4). The place, " Wintoniam," suggests the time
(Eyton, Itin. 205). Peter, who had a larger income as prior than as bishop (iii.
344), had been put at the head of Wenlock, which was a cell of La Charity sur
Loire, after 1170 (Eyton, Shrops. iii. p. 249).

128 Diceto, i. 415 ; H. and St. i. 384-5 ; Reg. Sacr. (2), 49. B.T. gives the
bishop his French name of " Pyrs " (Bruts, 334), i.e., Piers.

12* He was there at the time of the Lateran Council (March, 1179) — see De
Rebus, ii. 2 (i. 48).

1^" Exp. Hib. ii. 20 (v. 351). This visit, which may have lasted a year
(Dimock, pref. to Gir. vol. v. p. xlviii), is not mentioned in De Rebus.

RHYS AP GRUFF YD D. 5^1

his interest, found there no opening to his mind. Not long ^^^^•
afterwards he entered the royal service ; the king was on the
Welsh border in treaty with the Lord Rhys and other Welsh
princes,^^^ and, possibly on the recommendation of Bishop
Baldwin of Worcester,^^^ chose the Archdeacon of Brecknock
as a suitable agent for business of this kind. In this occupation
Giraldus remained much longer than might have been expected ;
he was for more than ten years a cleric of the court, engaged
in various diplomatic and ceremonial missions, involved in a
round of duties which kept him immersed in business to his
heart's content, kept him, also, well to the front, and, at the same
time, allowed him some leisure to cultivate his literary gifts.
In 1 185 he was sent to Ireland with the king's youngest son,
John, in consideration, no doubt, of the prominent position held
by his kinsfolk in the island. After a year's stay there he re-
turned to England and began the first of his important literary
works, that astonishing compound of shrewd and careful ob-
servation, miraculous fable and idle gossip which he called
The Topography of Ireland" }^^

With the exception of his great struggle for St. David's in
the reign of John, the best-known incident in the career of
Giraldus is the mission which brought him to Wales in the
spring of 1 1 88.^^* The capture of Jerusalem by the Saracens
in 1 187 had rekindled throughout Europe the crusading spirit ;
the kings of England and France took the cross, and their ex-
ample was soon followed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Baldwin,^^^ who had been translated to the primacy from Wor-
cester in 1 1 84, resolved to spend the coming Lent in an effort
to raise a body of crusaders from Wales, a country which pro-
duced excellent foot-soldiers,^^® and was known for its devotion

131 No date is given in De Rebus, ii. 8 (i. 57), but it is natural to connect
this appearance " in Marchiae finibus ad Walliam pacificandam " with the
negotiations carried on with Rhys in July, 1184, at Worcester (Ben. Abb. i. 314).

i3> Giraldus was known to him and about this time visited him at his manor
of Blockley (iv. 104).

"3 The first edition was ready in March, 1188 {Itin. i. 2 [vi. 20]).

134 Fully described in Itin.

135 At Geddington on nth February. Ann. Cest, says it was at " Briexcoc,"
i.e., at Bristol, a little later.

136 See note 39 above and the statement in Ben. Abb. i. 355-6 that at the
end of 1186 Henry was anxious to have "servientes" from Wales for foreign
service.

562 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, to religious causes. He chose as his companions Alexander,
Archdeacon of Bangor, who interpreted in the Welsh-speaking
districts,^ ^'^ and Giraldus, as a man familiar with the Norman
lordships of South Wales. Baldwin had a second purpose
in view, which he successfully accomplished ; he wished, by
celebrating mass at the high altar of each of the four Welsh
cathedrals, to give visible proof of his authority as metropolitan
in every quarter of the country,^^^ The canons of St. David's
saw clearly the danger ahead and tried to persuade the Lord
Rhys to obstruct the archbishop's passage in the interests of
the independence of their see.^^^ But Rhys had, it would seem,
no particular zeal for their cause ; on the contrary, he smoothed
the path of Baldwin in every possible way, met him with all
respect and ceremony on his entry into South Wales, enter-
tained him bountifully at his castle of Aberteifi and was all but
persuaded to" take the cross.^*" What is stranger still is that
Giraldus, whose whole life was dedicated, broadly speaking, to
the cause of the independence of St. David's, on this occasion
was coldly indifferent to it, and, as far as in him lay, was an
accomplice of the archbishop in his assertion of the Canterbury
claim.

The tour occupied about five weeks, beginning at Hereford
in the early part of March ^'^^ and ending at Chester, in time
for the celebration of Easter, on 14th April. Most of the time
was spent in South Wales ; a leisurely progress was made
through Radnor, Elfael, Brecknock, Gwent, Gwynllwg, Gla-
morgan, Gower, Cydweli, and Dyfed. Four days were given to
Ceredigion, and there then remained but a week for Gwynedd,
which was rapidly traversed by way of Towyn, Nefyn, Bangor,
Aberconwy, and Rhuddlan. Powys was left untouched, save

1" Itin. i. 5 (vi. 55) ; ii. 7 (126). His native name was Cuhelyn and he had
been a faithful follower of Archbishop Thomas in his exile. Like a true Welsh-
man, he was of ready tongue and much given to jesting (Mat. Hist. Becket, iii.
56, 528 ; Gir. Camb. vii. 68, viii. 83).

'38 See, especially, Itin. ii. i (vi. 105) — " in singulis cathedralibus ecclesiis,
tanquam investiturae cujusdam signum, missam celebravit ".

139 Jtifi^ i. I (vi. 15-16).

1*" At Radnor Rhys had resolved to join in the movement and he spent a
fortnight in preparations. But he was then dissuaded from his purpose by his
wife, Gwenllian, daiighter of Madog ap Maredudd (Itin. i. i [vi. 15]).

141 '< Circa jejunii caput " (2nd March), says Gir. But the actual day must
have been about a week later — see Stubbs, pref. to Epistolae Cantuarienses (Rolls
Series, 1865), p. Ixiv.

RHYS AP GRUFF YDD. 563

for a visit to its outskirts at Oswestry ; Bishop Reiner of St. CHAP.
Asaph had already done some work in this district, and Owain ^^'
Cyfeiliog, alone of all the princes of Wales, was hostile to the
primate's mission. Nevertheless, in spite of the pressure of
time and other difficulties, the immediate results of the tour
were remarkable. Three thousand well-armed warriors, if
Giraldus is to be believed, donned the cross,^^^ including
Maelgwn ap Cadwallon of Maelienydd, Einion ab Einion Clud
of Elfael, and a son of the Lord Rhys, named Maelgwn.
Occasionally, the mission found itself in an unfriendly en-
vironment, as for instance at Bangor, where Bishop Gwion ^*^
took the cross under coercion and not a single recruit could be
won from the " teulu " of Rhodri. Yet, in the main, the preach-
ing of the crusade aroused genuine enthusiasm, and there was
substance in the remark of John Spang, court fool of the Lord
Rhys, to his master, preserved, it is needless to say, by Giraldus
himself, that, if the archdeacon had been able to preach in
Welsh, not a man would have resisted the appeal and re-
mained at home in his service.^**

In the long run, however, the expedition bore little fruit.
The quarrel between Henry and his sons delayed for many
months the preparations for the Second Crusade, and when, on
the death of his father, Richard took up the matter in earnest
and set out for the East, the zeal of very many had grown
cold, and, like Giraldus, they found excellent reasons for dis-
regarding their vow. Even the diplomatic victory of Baldwin
over the chapter of St. David's was of little avail to his suc-
cessor, Hubert Walter, when fortune again made Giraldus the

"2 Itin. ii. 13 (vi. 147).

1*^ There is some doubt as to the real name of this bishop, which variously ap-
pears as " gwiawn " {Bruts, 337), " Gwion," (B. Sues. s.a. 1191), " Guianus " (Gir.
vj. 125), " Wiano " (i. 85), " Guido " (Diceto, i. 420), " Gwido " (Ben. Abb. i.
165), " Guydo " (profession rolls — see H. and St. i. 385). The emphatic praise of
B.T. (p. 236 ; Bruts, as above), his attitude in 1188, and the silence of the English
chroniclers with regard to him after his appointment, all suggest, however, that
he was a Welshman, and that Guido, or Guy, was a Latinised form of his Welsh
name, which, in this case, was no doubt Gwion (see Rec. Cam. index, 317, for
its occurrence in Gwynedd). The election of Gwion ended the long conflict be-
tween the Bangor authorities and the crown as to the filling of this see; he was
consecrated at Amesbury by Archbishop Richard, after the usual profession of
obedience, on 22nd May, 1177 (Ben. Abb. i. 165-6 ; Reg. Sacr. (2), 49).

!*•* De Rebus, ii. 19 (i. 77). The *' croesan " or jester was a familiar figure in
Welsh courts {LL. i. 28, 30, 376, 650; ii. 760, 821, 899 ; Evans, Diet. s.v.).

S64 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, protagonist in a conflict on behalf of the rights of the see.
^^" The most lasting and valuable result of the tour was the book
in which the archdeacon carefully recorded his impressions of
it and which appeared in its earliest form in 1191.^*^ The
Itinerary of Wales is of high value for the study of Welsh
history at the end of the twelfth century ; accurate in its facts,
genial in spirit and crowded with a wealth of gay and animated
figures which move briskly across the scene, it pictures for us
the Wales of Rhys ap GrufFydd, the native home of fierce but
devout tribesmen, the adopted home of haughty knights and
grasping clerics, with a vividness and force not easily to be
matched. In the Description of Wales which followed the
Itinerary in 1 1 94,^*'' there is a broader and more philo-
sophical outlook, a completer survey, taken from the Olympian
heights of a scholar's lofty seclusion, but in the earlier work
Giraldus mingles in the crowd, catches its accents, is borne
along by its changing passions, and thus becomes a very
mirror of that fighting, chaffering, praying age.

III. Wales in 1188; Climax of the Power of Rhys.

The perambulation of Wales by Baldwin and Giraldus in
II 88 affords the opportunity of a political survey of the
country at this period, and it is especially convenient to be
able to make such a survey in this year, the last but one of
Henry's long reign, before the disturbance which was brought
about by his death. It reveals a Wales very largely in Welsh
hands, especially in the north, ruled over, indeed, for the most
part, by a large number of chieftains of no great force or
ability, but with one towering figure among them in the person
of the Lord Rhys.

In Gwynedd there had been no change since 1 1 75. Dafydd
and Rhodri still held the bulk of the province, with the Conway
as their boundary ; Gruffydd ap Cynan was lord of Meirionydd
and Ardudwy, his younger brother Maredudd, of Eifionydd.^*''

"5 So Dimock in pref. to Gir. vi. pp. xxxiii-vi. A second edition was issued
in 1 197 and a third after 1213.

1*8 Dimock, as above, p. xxxix. The second edition appeared about the be-
ginning of 1215 (pp. xli-ii).

"^ Itin. ii. 5 (vi. 122-3). It is not quite clear which of the two brothers held
Ardudwy, but if, as is likely, the " pontis cujusdam " of Gir. was at or near
Aberglaslyn, the division was no doubt as above.

RHYS AP GRUFF YD D. 565

The claim of the Lord Rhys to Meirionydd, though recognised CHAP,
by the king at the Council of Oxford in 1 177, had been in the ^^'
following year so hotly contested by the sons of Cynan^*^
that the attempt to make it good and to enlarge Deheubarth
in a northerly direction had been abandoned. A young son
of lorwerth ab Owain, named Llywelyn, had just attained his
majority and was beginning to make himself troublesome to
his uncles, but as yet he gave them no serious concern.
Rhodri looked chiefly for support to the Lord Rhys, whose
daughter he married ; ^^^ Dafydd relied on the English alliance,
and, ruling from his castle of Rhuddlan districts but newly
wrested from a long English domination, strove with all his
might to keep the peace between the two races.^^**

As the two missioners did not traverse Powys, the political
divisions of this province are less clearly traced. But it is
evident that Gruffydd ap Madog was still in power in Northern
Powys and Owain Cyfeiliog in the south. A conquest of
Maelor effected by Earl Hugh of Chester on 13th June, 1 177,
with the aid of Dafydd,^^^ who was returning from the Council
of Oxford, was not permanent, and thenceforward the right of
the descendants of Madog ap Maredudd to bear rule in this
district remained unchallenged. In 1 1 87, a little before the
visit of Giraldus, a third prince of Powys, who had long ruled
territories midway between those of Gruffydd and Owain,
namely, Owain Fychan, had been removed by death ; he had
perished at Gwern y Figyn, near his castle of Carreg Hofa,^^'^ in
a treacherous night attack made upon him by Gwenwynwyn
and Cadwallon, the sons of Owain Cyfeiliog.^ ^^ It was not,

148 <i Y ulwydyn rac wyneb y ryfelawd meibon kynan yn erbyn yr arglwyd rys "
{firuts, 335; B.T. 230; cf. B. Sues. s.a. 1178).

1** Itin. ii. 7 (vi. 126-7).

^^'^ Ibid. ii. 10 (137), 12 (145).

ii'i Ann. Cest. s.a. 1177. Earl Hugh, who had been a principal rebel in 1173,
had only just been restored to full possession of his lands (Ben. Abb. i. 135). He
died on 30th June, 1181, and was succeeded by his son Ranulf (born 1170), who
was knighted and married Constance, heiress of Brittany, early in 1188 or 1189
(Ann. Cest.). It is difficult to accept the statement of Powel (212) that Hugh
was born in Cyfeiliog and thence derived his surname ; in 1147 the commote was
beyond a doubt in the hands of the Welsh.

1^2 For Owain's possessions see p. 553. Carreg Hofa, a royal stronghold,
had been taken by the Welsh in 1163.

"3 B.T. 233; B. Sues. s.a. 1187 ; Gir. Camb. vi. 142-3 (Itin. ii. 12). "O
Oes Gwrtheyrn " says (Bruts, 405) Owain was killed at " gwern y vinogyl ".
VOL. II. 14

566 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, however, the southern, but the northern prince, his brother,
who chiefly profited by his removal ; Gruffydd ap Madog
appears in the following year as lord of the country west of
Oswestry "* and Cynllaith would seem to have been vested
permanently in his descendants, until it was lost by the most
famous of them all, the heroic Owain Glyn Dwr. As a prince,
Gruffydd (who died in 1191)^^^ was renowned for his profuse
liberality j^^*^ he was also amenable to ecclesiastical influence,
for Giraldus records with satisfaction that in 1 188 he was per-
suaded by the archbishop to put away his wife, Angharad,
who, as the daughter of Owain Gwynedd, his mother's brother,
was his first cousin.^^' Two other sons of Madog ap Mare-
dudd were still alive and possessed of some small share of
their father's wide dominions ; Owain Brogyntyn was lord of
Penllyn and Edeyrnion,^^^ and Elise ap Madog of lands in the
same region.^^® In Arwystli, the house of Trahaearn ap Cara-
dog had retained its ancient position, and the cantref was not
yet absorbed in Powys ; on the death of Hywel ab leuaf in
1185,^®° he was succeeded by his son Owain, known from one
of the hamlets of Arwystli as " Owain o'r Brithdir "}^^

The pages of the Itinerary leave us in no doubt as to the
continued ascendancy of Rhys ap Gruffydd in Deheubarth.
He met the company as they entered South Wales at Radnor,
thus asserting his authority over the lords of Elfael and

^** Itin. ii. 12 (vi. 142).

^**B.r., 236; B. Saes. s.a. The year is made certain by the mention of
the notable eclipse of 23rd June.

166 <i Yr haelaf o holl tywyssogyon kymry " {B.T.) ; " yr haylaf or kymre "
{B. Saes.) ; distinguished for " largitas," says Gir. (vi. 145).

^*'' The marriage of Madog ap Maredudd and Susanna, daughter of Gruffydd
ap Cynan (for whom see Buck. Gr. ap C. . 118 [730]), is not directly attested by
any ancient authority, but it is certainly made very probable by this allusion of
Gir. (" consobrina sua . . . Oeni principis filia " — vi. 142).

158 For Owain Brogyntyn see note 31 to chap. xiv. He is not mentioned in
B.T. or B. Saes. or by Gir., but he is known to have given Gwernhefin and Llyn
Tegid in Penllyn to Basingwerk Abbey, the latter during the episcopate of Reyner
of St. Asaph (1186-1224). See Charter Rolls, ii. 290-1 ; Mow. Angl. v. 263. His
descendants held Edeyrnion.

159 The " Elisset " of Gir. vi. 142 (Itin. ii. 12). He succeeded Owain
Brogyntyn in Penllyn; see Mon. Angl. v. 263 (" Helyso ") and B.T. 258 (year
1202).

180 B.T, 233 ; B. Saes, s.a. For Hywel's ancestry see note 24 to chap,
xiv. Cynddelw celebrates him as "tarw talgarth" {Myv. Arch. I. 254 [184]),
referring, no doubt, to the place of that name near Trefeglwys.

181 Brithdir is a township in the parish of Llanidloes (Carlisle, Top. Did.).

RHYS AP GRUFFYDD. 567

Maelienydd. When they entered the territory under his direct CHAP,
rule, he was waiting to receive them at Aberteifi, and he went *

with them until at the passage of the Dovey they quitted his
dominions. Ceredigion, Cantref Mawr, Cantref Bychan, Emlyn,
with other regions in Dyfed, formed his principality, but his
influence was felt far beyond this area. The lord of the can-
tref of Cemais, William fitz Martin, a son or grandson of the
founder of St. Dogmael's, notwithstanding his Norman lineage,
had deemed it prudent to take a daughter of the great chief-
tain to wife.^*'^ Elfael was ruled by Einion ab Einion Clud,
also known as Einion o'r Forth, who had succeeded his father
in 1 1 77 ^ri<i was also a son-in-law (or, it may be, a grandson)
of the Lord Rhys.^*^^ A kinsman of Rhys ruled in Maelienydd,
where in 1 179 Cadwallon ap Madog had been succeeded by his
son Maelgwn. Cadwallon's death, it may be remarked, had
been the occasion of somewhat unusual measures of vengeance
taken by the crown. He had been killed by certain followers
of Roger, the heir to the Mortimer estates, as he was returning
from the king's presence under the protection of a royal safe-
conduct, and accordingly the matter was treated as something
far more serious than a mere local feud ; some of the offenders
were put to death and others forced to seek refuge in the
woods, while Roger himself was cast into prison. The incident
showed that, where the king's honour was touched, Welshmen
might hope for even-handed justice between them and the great
ones of the march.^^^

The relentless border feuds, which centuries of reprisals
had made incurable, were a great obstacle to the maintenance
of peace between Rhys and the king, and constantly bade fair
to engage them in a conflict which neither desired. The men

'82 For Robert fitz Martin see pp. 425, 431. The pedigree of the family
will be found in Owen, Pemh. i. p. 491, but there is some uncertainty as to the
earlier links. Robert appears in hih. Land. 37 [1128], Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I, 15
[1130], B.T. 158 [1136], Geoff. Mand. 94 [1141J, and Cal. Doc. Fr. i. 290.
William is not traceable, at least in Wales, before 1191; hence he may have
been a grandson of Robert.

IBS See notes 43 and 87 above. The death of Einion o'r Porth is recorded in
B.T. s.a. 1191 ; he is clearly the same as the donor to Cwm Hir called Einion
" de Porta " in Mon. Angl. v. 459.

'"^ For this affair see B.T. and B. Saes. s.a. 1179; Diceto, i. 437; Pipe Roll,
25 Hen. n. 39; Eyton, Shrops. iv. pp. 205-6. In Powel, 173, and Gwydir Fam.
15, there is confusion between Cadwallon and Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd.

14 *

S68 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, of Gwent had never forgotten the massacre of 1 175, and, after
seven years of waiting, found in 1 1 82 an opportunity of exacting
a most ample vengeance. With the kinsfolk of the murdered
Seisyll at their head they beset the castle of Abergavenny, the
scene of the bloody deed ; lurking in the overgrown brushwood
of the ditches, they outwearied the vigilance of the constable,
broke into the castle at early dawn, and, having gained posses-
sion of all save the keep, gave it to the flames.^"* Nor did
this content them. A little later they found Ranulf Poer,
sheriff of Herefordshire, who had borne a leading part in the
ever memorable tragedy, assisting William of Briouze in the
building of a fortress at Dingestow on the river Trothy. Their
attack, delivered in this case also at dawn, proved irresistible ;
Ranulf was slain, William with difficulty escaped capture, and,
though the arrival of Ranulf Glanville, the ju.sticiar of the realm,
with reinforcements restored the balance in favour of the
English, the prestige and glory of the day remained with the
Welsh.i««

Another element of difficulty in the relations between the
southern leader and the crown was created by the growth of
the sons of Rhys into manhood and independence. Of these
at least five had attained to maturity in 1188, namely,
Gruffydd, Maelgwn, Cynwrig, Hywel Sais, and Rhys. Three
of them listened to the preaching of the crusade in Ceredigion,
and the tall, lithe figure of the fair-haired Cynwrig, wearing
loosely the light costume of the country, seemed to Giraldus
the very embodiment of native dignity.^*^ It was hardly to
be expected that these young men, full of energy and ambition,
should quietly fall into the peaceful and cautious ways recom-
mended by a ripe experience to their father. Accordingly,
Rhys had laid upon him the burden of reconciling to the king,
not only the borderers of Gwent and Morgannwg, but also his
own restless offspring, and the task, in spite of goodwill on
both sides, was one of no small difficulty. In July, 11 84,
after two years' absence on the Continent, Henry was at

^'"'Gir. Camb. vi, 50-1 {Jtin. i. 4).

i6«Ben. Abb. i. 288-9; Gir. Camb. vi. 51-2 (Itin. i. 4); Eyton, Itin. 248,
The site of the castle was still pointed out at the beginning of the nineteenth
century — see Hoare, Itin. i. 90.

I**'' Gir. Camb. vi. 119 {J.tin. ii, 4).

RHYS AP GRUFF YD D. 569

Worcester and was there met by Rhys, who promised the CHAP,
fullest amends for all the misdeeds of his underlings ; he would
deliver one of his sons, he said, as a hostage for the future
tranquillity of the marchland and would bring his turbulent
kinsmen to the royal presence to make their peace.^^^ A little
later he was again with the king at Gloucester, confessing his
inability to carry out the terms agreed upon, as to which he
had no doubt been overruled by the bolder counsels of the
younger generation.^^^

Yet it is clear that Rhys retained the king's confidence to
the end of the reign. Peace, rather than war, with Wales was
still the royal policy, as it had been since 1 1 70, and in 1 1 86,
when a struggle between England and France was believed to
be impending, Henry took special pains to secure himself by
negotiation against any outbreak of trouble on the Welsh
border. Rhys was invited to Hereford to meet Archbishop
Baldwin of Canterbury and Ranulf Glanville and was there
treated as an honoured guest, whom it was important to gratify
and win over.^^'' At dinner he was seated between his host,
William de Vere, who had just been raised to the see of Here-
ford, and another magnate of the realm, Walter fitz Robert of
Dunmow, both connected with the great family of Clare.^^^
How easy and genial were the relations of those who thus sat
at the episcopal board may be inferred from the fact that, when
the talk turned upon Rhys's possession of what had once been
the Clare lordship of Ceredigion, the Welsh prince, with fine
courtesy, expressed his pleasure that he had lost his inheritance
in those bygone days to no base or laggard clan, but to a
family of rare fame and distinction, whereupon the bishop, not
to be outdone in graceful compliment, signified that their loss

1"^ Ben. Abb. i. 314 ; Eyton, Itin. 256. Ann. Cest. s.a. 1184 combines in
one notice the events of 1182-4J its " vice comitem Wigorniae " must be meant
for Ranulf Poer.

189 Ben. Abb. i. 317.

i''" Ben. Abb. (i. 355-6) describes the business of the envoys ; the account
of the dmner is from Gir. Camb. (i. 57-8 [De Rebus, ii. 9]), who was present.
It may be remarked that Brewer's marginal date, 1184, is impossible, since
William did not become bishop of Hereford until the summer of 11 86.

171 Walter fitz Robert was a grandson of Richard fitz Gilbert, the first
Norman lord of Clare (Feudal England, p. 475). Bishop William was either the
son or the grandson of Aubrey de Vere (d. 1141) and his wife Adeliza, daughter
of Gilbert fitz Richard (Geoff. Mand, 390-2).

570 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, of those Welsh possessions had been made in turn almost
XV

acceptable to them by the thought of the noble and valiant

prince who now enjoyed them. There was an element of
business in these courtesies, for the king desired, not only the
friendship and goodwill of Rhys, but also a supply of infantry
from Wales for the French war which he expected shortly to
be waging.^^2

It remains to speak briefly of the marcher lords who
wielded authority in 1 1 88. The earldom of Chester was held
by the young Ranulf, who had succeeded his father, Earl
Hugh, in 1 1 8 1 ; ^'^^ his marriage to Constance, widow of the
king's son Geoffrey, added greatly to his importance, but as a
French rather than an English potentate, and thus strengthened
the growing tendency of this house to find the satisfaction of
their ambition elsewhere than on the Welsh border. Mold
was still held by the barons of Montalt, hereditary stewards of
the Earls of Chester.^'^* Ellesmere was in the hands of Dafydd
ab Owain,^'^^ whose position thus made him an intermediary
between the English and the Welsh. At Oswestry, the
William fitz Alan of the days of Stephen had been followed
by a second baron of that name, who also inherited from his
mother, Isabella of Sai, the lordship of Clun.^^" Montgomery
was not yet a royal fortress, but remained a fief of the house
of Boilers, established there since the reign of Henry I.^''^'^
Roger Mortimer, first of the many lords of Wigmore who bore
that famous name, was supreme on the borders of Maelienydd.
Brecknock, Builth, Radnor, and Upper Gwent formed the
ample domain of William of Briouze or, as we may now style
him with the English chroniclers, William de Breos. The'
events which placed William in this exalted position and made
him the leading personage in South Wales on the English side
at the close of the twelfth century have already been nar-
rated ; ^^^ it suffices to add that he was a typical Norman

1" In the summer of ii88 Glanville obtained a large force of Welsh mer-
cenaries for Henry, who took part in the operations against Philip Augustus and
returned in October (Ben. Abb. ii. 40, 46, 50).

1" Earl Hugh died on 30th June, 1181 (Ann. Cest.). Ben. Abb. i. 277, agrees
as to the year and Mon. Angl. iii. 218 as to the day. Ranulf was born in 1170
{Ann. Cest.).

I''* Ormerod's History of Cheshire, ed. Helsby, i. p. 58, "« See p. 553.

"6 Eyton, Shrops, xi. 229. "7 /j^^, xj. 120-7. ^" Pp- 547-8.

RHYS AP GRUFFYDD. 571

baron, as scrupulous in his attention to the forms of religion CHAP,
as he was ruthless and grasping in his dealings with his fellow- ^^"
men. The author of the massacre of Abergavenny would not
pass a church or a wayside cross without stopping in his
talk to offer up a prayer, and he would speak to children in
the street for the mere satisfaction of hearing them answer his
greetings with the conventional words of blessing. ■^'^^

The two great lordships of the southern coast were at this
time in the custody of the crown, having both passed to heir-
esses who had not yet been provided with husbands. Earl
Richard of Pembroke and Striguil, the conqueror of Leinster,
had closed an adventurous career at Dublin in the summer of
1 1 ']6, leaving his great possessions in England, Wales, Ireland,
and Normandy to an infant daughter of three. ^^"^ It was not
until July, 1189, that Richard I., in fulfilment of a promise
made by his father, bestowed the hand of Isabella upon that
pattern of loyal knighthood, William Marshall, a famous crus-
ader and a companion of Henry's last hours, so that thus there
came to be once more an Earl of Pembroke and lord of Nether
Went.^^^ In like manner the lordship of Glamorgan and
Gwynllwg was vested in a woman. The only son of Earl
William of Gloucester had died in 1166;^^^ three daughters
were left to him, but from about 1 1 76 it seems to have been
understood that the youngest, Avice or Hawise, was to carry
the inheritance by marriage to the king's son John.^^^ The
earl died in 1 183 ; ^^* nevertheless the marriage had not taken
place when Henry died six years later, and meanwhile Glamor-
gan had been administered by officials of the crown. It was
no easy task which fell upon their shoulders ; in 1 185 they had
to cope with a great Welsh rising, in the course of which the
towns of Cardiff and Kenfig were burnt and the castle of Neath
was so closely beset that it was necessary to send a force of
knights by sea to its relief ^^^ The royal accounts further show

i™ Gir. Camb. vi. 23 {Itin. i. 2).

18° Ben. Abb. i. 125 ; Diceto, i. 407 ; R. de Torigni, 270 ; Gir. Camb. v.
332-4 {.Exp. Hib. ii. 14) ; Ann. Camb. MSS. B. and C. ; Ann. Uli. s.a. 1176.

181 Ben. Abb. ii. 73. For William's career see Diet. Nat.Biog. xxxvi. p. 225.

'^^^ Ann. Mar g. See p. 508 above. is^ pjceto, i. 415.

^^*Ann. Marg., Ann. Theokesb., R. de Torigni (308). When the latter
closed his chronicle, the future of Hawise was still uncertain ; he says that the
king " cui voluerit dabit earn ".

i85y4M«. Marg., illustrated by Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I. (1184-5), as cited in
Cartae Glam., i. 27-31.

572 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, that much money was expended in the maintenance of the
fabric and the garrison of the castles of Newport, Rhymni,
and Newcastle.^®** It is not apparent who led the insurgents,
but Morgan ap Caradog ab lestyn, who was lord of Rhwng
Nedd ac Afan in ii88,^^^ was most probably a prime mover
in the affair, if one may judge from the critical position to
which the castle of Neath was reduced. Hywel ab lorwerth,
now lord of Caerleon, gave his support to the English,i^^ in
pursuance of a policy of moderation which he seems to have
consistently followed since the Council of Gloucester. i^®

It will thus appear, on a broad survey of the situation,
that the Lord Rhys was at the close of this reign in a position
of assured pre-eminence. His friendship with the king secured
him from any attack on the part of the English government,
and there was no marcher lord who could injure him, save per-
haps William de Breos. Little wonder, then, that he en-
couraged his warriors to volunteer for the holy war in the East,
and even seriously contemplated going on crusade himself.i®*'
At the age of fifty-six, with grown-up sons able to defend the
liberties of Deheubarth, he might well suppose that he had
completed his full tale of domestic warfare, and might now
dedicate his battle- worn sword to the service of the Most High.
Fate willed it otherwise ; his wife dissuaded him from his
pious intention, and his long life ended in a red and fiery sun-
down, in the midst of renewed civil conflicts and of struggles
against the English such as those which had so busily em-
ployed his youth and early manhood.

^^^ Cartae Glam. ut supra.

18^ Gir. Camb. vi. 72 (Itin. i. 8). For the family see p. 440. Besides Mor-
gan, Caradog left three other sons, Maredudd, Owain, and Cadwallon, of whom
Owain was killed by Cadwallon some time before 1183 and Cadwallon was struck
down soon afterwards at the siege of a castle (Gir. Camb. vi. 69 [Itin. i. 7]).

1*8 He appears in the Pipe Roll {Cartae Glam. i. 29) as one of six who dur-
ing 1 1 84-5 kept the castles of Glamorgan and Gwynllwg for the king.

189 Gir. Camb. (vi. 145 [Itin. ii. 12]) couples him with Dafydd ab Owain as
having won the confidence and respect of both nations by a judicious impartiality
of attitude.

ifo See note 140 above.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY.

I. Old and New Leaders.

The death of Henry H.^ marks an epoch in the relations chap.
between England and Wales as surely as that of Henry I. In ^^^*
1 1 89, as in 1 135, the removal of the strong hand led at once
to disturbances across the border, and the want of effective
control over Wales was almost as marked under Richard I. as
under Stephen. It is true that the second Henry had main-
tained the peace rather by skilful diplomacy than by naked
force, and that his son was not without real strength of character,
so that the parallel is far from complete. But Richard's devo-
tion to the crusade and to other interests remote from his duties
as an English king had the same practical effect as the nerve-
less and vacillating rule of Stephen ; Wales was again involved
in turmoil and strife, war against the foreigner leading up to
civil discord, as the various popular leaders jostled each other
in the endeavour to prove themselves appointed of God to the
headship of the Welsh race. The first in the field was,
naturally, the Lord Rhys, who had been unquestioned leader
for twenty years, and who now, like a seasoned war horse,
smelling the battle afar off, boldly threw himself into the
struggle. It was, however, only for a short time ; death at
last claimed his due from the hoary warrior, and the bitter feuds
of his sons soon deprived Deheubarth of the predominant
position it had enjoyed under his sagacious rule. Powys, under
the young Gwenwynwyn, and Gwynedd, under the still younger
Llywelyn ab lorwerth, were the real rivals for supremacy, and
the contest between them, ending in a complete victory for
Llywelyn, is the salient feature of the new Wales ushered in by
the thirteenth century.

1 6th July.
573

574 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Tumult always marked the interval between the lapse of

XVI

' royal authority through the death of a king and its revival
when the heir was properly invested by coronation with the
royal power, and among the measures taken by Richard and
his advisers in July, 1 1 89, to tide over this difficult period was
the despatch of a special envoy to Wales, where trouble was
particularly to be feared. At the suggestion of Archbishop
Baldwin, Giraldus Cambrensis, who was then with the court in
Normandy, was sent across the Channel to use his influence as
peacemaker along the border.^ When he arrived, after adven-
tures which included the threatened loss of his way-money, his
official papers, and — most important of all (he tells us) — his one
copy of the as yet unpublished Itinerary^ war had already
broken out. The Lord Rhys had shown that he recognised
no obligation to the new ruler by a great raid upon the foreign
colonies in South Wales, Rhos, Penfro, Gower, and Carnwyllion
were overrun ; the castles of Laugharne and Llanstephan were
taken in the first wild onslaught, their garrisons offering no
resistance, though the inexperience of the Welsh in castle-guard
led to the loss of both fortresses later on ; and the royal
stronghold of Carmarthen was closely besieged.* If we may
believe Giraldus, he did something to calm the storm which
had arisen,^ but he was not able to exercise much control over
Rhys, who maintained his attitude of hostility. When Richard
landed in England in the middle of August, he had some
thoughts of marching immediately into Wales to chastise the
audacious folk who thus boldly challenged his authority, but
he was persuaded that the matter did not call for his personal
intervention, and that Welsh affairs might well stand over until

"^ Gir. Camb. i. 80-4 (T>e Rebus, ii. 21).

3 " Tabulas grandes Itinerarium suum et laborem annuum nusquam adhuc
alibi scriptum continentes " (p. 82).

* Ann. C, MS. B. s.a. 1189, Gir. Camb. vi. 80 lltin. i. 10]. " Abercorran "
is the ancient name of the town at the mouth of the river Corran now known as
Laugharne ; " Talacharn " is properly the commote in which it stands, Laugharne
being a shortened form of " Castell Talacharn " — cf. Builth, Kidwelly, Cardi-
gan (Owen, Pemb. i. 46, 206 ; Gir. Camb. vi. 172, 239; Carlisle, Top. Diet. s.v.
Llacharn). Gir. treats the devastation of Rhos on this occasion as a judgment
upon the inhabitants for their refusal to pay tithes of their wool (i. 24 [De Rebus,

i. 3]).

' " Patriam prae morte regis valde turbatam plurimum adventu et interventu
sue pacificavit " (p. 84).

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 575

after the coronation.^ The presence of Bishop Gwion of Bangor CHAP,
and Bishop Reiner of St. Asaph at this ceremony/ which was
held on 3rd September, may be taken to show that Rhodri and
Dafydd did not join in the revolt. As soon as the crowning
had been accomplished, the new king sent his brother John to
the West with an army capable of dealing with the rising, but
the expedition led to no great change in the situation. Not-
withstanding that John, by his marriage to Hawise of Gloucester
on 29th August, had become lord of Glamorgan,^ with a con-
siderable stake in the Welsh border, he was more concerned to
establish his position in England, in view of the early departure
of his brother for the East, and his policy, therefore, was to
make peace as speedily as might be and return to the centre
of affairs. The minor princes met him at Worcester and made
their submission ; ^ he induced Rhys to abandon the siege of
Carmarthen and accompany him to Oxford to meet the king,
but it was in no suppliant mood, for the Welsh leader no sooner
found that it was not Richard's intention to make a special
journey west for the purpose of receiving his homage than he
resolved upon an immediate return to Wales.^^ Thus the king
and Rhys were still unreconciled when in December the former
set out for the Holy Land.

A chronicler who tells of the indignant withdrawal of Rhys
assigns as the reason the departure from the custom of the
previous reign. Richard would not come to meet him, " as
the king his father had been wont to do ".^^ A new era had
in fact set in, as was shown by the conduct of both sides. The
English government was at no pains to conciliate ; the Welsh
put themselves under no restraint. As soon as Richard had
quitted England, the Lord Rhys entered upon a prolonged
campaign against the Norman castles of South Wales, in which

^ Gervase, i. 457 ; ii. 86.

' " Episcopo de Asfath in Wallia, episcopo de Pangor in Wallia " (Ben. Abb.
ii. 79).

8 Ben. Abb. ii. 78.

8 Ihid. 87-8. It was, no doubt, at this time that the Welsh princes made the
promise, recorded by Richard of Devizes (ed. Stevenson, 1838, pp. 8-9), not to
attack England while the king was on crusade.

1" Ben. Abb. ii. 97. Ann. C. MS. B. lays stress on the fact that the peace
between Rhys and John was " privata ".

" " Sicut rex pater suus solebat " is added by Hoveden (iii. 23) to the narra-
tive of Ben. Abb.

576 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, he was remarkably successful. Before the end of the year he
was master of the castle of St. Clear's, which he gave with the
surrounding district to his son, Hywel Sais.^^ j^ hqq he
strengthened his hold upon the region of Cydweli, which he had
already taken from its Norman lord, William of London, by
rebuilding the ruined fortress which was its centre.^^ Next
year he attacked Nanhyfer, the principal castle of Cemais,
which was held by his son-in-law, William fitz Martin, and,
having captured it, made it over to his son Gruffydd.^* In 1 192
the special object of attack was Llawhaden, the residence of
Bishop Peter of St. David's ; it was taken by Gruffydd, and
the way was thus thrown open for further incursions into
Deugleddyf A long siege was laid to the castle of Swansea ;
the fall of this fortress was almost brought about by famine,
and would have given to the Welsh the whole commote of
Gower, but discord arose among the sons of Rhys, and, after
the loss of a number of his men by drowning, he retired from
the enterprise. Nevertheless, the good fortune of his house did
not desert him, and in 1193 yet another castle fell into Welsh
hands. Hywel Sais surprised Wiston and with it its lord, Philip
fitz Wizo,^^ with his family, thus adding Deugleddyf to the
regions conquered from the foreigner. So rapidly and unex-
pectedly had the Welsh policy of general aggression borne
fruit that the victors were now beginning to be embarrassed by
their success ; they had taken more castles than they could
defend, and, as a measure of precaution, Hywel and Maelgwn
destroyed Llawhaden, exposing themselves to a counter-attack
within the broken defences in which their men severely suffered.
While thus successful against the foe, the house of Deheu-

" Ann. C. MS. B. St. Clear's is mentioned in the Itinerary (i. 10) as a castle
held in ii88 by enemies of the Welsh. Its archers killed a young Welshman
who was hastening to the archbishop to take the cross.

^^ B.T. 236; B. Saes. s.a. iigo. For William's father Maurice see pp.
430, 470. William had succeeded to the lordships of Ogmore and Kidwelly about
1160; see his "carta" in Lib. Nig. i. 113, showing that in 1166 he held one
knight's fee in Wiltshire.

^*Ann. C. MS. B. s.a. 1191 ; B.T. 236. Ann. C. MS. C. has " Kemer "
by mistake, and the " dyneinir " of B. Saes. s.a. 1191 represents the " de newer "
of the Latin original. Gir. Camb. vi. 111-12 {Itin. ii. 2) accuses Rhys of breaking
solemn oaths in thus attacking William.

^^ For the family see p. 425. Philip son of " Wiz " and his son Henry gave
lands in " Dungledi," i.e., Deugleddyf, to the commandery of Slebech (Fenton
(2), 347).

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. S77

barth was far from being a united and harmonious whole. It CHAP,
was divided against itself in flagrant hate and hostility. Two ^^^*
parties appear to have arisen among the sons of the Lord
Rhys, due, perhaps, to the inferiority of certain of their number
in birth and privilege. Gruffydd was evidently designed to
be his father's heir ; already in 1 1 89 he was married to Matilda,
daughter of William de Breos,^*' and upon the death of Rhys
his claim to Dinefwr and the headship of Deheubarth was con-
ceded. With him usually acted Rhys, distinguished from his
father as " Rhys Fychan " (the Less), or, more commonly, " Rhys
Gryg" (the Hoarsey^ Maelgwn, on the other hand, was
Gruffydd's bitter enemy,^^ and, as he was a man of courage
and enterprise, having distinguished himself as early as 1187
by a successful raid upon Tenby ,^^ the jealousy and enmity of
the two perturbed the whole of South Wales. The struggle
was partly one between the craft and cunning of the established
royal favourite^" and the boldness and dash of the popular
hero ; it was also in some measure a reflection of local feeling,
for Maelgwn's home and the chief source of his support was
Ceredigion,^^ while Gruffydd was strong in Ystrad Tywi. With
the darling of the West, who, it may be observed in passing,
was very far from being a Saul in stature,^^ went Hywel Sais,
concerned chiefly in the affairs of Dyfed ; the tall and hand-
some Cynwrig, singled out as a young man by Giraldus Cam-

^8 See Ann. C. MS. B. s.a. 1189 — " Willelmoque de breusa socero suo ".
Matilda died in 1210 (B.T. 266).

1^ Rhys is knowTi to have been the son of Gwenllian of Powys — see Jesus
Coll. MS. 20 in Cymr. viii. 88 (No. 27). For his epithets see the poem ofPrydydd
y Moch in Myv. Arch. I. 293 (207).

" Rys uychan y gal want — ys geu !
Rys uawr ualch yg calch yg cadeu !
Rys gryc y galwant golofyn peu —
Nyd Rys gryc yn kynnyc kameu ! "

'8 " Hominique sub sole quern magis exosum habebat, Mailgoni scilicet fratri
suo," says Gir. Camb. (vi. 112 [I tin. ii. 2]).

is^.r. 234; B. Sues. s.a. 1187.

2" Gir. calls Gruffydd " viri versipellis et versuti " (vi. iii). It was, perhaps,
an instance of his adroit manoeuvring that, while professing great anxiety to join
the crusade (so I understand " altercantibus de crucis susceptione fratribus "), he
contrived that the impetuous Maelgwn should actually go with the archbishop (vi.
119, 122).

21 One may thus explain the fervid adulation of the author of B.T. (pp. 234
234-6).

22" Kyt bei kymhedrawl y ueint " (Bruts, 336 ; B.T. 234).

578 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, brensis for special admiration,^^ played no part in the political
strife of his day and carried his goodly presence to the grave
without having in any way disturbed the tenor of his long life
of dignified inaction."*

The contest began in 1 1 89, when the Lord Rhys was per-
suaded to imprison Maelgwn, who had withdrawn from his
crusading vow of the previous year, as a dangerous adventurer.
The influences at work are readily discerned ; it was Rhys
Gryg who had made the suggestion and Maelgwn was sent to
Dinefwr, where he was in the power of his rival Gruffydd.
Fearful lest his father should relent the harsh treatment he
had meted out to a not ignoble son, Gruffydd secured himself
still further by handing the prisoner over to William de Breos,
who was not likely to set a Welsh chief at liberty save for a
substantial consideration. The captivity lasted until 1192,
when the Lord Rhys succeeded in getting Maelgwn away from
his prison in Brycheiniog ; '-^^ the released prisoner joined in the
siege of Swansea in that year, but, as may be supposed, the ill-
feeling between him and Gruffydd was acute, and it has already
been noticed as an important factor in the failure of the opera-
tions. In 1 1 93 Maelgwn and Hywel Sais were working to-
gether in the defence of Welsh interests in Deugleddyf, but
the year did not close without an act of civil war ; on Christmas
night the household troops of Maelgwn attacked with catapults
and took by assault the castle of Ystrad Meurig, belonging
either to the Lord Rhys or to one of his sons. The climax of
this family bickering came in 1 194, when, in a conflict between
Hywel and Maelgwn and their father, the latter was defeated
and captured, to find a prison in that castle of Nanhyfer, now
held by Maelgwn, of which three years previously Rhys had
deprived William fitz Martin. 2^

Meanwhile, the English government was in no position to
intervene. During the absence of Richard on crusade and his
subsequent imprisonment in Germany,^'' John was making as

23 P. 568.

24 He died in 1237 {Ann. C. MS. B.; B.T. 326).

25The"wadawc uab rys" of Bruts, 337 (B.T. 236) is an error of the Red
Book text.

2fi The account in Ann. C. and the Bruts is supplemented by Gir. Camb. vi.
112 {I tin. ii. 2).

27 Richard was out of England from nth December, 1189, to 13th March,
1194.

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 579

difficult as possible the task of those who wielded the royal CHAP,
authority at home, and the two parties thus formed were much ^^^"
more anxious to use the Welsh for their own interests than to
repress and subdue them. It was, no doubt, made a charge
against Roger Mortimer in 1191 that he was in league with
the Welsh against the crown, but this was a mere party ac-
cusation, put forward by the justiciar, William Longchamp, to
justify his banishment of this powerful marcher baron and his
seizure of Wigmore and other castles.^* When John, a little
later in the year, was preparing to bring thousands of his
Welsh tenants to a conference at Winchester, as a protection
against possible treachery, the justiciar had no. scruple in hiring
other Welshmen at the royal cost, so that in case of an en-
counter hillman might meet hillman and the battle be fought
on something like equal terms.^" Under his successor, the
Archbishop of Rouen, the situation was hardly different ; John
had Welshmen at his back in the movement of 1193-4,^° and
the business which at this time often took Giraldus to Wales,
as he tells us, in the service of the queen-mother and the
justiciar was clearly to conciliate Rhys and prevent his throw-
ing his weight into the scale in favour of the opposite party. ^^
When Richard was at last released by the emperor and
appeared once more in England, it might have been expected
that vigorous measures would have been taken by him to deal
with the situation in Wales. But there is no evidence that it
gave him any concern. He spent a couple of months in the
island, was solemnly re-crowned, and then passed to the Con-
tinent, where he spent the remaining five years of his reign. ^^
The greater energy which was undoubtedly shown by the
English in their dealings with Wales during this period is to
be attributed, not to him, but to the new justiciar. Hubert
Walter succeeded to this office at the end of 1193, and, being
already Archbishop of Canterbury, was able to exercise the
powers both of church and state, in the king's absence, with
decisive authority. He had been trained in business by

^^ Richard of Devizes, p. 30. ^^ Ihid. p. 32.

'^^ Ann, Waverl. s.a. 1193; Gervase, i. 515.

^^Sym. El. i. ep. xxviii. (i. 295). Gir. does not specify his errand, but it laid
him open to the charge of being too friendly with his Welsh relatives (p. 296).
3* He sailed from Portsmouth on 12th May.

58o HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Ranulf Glanville, and it was, therefore, a maxim for him that
XVI

the Welsh must be kept under vigilant observation and con-
trol. Though he did not intervene in person in Wales until
1 1 96, his influence may, perhaps, be traced in the bolder front
shown by the foreigners in 1195, which made it a year of
reaction and disaster for the men of Deheubarth. Roger
Mortimer, returned from his exile, attacked Maelienydd and
rebuilt the castle of Cymaron. On Whit Sunday a Flemish
army recaptured Wiston and thus restored Deugleddyf to its
former owners. Finally, William de Breos, now high in the
confidence of the government and employed as sheriff and as
travelling justice,^^ stormed St. Clear's and captured within it
a large number of the most trusty followers of Hywel Sais.
So alarmed was Hywel at these reverses that he destroyed the
fortifications of Nanhyfer, lest this castle also should slip from
his hands and the enemy thus be enabled to reconquer Cemais.
It cannot be doubted that the continuance of domestic
strife, no less than the greater vigour on the English side, was
responsible for the arrest of the flowing current of Welsh suc-
cess. The Lord Rhys had not long remained a prisoner in
Nanhyfer ; Hywel Sais, with a keener sense of filial duty than
his brother, had released him in despite of Maelgwn. But in
1 195 the old man had to face another conspiracy of the same
type. Rhys Gryg, with a younger brother Maredudd, who
was just emerging from boyhood,^* entered into a secret
understanding with the men of Cantref Mawr and Cantref
Bychan and thereby obtained possession of Dinefwr and
Llanymddyfri. This plain intimation that he was regarded as
an extinct force, playing an idle part on a stage where he had
outstayed his welcome, following as it did upon the ignominy
of imprisonment, would seem to have spurred the Lord Rhys
to one last effort, in which he showed all the fiery enthusiasm

33 He was sheriff of Herefordshire from 1192 to 1199 and a justice itinerant
in Staffordshire in 1196 {Diet. Nat. Biog. vi. p. 229).

^* He was still " inclitus adolescens " {Ann. C. MS. B.) and " gwas ieuanc "
{B.T. 256) when he died in 1201. Two other sons of the Lord Rhys bore this
name, viz., Maredudd Ddall (the Blind), blinded by Henry H. in 1165, who
became a monk of Whitland and died there in 1239 {B.T. 326), and Maredudd,
Archdeacon of Cardigan {B.T. 316), who died in 1227. The indices of Bruts
and B. T. do not properly distinguish the chieftain, the Cistercian monk, and the
secular cleric.

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 581

and reckless daring of his prime. The flame which had been CHAP,
burning low, flickering and visibly sinking into the grey dulness
of ashes, suddenly blazed forth in one blinding sheet of light,
ere it vanished for ever in the dying embers. By the exercise
of stratagem, he laid hold of the two conspirators and im-
prisoned them in Ystrad Meurig Castle,^^ in a land where, it
may be presumed, they had no following. Then, in the ensuing
year, he unfurled his banner as of yore for a great campaign
against the English, which would show that his eye was not
dim nor his natural force abated. First, he attacked Carmar-
then, the centre of royal power in South Wales, and burnt the
whole town to the ground, leaving only the castle standing.
Next, he gathered around him a great host from all parts of
the South, and, crossing the highlands of Builth, appeared be-
fore the castle of Colwyn, the principal fortress of Upper Elfael,
a district which had been seized by William de Breos. It was
taken and burnt — a triumph which emboldened Rhys to at-
tempt still greater achievements. Pouring across the heights
of Radnor Forest, his exultant army fell upon the border
stronghold of Radnor itself, held by the house of Breos since
the days of William Rufus. Its lord was at this time in the
opposite quarter of South Wales, but two of his neighbours,
Roger Mortimer of Wigmore and Hugh de Say of Richard's
Castle,^" brought their men into the field in its defence. They
were utterly defeated by the victorious Rhys ; forty of their
knights and a multitude of foot-soldiers were cut down by the
Welsh, and, after setting fire to the town, the invading host
turned aside to a new field of activity, the castle lately erected
by William de Breos in Lower Elfael. Here Rhys was no
less successful than before ; his catapults and siege engines
forced the garrison to surrender, and Painscastle would have
been razed to the foundations had not William at this juncture
ofl"ered terms which the Welsh leader thought it prudent to
accept. Their nature is not known, but they were no doubt

35 1 follow B. Sues, in connecting the imprisonment, and not the capture,
with Ystrad Meurig.

36 " Hu dysai " {Bruts, 338) ; " Hvgyn o Say " {B. Saes. s.a. 1196). Osbern
fitz Richard (for whom see p. 395) had been succeeded by his son Hugh and his
grandson Osbert (Feudal England, pp. 176, 179; Lib. Nig. i. 217), but shortly
before 1189 Richard's Castle came into the possession of " Hugo de Say" (Pipe
Roll, I Rd. I. 143).

VOL. II. 15

582 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, connected with the counter-operations of William in Dyfed, in
■ the course of which a good part of the town of Aberteifi had
been destroyed.

Rhys had now fought his last fight, for on 28th April,
1 1 97,^^ he died. At the age of sixty-five ^^ his work as a
warrior was done, and the stirring deeds of his last heroic effort
at leadership were not likely to be repeated. His name will
live in Welsh history as that of the greatest of the princes of
Deheubarth, whose long and persistent struggle against the
Anglo-Norman power was the chief means of keeping alive in
South Wales the idea of Welsh nationality and independence.
In the North, the Welsh principalities had now attained such
a position that the continuance of Welsh institutions and
traditions seemed fairly well assured ; in the South, they
maintained themselves with difficulty against large and power-
ful foreign colonies. Rhys was throughout his life the centre
and rallying-point of the southern national resistance ; while
never the mere barbarian, bent on sheer destruction, insensible
to the claims of an advancing civilisation, he was always the
firm and immovable patriot. He was buried in St. David's
cathedral ; ^^ owing to a quarrel with Bishop Peter, he was at
the time of his death under excommunication, but this difficulty
was overcome by the infliction of penitential discipline upon
the unheeding corpse,*^ and Rhys at last rested worthily in the
historic fane which was for him, as for his fathers, the holiest
in all Wales.

The removal of Rhys, who had so long dominated Welsh
life, was the opportunity of the princes of the younger genera-
tion who aspired to leadership, and it was for some years an
open question which quarter of Wales would furnish his suc-
cessor as head and champion of the Welsh race. Neither
Gwynedd nor Deheubarth, as it chanced, supplied the first

3MnM. C. MSS. B. and C, B. Saes. and MS. C. of B.T. (p. 244) all give
the day as iv Kal, Maii, whence Powel's " fourth daie of Maie " (181).

^8 He was born about 1132 (chap. xiii. note 53).

'•^^Ann. C. MSS. B. and C. ; cf. B.T. s.a. 1233 (p. 322— burial of Rhys
Gryg). The tomb and effigy ascribed to him by tradition (Fenton (2), 45 ;
Hoare, Itin. ii. 25) are of the fourteenth century (Jones and Freem. 113-5). For
elegiac verse composed in his honour see Ann. C. 61 ; B.T. 246-8 ; Fenton (2),

47-

^'The story is tpld in Ann, Wint. s.a. 1197.

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 583

candidate for the position, but that region of Southern Powys CHAP,
hitherto remarkable for the strictly local and provincial temper
of its patriotism. The cool, sagacious Owain Cyfeiliog, almost
always in prudent alliance with the English, was succeeded
by the fiery and headstrong leader of revolt, Gwenwynwyn.
Owain would seem to have thrown off the cares of rule about
1 195 and to have retired to the monastic peace of Ystrad
Marchell — a Cistercian abbey of his own foundation — where he
died and was buried in 1197.^^ The accession of Gwenwyn-
wyn to power was immediately followed by attacks upon the
English border, which were so formidable as in September,
1 196, to bring the justiciar. Archbishop Hubert, upon the
scene,*^ A considerable army laid siege to Gwenwynwyn's
castle of Trallwng, known to the English as Pool,*^ and, after
vain efforts to scale the walls, obtained an entrance by under-
mining them. With a clemency which was unusual on the
border, the justiciar allowed the garrison to depart with the
honours of war. But he lost nothing by his humanity, for be-
fore the end of the year Gwenwynwyn had recovered posses-
sion of his castle, and it was now his turn to show mag-
nanimity and allow the foe to retire unscathed in battle array.
Having proved his ability to hold his own against the
English, Gwenwynwyn next undertook the extension of his
borders. It is remarkable that from the first he harboured no
designs against his kinsmen in Northern Powys, but ever
looked southward, his ambition being to reclaim for Powys her
old predominance in Central Wales. On the death of Gruffydd
Maelor in 1 191, he had been succeeded by his sons, Madog
and Owain ; ** the death of the latter in 1 1 97 vested the whole

*i The Register of Aberconwy printed in vol. i. (1847) of the Camden Mis-
cellany cites his epitaph and says he was buried near the high altar (p. 7).

*2 Gervase (i. 543) and Ann. Cest. {s.a. 1196) confirm the account of the
Bruts. The " Henri " of the Welsh accounts is probably due to a perfunctory
extension of an original " H ".

^^ For the early history of the place see pp. 248, 421. The assumption very
generally made since the time of Camden, that the site of the early castle of
Trallwng is marked by the present Powis Castle, appears to be without founda-
tion. " Y Castell Coch," as the Welsh style it, is not in either of the old town-
ships of Pool (Pool town and Welsh town), but in that of Trallwm Gollen.

*■* Owain held Maelor Saesneg ; see Mon. Angl, v. 325, for his grant (as
"Owynus filius Griffini de Bromfeld ") to Combermere Abbey in 1195 of tithes
accruing from his lordship of " Overtone et Bumfeld ". This district, which in
1086 was reckoned a part of Cheshire (see " Beddesfeld " and " Hurdingberie " in

15 *

S84 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, of Northern Powys in Madog, who thereby became ruler of
^^^' Welsh and English Maelor, lal, Nanheudwy and Cynllaith.*^
It was thus that the twofold division of the province into
Powys Fadog and Powys Wenwynwyn came about, the
Rhaeadr and the Tanat forming the boundary,'*® and this divi-
sion the southern prince, restless and enterprising as he was,
made no attempt to disturb. He chose rather to attack
Arwystli, which had for ages been within Powys, but not of it,
ruled by a separate dynasty and a different ecclesiastical
authority. Here his opportunity seems to have been afforded
by the death in 1197 of the native chieftain, Owain o'r Brith-
dir ; ^"^ he attached the cantref to his own dominions and thus
brought its political isolation to an end, though it remained
for centuries a part of the diocese of Bangor. In the same
year, he found means to intervene, to his own profit, in the
affairs of Deheubarth, which had been thrown into great con-
fusion by the death of the Lord Rhys. After an interview
with Archbishop Hubert on the borders, Gruffydd, the desig-
nated heir, had been recognised as his father's successor,*^ but
had at once been confronted by the ever jealous Maelgwn, who
had latterly been in banishment, but now appeared in Cere-
digion to claim a share of the inheritance. Gwenwynwyn sup-
plied the exile with troops and he was thus enabled to take the
town and castle of Aberystwyth ; what was even more gratifying
to Maelgwn was that Gruffydd himself fell into his hands, whom
with all haste he made over to his friend and patron in ac-
knowledgment of his obligations. The prince of Powys had

Domesd. i. 264a, 2) was held in 1138 by William Peverel (who fortified " Obre-
tonam " — Ord. Vit. xiii. 37) and under Henry H. by Roger and Jonas of Fowls.

'•'' In a Valle Crucis charter of 1202, printed in Arch. Camb. III. xii. (1866),
414, Madog grants " omnem pasturam tocius terre mee scilicet Malaur Saisnec
et provincie de Maylaur et Yayl et Nanhendu et Kenylleid ".

*^ In all the lists of commotes Mochnant above Rhaeadr is separated from
Mochnant below Rhaeadr, and the one appears in Powys Wenwynwyn, the other
in Powys Fadog. The division of 1166 (see p. 520) must, therefore, have been
permanent. It is perhaps hardly necessary to say that the common account of
Powys Fadog as owing its name to Madog ap Maredudd (Powel, 153 ; Penn. i.
277) is a quite impossible one. The elder Madog had the whole of the province,
and the two names clearly could not have arisen before 1195.

" B. Sues, is right in reading " Owein or brithtir vab Howel ap leuaf " ; cf.
B.T. 250, notes a and 3, and the notice of the death of Hywel in 1185 {B.T.

233).

48 The "curiam regis adivit" o{ Ann. C. MS. B. is to be interpreted in the
light of Hoveden, iv. 21 (" Hubertus . . . fines Gwalliae adiit ").

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 585

not only a dangerous neighbour and rival in his possession ; chap
he had a pawn which he could use in negotiations with the
government, and the result was that ere long Gwenwynwyn
received the border castle of Carreg Hofa from the English/^
while Gruffydd found a prison in Corfe.^*^

By these early successes the prince of Powys was led to
dream of still greater conquests. He aspired, the Chronicle
of the Princes tells us, " to restore to the Welsh their ancient
and due rights, possessions, and boundaries ".^^ He entered
upon a scheme of reconquest from the barons of the march.
During the preceding ten years matters had, on the whole,
gone badly with the Welsh in the region between Wye and
Severn. In Maelienydd the seizure of the castle of Cymaron
had deprived the sons of Cadwallon, Maelgwn, and Hywel, of
a substantial part of their inheritance,^^ and the death of Mael-
gwn in 1 197 was a further blow to Welsh power in this dis-
tricts^ In Elfael the way had been opened for the invader by
the death of Einion o'r Forth in 1191;^* William de Breos
had thereupon taken possession of the cantref, in the two com-
motes of which he built two castles, one in the valley of the
Colwyn for Upper Elfael, and another, styled by the Welsh
Castell Paen, or " Payn's Castle," in the valley of the Machawy
for Lower Elfael. ^^ The latter was known to the English as
" Castrum Matildis " or Castle Maud, no doubt because it had

4»'« Regi pro Carrec Huwa dedit " (Ann. C. MS. B.). The castle was in
Welsh hands in 1187 — see p. 565.

^^ Ann. Wint. s.a. 1198.

51 " Talu y hen deilygdawt yr kymry ae hen briodolder ae teruyneu " {Bruts,
341 ; B.T, 252). From this point on the evidence of B. Saes. is no longer
available, owing to the loss of the latter portion of the MS., Cleopatra B. v. Fo.
162a is the last which is quite legible ; 1626 is filled to the last line, but was for
so long a time an outside page that it is now most difficult to read.

■>^Ann. Camb. s.a. 1195; B.T. 240 ; B. Saes. s.a. 1195. There had been
an earlier Mortimer conquest of Cymaron in 1144, and in 1181 it apparently
came into the king's hands on the death of Roger's father Hugh (Eyton, Shrops.
iv. p. 206). For the sons of Cadwallon see Gir. Camb. i. 32 {De Rebus, i. 5).

53 B.T. 250 ; B. Saes. s.a. 1197.

•''••He was slain by his brother (B.T., 236; B. Saes. s.a. 1191), and the
allusion of Gir. Camb. (vi. 19) in the later editions of the Itinerary (i. i) to ter-
rible crimes committed " in his inter Waiam et Sabrinam . . . finibus his nostris
diebus " by kinsfolk jealous of each other's power may be taken to show that the
incident was one of a series. The culprit was possibly Gwallter ab Einion Clud,
who appears in 12 15.

5" The two commotes are known to this day as the hundreds of Colwyn and
Painscastle.

586 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, been stoutly defended against a Welsh attack in 1195 by-
Maud of St. Valery, the Amazonian wife of its builder and
lord.*^ Now, although the Lord Rhys had destroyed the
castle of Colwyn in his great raid of 1 1 96, Painscastle had
been restored by him intact to its master and still enabled
William to link together his lands at Radnor and Brecon.
Gwenwynwyn singled it out as the most dangerous to the
Welsh of the late encroachments upon their liberty, and in
July, 1 1 98, beset it with a great army, in which were very
many of the men of Gwynedd, willing allies in this patriotic
enterprise.^^ The gravity of the crisis was recognised by the
English government, and Gruffydd ap Rhys was released from
captivity and sent to the border to treat with his fellow-
countrymen. But his mediation was of no avail, and Geoffrey
fitz Peter, who had newly succeeded Archbishop Hubert as
justiciar,^^ saw that nothing could save Painscastle and Elfael
for the English but a victory in the open field. On 13th
August ^^ he attacked the Welsh host, which was marshalled
in three divisions, one of infantry, one of cavalry, and one
mixed, and at the first onset scattered it in flight. Many thou-
sands of Gwenwynwyn's followers were slain, while the English
boasted that they had scarcely lost a man. A decisive triumph
was won for English ascendancy in Mid Wales, and the Prince
of Powys saw the prize for which he had fought, the leadership

'^^ Ann. Wigorn. Camden (Britannia, 568) identified " Matildis castrum "
with " Colewent," i.e., Colwyn, but a careful collation of the English and Welsh
authorities for the events of 1198 and 1231 will make it clear that Painscastle is
really the fortress intended. Breconshire tradition preserved a lively image of
" Moll Walbee," who was believed to have built Hay Castle in a single night
(Breconsh. (2), p. 57), while a legend was current among the Welsh which gave
" Mallt Walljri " the part of Gessler in a doublet of the story of Tell and the
apple (Pen, MS. 131 in Evans, Rep. i. p. 819).

5Mmm. Camb. MS. B, ; B.T. 252; Ann. Cest. s.a. 1198 (for "Paui,"
which misled the editor, read "Pain"); Hoveden, iv. 53; Gervase, i. 572 ;
Diceto, ii. 163 ; Gir. Camb. i. 91, 95 (De Rebus, iii. 2, 4). In the first of his two
references, Gir. has antedated the battle.

^•^ Gervase makes the archbishop leader on this occasion. But the king had
already on nth July transferred the justiciarship to Geoffrey (Rymer, i. 71), who
accordingly appears as the general in Hoveden, and this agrees vvath the state-
ment of Gir. Camb. (iii. 25) that Hubert heard the news of the victory at Bridge-
north (castrum Brugense).

^3 "Die festo sancti martyris Ypoliti" (Diceto). Ann. Cest. has " ije idus
[i2th] Augusti ". Either date fits in with the statement of MSS. C. E. of B.T.
that the siege began about 22nd July (" ar ael gwyl Vair Vadlen ") and lasted
three weeks.

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 5^7

of the Welsh people, pass beyond redemption from his grasp. CHAP.
It was reserved for the hands of the more wary and cautious
Llywelyn of Gwynedd.

II. The Rise of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth.

The only son of Iorwerth Drwyndwn, lord of Nant Conwy,^*^
was born in the early part of 1173.^^ His mother was Mar-
garet, daughter of Madog ap Maredudd,^^ and there is good
reason for thinking that his father died while he was but an
infant, and that he was taken for safety from his first home at
Dolwyddelan "^ or its neighbourhood to his mother's land of
Powys, where, as he grew from childhood into youth, he learnt
that he had rights of inheritance of which he was being de-
frauded. In later years, when he had triumphed over all his
rivals, his success was regarded by some as a Divine vindication
of legitimacy, as expounded by the Church,®* for Iorwerth was
not the offspring of that marriage with Christina which the
Church had so persistently condemned,*^ but of an earlier union
with Gwladus, daughter of Llywarch ap Trahaearn of Arwystli.'*
It is not to be supposed, however, that considerations of this
kind weighed much with the Welsh, whose ordinary law of
inheritance took no count of the status of the mother of an
heir,®'^ and the young Llywelyn owed the lofty position which he
attained to no other cause than his own fortitude and courage,
which made light of difficulties that might have been for ever
the prison of a less heroic soul.

6° See p. 550.

^* " Or pan vu varw owein [November, 1170], yny anet llywelyn vab Ior-
werth dwy vlyned a banner. Or pan anet llywelyn yny las owein vab Madawc
ar ymlad gwern y vinogyl [1187 — see p. 565 J : pedeir blyned ardec " (O Oes Gwr-
theyrn in Bruts, 405).

82 "Llewelyn. M. marereda. Merch madawc. M.maredud," says Jesus Coll.
MS. 20 {Cymr. viii. 88), and this is confirmed by Prydydd y Moch, who calls
Llywelyn not only " wyr ywein," but also " wyr madawc " (Myv. Arch. I. 301
[213]). In view of this evidence, the suggestion of Eyton (Shrops. vi. p. 160),
founded upon Mon. Angl. vi, 497, that Llywelyn's mother was of the Corbet
family, can hardly stand ; it may be that on her widowhood she married a Corbet
and that it was thus Llywelyn came to call William Corbet " avunculi mei ".

83 That he was born tliere (Penn. ii. 303) is merely a conjecture (" it is
thought credible," says Sir John Wynne in Gwydir Fam. 15).

8* Gir. Camb. vi. 134 {Itin. ii. 8), in a passage added to the Itinerary about
1197. Yet it would appear that Iorwerth had, like his father and his brother-in-
law, Gruffydd Maelor (see p. 566), married his first cousin.

*■* See p. 522. "8 Powel, 165. ^7 see p. 286.

588 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. The young prince had no sooner reached his majority at

the age of fourteen than he began, probably with the aid of
his mother's kinsfolk, to assert his claim to a share of Gwynedd.
When Giraldus was passing through North Wales in 1 1 88, he
had already begun to harass his uncles, David and Rhodri, who
between them held most of their father's realm.*® The steps by
which he rose to the height of his ambition and made himself
chief ruler of Gwynedd are not easy to trace, but it is clear
that in 1 1 94 he took a long stride towards his goal. For some
years previously there had been quarrels between Rhodri and
his southern neighbours, the sons of Cynan. About 1 190 the
latter had driven Rhodri out of Anglesey,*^ whereupon he had
sought the help of Reginald, king of Man, marrying his
daughter as a pledge of alliance, and in 1193 he had with the
aid of a Manx contingent expelled his rivals and again possessed
himself of Aberffraw."" Thus passed the " Gaelic Summer,"
so called, no doubt, because of the influx of Gaelic-speaking
allies from Man into Gwynedd ; ^^ before the year was out their
work had been undone, and the sons of Cynan had again ejected
Rhodri. It is in the following year that Llywelyn first appears
on the stage of history. What is certain is that he had the
friendly aid of Gruffydd and Maredudd ap Cynan, and that
together they defeated David in a fiercely contested battle
fought at the mouth of the Conway. ^^ The poets are loud in

88 Gir. ut supra. " Puer tunc duodennis " overstates the case ; Llywelyn
was fifteen. The " quasi" of the third edition shows that the author became
aware that he had been too positive.

8® Soon after 1188 (" in brevi postmodum "), says Gir. Camb. (vi. 126-7 [IHn.
"• 7])» but not in 1193, as Dymock suggests in his note, for the passage is found
in the first edition, issued in 1191.

■"* " Drwy nerth gwrthrych urenhin manaw," says B.T. 238 (Bruts, 337),
but B. Sues. {s.a. 1193) has more correctly " meibion Godrich ". Godred of Man
died in 1187, leaving a lawful son, Olaf, under age, and a natural son, Reginald,
who at once assumed power and ruled the island at this period. For Rhodri's
marriage, see p. 617.

^1 " O Oes Gwrtheyrn " assigns " haf y gwydyl " {Bruts, 405) to a year which
is clearly 1193, For the explanation cf. Comment. (2), 156-7 (Moses Williams).

■'^ The authorities for this revolution in Gwynedd are Gir. Camb. vi. 134
(added to Itin. ii. 8 in the second edition, i.e. in 1197) ; B.T. 240 ; B. Sues,
s.a. 1 194 ; Ann. C. MS. B. ; and the following poems— Cynddelw to Llywelyn
(Myv. Arch. I. 262-3 [189]), Prydydd y Moch to Llywelyn (ibid. 297-300 [210-2])
and to Rhodri {ibid. 284 [202]). Gir. draws no distinction between the fate of
Rhodri and that of David, while the Bruts place Rhodri among the victorious
allies. The poets do not furnish a clear solution of the problem, for, in one poem

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 589

their praise of the valour of Llywelyn on this day. " Many CHAP,
were the foes of my lord," sings Cynddelw, " but there fell of
them in the fight seven times the number of the stars." Pry-
dydd y Moch marks his early appearance in the warrior's garb
— " at ten," he says with poetical exaggeration, " he was the
bold darling of fortune — the terrible Llywelyn ". What is ob-
scure is the part played by Rhodri in the upheaval of this year ;
did he return from exile to join in the general movement
against David or was he David's ally and involved in the ruin
which befell his brother? After the victory of Aberconwy,
Llywelyn won fresh triumphs at the passage of the Menai at
Porthaethwy, where, says his poet with bated breath.
Over the sounding surge we rode our steeds as they swam,

and again at Coedaneu, in the heart of Anglesey, but there is
no clear indication of the foes whom he fought, and the story
of his achievements, romantic as it certainly was, can only be
told, therefore, in the barest outline.

Whether victory or defeat was his portion, Rhodri did not
long survive it, for he died in 1195.'''^ The political situation
in Gwynedd during the ensuing five years is tolerably clear.
Gruffydd, the elder of the two sons of Cynan, bore rule in
Anglesey, Arfon, Arllechwedd and Lleyn, and thus excluded
Llywelyn for the time being from the older Gwynedd and the
ancestral seat of power at Aberffraw.'^* The younger brother,
Maredudd, no doubt received Meirionydd and lands to the
north as his share of the spoils of victory. Lly welyn's portion
was east of the Conway, where David had formerly held sway ;
he had as neighbours his kinsmen the princes of Northern
Powys. David had not at first been entirely dispossessed ;
three castles, no doubt on the English border, had been left to
him, to enable him to play, though with sadly diminished state,
the part of a prince. '^^ In 11 97, however, he was captured by

Prydydd y Moch speaks of " plygu rodri rwyd esgar ymon," while in another he
seems to leave Rhodri victor, even after the battle of Aberconwy. " O Oes
Gwrtheyrn " confirms the mention by the poets of a battle of " Coettaneu "
{Bruts, 406 — cf, " Coytdanew " in Rec. Cam. 57) and assigns it to 1194.

^3 Ann. C. s.a. and Bruts, 406. He is said to have been buried at Holyhead
{Gwydir Fam. 19).

''^ Prydydd y Moch calls him " vt mwynbell mon," " rwyf kemeis," and
"rwy dygannwy " {Myv. Arch. I. 288-9 [204-5]). He died in 1200, and was
buried at Aberconwy {B.T. 254).

'"' See B.T. and B. Sues. Gir. also says that something was left to David
(vi. 134).

590 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Llywelyn/^ and the rest of his days he spent in England,
living with his wife, the royal Emma, and their son Owain in
the manors of Ellesmere and Halesowen they had received
from Henry H."

Llywelyn was now fairly started upon his long and triumph-
ant career. His first intervention in the border warfare
between English and Welsh was unhappy ; he sent a large
number of his men to the assistance of Gwenwynwyn in the
campaign of 1198 and very many of them fell at Painscastle/^
But when he took action on his own account, there was a
different tale to tell ; on 6th January, 11 99, he captured the
castle of Mold,^^ which protected Hawarden and Chester from
the onslaughts of the Welsh and was the seat of the seneschal
of the earldom, Robert of Montalt.^" The achievement re-
called the glories of Owain Gwynedd,®^ and promised a speedy
return of the days when Gwynedd took the foremost place in
Wales. Llywelyn had still much to do to win for himself the
proud position of his grandfather, but his power began to be
felt from that winter day when, as Cynddelw rapturously sang,
" Alun ran red " with the blood of the foes of the " terror and
torment of England ".^^

HI. The Monastic Revival.

(The early history of the Cistercians in England is told by Miss Cooke in
the Eng. Hist. Rev. vol. viii. (1893), pp. 625-76. I have also made use of
Janauschek, Origines Cistercienses , torn, i (Vienna, 1877), Dugdale's Monasticon
(new ed.), Birch's History of Margam Abbey, and Clark's collection of Glamorgan-
shire charters.)

While the process of the years was thus altering the political
aspect of Wales.i making the older heroic names but a memory

^^ The Red Book text has an " a " before " dauyd ab owein gwyned " (Bruts,
341) which is not in B. Saes. or in MS. C. {B.T. 250, note i) and gives a
different and much less likely meaning to the passage. The justiciar came to
the Welsh frontier in January, 1198, and arranged for Dafydd's release — see note
in Feet of Fines, 9 Rd. I. (Pipe Roll Society's vol. 23), p. 79.

" See pp. 551, 553.

78 «' Precipue homines Lewelini interempti sunt" (Ann. Cest. s.a. 1198).

"^^ Ann. Cest. s.a. 1198 (read "by" instead of "from" in the translation)
and " O Oes Gwrtheyrn " in Bruts, 406.

8" For Robert see Helsby's edition of Ormerod's History of Cheshire, i. p.
58.

81 See p. 492. Owain had, no doubt, given up Mold in 1157.

84 <« Pryder Lloegr ai cythrudd . . . Alun rac hil run bu rudd " (Myv. Arch. I.
263 [189]).

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 591

and bringing new protagonists upon the stage, a change had chap.
also, silent and scarce perceived, come over the face of Welsh
religion. The monastery was restored to its ancient place in
Welsh religious life. In a former chapter ^^ it was shown how
the Norman conquest of South Wales was accompanied by the
foundation of new monastic houses, Benedictine, Tironian, and
Augustinian. But these houses were, without exception,
founded by the invading race and added to the strength of the
alien element in the land ; castle and priory went closely
together in a partnership not easily sundered. Some of the
cells were small and merely served to collect from the neigh-
bourhood dues which were sent to a rich abbey in England
or in France.^* Towards the end of the twelfth century all
this came to be changed, and the principal agency at work
was the influence of the monastic order of Citeaux.

Wales was not without monastic traditions ; its monasteries
had, indeed, been at one time famous, nor were the vestiges
of that day entirely extinct. The ordinary " clas," or mother
church, had, no doubt, lost much of its monastic character, but
in such communities as those of Priestholm and Beddgelert
the ideals of celibacy and retirement from the world were in a
measure retained.^* Asceticism was, however, represented for
the ordinary Welshman of those days rather by the hermit or
anchorite than by the monk. One may gather from the story
of Caradog of Rhos how great the reverence with which this
type of religious devotee was still regarded.^'' Caradog, a noble
youth of Brycheiniog, well trained in many arts and, among
them, in the playing of the harp, was a favourite courtier of
Rhys ap Tewdwr.^^ But he was unlucky enough to lose two
of his master's most valuable dogs ^^ and the anger of Rhys

83 p. 430 et seq.

^* The Cluniac priory of St. Clear's, a cell of St. Martin des Champs in Paris,
had in 1279 but two monks, who had shaken off all monastic obligations, and
Gir. Camb. (i. 324) speaks of a time when there was but one. See Mon. Angl.
vi. 1056 ; Visitations, Sir G. Duckett (1890), p. 26 ; Tax. Nich. 277.

*"* See p. 216.

88 The life of Caradog was written by Gir, Camb. (i. 416 — cf. 395), of whose
work, now lost, the account in Capgrave's Nova Legenda Angliae (ed. Horstman,
Oxford, 1901, pp. 174-6) and Acta Sanctorum, 13th April, ii. 151, is probably a
digest.

87" Resi Soutwallie principis."

88 Caradog was perhaps " pencynydd " (chief huntsman). The " leporarii,"
as royal «' milgwn," were worth los, each {LL. i. 498), f .#., as much as a horse.

592 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, drove him in disgust from the court, to seek admission into
■^^^' the clerical order at the hands of Bishop Herwald of Llandaff.
From the first Caradog set the solitary life before him as his
goal and he soon passed from Llandaff to the neglected shrine
of St. Cenydd in Gower, which, when he had cleared it of bush
and bramble, became his first oratory. ^^ His next residence
was at St. David's, where he was ordained priest ; ever bent on
seclusion, he withdrew ere long to the peninsula of Barry, on
the coast of Pebidiog,^" until the persistent attacks of the sea-
rovers forced him to retire to a more sheltered home. About
1 105 he settled in Rhos, probably at Haroldston, near Haver-
fordwest,®^ and here spent the remainder of his days. The
Flemings, sent to this district as colonists by Henry I., tried to
dislodge him, but in vain ; he suffered much from the hostility
also of Tancard, the castellan of Haverford,®^ but held his
ground until his death on 13th April, 1124.^^ The learning
of Caradog Fynach was renowned throughout Wales,®* and
so great was the repute of his sanctity that Tancard, for all
his enmity, would not sufifer the good man's corpse to be taken
for burial to St. David's, lest relics of such virtue should be lost
to the neighbourhood, and portents were needed to induce him
to relax his hold. Caradog was finally buried in the north
transept of the cathedral,®^ and seventy years later, when

*3 C/. Lib. Land. 279, where it is said that Bishop Herwald (1056-1104)
" in lann Cinith . . . ordinauit . . . caratocum uirum sanctum et religiosum in
monachum ". For the priory afterwards established here see p. 432.

*" " Insula nomine Ary " is thus explained in Owen, Pemb. i. 114.

*iBoth Capgrave and Gir. Camb. vi. 85-6 (Itin. i. 11) describe the place of
Caradog's sojourn as " Sanctum Hysmaelum in Rosensi provincia ". But St.
Ishmael's at the mouth of Milford Haven, though favoured by Phillimore (Owen,
Pemb. i. 307), is too far from Haverfordwest to suit the story told of the young
Richard fitz Tancard by Giraldus, whereas Haroldston East is close to the town,
is dedicated to St. Ismael (Rees, W. SS. p. 252), and could until recently show
" Caradog's Well," around which was held an annual fair (Hoare, Itin. i. 198 ;
Lit. Eng. p. 139).

^'^ The life confuses Tancard with his son Richard, but Gir. shows us that
Tancard (for whom see p. 425) survived the saint and that Richard was then
but a boy.

93 " o Oes Gwrtheyrn " so far concurs (Bruts, 405) as to place the death of
" caradawc vynach " eight years before that of Cadwallon ap Gruffydd and
Maredudd ap Bleddyn (in 1132).

"^See the account in Lib. Land. 2-5 of a visit paid by him about 1115 to
the hermit Elgar of Bardsey.

^^ Jones and Freem. (106-7) think the grave can be identified.

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 593

Giraldus Cambrensis wished to press upon the pope the claim CHAP,
to canonisation of a denizen of Dyfed, he could think of no
worthier name to put forward than that of the hermit of Rhos.^®
Such, then, was the type of holiness which appealed to
the religious instinct of Welshmen at the end of the reign of
Henry I. — a solitary warfare with the evil one, drawing no
support from a common monastic life.'''^ Nor was there any
great change in this respect during the next thirty years,
although the forces were slowly gathering which were to
reconvert the Welsh to a belief in monasticism. The houses
founded in the reign of Stephen, even those which were the
result of the new Cistercian movement, were in their origin of
the familiar alien type, foreign communities planted on the
soil by the strong hand of the conqueror, and only Welsh in
the source from which they drew their revenues. In 1141
Maurice of London, lord of Ogmore and Kidwelly, gave to
St. Peter's, Gloucester, certain churches near the river Ewenny,
with the result that the priory of that name was founded as
a cell of the great western abbey. ^^ A noble church was built
on the spot, which still stands in its massive Norman strength,
but the house was always small and overshadowed by its
greater neighbours. ^^ On i6th September, 11 40, a community
was formed which furnished Wales with its first Cistercian
monastery.^^** An offshoot of the great abbey of Clairvaux,
where St. Bernard was then at the zenith of his fame, its early
history is obscure, but it is known that in 1 144 it found a
temporary home at Little Trefgarn, near Haverfordwest, where
Bishop Bernard settled it on land belonging to the see of St.

"^Gir. Camb. iii. 63-4 {Invect. iii. 6, 7), 182-3 (^«g'^' Sac. ii. 547).

^''Nowhere, says Gir. (vi. 204 [Descr. i. 18]), will you find hermits and
anchorites of greater austerity and spirituality than in Wales.

8" Cart. Glouc. i. 75-6 ; cf. ii. 14-15, 135-6. The date is supported by an
added passage in Ann. Marg. — see the facsimile in Margam Abb. p. 277. No
account need be taken of Leland's statement that the jfounder was " Syr Jo :
Loudres " {Wales, pp. 50-1), or of that of Gw. Brut, that the year was iiii.
The priory was sometimes known as that of Ogmore (Vggemore), from the lord-
ship in which it stood ; hence it is confused with Wigmore in the index to Cart.
Glouc.

"8 Gir. calls it "cellulam de Ewennith " (vi. 67 [Itin. i. 7]). For the church
see Hoare, Itin. i. 147-51, and Arch. Camb. III. iii. (1857), 114-28 (E. A.
Freeman).

looQyfg. Cist. i. 62. I leave Tintern (founded in 1131) out of account, as a
house which had no real connection with the Welsh.

594 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. David's.^*'^ Some years later, probably in ii5i,^*'2it moved
■ to the neighbourhood of Y Ty Gvvyn ar Daf (The White
House on the Taf), where Hywel the Good had held his
famous council ; ^"^ the abbey was not built on the banks of
the Taf, but a mile away, on the river Gronw, and its true
name is Blanchland, Whitland, or Alba Landa, " the White
Moor ".^^* The site was given, with other lands in the district,
by one John of Torrington,^"^ and it is sufficiently clear that,
though this convent became the mother-house of all Cistercian
foundations of Welsh origin, it owed its birth to no impulse
of native devotion, but to the ordinary zeal of the foreigner
for foreign conventual forms. If one could believe that the
second Welsh Cistercian abbey, a colony of Whitland, was
actually established at Cwm Hir in Maelienydd as early as
1 143 by one Maredudd ap Maelgwn,^*"* an exception would
have to be admitted to the general trend of affairs at the time ;
Maredudd, however, is otherwise unknown as a prince of this
region,^"^ and in any case the early foundation was an abortive
one, the true birth-year of the abbey being that of its re-founda-
tion in 1 1 76.^^** The year 1 1 47 saw a great accession to the
strength of the Cistercian order in Wales ; by the absorption
of the order of Savigny, Neath and Basingwerk were transferred

1"! Ann. C. MS. C. s.a. 1144. The date is due to the editor, but is probably
right and to be preferred to Wharton's 1143 {Angl. Sac. ii. 649). The MS.
reads : " Ducti sunt monachi ordinis cysterciensis qui modo sunt apud albam
landam in Westwalliam per bernardum episcopum qui dedit eis locum apud
trefgarn in deuglethef " (Cott. MS. Dom. i. 147a (2)). Neither Trefgarn Owain
nor Great Trefgarn can be described as in Deugleddyf, but Little Trefgarn is
locally within the hundred, though reckoned a detached portion of the parish of
St. Dogwell's. For its relation to St. David's see Fenton (2), 181-2.

102 So Janauschek {Orig. Cist.). i<>3 p, 3^9.

i"'* Possibly translating a Welsh " Waun Wen". There was a Praemon-
stratensian Blanchland in Northumberland and another in the Cotentin. " Alba
Domus," often used by Gir., is a translation of Ty Gwyn.

105 King John, in his confirmation charter of 27th December, 1214 {Rot.
Chart, 206), confirms to the church of St. Mary of " Alba Landa " and its monks
"terram in qua abbatia de Alba Landa sita est, quam habent de dono Johannis
de Thorynton ". Cf. Royal Charters, 73.

108 According to Orig. Cist. i. 74-5, the Cistercian lists give 22nd July, 1143,
as the date of the first foundation. For " Marreduch f. Maylgon " as donor of
the capital endowment, see John's charter of 1214 in Rot. Chart, i. 205, and that of
Henry HL ist June, 1232, in Man. Angl. v. 459.

1" Possibly Maredudd ap Madog is meant, who ruled Maelienydd from 1140
to I 146.

los This is the view of Janauschek.

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. S95
to it,^^^ and in the same year Earl Robert of Gloucester founded CHAP,

XVI

Margam, soon to become one of the most famous seats of
religion in Britain.^^" But even yet it could hardly be said
that the movement had gained any hold upon the Welsh
people.

Time, however, was all that was needed to enable the
Cistercian ideal to win the affection of a folk for whom it had
a natural affinity. It was gradually borne in upon the Welsh
that these monks were of a very different type from the easy,
luxurious Benedictines, comfortably quartered under the shadow
of protecting castle walls, who had hitherto been in Wales the
sole representatives of their class. " Our houses shall not be
built," ran an early rule of the Cistercian order, " near cities,
castles or villages, but in places far removed from the con-
course of men." ^^^ No description could be truer of Blanch-
land, which Leland in the sixteenth century saw " standing in
a vast wood as in a wilderness," ^^^ or of Cwm Hir, hidden in
a mountain glen in Maelienydd. These monks of Clairvaux,
if strangers, were no allies of the Norman or Breton conqueror ;
they came from distant Champagne and sought the solitudes
of Wales, not as auxiliaries of baronial power, but in order to
save their own souls. Nor was it merely in their choice of a
place to dwell in that the Cistercian brethren showed themselves
to be unlike the monks with whom Welshmen had hitherto
been familiar. Their distinguishing mark was a rigorous and
exacting self-denial, a resolute return to the austerity of primi-
tive times and a noble scorn of all compromise with the world.^^^
At every point their system was a protest against the laxity
which had crept into the monastic fold. They wore simple
garments of undyed wool, and thus were " white monks " as
distinguished from the " black monks " of the older pattern.
They were abstemious in diet, eating no meat at any time and
fasting for a great part of the year. Their churches were plain

^"^Eng. Hist. Rev. viii. (1893), 669.

""The history of this abbey is very fully told, with the aid of its rich collec-
tion of muniments (now the property of Miss Talbot), in Birch, Margam Abbey
(London, 1897).

"1 Bng. Hist. Rev. viii. p. 648. "2 Wales, p. 115.

113 Accounts of the Cistercians as they appeared to English observers will be
found in Wm. Malm. G.R. 382-3 (514); Ord. Vit. viii. 26; Gir. Camb. iv. iii-
15.

596 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, and unadorned, and at first they were loth to take tithes or
^^^* other endowments of the kind and desired to live by the
labour of their own hands. In all these respects the Cistercian
practice was a return from degenerate Benedictine ways to
the simplicity of the early ascetics, and as such it made a strong
appeal to men who had not forgotten the traditions of Celtic
monasticism in the days of its primal earnestness and warmth.
The Cistercian abbot was a St. David or a^St. Teilo restored to
life.

It was soon after their great victory of 1 165 that the Welsh
began to regard the new movement with a kindly eye, and the
evidence goes to show that the change of attitude was very
largely due to the enlightened policy of the Lord Rhys. It is
clear that, from the time when he recovered full ascendancy in
South Wales, the prince of Deheubarth uniformly protected
and honoured monastic institutions within the sphere of his in-
fluence. His favour even fell upon the older foundations,
despite their foreign origin ; he confirmed to the Benedictine
abbey of Chertsey the cell of Cardigan which it had acquired
from St. Peter's, Gloucester,^^* and for some years left undis-
turbed at Llandovery a cell which had been founded by the
Cliffords as an offshoot of Great Malvern.^^^ He was a donor to
the commandery established by the Knights Hospitallers at
Slebech in Deugleddyf ^^^ It was but natural, therefore, that,
when he came into possession of the country around Whitland,
he should give his patronage to this house and confirm to it
the gifts of John of Torrington. But he did much more.
About 1 165 it was ruled over by a Welshman named Cynan,"^

"*Rhys's charter, which is not dated, will be found in Card. Priory, 144-5,
where it is printed from an inspeximus of 3 Hen. VI. Documents of which there
are translations in this book (pp. 135-6) show that the church of Holy Trinity at
Cardigan was in dispute about 1160 between Chertsey and Gloucester. Earl
Roger of Hertford then decided in favour of the latter, but Chertsey seems to have
won at a later date.

115 See Gir. Camb. iv. loo-i (Spec. Eccl. ii. 32), where the tale is told how
the cell was broken up about 1185 as the result of the scandalous misconduct of the
monks. The church had been given to Great Malvern by Richard fitz Pons before
1126 (Mom. Angl. iii. 448).

ii'' He gave the churches and vills of Llanrhystud and Llansantffraid in Cere-
digion, with land at Ystrad Meurig (Fenton (2), 347-8).

1" " Conano abbate Albe Terre" witnesses a grant made to Margam by Earl
William of Gloucester before the death of his son Robert in 1166 — see Cartae Glam.
iii. loi. B.T. 226 and B. Saes. s.a. 1176 (the true year) record the death of

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 597

a fact which shows how soon the Welsh element had found its CHAP,
true place in the Cistercian world, and one may reasonably "

conclude that it was this circumstance that induced Rhys to
become, not merely the protector of the abbey, but also a
liberal benefactor to it.^^^ He bestowed upon it lands in
Ystlwyf and Efelffre, in Emlyn, in Cantref Mawr and in Cere-
digion, and among them the rich meadows of Rhuddlan Teifi,
for which the monks successfully contended with the canons of
Tal y Llychau.^^® As a crowning mark of confidence, Rhys
sent to Whitland, there to spend youth, manhood and old age
as a melancholy, sightless recluse, his son Maredudd, who had
been blinded by Henry H. after the repulse on the Berwyn
mountains.^'''^

A little earlier than that famous victory, Whitland had
sent out a colony which was to become the foremost monastic
community in Wales. On ist June, 1164,^'''^ the monastery of
Ystrad Fflur, a name soon Latinised into Strata Florida, was
founded on the banks of the little river Fflur,^^^ in the upper
valley of the Teifi, the land being the gift of Robert fitz
Stephen, who was at the time the chief personage in the Clare
lordship of Ceredigion.^^^ It was at first a house of quite
modest proportions, and for a year or two its future must have
seemed extremely doubtful, for in 1165 Robert fell into the
grasp of the Lord Rhys and therewith English authority in

" Kynan abat y ty gwynn ", He is praised by Gir. Camb. (vi. 59 \ltin. i. 5]) as
" viro probo et religiose ".

1^8 For the gifts of Rhys see John's charter to the abbey in Rot. Chart. 206.
They include Blaen Gwyddno, near Lampeter Velffrey, Cilfargen, near Llandilo,
Rhyd y Maengwyn, near Llanfyrnach, Crug y Chwil, Crug Eryr and Rhuddlan
(near Llandysul) in South Cardiganshire.

^i*Gir. Camb. iv. 143-5 ; Arch. Camb. V. x. (1893), 120-4, 226.

120 See note 120 to chap, xiv., B.T. s.a. 1239, and Evans, Rep. i. p. 824 (from
Pen. MS. 132, of the sixteenth century).

121 Orig. Cist. i. 151. B.T. 202 and B. Saes. s.a. 1164 appear to assign the
event to 1165, but their evidence is outv^'eighed by that cited by Janauschek.

^22 1 agree with the late Mr. Stephen Williams that the first site of the abbey
must have been at " Yr H6n Fynachlog" (The Old Monastery), on the stream
still known as the Fflur, but much better authority than that of Leland is needed
to prove that this first foundation was due to Rhys ap Tewdwr. See Sir. Flor.
19-23.

128 Newell (History of the Welsh Church, 1895, p. 303) was the first to point
out the significance in this connection of Gir. Camb. iv. 152 ("domus Cistercien-
sis ordinis . . . sub montanis Elennith a . . . Roberto Stephani filio . . .
primum fundata").

VOL. II. 16

598 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Ceredigion came to an end. But it weathered the storm and

XVI

not long after so recommended itself to the victorious prince

as to receive from him a very ample extension of the original
endowment.^2* Behind the monastery the endless hills of
Plynlimon stretched in wave upon wave of grassy upland,
affording pasture for sheep and cattle innumerable, and as the
new order was much given to pastoral occupations, Rhys
threw open this region to the monks of Strata Florida, until
their boundaries reached the river Wye.^26 ^g ^ result, per-
haps, of this change of fortune, the site of the abbey was
moved a couple of miles away to the banks of the Teifi, and
here building soon commenced on a large scale ; the walls
began to rise of one of the largest churches in Wales, over
200 feet long, in a style which was characteristic of that
age of transition from Norman to Early English forms. ^^®
The abbots must have been Welsh almost from the beginning ;
one David was at the head of the house in 1185^^^ and Abbot
Seisyll took a conspicuous part in the preaching of the crusade
in 1188.^2^ It was a natural result that Welsh princes should
desire to end their days and be buried in a sanctuary which
they now regarded as wholly their own. In 1175 Cadell ap
Gruffydd, who had for more than twenty years been lost to
the active life of Wales, is recorded to have died as an inmate
of the abbey ; ^^® ten years later, Hywel ab leuaf of Arwystli
was laid to rest within its walls,^^*^ Strata Florida was well

^24 The only extant charter bestowed by Rhys upon the abbey is a confirma-
tion of earlier gifts granted in 1184 at Llansantffraid Cwm Toyddwr (Afon. Angl.
V. 632-3 ; Sir. Flor. Appendix, x-xiii). A charter of Henry II. confirming the
donations of Rhys (Mon. Angl. v. 633 ; Sir. Flor. Appendix, xiii-xiv), is
assigned by Eyton (Itin. 246) to December, 1181.

^*^ See map in Str. Flor. 107. The grant of these pastures only gave the abbey
common rights and did not shut out the older inhabitants ; this was so even in
Leland's time — see Wales, p. 123.

126 Excavations on the site were commenced in 1886 and the results are fully
described in Str. Flor. chap. v. by the prime mover in the matter, Mr. Stephen
W. Williams of Rhayader.

127 II Yvlwydyn honno ybu uarw dauyd abat ystrat ffiur" {Bruts, 335 ; cf.
B.T. 233, and B. Sues. s.a. 1185, which is correct). The new church was
ready for use on 12th May, 1201 {B.T. 256).

128 Gir. Camb. vi. iig, 126 (Itin. ii. 4, 7).

129 B.T. 226; B. Sues. s.a. 1175. For Cadell see p. 503.

ISO B.T. 233; B. Saes. s.a. 1185. Hywel may well have been, as is sug-
gested in Str. Flor. iii, the donor to the abbey of the church of Llangurig.

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 599

embarked upon its brilliant career as the premier abbey of chap.
Wales. ^^^•

Under the powerful patronage of the Lord Rhys, the Cis-
tercian movement made rapid headway in the later years of
the twelfth century. On 22nd July, 1170/^1 a colony of
Whitland was established in North Wales. The bounty of
Owain Cyfeiliog provided a site in the commote of Ystrad
Marchell ^^^ and the new abbey came to be known as that of
Strata Marcella. It received grants of land in Penllyn, in
Edeyrnion and Cyfeiliog, where the grange of Talerddig was
set in the midst of the broad grazing-grounds which lie around
the head waters of the Severn. A terrible scandal over-
shadowed its earliest years and almost blighted the hopes of
those who looked to the Cistercian order to revive the monastic
spirit in Wales.^^^ Enoch, its first abbot, and, no doubt, a
Welshman, was a zealous and earnest worker, who threw him-
self with energy into the task of establishing a Cistercian nun-
nery for Welshwomen at Llansantffraid in Elfael. The enter-
prise led him into temptation ; he allowed himself to be carried
away by a violent passion for one of the inmates, a lady of
birth and beauty, and finally eloped with her, deserting his
abbey and his order and exposing both to the ridicule and scorn
of the whole country. Enoch repented of his sin and returned to
the abbey, but Ystrad Marchell must have stood the strain of this

131 Orig. Cist. i. 160. Janauschek thinks there may have been a removal
from the first site to the present one on loth July, 1172, and thus explains the ap-
pearance in the lists under that date of an abbey of " Pola," clearly identical
virith Ystrad Marchell.

132 See Owain's grant in an inspeximus of 13 Edw. II. {Mon. Angl. v.
637). The manor of Ystrad Marchell includes the whole of the parish of Guils-
field (except Tir y Myneich) and an adjacent part of that of Meifod. Tir y Myn-
eich represents the portion assigned to the abbey, and therefore reckoned a separate
manor {App. Land. Com. 451). The abbey ruins actually stand in the township of
Gungrog Fawr and the parish of Welshpool, but there is evidence that in the
thirteenth century " Hergyngroyk " was in " Soyr stradmarghel " (Mont. Coll. i.
124-5). A large number of charters of Ystrad Marchell are printed (some in trans-
lations only) in Mont. Coll. iv. (1871), but there is a difficulty in accepting them
all as genuine records. Not only do they come into conflict with other well-
known sources, but it maybe noted as most suspicious that two assigned to 1183
and 1 198 have precisely the same witnesses and in the same order, notwithstand-
ing the interval of fifteen years.

133 \Ye owe the story to Gir. Camb., who three times refers to it (ii. 248 ; iv.
168-9 ; vi. 59). Meilyr of Caerleon is said to have had supernatural intelligence of
the abbot's fall immediately it took place ; this would place it earlier than 1174,
when the wizard was killed at the siege of Usk — see note 50 to chap. xv.

16*

6oo HISTORY OF WALES. /

CHAP, catastrophe with difficulty, and nothing further is heard of the ill-
^^^' starred nunnery. Nevertheless, the progress of the new move-
ment was not seriously threatened. On i st August, 1 1 yG,^^'^ the
community of Cwm Hir, which had probably been out of pos-
session for some thirty years, was restored to its former seat
on the banks of the Clywedog. The refoundation may be taken
to have been the work of Cadwallon ap Madog,^^^ at this time
prince of Ceri and Maelienydd, though some help was given
by Einion Clud of Elfael.^^® The death of an abbot Meurig in
1 1 84 ^^' shows that here, as elsewhere, the Welsh element was in
the ascendant.

A few years later Strata Florida sent out its first colony,
which settled at Nant Teyrnon, a couple of miles from Caer-
leon, and founded a house known indifferently as the abbey
of Caerleon or that of Lantarnam.^^^ The early history of the
abbey is far from clear, but it would appear to have been set
up in 1 1 79 by the bounty of a Welsh prince, Hywel ab lor-
werth of Caerleon. ^^^ Its foundation is, therefore, a further
witness to the popularity of the Cistercian movement among
the Welsh, and by its means the white monks obtained a foot-
ing in the highland pastures of Gwynllwg and Miskin, around
Mynydd Islwyn and Aberdare.^*" The second colony of Strata

134 Orig. Cist. i. 74. There is a full account of the abbey by S. W. Williams
in Trans. Cymr. 1894-5, pp. 6i-g8.

las Leland (Wales, p. 52) makes him the founder, though he is not mentioned
in the charters of the abbey.

138 He gave Carnaff in Lower Elfael, now known as Tir y Myneich in the
parish of Clyro. See Rot. Chart. 206 ; Radnorsh. (2), 334 and 250.

I*'' B.T. 233 ; B. Saes. s.a. 1184.

138 Caerleon is the earlier, Lantarnam the later form ; although separately
noticed by Tanner (327, 331) and Dugdale {Mon. Angl. v. 727-8), they are shown
to be the same by the passages in B.T. (p. 230) and B. Saes. {s.a. 1179) as to the
foundation and by a reference in a document of 1465 to " Karelyon alias Lanter-
nan " (Arch. Camb. II. iii. [1852] 70). Nant Teyrnon perhaps took its name
from the " arglwyd ar went is coet teirnyon twryf vliant " of Mab. 20 ; for the cor-
ruption " Lantarnam " cf. Lancarfan (chap. vii. note 52).

13" The date is yielded by B.T. and B. Saes. It is from a Bassaleg charter
granted by " Hoelus filius loruorthi filii Oeni " that we incidentally learn that
Hywel, in the lifetime of his father, had given " Emsanternon," i.e., Ynys
Nant Teyrnon, to white monks (Mon. Angl. iv. 634), and, in accordance with
this, the convent of " Karlyon " some years later refer to *' Dominus H. de
Karliun" as their " patronus" (Mon. Angl. v. 728).

1*" For the lands of the house see Tax. Nich. 281 and Valor Eccl. iv. 365 ;
during the thirteenth century it was often at odds with Margam as to the great
common of Hirwaen Wrgan, near Aberdare — see Margam Abb. pp. 174-5, 266-8 ;

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 6oi

Florida travelled in the opposite direction and carried the new CHAP,
enthusiasm for the first time into Gwynedd. In July, 1186, ^^'
they settled at Rhedynog Felen, not far from Carnarvon,^*^
but ere long were removed to that site near the mouth of the
Conway which was for a century to be the seat of the abbey
of A hereon wy.^*'-^ It is impossible to say to whose patronage
they were indebted for their introduction into the country or
whose liberality gave them their early endowments ; only the
name of Gruffydd ap Cynan ab Owain has been preserved as
the donor of Gelliniog on the Menai Straits,i*^ for when, after
his accession to full power throughout Gwynedd, Llywelyn ab
lorwerth extended to Aberconwy his special favour and pro-
tection, the fame of all other benefactors was sunk in that
of the mighty prince of North Wales. Lands in Creuddyn,
Arfon, Eifionydd, Arllechwedd, Mon and Rhufoniog had by
this time enriched the house, and all were confirmed to it by
Llywelyn's charter.^** It was characteristic of Cistercian am-
bition that the abbey, already in possession of pastures on the
southern slopes of Snowdon which stretched to the topmost
crag of that monarch of mountains, set itself, with the aid of
Llywelyn, to break up the monastic community of Beddgelert,
of immemorial standing in that vicinity, and to annex its lands.
The attempt was only defeated by an appeal to the justice of
the holy see.^**

Cartae Glam. i. 101-3, 104-6; iii. 236-7 ; Str. Flor. xxx-xxxi. There seems no
good ground for believing that the convent was ever housed in Caerleon itself.

i^ijB.T. 233; B. Sues. s.a. 1186. The day was 24th July, according to
Reg. Conway. Rhedynog Felen (parish of Llanwnda) continued to be a posses-
sion of the abbey — see Llywelyn's charter in Mon. Angl. v. 672 (Redenocuelen) ;
Tax. Nich. 292 (Reddenaut) ; Reg. Conway, 8 (Redinoc Velyn).

1*2 They were there in the spring of 1188, if we may accept the statement
of Gir. in Itin. ii. 10 (vi. 136-7). One notes, however, that the passage was
added in the second edition (1197).

^•^^Reg. Conway, 7-8. The blank may safely be filled with the name of
Gruffydd, who was buried (in 1200) at Aberconwy (B.T.) and was certainly lord of
Anglesey — see note 74 above. Gelliniog is near Dwyran in the parish of Llan-
geinwen.

^** Printed in Mon. Angl. v. 672-4 and thence in Williams' Aberconwy, 163-
71. The date 1198 must be wrong, for Llywelyn was not at that time " totius
Norwalliae princeps," or in a position to make many of the grants included in
the charter.

"'' Aberconwy and Beddgelert are clearly the houses indicated by Gir. Camb.
in the story told in Spec. Eccl. iii. 8 (iv. 167-8), and so manifest are the allusions
that the keeping back of the names is a mere affectation of reticence. The

6o2 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, The expansion of the order in Wales continued until the

■ very end of the thirteenth century. In 1198 or 1199 Cwm
Hir sent out an offshoot to Meirionydd,^*^ where land was pro-
vided, probably by Maredudd ap Cynan, at that " cymer " or
confluence of the Mawddach and the Wnion where once had
stood the castle of Uchtryd ab Edwin. ^^'^ Meirionydd and
Ardudwy were abundantly furnished with those upland grazing
grounds especially coveted by Cistercian industry, and the
liberality of Maredudd and his brother Gruffydd soon estab-
lished the abbey of Cymer in possession of many a grassy
vale between Trawsfynydd and Machynlleth, where little but
the lowing of their herds and the bleating of their flocks broke
the august silence of the mountains.^*^ Soon afterwards Ystrad
Marchell supplied a convent to the one quarter of Wales, viz..
Northern Powys, which had not yet received one. On 28th
January, 1201,^*° Madog ap Gruffydd, at the instance of the
abbots of Whitland, Strata Florida, Ystrad Marchell and Cwm
Hir, established Cistercian monks at Llyn Egwestl in lal, in
a valley known from the ancient pillar of King Elisedd as
Glyn y Groes (The Vale of the Cross) and thus was founded
the abbey of Valle Crucis.^^*^ He bestowed upon the monks
lands in lal and Glyndyfrdwy and in the neighbourhood of
Wrexham and Chirk.^^^ Ere long their beautiful church rose
upon the spot, a building of which the tall lancet windows,

former of the two had the grange of Nanhwynain (the modern Nant Gwynant),
with lands extending from Beddgelert church to Penygwryd and " ad caput
Wedduavaur" (Aberconwy, p. 168).

^■^^ B.T. 252 gives the former date; Janauschek, relying on the old lists,
prefers the latter {Orig. Cist. i. 202)

^*^ See p. 466. Maredudd was lord of Meirionydd in 1202 {B.T. 256) and
probably received it from his brother in 1 194 — see p. 589.

^*8 The earliest known charter is that of Llywelyn ab lorwerth, confirming
in 1209 the gifts of Maredudd and Gruffydd ap Cynan and Hywel ap Gruffydd
(Mon. Angl. v. 458-9 [wrongly assigned to Cwm Hir] ; Rec. Cam. 199-201).
The lands lay chiefly in the parishes of Llanfachreth, Llanelltyd, Llanegryn, and
Trawsfynydd, but the abbey had also an important grange at Neigwl in Lleyn.

^*^ Orig. Cist. i. 205. B.T. notices the foundation of " manachlawc leneg-
westyl yn ial " (pp. 254-6 ; Bruts, 342) at the end of 1200.

150 See the foundation charter in Mon. Angl. v. 637 (wrongly assigned to
Ystrad Marchell) and /lycA.Cawft. III. xii. (1866), 412-13. That Llyn — not Glyn or
Llan — Egwestl is the true form appears to be established by a line of Einion Wan
— " Gwyrwawryn llawrllynn egwestl " (Myv. Arch. I. 333 [233]). For the pillar
of Elisedd (not Elisejo') see p. 244.

^^1 Halton in the parish of Chirk and the commote ofNanheudwy was given
by Madog in 1218 (Arch. Camb. IV. xi. [1880], 149).

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 603

severe yet well proportioned, are still mirrored in the depths of CHAP,
the monastic fishpond.

Nunneries would seem to have been no part of the old
Welsh monastic system, and the issue of the experiment made
in this direction at Llansantffraid was scarcely encouraging to
those who wished to see houses of religion for women estab-
lished in Wales. Nevertheless, two Cistercian nunneries came
into existence at this period and retained their position until
the general dissolution of monasteries in the reign of Henry
VIII. Llanllyr, on the southern bank of the Aeron, was
founded by Rhys ap Grufifydd as a daughter-house of Strata
Florida ; after the great prince's death, it was despoiled of some
of its lands by the greed of the mother-abbey, but retained a
tolerable endowment.^^^ Llanllugan owed its origin to Mare-
dudd ap Rhotpert, lord of Cydewain ^^^ ; it was not rich in
landed revenues, but drew the tithes of several important
churches in Southern Powys.^^*

It has been already said that the new outburst of enthus-
iasm for the monastic life which marks the close of the twelfth
century in Wales was due in the main to sympathy with
Cistercian ideals, and thus the order came to be as familiarly
known in Welsh valleys as in Yorkshire dales. But it is
worthy of note that the monastic revival also benefited to some
slight extent other religious orders, which shone in the reflected
radiance of the holy brethren of Citeaux. Rhys ap Grufifydd,
whose broad and catholic sympathy extended to the most
diverse forms of religious effort, introduced into his dominions
the Premonstratensian order, establishing a house of canons
at Talyllychau (or Talley), not far from his royal seat of
Dinefwr.^*^ There can be no doubt that its inmates were
Welshmen, and in 1 2 1 5 the pure Welsh blood of its abbot,
lorwerth, was a main argument for his election to the vacant

152 Llanllyr is, beyond a doubt, the " domus monialium pauperum " of Gir.
Camb. iv. 152 (Spec. iii. 5), where its early history is told. For other references
see Gervase, ii. 443 (A. Lanter) ; Tax. Nich. 276 ; Valor, iv. 397 ; Leland,
Wales, p. 51.

153 por Maredudd, see p. 648.

15* The foundation charter will be found in Mont. Coll. ii. (1869), 305-6- Of-
also Mont. Coll. xxi. (1887), 332 (under " Llanveyr ") ; Tax. Nich. 289 ; Valor,
iv. 456 ; Arch. Camb. III. xiv. (1868), 162.

155 For a full account of Tal y Llychau see Arch. Camb. V. x. (1893) xi.,
(1894). It >8' "o doubt, the " A. Premustre " of Gervase, ii. 443.

6o4 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, see of St. David's.^^® The Knights Hospitallers were another
community who at this time gained the favour of the Welsh ;
mention has already been made of the gifts of the Lord Rhys
to the commandery of Slebech, founded by Walter fitz Wizo
on the banks of the eastern Cleddau,^*^ and it can have been
little, if any, later than the year 1200 when the knights ob-
tained a footing in Gwynedd.^*^ Their North Welsh home
was at Dolgynwal, not far from the source of the Conway,
and it was probably Llywelyn ab lorwerth who gave them the
spot known to-day by the appropriate name of Yspyty Ifan
or the Hospital of St. John.

The warm zeal and devotion of these years transferred to
the hands of the monks a very large part of the soil of Wales
and perhaps doubled the amount of land under ecclesiastical
control in the country. In time to come the monks were to
repay the generosity of their countrymen, not merely in the
regular way of spiritual sustenance and comfort, but also by
their services as patrons and custodians of the national litera-
ture. In the age of Rhys ap Grufifydd, however, the appeal
for support was a purely religious one, and no better proof can
be supplied of the genuine earnestness of Welsh faith at this
time than the ungrudging response which was accorded to it.

IV. Welsh Society in 1200.

(A complete picture of Wales at the end of the twelfth century is given
by Giraldus Cambrensis in his Descriptio ; other valuable sources are the De
Nugis Curialium of Walter Map and the Mabinogion.)

At the end of the twelfth century, during the whole of
which the Welsh had been exposed to Norman aggression and
to the subtler yet no less potent influence of Norman culture,
it is natural to inquire what manner of men the course of their
history had made them, how far they differed from and how
far they resembled their ancestors of the pre-Norman days.

^** Gir. Camb. iii. 361, where he is called " purum Walensem ".

^^' Note 116, Slebech claimed Wizo as a benefactor (" ex dono Wiz " —
Fenton (2), 347), but, inasmuch as he died before 1130 (chap. xii. note 78), when
the order had as yet no footing in the island, his son would seem to have been
the true founder.

158 The earliest reference to Dolgynwal belongs to 1225, when Llywelyn
bestowed upon it the tithes of Ellesmere (Eyton, Shrops. x. p. 247). It may be
assumed that it had already existed for some years.

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 605

There is, happily, no lack of material for an answer to this CHAP,
question ; more than one shrewd observer of this period has
placed on record his view of the Welsh character and his im-
pressions of Welsh society, and the general effect of the testi-
mony is to show that in essentials Wales still retained its
ancient social structure, remaining a tribal and pastoral com-
munity in spite of the great wave of feudalism which beat
upon its eastern flank and daily threatened to engulf the older
social system.

The economic basis of society was still the pasturing of
flocks and herds. Agriculture held, in the purely Welsh dis-
tricts, a quite subordinate position. " Most of their land,"
says Giraldus, " serves for grazing ; little of it is used for
tillage, still less for gardens and scarcely any for orchards." ^^^
Their manner of life was reflected in the food they ate ; milk,
butter and cheese were staple articles in their diet, which also
included abundance of meat, but no great quantity of bread.^®"
Let the Cistercian boast, quoth the witty Walter Map, his
abstinence from flesh ; I pit against him the hardy Welshman,
who eats no bread.^^^ William of Newburgh speaks of the
wooded glades of the country, where there was rich herbage
for innumerable sheep and cattle, but remarks that there was
little land suited for the raising of crops, and that, in conse-
quence, corn was imported from the neighbouring English
shires.^^2 Low-lying Anglesey, with an average rainfall not
much above^that of south-eastern England,^*^ was an exception,
and owed to its fertility its title of " mam Cymru," i.e., the
nourisher of Wales,^^* but Eryri remained until the nineteenth
century a land almost entirely innocent of the plough.^^^

Broadly speaking, therefore, Wales was at this time without
that basis of agricultural industry which is the condition of
a settled way of living and of all development in commerce,
craftsmanship, navigation, and architecture. The life of the
people was simple and its needs soon satisfied. In addition to
corn, it was necessary to import iron and salt, two products

169 u Agris igitur plurimum utuntur pascuis, parum cultis, floridis parce,
consitis parcissime " (vi. 201 {Descr. i. 17]).

160 Gir. vi. 179-80 {Descr. i. 8), i"! De Nugii, p. 52.

162 \Ym. Newb. ii. 5. i^s ^.pp. Land Com., 262. ^^* See p. 230.

166 See Williams, Observations on the Snowdon Mountains (Oxford, 1802),
p. 19.

6o6 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, which the country did not yield/^* and most of the cloth used
^^^" in Wales was of foreign manufacture, though the coarse kind
of rug or blanket known as " brychan " was made at home.^*^
There must also have been some little equivalent in the way
of exports ; Welsh timber is known to have been in request,
and, during the progress of the new buildings at Abingdon,
Abbot Faritius kept six wagons, each drawn by twelve oxen,
which were constantly employed in the haulage of wood cut in
the marches of Powys.^^^ But, when these deductions have
been made, there is full warrant for the statement of Giraldus
that the Welsh did not busy themselves with trade, with ship-
ping, or with any kind of handicraft.^®® No Welsh prince
of this period coined money, built ships, or granted trading
privileges. No towns arose as the result of the action of any
Welsh chief, though Rhys ap Gruffydd was enlightened enough
to give his protection to the boroughs he found established at
Cardigan and Llandovery."" Little communities might gather
around the leading monasteries and royal strongholds, but of
true urban life there was none in the districts under native
rule ; the Welshman's interests were entirely rural, while the
country meant for him no rich succession of smiling, well-tilled
fields, but Nature's profusion of rock, glen, moor, copse, lake,
and meadow, in the midst of which he lived the blithe and
careless life of the hunter, the fisher, and the herdsman.

It is the predominantly pastoral character of Welsh life
which explains the mobility of the people and the ease with

166 Pqj. thg imports into Wales see Gir. vi. 218 (mercimonia ferri, panni,
salis et bladi) ; Rymer i. 264 (terrum vel acerum vel pannum) ; Matt. Paris, Hist.
Major, V. 675, 677.

1*'' Gir. vi. 184 {Descr. i. 10), where mention is made of " panno . . . duro et
aspero, quern patria parit, qui et vulgari vocabulo brachan dicitur ". It is clear
from this passage and from Mab. 146 and De Nugis, p. 102, that the " brychan "
was not a " cloak " [LL. i. 77, 723) or " bed coverlet " {ibid. 83), but a bed or
mattress upon which the sleeper lay.

168 Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon, ed. Stevenson (Rolls Series, 1858), ii.
150.

169 «« Non mercimoniis, non navigiis, non mechanicis artibus . . . vexantur "
(vi. 180 \pescr. i. 8]).

1''" There were "burgenses" in Cardigan in 1199, when Maelgwn sold the
place to King John {Rot. Chart. 636), and it was no doubt to oblige this foreign
colony that Rhys had allowed the priory to maintain its position. About 1185
Rhys had " burgenses " attached to his castle of " Lananeveri," who threatened
to leave the place and go back to England if a stop were not put to the excesses
of the monks of the adjacent cell of Malvern (Gir. Camb. iv. loi).

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 607

which they baffled their foes by transporting their chattels from CHAP,
a threatened district to one of greater security. They had no
stake in the soil — no buildings they feared to sacrifice, no crops
they would not readily abandon. Again and again the policy
of retreat is followed, in 1095, on the occasion of the first in-
vasion of Rufus, in 1 1 14 and in 1 121, when Henry I. attacked
Wales, and in 11 58, when Rhys ap Gruffydd was menaced by
the power of Henry 11.^^^ It was resorted to in 121 1 by Lly-
welyn ab lorwerth, when John led an army against him.^^^
Invasions had no terrors for men who could in a few hours
pack up all their household goods in wagons or on the backs
of sumpter-horses, drive their sheep and swine and cattle before
them as they moved westward to the mountain passes, and
cheerfully leave to the vengeance of the enemy the rudely-
fashioned huts of lopped timber and wattle which had sheltered
them and theirs for a season or two from the wind and rain of
heaven.^'^^

One is not surprised to find a race nurtured under such con-
ditions described as hardy, energetic, and of great endurance.
The Welsh, says Giraldus, are an active, restless people, tem-
perate as to food and drink, and much employed in those
pursuits which strengthen the body and train men to suffer
all manner of hardships.^^* They pass the livelong day in these
occupations — the reference is, no doubt, primarily to the young
" boneddigion " — traversing woodlands, scaling mountain
ridges, throwing the javelin, shooting arrows, and come back in
the evening to a frugal, but well-earned meal at the family
hearth. An adventurous boldness, for which no task was too
heavy, no dangers too formidable, was the quality they especi-
ally strove to cultivate, and many a tale was told of the daring
exploits by which they proved their mettle and their resource.
Let the following, vouched for by Walter Map, serve as a
sufficient illustration. Cadwallon ab Ifor, lord of Senghenydd,
had a most valuable mare, the fame of which brought one

i''! See pp. 406, 463, 465, 506.

I'^a See p. 634.

1''' For the construction of Welsh houses see p. 314. It may be added
that Dim. II. viii. 67 shows that the evidences of the former existence of a Welsh
homestead would be, not ruined walls or a garden run wild, but " the place of a
drying-kiln, a hearthstone or a horse-block ".

'^^ Gir. Camb. vi. 179, 182, 181 {JDtscr. i. 8, g).

6o8 HISTOR Y OF WALES.

CHAP. Genillyn of North Wales to the South on a predatory errand.^^®
^^^' Adventurous theft was in those days as honourable among the
Welsh as piracy among the heroes of Homer, and it was no less
honourable because the penalty of failure was instant execu-
tion. But Genillyn found the task he had set himself more
difficult than he had expected, and one evening he unbosomed
himself to his host Trahaearn, telling him how rigorously the
noble animal was guarded against mishap. Trahaearn laughed
him to scorn, called him a North-Welsh coward, and undertook
the business himself In the daytime the mare grazed in
the midst of a crowd of retainers ; at night she was tethered
in the farthest end of the chieftain's hall at Gelligaer, with the
banked-up fire on its open hearth between her and the only
door, and around it the sleeping " teulu," while betwixt her
and the fire four trusty slaves slept on a " brychan," so as to
be ready instantly to defend their precious charge from any
interference. Trahaearn was in nowise daunted by these ob-
stacles. One dark, starless night, when all the inmates of the
" neuadd " were in profoundest sleep, he cut a small hole in
the door, deftly inserted his hand and shifted the bolt, and soon
had the portal wide open. Next he unloosed the mare, slipped
on her the bridle he carried with him, tied her tail to the rough
selvage of the " brychan," and dragged the four slaves, as they
slept, through the middle of the great fire. He was well on
his way out ere they could realise what had happened to them ;
their cries, as they awoke to the situation, roused the remainder
of the sleepers, but by this time Trahaearn, with the " brychan "
behind him, was riding swiftly through the forest. For a while
the stray sparks which clung to the surface of the blanket en-
abled his track to be followed, but, as these were gradually
extinguished, he was lost in the impenetrable darkness.

Men bred in this austere school developed into well-knit
and resourceful warriors, especially fitted for that guerrilla war-
fare which was constantly being waged between the English
and the Welsh. War and preparation for war were indeed the

i^'* For this story see De Nugis, pp. 101-2. The owner of the mare is called
" Cadolanus filius Vther," but the mention of " Gesligair " as his home affords a
strong presumption that Cadwallon ab Ifor Bach, for whom see p. 637, is really
meant. There is a moated moundat Gelligaer (besides the Roman fort), pointing
to the existence here of a " llys " of the lords of Senghenydd {Arch. Camb. VI.
i. [1901], 59).

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 6og

normal occupation of the Welsh freeman. " The defence of CHAP,
their native land and of its liberty," says Giraldus,^'''*' " is their
sole concern ; they fight for fatherland and labour for liberty.
. . . They deem it ignoble to die in their beds and an
honour to fall in the field of battle.^''^ . . . They will expose
their defenceless bodies to the attacks of mail-clad knights, will
engage without weapons fully armed men, and will rush on
foot against masses of heavy cavalry. And often in such
encounters their mere nimbleness of movement and their in-
domitable courage will win for them the victory." If their
first wild onslaught was not successful, they were easily dis-
persed in flight, but their retreat was not a rout ; their light
equipment, which included a corslet, but as a rule no other
defensive armour, enabled them as they fled to harass their
pursuers with missile weapons, and so great was their elasticity
that it was always unsafe to assume that a final and crushing
defeat had been inflicted upon them.^^^ The men of North
Wales were especially skilful in the use of the lance ; the South
Welsh arm was pre-eminently the bow, a weapon drawn
with remarkable effect by the warriors of Gwent, who could
drive their arrows through thick oaken doors and even transfix
knights to the saddles of their horses.^^^ Giraldus did well to
impress upon the English government the folly of sending
heavy cavalry of the usual feudal pattern to contend against
such enemies as these, who never opposed to it cavalry of their
own or held their ground in a pitched battle, but trusted to the
methods of surprise and panic, disconcerting, worrying and
demoralising the foe.^^**

Yet, notwithstanding the stress laid upon military matters,
Welsh life was not without a more kindly and genial aspect.
In the home circle the Welshman was generous and open-
handed, and prime importance was everywhere attached to the
virtue of hospitality,^^^ The stranger who in his journeyings
reached a Welsh homestead of the better sort neither asked for
nor was offered shelter and entertainment ; they were his by
unquestioned right. He gave up to his host the custody of

i''6vi. i8o (Descr. i. 8). i" Cf. De Nugis, p. loo (Fit ut pauci canescant),
^''^Ibid. pp. 2og-io (ii. 3). ^''^ Ibid. p. 177 (Descr. 1. 6); 54 {Itin. i. 4).
^sojbid. pp, 220-1 (Descr. ii. 8).
181 With Gir, Camb. vi. 182-4 (Descr. i. 10) cf. De Nugis, pp. 94-5.

6io HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, his arms, and, by his refusal or acceptance of the water proffered
for the washing of his feet, showed whether he was to be re-
garded as a visitor for the day or proposed to stay the night.
But it was reckoned highly discourteous to question him as to
his movements, until, at any rate, the third day of the visit had
been reached, and meanwhile, he was free of the house and all
it could afford. No greater insult could be offered to such a
guest than to suggest to him that he was outstaying his welcome.
Walter Map has a tragic tale to tell of a foolish wife who, in
her husband's absence, upbraided a casual visitor, as he lay on
his couch one morning, with his reluctance to face a snowstorm
which he could see raging without, as he looked through the
open door. Stung by her reproaches, the man had risen and
made off into the forest, where he was soon beset by ferocious
wolves. The husband, hearing on his return what had happened,
was beside himself with rage, and avenged his tarnished honour
by forthwith killing his hapless wife. He then set himself to
trace the footprints of the stranger, whom he found at last
sitting exhausted in the snow and watched by a great wolf,
the last of a pack of ten of whom the traveller had despatched
the remainder. When the wolf had been speared, he bore his
guest back to the forlorn shelter of his home, but the man did
not long survive, and his kin took up the feud on his behalf,
treating the matter as one of " galanas," since the conduct of
the wife amounted to nothing less than manslaughter.

The Welsh had the merits and the faults of a strenuous,
impulsive, quick-witted and eager race. They roamed their
hills barefoot and thinly clad, slept in their day clothes on the
hardest of couches, and never bemoaned the loss of a dinner.^^^
Norman luxury was not allowed to corrupt the Spartan
simplicity of their daily life. Nor had they any touch of the
servility of the English ; from the highest to the lowest, they

I*'' Gir. vi. i8i (nudis autem pedibus ambulant), 184, 182 {Descr. i. 8, 10, 9).
The dress of the ordinary Welshman consisted of a linen shirt ("crys," the
"interula" of Gir.) and drawers (" llawdyr "), over which was worn a woollen
coat or tunic (" pais," " pallium "), reaching the knees or the calves and secured
by a girdle (" gwregys "). Sometimes a " mantell " or cloak was added. Women
wore the "crys," the "llenlliein," which was a long robe reaching the feet, and
the " ffunen," a white headband, compared by Gir. to the turban of the East. See
LL. i. 56, 64, 94, 238, 308, 380, 392, 676, and the rough drawings in Lat. A.
(dating from about 1200). Map remarks that the Welsh wore little wool and no
fur and went barefoot (De Nugis, p. 52).

THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 6ii ,

were unabashed in the presence of the great, and spoke their CHAP,
minds with delightful frankness of utterance.^^^ They were
firm in friendship, but implacable as foes. When their ire was
roused they spilt blood like water, and shrank from no danger
to themselves in the effort to avenge an injury or win a point
in the great game of war. Oaths and promises were lightly
broken ; the keenly felt present wrong overshadowed and
dwarfed the past engagement.^^* Yet it was only as repre-
senting the survival of tribal custom and morality that Welsh
life could be termed barbarous. In intellectual ability and
mental culture the race stood high, and its achievements in the
sphere of letters have already been described.^^^ Poets, chron-
iclers, musicians, and writers of romance appealed to a public
of trained intelligence. In religious devotion, also, the Welsh
were not inferior to any nation in Christendom. ^^^ Their
hermits and recluses were of spotless purity of life, and uni-
versal reverence was rendered to them. Warlike as the people
were, they scrupulously observed the peace of the Church, and
the lands devoted to the service of religion were never dis-
turbed by the clash of arms. Despite their failings, they
would indeed be a happy and fortunate folk, thinks Giraldus,
and sure of the blessings of this world and the next, if they
had good pastors and bishops and were under the rule of one
good prince.

i^Gir. Camb. vi. 192-3 (Descr. i. 15).

^^* The charge of perfidy is made by Gir. (vi. 206 [Descr, ii. i]), Wm. Newb.
ii. 5) and Map {De Nugis, p. 94).
isschap. xiv. §4.
18* Gir. Camb. vi. 203-4 (Descr. i, 18). Cf. De Nugis, p. 75.

CHAPTER XVII.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT: EARLY MANHOOD

(In the reign of John, the great series of English state records begins to be
fairly complete, and light is thrown on the history of Wales by the Charter,
Patent and Close Rolls. I have also used, in addition to the Welsh and English
chroniclers for the period, the Rotulus Misae of ii John and the Rotulus de
Praestito of the following year, Rymer's Foedera, Dugdale's Monasticon, the
works of Gir. Camb., and the poems in the Myv. Arch. Norgate's yohn
Lackland and McKechnie's Magna Carta have also been of much service.)

I. The Rivalry of Llywelyn and Gwenwynwyn.

CHAP. The thirteenth century may, in Welsh history, be appropriately
^^^^' described as the age of the two Llywelyns. During its first
forty years the figure of the elder prince of that name mounts
into ever greater prominence until it dominates, in unquestioned
pre-eminence, the whole of Wales. At a later period the
younger Llywelyn comes to the front as the one leader of the
Welsh people, pursuing his grandfather's policy for many years
with all his grandfather's success, until in the last quarter of
this century, so fateful in the annals of the Welsh, his good
fortune deserted him and he fell a victim to the power and
skill of Edward I., bringing down with him in his ruin the
edifice of Welsh independence.

Llywelyn ab lorwerth had proved his capacity, not only by
the vigour and spirit with which he had secured for himself a
share in the realm of Gwynedd, but also by his victorious
assault upon the border fortress of Mold at the beginning of
II 99. During the next four years his progress was rapid.
In 1200 his cousin Grufifydd ap Cynan died, having in his last
hours, according to a fashion which was beginning to become
popular, donned the habit of a monk in the new Cistercian
abbey of Aberconwy.^ Llywelyn at once entered into posses-

^jB.T. 254. Gruffydd had been a benefactor to the abbey (see p. 601),
and the eulogy of him in MS. C. of B.T. probably came therefore from a monk
of the house. For Prydydd y Moch's lament see chap. xvi. note 74.

6i2

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 613

sion of Arfon, Anglesey, and Arllechwedd,'^ to the exclusion of CHAP.
Gruffydd's son Hywel, and thus became lord of almost the ^^^^•
whole of Gwynedd, including Aberffraw, its " principal seat "
and ancient centre, Bangor, the home of its bishop, and
Degannwy, the cradle of its ruling house.^ He was now in-
dubitably the foremost prince of North Wales, though Gwen-
wynwyn of Powys was still, as the course of events was to
make clear, a rival by no means to be despised. In the
following year these conquests were rounded off by the
acquisition of Lleyn.* This district was held by Maredudd ap
Cynan, who had perhaps received it from Llywelyn on the
death of Gruffydd on condition of faithful service ; ^ be this
as it may, Maredudd is accused of intriguing against his
powerful cousin, who drives him out of the cantref to his
southern lordship of Meirionydd. In 1202 he lost even this,
being supplanted by his nephew, Hywel ap Gruffydd,^ a
young prince who made no difficulty about submitting himself
entirely to Llywelyn and thus establishing the lord of Gwynedd
in full authority from the Dovey to the Dee.

The inevitable struggle with Gwenwynwyn now began.
In August, 1202, Llywelyn raised a force for the reduction of
Southern Powys, calling to his aid the other princes of North
Wales, who responded to the summons, with the exception of
Elise ap Madog, lord of Penllyn.^ But peace was brought
about by the intervention of the clergy ere the two rivals came

2 This is to be inferred, notwithstanding the silence oiB.T., from Liywelyn's
action in 1201.

3 Degannwy was in Creuddyn, a commote of Rhos, and therefore in Gwynedd
below Conway, but it seems to have been held at his death by Gruffydd — see the
elegy of Prydydd y Moch.

^B.T. 256.

5 In 1188 Lleyn " erat filiorum Oenei " (Gir. Camb. vi. 123), i.e., of Rhodri.
At some time or other between that year and 1200, probably in 1194 or 1195, it
passed to Gruffydd ap Cynan, as is shown by that prince's grant of three acres
and three tenants in Nevin to the canons of Haughmond (Arch. Camb. III. vi.
[i860], 332, from a lost Wynnstay MS.). It may be added that the common
ascription of this grant to the elder Gruffydd ap Cynan (d. 1137) is obviously
wrong ; Cadwaladr was the first to bestow upon Haughmond the church of
Nevin, no doubt during his residence at Ness (chap. xiv. notes 17 and 44), and
the gift was confirmed by Dafydd ab Owain, his wife Emma, and Llywelyn ab
lorwerth (Arch. Camb. ibid.).

^B.T. 256. Hywel is mentioned in the C3Tner charter of 1209 as one of
the benefactors of the abbey (Rec. Cam. 199).

7 B.T. 256-8. For Elise see p. 566.
VOL. II. 17

6i4 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, to blows on this occasion,^ and the warlike fury of Llywelyn,
' diverted from its principal object, fell upon the hapless head
of Elise. He dispossessed him of Penllyn and its castle of
Bala,^ treating him as a vassal who had fallen short of his
obligations to his lord, and only allowed him, for his bare
maintenance, the castle of Crogen ^° and a few trefs in a remote
corner of the commote. By this measure of reprisal the
prince of Gwynedd secured a firm foothold for the next attack
upon Gwenwynwyn, which could not be long delayed.

In the struggle between the two princes, the decisive
influence was to be the action of the English crown. The
change which took place when by the death of Richard I. in
April, 1 1 99, the youngest of the sons of Henry H. became
king of England was one of much importance for Wales.
Richard knew nothing of the country and was content to leave
its government to his ministers ; John, on the other hand, was
not only a lord of the Welsh march, but had also gained, as a
rebel leader, some insight into Welsh politics and the Welsh
character. In dealing with Wales, he had useful experience
to guide him, and he pursued, on the whole, a settled and
consistent policy. His aim was to divide and to disintegrate, to
checkmate the designs of the more formidable chiefs by favour-
ing their rivals, so that thus the land might be torn by the strife
of opposing and not ill-balanced parties. It was a policy which
for many years bade fair to be successful, and only failed
because the statesmanship of Llywelyn enabled him to take
advantage of the serious difficulties in which the king involved
himself as his reign drew to a close.

John seems to have begun with the idea of giving his
special favour to Llywelyn, and in September, 1 1 99, took him
under his protection and confirmed him in possession of all
his lands.^^ But a fuller review of the situation led him to
change his mind, and in December, not only did he secure to
Gwenwynwyn all the territories he had, but promised him, in
significant terms, what he might win fromithe king's enemies.^^

^ When Giraldus visited Gwenwynwyn in the latter half of August, 1202, he
found him " in expeditione contra Lewelinum, cui tunc concordatus fuerat "
(iii. 226).

8 The well-known " Tomen y Bala" is, no doubt, the castle mound.
10 A township in the eastern part of the parish of Llandderfel.
^'^Rot. Chart. 23 (Le Mans, 28th Sept.). ^^Ibid. 63 (Poitiers, 4th Dec).

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 615

As a similar grant was made at the same time to Gruffydd ap CHAP.
Cynan/^ one may easily see that Llywelyn was for the time
being the object of the royal suspicion and disfavour. When
John came over to England for a short visit in the spring of
1 200, his attitude was still the same ; he gave Gwenwynwyn
on 1 1 th April the valuable royal manor of Ashford in Derby-
shire for a render of one sparrowhawk each year, and therewith
leave to hunt, with four greyhounds, in the king's forests as
he journeyed to and from the court.^^ It was in this year
that Llywelyn became master of the whole of Gwynedd ; his
sudden rise may perhaps have altered the opinion held of
him by the English government, for towards the end of the
year another change of policy is to be perceived ; there is an
evident desire not to drive so powerful a chieftain to extremi-
ties, but to come to a reasonable arrangement with him. First,
a truce is made with him ; ^^ then he is invited by John to
meet him and discuss terms of peace,^^ and, when this plan
has broken down and the king has to return to France, the
Archbishop of Canterbury and the justiciar, Geoffrey fitz Peter,
Earl of Essex, are despatched to the border to arrive at an
understanding with so troublesome a foe.^'^ The result was
the treaty of nth July, 1201 ; Llywelyn swore fealty to John
and promised to do homage as soon as the king was in England
again ; in return, he was recognised as the rightful possessor of
all the lands he had acquired, subject only to any fair legal
proceedings which might be brought against him under English
or Welsh law.^^

When Giraldus Cambrensis, in the course of his campaign
on behalf of the rights of St. David's and his own, visited North
Wales in the winter of 1 201-2, the loyalty of Llywelyn was by
no means assured, and the archdeacon laid himself open by his
proceedings to the charge of stirring up the embers of a strife
which had only just been composed.^^ Gwenwynwyn was still
regarded as the friend of the English, too friendly to give much
encouragement to Giraldus in his patriotic crusade. ^^ But after

'^^Rot. Chart. (Poitiers, 3rd Dec). ^^ Ibid. 44 (Worcester, nth April).
^^Ibid. 100 (Stow, 13th Jan.).

18 Ibid. 103 (Westminster, 3rd April). The safe-conduct was to hold good
until 6th May.

^"^ Ibid. 103-4 (Cirencester, 2nd May). ^^Rymer, i. 84; Rot. Pat. i, 8-g.

1^ Gir. Camb. iii. 196, 200, 206. ^^ Ibid. 226.

17*

6i6 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, the encounter of the two princes in the summer of 1202, the

VT7TT

zeal of the prince of Powys visibly waxed fainter ; under the
influence, it may be, of the persuasion of Llywelyn, he inclined
once more to the old role of firebrand of the marches, and at
the end of the year attacked the lands of William de Breos.^^
In 1 204 John was once more in England, after an absence of
more than two years ; the time had arrived when Llywelyn
must make good his undertaking as to the render of homage.
There was a little delay at first,'^^ but in the course of the
summer he seems not only to have discharged this obligation,
but also to have formed a close tie with the king by obtaining
a promise of the hand of his natural daughter Joan.'-'^ An alli-
ance of this kind had been formed by his uncle David and had
proved of very great service to him ; 2* it chanced that by the
death of David in 1203 2^ the castle and manor of Ellesmere,
given to him as a marriage gift by Henry II., had again come
into the possession of the crown,2^ and nothing could be more
natural than that in the spring of 1205, when this new marriage
probably took place,^^ Llywelyn should receive from the king
as a sign of goodwill these lands which had for so long been

» Rot. Pat. i. 23 (Alen9on, i8th Jan. [1203]).

^^ See Rot. Pat. i. 39 (Worcester, i6th March), 40.

2s Llywelyn, Madog ap Gruffydd (of Northern Powys) and their companions
were expected to meet John at Worcester about ist September {Rot. Pat. i. 44 —
Windsor, 29th July) and probably did so. There is no trustworthy evidence as
to Joan's mother, but one may accept the statement of Ann. Cest. s.a. 1204, that
she was " filiam . . . nocham," i.e., noiham. The promise of her hand had been
made by the king before 15th October, 1204 {Rot. Claus. i. 12).

24 See p. 551.

2SB.T. 258. Cf. "O Oes Gwrtheyrn " (Brw^j, 406; Comment. (2), 158),
where the event is (wrongly) dated one year after 1200 and (rightly) five years
before 1208.

26 On loth April, 1200, John had taken " Emmam uxorem David filii Oeni "
under his protection, especially in respect of proceedings touching her manors of
Ellesmere and Hales[owen] {Rot. Chart, i. 44). In May, 1203, he bids the
justiciar find for David's widow an equivalent as far as possible from the marches
for the castle of Ellesmere {Rot. regn. jfoh. 36). On 2nd August John repeats
his wish to have the castle in his own hands, and says other provision must be
made for David's son Owen (Audoen) — see ibid. 56. In Oct. 1204 he proposes
to give him thirteen librates in Elmdon, Warwickshire {Rot. Claus. i. 12) and in
Nov. 1205 fifteen in Waltham, near Grimsby (tit^f. 56). Emma still held Hales in
1212 {Testa de Nevill, 56).

2" Ann. Cest. date it 1204, but assign to the same year the Portsmouth
assembly of June, 1205. Ann. Wigorti. and Reg. Conway mention it under
1206, which is less likely to be the true year.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 617

held by a scion of the house of Gwynedd.'^^ It had seemed CHAP
likely during the previous five or six years that the Northern ^^^^•
prince would find a wife in a very different quarter, for he had
been negotiating with Pope Innocent III. for leave to marry a
daughter of Reginald, king of Man, wedded as a child to his
uncle, Rhodri.^^ In April, 1203, the requisite papal authority
had been obtained, but the Manx alliance was not concluded
when the specially advantageous match with the daughter of
his overlord presented itself to Llywelyn as the more attractive
alternative.

While the king had thus been craftily balancing Llywelyn
and Gwenwynwyn against each other in the North, his policy
in South Wales was not dissimilar. Here his opportunity was
provided for him by the incurable rivalries of the sons and
grandsons of the Lord Rhys. It has already been shown that,
on the death of the veteran leader of the South in 1 1 97, Gruff-
ydd was recognised as his father's heir in respect of Dinefwr
and Cantref Mawr, but was soon afterwards captured by his
brother Maelgwn, who was acting in concert with Gwenwynwyn.
The defeat of the latter at Painscastle in 1 198 brought about
another turn of the wheel of fortune ; Gruffydd was set free
and restored to his lands, to embark upon a struggle with
Maelgwn, in which for a while he was very successful. Before
the end of the year, he had won from his rival all Ceredigion,^'*
except the castles of Cardigan and Ystrad Meurig, and in 1 199
he captured the castle of Cilgerran, commanding the cantref
of Emlyn. Against this Maelgwn had nothing to set, save a
solitary triumph at Dineirth in Ceredigion ; he saw his power
fast slipping from him, and in his extremity he turned to John.

2* On 23rd March, 1205, the keeper of Ellcsmere Castle was ordered to hand
it over to Llywelyn (Rot. Pat. i. 51). C/. Rot. Claus. i. 23. The formal gift in
frank marriage followed on i6th April {Rot. Chart, i. 147).

'^^ The three letters of Innocent III. which deal with this business will be
found in Migne's Patrologia (series Latina, ccxiv. 791 [25th Nov. 1199] ; ccxv.
49 [20th April, 1203], 534 [17th Feb. 1205]. Cf. Papal Letters, i. 8, 13, 19). The
patruus is not named, but must clearly be Rhodri, whose alliance with the sons
of Godred of Man is mentioned by B. Saes. s.a. 1193. He was married in 1188
to a daughter of the Lord Rhys (Gir. Camb. vi. 126-7), but may have put her
away or lost her by death before 1193. With equal certainty the "princeps in-
sularum " may be taken to be Reginald, who had become king of Man in 1188.

»° On 22nd Jan. 1198 Maelgwn had confirmed to Strata Florida all his
father's donations. Rhys Gryg was at the time with him {Str. Flor. xiv.).

6i8 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. On 3rd December, 11 99, the king by charter conferred upon
' him the four cantrefs of Ceredigion and that of Emlyn, on
condition that he would resign to the crown the castle of Cardi-
gan and the adjoining commote of Is Hirwen.^^ A few months
later the transfer was effected ; ^^ thus did Maelgwn, in the
language of the patriotic chronicler, " choose rather to share
with the enemy than with his brother, and sell to the king the
castle of Aberteifi for a little weight of gold and the curses of
all the clergy and lay folk of Wales ".^s The " Key of Wales,"
as it is elsewhere termed,^* was again placed in English hands,
and the king, moreover, made a good friend upon whom he
could rely for defence of the royal interests in Deheubarth.

During the next few years the hand of death fell heavily
upon the sons of the Lord Rhys. On 2nd July, 1 201, Maredudd
ap Rhys, who was lord of Cantref Bychan and its castle
of Llandovery, was killed in the commote of Carnwyllion by
the followers of William of London, lord of Kidwelly.^'' His
brother Gruffydd at once took possession of his lands, but in
less than a month was seized with illness and on 25th July
died, leaving by his wife Matilda two young sons, named Rhys
and Owain.^'' In 1204 Hywel Sais was treacherously wounded
in Cemais by the men of his brother Maelgwn, and not long
afterwards found a grave in the quiet precincts of Strata
Florida.^' By these events Maelgwn was more than ever

3^ Rot. Chart. \. 63. The name of the "camao" (commote) is given in the
letter of 1200 as " Bisbirwern," for " Hishirwern ". Strictly speaking, Is Hirwen
was a half-commote, the river Hirwen, which flows into the Teifi at Pont Ystrad,
dividing the commote of Iscoed into two parts.

^^ Rot. Chart, i. 44 (nth April, Worcester) probably marks the completion of
the transaction.

^ Ann. Catnb. MS. B. s.a. 1200.

3* " Allwed hoU Kymry " is the true reading oiB.T. — see Mostjm MS. 116,
as cited by Evans, Rep. i. p. 61.

^^ Ann. Camb. (B. gives the day); B.T. 256. Maredudd was buried at
Kidwelly.

36 Gruffydd was buried at Strata Florida ; so also Matilda, who died on 29th
December, 1210, at Llanbadarn Fawr (B.T. 266).

3^ The death of Hywel Sais furnishes one of the few cases in which there is
an irreconcilable divergence between Ann. C. and B.T. One can but adopt the
account which seems most probable, and in this case I have rejected the testimony
of the former (MS. B. s.a. 1199) for that of the latter, on the ground that the
reference to a visit to the court of King John " erga Pascha " in this year creates
suspicion. John did not reach England until Ascensiontide, when he was
crowned.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 619

brought to the forefront of affairs; in 1201, on Gruffydd's CHAP.

XVII

death, he recovered Cilgerran and now began to aspire to rule
in Ystrad Tywi ; in 1203 he invited the aid of his old ally,
Gw^enwynwyn, and with his help seized Dinefwr in Cantref
Mawr and Llandovery and Llangadock in Cantref Bychan, to
the exclusion of his nephews, Rhys and Owain ap Gruffydd.^^
This was the climax of his power ; in the following year he
was driven from Ystrad Tywi by a compact between his
nephews and Rhys Gryg, under which the former took Cantref
Bychan and the latter Cantref Mawr as their respective shares
of the spoil won from him. He was beginning to suffer from
the turn of events in the North, where his friend Gwenwynwyn
was being eclipsed in the favour of both English and Welsh
by Llywelyn.^^ It was another serious blow to Maelgwn when
in this year 1204 William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, paid a
visit to his lands in Dyfed and vindicated his claim to the lord-
ship of Emlyn by a successful assault upon Cilgerran.**' Mael-
gwn was now reduced to the position of lord of Ceredigion
once more.

The uneasy relations between John and Gwenwynwyn
came to a head in 1208, when the prince of Powys felt the
full weight of his sovereign's displeasure. Important events
had paved the way for the rupture. The persistent refusal of
the king to recognise Stephen Langton as Archbishop of
Canterbury had at last drawn from the papal armoury the
formidable weapon of an interdict ; on Sunday, 23rd March, in
this year,*^ all religious services throughout England and Wales

='* In 1202 Rhys had confirmed to Strata Florida all earlier donations in a
charter stated to be his first, when as yet he had no seal, and witnessed by his
mother, Matilda {Str. Flor. xv). He had at the end of this year Llandovery, if
not Dine^r {B.T.).

^^ In August, 1204, when Gwenwynwyn was asked to meet the king at
Woodstock, it was requested that he should, if possible, bring Maelgwn with him
" ad loquendum nobiscum " {Rot. Pat. i. 45). In December the Earl of Chester
incurred the king's displeasure by giving his countenance to Gwenwynwyn {Rot.
Claus. i. 16) and about this time the prince of Pov^^ys was for a while deprived of
his manor of Ashford {ibid. 24).

■*" Under Henry II. Emlyn had been regarded as belonging to the Carew
family (see p. 542), but on i6th April, 1200, John granted to Earl William
" Wilfrey " and " Oistrelef," i.e., Efelffre and Ystlwyf (for which see ibid.),
" donee ei deliberaverimus terram suam de Emelin " {Rot. Chart. 47). William
arrived in England in May, 1204.

"This is the date given by Ann. C. MS. C. and Ann. Marg. Other
authorities mention Monday, the 24th. An undated letter in the Papal Registers
specially orders that Wales shall not be regarded as exempt {Papal Letters, i. 30).

620 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, were discontinued at the bidding of Innocent and no sacra-
^^^^* ments save baptism and extreme unction were allowed to be
administered. John's reply was simple — to confiscate all
clerical and monastic property as forfeited by the failure to
perform the duties attached to it, and for the next five years
he had wealth in abundance out of which to pay mercenary
troops and keep his enemies in subjection. He struck without
hesitation at all who had aroused his suspicion or dislike, and
among the first singled out for attack was the great baron of
the march, lord of Radnor, Builth, Brecknock, Upper Gwent
and Gower, who had been for thirty years the leading figure in
Norman South Wales. At the beginning of the reign William
de Breos had received the king's license to conquer all he
could from the Welsh ; ^^ in 1 202 John had entrusted to him,
with praise of his faithful service, the custody of his lands and
castles in Glamorgan, Gwynllwg, and Gower. '^^ In 1203 he
had bestowed Gower upon him and his heirs, to be held by the
service of one knight"** Matters now wore a very different
aspect Early in 1 207 William was ordered to give up Gla-
morgan and Gwynllwg to Falkes of Breaut6,*^ a foreign ad-
venturer high in the king's favour, and in the spring of the
following year John was so dissatisfied with his erstwhile
honoured lieutenant as to require him to surrender all his
lands in England and Wales in pledge for the payment of
his heavy debts to the crown.*** From this blow William
never recovered ; the efforts made by him and his sons William
and Reginald to oppose force to the king's decree proved
futile, and in their despair they fled to Ireland.

Among those who benefited by the fall of the great

'^'^Rot. Chart, i. 66 (Caen, 3rd June, 1200); Cartae Glatn. iii. 177 (from a
late transcript).

*^ Rot. Pat. i. 19 (Domfront, 23rd Oct. 1202). When John had secured in
1200 the dissolution of his marriage with Isabella of Gloucester, he had not re-
signed the lands he held in virtue of the union. When, however, in 1214 she
married Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, he relaxed his hold, and on
26th January ordered his bailiff, Falkes of Breaute, to give the earl possession
of the honour of Glamorgan (Rot. Pat. i. 109).

**The charter, dated Rouen, 24th February, 1203, is printed by Clark (Cartae
Glatn. iii. 234-5) froi" the Breviate of Domesday (K.R. miscellaneous books i.),
P- 475.

*^Rot. Pat. i. 68 ; Cartae Giant, i. 52.

*^A full account of the circumstances which led to the fall of William is
given by John in the document printed in Rymcr, i. 107-8. C/. also Norgate,
yohn Lackland, pp. 146-52, 287-8.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 621

marcher lord was Peter fitz Herbert, a constant companion of CHAP,
the king, who now received a third part of the lordship of
Brecknock, with the castle of Blaen Llyfni.*''^ Gwenwynwyn
deemed the opportunity a favourable one for reviving his old
scheme of conquest in Mid Wales, and began to ravage the
lands of the new lord. He soon discovered his mistake.
John promptly took notice of the aggression, bade the marchers
give their aid to Peter,^^ and when the prince of Powys, over-
awed by these measures, came to Shrewsbury on 8th October
to sue for peace, refused to let him return. The price of
Gwenwynwyn's liberty was to be the render of twenty hostages,
and meanwhile all his lands were to be taken into the custody
of the crown.*^

There followed an unexpected result, though it might
without difficulty have been foreseen. Llywelyn seized this
favourable moment for the execution of the design from which
he had turned aside in 1202. He marched upon Southern
Powys and straightway took possession of the whole country.
His sudden appearance in Arwystli and Cyfeiliog at once pro-
duced a commotion in South Wales. Maelgwn, whose line of
action had always been to support the now vanquished Gwen-
wynwyn, saw himself seriously threatened in Ceredigion, and, as
a measure of defence, dismantled the castles of Aberystwyth,
Ystrad Meurig, and Dineirth, which if captured might enable an
invader to hold the north of the province against him. Never-
theless, Llywelyn was not diverted from his purpose ; he occu-
pied the province as far as the Ystwyth, rebuilt the castle of
Aberystwyth, and handed over the district between the Ystwyth
and the Aeron to the sons of Grufifydd ap Rhys. The young
Rhys and Owain, established since 1204 in Cantref Bychan,
had of late been hard pressed by their neighbour, Rhys Gryg,
who had just destroyed their castle of Llangadock,^" but they
had now a powerful patron and defender.

^'^ Peter appears frequently in the Charter, Patent, and Close Rolls from 1204
to the end of the reign, and Wendover mentions him (iii. 238) among the evil
counsellors of John. He was the son of Herbert fitz Herbert (Madox, Baronia
Anglica, 232-3) and Lucy of Hereford (Rot. Clans, i. 296).

*»Rot. Pat. i. 86 (GiUingham, 29th Sept.).

^' For the terms of the " conventio " see Rymer, i. loi. B.T. has dropped
the year 1207 and is accordingly a year behindhand from this point to 1212.

^° So B.T. 262. According to Ann. C. MS. B. the castle taken was that
of "luchewein," and the deed had been done before, in 1206 (the entry follows

62 2 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. These proceedings were of a kind to excite some concern at
^^^^' the king's court, where it was not desired to make Llywelyn
too powerful. But John still regarded him with a favourable
eye, notwithstanding his bold and independent action. On
Christmas Day he wrote, in answer to a letter from Llywelyn,
to say he would overlook all that had been done to the injury
of Gwenwynwyn and treat the prince as a good son once
more, if he would perform certain promises made in the letter. ^^
What these were can only be conjectured, but it is certain that
during 1209 Llywelyn and the king continued to be on excel-
lent terms. They may possibly have met in the spring ; ^^
later in the year the prince of Gwynedd gave the fullest proof
of his loyalty to his father-in-law by joining, with a con-
tingent of his men, the expedition led by John against
William of Scotland.*^ Accompanied by Hywel ap Gruffydd
who held Meirionydd as his vassal, Gwyn ab Ednywain, his
" distain " or seneschal,** and Ystrwyth, his clerk and mes-
senger,** he was at Newcastle at the end of July, and on

the notice as to John's expedition to Poitou). These two notices possibly refer
to a castle at Llwch (or Llech) Owain (the llwchewin of Mab. 139), a lake in the
southern part of the parish of Llanarthney (commote of Iscennen). There is an
entrenchment here known as Castell y Garreg.

»i Rot. Pat. i. 88 (Bristol, 25th Dec. ) ; Rymer, i. 102. On 21st January
i2og, the knights of the Earl of Chester were told they must serve the earl in the
campaign he was organising " super inimicos nostros de Wallia pro excessibus
Lewelini" (Rot. Pat. ibid.), but this was probably a mere measure of pre-
caution, for on 29th January, at Shrewsbury, a safe-conduct was issued to
Llywelyn (gi).

*2 See the safe-conduct of i6th March (Rot. Pat. i. 89), which proposes a
meeting at Northampton on the 29th.

5* This is asserted by " O Oes Gwrtheyrn " (Comment. (2), 159 ; in Bruts, 406
" ruuein " is for " prydein "), and the statement is confirmed by entries in the
Misae Roll of 11 John (Trans. Cymr. 1899-1900, 136).

54 u Weno senescallo suo " (Rot. regn. Joh. 126). " Gwyn filius Eduyweyn
senescallus noster," witnesses Llywelyn's charter to Cymer, dated in this year
1209 (Rec. Cam. 201). He was of Eifionydd (Rec. Cam. 39, 40) and also appears
in 1 198 (ibid. 148). The " distain " or steward was the chief officer of the royal
household (Ven. I. vii. i) and held his position by hereditary right (Ven. II. xi.
33, " tir ebo suyd ohonau mal . . . disteiniat ").

^■^ " Magister Ostrucius" appears as an envoy of Llywelyn as early as
August, 1204. He received from the king, first a pension of £5 (Rot. Claus. i. 10,
II, 43), then a prebend in Ellesmere Church (60), and finally in February, 1209,
the crown living of Salkeld in the diocese of Carlisle (Rot. Pat. i. 8g). He had
been in December the bearer of a letter from Llywelyn to the king (ibtd. 88), and
at Norham he transacted the prince's business for him (Rot. regn. jfoh. 125, 126),
He was a witness to the Cymer charter as " magister Strwyth " (Rec. Cam. 201),
and was still alive in 1222 (Owen, Cat. 357 — " magistro Estruit ").

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 623

4th August took his place in the serried ranks of the host CHAP,
which at Norham forced the Scotch king to a peace. Gwen-
wynwyn was meanwhile living in pitiful dependence upon the
royal bounty.^® Llywelyn was no doubt one of the Welsh
chiefs who did homage at Woodstock in October,^^ and in
January, 1210, a gift of falcons sent to him by the king bore
witness to the fact that he was still in the sunshine of the
royal favour. ^^

Thus far Llywelyn had maintained himself in power by
the skill and address with which he had steered his bark amid
the troubled currents of his time. He had promptly seized
every opportunity of extending the limits of his rule, while at
the same time carefully watching the temper of John and
guarding himself from any step which might permanently
alienate him. He was now to be subjected to a severer test,
to show how he could comport himself in adversity, when
he had to bear the full force of the king's displeasure. A
thundercloud was gathering overhead, which was soon to burst
upon him in all its fury. The dexterous steersman was to
appear in a new light and to prove his fortitude by weathering
the blackest and most desperate of hurricanes.

n. The Fight for the Freedom of St. David's.

(Nearly all that is known of this subject comes from the works of Gir. him-
self and especially from De Rebus (which, however, breaks off, in the one extant
MS., at the end of 1199) and Men. Eccl. The documents are conveniently
arranged, with many notes, in H. and St. i. 394-452 ; for summaries of the course
of the struggle see Jones and Freem, 286-94 ! Newell, History of the Welsh
Church, chap. viii. ; Owen, Gerald the Welshman, chap, iii.)

It was not only in the domain of civil life that the Welsh
spirit of independence showed itself at this time ; it found ex-
pression also, as had often been the case before, in ecclesiastical

^*^Se& Rot.regn.Joh. iii, 116, 129, 133, 136, 141, 142, 152 (May, 1209-
Jan. 1210).

•''"The incident is mentioned in Ami. S. Edm. s.a. and Wendover, iii. 227.
There is nothing in the statement of the latter as to its novelty ; homage had
been done by the Welsh at this very place in 1163 (p. 513) and fealty sworn at
Geddington in Northamptonshire in 1177 (p. 552). John was at Woodstock
from i6th to 19th October ; he also passed through it on his way westward on
25th November, but the circumstances of the earlier visit are much more suggestive
of a fixed meeting.

^* Rot. regit, jfoh. 145.

624 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, affairs. From 1198 to 1203 a determined battle was fought
^^"' against the see of Canterbury, notwithstanding that it was
backed by the power of the English crown, in order to win
recognition of the metropolitan position of St. David's, The
story has been told, with great particularity and no lack of
pungent comment, by the principal actor in it, the unsuccessful
aspirant to the vacant bishopric, Giraldus Cambrensis, and it
may, on this account, fill a somewhat larger space in the his-
tory of the period than in a strict view of proportion rightfully
belongs to it. But, though the struggle had no lasting results,
and may even have been less interesting to Wales at large
than Giraldus in his vanity would have us believe, yet it
deserves notice as a remarkable attempt to realise a patriotic
ideal, and one which, though it failed to achieve its immediate
object, nevertheless bore fruit in other ways.

The archdeacon had, in 1 196,^^ abandoned the service of the
crown because he despaired of receiving any adequate reward,®'*
and had betaken himself to Lincoln to study theology.*'^ It
was here he heard of the death of Bishop Peter on i6th July,
1 198,®^ opening once more for him the door of hope which had
been closed against him in 1 176. His prospects were certainly
better on this than on the previous occasion. He had with
advancing years gained in experience and reputation ; he
might hope that his diplomatic labours would be remembered
in his favour by the king and his advisers. There was a sub-
— ' stantial Welsh majority in the chapter,®^ which was quite pre-
pared to push the claims of a native candidate. But Giraldus
had throughout to contend with two main difficulties of the most
formidable kind, so serious, in fact, that nothing but his indom-
itable spirit and unquenchable energy could have prolonged
the struggle for the five years during which it was kept alive.
In the first place, there were among the Welsh canons two

^* For this date see Gir. v. pref. liii, note 2.

^o He speaks in De Rebus, iii. i (i. 89) of " indignas nee iuxta merita pro-
motiones ".

^^ i. 93. The second edition of the Itinerary, with the dedication to Bishop
Hugh, belongs to the period of residence at Lincoln.

^^ Gir. speaks vaguely (" quasi in principio autumni "), but see A}tn. Theo-
kesb. for the precise day.

"* In iv. 147 it is estimated at two-thirds. On another occasion (iii, 19) Gir.
makes it out to be little more than a bare majority.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 625

opposing parties, two family groups, in fact,^* and, while the CHAP,
descendants of Jonas were supporters of Giraldus, the descend-
ants of John had a candidate of their own in Abbot Peter of
Whitland,^^ who was one of their number, born in the cathe-
dral city itself. In the second place, Archbishop Hubert fully
realised the danger of allowing the dispute as to the rights of
the see to pass, by the election of Giraldus as bishop, into the
hands of a man so able and determined, so well fitted by the
extent of his family influence, also, to make it a really formid-
able question. With the rough persistence which was char-
acteristic of him, he never rested until the archdeacon had
been vanquished without hope of recovery.

The first stage through which the matter passed was one of
negotiation between the chapter and the archbishop. The
former resolved to submit four names for consideration ; they
would accept, they said, Giraldus, Abbot Peter, the Abbot of
St. Dogmael's, or Reginald Foliot, a young relative of the last
bishop. To none of these would Hubert agree ; he was bent
on the appointment of a man without local connections, and
offered them their choice of a Cistercian abbot named Alex-
ander and Geoffrey, prior of Llantony. This uncompromising
attitude greatly helped the cause of Giraldus ; in their deter-
mination to fight the archbishop the chapter turned to him as
the man marked out by fortune to be the champion of their
rights, summoned him to their aid from his studious retreat at
Lincoln, and early in 1199 were encouraged by him to appeal
from the archbishop and the justiciar to the king. Before this
could be done Richard had died, and a further delay resulted
from the necessity of submitting the matter afresh to a new
king, at a time when he was engrossed in more weighty cares.
Giraldus had at first some hope of gaining the goodwill of
John, who had known him for years and had in 1 192 offered

*''iii. 312, Robert son of Jonas was very old at the time of the dispute (i.
164), having a son Henry among the canons (iii. 214), so that Jonas must have
flourished about 1150. " Magister Johannes iuvenis " was a canon in 1176 (i.
158) and was probably the son of the "magister Johannes canonicus de Sancto
David " who witnessed a Brecon charter of ii48-55( Arch. Camb., IV. xiv. [1883],

44)-

8" For the connections of Peter see iii. 34, 219-20, 299. He was said to be
illegitimate, being perhaps the fruit of a clerical marriage (iii. 299-300).

626 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, him the bishopric of Llandafif.^ But the influence of the
■ archbishop was too powerful, and no declaration in favour of the
archdeacon could be obtained from the king during his brief
visit to England for the coronation. The chapter now made
up their minds to act decisively, and on 29th June ^"^ Giraldus
was elected at St. David's, in spite of the opposition of-^he
government. It was in vain that the primate threatened to
consecrate the prior of Llantony, whether he were elected or
no ; the canons were for the moment bent upon a course of
defiance, and it was resolved that the bishop-elect should carry
the case to the supreme tribunal of the church at Rome. At
the end of November, Giraldus was in the holy city, ready to
plead his cause before the pope of the day, the astute and
masterful Innocent III.

It was inevitable that with the question of the claim of
Giraldus to have been duly elected bishop the larger issue of
the independence of the see should be brought to the front
once more."^ Indeed, it is doubtful whether the mere bishopric,
shorn of the dignity with which it was sought to invest it,
would have had much attraction for Giraldus ; it was not well
endowed ^^ and the title of bishop had in itself no fascination
for him.^*^ The matter was, however, adroitly placed on the
broadest national footing ; stress was laid on the way in which
the spiritual authority of Canterbury was used by primate after
primate to further the merely temporal ends of the English
crown. Welsh insurgents were liable not only to the ordinary
penalties of defeat, but also to those of excommunication, while
the Welsh Church was held in bondage, the free choice of its
canonical electors overridden and unfit bishops forced upon it,
as part of the purely political campaign against Welsh national
aspirations.^^ Archbishop Hubert was, indeed, at no pains to

"^ i. 87, 139. The see was vacant through the death of William of Salt-
marsh in iigi and was filled by the consecration of Henry, prior of Abergavenny,
on i2th December, 1193.

^''i. Ill ; iii. 191.

••^ For this question see pp. 480-2 and note to chap. xiii. § 3.

®8 According to Gir. iii. 133, 344, the fixed income was no more than twenty
marks. In Tax. Nich. 274, the bishop's prebend is valued at ;^20, but he had
also temporal possessions yielding £10^ 17s. per annum (277).

■"> In i. 139, Gir. says he refused two bishoprics {i.e., Bangor and Llandaif) in
Wales and four in Ireland.

71 See the letter of the Welsh princes, no doubt drafted by Giraldus himself,
in iii. 244-6.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 627

throw a veil over this part of his case ; it was precisely in order CHAP
to keep the Welsh under control by ecclesiastical censures that
he deemed it necessary, he told the pope, to resist with all his
power the designs of the archdeacon/^ Little wonder, then,
that Giraldus was able to secure the countenance and support
of the princes of Wales, even those who, like Llywelyn, had
no interest in exalting the see of Deheubarth above the remain-
ing three. ''^ In nothing does the statesmanship of the prince
of Gwynedd appear more strikingly than in this advocacy of
the St. David's claim ; he was well aware that, in view of the
forces arrayed against it, it would probably fail, but as an ex-
perienced politician he knew the value of a strenuous protest
and held that Giraldus had by his brave, though ineffectual,
resistance done genuine service to the Welsh national cause. '^^
At Rome there was every disposition to listen to the Welsh
case. The jurisdiction of the papal court as the highest tri-
bunal in all church matters was a valuable asset for the papacy,
and every encouragement was given to litigants to avail them-
selves of it. About the question of the status of the see there
was, at first, some hesitation, but Giraldus was soon able to
convince the pope that there was a case for discussion and that
this was not by any means the first occasion on which it had
been submitted to the arbitrament of the holy see. The arch-
bishop's defence was hardly serious ; to the election of Giraldus
in June he opposed the election of Abbot Walter of St. Dog-
mael's in December, and thus laid himself open to the charge
of having forced a second choice on the electors while the
appeal to Rome was still pending as to the lawfulness of the
first. Thus Giraldus was able to obtain some important con-
cessions ; in May, 1200, a commission of English bishops was
appointed by the pope to report upon the question of status
and that of the election, while the administration of the see
was meanwhile committed to the indefatigable archdeacon.

"iii. 15.

^^ The names prefixed to the letter are those of Llywelyn, Gwenwynwyn,
Madog [ap Gruffydd], and the four sons of Rhys, Gruffydd, Maelgwn, Maredudd
and Rhys (iii. 244). Though connected by Gir. with his third visit to Rome, the
document must have been prepared before July, 1201, when Maredudd and Gruffydd
died. Probably it belongs to the first visit, since Innocent's letter of 5th May»
1200 (iii. 62-3) looks like an answer to it.

"'^ See his views as expressed at a banquet of hiei magnates in iii. 209.

628 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. When Giraldus returned to Wales, he found that what he

^^^^* had won at Rome was counterbalanced by what, during his
absence, he had lost at St. David's. The archbishop had real-
ised his mistake in peremptorily rejecting all the candidates
of the chapter, and now saw that the right policy was to ex-
ploit the internal feuds of this body. For the moment his
favourite was the abbot of St. Dogmael's, and, as Walter was
notoriously illiterate and unfit for the episcopal dignity,^^ Peter
of Whitland and his clan were won over by the prospect of an
impasse which might finally turn out to their advantage. '^*^
Thus Giraldus had not only to cope with the continued hostility
of the crown,^^ but also with that of a majority of the chapter ;
he was hampered in the exercise of his duties as administrator
by Abbot Walter, who on his election in December, 1 199, had
been put into possession of the temporalities of the see.^^
There was nothing he could do but hunt up more documents
in support of the primacy of St. David's and return to Rome
for the formal hearing of the case, fixed for 4th March, 120 1.
By this time the representative of the archbishop at the
papal court had a more plausible tale to tell. Realising that
Innocent meant business, he put forward the plea that the
December election was merely a confirmation of one which
had taken place as early as 7th January, 1199, when Hubert,
having full authority for the act from the chapter, chose the
abbot of St. Dogmael's. It was thus sought to deprive Giral-
dus of the important advantage he enjoyed in these proceedings
as the candidate first elected. For so skilful a controversialist
it was easy to pick holes in this argument, with which the
whole action of the archbishop in the course of the year 11 99
was inconsistent, but, instead of rejecting it, the court preferred
delay and fixed 1st November, 1202, for the re-trial of the

■'■'' Giraldus reported him to be " quasi penitus idiota," and there was enough
substance in the allegation to induce Innocent to order an examination into his
qualifications (iii. 68-9). Walter significantly declined the test (iii. 234).

''•'The situation is explained in iii. 198.

''' On 13th January, 1201, John sent two messengers to signify to the chapter
and to the clergy of the diocese that he had not assented and did not then assent
to the election of the Archdeacon of Brecknock (Rot. Chart, i. 100). For other
expressions of the king's displeasure see Rot. Pat. i. 3 (17th Dec. 1201), ibid. 7
(8th March, 1202), ibid. 9 (loth April, 1202), ibid. 34 (nth Sept. 1203).

■'s iii. 259. Before Hubert's change of policy, they had been held by the
prior of Llantony.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 629

whole matter, the interval to be devoted to the collection of CHAP,
evidence. In the meantime, the pope continued to give his ^^"*
powerful protection to Giraldus, who was sent away at the end
of July with letters confirming him in his office of administrator
and requiring the archbishop to pay half the expenses of the
suit. It was well that Innocent still befriended him, for on his
re-appearance in this country he found the hostile forces arrayed
against him more resolute than ever. The Welsh princes had
not deserted his cause ; Maelgwn and Rhys Gryg did what
was possible for him in the south,^^ Llywelyn was a warm sup-
porter in the north,^'* and even Gwenwynwyn hospitably
received him, while unwilling to sanction a collection on his
behalf ^^ At St. David's the Jonas party still upheld his claim,^^
but the rest of the chapter was unfriendly and would not even
support him on the archbishopric question, so unwilling were
they to yield him any assistance. Throughout England the
power of the crown was used to the utmost against him, so
that even sympathisers like the bishops of Ely and Worcester ^^
and William fitz Alan ^* could do little for him. He spent the
year 1 202 in weary journeys to interview friends, to checkmate
enemies and to satisfy commissions, and got out of the country,
not without difficulty, in time to appear for the third time at
Rome in January, 1203. On the way thither he called at
Clairvaux and Citeaux and dealt retribution to a most persist-
ent foe by procuring the deposition of Abbot Peter.

The long duel was now drawing to its inevitable close.
During Lent the case was fully argued before the pope, and
evidence adduced, which Giraldus held to be perjured and cor-
rupt, in favour of the January election of Walter. Innocent

■"iii. 197.

*" Giraldus was in Gwynedd at Christmastide, 1201 (see heads of lost chapters
oiDe Rebus in i. 10), and was followed to St. David's by the special envoy of
Llywelyn, Laurence, prior of Bardsey (iii. 197). Llywelyn also saw him in August
and, " ut erat vir liberalis et lenis," afforded him every help (iii. 226).

*^ iii. 226.

*2 The party of Giraldus included in April, 1202, Pontius, Archdeacon of St.
David's, Robert son of Jonas, his son Henry (the one resident canon who was
loyal to the end — iii. 316), and Meilyr (iii. 214).

** Eustace, bishop of Ely from 1198 to 1215, had known Giraldus in his
student days at Paris (iii. 232). He was much in request as a papal commissioner.
Mauger, bishop of Worcester from 1200 to 1212, was also a friend of the arch-
deacon's (ibid.), perhaps for the same reason.

^* iii. 227.
VOL. II. 1 8

630 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, made no difficulty about accepting it ; it was no part of his
^^^^' policy to offend so influential a prelate as Hubert, and the right
solution of the question appeared to him to be the quashing of
both elections, that of the abbot on the ground that the
archbishop was not properly authorised to elect, that of the
archdeacon on the ground that it took place while the legality
of the other was as yet undetermined. This decision, an-
nounced on 1 5 th April, was entirely satisfactory to the opposi-
tion, who cared nothing for Walter and only desired to be rid of
Giraldus. But, short of conceding his claim, the pope was
disposed to do much for the man who had so valiantly fought
the battle of his church and his own and whose racy talk and
naive egotism had interested and diverted him. Papal letters
were issued securing him against vindictive proceedings, en-
trusting the control of the new election to his friends, the
bishops of Worcester and Ely,^^ and — best of all — appointing
a commission from the province of York to go into the still
unsettled question of subjection to Canterbury. ^^

Nevertheless, the cause for which Giraldus had done battle
was hopelessly lost. When he arrived in England in August
he was able to prevent the elevation to the vacant see of the
young canon, Reginald Foliot, who was next put forward by
the archbishop, but, deserted as he now was by almost the
whole chapter,^'^ he had himself no prospect of attaining the
dignity which had been the dream of his life. He decided to
abandon a campaign which could lead to no useful result and
concurred in the election in November of the prior of Llan-
tony. Geoffrey was consecrated on 7th December, 1203, in
St. Catherine's Chapel, Westminster,^^ having made the usual
profession of obedience to Canterbury, but having given no
pledge that he would refrain from raising the question of in-
dependence.^^ Giraldus, on his part, promised to let this
question rest during the lifetime of Hubert, made his peace with

** This letter is to be found in the Papal Registers, which fix the date as 26th
May (Papal Letters, i. p. 14).

^^ See Papal Letters, i. p. 14.

*'' Gir. says that among the laity of Wales he found much loyalty, among
the clergy scarcely any (iii. 287).

8Mm«. C. MS. C. ; Ann. Waverl. ; Reg. Sacr. (2), 53. Ann. C. MS. B.
has 6th December by mistake.

8* For the form of profession see H. and St. i. 451.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 631

the archbishop and the king,^'* resigned his archdeaconry to his chap.
namesake and nephew,^^ and withdrew finally from St. David's ^^^^•
affairs. The evening of his stormy life was quiet and serene ;
he renewed his devotion to study and to literature, and in these
pursuits reached a hoary old age under Henry III.^^ Famous
fighter, ruthless critic, gifted wielder of the pen though he was,
no chronicler of the day thought fit to record the year of his
death.^^ But posterity has taken a juster measure of his
deserts, and Llywelyn spoke with true foresight when he
declared that the fight for St. David's would be remembered
" as long as Wales should stand ".^*

III. Llywelyn in Conflict with John : Peace of

Worcester.

Soon after the beginning of the year 12 10, the friendly
relations between Llywelyn and John, which had never been
so marked as in the previous year, were suddenly broken off.
The occasion of this rupture is not easy to determine. The
year was that of the Irish expedition, undertaken by the king,
with the help of the revenue he now derived from the bishops'
lands, in order to assert his authority in the island against the
more powerful barons, notably the Earl Marshall, Earl Hugh
of Ulster, his brother Walter Lacy and the fugitive William de
Breos. Now William was a good deal in Wales and its bor-
ders during the summer, endeavouring to regain his terri-
tories,^^ and it is possible that he persuaded the prince of
Gwynedd to make common cause with him in a hostile move-

**''In a letter of 5th January, 1204 {Rot. Pat. i. 37), John announces the re-
conciliation.

'•*! Two Brecon charters of 1204-14 and 1204-8 are attested by " magistro
Giraldo de Barri et G[iraIdo] archidiacono de Breconia nepote suo " {Arch.
Camb. III. xiii. [1882], 307; xiv. [1883], 156).

^^ The closing paragraph of Men. Eccl. (iii. 373) shows he was still writing
at the age of seventy.

^^ The likeliest date is 1223 ; for in that year his death was signified to the
bishop of Lincoln and his Oxfordshire living of Chesterton was filled (Register of
Bishop Hugh of Lincoln, vol. ii. pp. 9-10). There is no evidence that he was
buried at St. David's ; the tomb now shown as his is of the fourteenth century
(Jones and Freem. 122-3).

®* iii. 209.

^^ According to the document in Rymer, i. 107-8, in which the king justifies
his proceedings against the family, William was in Herefordshire about May, at
Pembroke (where he met the king) in June, and in Herefordshire again in July
or August.

i8*

632 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, ment which was to come to a head while John was embroiled
in Irish affairs. ^^ If this was so, Llywelyn showed something
less than his usual foresight. For William proved but a
broken reed, whose resistance to the power of John soon col-
lapsed, leaving him no alternative but to flee as an outlaw to
France and abandon his wife Matilda and his eldest son Wil-
liam to the pitiless vengeance of the hardest heart in Christen-
dom.^^ It was probably no accidental coincidence that about
the same time Gwynedd was invaded by forces under the
command of the Earl of Chester, the justiciar, and the bishop
of Winchester ; ^^ nor did it avail Llywelyn that in his alarm
he destroyed his castle of Degannwy ; it was rebuilt by the
earl with timber which he found not far off, and another castle
was constructed at Holywell to protect the march.^®

Meanwhile John's Irish progress had been an uninterrupted
triumph. He had travelled by the usual South-Welsh route,
passing through Glamorgan,^"^ where his trusty henchman,
Falkes of Breaute, was governor for him,'^^ and thence by way
of Swansea and Haverford to Pembroke, which he reached
about 3rd June.^"^ Here he was detained, probably by con-
trary winds, for a fortnight ; about the 1 7th he set sail from
Milford Haven and landed near Waterford. He spent rather
more than two months in Ireland, sweeping all before him,
and arrived at Fishguard on the return journey on 26th Aug-
ust.^"^ Thence he journeyed by way of Haverford, Kidwelly,

*^ This would be certain if the " Walensium nonnulli " of the Barnwell
chronicle (Walt. Cov. ii. 202, s.a. 1210) included Llywelyn.

^' See Norgate, John Lackland, p. 288. William died in exile in France in
1211 {Ann. Marg.; Wendover, iii. 237).

^^ Ann. Dunst.

^^ B.T, 264. "O Oes Gwrtheyrn " adds the detail " ac a'i cadarnhaodd o
waith [Cardiff MS. 50 reads " wydh " = timber] Ysgubor y Creuddyn " {Comment.

(2), 159).

100 He was at Cardiff on 25th May {Rot. regn. Joh. 170), at Margam on the
28th {ibid. 172), where the monks entertained him {Ann. Marg.), at Swansea on
the same day {Rot. 172) and at Haverford on the 31st {ibid.).

1"! See an entry in Rot. de Prestito {Rot. regn. Joh. 172) of ;^8 6s. gd.
advanced to Falkes for the king's accommodation " dum fuit in baillivia sua ".
Falkes had been appointed in February, 1207 {Rot. Pat. i. 68).

102 From that day to the i6th the king was at " Crucem subter Penbroc "
(Rot. regn. Joh. 172-7). The situation of this spot is discussed in Owen, Pemb.
i. 318-19.

1"^ Rot. r. jf. 228. Ann. C. MS. C. agrees as to the place, but its date (17th
August) is too early.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 633

Margam, and Newport to Bristol. This display of unques- chap.
tioned power had, as was inevitable, a marked influence upon
the affairs of South Wales. Not content with the overthrow
of William de Breos, John had brought low during this ex-
pedition the greatness of another baron of the march, whom
he had formerly delighted to honour. Robert fitz Richard of
Haverford was the chief magnate of Rhos, having inherited a
proud position from his father, Richard fitz Tancard.^''^ Though
reputed by Giraldus an enemy of the Church,^**^ he had founded
under the shadow of his castle a priory of Austin canons,^*'^
and only a year or two had passed since the king had en-
trusted to him the keeping of the castle of Cardigan.^'^'' Never-
theless, for some unknown offence he was now deprived of all
he had, and in 1 2 1 1 he died an exile in a foreign land.^*^^ An-
other result of the king's passage through Wales was to give
fresh vigour to the enemies of Llywelyn, who were now, in the
altered posture of affairs, in favour once more as the king's
friends. On 8th September Rhys Gryg, with the help of
royal troops, attacked Llandovery, which was held for his
nephews, Rhys and Owain, the close allies of the prince of
Gwynedd ; the garrison capitulated on terms, and the castle,
with a number of valuable horses, fell into his hands. About
the end of November, John restored Gwenwynwyn to his
dominions in Southern Powys ; Maelgwn at once came to the
conclusion that his day of recovery had also come, and, having
come to terms with the king, prepared to eject Rhys and
Owain from northern Ceredigion. The chronicler of Strata
Florida,^^^ who was friendly to Llywelyn, records the upshot with
glee ; the two young princes with 300 chosen warriors, made
an onslaught by night upon Maelgwn's camp at Cilcennin,

10* For Richard see chap. xvi. notes 91, 92. The pedigree is established by
the charter (5 Edvv. III.) printed in Mon. Angl. vi. 444-5.

i^-^i. 179, 315. He was an adversary of the archdeacon's (iii. 313-4).

^'^'''Mon. Angl. ut supra.

^'^'^ Rot. Pat. i. 85 (Higham, 23rd July, 1208). On 17th November, 1207, the
king had granted Robert his port of Milford at Haverford, a Sunday market, and
an annual fair at the beginning of May (Rot. Chart, i. 173).

'^^^ Ann. C. MS. C. s.a. 1210, 1211 ; Gir. Camb. i. 179-80.

109" Qfiffino fili(o) Cadugan " vi^itnessed a charter of Maelgwn to Strata
Florida in January, 1198 {Str. Flor. appendix xiv.). The " kynan" of the Red
Book of Hergest (Bruts, 346) is a slip for " kadwgan " — see Mostyn MS. 116
in Evans, Rep. i. p. 61 and B.T. 266, note 2.

634 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, drove him ignominiously into hasty flight, and captured his
^^^^' nephew, Cynan ap Hywel, and his chief counsellor, Gruffydd
ap Cadwgan. It was an indubitable victory, not without its
element of comedy, but it had no great effect upon the general
situation, and the fortification of Builth at the king's command
by Engelard of Cigogn6 ^^^ threatened the sons of Gruffydd
ap Rhys with danger from a new quarter.

Confident of his hold upon South and Mid Wales, the
king now resolved that there must be a day of reckoning for
the prince of Gwynedd, who, heedless of the gathering storm,
was at this moment ravaging the border.^^^ He summoned
to meet him at Chester ^^^ all the other leaders of the Welsh,
and almost all obeyed, not only Llywelyn's old enemies,
Gwenwynwyn, Maelgwn and Rhys Gryg, but with them men
like Hywel ap Gruffydd and Madog of Northern Powys, who
had hitherto followed the banner of the son of lorwerth.^^^
That prince had for the nonce no allies but the sons of Gruffydd
ap Rhys. At first, indeed, it did not seem as if the threatened
onslaught would be very effective. The men of Gwynedd
followed their oft-repeated tactics on such occasions, retreating
from the lower lands with all their possessions to the fastnesses
of Eryri, and, as the season was the middle of May,^^* the
host found itself, when it reached Degannwy, unable to feed
at the expense of the country, and, in default of other provision,

""Described by B.T. (p. 266) as " Gelart (MSS. C. E.) synyscal kaer
loyw ". Engelard, one of John's group of foreign captains and officials, ap-
pears as sheriff of Gloucester on 26th February, 1210 (Rot. regn. Joh. 152). For
his origin and history see Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc. 1904, p. 250. Builth had
come into the possession of the crown with the fall of William de Breos, and
Engelard was apparently custos of the Breos estates in Wales — see Rot. Claus. i.
135. 137. 148, 149.

1" For John's Welsh expedition see Ann. C. MSS. B. and C. ; B.T. ; " O
Oes Gwrtheyrn" in Comment. (2), 160, and Cardiff Public Library MS. 50;
Wendover, iii. 235 ; Walt. Cov. ii. 203 ; Ann. Marg., Theokesb. and Wigorn. s.a.
It is unfortunate that no Chancery roll of any description for the thirteenth year
of John (1211-12) is now extant.

"2 In B.T. 267 " Kaer lleon " is absurdly translated " Caerleon " !

113 Hywel, it has been shown, went with Llywelyn to the Scottish border in
1209. Madog and Llywelyn are coupled together in a royal letter of 29th July,
1204 (note 23 above), and the former was in the king's good graces in the spring
of 1205, when the latter was cementing his alliance with the crown (Rot. Claus.
i. 23).

1" " Cito post pascha [3rd April] "—says Ann. C. MS. B. But John did not
reach Chester until i6th May — see Hardy's Itinerary and cf. Annates S. Albani
in Liebermann, Ungedruckte Anglo-N ormanische Geschichtsquellen, p. 169.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 635

exposed to the danger of famine. Eggs comnfianded the CHAP,
price of fowls ^^^ and horseflesh did duty for beef and mutton.
For the moment John was baffled by the special difficulties of
Welsh warfare and was forced to beat a retreat, returning to
England at the end of the month.^^^ But he was by no means
diverted from his purpose ; fresh preparations were made, on
an ampler and more provident scale, and on 8th July he was
on the border again.^^'^ He set out this time from Oswestry ^^*
and made rapidly for the mouth of the Conway, driving
Llywelyn before him into the wilds of Arllechwedd. Arrived
at Aber, he was able to humble another magnate who had
ventured to defy his irresistible power. Bishop Robert of
Bangor ^^^ had refused to meet an excommunicated king ;
John's answer was to send a troop of Braban^ons to the
episcopal city, who, after setting fire to it, seized the bishop as
he stood in his robes at the high altar of his cathedral and
forcibly carried him off to the king's camp. The payment of
a fine of two hundred hawks secured him his liberty, but lost
honour and peace of mind were not so easily retrieved, and it
is hardly fanciful to suppose that it was as the result of this
outrage that Robert died in the following year.

Llywelyn was now in a dangerous plight, and it was well
for him that he had in his wife Joan an advocate who could
plead his cause with the king. Vicious though he was, John
was not without affection for his children, and he agreed to

116 ii Yar keynyauc atal " (Ven. III. xiii. i).

116 «( Amgylch y sulgwyn " [22nd May] — B.T.

^1^ Ann. S. Albania ut supra, and Wendover.

118 n Album Monasterium " is rendered Whitchurch by Coxe (Wendover, iii.
235) and also by Hardy in the entries for 6th to loth August, 1216, in his Itinerary.
But, though Whitchurch occasionally appears under this name, as in Gir. Camb.
vi. 142 {Itin. ii. 12) and Tax. Nich. 247, it was indubitably borne also by Oswestry
— see Gir. Camb. v. 375 (Exp. Hib. ii. 31) ; Ann. C. MS. B. s.a. 1233 ; Cal.
Doc. Fr. i. 116 — and there was no comparison between the two towns as a suit-
able starting-point for a Welsh expedition.

1^^ Robert had been consecrated by Archbishop Hubert at Westminster on
i6th March, 1197 (H. and St. i. 391 ; Reg. Sacr. (2), 52). It would seem, how-
ever, that he had never been elected (Gir. Camb. i. 114), and interwoven with the
story of the St. David's suit is that of the efforts of a certain " R.," subprior of
Aberconwy, to obtain recognition as the true bishop-elect of Bangor (Gir. iii.
38-40, 66-7, 193, 195, 240-2, 287-8). He was at first supported by Llywelyn, but
his cause was afterwards given up, probably as part of the agreement with John
in 1204. For Robert's death in 1212 see B.T. 272 (1211 = 1212) ; Ann. Tkeokesb.
and Wigorn. s.a.

636 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, terms which, though severe and crushing, yet left to the
^^^^' prince of Gwynedd life, liberty, and a sufficient, if contracted,
realm. He took possession of those four cantrefs of the
" Perfeddwlad " or Middle Country ,^2° which, lying as they
did next to England and outside the limits of Snowdonia, were
always first seized upon by an English king desiring to curtail
the power of a prince of Gwynedd, and thus restricted Llywelyn
to the lands beyond the Conway. He took from him in addi-
tion some thirty hostages,^^^ and imposed upon the country
an enormous tribute of cattle, with a smaller render of horses,
dogs, and birds. Having thus, as he supposed, settled the
affairs of Wales as triumphantly as those of Ireland, John
returned to Oswestry in the middle of August.^^^ In South
Wales, too, all opposition was swept aside. Falkes of
Breaute, with the aid of the knights of Dyfed and Glamorgan
and the support of Maelgwn and Rhys Gryg, attacked Northern
Ceredigion and reduced Rhys and Owain ap Gruffydd to
submission. The two young princes were sent to England to
make their peace with the king in person, and Falkes took
possession of their territory for the crown, building in it at
Aberystwyth a new castle which was no doubt designed to
be an effective check upon future movements of the Welsh of
Mid Wales.123

But in his overweening pride John had gone too far ; the
erection of the castle at Aberystwyth proved to be a serious
error in tactics. What had secured him his easy victory was
his success in isolating Llywelyn, whose pre-eminence had
aroused the envy and jealousy of so many of his fellow-princes.
By continuing the policy of balancing one princQ against the
other, the king might have retained a real control over Welsh
affairs, but he chose to embark instead upon a scheme of
conquest and settlement which was to cover the whole of
Wales. Not only at Aberystwyth, but also in the Middle

120 " Y berued wlat " (B.T.) included Rhos, Rhufoniog, Tegeingl, and Dyffryn
Clwyd (Rymer, i. 267).

1^1 Thirty, according to Ann. C. MS. C. Wendover says twenty-eight, Ann.
Marg. thirty-two, " O Oes Gwrtheyrn " twenty-five, including Llywelyn's son,
Gruffydd, of whom this is the earliest mention.

^22 15th August, according to Wendover.

123 B.x". and Ann. Marg. For " Ffawcwn " as "synyscal kaer dyf" see
note loi above.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 637

Country and in Powys, castles began to rise, symbols of a CHAP,
power which would ere long leave no substantial foothold for
that of any Welsh chief. Maelgwn and Rhys Gryg soon came
to the conclusion that it was not for this they had fought ;
suddenly passing from the royalist to the patriotic side, they
forced the garrison at Aberystwyth to capitulate and burnt
the new fortress to the ground. At the same time another
Welsh prince who had done battle for John in his foreign
wars, Cadwallon ab Ifor Bach of Senghenydd, broke out into
revolt and ravaged the lowlands of Glamorgan.^^* Before the
end of this year 1 2 1 1 , it was evident that the victory won in
the summer was of the showy rather than of the solid and
enduring type.

For a little while it might seem as if the king and Llywelyn
were to resume the former footing of friendship, for the latter,
accompanied, no doubt, by Joan, was induced to spend the
Easter of 1212 with John at Cambridge.^^^ But this visit
to the English court can hardly have failed to disclose to
the two the crazy foundations on which rested the imposing
superstructure of the king's power. His lawless and insolent
tyranny had created among the great men of his realm such
an atmosphere of fiery resentment and hate as needed but
a spark of opportunity to make it flare out in open revolt.
Llywelyn thus learnt that he had no reason to fear a second
invasion of his territories, and in the summer threw in his lot
without hesitation with the new league which was being formed
in Wales for the destruction of the recently built castles.^^^

^^^"Catwalo in glamorgan predas et combustiones fecit" (Ann. C. MS.
B. s.a. 1211). Cadwallon ab Ifor appears with other leading Welshmen of
Morgannwg in a Margam charter of 1199 (Cartae Glatn. iii. 175). In the
summer of 1203 he was with the king in Normandy and helped Giraldus in his
money difficulties (Gir. iii. 303), and in the following March John was anxious
to take him abroad with him once more (Rot. regn. yoh. 85 — Westminster,
27th March). Giraldus calls him " cognatum suum " — he and the archdeacon
were second cousins (p. 507). Ann. Marg. records the vengeance taken by John
upon the two sons of Cadwallon whom he held as hostages.

125 " Qui in Pascha cum rege Anglie fuerat, dicto rege apud Kanteberge
Pascha celebrante " (Ann. S. Edm. s.a.). Miss Norgate's account of the relations
of John with the Welsh during this year (John Lackland, pp. 167 9) overlooks
this fact and is inexact in several other respects.

i^^The 1211 and 1212 of B.T. (pp. 270-2) are really the same year (the
battle in Spain is that of Las Navas de Tolosa, fought on i6th July, 1212)
Through this repetition, the error due to the omission of the year 1207 is righted,
and the chronology of the Rolls edition becomes correct.

638 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. The combination included not only Llywelyn, Maelgwn, and
■ Rhys Gryg, but also Gwenwynwyn, who was being edged
out of his possessions by Robert of Vieuxpont, the king's lieu-
tenant in Powys, and it revealed itself in a sudden revolt at
the end of June, while John was in the north, giving help to
King William of Scotland.^^' Fuel was added to the flame
by the action of the pope, who, in his resolve to exhaust every
available means of reducing the king to submission, released
the insurgents from their allegiance, encouraged them to resist
to the utmost of their power, and rewarded them by freeing
their country from the burden of the interdict.^^^ With such
approval and countenance, it is no wonder that the movement
proved highly successful ; Llywelyn recovered the whole of
the Perfeddwlad, except the castles of Rhuddlan and Deg-
annwy, and captured a royal official, one Robert the Wolf, who
had long been a thorn in the side of the Welsh.^^^ Gwen-
wynwyn besieged Robert of Vieuxpont in his new castle at
Mathrafal, and Rhys Gryg set fire to the town of Swansea.^^*^
Madog ap Gruffydd ^^^ in North Wales and Rhys and Owain
ap Gruffydd ^^^ in the South held aloof from the rising, but
their abstention was but as a featherweight in the balance
compared to the advantage won by Llywelyn in shaking him-
self free from the dangerous isolation of the previous year and
regaining his natural position as leader of the Welsh people.

^"^ Ann. S. Edm. John was at Durham on 28th June. He had on 26th
May transferred Ceredigion from Maelgwn to Rhys ap Gruffydd (Rot. Pat. i. 93),
but this was a consequence of the attack upon Aberystwyth in the previous year.
The first indication in the rolls of fresh trouble in Wales is to be found on 6th
July, when the king asked Falkes of Breaut6 what force he needed to repel an
attack and ordered the replenishing of the stock of provisions kept at Oswestry
(Rot. Claus. i. 119).

^^»B.T.,Ann. Waverl.

129 Ann, s. Edm. " Robertus Lupus " was made a custos of the vacant see
of Lichfield (or Chester) on 9th October, 1208 (Rot. Pat. i. 86-7), and he was still
acting in that capacity in May, 1212 (Rot. Claus. i. 116). He had also in June,
1212, the manor of Ellesmere (Testa de Nevill, 56). For the negotiations for his
release see Pat. Rolls, Hen. IIL i. 8.

'^'^^ Ann. Marg.

131 On 3rd August, the Earl of Chester was warned to treat him as a friend and
ally (Rot. Claus. i. 121); a little later he is found in John's pay (123). Thus
B.T. is clearly wrong in including him in the Welsh confederation, and the same
remark applies to Maredudd ap Rhotpert of Cydewain — see Rot. Claus. i. 123.
Neither name appears in the corresponding passage in Ann. C. MS. B.

^'2 About 1st September Falkes was ordered to supply their needs (Rot.
Clans, i. 123).

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 639

Tohn had intended this summer to invade France, but the CHAP.

XVII
news of the revolt brought about a sudden change of plans.

He resolved instead upon a Welsh expedition, which was to
crush Llywelyn once for all. Throughout July and well into
the middle of August, he was directing the organisation of a
host which was to assemble at Chester on the 19th of the latter
month, amply furnished with provisions and other requisites
for a Welsh campaign.^^^ In the meantime he paid a hurried
visit to the border, and about 1st August carried off Robert of
Vieuxpont from his perilous position at Mathrafal.^^* A few
days before the proposed muster, he arrived at Nottingham
and struck the keynote of what was to be a war of pitiless
vengeance by wreaking his wrath upon certain of the Welsh
hostages, refusing, the chronicler tells us, to taste food or drink
until they had been despatched.^^^ But it was not long ere
his schemes suffered a complete and final overthrow. Letters
from more than one quarter, including one written by his
daughter Joan, who had, no doubt, the safety of her husband,
as well as of her father, in mind, disclosed to him the existence
of a conspiracy among his barons to betray him to his foes or
make him a prisoner during this Welsh campaign by which he
set such store.^^*^ He saw that the plot was feasible, and, on the
1 6th, countermanded all the preparations for the muster.^^^
The great onslaught upon Llywelyn resolved itself into an
order to the fleet assembled at Chester to sail around the
North-Welsh coast and inflict as much damage as was pos-
sible. ^^^ Later in the year the baffled king had recourse to

133 Rot. Claus. i. 131.

'■^^ J5.2". and Ann. S. Edm. relate the incident; the date is furnished by the
Misae Roll of 14 John — see the edition of Henry Cole {1844), pp. 236, 237.

135 Wendover says that all the hostages given up in 121 1 were put to death,
but this is an exaggeration ; Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, in particular, was spared.

136 VVendover, iii. 239; Ann. S. Edm.

137 Rot. Pat. i. 94 (letters to the sheriffs and to the baronage) ; Rot. Claus.
i. 121 (letters as to cattle). Miss Norgate assumes that there was only a tempor-
ary change of tactics on i6th August, and that the incident of the letters, followed
by the final abandonment of the expedition, is to be connected with the September
visit to Nottingham (John Lackland, pp. 168-9). But there is nothing in the rolls
to warrant this view ; on the contrary, they show that on i6th August all prepara-
tions for the Welsh war came suddenly, and for no specified reason, to an end —
see especially the letter of the i8th written to the Mayor of Angoulfime (Rot.
Claus. i. 132).

1^8 Rot. Claus. i. 121-2. Two galleys were to take surplus stores to Bristol.

640 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, another expedient ; "^ he sought out two rivals of the prince
^^"- of Gwynedd, namely, Owain ap Dafydd, who lived in England
with his mother, Emma,^*<> and GrufFydd ap Rhodri, and in-
vested these cousins of Llywelyn's with the three cantrefs of
Rhos,^''^ Rhufoniog, and Dyffryn Clwyd, promising them Arfon,
Arllechwedd, and Lleyn, if they could win them also. It does
not appear that this grant had any practical effect ; Llywelyn,
as the champion of Welsh liberty, was too firmly fixed in the
affections of his people to be thus dislodged, and the close of
the year saw him more securely established than ever.^*'^

Early in 1 2 1 3 the capture of the two castles which still
held out for the king in Gwynedd, namely, Rhuddlan and
Degannwy,"^ filled to the full Llywelyn's cup of triumph.
His alliance with Maelgwn and Gwenwynwyn still held good,
and the latter prince was able to keep Robert of Vieuxpont at
bay at Carreghofa on the Tanat.^'^* It was only in South
Wales that the family feuds of the house of Deheubarth en-
abled John to win some successes. Rhys and Owain ap
Gruffydd had had the misfortune always to espouse the losing
cause ; they had fruitlessly supported Llywelyn in 121 1 and
the king in 121 2, and they now demanded help from the crown
to recover their standing in the country. Falkes of Breaute ^*^
was sent from Glamorgan and Engelard of Cigogne ^^^ from
Hereford to their assistance, and a determined attack was made
upon the possessions of Rhys Gryg, who had refused to share
with his nephews. Late in the January of 121 3 the army
set out from Brecknock, now in the king's hands, encamped

139 Rot. Chart, i. i88 (Southwark, 30th Oct.)— c/. Gwydir Fam. 17.

I*" See note 26 above.

"1 The king, however, retained the commote of Creuddyn in this cantref,
with the castle of Degannwy.

142 Gruffydd ap Rhodri appears a little later as a captam of Welshmen in the
king's service {Rot. Claus. i. 210— 14th Aug. 1214).

"3 B.T. 278.

144 On loth June, 1213, Robert was ordered to transfer " Carrecou" to the
care of John Lestrange (Rot. Pat. i. 100). Other border castles held by him at this
time were Chirk, Oswestry, Shrawardine and" Eggelawe " {ibid, and Rot. Claus.

i- 132)- _

146 « Ffawcwn synysgal kaerdyf " {Bruts, 349 ; B.T. 274).

146 .. Synysgal henford " {ibid.). Engelard appears as sheriff of Herefordshire

in November, 1212 {Rot. Claus. i. 127). C/. Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc. 1904, P-

250,

LL V WEL YN THE GREA T. 641

at Trallwng Elgan ^^^ in Cantref Mawr, and thence marched CHAP,
against Rhys, who was defeated in the field, not far from
Llandeilo. There followed in quick succession the capture of
Dinefwr, the flight of Rhys, with his family and his retainers, to
Ceredigion to seek the protection of his brother Maelgwn, and
the capitulation of his fortress of Llandovery — disasters which
brought the fortunes of this prince to the lowest ebb and gave
the Great and the Little Cantref to his nephews. As though
this were not enough, he fell later in the year into the hands
of the king's men and was promptly imprisoned in the royal
castle of Carmarthen.

The point has now been reached when John sought relief
from the difficulties which beset him by absolute submission to
the pope and acceptance of Stephen Langton as Archbishop of
Canterbury. On 15th May, 12 13, he made over his realms of
England and Ireland to the holy see and received them again
as fiefs from the papal legate. Certain immediate advantages
were bought by this act of self-abasement ; the dreaded French
invasion was warded off, the friendship of Innocent was .secured,
the plotting of the barons came to an end. Among other
results of the political transformation, the Welsh revolt lost its
character of a holy war and became once more simple rebellion,
to the manifest disadvantage of Llywelyn and his allies. But
Innocent showed some appreciation of the service rendered to
him by the mountaineers of Wales, whose romantic story he had
no doubt often heard from the lips of Giraldus. He instructed
his legate, Pandulf, to negotiate a truce between them and the
king, and on 3rd June it was signified to the custodians of the
marches that they were to arrange for a two months' cessation
of strife.^*^ Archbishop Stephen took an active share in the
work of pacification,^*^ with the result that the truce was pro-
longed throughout the year 1214^*^ and that Wales remained
quiet while John was prosecuting in that year his campaign for

^^"^ Trallwng Elgan is a township in the north of the parish of Talley ; it be-
longed to thecanonsof that place (Afon. Angl. iv. 164; Arch. Camb. V. x. [1893]

323)-

'^*^Rot. Pat. i. 100 (Wingham). '^*^ Ibid. 103 (Northampton).

ISO On i8th August, 1214, the king wrote from Angouleme, ratifying the truce
concluded between the justiciar, Bishop Peter of Winchester, and Llywelyn,
Maelgwn, Gwenwynwyn and Madog ap Gruifydd {Rot. Pat. i. 120). Madog had
clearly returned to his old allegiance in the course of the year.

642 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, the recovery of Normandy. Llywelyn had won all he desired
in Gwynedd ; his allies, Maelgwn and Gwenwynwyn, were
secure in their territories of Ceredigion and Southern Powys ;
so that it needed no great effort on his part to comply with
the terms of the truce.

John had hitherto staved off, by the display of force or by
skilful change of policy, the outburst of angry rebellion which
his unbridled tyranny made sooner or later inevitable. His
failure to achieve success abroad brought the domestic trouble
to a head ; the defeat of the coalition he had formed against
Philip Augustus of France at the battle of Bouvines on 27th
July, 1 2 14, was a blow from which he never recovered.
When he returned to England in October, he found a large
section of the baronage, who had with them the sympathy of
Langton, in open opposition ; from his fruitless interview with
the malcontents at Bury St. Edmunds in November may be
dated the beginning of the movement which led to the sealing
of Magna Carta.^^^ His first thought was, as usual, to divide
his enemies, and during the next few months he made diligent
efforts to detach certain powerful interests — the church, the
primate, the citizens of London — from the baronial cause.
In pursuance of this policy, he began to angle for the support
of the Welsh, having, perhaps, in his mind the example of his
father, who had derived valuable help from Wales in suppres-
sing the feudal rebellion of 1173.^^^ On i8th December,
being at Monmouth on a short visit to the Herefordshire
marches, he ordered Engelard of Cigogne to deliver to
Llywelyn four of his hostages, in response, as he said, to the
petition of his daughter Joan.^^^ At the beginning of March,
121 5, he went a step further and commissioned four men who
were in his confidence, including William of Cornhill, the new
bishop of Lichfield, to interview Llywelyn, Maelgwn, Gwen-
wynwyn, and Madog ap Gruffydd on the border and make

'^^^ Ann. C. MS. B. aptly quotes, in reference to this movement, the
prophecy of Merlin — " nam discidium alienigenarum orietur " {Hist. Reg. vii. 3).

15* See page 544.

^^'■^ Rot. Pat. i. 125 ; Rymer, i. 126. See also Rot. Claus. i. 181, for a letter
of the same date to the sheriff of Gloucester, asking him to see that the hostages
pay all charges incurred on their behalf before they depart. In January, 1215,
William of Cantilupe was ordered to deliver another of Llywelyn's hostages to
his clerk Ystrwyth (Rot. Pat. i. 126).

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 643

such offers as would secure their support in the coming CHAP,
struggle.^^^ In April Gwenwynwyn was gratified by the
release of a hostage who had been confined in the distant
castle of Richmond.^^^ It is impossible to mistake the pur-
pose of these overtures, made at a time when the resistance of
the barons was daily growing stronger and pointing unmistak-
ably to civil war.

But the net was spread in vain in the sight of men who
now saw their opportunity of profiting by the discords of the
English realm. John found that his belated show of friendship
made as slight an impression upon the Welsh as upon the
other powers which he was striving to lure from the baronial
cause. The situation had now arisen which was to repeat
itself more than once in the constitutional conflicts of this
century; the barons of the march, Walter Lacy, John of
Monmouth, Hugh Mortimer, Walter Clifford, Peter fitz
Herbert, ranged themselves on the side of the king and of
royal authority ; '^^^ the Welsh, led by the prince of Gwynedd,
threw in their lot with the advocates of reform. For the
people of Wales, as for the English folk, the time had come
when there was greater reason to fear the central power, grown
incredibly strong, than the little tyrants of the countryside,
whose feudal pride and insolence had been sorely humbled.
Thus it was that Llywelyn, rejecting the offers of the king,
entered into a close alliance with the northern insurgents, and
when they had on 17th May made their position secure by
the seizure of London, marched upon Shrewsbury, where town
and castle were surrendered to him without a blow.^^^

1^^ Rot. Claus. i. 203 ; Rymer, i. 127. For William see Diet. Nat. Biog.
xii. p. 228. The suggested place of meeting (" Ruth vel Crucem Griffin ") was
possibly Rhyd y Groes, near Welshpool, the scene of the victory of GrufFydd ap
Llywelyn in 1039. The letter to the Welsh princes in Rot. Pat. i. 131 (Notting-
ham, 25th March) was probably given to the commissioners to take with them as
their authority to the conference.

i»» Rot. Pat. i. 132.

156 jhe first four were at the head of a force assembled at Gloucester for the
king's defence at the end of April, 1215 (Rot. Pat. i. 134 — Marlborough, 30th
April). Walter Lacy had been reinstated in his lands, except Ludlow, in July,
1213 {Rot. Claus. i. 147), and Ludlow was added in October, 1214 {ibid. 175).
Peter was with the king when the Charter was sealed.

1" B.T. 282. Letters despatched by John on 15th, i6th, and 24th May {Rot.
Pat. i. 136, 138) show that he was anxious about the safety of the great Shrop-
shire fortress of Bridgenorth (" Bruges ").

644 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, The link which connected Llywelyn with the baronial

XVII

■ organisation was forged, there is good reason to believe, by
Giles de Breos, bishop of Hereford.^^^ Like most of the
English bishops, Giles had been in exile during the interdict
period, but his was a private rather than a public quarrel, and,
though on his return in 121 3 he had taken his place in the
royal counsels,^^^ he had not forgotten the cruel persecution of
his house, the death of his father in poverty abroad, the wast-
ing end of his mother and eldest brother in a Windsor dungeon.
John had at first shown a disposition to treat him well and
had granted him the Breos lands in England and in Wales,
but had then delayed the fulfilment of his promise until the
bishop's heart was ripe for rebellion.^®*^ About the middle of
May, Giles sent his brother Reginald ^^^ to the marches, with
orders to join the Welsh in an attack upon the constables who
held the Breos castles for the king ; in this way Pencelli,^^^
Abergavenny, White Castle, and Skenfrith ^^^ were won, and
when the bishop himself appeared upon the scene, the still
more impoitant strongholds of Brecon, Hay, Radnor, Builth,
and Blaen Llyfni were regained for the family which had held
them for so many years. Throughout there was a close co-

i''^ The alliance with the barons is proved by the Welsh articles in Magna
Carta, no less than by the statements in B.T. and Ann. C. MS. B., while the
latter source adds the special league with Bishop Giles.

1^" He witnesses royal charters dated 15th December, 1213, 28th October,
22nd November, 27th December, 1214, gth and 15th January, 1215 (Rot. Cart.
i. 195, 202, 203, 204, 206).

160 For the "fine" see Rot. Claus. i. 189 (5th March, 1215) ; on loth May
(Rot. Pat. i. 141) John made a concession with regard to it, but it was too late.
By 15th May Giles was in open hostility — see the order for the seizure of his
Gloucestershire estates in Rot. Claus. i. 200.

181 B. T. has " robert " {Bruts, 352), but no Robert de Breos of this age is other-
wise known. Probably the author of this chronicle wrongly extended an R of
his Latin original, which stood for Reginaldus, Powel (196) has, in fact,
" Reynold ".

162 On the Usk, below Brecon. See Breconsh. (2), pp. 458-9 ; Arch. Camb.
IV. iii. (1872), 386.

163 The three castles of Grosmont, White Castle (or Llantilio — it stands in
the parish of that name), and Skenfrith (from the Welsh " ynys gynwreid " — see
Bruts, 352-3 and Lib. Land. 419 [index]), forming a triangle in Upper Gwent,
nearly always went together. In the reign of Henry II. they were royal castles,
for which the sheriff of Hereford was responsible — see Pipe Roll, 7 Hen. II.
19-20; 8, p. 58; 9, p. 7; 10, p. 6; II, p. 100. John gave them on 26th July,
1201, to Hubert de Burgh (Rot. regn. Joh. 19), but on i6th December, 1205,
transferred them to William de Breos (Rot. Cart. i. 160 ; Rot. Pat. i. 57). There
are considerable remains of all three — see Coxe (2), 264-72.

LL YWEL YN THE GREA T. 645

operation between the house of Breos and the Welsh, erst- CHAP
while the most obstinate of foes : Reginald sealed the alliance
by marrying Llywelyn's daughter, the dark-eyed Gwladus,^®*
and Elfael, once the theatre of bloody strife between the two
races, was left, with its castles of Painscastle and Colwyn, to
be occupied by the Welsh under Gwallter ab Einion Clud.

Meanwhile the princes of South Wales, it may be readily
believed, were not idle. The sons of Gruffydd ap Rhys,
fickle as ever in their allegiance and yet never separated from
each other, cut themselves adrift from the royal cause and came
to terms with their uncle Maelgwn. On the 27th of May ^^^
Maelgwn and Rhys invaded Dyfed and were well received by
the Welsh inhabitants of Emlyn and Elfed ; resistance was
offered in Cemais, so that they ravaged the province, burning
the vill of Maenclochog, and then retired to seek reinforce-
ments. The representative of the royal power in South-west
Wales was the Earl Marshall, who had the custody of the
castles of Cardigan and Carmarthen,^^^ as well as his own
fortresses of Pembroke and Cilgerran, but he had at the
moment a more important office to discharge as the king's
chief lay counsellor in the negotiations with the insurgent
barons, so that he was forced to let the Welsh rising run its
course. It occurred to someone that it might be advantage-
ous to give Rhys Gryg his liberty, and the order was accord-
ingly issued two days before the famous meeting at Runny-
mead ; ^^'^ its sole effect was, however, to add another to the
list of Welsh chieftains in revolt. Maelgwn and Owain ap
Gruffydd went north to secure the aid of Llywelyn, while the
younger Rhys swept the coast of the Bristol Channel from
Swansea to Carmarthen.^®^

164 gy^ 286; Ann. Wigorn. and Dunst. (p. 52). She survived Reginald
and in 1230 married Ralph Mortimer {Ann. Wigorn. s.a.) ; widowed the second
time in 1246, she died in 1251 {B.T. 336 — "y bu uarw Gwladus Du "),

166 << In vigilia assencionis " (Ann. C. MS. B.).

166 On 29th Jan. 1214, John ordered Falkes of Breaut^ to deliver to the Earl
Marshall the castles of" Kaermerdin, Cardinan et Goher " {Rot. Pat. i. 109).

^^'^ Rot. Pat. i. 143 (Windsor, 13th June). " Resus Boscan " = Rhys Fychan ;
for the epithet see chap. xvi. note 17.

168 Four castles in Gower were captured by Rhys, namely, those of Loughor,

" Castell Hu " (possibly at Talybont — see Powel, 196 ; Morgan, Survey of West

Gower, London, 1899, pp. 5-8), Oystermouth ( = Ystum Llwynarth — see Arch.

Camb. IV. xi. [1880], 155), and" Seinhenyd ". The last named cannot have been

VOL. II. 19

646 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Magna Carta has often been described as a treaty of peace

between the king and his subjects. So far as the Welsh were
concerned, this was its sole significance. What they desired
from the king was, not the redress of constitutional grievances,
the Welsh legal system being independent of the English and
wholly under Welsh control, but the reversal of certain acts
arising out of the state of war between the two countries — the
restoration of lands and castles seized by the crown, the freeing
of hostages, the return of charters deposited in pledge of good
behaviour. These demands were included by the barons in
the articles which they submitted to John on 15th June, and
were accepted by him.^^^ The charter provides that all lands,
liberties and the like, in England and in Wales,^'^^ of which the
Welsh have been deprived without legal warrant since the king's
accession, shall be forthwith restored to them ; in cases of dispute,
there shall be a proper trial on the march, the law invoked to
be English, Welsh, or marcher law, according to the situation
of the land which is claimed. The Welsh are to reciprocate as
to any unlawful seizures made upon their side.^^^ Seizures of
the period 11 54 to 11 99 are to stand over, unless already the
subject of a legal process, until the king has performed, or
been released from, his vow to go on crusade. All Welsh
hostages, including Llywelyn's son Gruffydd,^^^ are to be re-
leased and all charters returned to their owners.

in Senghenydd, which is many miles from Gower ; it has been variously fixed
at Llangenydd {Arch. Camb. II. ii. [1851], 67-8; Owen, Pemb. i. 258) and at
Swansea (Morgan ut supra, 221-50 ; W. People, p. 248).

169 For chapters 56, 57, and 58 of M. Carta (text, translation and comment-
ary) see McKechnie, Magna Carta (Glasgow, 1905), pp. 533-7. The Articles
of the Barons, §§ 44, 45, will be found on p. 574.

^'i' Cases in point were i : Ashford, which was in the king's hands in January,
1215 (Rot. Claus. i. 185-6) ; 2. Ellesmere, in John's possession in August, 1214
{ibid. 171) ; 3. the church of Salkeld, given by the king to Thomas of Argenteuil
in September, 1214 {Rot, Pat. i. 122).

I'^i McKechnie is surely wrong in classing this among instances of the action
of the barons in securing their own rights, since the marcher interests of the in-
surgents were very small. The Earl of Essex (lord of Glamorgan — see note 43
above) is, of course, a notable exception, and one may add Foulk fitz Warren,
who since 1204 had been lord of Whittington {Rot. Pat. i. 46 — cf. Rot. Claus.
i. 126 and Testa de Nevill, 56 (inquest of 1212)).

I'^^The " filium Lewelini " is not named, but can hardly be other than Gruff-
ydd, who was handed over to the king in 121 1 (see note 121), was still in captivity
on 30th August, 1213 {Rot. Pat. i. 103), and, according to " O Oes Gwrtheyrn "
{Comment. (2), i6o-i), was released at the instance of Archbishop Stephen about
1215.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 647

The charter, however, was no sooner sealed than suspicion CHAP,
began to grow up on both sides and to blight the hopes which
had been founded upon it. At first the work of reconciliation
seemed to be making good progress ; the Archbishop of Canter-
bury arranged at the end of July to escort Llywelyn and his
allies to the royal presence,^'^^ hostages were set free,^^* and
John made a grant to the prince of Gwynedd of the manors
of Bidford in Warwickshire and Suckley in Worcestershire.^'^^
But, as the summer wore on into autumn, it became clear that
the peace between king and baronage would not stand, and
the power of the church to act as mediator was crippled by the
action of the pope, who denounced the charter and the whole
movement for reform. Bishop Giles, who had hitherto held
aloof from all negotiations,^'^^ now felt compelled to yield
obedience ; ^'^'^ he made his peace with John on 21st October,^^^
but at Gloucester on the return journey fell sick and died.^'^®
By this time war had broken out and the barons had taken
the decisive step of inviting Louis, the eldest son of Philip
Augustus, to bring a French army to their aid and thus win
for himself the English crown. The first contingent of troops
sent in response to this call landed at the end of November.

The moment had now come for the renewal of the Welsh
campaign. Early in December, Llywelyn appeared in South
Wales at the head of an army gathered from every Welsh
state which retained its independence ; with him were Hywel
ap Gruffydd ap Cynan,^^** Llywelyn ap Maredudd ap

1" Rot. Pat. i. 150 (Oxford, 22nd July).

^'''^Ibid. 151 (Bridgenorth, 31st July).

^''^ Rot. Claus. i. 226 (Downton, 19th Aug.).

176 He was not at Runnymead, and on 2nd July John invited him, with any
friends he might choose, to an amicable conference {Rot. Pat. i. 146).

i''''"Rac ofyn y pab," says B.T. expressly. A reference in Papal Letters
i. 41 shows he was threatened with suspension.

17^ A safe-conduct was issued to him on gth Oct. {Rot. Pat. i. 156) and on
the 2ist John announces the agreement, made at the siege of Rochester {ibid.
157 ; Rot. Claus. i. 232).

"9 17th November {Reg. Sacr. (2), 53). In B.T. 284 the reading of MSS. B.
and C. (note b) is to be preferred to tliat of the Red Book.

180 Hywel died in 1216 and was buried at Aberconwy {Ann. C. MS. B. ;
B.T. 294). Prydydd y Moch mourned his early death {Myv. Arch. I. 295 [208] ;
with "huysgwr yn oed gwas " cf. "was ieuanc " of MS. C. of B.T.). The
" i ewythr " of the Book of Basingwerk {B.T. 288) is one of the inept additions
of Gutyn Owain.

19 *

648 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Cynan,^^^ Gwenwynwyn, Maredudd ap Rhotpert/*^ Rhys Gryg,
• Maelgwn, the sons of Grufifydd ap Rhys, those of Maelgwn ap
Cadwallon (of Maelienydd), and, as representing their lord, the
household troops of Madog ap Grufifydd, It was a decisive
epoch in the career of the prince of Aberffraw — the first occa-
sion on which he had led the whole chieftaincy of Wales to battle,
his first appearance as a war-leader in South Wales. He won
such victories as secured to him the unquestioned primacy of his
race until the end of his life. On the 8th he attacked Car-
marthen, for seventy years the centre of royal power in the
valley of the Towy ; ^^^ in five days it was surrendered to him,
after which with little ado he made himself master of the castles
of Kidwelly, Llanstephan, St. Clear's, Laugharne, Narberth,^**'*
and Newport.^^^ Christmas was now approaching, but the
mildness of the season encouraged the princes to persist in
their campaign and they were rewarded on the 26th by the
capture of Cardigan and of Cilgerran.^^^ Thereupon, as the
patriotic chronicler tells us with triumph and pride, " the Welsh
returned joyfully to their homes, but the French, driven out
of all their holds, wandered hither and thither like birds in
melancholy wise ".^^^

These successes left the crown no foothold in South Wales
save around Pembroke and Haverfordwest. The Breos lands
were in the possession of Reginald, Llywelyn's son-in-law and
ally, who had seized them on the death of his brother the
bishop.^^^ Glamorgan was ruled by the insurgent Earl of

181 Maredudd ap Cynan died in 1212 (" O Oes Gwrtheyrn " in Comment. (2),
160). His elegy was sung by Prydydd y Moch, who deplores (Myv. Arch. I.
297 [210])

Dwyn meibyon kynan kyn bu Ilwyd yr un.

182 Of Cydewain — see note 131. Maredudd was the son of Robert ap Lly-
warch ap Trahaearn (Dwnn, i. 107), who died in 1171 (B.T. 208 ; B. Saes. s.a.).
He founded (before 1236) the Cistercian nunnery of Llanllugan (Mont. Coll. ii.
[1869], 305-6).

183 It had been in English hands since 1145 — see p. 501.

i84Narberth is included in MS. B. of B.T. and also in Mostyn MS. 116; cf.
also B.T. 306.

185 The Welsh "Trefdraeth" (Strand Hamlet), which had since 1195 taken
the place of Nevern as the seat of the lords of Cemais. The new "port," or
borough, was founded by William fitz Martin.

186 B.T. assigns the surrender of Cilgerran to the 27th (p. 286).
i8M«». C. MS. B. 188 B.r,

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 649

Essex, in right of his wife Isabella. Llywelyn resolved to es- CHAP,
tablish his influence in the south on a still firmer footing by a
formal partition of the Welsh districts, a partition in which he
wisely took no share for himself, but which gave him the more
valuable status of overlord over the sons and grandsons of the
Lord Rhys. It was made at Aberdovey early in 12 16, in the
presence of an assembly of magnates, which may be regarded
as virtually a Welsh parliament, the first of its kind, though
not, it is true, assembled together under the provisions of any
Welsh law. The justice and moderation with which the deli-
cate task of division was performed are evinced by the per-
manence of the results, which were not substantially affected
during the lifetime of Llywelyn. Maelgwn received in Dyfed
the Uppermost Cantref^^^ (with Carmarthen), Cemais and
Emlyn (with Cilgerran), in Ystrad Tywi the two commotes
of Mallaen and Hirfryn (with Llandoveryy^" and in Ceredigion
the two commotes of Gwinionydd and Mabwnion. To Rhys
Gryg were assigned Cantref Mawr and Cantref Bychan (except
the two commotes allotted to Maelgwn), and therewith Cydweli
and Carnwyllion. Ceredigion, with the castle of Cardigan,^''^
was made over to the sons of Gruffydd ap Rhys, with the ex-
ception of Maelgwn's commotes, which lay along the river Teifi.
Not long after this South-Welsh triumph, Llywelyn won a
final victory over his old enemy Gwenwynwyn. The prince
of Powys had, in the fervour of the late movement, done him
homage, given him hostages, recorded his loyal submission in
formal documents. But he could not reconcile himself to the
defeat of all his ambitions, and early in 12 16 he lent an ear to
the persuasions of John, who, well pleased at the prospect of a
renewal of the old dissensions, gave him his forfeited land in
Derbyshire ^^'^ once more, and added the important manor of
Montgomery.^®^ Llywelyn was strong enough to take im-

189 The " [p]elunyawc " of B.T, {Bruts, 355), i.e., Peuliniog, was included in
Cantref Gwarthaf — see p. 265.

i^o He had also the " maenor " of Myddfai in the Middle commote (Perfedd)
of Cantref Bychan.

i»i " Castell Nant yr Arian," added in B.T., was near Goginan, in the com-
mote of Perfedd.

i'*^ On 13th April, 1216, at Reading, John ordered Brian de I'lsle to deliver
to Gwenwynwyn his land " in Pecco " (Rot. Pat. i. 175).

i'*^ As early as 28th January John mentions in a letter to William Cantilupe
that " terra de Mongumery " has been promised to Gwenwynwyn and must be
reserved for him {Rot. Claus. i. 246).

650 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, mediate action ; marching upon Southern Powys, he seized
his defiant vassal's dominions and drove him before him into
Cheshire. This was the closing chapter in the history of the
hapless heir of Owain Cyfeiliog, for before the end of the year
he died/^* leaving an infant son named Gruffydd, who could not
for many years make good his claim to his father's inheritance.
Such was the pitiful end of a career that once bade fair to be
illustrious and noble — a gray and sullen sunset, whose leaden
clouds quenched the bright beams which once had illumined
the whole of Mid Wales. Gwenwynwyn had in him the making
of a patriot, but fate decreed that he should rule over Powys,
the weakest of the three realms of Wales, and that he should be
pitted against Llywelyn, whom he could not overcome and
whose ascendancy he could not endure.

The prince of Gwynedd had now little to fear but the pos-
sible recovery by John of his old authority and despotic power,
and the king's death on 19th October, 12 16, relieved him ere
long of all anxiety upon this account. The baffled tyrant had
spent the last few months of his life in destructive raids upon
those parts of his realm which he thought not to be well
affected to him, and in July and August he was on the Welsh
border, where, failing to secure the submission of Reginald de
Breos, he burnt his castles of Hay and Radnor and also the
Fitz Alan castle of Oswestry.^^^ But he could not touch Lly-
welyn, and his death created an entirely new situation, which
was for the Welsh leader a hopeful and auspicious one. Even
if, as proved to be the case, the French pretender should fail
in his enterprise, and the house of Anjou, represented no longer
by the hated John but by his nine year-old son, should regain
the allegiance of the English people, the power of the crown
could not, on its new basis, be for many years as menacing as
it had been during the past reign. Llywelyn awaited the
result of the war with equanimity, confident that, whatever its

18* Ann. C. MS. B. is the sole authority for the date (its 1215 = 1216), but
no reference to Gwenwynwyn as alive is to be found after 27th June, 1216 {Rot.
Pat. i. 189— Corfe).

I*'' His itinerary is as follows: July 24-27, Hereford; 27, 28, Hay (= y Gelli
of B.T. 292 — see p. 437 of this book) ; 29-31, Hereford; 31, Aug. i, Leominster ;
2, Radnor (= maes hyfeid of B.T.) and " Kingeshemed " ; 3, " Kingeshemed"
and Clun; 4, Shrewsbury; 6-10, Oswestry (not Whitchurch — see note 118 to
this chapter) ; 11-14, Shrewsbury.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 651

issue, he would be able at its close to dictate his own terms CHAP.

r. XVII.

of peace.

The young Henry III. had not only the advantage of birth
and of wise counsels around him — for his regent was the
prudent and just Earl Marshall — but he was also supported by
the whole weight of the ecclesiastical power. Innocent had
been succeeded by a new pontiff,^*® but Honorius III. was
no less ardent in his devotion to the interests of the reigning
house, and his legate Guala joined in the coronation of Henry,
concurred in the reissue of the charter which formed the politi-
cal platform of the new government, and excommunicated all
the barons of the opposite party. The attitude of the pope
naturally governed that of the bishops, and among the prelates
who were in attendance at Henry's court at Bristol on 12th
November were lorwerth of St. David's, Henry of Llandaff,
Cadwgan of Bangor, and Reiner of St. Asaph.^®'' They no
doubt gave their countenance to the interdict pronounced by
Guala at this time upon the whole of Wales as a punishment
for its support of Louis,^^^ and left Llywelyn with no shadow
of ecclesiastical support. Of greater practical importance to
him at this moment was the gradual crumbling away of the
French or baronial party, as the issue came to be more and
more clearly defined as that of English versus foreign rule.
The barons of the march, it has been already remarked, for
the most part took the royalist side in this struggle, but at the
death of John there were gaps in this section of the party,
which the year 1 2 1 7 saw step by step filled. The knights of
Glamorgan,^99 pg^gr fitz Herbert,2«o Isabel of Gloucester.^oi

1*^ Consecrated 24th July, 1216.

19'' See the preamble to the charter of 12 16.

198 ^u^j, Waverl. s.a.

199 Raymond of Sully, Herbert of St. Quintin, Robert le Sor, Henry of
Umfraville and Gilbert of Turbeville submitted on 28th June {Rot. Claus. i.
312-13).

200 Peter was on the king's side as late as May, 1216 (Rot. Pat. i. 184 ; Rot.
Claus. i. 272, 273), but by 6th August he had gone over to the opposition {Rot,
Claus. i, 280). He returned to his allegiance on 13th July, 1217 {Rot. Claus. i.

314).

201 Her second husband, the Earl of Essex (see note 43 to this chapter),
died in February, 1216 (Coggeshall). At the time of her submission (17th Sept. —
Pat. Rolls, Hen. III. i, 92 ; Rot. Claus. i. 322) a third marriage, to Hubert de
Burgh, was contemplated or had been effected {Rot, Claus. i. 319), but she died
before 15th October (Pat. Rolls, Hen. III. i. 105), leaving no issue.

652 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Thomas Corbet of Cause.^o^ John fitz Alan.^os and Foulk fitz
Warren ^^^ successively made their peace and received their
lands again, each one an ally lost to Llywelyn in his contest
with the crown.

The most serious defection of this kind was that of Regi-
nald de Breos. Many efforts had been made by John "^^^ and
by the Earl Marshall '^^^ to win him over, and at last, on 23rd
June, 12 17, it was announced that he had submitted and had
been restored to all the possessions of his house.^**^ His Welsh
relatives were much displeased at this desertion of their cause ;
his nephews, Rhys and Owain,^**^ at once crossed the moors of
Tregaron and fell upon the province of Builth, while his father-
in-law Llywelyn invaded Brecknock and threatened destruction
to the town of Aberhonddu. Through the intervention of Rhys,
the burgesses were allowed to offer hostages for the payment
of 100 marks and thus escaped fire and pillage, while Llywelyn
pushed on for Gower. His march across the bleak morasses
of the Black Mountains and down the valley of the Tawe was
an arduous one, but his purpose of conquest seemed almost
achieved when Reginald, with six other knights, came to meet
him and by the surrender of Swansea ^°^ averted the further
ruin of his lands. Leaving Rhys Gryg to guard the mouth of
the Tawe, Llywelyn set off in a fresh direction, and the news
was soon spread that it was his intention to subjugate Rhos.
A deputation of Flemings who met him at Cefn Cynfarchan,^^*'

202 His father, Robert Corbet, had been disseised on his account (Pat. Rolls,
Hen. ni. i. 127).

203 William fitz Alan H. of Oswestry and Clun died in 1210 {Ann. Dttnst.),
leaving his heir, William fitz Alan III., under age. Thomas of Erdington had
the custody of the lands in August, 1214 (Rot. Claus. i. 170) and married his
daughter Mary to the young William (ibid. 330, 356), who, however, died with-
out issue not long afterwards. The younger brother John then came into the
property, but, being on the baronial side, did not enter into full possession until
his submission on 14th November, 1217 (Rot. Claus. i. 343).

204 He was " manifestus inimicus noster " as late as September, 1217 (Rot.
Claus. i. 321), but had submitted before nth February, 1218 (ibid. 352).

^^^Rot. Pat. I. 184, 192. 206_Ro<. Claus. i. 335.

207 Ibid. 312 ; Pat. Rolls, Hen. III. i. 72-3. ^os Sons of Matilda de Breos.

209 A comparison of B.T. and Ann. C. MS. B. at this point will certainly
confirm the supposition that the " Sein Henydd " of the former is Swansea.
For the establishment of the Breos family in Gower see note 44 above.

210 See MS. C. of B.T. Cefn Cynfarchan formed part of the original en-
dowment of Whitland Abbey (Rot. Chart, i. 206) ; it lies a little eastward of
Llanfallteg.

LL YWEL YN THE GREA T. 653

near Whitland, could not turn him from the enterprise, and, CHAP,

7 XVII

having forded the Western Cleddau at Wolfsdale,'^^^ he was
preparing to assault Haverford, when lorwerth, the canon of
Talley who had been made bishop of St. David's, intervened
in the interests of peace and induced him to retire on receiving
twenty-four hostages from the burgesses as a pledge of their
willingness to submit to his rule, or, in the alternative, to pay
him a fine of 1,000 marks before Michaelmas.

Meanwhile the cause of Louis and the insurgent barons
had reached a desperate pass, and on nth September, 12 17,
the Treaty of Lambeth was concluded, which ensured the
withdrawal of the foreign claimant and the union of all Eng-
land under the young Henry III. A clause in the treaty ex-
tended its benefits to Llywelyn and the Welsh, if they wished
to be included,^^^ but, as the terms offered to them involved
the surrender of all their late conquests, it is no marvel that
they were rejected. The prince of Gwynedd knew that he had
but to bide his time to obtain peace on very different condi-
tions. His ally, Morgan ap Hywel, was attacked by the Earl
Marshall and deprived of his ancestral seat of Caerleon,'^^^ but
he himself was not so vulnerable, and in March, 121 8, after
long negotiations,^^* terms were granted to him which no doubt
realised his highest expectations. Having been absolved by
the authority of the legate from the excommunication he had
incurred by his resistance to the pope's ward, he did homage to
the king at Worcester in the presence of Guala, the Earl Mar-
shall, and all the magnates of the realm, and was confirmed
in the possession of all his conquests. ^^^ The royal castles of
Cardigan and Carmarthen, to which he could lay no hereditary
claim, were formally placed in his custody, to be maintained
at his own charges until the king was of age '^^^ and could

2" " Lewelinus fuit [apud] Woluedale \sic MS.] in Ros" — Ann. C. MS. C.
in the same year as its notice of Henry's coronation.

212 Rymer, i. 148.

213 B.T. 302 ; L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal, ed. Paul Meyer (Paris,
1894), ii. 277-9. Morgan had succeeded his father Hywel (for whom see p. 572)
about 1210; he attests a Bassaleg charter of 1214-6 (Mon. Angl. iv. 634) as
" Morgan de Karlion".

21^ A settlement was expected in November, 1217 — see Rymer, i. 149.

215 The documents will be found in Rymer, i. 150 ; Rot. Clans, i. 378-9 ; Pat.
Rolls, Hen. III. i. 143. The date was i6th March.

218 This term, which is definitely mentioned in the crown missive to the men
of the castelries of Cardigan and Carmarthen, was a common one at the time, it

6S4 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, dispose of them as he pleased. The lands of Gwenwynwyn,
" including Montgomery, were similarly vested in him as custodian
until the heirs of his old rival attained their majority. He did
not succeed in obtaining the restoration of Caerleon,^^'^ but in
all other respects the peace was greatly to the advantage of
Wales, and Llywelyn had no difficulty in persuading the lesser
^ princes to follow his example and render homage to a king
whose counsellors showed so pacific a spirit. ^^^

The Earl Marshall, pattern of chivalry as he was, nowhere
appears in a more unselfish and patriotic light than in this
surrender, for the sake of the security of Henry's trembling
throne, of two castles in the future of which he was, as lord of
Pembroke, most intimately concerned. It was certainly not
to his private advantage that Cardigan and Carmarthen should
be held by the powerful prince of North Wales, but he waived
this consideration in view of the urgent necessity of a general
pacification which would give England time to recover from
the wounds of civil war. The desire to put an end to strife
was general ; Earl Ranulf of Chester came to terms with
Llywelyn,'^^^ leaving to him his acquisition of Mold, and then
set out for the East, with other great English lords who wished
to draw the sword in nobler quarrels than had of late engaged
them. The year 121 8 closed in profounder peace between
English and Welsh than had been seen for many a long year,
and yet the struggle had not exhausted the energy of
Llywelyn, who had merely completed the first stage in his
victorious career, the period of growth, of youthful triumph, of
ascendancy achieved. He had still before him many years of
strenuous and successful work, of assured supremacy, of good
fortune which scarcely knew a rebuff.

being held that no valid grant in perpetuity could be made while the king was a
minor — see Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc. II. xviii. (1904), 280.

217 According to the author of the metrical life of the Earl Marshall, there
was a debate on the question at Worcester (ii. 279-82).

218 B.T. 304; Rymer, i. 151 (Rot. Claus. i. 362); Pat. Rolls, Hen. III. i.

155-

2iM«M. Cest.s.a.

CHAPTER XVIII.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT: MATURITY.

(In addition to the Close and Patent Rolls and Rymer's Foedera, Shirley's
Letters of the Reign of Henry III. supplies much useful record material. Chron-
icles are represented by Wendover and the Annates Monastici. Of modern
works I have used Tout's History of England from 1216 to 1377.)

I. From the Peace of Worcester to the Kerry
Campaign.

The history of Llywelyn, from the Peace of Worcester until CHAP,
his death in 1240, is that of a prince who was supreme beyond
challenge in his hereditary dominions and who could therefore
pursue a bold and independent policy in matters external, un-
fettered by the fear of trouble at home. An attempt will first
be made to outline the course and development of this policy
down to the time when advancing years moderated the am-
bition and checked the energy of Llywelyn, and thereafter a
brief sketch will be given of the background of domestic
security, disturbed only by family discords, which was the
basis of the power of the strongest ruler Wales had known
since the Norman Conquest.^

If the Peace of Worcester be carefully considered, it will be
seen to rest upon the assumption that Llywelyn was to be
humoured and pacified rather than coerced, to be won to
loyalty to the young king by the fullest recognition of his
predominance in Wales and not driven into rebellion by irk-
some restrictions upon his power. This was the liberal and
statesmanlike policy adopted by Guala and by the Earl
Marshall, and, though the return of the legate to Italy in
November, 121 8, and the death of the earl in May, 1219, ere
long removed from the scene the two men chiefly responsible

^The chronology of B.T. is correct from 1218 to 1240, but there is much
confusion in both MSS. of ^nn, Camb.

655

6s6 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, for it, it was not sensibly modified during the next few years.
The new legate, Pandulf, who exercised the chief control over
English affairs until July, 1221, was no less friendly to
Llywelyn than his predecessor had been, nor did the justiciar,
Hubert de Burgh, who, after the departure of Pandulf, stepped
into the position of chief minister of the crown, think it at all
necessary to depart from the old footing of confidence and
goodwill. Though there was much negotiation and confer-
ence about matters in dispute, nothing like a breach between
the government and Llywelyn took place until 1223. On
lOth July, 1 219, Pandulf had an amicable meeting with the
prince at Shrewsbury,^ Early in May, 1220, there was at
the same place an important border council, attended by the
legate, the justiciar and the Archbishop of Canterbury,^ when
Llywelyn was gratified by two concessions, the grant of a
market to his Warwickshire manor of Bidford * and the re-
cognition of his son David as his heir.^ At the beginning
of July, 1 22 1, he was once more at Shrewsbury, whither the
court had come to settle a dispute between him and Rhys
leuanc.® The latter complained that, although Maelgwn, his
uncle, had received Carmarthen in accordance with the parti-
tion of 1 2 16, he had not been established in Cardigan, as that
compact had provided. Llywelyn, who had at first resented
the demand and seized Rhys's castle of Aberystwyth, yielded
the point at Shrewsbury, but the grant of a market to Elles-
mere ^ and other favours ^ he received show that his prestige

2 Letters, Hen. HI. i. 136. Shirley assigns the letter to 1220, but it cannot
be separated from another despatched by Pandulf from the same place on nth
July, which most certainly belongs to 12 19. See H. and St. i. 457-8.

^ Rymer, i. 159. Worcester and 7th January had originally been fixed for
this meeting [Rot. Claus. i. 434), but at Llywelyn's request the day had been put
off to gth February (Letters, Hen. HL i. 58-g ; 76). This arrangement, again,
was upset by the need for Pandulf s presence in London (Rymer, i. 158). For
the letter in which Llywelyn expresses his readiness to come to Shrewsbury see
Letters, Hen. III. i. 1 13-14.

* Rot. Claus. i. 417, 419.

^ Rymer, i. 159. This is the earliest allusion to David.

^B.T. is the authority for this dispute and its settlement. Independent
evidence as to the Shrewsbury meeting is afforded by Pat. Rolls, H. 111. i. 294
(safe-conduct for Llywelyn, 23rd June) and Rot. Claus. i. 463 (letters dated
from Shrewsbury, 28th June to 2nd July).

' Rot. Claus. i. 463.

^ On 3rd July (Bridgenorth), an annual pension of ten marks was granted to
Llywelyn's clerk, Ystrwyth (ibid. 464).

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 657

had not suffered. In January, 1222, he was specially pro- CHAP,
tected in the enjoyment of his manors of Suckley and Bidford,^
and, when Rhys leuanc died in the August of this year,^*^ it
was with the royal authority that he took charge of the lands
of the deceased,^^ and, in default of a direct heir, divided them
between Maelgwn and Owain ap Gruffydd. He was still treated
by the crown as its best friend and supporter in all dealings
with the princes of Wales.

Yet the situation was none the less made difficult and
precarious by the inevitable feuds between the Welsh and the
marcher lords. There were unsettled questions, such as the
ownership of Maelienydd, claimed by Hugh Mortimer from its
Welsh lords, relatives and vassals of Llywelyn,^^ Petty local
quarrels were certain to draw the great men into their toils and
ultimately to involve the king and the prince in a conflict on
the grand scale. With one of the border magnates Llywelyn,
indeed, maintained throughout the most cordial relations,
amounting to a veritable alliance. Earl Ranulf of Chester
had a fellow-feeling for a great territorial lord whose franchises
were threatened by the activity of the central government, and
his warm support of Llywelyn relieved the prince from all fear
of hostilities along the Cheshire border. On the day of
Ranulf 's return to Chester from the crusade, namely, i6th
August, 1220, the two magnates met in that city,^^ and in 1222
the bond was drawn closer by the marriage of the earl's
nephew and heir, John the Scot, to Llywelyn's daughter
Helen.^^ With other marcher lords there were not the same

^Rot. Claus. i. 486, 487.

1" B.T. 310. He was buried in Strata Florida.

11 See the writ of nth August in Rot. Fin. i. 91.

i** See Llywelyn's case in Letters, Hen. HL i. 122-3, which is clearly a reply
to the demand of loth May, 1220 (Worcester — Rot. Claus. i. 418). Hugh
Mortimer H. had succeeded to the Wigmore barony on the death of his father
Roger in June, 1214 {Rot. Norm. H. cxxi.).

^^ Ann. Cestr. s.a.

1* Ibid. In Owen, Catalogue, 357, will be found an abstract of the marriage
settlement (from Harl. MS. 2044), which shows that Llywelyn gave his daughter
Bidford, Suckley, and Willington (in Shropshire) in frank marriage. The
witnesses include Reiner, bishop of St. Asaph, Hugh, abbot of St. Werburgh's
(d. 1226), Philip of Orreby, justice of Chester, Ednyfed Fychan, his son Goronwy,
Master Ystrwyth and Master Adam. The original agreement, with Llywelyn's
seal attached, is also in the British Museum, being Cotton Charter, xxiv. 17 — see
Owen, 526.

6s8 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, ties of friendship ; Hugh Mortimer and Llywelyn were often
at odds,^^ and after the desertion of 1217 Reginald de Breos
was also suspect. It was probably with the idea of harassing
Reginald that the Welsh prince in 12 19 gave his daughter
Margaret to the young John de Breos, son of the younger
William of that name, who had just been released from a long
captivity, and was seeking, with a very substantial title, to oust
his uncle from the family estates.^" Llywelyn took Gower
from Rhys Gryg to bestow it upon John,^^ and in December,
1 22 1, encouraged him to repair the demolished castle of
Swansea. ^^

But Llywelyn's chief enemy was the new Earl of Pembroke.
William Marshall the younger had succeeded to his father's
wide domains in England, Ireland, and Wales, but not to his
high office in the state. It was but to be expected, therefore,
that he should regard Welsh affairs, not with the broad outlook
of a statesman, but as a mere marcher lord, regretting danger-
ous concessions to the dominant power in Wales. The main-
tenance of the peace between Llywelyn and the Earl Marshall
was a problem which gave Pandulf and the justiciar no ordinary
trouble, and it was well for the prince that William, as a
prominent member of the baronial opposition under John, was
for a time by no means in good standing at court, and received
little more than the bare minimum of support.^^ It was

^5 In addition to Maelienydd, there was a dispute about the manors of
Knighton and Norton (Letters, Hen. III. i. 59-60) in the same region, which
John had given to Thomas of Erdington in March, 1207 (Charter Rolls, i. 229)
and which had afterwards passed to Llywelyn.

18 For the marriage see B.T. 304. The four sons of the younger William
de Breos (d. 1210), John, Giles, Philip, and Walter, were set at liberty in
January, 1218 (Pat. Rolls, H. III. i. 134) — cf. Rot. Pat. i. 108 (21st January,
1214) and Rot. Claus. i. t68 (i6th July, 1214). In the following year John and
his mother, Matilda, who was a daughter of Earl Richard of Clare, sued Reginald
de Breos for their rights (Rot. Claus. i. 405 ; Letters, H. III. i. 136). Except in
Gower, however, Reginald was in possession and thus excluded his nephew in
virtue of " casus regis " — see Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law, ii.
p. 283.

^"^ The ejection of Rhys from Gower is mentioned by Llywelyn himself in a
letter which I am inclined to assign to the end of August, 1220. See Letters,
Hen. III. i. 176 (the date July, 1221, rests on no substantial basis).

isjS.T. 310, The date (about 6th December) comes from MS, C, and
" sein henyd " is assumed to be Swansea.

1* William was one of the twenty-five executors of Magna Carta. He took
a leading part in the movement on behalf of Louis, and, notwithstanding his

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 659

perhaps the knowledge of this mistrust of the earl which CHAP,
encouraged Llywelyn in 1220 to venture upon an attack, ^V^-
crowned at the moment with success, but ultimately followed
by a bitter retribution.^^ He had more than once complained
to the legate of the conduct of the earl's tenants in Pembroke-
shire, who, regardless of the truce, made inroads upon the
Welsh inhabitants of Dyfed, lifted their cattle, burned their
churches, and carried off captives.^^ In the August of this
year he resolved to take measures of reprisal ; neglecting a
promise he had made to appear at Oxford on the second of
the month for the settlement of all outstanding matters of
dispute, he gathered a great host and marched southward,
to the alarm of the government, who at first suspected a
design upon Reginald de Breos.^^ Authority had been given
to Llywelyn, probably at Shrewsbury in the preceding May, to
eject by force such Welsh princes as were still holding baronial
lands,^^ and, on arriving in the valley of the Towy on the 29th,
he had, after a skirmish at Carmarthen, persuaded Rhys Gryg
to give up Kidwelly, Carnwyllion, Widigada, and Gower.^*
But he soon turned to more congenial work. In the first few

father's position, did not join the young king until March, 1217 (Trans. Roy,
Hist. Soc. II. xviii. 263). At the time of Llywelyn's raid, there was a question
at issue between him and the Government, viz., his retention of Fotheringay
Castle — see Patent Rolls, H. III. i. 236, 257, 272 ; Rot. Claus. i. 429 ; Letters,
H. III. i. 150. He was, as he complained, not asked to join in the expedition of
January, 1221, against the Count of Aumale (Letters, i. 170-1). Cf. as to his
position. Letters, i. 244-6.

20 For this raid see Ann. Camb. MSS. B. and C. ; B.T. 306; Ann. Dunst,
s.a. 1220 ; Rymer, i. 164.

21 See the letter in Letters, H. III. i. 141-2, which I am inclined to assign to
1219 rather than to 1220, as being of the nature of an appeal from one who had
no design of immediate vengeance.

^^Rot. Claus. i. 428 (Striguil, 21st August).

"^^ This authority is mentioned by Ann. Dunst. and also in the royal letter to
Llywelyn of 5th October, 1220 (Rymer, i. 164).

2^ Letters, H. III. i. 176. " Die Veneris ante decollationem S. Johannis
Baptistae" is to be compared with the " gwyl levan y kols" of B.T. Rhys
Gryg had received Kidwelly and Carnwyllion in 1216 ; they were now restored
to Hawise, the heiress of Thomas of London (Pat. Rolls, H. III. i. 291-2).
The . . . gada of Shirley's text is, no doubt, Widigada, the part of Cantref
Mawr between the Gwili and the Cothi, which had come to be regarded as an
appurtenance of the castle of Carmarthen (Royal Charters of Carmarthen,
Alcwyn Evans, 1878, 43, 46). An ode of Prydydd y Moch shows that Rhys
afterwards took part in the raid upon Pembrokeshire. See Myv. Arch. I. 293
(207) : Kastell gwis kystyngeist yn gleu. Ac ar berth gosymerth goleu.

66o HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, days of September, he destroyed the two castles of Narberth
XVIII.

and Wiston, set fire to the town of Haverford '^^ (the castle was
not in this case attacked) and mercilessly ravaged the cantref
of Rhos. From his quarters at the priory of Pill on Milford
Haven,^^ he threatened the head of the lordship itself, that
fortress which had never yet been the prize of a Welsh victory,
but the men of Pembroke bought off the attack by promising
a payment of ;^ioo to the redoubtable lord of Gwynedd.
Llywelyn then returned to the north, having inflicted enormous
damage upon the Earl Marshall ^^ and made of him an im-
placable foe.

It was not, of course, to be expected that the legate and
the justiciar would countenance these proceedings, and the
appeals of the Earl Marshall for protections^ were in due
course, though not with any extraordinary haste, answered by
the declaration of 5 th October,^" that the king had not author-
ised the doings of Llywelyn and that his name had been used
without warrant in the affair. At the same time, the men of
Pembroke were released from payment of the promised tribute,
and Llywelyn was ordered to transfer to the bishop of London
and another the custody of the lands he had taken from Welsh
princes in virtue of the recent commission.^^ But at the time
there was no further development ; the prince of North Wales
was soon restored to full favour, and the feud between him and
the earl, like a hidden volcanic fire, slept a guileful slumber.
The hot and flaming outburst which was the true sequel to the
great Pembrokeshire raid did not break forth until 1223, when
the Earl Marshall seized his opportunity for a most signal
revenge.

"^^ Restored since its capture by the Welsh in 1215.

''^On 5th September {Ann. Camb. MS. C). The lordship of Haverford had
been granted to the elder William Marshall in October, 1213 (Rot. Pat. i. 105 ;
cf. Rot. Claus. i. 158-9).

27 " Deinde apud pil {sic MS.) in ros pernoctauit " {Ann. Camb. MS. B).
The priory of Pill, which stood a little to the north of the modern town of
Milford Haven, was a cell of St. Dogmael's, founded by Adam of Roch, a knight
of Rhos, about the year 1200 {Mon. Angl. iv. 502-5 ; Fenton (2), 100, 327).

28 According to Ann. Dunst. the amount of the loss was greater than that of
King Richard's ransom (;;f 100,000) — a wild exaggeration which shows that the
injury done was very substantial.

29 See Letters, H. III. i. 143-4, 144-5, ^5^-
3" Rymer, i. 164. 3i Rot. Claus. i. 431.

LL YWEL YN THE GREA T. 66 1

In the beginning of this year,^^ for some unexplained rea- CHAP,
son, Llywelyn crossed the Shropshire border and took the ^VIII.
castle of Kinnerley, near Knockin,^^ and, not long afterwards,
the more important fortress of Whittington, which stood not far
from his manor of Ellesmere and was the property of Foulk
fitz Warren.^* The king and the justiciar, who were in the
valley of the Trent, moved westward to Shrewsbury, which
they reached on 7th March,'^ in the hope of composing the
quarrel. But, though Earl Ranulf appeared to plead the
cause of his friend Llywelyn,^* no settlement was arrived at.
At this juncture the Earl Marshall landed on 1 5th April in
the neighbourhood of St. David's with an army he had col-
lected in Ireland ; on the 24th he took Cardigan and on the
26th Carmarthen, in both cases without opposition.^^ He also
regained Emlyn and fortified its castle of Cilgerran. Llywelyn
sent his son Gruffydd with an army to block the earl's pro-
gress towards England, but the latter took the sea route and
was in his lordship of Nether Went by the middle of May.^^
Vain attempts at reconciliation occupied the summer, which, as
they were based on the assumption that the earl had done a ser-
vice to the crown in snatching the two royal castles from the
grasp of Llywelyn, only embittered the quarrel,^^ and thus it

32 The story of this year must be pieced together from the following
sources: Ann. Camb. MSS. B. C. ; B.T. s.a.; Ann. Dunst. ; Wendover, iv. 71-2
(wrongly inserted s.a. 1221) and 84-5 (where the events of 1220 and 1223 are run
together) ; Rymer, i. 168, i6g, 170 ; Pat. Rolls, H. III. i. 413, 481.

33 The "dies captionis castri de Kinardesle " is often mentioned (Rymer, i.
170 ; Pat. Rolls, i. 481) as the day of the outbreak of war. The place was then
held by Baldwin of Hodnet (Rot. Claus. i. 554), but the vill really belonged to
Madog (ap Gruffydd ab lorwerth Goch) of Sutton (Eyton, Shrops. xi. pp. 23-8).

34 Foulk had been established at Whittington, in succession to the Welsh
lords of Maelor Saesneg, in October, 1204 {Rot. Pat. i. 46). He was allowed to
fortify his castle in June, 1221, but the concession was, in view of his record as, a
rebel baron, somewhat grudgingly made {Rot. Claus. i. 460 — cf. 520).

^^ Rot. Claus. i. s^6. ^^ Ann. Dunst.

37 For the dates see Ann. Camb. MS. C. and B.T. MS. B.

38 On i6th May, at Westminster, the expenses were paid in advance of a
royal messenger going to Usk with a letter for the earl {Rot. Claus. i. 546).

39 It is said in B.T. that Llywelyn and the earl met before the king's council
at Ludlow. A meeting at this place was certainly projected, to be held on 12th
July (Pat. Rolls, H. III. i. 376), but there is no direct evidence that the purpose
was fulfilled. One may note, however, after that date a distinct stiffening in the
attitude of the government, as shown by ostentatious patronage of the sons of
Gwenwynwyn (Pat. Rolls, i. 378) and cordial acknowledgment of the services of
the Earl Marshall (Rot. Claus. i. 571).

VOL. n. 20

662 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, came about that early in September the prince of Gwynedd laid
^^^"* siege to the Breos fortress of Builth.*** Hubert de Burgh, the
king's chief counsellor, now realised that a serious situation
had arisen ; the knighthood of the realm was summoned to a
formal campaign against the Welsh, and on the 1 9th assembled
at Hereford for the relief of the beleaguered castle. A hasty
march up the valley of the Wye compelled Llywelyn to re-
linquish his prey and the royal host then made its way north
to Montgomery.*^ It was resolved that this important stra-
tegic point should no longer be held by so formidable a per-
sonage as the ruler of Southern Powys,*^ but should be taken
over by the crown and converted into a border stronghold of
the first rank. Ere long the walls and towers of New Mont-
gomery began to crown the narrow, precipitous ridge, admir-
ably suited for defence, which here juts out into the vale of
Camlad.*^

It was now time for Llywelyn to draw rein and consider
his position. His hereditary dominions were in no real danger,
but his authority and influence in South Wales and in Powys
were in serious jeopardy. He had forfeited, of the gains of
the civil war, Cardigan, Carmarthen, and Montgomery, and his
South Welsh allies, Rhys Gryg, Owain ap Gruffydd, and Mael-
gwn ap Rhys ** ran the risk of losing everything in his cause.
Confronted by the united strength of the English realm, he
resolved to safeguard the substantial power he still retained
by a timely submission, and found no difficulty in securing
tolerable terms. On 7th October Langton absolved him
from the sentence of excommunication which, according to

*" R3mier, i. 170. Reginald had in 12 19 been aided by the crown to put the
castle in a state of defence (Rot. Claus. i. 409).

*i The following dates are supplied by the Close and Patent Rolls : Hereford,
19th September; Brenles (= Bronllys), 20th; Hereford, 24th; Leominster,
25th, 26th; Shrewsbury, 29th ; Montgomery, 3oth-iith October; Shrewsbury,
i2th.

42 See p. 649.

*2 The rolls are full for the next few months of references to building opera-
tions, etc., at Montgomery. The emphasis laid on the fact that this was New
Montgomery (see especially Charter Rolls, i. loi) leaves no doubt that the former
castle and town stood elsewhere, probably at Hen Domen.

** The three are mentioned as " inprisii " of Llywelyn in Pat. Rolls, H. HL
i. 413, 481. On the other side was Cynan ap Hywel (see p. 634), who seized Is
Aeron during this war, but ultimately received Emlyn and Ystlwyf from his patron,
the Earl Marshall {Ann. Camb. MS. C. ; Letters, H. HL i. 427).

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 663

the regular Canterbury practice, had been launched against chap.
him ; *^ on the 8th, he made his peace with Henry at Mont-
gomery, accompanied by his allies, Rhys Gryg, Maelgwn,
Maredudd ap Rhotpert, Madog ap Gruffydd and others of
less note/® The basis of the agreement was that Llywelyn
should resign his Shropshire conquests, while the South Welsh
princes who acted with him were in return to receive again the
lands of which they had been deprived by the Earl Marshall.^''^
For his own losses there was to be no reparation, and Cardi-
gan and Carmarthen were soon formally transferred to the
custody of their conqueror. ^^

This was the only serious check sustained by Llywelyn
during the reign of Henry, and it was due to the fact that for
the moment unity reigned in England, so that the justiciar
could act promptly and without hesitation. Old parties were
breaking up ; the Earl Marshall, now fully established in
favour, received the king's sister, Eleanor, in marriage,"*^ and
in May, 1224, was sent to rule Ireland as justiciar.''*^ But,
while the government was making new friends, it was losing
old ones, and thus the general concord was no sooner set on
foot than it was again broken up by the defection of supporters
of long standing. Immediately after the peace with Llywelyn,
the first formidable movement against Hubert de Burgh took
shape ; the Earl of Chester, Bishop Peter of Winchester,
Falkes of Breaut6, Engelard of Cigogn6, and many others
who had served the royalist cause under John and during the
minority resented the power of the justiciar, which appeared

** There was also a " generate interdictum in Wallia" (Ann. Cest. s.a.).

■"* Rhys and Maelgwn had set out to make their submission on 21st Sep-
tember and duly rendered it on 7th October (Rot. Claus. i. 564-5 ; Patent Rolls,
I. 386).

'*'' A commission, consisting of six supporters of Llywelyn and six of the earl,
was appointed to determine by inquest what each prince held before the outbreak
of hostilities (Pat, Rolls, i. 481). A document cited by Bridgeman (Pees. S. Wales,
100-2) shows that in 1222 Maelgwn still held Llandovery, Emlyn, Cemais, Ys-
tlwyf, Gwinionydd, and Mabwnion, assigned to him in 1216.

•»8 Pat. Rolls, i. 413-4 (7th November) ; Rot. Claus. i. 574 (6th and 8th No-
vember). The pope's letters of 5th October, 1223 (Rymer, i. 180 has i225, incor-
rectly) to the Archbishop of Canterbury (Papal Letters, i. 93), and the Archbishop
of York (Letters, H. IIL i. 212-4) arrived, of course, too late to aifect the situa-
tion.

*^Ann. Theokesb., Winton., Waverl. Cf. Pat. Rolls, i. 426.

»o Pat. Rolls, i. 437.

20 *

664 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, to grow rather than decline as the king reached years of dis-
■ cretion. A renewal of civil war seemed imminent. As it
chanced, the storm cloud passed by, with no more momentous
result than the fall of Falkes, who carried his opposition a
step too far, and, finding no support in his deeds of insolent
violence, was forced to quit the realm, after the king's success-
ful siege of his castle of Bedford. But, though Falkes failed to
enlist the help of Lly welyn and of the Earl of Chester,^^ the
breach between the justiciar and his enemies was not healed,
and Llywelyn was emboldened to tell the king that his liber-
ties were as large as those of the king of Scotland, and gave
him the right, if he chose, to harbour fugitives from English
justice. His language, though not wanting in dignified cour-
tesy towards a suzerain and near relative, bespeaks the con-
sciousness of power ; with a divided England against him, he
resumes the tone of confidence and independence.

Years of comparative quiet followed, during which conflict
was avoided both by Llywelyn and the English government.
The former thought it prudent to risk nothing by further acts
of aggression ; the latter was content to see the prince of
Gwynedd powerful, as long as his power led to no disturbance
on the march. In January, 1227, Henry declared himself of
age, but the end of the minority by no means involved the
withdrawal of Hubert de Burgh from the active control of
affairs ; rather, it enabled him to enhance his authority by
dispensing with the aid of other counsellors, and the justiciar
was, after this declaration even more than before it, the real
governor of the realm. His friendly disposition towards
Llywelyn is evinced in many ways. The agreement of
October, 1223, was to be followed by a more elaborate and
permanent settlement, and, after many delays, due not to any

** When Falkes fled before the royal attack upon him to Wales (Wendover,
iv. 96), the king, at the suggestion of the bishop of Lichfield (Rymer, i. 175),
wrote to Llywelyn, urging him not to receive or give encouragement to the
fugitive. Llywelyn's reply will be found in Letters, i. 229-30. Falkes had, in
fact, come and gone (by way of Chester) on the same day, and by loth July was
secretly making his way back across the border (Rot. Claus. i. 632). On 4th
August the bishop of Lichfield brought the Earl of Chester a letter from the
king, asking him to safeguard the peace of the marches, whereupon the earl met
Llywelyn and arranged a month's truce (Letters, i, 233-5). Both magnates
seek in their letters to exonerate Falkes, but the earl nevertheless joined in the
siege of Bedford.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 665

reluctance on the Welsh side, but to the king's other more CHAP.

XVIII
pressing engagements,^'^ a meeting for the purpose took place

at Shrewsbury at the end of September, 1224.^^ All appears
to have gone off well, and Joan, who had prepared the way
for the conference by an interview with the king at Wor-
cester,''* was rewarded in February, 1225, by the gift of the
royal manor of Rothley, in Leicestershire.^^ Llywelyn, in
turn, showed his goodwill in the following summer by sending
Henry a present of goshawks, falcons, and sparrow hawks ^'^
— a fit compliment from the lord of the crags of Eryri. Another
meeting was now planned, but successive postponements ''^
pushed it on until the end of August, 1226, when the king
was once more at Shrewsbury, and Joan and Llywelyn, with
their son David, came thither to meet him.^^ In the April of
this year Honorius III., acting, no doubt, on a suggestion
from the English court, had granted to Joan a dispensation
which declared her of lawful birth,'*'' and advantage was taken
of the Shrewsbury interview of this year to bestow upon her
yet another manor, that of Condover in Shropshire.^*^ Husband
and wife stood well with the government and received many
marks of its friendly favour.®^

In Wales itself there were few changes, and such as there
were increased rather than diminished the power of Llywelyn.

^2 3rd February (J?o<. Claus. i. 574), 5th, 12th May (Rymer, i. 172), 19th,
28th July {Rot. Claus. i. 631), and 8th September (Pat. Rolls, i. 489) were
successively proposed by the king.

^3 See the safe-conduct of 23rd September in Pat. Rolls, i. 471.

•^^ On 24th September, at Shrewsbury, the king orders the exchequer to
allow the sheriff of Salop ;^8 7s. 4d. paid by him towards the expenses of Joan's
journey to Worcester {Rot. Claus. i. 622). Henry was at Worcester on 19th
September {ibid. 621).

■^' Rot. Claus. ii. 18 (de manerio de Roel). Its annual value was £25.

®8 Ibid. 47.

^"^ The dates proposed were 27th April, 8th July (Rymer, i. 178), 15th
August {Rot. Claus. ii. 72), 3rd November, 1225, 29th March, 1226 {ibid, 83).

5** The general safe-conduct of 28th July (Patent Rolls, ii. 56) was supple-
mented by the more precise document of 27th August {ibid. 59). Henry's
itinerary at this time is as follows: Hereford, i5th-2ist August; Leominster,
22nd ; Lydbury North, 23rd ; Shrewsbury, 27th-29th ; Wenlock, 29th ; Bridge-
north, 30th.

*" Papal Letters, i. 109.

"" Rot. Claus. ii. 135 (29th August).

"'See especially, Pat. Rolls, ii. iio-ii (13th February, 1227), 112 (i8th
March, 1227).

666 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Death removed two of his old enemies about this time ; in
XVIII

November, 1227, Hugh Mortimer was succeeded at Wigmore

by his brother Ralph,*'^ and in the following June Reginald

de Breos died,"^ to be succeeded by his son William.®* William

Marshall turned his attention from South Wales to Ireland,

and in August, 1226, the king took from him the custody of

the castles of Cardigan and Carmarthen, which he entrusted

to his own officers,®^ There was now less danger that the

Marshall influence might overshadow the whole of the South

and reduce to insignificance Llywelyn's authority over the

princes of that region. That authority was still vigilantly

exercised and justified itself in the protection which the lord

of Gwynedd was able to afford to his allies of Deheubarth.

In February, 1225, the appearance of two envoys of Llywelyn

at Westminster *® was followed by a warning to the Earl

Marshall's bailiff to respect the rights of Maelgwn,^^ whose

lands lay in Dyfed and Southern Ceredigion, while in April

of the same year he obtained the appointment of a commission

of ten, five representing himself and five the earl, to meet at

Pont Rheidol, near Aberystwyth, for the purpose of making

a proper partition between Maelgwn and his nephews, Cynan

ap Hywel and Owain ap Gruffydd.®^ Cynan had been on the

8" Hugh was reported to be on his death-bed on 8th November (Pat. Rolls,
ii. 169) ; on the 23rd, Ralph, having paid a relief of ;^ioo, was put in possession
of his lands (tijd. 171).

83 There was a false report of his death in June, 1222 (Pat. Rolls, i. 334;
Rot. Clatts. i. 500). From Rot. Fin. i. 172 it is clear that it took place early in
June, 1228. His son William succeeded to his lands on 13th July, 1228 (Pat.
Rolls, ii. 194; Rot. Fin. i. 174).

^* William was of mature years, for as early as August, 1218, his father
handed over to him his Sussex honours of Knap and Bramber (Pat. Rolls, i. 165).
Hence he was not the son of Gwladus, Llywelyn's daughter (see p. 645) but of
an earlier marriage.

8» Pat. Rolls, ii. 80-1 (Rymer, i. 182) ; ii. 58 (Hereford, i8th August). Henry
Audley was succeeded as keeper by John de Breos (25th October, 1226 — Pat.
Rolls, ii. 66) and he in turn by Walter Clifford (25th April, 1228 — ibid. 184).

88 Two marks were paid on i6th February to Master Philip and " Wrenno,"
envoys of Llywelyn, for their home-going expenses (Rot. Clans, ii. 18).

^"^ Ibid. ii. 17 (15th February). The same envoys obtained a writ in favour
of the widow of Robert ap Madog, who had nursed one of Llywelyn's daughters.
Robert was a Welsh tenant of the honour of Montgomery and had fought for
Llywelyn in 1223 (Rymer, i. 170 ; Rot. Claus. i. 611, 623 ; ii. 8, 16, 17).

88 The appointment of the commission (perhaps because that of November,
1223 — see note 47 above— had proved abortive) was asked for by Llywelyn,
through his messenger David, and granted on 14th April (Rymer, i. 178).

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 667

earl's side in the conflict of 1223,^^ and Owain was in tempor- CHAP.

XVIII
ary opposition to Llywelyn,

The second break in the good relations between Llywelyn
and the government came in 1228, and, as it was not provoked
by any aggression on the part of the Welsh leader, so it came
to an end without diminishing his power and prestige, which
indeed were greatly augmented. Early in the year the re-
sumption by the king of the manors of Rothley and Con-
dover^** seems to indicate a less friendly attitude towards
Llywelyn, but the event which directly led to hostilities was
the grant to Hubert de Burgh, on 27th April, of the castle and
lordship of Montgomery, which had been in the king's hands
since 1223.'^^ Not only did a very strong border fortress thus
come under the direct control of the energetic justiciar, but,
from the orders given for the clearing of the forest which lay
to the south-west of it and protected the Welsh commote of
Kerry, it appeared likely that the new lord had a scheme of
conquest afoot.^^ Welsh levies gathered in haste around the
spot, and in August the castle was so closely beset that Henry
and the justiciar hurried to its relief.'^^ As yet Llywelyn had
not himself taken the field, but hoped for a peaceful settlement ;
his wife met the king at Shrewsbury and arranged a truce,
and early in September polite letters passed between Henry
and his brother-in-law, in which the latter apologised for the
way in which his men had interfered with the royal com-
missariat, and the former accepted the apology and expressed
the desire to receive more substantial proofs of Llywelyn's
professed goodwill. ^^ But war was nevertheless inevitable ;

David came back on 3rd June (see the order for payment of his expenses on the
4th — Rot. Claus. ii. 43) to say that Owain ap Gruffydd, who now held Northern
Ceredigion, would not give up the commote of Creuddyn to Maelgwn, to whom
the commissioners had awarded it (ibid. 73).

69 Note 44.

''^Rot. Fin. i. 169 (27th March) ; Close Rolls, Hen. Ill, i. 50 (i6th May).

•'I Charter Rolls, i. 74. Cf. Pat. Rolls, H. III. ii. 186.

''^ Wendover (iv. 172-4) is the principal authority for the campaign. The
names of Cefn y Coed, Bron y Coed and Goetre still preserve the memory of
the " silvam quae spatiosa erat nimis habens quinque leucarum longitudinis ".

^3 Henry's itinerary, as extracted from the rolls, is as follows : Bridgenorth,
28th August; Shrewsbury, 29th-3ist; Montgomery, 3rd-23rd September;
Shrewsbury, 24th ; Kerry, 25th-4th October.

''* The king's letter, dated 8th September, is in Close Rolls, i. 116, and Letters,
'• 335-6. It refers to the truce, which was no doubt arranged by Joan under

668 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, already the leading: men of the march, the Earls of Gloucester
XVIII

and Pembroke, William de Breos, Roger Clifford and others,

had been summoned to Montgomery,^^ and, when the royal
host invaded Kerry and Hubert began to build there another
strong castle, to threaten Llywelyn's lands in Arwystli, the
prince of Gwynedd plunged without hesitation into the fray.
The Welsh had much in their favour in this campaign, the
help of the country folk, including the men of the grange of
Cwm Hir at Gwern y Gof, who had their house burnt to the
ground by the English for their pains,''^^ the rough, wooded
character of the country, the difficulty of provisioning Henry's
great army and the jealousies and dissensions of the host, who
threw little zeal into this enterprise for making the justiciar
still richer and greater. Thus everything went badly for the
king ; there were many losses, the most conspicuous being the
capture of William de Breos, while engaged in a foraging ex-
pedition ; food ran short, and at last Hubert was forced to
conclude that the conquest of Kerry was impossible. In
October there was a humiliating retreat ; the commote was
restored to Welsh rule,^'^ and Henry undertook to raze to the
foundations the half-built castle,^^ a concession for which
Llywelyn was glad to pay a sum of ;^2,ooo. As its walls
were rising, the justiciar had playfully christened it " Hubert's
Folly " ; his foes, as they watched its demolition, turned the

protection of the safe-conduct granted to her on 13th August (Pat, Rolls, ii. 201).
At that time Henry thought it possible Llywelyn might come also, and the
marchers were warned not to molest him (Close Rolls, i. 114, and Letters, i.

334-5)-

7» Close Rolls, i. 115.

■" There is no evidence that a Cistercian abbey ever stood in the vale of
Kerry, and the " habitaculum albi ordinis " must, therefore, have been a grange.
Cwm Hir possessed, as part of its original endowment, lands at Gwern y gof,
Caeliber, Gwenrhiw and Bahaithlon {^Rot. Chart. 206; Mon. Angl. v. 459),
which formed the grange of Gwern y gof in the lordship of Kerry {Valor Eccl.
iv. 407), and, after the dissolution, the manor of Hopton (App. Land Com. 452).
Whence the name " Cridia " comes is not apparent ; I hesitate to accept the con-
jecture, adopted by Mr, Richard Williams in his article on this campaign, that
it is a corruption of *' Crefydd-dy " (Arch. Camb. IV. x. (1879), 249), for the term
does not seem to have been in common use in mediceval times. It may, indeed,
be a mere misreading of Cuira (Cumira), which is found in Wendover, iv. 222.

''^ According to Ann. Dunst. " Justus haeres " got " terram de Keri " in return
for a fine of 1,000 cows.

''^ Its site cannot be fixed with certainty, but Mr. Williams's view that it
was at Pen y Castell has much to recommend it.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 669

jest with pitiless irony against him and said that here indeed CHAP.
was a prophet, and more than a prophet.

The failure of the Kerry campaign was a serious blow to
the authority of Hubert and showed Llywelyn that henceforth
he had little to fear from the English government. Increas-
ing boldness marks his attitude as he realises that England is
divided against itself and that the opportunities which he
found so profitable at the time of the Great Charter struggle
are recurring in another form.

II. From the Kerry Campaign to the Pact of Middle.

Llywelyn had come through the troubles of 1228 with
flying colours. His restoration to good standing at court
was marked by the re-establishment of Joan in her manors of
Condover and Rothley in November/^ while early in the
following year the king gave his sanction to the terms upon
which William de Breos obtained his liberty.^^ Important
steps followed for the recognition of David as Llywelyn's
successor ; after negotiations carried on through the abbot
of Vaudey,^^ the young man went up to London at Michael-
mas, did homage for all lands and rights that would accrue to
him on the death of his father, and was promised a grant out
of the royal lands of the value of £dfO a year.^^ Henry was
now engaged in the preparations for that French expedition
which, after some delay, set sail from Portsmouth on ist May,
1230, and it was his desire to leave Wales at peace and its
prince contented, a purpose to which Llywelyn lent himself
with great readiness. The " prince of Aberffraw and lord
of Snowdon," as he had now begun to style himself, was fully
conscious of the improvement in his position, but he had at the
time no adventurous designs and wished only quietly to reap
the fruits of his victory. If the year 1230 was signalised by a
dramatic act of vengeance upon an English baron, so ruthless

''Close Rolls, i. 123 (8th November, Westminster).

^^ Pat. Rolls, ii. 239 (12th February, Westminster).

8^ Nicholas, " abbas de Valle Dei " in Lincolnshire, received a safe-conduct
for the purpose of visiting Llywelyn about 15th July (Pat. Rolls, ii. 257).

8* The safe-conduct for the purpose was issued at Windsor on 5th Sep-
tember \^hid. 263), and Henry announces the result of the visit on 3rd October,
{j.hid. 269-70 and Rymer, i. 196). The sister who came with David and is after-
wards found in the care of Segrave (Close Rolls, i, 259) was perhaps Gwladus
Ddu — see Pat. Rolls, ii. 248.

670 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, and bold as to startle the whole English realm, the deed finds

XVIII •

its explanation in a cruel domestic crisis, which shook Llywelyn

through and through, and not in any political scheme of aggres-
sion. It was the outraged husband, not the astute politician,
who hanged William de Breos.

William had been set free at the beginning of 1229 upon
promise of a ransom of ;^2,ooo,^^ a sum corresponding so pre-
cisely to that which Llywelyn had engaged to pay to the king
that it is reasonable to conjecture that the prince meant the
one liability to discharge the other.^* He had also undertaken
never again to bear arms against Llywelyn, and, as a further
pledge of amity, had agreed to bestow upon David the hand
of his daughter, Isabella, with the lordship and castle of Builth
as her marriage portion. The two magnates seemed to be
about to enter into a close alliance when the tie was suddenly
snapped by Llywelyn's discovery of an intrigue, no doubt set
on foot during the period of captivity, between William and his
wife.^^ It was during a visit paid by the rash lover to Llywelyn's
court at Eastertide that the storm broke ; the prince's suspicion
was aroused, and he burst in upon the pair at dead of night,
to find full confirmation of all he had feared. The confidence
he had placed in Joan as his best friend and faithful supporter
throughout many years was the measure of his wrath ; both
she and her paramour were forthwith imprisoned,^^ together
with the knights brought by the latter in his train, and in a
few days William paid the penalty of his folly. All Wales had
heard the news of his capture, and the enemies of his house

83 For the terms of release see Ann. Dunst. (p. 117).

8* This was what actually happened as to the instalment of 250 marks due
from Llywelyn at Easter, 1229 (Pat. Rolls, ii. 241).

^^ Brief accounts of this tragedy will be found in Ann. C. ; B.T. ; Wendover
(iv. 209) ; Ann. Cest., Marg., Theokesb., Waverl., Wigorn ; Letters, i. 366-7. All
agree as to the charge against William, but some of the annalists treat it as false
and Llywelyn's action as a mere plot to justify murder. This is unlikely for many
reasons ; against it may be urged, in particular, the fact of the imprisonment of Joan
{Ann. Cest.), and the circumspect attitude of the government. Hubert de Burgh
was accused at the time of his fall of having given the information which brought
about the crisis (Wendover, iv. 247), which shows that Llywelyn was not supposed
to have acted without good grounds.

^^ The news of William's imprisonment reached the king at Portsmouth on
20th April, and he forthwith made arrangements for the custody of his castles
of Radnor, Brecon, Hay, Huntington, Abergavenny, and St. Clear's (Pat. Rolls, ii.
336 ; cf. 339).

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 671

hastened from every quarter to see this scion of a hated stock CHAP,
brought to his account ; even had Llywelyn been in the mood
to resist the tide of popular passion, he might have found it
hard to withstand the demand that WiUiam should die. " On
2nd May," reports the abbot of Vaudey ^^ a few days later,
" at a certain manor called 'Crokein,' ^^ he was made 'Crogyn,' ^^
i.e., hanged on a tree, and this not privily or in the night time,
but openly and in broad daylight, in the presence of more than
800 men assembled to behold the piteous and melancholy
spectacle."

It was a lamentable affair, but in no sense a declaration of
war against England. Llywelyn treated the matter as one
affecting William only and wrote to the widow ^^ and to her
brother, the Earl Marshall,^^ to say that, notwithstanding the
action of his enraged subjects, he still wished the alliance be-
tween David and Isabella to stand. This view was apparently
shared by the Breos family, for no separation took place. The
very envoy who gave to the chancellor (ruling the land during
Henry's absence) the news of the sad event was at the time ar-
ranging for a conference between his master and Llywelyn,
which, there is reason to think, was held near Shrewsbury about
1 2th June and issued in a friendly agreement.^^ In August the

'*'' Letters, i. 366-7. William's death was known to the chancellor as a
certainty on 25th May, when he gave the custody of his lands to the Earl
Marshall (Close Rolls, i. 353). The king did not hear of it until 31st May (Pat.
Rolls, i. 377).

^^"Crokein" cannot, unfortunately, be located with any certainty. The
traditional scene of the execution is Aber (Pennant, iii. 111-12), where Gwern y
Grog (Gallows Marsh) and Cae Gwilym Ddu (Black William's Field) are popu-
larly associated with it. But there is reason to think that this arose from the
notion that Llywelyn's court was always at Aber. On 15th May, he was at
"Tynbey," i.e., Denbigh (Letters, i. 366).

89 Yoi «' Crogyn " = hangdog, see Evans, Diet. s.v.

*" Letters, i. 368. She was Eva, daughter of the elder William Marshall.

^^ Ibid. 369. " Fratri carissimo " is explained by the fact that the earl was
married to Joan's half-sister, Eleanor.

^"^ Ibid. 366. The letters printed by Shirley in ii. 3-8 clearly refer to
difficulties which arose between Llywelyn as lord of Buellt (for his son David)
and William of Christchurch, seneschal of the Earl Marshall (Close Rolls, i. 355,
489), at the time when the latter had the custody of the Breos lordship of Breck-
nock (Close Rolls, i. 353 ; Patent Rolls, ii, 427). Further, since William writes to
the chancellor, the letters belong to the period of Henry's absence in 1230, while
the reference to the harvesting of crops (ii. 5) points to the September of that
year. Now there is in them definite mention of a "colloquium " recently held
between Llywelyn and the chancellor at " Nokesbure " (a place not yet identified)
which resulted in an agreement, and which must surely be connected with

672 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, government and the Welsh leader were on the best of terms,

XVIII

■ and the former discreetly alluded to the execution of William

as the " mischance which befell him".^^ The renewal of strife
was due to quite other causes and may with good reason be
chiefly ascribed to the ill-will with which Llywelyn saw the
justiciar attempt to build up for himself a mighty power in
South Wales. Hubert had been since the beginning of the
reign a Welsh marcher lord in virtue of his tenure of the three
castles of Grosmont, Skenfrith and White Castle in Upper
Gwent,^* and in 1223 he had added to these the castle and
honour of Montgomery. He now began to extend these
Welsh possessions largely and on such a scale as to show that
his aim was to wield in South Wales the authority held by
Llywelyn in the North. In 1227 he obtained a grant of the
region of Archenfield ^^ in Herefordshire; in 1229 he was in-
vested with the lordships of Cardigan and Carmarthen, which
were erected into a new marcher holding, held by the service
of five knights.^*' At the end of 1230 the lordship of Gower
was subordinated to this new fief, and John de Breos was told
no longer to regard himself as a tenant of the crown. ^^
About the same time the death of Earl Gilbert of Gloucester in
Britanny, leaving his wide possessions to an heir of eight,
opened up a fresh opportunity ; ^^ Hubert obtained the
custody of lands and heir and thus became virtual lord of
Glamorgan, with the right to command the service of the

the plans of Letters, i. 366 and the presence of the chancellor and Segrave at
Shrewsbury on nth, 12th, and 13th June (Rot, Fin. i. 198; Pat. Rolls, ii. 346 ;
Close Rolls, i. 355).

»3 Close Rolls, i. 368.

** See chap. xvii. note 163. The " triacastra domini justiciarii " (Arch. Camb.
IV. X. (1879), 304) were declared to have been adjudged to Hubert by the king's
court in a letter to the sheriff of Hereford dated 26th January, 12 19 (Rot.
Claus. i. 386). They were claimed by the Breos family, and in 1228 John was
for a short time allowed to hold them (Charter Rolls, i. 74), but before the end of
the year they were recovered by the justiciar (ibid. 83), who held them at his
fall.

"^ Originally made on 25th August, 1227 (Charter Rolls, i. 57) ; for later
confirmations see ibid, 58, 83. Cf. also Pat. Rolls, ii. 145.

"^ Charter Rolls, i. 100 ; Pat. Rolls, ii. 276. The grant was confirmed in
1231 — see Pat. Rolls, ii. 424.

^'' Pat. Rolls, ii. 417 (20th November, 1230) ; Charter Rolls, i. 127.

'•s Gilbert died at " Penros " (Perros Guirec ?) on 25th October, on the
way home from the French expedition. His eldest son, Richard, was born on
4th August, 1222 (Ann. Theokesb.).

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 673

minor chieftains of the hill-country of Morgannwg.®^ Early in CHAP.
April, 123 1, another windfall added to the justiciar's gains ; the
Earl Marshall died suddenly, a week after his sister's wedding
to Earl Richard of Cornwall, the king's brother,^^^ and the
custody of the Breos lands which the dead earl had received
from the crown was thus set free and in a little while bestowed
upon Hubert.^*^^ In the early summer of this year there was
hardly a corner of South Wales where the enterprising justiciar
had not planted his banner.

Trouble had already been brewing on the border before
this last grant to Hubert.^"^ The death of the Earl Marshall
had encouraged the Welsh to attack the Breos territories, and
the king had sent his brother Richard to the disturbed area,
promising soon to follow in person.^"^ On the 20th of May
he was at Hereford, where he issued orders forbidding the
dwellers in the march to furnish the Welsh with provisions
while the disturbance lasted.^"^ But negotiations with Llywelyn
were proceeding, as it seemed, favourably,^"^ and the king had
returned to the Thames valley when at the beginning of June
the prince of Gwynedd suddenly resolved upon war and
kindled the flames of revolt throughout the length and breadth
of South Wales. He is said to have been stung into rebellion
by the beheading of certain prisoners taken by the garrison of
Montgomery,^*^^ but this step, for which Hubert de Burgh was
responsible, was no doubt but the final item in the growing
burden of the justiciar's offences. Gathering his warriors about
him, Llywelyn swept southward and burnt the new settlement

®* Pat. Rolls, ii. 412 (ist November, 1230).

^^^ Ann. Camb. MSS. B. and C. ; Wendover, iv. 220; Ann. Theokesb.

1"! They had at first been committed to the Earl of Cornwall (Pat. Rolls, ii.
428 — nth April), but were afterwards transferred to Hubert {ibid. 434 — 20th
May).

1"^ The fullest account of the war of 1231 is that given by Wendover (iv.
220-7), but it requires to be checked by comparison with Attn. C. MS. B. ; B.T. ;
Ann. Cest., Marg., Theokesb., Dunst., Wigorn., and the Charter, Patent and
Close Rolls.

103 Close Rolls, i. 585 (Windsor, 27th " Octobris"— a slip for " Aprilis ").

^"^ Ibid. 588. This was a favourite method of applying pressure to the
Welsh; see Wm. Newb. ii. 5 and Gir. Camb. vi. 218 {Descr. ii. 8).

105 Llywelyn's envoys met the king at Worcester on 27th May and plans
were laid for a further conference of delegates at Shrewsbury on 3rd June (Rymer,
i. 200; Pat. Rolls, ii. 436).

108 Wendover.

674 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, at Montgomery ; Radnor, with its castle, and the towns of
■ Hay and Brecon were likewise involved in fiery ruin, and in
his rage of battle the prince did not spare the churches, in
which the women and the clergy had taken refuge from the
hurricane of war.^**^ Next, he made his way to Caerleon, a
Marshall stronghold defended by Morgan ap Hywel, who
hoped by the king's favour to recover it for his house ; the
town was destroyed, but the castle resisted the onslaught, and
Llywelyn then crossed the mountains to Neath, imposing by
the way a levy of sixty marks on the terrified convent of
Margam.^"^ He had the help of the Welsh princes of Gla-
morgan, Rhys ap Gruffydd, Hywel ap Maredudd, and Morgan
Gam,^°* and at the end of June with their aid took and razed
to the ground the castle of Neath, a success soon followed by
the capture of Kidwelly. He closed the campaign with an
achievement which gave him peculiar pleasure. Maelgwn the
Younger, who had just succeeded to the lands of his father
Maelgwn in Ceredigion,^^*^ had, with Rhys Gryg and Owain ap
Gruffydd, thrown himself with zeal into the great uprising and
had burnt the town of Cardigan to the castle gates. In a few
days the castle itself was battered into surrender, and Llywelyn

1"' B.T. suggests that all four castles {" Y kestyll ") were taken, but Ann.
Marg. says of " Aberotheny " (Aberhonddu, i.e., Brecon) "castellum non cepit,"
and Attn. C. MS. B. has "mungumriam brechoniam et haiam cum radenor
castello ".

i'*^ Ann. Marg. Ann. ad 1198 says Llywelyn took " castrum de Neth " about
29th June. For Morgan see chap. xvii. note 213 ; he sued the Earl Marshall for
Caerleon in the king's court in 1220 (Rot. Claus. i. 436), but, notwithstanding
some threatening proceedings on the part of the crown (Pat. Rolls, i. 352, 363 ;
ii. 82-3), " Kaerlyon " was in the earl's possession at his death (ibid. ii. 427).

10^ For the first two see Pat. Rolls, ii. 412. Rhys was the son of Gruffydd
ab Ifor (Cartae Glam. iii. 542), who died in 1211 (B.T. MS. C), and he was, no
doubt, like his father (Cartae, iii. 112-13), lord of Senghenydd. Hywel was the
son of Maredudd ap Caradog ab lestyn and his portion of Morgannwg was Mis-
kin, to which he seems in 1228 to have added Glyn Rhondda, held by his cousin,
Morgan ap Cadwallon (Attn. Marg. s.a. 1228, 1229; Ann. Theokesb. s.a. 1242;
Cartae Glam. iii. 262 ; Arch. Camb. VI. i. (1901), 2). Morgan Gam (the Crooked)
inherited Rhwng Nedd ac Afan from his father, Morgan ap Caradog ab lestyn.

11" Maelgwn ap Rhys last appears on 20th November, 1230 (Close Rolls, i.
458); by 14th February, 1231, his place has been taken by Maelgwn Fychan
(Pat. Rolls, ii. 424). B.T. assigns his death to 1231, but Ann. C. MS. C. has
" Mailgun f. resi obiit," in a passage omitted from the printed text, under an
"annus" which is clearly 1230. Maelgwn died at Llannerch Aeron and was
buried in the chapter house of Strata Florida (B.T.); his lands were chiefly in
Ceredigion below Aeron.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 675

snatched from the grasp of the justiciar the proud fortress at CHAP,
the mouth of the Teifi the loss of which eight years previously
had been so mortifying a blow to his authority in South
Wales.

Llywelyn's resonant challenge was at once taken up by the
crown, but the wheels' of Hubert's administration moved some-
what slowly. Ecclesiastical weapons were first invoked, and
for his offences against the church Llywelyn, with twelve of
his allies, was excommunicated by an assembly of the bishops
of the province of Canterbury and the sentence promulgated
throughout England.^" Steps were taken on 2nd July for the
relief of the castle of Newport, which was said to be hard
pressed,"^ and on the 7th Llywelyn was deprived of his wife's
manor of Rothley."^ It was not, however, until the month of
July was far advanced that Henry met at Gloucester and at
Hereford the military forces of the West which he had sum-
moned thither for a great campaign against the Welsh.^^*
Deliberate as these preparations were, they did not lead to
much fighting ; instead of marching upon Llywelyn, the king's
advisers settled down, as in 1223 and 1228, to the building
of a fortress, and chose Painscastle, in Lower Elfael, a spot
continually in debate between the Welsh and the house of
Breos,^^^ as the point of vantage upon which to concentrate
their strength. It was, no doubt, chosen with reference to its
nearness to Llywelyn's recent acquisition of Builth, and here
the army remained from 30th July to 22nd September, while
the old timber defences of " Matilda's Castle " were " elegantly
rebuilt in stone and mortar ". How Llywelyn was meanwhile
employed there is little to show, but one skirmish is recorded,

m .(4m«. Dunst,; Letters, i. 400-1. The assembly was no doubt held, as
arranged, at Oxford on 13th July. Anselm of St. David's and Elias of Llandaff,
being Englishmen, were summoned, but not, it will be observed, Martin of Ban-
gor and Abraham of St. Asaph. The archbishop was at the time in Italy.

112 Close Rolls, i. 592 (castrum de Novo Burgo).

113 Ibid. 523 ; Pat. Rolls, ii. 440.

ii* The king was at Gloucester on the 19th and at Hereford on the 22nd.
For the summons to the host see Close Rolls, i. 592 (end of June), and for
Henry's apologies for delay, ibid. 594-5.

115 See p. 586. The "castrum Matildis" of the rolls ("castellum Matildis"
in Wendover, "castellum Maud " in Ann. Theokesb.) is " (k)astell paen " in B.T.
and " castellum payn " in Ann. Cest. Ann. C. MS. B., in ignorance of the iden-
tity, duplicates the entry, having first " castellum paen " and then " castrum
matildis ".

(

676 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, fought probably on the Wye near Hay,"*' in which, with the

■ help of a trick played upon the English by a monk of Cwm

Hir, he scored a signal success. Henry avenged his defeat

upon the abbey by burning one of its granges and forcing the

abbot to pay a fine of 300 marks.

When, with the approach of winter, the king withdrew
from Painscastle, he had done little to humble the pride of
Llywelyn. His brand-new fortress was imposing, but it did
not prevent the Welsh prince from harrying the lands of the
priory of Leominster, until the prior was ready to pay hand-
somely for freedom from disturbance."'' Henry had nothing
better in view than a renewal of the struggle in the following
summer, with the prospect of help from Ireland in an attack
upon Anglesey,"^ when he learnt that Llywelyn was prepared
to agree to a suspension of hostilities.^^^ The power of Hubert
de Burgh was now being shaken to its base ; his old enemy.
Bishop Peter of Winchester, had returned from crusade and
was seeking to supplant him ; it was to his interest to rid him-
self of the Welsh entanglement, while Llywelyn desired nothing
better than to be allowed to keep what he had won. Accord-
ingly, on 30th November, 1231, a truce was concluded for a
year, on the basis of the actual situation and with the hope
that the year's respite might be employed in negotiating more
permanent terms of peace.^^*^

Negotiations went on throughout the year 1232, but, though
the border remained fairly peaceful, little progress was made

116 Wendover, whose account is circumstantial, says " non longe a castello
Montis Gomerii " (iv. 222), but the Tewkesbury annalist, who knew the district
better, has " non longe ab Haya," and Walter of Godarville, who was sent to
Abergavenny on 12th May (Pat. Rolls, ii. 434), is more likely to have been
moved to Hay than to Montgomery. The abbey had made its peace before 22nd
August, when special protection was accorded to its granges of Cabalva and
Carnaff (= Tirymyneich, near Clyro; see Radnor sh. (2), pp. 250, 334), not far
from Hay.

^^"^ Atm. Theokesb. p. 80. In Mon. Angl. iv. 56 is a letter, probably be-
longing to this period, in which Llywelyn warns his bailiffs of Maelienydd not to
interfere with the priory.

1^^ Letters, i. 402-3 (= Close Rolls, i. 600). An organised attack by sea
would have placed Llywelyn in great straits, but there is no indication that this
policy was ever taken up in good earnest by the crown.

11* A safe-conduct was issued to the Welsh envoys on 24th November (Pat.
Rolls, ii. 452) and they appear to have come to London.

120 Rymer, i. 201 = Pat. Rolls, ii. 453.

LL YIVEL YN THE GREA T. 677

with them.^^^ England was, in this year, in the throes of an CHAP,
internal conflict, as the result of which the great edifice of the
justiciar's power came toppling down, and Bishop Peter rose to
the chief position in the realm. The bishop's nephew (or son),
Peter of Rivaux, received large grants in consequence of the
change, and, in particular, succeeded to nearly all Hubert's
possessions in Wales.^^^ The new government, jealously
watched by the great lords and in its foreign complexion dis-
agreeably recalling the despotic days of John, was not formid-
able to Llywelyn, who kept up cordial but distant relations
with it. At the end of the year, he lost his firm friend and
ally. Earl Ranulf of Chester,^^^ who had championed his
cause at Painscastle in the king's councils, and, effecting nothing,
had withdrawn from the siege in high dudgeon.^^* But the
earl, though he left no peer in the king's dominions in territorial
dignity and in weight of influence, was succeeded at Chester
by Llywelyn's son-in-law, John the Scot,^^^ so that there was
no break in the friendly relations between Gwynedd and the
great border earldom. In this year another son-in-law of
Llywelyn disappears from the scene ; John de Breos was
killed at Bramber by a fall from his horse, and, as his son and
heir, William, was under age, Gower and Swansea came into
the king's hands, to be added for the time being to the piled
up wealth of the insatiable Peter of Rivaux.^^®

121 Philip and " Instructus, " received a safe-conduct to visit the king in
February, 1232 (Pat, Rolls, ii. 460) and Philip was at Westminster on 12th March
{^hid. 466). Correspondence had meanwhile passed as to breaches of the truce
(Close Rolls, ii. 127, 132, 139). The king was at Shrewsbury on 27th May, on
7th August, and on 4th December, but apparently did not meet Llywelyn, who
was represented by his wife, his son David, and Ednyfed Fychan (Pat. Rolls, ii.
476 ; Cal. Pat. R, i. 4).

122 On 19th September, 1232, the tenants of Cardiff, Newport, Glamorgan,
Cardigan, and Carmarthen were notified that they were to obey Peter as " custos "
(Pat. Rolls, ii. 500-1), and on the 28th a similar notice was sent to the constable
of the " three castles " in Upper Gwent {j,hid. 502 — Blancchastel = Llantilio).

123 The earl died at Wallingford on 26th October (Ann. Cest., Theokesb.),
adate confirmed by Close Rolls, ii. 122 (De manerio de Lech), 123 (Pro Clementia).

^"^•^ Ann. Theokesb. (p. 79) and Ann. Cest. (pp. 56-8) mention the quarrel,
but not its cause; according to Ann. Dunst. (p. 127), the earl " nimis fovit
partes Lewelini ".

126 Ace. to Ann. Cest., he received the earldom at Northampton on 21st
November.

126 B.T. 320 ; Pat. Rolls, ii. 490 (Lambeth, i6th July), 491 ; Close Rolls,
i. 86. John's widow, Margaret, was promised on 7th June, 1233, that her hand

VOL, II. 21

678 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Its rapacity and tyranny were fast making the new govern-

ment impossible, and in the summer of 1 233 a crisis came which,
by rekindling the fires of civil strife, relieved Llywelyn from
all present anxiety as to the doings of the English crown.
William Marshall had been succeeded as Earl of Pembroke ^^"
by his brother Richard, a gallant and high-minded knight, re-
calling in many respects his distinguished father, who had
hitherto lived in France and taken no part in English politics.
It was not long ere Richard and the foreign clique in power
were openly at odds, and in August, Henry, abandoning a
scheme for an expedition to Ireland, established himself in the
west country with the intention of bringing the recalcitrant
earl to subjection.^^^ After measures against the earl's ally,
Walter Clifford,^^^ the king laid siege on 6th September to the
castle of Usk. His failure to take it put him for a time into
a wiser frame of mind ; he offered, if Richard would consult
the royal dignity by a pro forma surrender of the place, to
remit all his hostility against him and summon a council of
reform.^^" On this basis there was a brief pacification, seeming
for the moment to promise a general peace, but being in fact
but an interlude in the struggle, which broke out with renewed
violence in the middle of October.

Llywelyn was meanwhile watching the conflict as an in-
terested spectator. Except for a transient quarrel in March,
when he had attacked the Breos lands and the earls of Corn-
should not be disposed of against her will (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 18), a concession
obtained, it is clear, by the envoys of her father (see the previous entry in the
roll).

^27 On 22nd June, 1231, Henry promised Richard his brother's possessions
(Close Rolls, i. 590-1) and on 8th August it was announced that he had received
them {^hid. 541). Grave doubt is thus thrown upon Wendover's story (iv. 225)
as to Richard's extorting recognition by force from an unfriendly sovereign.

I'^^For the Irish scheme see Close Rolls, ii. 315-9. Its abandonment was
announced on 28th August (iiti. 322). Henry was at Hereford from the 19th
of this month until the 29th, at Hay from the 31st until 3rd September, at Ewyas
on the 3rd, at Abergavenny on the 5th, and again on the 7th and 8th, at Usk on
the 6th and 7th, and again at Hereford on the loth.

i29\Yalter's lands were seized before 23rd August (Close Rolls, ii. 251), and
before the end of the month the king was in possession of his castles of Bronllys
(Brenles) and Glasbury (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 25). At the same time, his knight,
Hugh of Kinnersley, lost Aberllyfni (Close Rolls, ii. 257). He made his peace on
17th September at Shrewsbury {j,hid. 267 — cf. Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 25 (i6th Sept.))
and was with the king in the war at the end of the year.

130 Wendover (iv. 275) ; Ann. Theokesb. ; Close Rolls, ii. 259, 323.

LL YWEL YN THE GREA T. 679

wall and Pembroke had restored for their protection the broken chap.
defences of Radnor/^^ he had maintained during 1233 the at- ^^^^^•
titude of willingness to negotiate which he had taken up in the
previous year.^^^ As late as 14th October the grant of the
manor of Purleigh in Essex to David testified to the good re-
lations between him and the English court.^^^ But when Earl
Richard, impatient at the delay in the restoration of Usk, forc-
ibly retook the castle from the royal garrison/^* and his friends
in Glamorgan carried Cardiff Castle by assault/^^ Llywelyn
ranged himself on the side of the baronial opposition and a
war broke out along the march in which the Welsh acted with
the Marshall interest and the knights of Glamorgan against
the forces of the crown, backed by the Shropshire and the
Herefordshire marchers.^^^ The struggle at first raged chiefly
in the valleys of the Usk and the Wye, where the earl obtained
possession of Abergavenny, Newport, and Monmouth, in addi-
tion to his own castles of Usk, Caerleon, and Chepstow,^^" forced
the king to retire from Grosmont after raiding his camp at
dawn on nth November ^^^ and defeated John of Monmouth
in a pitched battle fought near that town on 26th December.
Llywelyn was meanwhile employed in the siege of Brecon,
with the result that, after a month's battering of the walls with
warlike engines, he reduced the town to ashes, but failed in
taking the castle.^^^ In January, 1234, Richard and he devast-
ated the border far and wide, making their power felt as far as

181 Ann. C. MS. B. ; B.T. ; Ann. Theokesb.

1^2 Rymer, i. 210 (Close Rolls, ii. 322, 323-4) ; Letters, i. 423 {ibid. 324-5).

133 Close Rolls, ii. 280. Cf. 327 (order to sheriff of Salop on 15th Oct.).
Purleigh was transferred to another grantee on 25th December (ibid. 356).

134 Richard had not declared himself on 14th October — see Close Rolls, ii.
280 — but on the 28th preparations were in full swing for a campaign against him
and the Welsh (ibid. 542-3). Usk was held for the king by Henry de Turbeville
(ibid. 353-4)-

138 Ann. Theokesb. dates this event 15th October and says that Warin Basset
fell in the assault. Earl Richard was at Cardiff on the 21st.

136 With the Marshalls were Gilbert Turbeville, Raymond Sully, Gilbert
Umfraville, John le Sor, John of St. Quintin, and Roger Berkrolles. The king's
adherents included John of Monmouth, John fitz Alan, Walter Clifford, Walter
Lacy, and Thomas Corbet.

137 Hubert de Burgh was carried off to Chepstow, by way of Aust ferry, on
his release from captivity at the end of October (Wykes).

i3» Wendover, iv. 278-9. Henry was at Grosmont on nth, 12th, and 13th
November (Close Rolls, ii. 338 ; Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 32).

139 B.T,

21 *

68o HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Shrewsbury.^*" The princes of South Wales, Rhys Gryg, Owain
^ ' ap Gruffydd, and Maelgwn Fychan, threw all their strength
into an attack upon the town and castle of Carmarthen,^ *^ which
they cut off from all succour on the seaward side by building
a bridge across the Towy. It was not a successful enterprise ;
in March the experienced warrior, Henry of Turbeville, was
sent with a fleet from Bristol to raise the siege ; ^^^ the bridge
was broken and the Welsh army scattered with much slaughter.
Among men of less note, the veteran Rhys Gryg was mortally
wounded and died not long afterwards at Llandeilo Fawr.^*'
Early in February Earl Richard left Wales for Ireland,
where the conflict was also being carried on. It was, however,
reaching its natural close, as the king realised the impotence
of the foreign party and gradually yielded to the pressure
brought to bear upon him by the bishops in the interests of
reform. Foremost among the peacemakers was the primate
elect, Edmund Rich, who sent the bishops of Lichfield and
Rochester to the border to see what they could do with
Llywelyn. The prince of Gwynedd had no strong reason for
continuing the struggle, and accordingly he agreed to a truce
on 6th March at Brockton, near Bishop's Castle,^** and sent
envoys to the king, who confirmed the arrangement for a res-
pite of fighting on the 28th.^*^ In this way the ground was
cleared for the much desired revolution at court ; on 9th
April the newly consecrated archbishop won a complete
victory over Peter of Winchester and his train, and matters

1*0 Wendover, iv. 291. B.T. and Ann. C. MS. B. mention the burning
of Clun, Oswestry, and the Teme valley, and the capture of an unknown " castell
hithoet ". The last-named appears as " Castell Coch " {i.e. Powis Castle) in
B.T., but this castle was in Llywelyn's own territory of Powys Wenwynwyn.

1" Ann. C. MS. C. ; B.T. ; Ann. Theokesb.

i'»2 Henry was appointed constable of Carmarthen on 17th March, 1234 (Cal.
Pat. Rolls, i. 41), and ten days later the men of Bristol were ordered to supply
him with corn, beans, pease, bacon, salt, and wine for the provisioning of the
castle (Close Rolls, ii. 394).

i« ^M». Theokesb. ; B.T. ; Ann. C. MS. B. Rhys was buried in St. David's
Cathedral and his elegy was sung by Dewi Mynyw (My v. Arch. I. 543 (357)), or,
it may be, Y Prydydd Bychan (ibid. 384 (262)).

^^* Or, perhaps, near Worthen, where there is also a place of this name.

^*' The truce of Brockton is referred to in Letters, i. 433 (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i,
43). A safe-conduct was issued to Llywelyn's envoys on nth March (ibid. 41),
and on the 28th the king informed his captains at Monmouth that he had agreed
to a truce, though for a shorter period than that proposed by the two bishops
(Close Rolls, ii. 555).

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 68 1

were ripe for the restoration of the Earl Marshall to his due CHAP.

XVIII

position of honour and authority in the realm. On the 15th,
however, the earl died in Ireland/^^ as the result of hostile
measures long before set on foot by his enemies, and it was
now but a question of reconciling his brothers and his adherents
to the king and of securing a permanent peace with Llywelyn.
In June there was a general pacification ; Gilbert Marshall
became Earl of Pembroke, the insurgents in England and
South Wales were received again into favour, and Peter of
Rivaux was stripped of all his Welsh possessions. Upon
learning that his allies had received satisfactory terms,
Llywelyn also accepted conditions of peace ; ^^'^ on 21st June
the archbishop and the two bishops who had negotiated the
armistice of Brockton met him at Middle, half-way between
Ellesmere and Shrewsbury, and concluded a truce for two
years, which was ratified by the king on 7th July.^*^ The
basis of the agreement was adherence to the state of things
which obtained at the outbreak of the war ; no new castle was
to be built, no ruined one restored, on either side, but all con-
quests of earlier date than the outbreak of the quarrel with
Earl Richard were to be retained, so that Llywelyn kept his
hold upon Cardigan and Builth. In form the settlement was
merely temporary and determined no questions of right, but,
on the expiration of the prescribed two years, the truce was
renewed from year to year until Llywelyn's death,^*® so that
in substance the Pact of Middle was a treaty of peace, the
crowning achievement of the prince's long and victorious
career. He fought no more battles with the English ; he had
won for himself and for his people a secure and well-guarded
independence, and henceforth his chief concern was to make

^**^ Ann. Theokesb.; Mon. Angl. v. 266.

1'*^ Immediately after the council of gth April, Henry had confirmed the
truce of Brockton, securing peace until 25th July, and it was arranged that the
archbishop should see Llywelyn on 2nd May as to a permanent agreement. See
Letters, i. 433-5. But, on hearing of the death of Earl Richard, Llywelyn ap-
parently declined to proceed until there had been complete reparation to the
earl's injured followers. Hence the letter of the king dispatched early in June
and printed in Rymer, i. 212 (Close Rolls, ii. 564-5).

"8 Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 59. Cf. Rymer, i. 213 (Close Rolls, ii. 568-9).

1^^ It was prolonged on nth July, 1236 (Rymer, i. 229 ; Cal. Pat. Rolls, i.
153), on 14th June, 1237 (Rymer, i. 232; C.P.R. i. 186), and on 8th July, 1238
(Rymer, i. 236 ; C.P.R. i. 225). The Patent Roll for 1238-9 is not extant.

682 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP sure that the edifice of national power and prosperity he had
' erected would survive his removal from the scene.

III. Wales under the Rule of Llywelyn.

While the Welsh leader was thus fighting and parleying and
bargaining with the king and the barons of the march, the
realms of Gwynedd and Powys lay in profoundest peace.
Hardly a ripple disturbed the face of the waters, and the
domestic history of the period is almost a blank. The question
of the succession, no doubt, gave Llywelyn some anxiety from
time to time, but, apart from this, there was no internal prob-
lem to harass him. The age was one in which, under the
powerful protection of the lord of Gwynedd, Welsh society
followed the lines of its natural development, and Welsh litera-
ture, law and religion quietly prospered.

Wide as was the scope of his authority, stretching from
Cardigan to Mold and from Builth to Anglesey, Llywelyn
never claimed the title of prince of Wales. He used the
official designation of " princeps Norwalliae," i.e., prince of
Gwynedd, until the spring of 1230, when he began to style
himself " prince of Aberffraw and lord of Snowdon," a title ere
long recognised by the English governments^" It can hardly
be supposed that the longer and more sonorous style was
adopted for mere reasons of euphony ; a serious purpose lay
behind it. Llywelyn wished to emphasise his primacy in
Wales as the holder of that " principal seat " to which tradition
assigned the pre-eminence ; the prince of Aberffraw held him-
self to be the natural lord of the prince of Dinefwr, and thus
found a justification in traditional lore for the actual suprem-
acy which he exercised.^^^ " Lord of Snowdon " was perhaps
added for greater effect, the humble Aberffraw conveying to
English ears no such suggestion of ancient greatness as to the
Welshman steeped in the history of bygone days.

150 The earliest occurrence of the title which I have been able to trace is on
ist May, 1230 — see Evans, Rep. ii. p. 859 (copy by leuan Brydydd Hir of Rhos
Fyneich charter). In English documents it first appears on 27th May, 1231
(Rymer, i. 200; Pat. Rolls, ii. 436).

151 The supremacy of Aberffraw is involved in the statement of Ven. \. ii. 3
that " gold is not paid (as sarhad) to any other than the king of Aberffraw," and
is explicitly asserted in Lat. C. L v. i (ii. 894-5). Both authorities, it should be
added, are Venedotian and not older than the thirteenth century.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 683

But, though Llywelyn did not formally style himself CHAP,
prince of Wales, he had much of the power which such a
title might imply.

The South — dost thou not rule it as rightful lord ?

triumphantly sings his bard, Llywarch ap Llywelyn,^^^ and he
let no opportunity escape him of winning authority even in .
distant Gwent and Glamorgan.^^^ It may be said, however,
that his prestige in the South, though always great, was a
variable quantity, depending on the fortune of war ; in the
North it was at all times unquestioned and involved the com-
plete subjection of the other ruling princes. Among these
were Maredudd ap Rhotpert of Cydewain,^^* Llywelyn ab
Owain and Owain Fychan of Mechain,^^^ the stock of Owain
Brogyntyn in Edeyrnion,^^*^ and Llywelyn ap Maredudd in
Meirionydd.^^'^ Chief of Llywelyn's Northern vassals was
Madog ap Gruffydd, whose lands stretched from the Tanat to
the outskirts of Chester, the founder of Valle Crucis, the lord
of Overton Castle, towering on its cliff above the beautiful,
sinuous course of the Dee.^*^ From the Peace of Worcester
until his death in 1236, when he was laid to rest in the abbey
he had endowed,^^^ Madog was unswervingly faithful to his
great chief,^*''* and his fidelity, with the friendship of the Earls
of Chester, put Llywelyn at his ease as to the security of his

152 Myv. Arch. I. 304 (215) (" Y deheu neud teu ual teithyawc ").

153 See Letters, i. 452-5 (Close Rolls, ii. 590-1,595) for an attempt in August,
1234, to obtain suzerainty over Morgan Gam, Rhys ap Gruffydd, Hywel ap
Maredudd, and Morgan of Caerleon.

1^* See chap. xvii. note 182.

15' Sons of the Owain Fychan who was slain in 1187 (p. 565). Lljrwelyn
obtained protection from John on 30th August, 1204 (^ot. Pat. 45). He was
dead in 1241, but his son Llywelyn and his brother Owain appear in that year
in Rot. Fin. i. 342. Owain, known like his father as Owain Fychan, appears as
a magnate in May, 1218 (Rymer, i. 151 ; Rot. Clans, i. 362).

156 Represented in 1245 by Gruffydd ab Owain, Owain ap Bleddyn ab Owain
(for Bleddyn see Rymer, i. 151), and Elise ab lorwerth ab Owain (Rymer, i.
258).

i"i3.T. s.a. 1215.

158 Madog appears as lord of Maelor Saesneg in 1212 {Arch. Camb. HL xii.
(1866), 414) and in 1229 (Close Rolls, i. 250), and, no doubt, Overton Madog took
its name from him, since there is no evidence that it was ever held by Madog ap
Maredudd.

159 ^MM. C. MS. B. andB.T.

180 Madog appears in association with Llywelyn in 1218 {Rot. Claus. i. 379),
1223 (Pat. Rolls, i. 411), 1229 (Close Rolls, i. 250), and 1232 {ibid. ii. 139).

684 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, eastern border as far south as the rock of Carreghofa. After
XVIII

Madog's death, his domains were divided among his sons,

Gruffydd Maelor, Gruffydd lal, Hywel, Maredudd, and Madog,
and the too familiar tale of fraternal jealousy and strife was
once more repeated. In 1238 Maredudd brought about the
death of Gruffydd lal, whereupon Llywelyn intervened as
overlord and deprived the fratricide of his lands.^®^

Not only vassals, but also able ministers, both clerical and
lay, seconded the efforts of the prince of Gwynedd. Chief
among them was Ednyfed Fychan, who succeeded Gwyn ab
Edny wain ^^^ about 1 2 1 5 as " distain " or seneschal, and hence-
forward takes the first place among the counsellors and
envoys of Llywelyn. Tradition would have us believe that
he first won fame as a warrior, fighting against Earl Ranulf of
Chester and cutting off the heads of three Englishmen, which
were thereafter figured upon his escutcheon.^^^ But his true
glory is the place he filled and the services he rendered until
his death in 1 246 ^"^ as the prudent adviser and skilful agent
of two successive lords of Aberffraw. He first appears in
connection with the Peace of Worcester in 1218,^®^ and next
as a witness to the compact between Llywelyn and the Earl
of Chester on the occasion of the marriage of John the Scot in
1222.^^^ From 1229 onwards he is constantly engaged in the
business of the prince,^®'' and it cannot be doubted that the
part he played in shaping the policy of Gwynedd was sub-
stantial. Of his private history little is certainly known ; ^'^^
the death of his wife Gwenllian, a daughter of the Lord Rhys,
is recorded in 1236,^®^ and he would seem in the previous

"1 Ann. C. MS. B. and B.T. 102 See note 54 to chap. xvii.

163 The story comes from the report of the commission as to Henry VII. 's
ancestry (Wynne, 331-2). It may be a genuine reminiscence of the campaign of
1 210 — sne p. 632.

!»*" Item obiit Ideneueth Justiciarius Walliae " (Ann. Cest. s.a.)

1^* Rot. Claus. i. 379 (Etuenech Bachan).

166 Owen, Catalogue, i. p. 357. In 1223 he was nominated as one of the six
representatives of Llywelyn upon the commission of inquiry as to South Wales
lands (Pat. Rolls, i. 413, 481).

167 Pat. Rolls, ii. 271 (Edeneuet senescallus Lewelini), 453, 471, 475, 476
Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 3, 4, 17, 225, 237 ; Close Rolls, ii. 139.

168 The usual meaning of the epithet "Fychan" (Little) at this time, viz.,
Junior, would make him a son of Ednyfed, but the pedigrees do not show this.

i6M«». C. MS. B.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 685

year to have made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.^^" He CHAP,
had estates at Rhos Fyneich ^^^ (near Colwyn Bay), at Llan-
sadwrn and Llanrhystyd in South Wales/"'-^ and, no doubt,
also in Anglesey, where his descendants were mighty folk for
many generations. Not the least of his claims to respectful
notice from the historian is that from him sprang, by direct
male descent, the puissant House of Tudor, so that his stock
might have used, with even greater propriety than the
Mortimers, the boastful motto — •'■'■ Not we from kings, but
kings from us ".

The greatness of Ednyfed cast a shade over the lesser
agents of Llywelyn's purposes, men such as Einion Fychan,^'^^
David, archdeacon of St. Asaph,^^* and the clerical envoys,
Ystrwyth,i^5 Adam,^^''' David i" and Philip ab Ifor.^^« But the
prince had one emissary whose diplomatic services far outran
those of the seneschal and who helped him in this capacity
for the greater part of his reign. To the assistance of his wife
Joan, both as advocate and counsellor, there can be no doubt
he was much indebted. Reference has already been made to
the part which she played as mediator between Wales and
England up to 1230 ; the tragedy of that year brought about
a sudden suspension of her diplomatic activity, but it was not
long ere it was resumed. In the following year she was for-
given and released from prison,^"^ and in 1232 she appears
once more in the accustomed r6le of representative of her

I''" Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 108. The journey talked of in December, 1232 {fbid. 6),
was clearly not carried out at the time.

I'^i A charter copied by leuan Brydydd Hir from the original contains Lly-
welyn's confirmation at " Estrad" (near Denbigh), on ist May, 1230, of the
purchase by " Idneved Vachan Senescallus noster " of " Ros Veneych " from the
heirs of Dineirth of the tribe of Marchudd (ap Cynan). See Evans, Rep. ii. p.
859 (Panton MSS.).

i"Pat. Rolls, ii. 271.

1" Pat. Rolls, ii. 471, 476 ; Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 3 ; Rymer, i. 236.

'^"'^ Pat. Rolls, ii. 436 ; Rymer, i. 235, 236.

1''^ See chap. xvi. note 53. The "Instructus" of Pat. Rolls, ii. 452, 460,
and Close Rolls, ii, 132, was perhaps a younger man.

176 Pat. Rolls, ii. 436 ; Owen, Catalogue, p. 357 ; Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 3.

^'^'' Rot. Claus. ii. 43 ; Rymer, i. 178, 208; Pat. Rolls, ii. 436.

"8 Pat. Rolls, ii. 452, 460, 466; Close Rolls, ii. 132; Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 225 ;
Rymer, i. 236.

"9 " Lewelinus princeps Wallye recepit uxorem suam . . . quam antea in-
carceravit" (Aitn. Cest. s.a. 1231).

686 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, husband.^^*' She died at Aber, the royal seat of the commote

XVIII

of Arllechwedd Uchaf, now becoming a favourite residence of
the princes of Gwynedd,^^^ on 2nd February, 1237, ^^^ and the
best proof of her complete restoration to the old footing of
trust and affection is to be found in the honour paid by Lly-
welyn to her memory. Her body was borne across the sands
of Lafan and ferried to the Anglesey shore, where, not far from
the prince's manor of Llanfaes, a new burying-ground had
been consecrated by Bishop Hugh of St. Asaph. Here she
was laid to rest, while for monument Llywelyn built on the
spot a house for Franciscan friars, so that the most saintly of
the religious, as they were then accounted, might pray for her
soul.^^^ Her coffin of stone, with its graceful carving and
comely presentment of the diademed head in bas-relief, was
torn from its place at the dissolution, but has recently found
fitting shelter and protection in Baron Hill Park.^^*

Joan had one son, David, the indubitable heir to Llywelyn's
great position, as heirship was reckoned in feudal and Christian
Europe. But the position was complicated by the fact that
the prince had an older son, Gruffydd, born to him before his
marriage, and that under Welsh law this youth might fairly
claim, though not born in wedlock, to share his father's
dominions with his younger brother.^^^ Gruffydd was the son
of a Welsh mother, Tangwystl, daughter of Llywarch the Red
of Rhos,^^** and both this circumstance and his fiery and enter-
prising spirit — for he was an Ishmael by disposition no less
than in respect of his birth — made him a popular hero and
counterbalanced the disadvantage he suffered in the public

"» Pat. Rolls, ii. 476.

^8^ Other royal residences of this period were Carnarvon, Rhosyr, Cemais,
and Llanfaes — see Mon. Angl. iv. 582.

182 <i Jn Purificationis " [Ann. Cest.) ; " vis whefrawr yn llys Aber " {B.T.).

^^ B.T. Llanfaes was the royal manor of Tindaethwy, with a port and ferry
— see Trib. System, App. 3-4. Its church (St. Catherine's) was in 1254 the most
valuable in the deanery (Arch. Camb. V. xi. (1894), 32) and was quite distinct from
the friary. Bangor was vacant ; hence the appearance of the bishop of St. Asaph.

^^*Arch. Camb. I. ii. (1847), 316; IV. vi. (1875), 142-3 (Bloxam).

185 The first mention of Gruffydd is as a hostage in the hands of King John
from I2II to 1215 — see chap. xvii. notes 121 and 172. That he was illegitimate
is clear from the language of the papal letter of 26th May, 1222 (Papal Letters,
i. p. 87), language, it is to be noted, which was dictated by Llywelyn himself.

186 Dwnn, ii. 107.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 687

recosfiiition of David as sole heir. Thus a conflict arose which CHAP.

XVIII
outlasted the life of Llywelyn, and which, while he lived, was a

constant source of trouble to him. He never wavered in his
determination that David should succeed to the whole of his
territories ; apart from his attachment to Joan and the re-
collection that his own accession to full power was a triumph
for legitimacy, there was the certainty that only David, strong
in his relationship to the English king and in the possession of
an unassailable title, could hold together what had become a
virtual principality of Wales. In 1220 he secured the recogni-
tion of David by the English Government,^^^ in 1222 by the
pope,^*^^ and in 1226 by the magnates of Wales ; ^^^ in 1229
followed the homage of the heir to Henry HI., and in 1230
his marriage to Isabella de Breos.^^** Meanwhile, Llywelyn's
treatment of Gruffydd had varied ; he had sometimes indulged
him, and then again, moved by his reckless violence, had
turned upon him and punished him. He had at first given
him Meirionydd and Ardudwy, but the ravages committed by
Gruffydd upon his own territories led him in 1221 to recall his
gift.-^^^ In 1223 Gruffydd was so far in favour again as to be
in command of forces which acted for Llywelyn in Ystrad
Tywi,^^^ but in 1228 his father imprisoned him in Degannwy
as the only method of ensuring his good behaviour, and he,
remained a prisoner for the next six years.^^^ With Gruffydd
under lock and key, David's path was clear of difficulties, and
the rivalry between the two brothers was suspended until it
burst forth again at the close of the reign.

Turning from the circle of Llywelyn's personal relations to
the land over which he bore sway, one observes that, after the
great struggle at St. David's, the Welsh Church enjoyed quiet
during the rest of his period of rule. The successful movement
against the tyranny of John enabled him in 121 5 to carry,
without serious opposition, in the case of the two most im-
portant Welsh sees, the point for which he had contended
earlier in the reign, namely, the election of Welsh bishops.

187 See p. 656. 188 Papal Letters, i. p. 87.

^^^Ibid. p. 109. 19" See pp. 670, 671.

191 B.T. It was, no doubt, after this that Llywelyn ap Maredudd (see note
157) obtained his patrimony of Meirionydd.

192 Ibid.

i9» Ann. Cest. s.a. 1228 and 1234, confirmed by B.T. s.a. 1234.

688 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Geoffrey of St. David's died in 1 2 1 4,^^* and thereupon negotia-
tions were set on foot by the court for the appointment of a
successor acceptable to the king.^^^ But John found it im-
possible to achieve his purpose, and he was forced, a few days
after accepting the Great Charter, to agree to the elevation of
lorwerth, abbot of Talley, unanimously chosen by the chapter,
no doubt with the concurrence of Llywelyn.^^^ Giraldus, whose
claims were on this occasion with one consent ignored, avenges
himself by suggesting that lorwerth's election was not quite
free from the taint of simony, but he admits that the new
bishop was a good, simple man,^^*" and he would seem to have
filled his office well, mediating between Welsh and English in
time of strife,^^^ reforming the services of his cathedral,^®^ and,
probably, continuing the building work of Bishop Peter.-'^'^
With lorwerth, Archbishop Langton consecrated to the vacant
see of Bangor Cadwgan, abbot of Whitland, who was the son
of a priest famed for his Welsh preaching and was himself in
high favour with Llywelyn.^"^ It was a choice which was
undoubtedly due to the predominance of the prince of Gwynedd
at this time, though Giraldus, in the disappointment of his
declining years, sneers at it and paints the new bishop in the
most unpleasing colours, as an unfilial son and a wicked
schemer. But what history has to tell of him is to his credit ;

19*B.T. The appointment of the Earl Marshall as custos was signified on
nth January, 1215 {Rot. Pat. i. 126; Rot. Clans, i. 182).

^^^Rot. Claus. i. igi, 203. John's candidate was Hugh Foliot, Archdeacon
of Salop.

1*8 Rot. Pat. 143 (Windsor, i8th June). lorwerth was consecrated at Staines
on 2ist June (Reg. Sacr. (2), 54).

1"'' Men. Eccl. vii. (Works, iii. 361-4).

i»8 See p. 653. 1*^ Jones and Freem. 321.

200 The new tower collapsed in 1220 (Ann. C. MS. C), and important
building was done between this date and 1248 (Jones and Freem. 147).

2"! Bishop Robert had died in 1212 (chap. xvii. note 119). On 13th March,
1215, John granted the request of the chapter for freedom of election, but asked
them (was it to save his face ?) to elect the abbot of Alba Landa (Rot. Pat. 130).
By 13th April this had been done and the royal assent was given on that day
(ibid. 132 — read C for O). For his consecration see Ann. Wigorn., H. and St.
i. 455, Reg. Sacr. (2), 54. B.T. calls him " Kadwgawn llan dyffei " (Brnts, 353),
i.e., of Llandyfeisant (near Llandeilo) or Lamphey. The " Martinus " of ^«m.
Wigorn. and ^nn. Theokesb. (which are clearly not independent in this notice) is
probably a slip ; the latter has the right name s.a. 1241. The unnamed bishop
who is pilloried by Gir. Camb. in Spec. iii. 7 (Works, iv. 161-7) is beyond doubt
Cadwgan, and the abuse, exaggerated as it no doubt is, would be pointless if
Llywelyn had not favoured his election.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 689

avarice cannot be laid to the charge of a prelate who in 1234 CHAP.

. XVIII.
bought a shipload of corn in Ireland to feed the poor of his

diocese,^"^ nor yet love of power to the account of a man who

in 1236 resigned his episcopal dignity and found shelter for his

aged bones as a humble monk in the Cistercian house of Dore.^"^

Under the gentle sway of lorwerth and Cadwgan and of the

undistinguished bishops of St. Asaph,^''* the ecclesiastical air

was untroubled, even if there hung about it a suggestion of

drowsy content which one might have looked for in vain if the

ambitions of the fiery reformer of Manorbier had been realised.

It was in the monastic sphere that enterprise and energy

came to light in the Welsh Church of this period, and here

Llywelyn showed himself the enlightened friend of reform,

with no narrow suspicion of new religious movements. His

sympathies in this respect were as broad as those of Rhys ap

Grufifydd. He befriended the canons of Priestholm or Ynys

Lannog, who were members of no recognised monastic order,

but a company of anchorites of the old Welsh pattern,^''^ and

secured them in the possession of the church and manor of

Penmon.^"*' But he was no less favourable to the Cistercian

202 Close Rolls, ii. 417.

2"=* Gregory IX. gave his consent on ist March, 1236 {Papal Letters, i. p. 151),
and about 6th June Master Guy, dean of Bangor, obtained the leave of the
crown for a new election (Gal. Pat. Rolls, i. 149). The submission of " Cadu-
canus " to the abbot of Dore will be found in B. Willis, Bangor, pp. 186-7. ^^
died in the abbey on nth April, 1241 {Ann. Theokesb.).

20* Bishop Reiner (there were perhaps two of the name) died in 1224 {Ann.
Theokesb.) and was succeeded by Abraham, probably a Welshman, who was
consecrated on 29th June, 1225 {Reg. Sacr. (2), 56), and died in 1232 {B.T.).
Permission to elect was granted to the chapter on 4th February, 1233 (Cal. Pat.
Rolls, i. 10), and on nth April, 1234, t^^ l^irig assented to the election of Hugh,
a Dominican friar {ibid. 42), who was consecrated on 17th June, 1235 {Reg.
Sacr. (2), 58).

^"-^ Gir. Camb. {Itin. ii. 7 (vi. 131)) describes the life of the "eremitae" of
'* Enislannach ". They puzzled Gervase of Canterbury, who calls them " monachi
albi per se " (ii. 444). But they were certainly not Cistercians, nor yet Bene-
dictines (Dugdale and Tanner) ; as in the cases of Aberdaron, Enlli and Beddge-
lert, their usual designation of " canons " was an attempt to interpret their real
position as members of an ancient " clas ". See chap. vii. § 2.

206 See Llywelyn's charters of 15th October, 1221, and loth April, 1237
(wdth confirmations by David as heir in 1229 and 1238) in Mon. Angl. iv. 581-2.
It is not clear whether the prior and canons of" Insula Glannauc" (for the name
see chap. vii. note m) possessed the " abbadaeth," i.e., the ecclesiastical and
territorial rights, of the "clas" of Penmon before 1237, but this seems most
likely. There was a church on the island, of the same age as that on the main-
land.

690 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, fraternity, now firmly rooted both in North and South Wales ;

^^^^^' he issued to Cymer and to Aberconwy charters confirming to
those houses their extensive lands in Gwynedd,^"^ and he
maintained the most amicable relations with Strata Florida ^^^
and Cwm Hir. It was probably under his patronage that the
Knights Hospitallers found a home at Dolgynwal, or Yspyty
Ifan, on the banks of the Conway,^"^ and mention has already
been made of the welcome he gave to the Franciscans, repre-
senting the newest type of religious devotee, who, at the time
of their settlement at Llanfaes, had only been some thirteen
years in these islands. In the realm of religion, as in that of
politics, Llywelyn was accessible to new impulses and ideas.

There is reason to think that the prince's care for the wel-
fare of his people exhibited itself in yet another channel, namely,
that of law. The Venedotian Code, that edition of the laws
of Hywel the Good which embodies the special usages of
Gwynedd, would seem to have been compiled by one lorwerth
ap Madog about the beginning of the thirteenth century. 2^*^
If this be the case, it can hardly be doubted that the moving
influence in the matter was the Venedotian lord, whose interest
it was that all his subjects should be under the authority of
one body of law. His privileges are naturally asserted to the
full: "gold," as satisfaction for an insult, "is paid only," we
are informed, " to the king of Aberffraw," ^" but a beneficent
purpose may also be traced in the reform, for this was one of
the ways in which, as the annalist puts it, " he showed good
justice to all, according to their deserts, in the love and fear of
God." 2^^ lorwerth ap Madog was apparently a man of Arfon,
and he records prominently the special rights of the warriors
of that cantref, the men of the black-headed shafts, who had
earned them, tradition alleged, in the tribal wars of far distant
days.^^^

20V Chap xvi. notes 144, 148.

"^^^ Gir. records visits paid by Llywelyn to Strata Florida about 12 14 (iv.
162-3) ^n^i 't was at the abbey that the important assembly of 1238 took place.

209 p, 604. ^'0 See chap. x. extra note B.

«" See note 151. "'^ Ann. C. MS. B. s.a. 1240.

213 LL, i, 104-6. According to Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans, " Breinieu Arfon "
is not in the same hand as the text of MS. A. before and after {Rep. i. pref. to pt.
ii. note on p. viii), but it so refers to lorwerth as to make it clear that he is the
author of the section.

LL YWEL YN THE GREA T. 69 1

The age of Llywelyn, it scarcely needs to be said, was one CHAP,
of brilliant literary achievement in Wales. Ten bards are
mentioned by Stephens in The Literature of the Kymry ^^*
as having written during this period poetry which survives, and
included in the list are the honoured names of Cynddelw the
Great Maker (Y Prydydd Mawr) and Llywarch ap Llywelyn,
the Poet of the Swine (Prydydd y Moch). Most of them con-
fess, in rapturous odes to the prince of Gwynedd, the debt
v/hich poesy owed him as the doer of noble deeds and the
begetter of heroic strains. He is, says Cynddelw,

The proud lord whom God made without a fault. ^^^

Prydydd y Moch declares —

Well known it is that thy long hand never falters
As it bestows the red and the yellow gold :
God made thee braver than any man that breathes —
Most liberal, too, as far as the sun's course extends :
It is thy father's kindly instinct that to thee clings,
And in thee the generous dead is reborn.^^'*

Dafydd Benfras almost declines the impossible task of ade-
quate eulogy —

Had I the skill of a wizard

In the primitive, eloquent bardic strain,

I could not for the life of me paint his prowess in battle,

Nor could Taliesin.^i^

While the simple lines of Einion ap Gwgon, his loyal kinsman
and retainer, set forth what, it may well be believed, were in
general the relations between the prince and his subjects —

He to me as the crystal mind,

I to him as the hand and the eye.^^^

Besides the work of known authors, there is much anonymous
literature, both in verse and in prose, which undoubtedly came
into being during this age of fruitful growth. To it may be
assigned not a few of the predictive poems, in which national
history is unfolded, as in the case of Cowper's " Boadicea "
and Gray's " Bard," by a prophetic figure of the past who tells
the story by way of prognostication. The " Hoianau," a cele-
brated specimen of the type, contains a reference to the struggle
of Llywelyn and John and the vengeance inflicted on the
foreigner by the outraged saint of Bangor —

214 Lit. Kym. (2), p. 118.

215 "Niwnaeth Duw fwlch ar falchnaf" {Myv. Arch. I, 262 (i8g)).

2i« Myv. Arch. I. 301 (213). »" Ihid. 308 (218). "is Ihid. 322 (226).

69a HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. When Daniel, son of Dunod Deinwyn, is kindled to wrath,

XVIII. The Frank shall return in flight— he shall not ask the road ! '^'^^

The Mabinogion, too, the famous romantic tales of the Welsh,
though there is little to fix the date of their composition, can-
not be moved far from the age of Llywelyn, in whose lifetime
the earliest known manuscript of the Four Branches was
penned. 22° It was the luxuriant and free flowering springtime
of the Welsh genius, when fancy and patriotic fervour and
wistful love of the past took a hundred different shapes — the
ode, the stanza, the triad, the romance, the legend of saintly life,
the mystic prophecy. And foremost figure of the race, its
pride and its delight, was the lord of Aberffraw —

Great chief of our fair, white land and its adornment 1 ''^

IV. Closing Scenes.

Llywelyn was now growing old and a slight paralytic
stroke added to the burden of his sixty-five years.^^^ Having
secured peace with England on the basis of the status quo, he
devoted his fast-ebbing energies to the task of making sure of
the succession of David. In 1234 Gruffydd had been released
from captivity and had received the half of Lleyn ; ^^^ his be-
haviour giving satisfaction, this provision had been in later
years very greatly increased, until in 1238 he is found holding,
in addition to the whole of this westernmost cantref of Gwy-
nedd, a substantial share of Powys, where his father apparently
designed to establish him as successor to Gwenwynwyn.''^'^*
But the feud between the two brothers did not admit of so
easy a solution, and in this year it came to a violent issue.
On 19th October an assembly of all the princes of Wales took
place at Strata Florida Abbey, which was friendly, as ever, to

2i» Blk. Bk. fo. 286, vv. I, 2 ; IV. Anc. Bks. ii. p. 23 ; Lit. Kym. (2), pp. 244-5,
where the allusion is not rightly understood. The poet sees in John's later de-
feats a punishment for the burning of Bangor in 121 1.

^ao Of this only a few fragments survive in Pen. MS. 6 (Evans, Rep. i. p. 316).
Dr. Evans dates them " circa 1225 ".

221 <« Mawr benn Cymru wenn ai chymmhenrwydd " (Myv. Arch. I. 311
(219)).

2^ M. Paris, Chron. iii. 385. The evidence of the records (see note 149 above)
shows that no important change of policy took place in or about 1237.

^^Ann. C. MS. B.

22^ According to B.T. 326, Arwystli, Kerry, Cyfeilipg, Mawddwy, Mochnant,
and Caereinion were in GruflFydd's hands.

LLYWELYN THE GREAT. 693

the power of Llywelyn, and each one swore fealty to David CHAP,
as next heir.^^^ Armed with this new authority, the young
prince stripped his rival of all his lands in Powys, leaving him
only Lleyn, and in the following year, whether provoked by
some fresh act of hostility or taking advantage of a more
secure footing in the realm, he imprisoned Gruffydd and his
son Owain in Criccieth,^^® and thus made himself undisputed
master of North Wales.

It was thus, with every object of his life achieved, with a
strong and prosperous principality ready to be handed on to
the son of Joan, that Llywelyn died on nth April, 1240.227
He spent his last hours in the abbey of Aberconwy, where
he took the monastic habit and where his body was honour-
ably entombed. Bard and chronicler sang his praises with
unanimous voice. "Thus died," writes the Cistercian annalist,
" that great Achilles the Second, the lord Llywelyn . . .
whose deeds I am unworthy to recount. For with lance and
shield did he tame his foes ; he kept peace for the men of
religion ; to the needy he gave food and raiment. With a
warlike chain he extended his boundaries ; he showed justice
to all . . . and by meet bonds of fear or love bound all men
to him." 228 In the like strain of eulogy did Einion the Weak
mourn the loss of his prince, marvelling at the low estate of
one who had a few short hours before been so great : —

True lord of the land — how strange that to-day

He rules not o'er Gwynedd !
Lord of nought but the piled up stones of his tomb,
Of the seven-foot grave in which he lies.^'

Among the chieftains who battled against the Anglo-Norman
power his place will always be high, if not indeed the highest of
all, for no man ever made better or more judicious use of the
native force of the Welsh people for adequate national ends ;
his patriotic statesmanship will always entitle him to wear the
proud style of Llywelyn the Great.

228 It appears from letters of 8th March, 1238, in Rymer, i. 235, that an at-
tempt had been made to bring off this ceremony earlier in the year and that the
English government had entered a protest against it.

226 5.r, 227 M. Pans, Chron. iv. 8.

"^^ Ann. C. MS. B. The following corrections must be made in the text
of Ab Ithel ; for " dominabat " read '• domabat " ; omit " Christi " (top of p. 83) ;
for '• tenore" read " terrore ".

^^ Myv. Arch. I, 335 (233).

VOL. n. ' 22

CHAPTER XIX.

between two tides.

1. The Struggle of David for Independence.

CHAP. The six short years of David's rule have the interest of an un-
^^^" finished experiment. Llywelyn had done all that foresight
could achieve to ensure the continuance of his own power un-
broken in the hands of his youngest son ; time alone would
show whether the scheme would be successful. But David's
early death put an end to the experiment in its most crucial
stage, and the fact that he left no heir cleared the board even
more thoroughly than would otherwise have been the case —
nothing remained of the edifice so laboriously built by Lly-
welyn. Nor must it be supposed that, before the removal of
David, the English crown had virtually won its victory ; the
prince had, in point of fact, surmounted his early difficulties,
and there is no reason to suppose that, had he lived, he might
not have achieved a decisive triumph.

His first steps were easily taken, so carefully had the way
been prepared. He had the powerful support of Ednyfed
Fychan, of the bishop of St. Asaph, and of Einion Fychan,^
and his accession to the principality of North Wales was taken
for granted at the English court. GrufFydd was in close con-
finement, and for the moment no one, save, perhaps. Bishop
Richard of Bangor, was disposed to make much of his claims.^

1 Rymer i. 239. The chronology of B.T. continues to be correct from 1240 to
1256, but, owing to a slip in the Rolls edition, two years are there included under
1252 (see p. 339) and the printed dates are therefore a year behind the true reck-
oning from 1253 to 1256 inclusive.

2 I follow in the text the statement of Ann. C. MS. B. and B.T. that Gruff-
ydd was imprisoned in 1239. According to M. Paris, however (Chron. iv. 8,
47-8), the imprisonment followed the death of Llywelyn, and the matter remains
in some doubt. Paris is probably right in his account of the attitude of the
bishop of Bangor (ibid. 148-9), but there is no record evidence showing that the
king concerned himself about Gruffydd before August, 1241.

694

BETWEEN TWO TIDES. 695

Accordingly, on 15th May, 1240, little more than a month CHAP,
after his father's death, David attended a royal council at
Gloucester, was knighted, did homage for Gwynedd, and wore
the " talaith " or coronet which was the special symbol of his
rank,^ The other magnates of Wales did homage in his com-
pany, and his rule seemed to have begun auspiciously in peace
and security.* But fair as was the aspect of the heavens,
there was inevitable trouble brewing ; the English govern-
ment, while fully prepared to recognise David as his father's
lawful successor, did not intend that he should retain Lly-
welyn's conquests. To abstain from robbing the redoubtable
lion of Gwynedd of his prey was one thing ; to allow it to
pass, with no effort at recovery, into the jaws of the lion-whelp
was quite another. The chief territories in dispute were Car-
digan, claimed by Earl Gilbert of Pembroke under a royal
grant,^ Mold, out of which the barons of Montalt had been
kept for more than forty years,^ Southern Powys, the inherit-
ance of Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn,^ and Builth, which David
alleged to be the dowry of his wife, Isabella de Breos.^ Gil-
bert proceeded at once to make good his claim by despatching
an army under his brother Walter to the mouth of the Teifi,
where the keep of Cardigan was rebuilt and English ascend-
ancy restored, in spite of the resistance of Maelgwn Fychan,
the Welsh lord of Southern Ceredigion.^ Elsewhere, matters
were not so easily adjusted, and an attempt was made to re-

•' Ann. C. MS. B. ; B.T. ; Ann. Theokesb. ; Ann. Wigorn. For the text of the
agreement then entered into between David and the king see Rymer i. 239-40.

* He granted a charter as " princeps Northwalliae " to Basing^erk at Coles-
hill on 25th July, 1240, when he was accompanied by the^bishop of St. Asaph,
Ednyfed Fychan and Einion Fychan (Mon. Angl. v. 263).

•' See p. 674 for its capture by Llywelyn.

•^ See p. 590. Robert of Montalt had meanwhile been succeeded by his
brother, Roger (d. 1232), and he by his son, Roger. The family at this time
lived at Hawarden (Ann. Cest. s.a.).

' See p. 650. * See p. 670.

^Ann. C. MSS. B. C. ; B.T. Earl Gilbert, already lord of Pembroke and
Nether Went, received on 9th December, 1234, a grant of the castles of Cardigan
and Carmarthen (Charter Rolls, i. 189), and on 28th February, 1235, the custody
of the honour of Glamorgan (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 96), " ita ut totam maritimam
possideret usque Sancti David " (Ann. Theokesb.). It appears from the pro-
ceedings recorded in Harl. MS. 6068, /. 8-96 (printed in Str. Flor., appendix
xx-xxiv. — the true year is 24, not 25 Hen. HI.) that he not only seized Cardigan
in May, 1240, but also attempted, without success, to make Maelgwn Fychan his
vassal.

22 *

696 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, cover the lost lands by negotiation with David, who fenced
with the question as long as he was able.

He was by no means so well placed for maintaining a
struggle of this kind as his father had been. On the death of
John the Scot in June, 1237, leaving no heir, the earldom of
Chester had reverted to the crown,^^ and the city on the Dee,
which had hitherto been, under Earl Ranulf and his nephew,
an outpost of the Welsh power, became and permanently re-
mained an aggressive centre of royal influence. The justiciar
of Chester was now a royal official, and from 1240 to 1245
the post was held by John Lest range, a Shropshire baron who
was ever active in the king's service.^^ There was another re-
spect in which David was at a disadvantage ; he had not the
confidence of all his fellow-princes, and a little later a number
of them openly espoused the cause of Gruffydd. Nevertheless,
he did his best to postpone the day of reckoning. In his
anxiety to secure the recognition of his title by the king, he
had agreed at Gloucester to submit the matter of the disputed
lands to a body of arbitrators, partly English and partly Welsh,
with the pope's legate. Otto, at their head.^^ He had thus
furnished his opponents with a weapon of which they were
not slow to avail themselves, and for twelve months the
burden of the English letters is the difficulty of inducing David
to carry out the arbitration proposal. A meeting of the ar-
bitrators was perhaps held at London on 7th December,^^ but,
if so, it did not complete its work, and an effort was made to
secure another meeting at Worcester in February, 1241, when
it was proposed to fill the places of two members of the body
who had gone abroad. David ignored this proposal and was
then cited to appear at Shrewsbury on 17th March.^* When
this day arrived, he was again absent and unrepresented, and

iMn«. Cest.; Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 184, 185.

11 He was appointed on 6th December, 1240 (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 240) and re-
placed by John de Gray at the end of October, 1245 [Aym. Cest.).

i^Rymer i. 239. The arbitrators appointed were the legate, the bishops of
Worcester, Norwich and St. Asaph, Earl Richard of Cornwall, John of Mon-
mouth, Ednyfed Fychan and Einion Fychan.

^^ Ibid. i. 240 (letter of 30th November, 1240).

^^Ibid. (letter of igth February). The king was at Worcester on ioth-i4th
February. The Earl of Cornwall had gone on crusade in the previous summer
and the legate left England in January, 1241. For David's safe-conduct to
Worcester see Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 242, and for that to Shrewsbury, ibid. 246.

BETWEEN TWO TIDES. 697

the government were emboldened to set up judicial proceed- CHAP
ings, hearing the complaints of the dispossessed lords and de-
claring the case settled against David by default.^* This was
a false move, for the prince made haste to point out that it
substituted law for the promised arbitration, and on 28th April
his envoys succeeded in replacing the matter on its original
basis.^® None the less did he prove a defaulter on the new
day fixed for the trial of the issue, namely, i6th June, when
the parties were to meet at Montford on the Severn. ^^

The king's patience was now exhausted,^^ and at the be-
ginning of August he appeared in the western counties with a
force for the subjugation of David.^® That prince was almost
wholly bereft of allies, for he had against him, not only the
claimants whom he was keeping out of possession, Roger of
Montalt, Grufifydd ap Gwenwynwyn, and Ralph Mortimer,^"
but also Gruffydd ap Madog of Northern Powys, Maredudd
ap Rhotpert, and Maelgwn Fychan. On 12th August, at
Shrewsbury, Henry granted the petition of the wife of the
imprisoned Gruffydd that, if the release of her husband could
be brought about, he should have his due share of Gwynedd,
and the other princes gave their cordial support to this pro-
posal for the diminution of the territories of David.^^ The
army moved on to Chester,^^ invaded Tegeingl, and by the
end of the month was at Rhuddlan, having encountered no
resistance. Some preparations, such as the razing to the

^5 The judges were the Bishop of Lichfield, Segrave, William Cantilupe
and John Lestrange, appointed on 5th March (ibid. 246). An entry in Rot. Fin.
i. 342 shows that, among other business, the court upheld the claim of Llywelyn
Fychan and Owain Fychan of Mechain (see p. 683) to Mochnant Uch Rhaeadr,
held by David (see the reference in Rymer, i. 242) with the bulk of Powys
Wenwynwyn.

1* Rymer, i. 241.

1'' For the safe-conduct granted on this occasion see Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 252.

^*'An ultimatum was sent on 14th July (Rymer i. 242).

^*The men of the counties controlled by John Lestrange, viz., Cheshire,
Shropshire, and Staffordshire, were warned on 13th July to be in readiness,
and on 6th August Henry was at Shrewsbury (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 254, 255).

^•^ The lands of Ralph were being harassed by certain Welsh chiefs of Kerry
and Maelienydd in alliance with David — see M. Paris, Chron. iv. 319-20.

^^ M. Paris, Chron. iv. 316-18 and Charter Rolls, i. 262-3.

22 According to Ann. Cest. the king reached Chester about 15th August. He
was certainly there from the igth to the 24th (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 257-8). His
stay at Rhuddlan lasted eight days (Ann. Cest.), i.e., no doubt, from 25th August
tp 1st September. On 2nd September he was again in Chester.

698 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, ground of Degannwy,'-^ were made to receive the onslaught,
* but the prince of Gwynedd was placed at the king's mercy by
the defection of an ally which had rarely failed a Welsh chief
in the hour of his need, namely, the Welsh climate. The
summer was one of remarkable drought ; marshes were dried
up, rivers became fordable, lakes shrank into shallow pools, and
the ordinary natural obstacles to a Welsh expedition almost
wholly disappeared.^* The royal troops moved so easily across
the great marsh of Rhuddlan that David was in danger of
being cut off from his Snowdonian base;'-^* on the 29th he
made a complete surrender to the king at Gwern Eigron on
the river Elwy "'^ and the bloodless campaign was at an end.^'^
Henry had no wish to deprive his obstinate nephew of his
position as prince, but in other respects the terms were hard.
Hardest of all was the requirement that Gruffydd, with his son
Owain and the other companions of his captivity, should be
delivered to the king, with the prospect of his establishment
as independent ruler of some portion of North Wales. All
the conquests of Llywelyn, including Mold, Southern Powys,
and Meirionydd,^^ were to be restored to their rightful owners,
and all homages of Welsh chiefs who ought to hold directly
from the crown were to be relinquished. As a penalty for his
resistance, David was to pay the expenses of the war and to
lose Ellesmere and Tegeingl. The peace was ratified in
London soon after Michaelmas, when the defeated prince
attended a gathering of magnates and agreed to a further
sacrifice, giving up Degannwy in discharge of the claim for
expenses ; '^'^ in the course of a few months the new order of

^^Ann. C. MS. C. " m. Paris, Chron. iv. 150 ; cf. 176-7.

26 it David . . . exclusus ab exercitu regis a Snaudonia subdidit se " (Ann.
Wigorn. s.a.).

^8 M. Paris, Chron. iv. 321-3 ; Rymer, i. 242-3, and Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 264.
" Alnetum" translates the Welsh "gwern " (alder grove) and no doubt stands for
Gwern Eigron (so Cal. Pat. Rolls), now a couple of miles south of Rhuddlan.
The alders formerly stretched as far north as Pengwern.

'*'"' Sine sanguinis effusione" (Paris).

28 Restored, according to Ann. C. MS. B. and B.T., to the sons of Mare-
dudd ap Cynan, who died in 1212. Rot. Fin. i. 371 shows that the two brothers,
both called Llywelyn, agreed to pay ;^8o for the restoration of the cantref. They
were distinguished as Llywelyn Fawr and Llywelyn Fychan (Mont. Coll. i. 255).
Both supported David in 1245 (Rymer, i. 258).

2** The undated document in Rymer, i. 243, seems to belong to the visit to
London in October mentioned by Ann. Camb. MS. B., B.T., and Paris, Chron.
iv. 150-1.

BETWEEN TWO TIDES. 699

things, rightly regarded by Henry as a great triumph for the CHAP,
royal authority,^^ was firmly established in Wales. Roger of
Montalt was in possession of his fortress of Mold ; ^^ Grufifydd
ap Gwenwynwyn, married to a daughter of John Lestrange,
ruled peacefully in Southern Powys ; ^^ Degannwy had been
placed in charge of the justiciar of Ireland ; ^^ Gruffydd ap
Madog had been rewarded with an exchequer pension ; ^* in
Tegeingl a new castle, to take the place of Rhuddlan, was
built by the king's orders on the rock of Maelan above the
church of Diserth.^^ South Wales was no less completely
subdued ; the death of Earl Gilbert from injuries received in a
tournament in June, 1241, enabled Henry to resume posses-
sion of Cardigan and Carmarthen ; ^^ John of Monmouth, the
royal lieutenant in the southern march, made himself master
of Builth,^'^ and Maredudd ap Rhys Gryg was ordered to with-
draw from the commotes of Kidwelly and Widigada.^^

David's first bid for greatness and power had thus been
unsuccessful, and he had to content himself with a narrower
platform than the one he had at first marked out for the exer-

30 '< Exemplum de Wallia . . . ubi nuper feliciter triumphavimus " (Paris, iv.
183).

^1 It was at first taken over by the crown, but on 6th May, 1242, Roger of
Montalt was made its keeper (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i, 288), and on 25th May, 1244,
the actual holder (ihid. 426).

32 In August, 1 241, he agreed to pay 300 marks for his father's lands {JRot.
Fin. i. 350-1). On 24th February, 1242, he was allowed to give his wife dower
in the manor of Ashford in the Peak (Charter Rolls, i. 266), which had been given
to him, as the son of Gwenwynwyn, in 1232 (Close Rolls, ii. 70).

33 Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 265 (29th October, 1241). ^* Ibid. 268.

35 The site is described as " forti rupe iuxta disserth " {Ann. C. MS. B.) and
" (k)astell y garrec yn ymyl y Disserth" (B.T.). It is clearly the "new place"
near Rhuddlan provided as a gift by Lestrange — see letter of 3rd September,
1241, in Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 258, and appears for a while as " Castellum de Rupe "
— see ibid. 267, 278, 279, where the identification with Beeston is a mistake.
The rock, still crowned vdth the ruins of Henry's fortress, bore the names of
Dincolin (Penn. ii, 117 — see Domesd. i. 2690 (2)) and Carreg Faelan (B.T.
s.a. 1263, MS. E. ; for the name Maelan see W. Phil (2), 202, 380).

3« The earl held at his death the castles of Chepstow (Striguil), Usk, Caerleon,
Pembroke, Cilgerran, Cardigan and Carmarthen (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 254), but
the last two were not regranted to his successor (M. Paris, Chron. iv. 158 and
Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 265).

'^'' B.T. and Ann. C, MS. B. In the latter the words •' a domino Johanne
de monemu in buelth et " have slipped out of the printed text.

38 Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 289 ; Carmarthen Charters (Carmarthen, 1878), p. 43.
Widigada was regarded as a parcel of the lordship of Carmarthen ; it lay east of
the Gwili,

700 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, cise of his authority. Henry, having secured his main objects,
spared him the last humiliation of having to divide his shrunken
realm with Gruffydd, who only exchanged a Welsh for an
English prison, being still kept in confinement. But the pos-
session of Gruffydd was an element in the contest of which
David could not overlook the decisive importance ; the king
had at his disposal a popular rival who could at any time be
sent to Wales to dislodge his brother, and accordingly the
policy of the prince of Gwynedd for the next two years is one
of prudence and self-restraint. Wales is at peace and its
chronicles are uneventful ; the princes of Powys are friendly
to the English authority, while those of Deheubarth, Maelgwn
of Is Aeron, Maredudd ab Owain of Uwch Aeron, and Rhys
Mechyll ap Rhys Gryg of Dinefwr, not strong enough to stand
alone, are reduced to inaction by the want of a leader.^® In
Glamorgan, there is a new lord, the young Earl Richard of
Gloucester, who sets himself to compose the feuds between
the Welsh chiefs and the barons of his lordship.*"

An unhappy accident in the Tower of London, early on
the morning of St. David's Day, 1244, at once altered the
aspect of affairs and threw Wales again into confusion.*^
Gruffydd grew weary of his long confinement, lightened though
it was by a liberal royal allowance and the companionship of
his wife, and resolved to make a dash for freedom. His

'* For mention of these princes see Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 242, 243, 279. Mael-
gwn in 1242 built the castle of Garth Grugyn, which was certainly in Ceredigion
{Mab. 140) and perhaps near Llanilar (Evans, Rep. i. p. 724, in a list of castles by
Dr. J. D. Rhys). The distribution of commotes between him and Maredudd is
not easily ascertained, but about 1240 he seems to have held Mefenydd {Ann. C.
MS. B. s.a. 1236), Perfedd (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 488 — Llanbadarn Fawr was in
this commote), and probably Creuddyn (Rot. Claus. ii. 73), while Maredudd had
Geneu'r Glyn and Iscoed (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 493), Gwinionydd and Mabwnion
{ibid. 487 and Charter Rolls, i. 475), and Pennardd {Ann. C. ut supra). Rhys
Mechyll had succeeded his father at Dinefwr in 1234 ; he married Maud de Breos
(of the line of Gower?) and died early in 1244 {Ann. C. MS. B. and B.T.),
leaving a son Rhys and other children (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 422).

*° Richard, who married Maud, daughter of the Earl of Lincoln, in January,
1238 (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 208), came of age in 1243 and on 28th September re-
ceived his lands {Ann. Theokesb.). For quarrels between Hywel ap Maredudd,
lord of Miskin, Rhys ap Gruffydd, lord of Senghenydd, and Gilbert Turbeville,
lordof Coety, see Ann. Theokesb. s.a. 1242.

^1 M. Paris, Chron. iv. 295-6, whose account is confirmed by Ann. C. MS. B.,
B.T. and Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 424. Ann. C. MS. C. is suspicious — " sive dolo seu
aliter ignoratur," but, as the event showed, Henry stood to lose, and not to gain,
by the death of Gruffydd.

BETWEEN TWO TIDES. lo\

chamber was high in the great keep, which, then as now, was CHAP
the central feature of the capital fortress of the realm, and his
plan was to let himself down from his window, under cover
of night, by means of an improvised rope fashioned out of
torn sheets, tablecloths and hangings. Unfortunately, he did
not allow for the weight of a particularly bulky body, made
unwieldy by the torpor of a comfortable captivity ; the rope
gave way and he fell to the ground from a height which meant
instant death. The break of day disclosed his shattered corpse
and told the story of the tragedy to the negligent warders of
the Tower.^^

Before many weeks had elapsed, the effect of this removal
of Gruffydd from the scene was apparent in the renewed activity
of David, who entered into an alliance with all the Welsh chiefs
except the two Gruffydds of Powys and Morgan ap Hywel of
Gwynllwg and reopened the conflict with the English.*^ Ac-
cording to the Welsh chronicles, he was stirred to indignation
at the lamentable fate of his brother, but it needs little shrewd-
ness to see that the calamity in the Tower was in truth a
great deliverance for him and removed the one obstacle to a
bold and enterprising policy. There could not be, in short,
an apter illustration of the saying of Giraldus, that the Welsh
princes showed far more affection for their brothers when
they were dead than when they were alive.** Before the
beginning of June, David was in the field, stirring up war
throughout the length and breadth of Wales, and the summer
was one of unrest and strife ; there were nightly raids upon
English territory,*^ Diserth was almost cut off from its base at
Chester, and the English leanings of Gruffydd ap Gwen-
wynwyn were punished by an invasion of Cyfeiliog.*^ By a

^"^ In 1248 Gruflfydd's body was taken by the abbots of Strata Florida and of
Aberconwy from London and reinterred in the latter abbey (B.T. s.a.).

■** M. Paris, Chron. iv. 358 (" tempore vernali "). The war was general as
early as 3rd June — see Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 427. For the dissident princes see
Ann. C. MS. B. and B.T., and cf. Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 430 (concessions for
Gruffydd ap Madog), and Letters, H. IIL ii. 38. "Morgan de Karliun" (Cal.
Pat. Rolls, i. 447) was still kept out of the castle which gave him his name by
the power of the Marshalls ; his castle of Machen was also seized by Gilbert
Marshall in 1236, but subsequently restored {B.T.; Rymer i. 223, 229, 230; Cal.
Pat. Rolls, i. 160).

** Descr. ii. 4 (vi. 212).

*' M. Paris, Chron. iv. 385 (" praecipue noctibus ").

•»« Letters, H. IIL ii. 38-40. " Walwar" is Tafolwern, for which see p. 510.

702 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, bold stroke of policy which bespeaks a mind of some origin-
^^^* ality and resource, the prince of Gwynedd brought a new
power into the arena and successfully appealed to Innocent
IV. for support against the English king.*^ It was with no
small surprise that in the autumn Henry received a summons
from the abbots of Cymer and Aberconwy, duly appointed
as papal commissioners, which cited him to the border church
of Caerwys, there to defend himself against the charge of
having in 1241 wantonly cast aside arbitration in favour of
war. He had no thought of obeying the citation, but he
could not entirely ignore it ; his envoy to the pope was forth-
with primed with the royal version of the facts, and in 1245
came back with a new document, transferring the case from
Welsh into English hands and revealing not obscurely the
influence of the weightier purse.

At first Henry does not seem to have taken the Welsh
revolt very seriously. His easy victory over David in 1241
had misled him ; he failed to realise how fortuitous it was.
Being much engrossed this year in a design upon the Scottish
king, he left the border warfare to the Earls of Gloucester
and of Hereford (the latter's son was now lord of Brecknock)
and the two wardens of the march, John of Monmouth and
John Lestrange.*^ Even when, in August, a peace with
Scotland set him and his army free for other business, he did
not attack Wales, as was expected,*^ but despatched instead
a small force of knights under Herbert fitz Mathew, Another
expedient adopted by him, which proved altogether ineffective,
was to release Owain the Red, the eldest son of the dead
Gruffydd, and send him to Wales in the hope he might win
adherents from the revolted David.^** With the turn of the
year, however, Henry began to see that a really formidable
movement was on foot, such as no half measures could quell,

••^See the documents in M. Paris, Chron. iv. 398-9 (Genoa, 26th July, 1244),
and Rymer, i. 255 (Lyons, 8th April, 1245 (not 1244)). I cannot explain the
" Gustefend" of Luard's text. It should be observed that the letter of 1244 will
scarcely sustain the edifice Paris seeks to build upon it, though it is possible that
David attempted, as he alleges, to do far more than recover lost lands.

48 M. Paris, Chron. iv. 358; Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 431-2.

^» Paris, iv. 385-6.

5" Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 446, 462. Owain Goch was the eldest son (Ann, Cest.
f.a. 1255 ' ^' Paris, iv. 321 — " filio suo primogenito ").

BETWEEN TWO TIDES. 703

for it had the active backing of nearly all the magnates of CHAP
Wales/^ and David as their leader made his presence felt in
every quarter of the country. The king resolved to undertake
a regular campaign against the Welsh as soon as the season
allowed, and ordered the justiciar of Ireland to accumulate
provisions for the purpose.^"^

The Welsh continued to win successes during the spring.
On 5th February Herbert fitz Mathew was struck by a stone
as he was threading a pass between Margam and Aberavan
and fell a victim to the fury of the warriors of Rhwng Nedd
ac Afan.^^ A victory of the English near Montgomery, where
300 Welshmen were drawn into an ambush and slain,^* was
more than counterbalanced by the loss of Mold, taken by
David from Roger of Montalt on 28th March. ^^ These
disasters quickened the resolve of Henry to undertake a set
campaign against the Welsh ; in June the knighthood of the
realm was summoned to the border,^® and the imminent
danger of Diserth ^'^ led the king to plan an expedition to
Degannwy, which he proposed so to fortify as effectually to
shield the northern coast from the attacks of the men of
Gwynedd, He arrived at Chester with a strong force on 1 3th
August, and, after a week's delay, pushed on for the banks of
the Conway, where he pitched his camp on the 26th.^^ Here
he remained for two months, occupying his energies, as in

*^The list of David's allies at the beginning of 1245 (Rymer, i. 258) includes
the following ; the two Llywelyns of Meirionydd ; Owain ap Bleddyn, Elise ab
lorwerth, and Gruffydd ab Owain, of the line of Owain Brogyntyn ; Llywelyn ap
Gruffydd (the future prince of Wales) ; Maredudd and lorwerth ap Madog of
Maelor and their brother Madog Fychan ; Madog ap Gwenwynwyn ; Llywelyn
Fychan and the sons of Owain Fychan of Mechain ; Owain ap Hywel of Kerry ;
Maelgwn Fychan, Maredudd ab Owain, Maredudd ap Rhys Gryg and the sons of
Rhys Mechyll in Deheubarth ; Rhys ap Gruffydd, Hywel ap Maredudd and the
son of Morgan Crookback in Glamorgan. In Harl. MS. 6068, by George Owen
of Henllj's this list is disguised as one of " barons of North and South Wales
who did homage to the king" (Owen, Cat. 450).

^2 Rymer, i. 258 (Westminster, loth January).

^'^ Ann. Camb. MS. C; Ann. ad 1298 (" prope Margan in die beatae
Agathae virginis"); Paris, Chron. iv. 408-9; Rot. Fin. i. 430 (order of 12th
February).

^* Paris, Chron. iv. 407, 409. 5' Ibid. 409 ; An7i. Cest. s.a,

'<^ Rymer, i. 260 ; Paris, iv. 423. ^^ Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 456.

^'^Ann. Cest. has the following itinerary — Chester, i3th-20th August;
Coleshill, 2ist ; Whitford, 22nd and 23rd ; Rhuddlan, 24th ; Abergele, 25th
Degannwy, 26th,

704 HISTOR Y OF WALES.

CHAP, earlier campaigns, in the building of a great fortress and
exposing his troops to the weakening and demoralising influ-
ence of a persistent and harassing succession of attacks from
the Welsh side of the river. A letter written from the king's
camp about a month after the arrival at Degannwy has been
preserved in the pages of Matthew Paris,^^ and it reveals to
us, as in the cold, clear photography of the lightning flash,
the weird scene on the shores of " old Conway's foaming
flood " — the desperate valour of the Welsh, the fears, hopes,
and hardships of the invaders, the rough chances of battle.
"We dwell here," says the writer, "in watchings and fastings,
in prayer, in cold and nakedness. In watchings, for fear of
the Welsh, with their sudden raids upon us by night. In
fastings, for lack of victuals, since the halfpenny loaf cannot
be got for less than fivepence. In prayer, that we may quickly
return safe and sound to our homes. In cold and nakedness,
for we live in houses of linen and have no winter clothes."
With a hostile country all around, the army was dependent
for its supplies upon what could be borne by sea, from Chester
and from Ireland,^" and this was a precarious method of pro-
visioning, liable to break down in the hour of need. Our
correspondent tells how an Irish vessel with a cargo of wine
was clumsily steered, as it entered the estuary, into a sand-
bank on the Welsh side of the Conway, where, on the retreat
of the tide, it lay at the mercy of the enemy. Welsh and
English fought over the stranded ship for some twenty-four
hours, but ultimately the former carried off most of the sixty
casks of precious liquor and burnt half of the vessel itself
Such accidents explain how at one time there was but a single
cask of wine in the whole camp, while a load of corn cost
twenty shillings, a fat ox three or four marks, and a hen eight
pence.

The war was waged on both sides with ruthless severity. No
respect was paid by the English to the sanctity of Aberconwy,
the Cistercian house which stood near the rock now occupied
by Conway Castle, almost opposite to Degannwy ; its church

69 iv. 481-4.

•"* For the use made of the resources of Ireland see Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 461,
(21st October) ; Historic and Municipal Documents of Ireland (Rolls Series, 1870)
i. 103-4.

BETWEEN TWO TIDES. 7o5

was rifled of all it contained and the outbuildings set on fire. CHAP
The English slaughter of noble prisoners, including a young
son of Ednyfed Fychan,^^ led to cruel reprisals ; captive knights
were hanged, beheaded, and torn asunder. Heads of Welshmen
were brought in to the camp as trophies after every English
victory. Anglesey was ravaged and despoiled of its crops of
corn by an Irish force. ^^ Yet David, protected by the mighty
barriers of the Snowdonian range, still obstinately refused to
yield, and on the 26th of October ^^ the king, seeing that the
impending winter must ere long add enormously to his losses,
already sufficiently great, resolved to withdraw and leave the
final conquest of Gwynedd to be achieved another year. It
was a confession of failure,""* but yet no outright triumph for
David, for whom the new castle of Degannwy was, as Paris
phrases it, a " thorn in the eye " ^'^ and a pledge of the speedy
renewal of the struggle. Ere he left the border, Henry set a
new justiciar over Cheshire in the person of John de Gray,*^^
and gave orders for a strict embargo on all trade with Wales,
especially upon the carriage thither of the corn, salt, iron, steel,
and cloth which the country itself could not supply."^

Ere the conflict could be reopened, death intervened and
closed it by the removal of the Welsh protagonist. On Sun-
day, 25th February, 1246, David died at his court of Aber in
Arllechwedd,"^ leaving by his wife Isabella no son or daughter
to transmit his claims.^^ He was buried with his father in

"^ So I understand the " filium Odonis Naveth " of Paris (iv, 482), a learned
embellishment, no doubt, of the original " f. Odonaveth".

^2 Paris, iv. 486 ; Ann. Wigorn. s.a. Cf. the lines of Dafydd Benfras —
" Dyfod hyd attaw dyhedd Iwerddon
I farchogaeth Mon dirion diredd " (Myv. Arch. I. 316 (223)).

^■^Ann.Cest. The king re-entered Chester on the 27th.

•'^The somewhat complacent tone of M. Paris (iv. 486 — " securus enim
erat," etc.) needs the correction supplied by Ann. Cest. (" parum proficiens ") and
Ann. Dunst, (" pertaesus . . . rediit ").

85 "Quasi spina in oculo" (iv. 486). ^^ Ann. Cest. ; Ann. Dunst.

^"^ Paris, ut supra ; Rymer, i. 264. Cf. Gir. Camb. vi. 218 (Descr. ii. 8).

^^ Ann. C. MS. B. ; B.T.; Ann. Cest. (whence the date); Ann. Wigorn.
(read " dominica " for " die ").

8** Isabella's claim to Builth as her dowry was never conceded by the crown,
but after her husband's death she received out of the Marshall estates, in right
of her mother Eva, the castle of Haverfordwest, with lands in Caerleon and
Glamorgan {Rot. Fin. i. 458-9). On i8th August, 1246, arrangements were made
for bringing the stock which fell to her as a widow under Welsh law from Wales
to the land of the Earl of Gloucester (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 485).

7o6 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Aberconwy, the house which had suffered such loss as the
penalty of loyalty to his cause. Whether he could have per-
manently maintained his position against the power of Henry
must remain an open question ; this, at any rate, may be said
of him, that during his brief reign he showed himself, in
courage, prudence, and leadership, no unworthy son of the
great Llywelyn. The chronicler mourned the loss of the
" buckler of Wales " ''" and Dafydd Benfras set his harp to
plaintive strains in honour of the fallen chief —

He was a man who sowed the seed of joy for his people,

Of the right royal lineage of kings.

So lordly his gifts, 'twas strange

He gave not the moon in heaven 1

Ashen of hue this day is the hand of bounty,

The hand that last year kept the pass of Aberconwy.^*

II. Wales Again in Subjection.

The gallant effort of David at independence was succeeded
in Wales by a period of depression and subjection to which no
parallel is to be found without going back to the days of Henry I.
Henry III. might well suppose he had repeated the achieve-
ment of his namesake and reduced the country to complete
dependence upon the power of the crown. Half of Gwynedd
was in the hands of the king, the other half divided between
two (as yet) insignificant princes. Powys was ruled by two
lords who gave little trouble to their neighbours ; the remnants
of the kingdom of Deheubarth belonged to various descendants
of the Lord Rhys, of whom the most enterprising, Maelgwn
Fychan, had been humbled to the dust. Such was the plight
of Wales for some ten years, from the death of David to the
appearance of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd as a national leader. It
was a time during which the sense of national solidarity was
for the moment lost, and what remains to tell is but the good
and evil hap of each individual prince and each separate
province.

In Gwynedd a succession question at once arose. The
only male descendant of Llywelyn ab lorwerth on the spot was
the young bearer of that great name, the second son of

'0 " lUe clipeus Wallie" (Ann. C. MS. B.).

71 Myv. Arch. I. 316-7 (222-3). I have altered the order of the lines.

BETWEEN TWO TIDES. 7° 7

Gruffydd/"^ but his elder brother Owain, who had latterly been CHAP,
living under the king's protection at Shotwick, near Chester/'
no sooner heard of the death of his uncle than he fled like a
hare, in the picturesque phrase of Paris, into the recesses of
Wales and made ready to push his claimJ* Wise counsellors,
among whom may perhaps be reckoned Ednyfed Fychan,
rendering to his country a last service ere his death, ''^ averted
the impending conflict and persuaded the two young men to
divide Gwynedd between them/^ The domestic problem
having been thus settled, there remained the question of rela-
tions with the crown. Owain and Liywelyn inherited with their
new honours the burden of the struggle with the English king,
and during the year 1 246 the war went on without intermission.
No royal host repeated the somewhat hazardous experiment
of the previous autumn, but Nicholas of Meules, seneschal
of Cardigan and Carmarthen, having conducted a successful
campaign in South Wales, led his army across the Dovey and
appeared in regions which had not seen an English host in
battle array for more than a hundred and twenty years." The
Welsh retreated before him into the wilds of Eryri ; he passed
through Meirionydd, Ardudwy, and the Conway valley without
opposition, and finally reached his goal at Degannwy. His
operations from this centre against Owain and Liywelyn were
unsuccessful, but his unobstructed march, upon which he was
accompanied by Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, showed that the
king had Gwynedd below Conway in his grip, and thus paved
the way for the agreement of the following spring.

After concluding a truce with John de Gray, the royal

"'"^ Mentioned as a magnate of North Wales in 1245 (" Lewelino f. Griffini"
— Rymer, i. 258).

''s Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 465. ^4 Parjs, iv. 518 ; Ann. Cest.

'''* According io Ann. Cest. " Ideneueth Justiciarius Wallie " died in 1246,
and this is confirmed by entries in Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 461, 496, showing he was an
envoy for David in October, 1245, but had died before January, 1247.

''^ Ann. C. MS. B.; B.T.; Ann. Cest. The distribution of commotes be-
tween the two brothers cannot be ascertained, except that Liywelyn had Penllyn
— see his charter to Basingwerk, dated 8th April, 1247, in Charter Rolls, ii. 291
— and Tindaethwy — see his charter to Penmon, dated 6th January, 1247, in Mon.
Angl. iv. 582.

■'Mnn. C. MSS. B. C. ; B.T. Nicholas " de Molis," who had been
seneschal of Gascony, was made custos of the castles of Cardigan and Car-
marthen, in succession to John of Monmouth, on 17th August, 1245 (Cal. Pat.
Rolls, i. 459).

7o8 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, representative at Chester,"^ the young princes met the king at
' Woodstock, and on 30th April, 1247, agreed to terms which
remained in force for the next eight years. "^^ They were
recognised as the rightful rulers of Gwynedd above Conway
and duly rendered homage for their territories, but were forced
to abandon all claim to the four cantrefs of the Middle
Country, '^'^ namely, Rhos, Rhufoniog, Tegeingl, and Dyfifryn
Clwyd ; Mold, too, was finally resigned and the homages of all
the minor chieftains of North Wales. The rights of certain
Welsh supporters of Henry were safeguarded, and among these
appears later a mysterious Maredudd ap Rhicert, of unknown
descent, who set up a claim to be heir to the cantref of Lleyn
and was upheld for many years in this district by the royal
power. ^^ The Peace of Woodstock was a painful humiliation
for Gwynedd, after the proud ascendancy she had enjoyed for
so many years, but the sacrifice of the Middle Country was
necessary, if the main body of the province was to retain its
independent life, and the ruthless surgery was ultimately
followed by a complete recovery of strength. Meanwhile the
tide of affairs ran a somewhat sluggish course, and the only
change to record is the appearance on the stage of a third son
of Gruffydd, named David,*^ who in 1252 was lord of the
commote of Cymydmaen in Lleyn and in the following year
was summoned to do homage for his possessions.^^

Elsewhere in North Wales there was the weakness which
comes from division and lack of leadership. Henry retained
a firm hold of the Middle Country, with its strong castles of
Diserth and Degannwy, and in 1252 made the latter of these

" Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 498.

''^ Rymer, i. 267. For a footnote to the treaty see Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 501.

^ The '• Pernechelad " of Rymer represents the Welsh " Perfeddwlad ".

81 '« Mereduc Abricard " was with David in October, 1245 (Cal. Pat. Rolls,
i. 461), but on 27th January, 1247, " Mereduk son of Res " received a grant of the
land of" Thlen " in consideration of loyal service {}bid. 496), and the letter of
Owain and Llywelyn to the king printed in Letters, H. III., ii. 64-6, shows that
about 1250 " Maredud filius Ricardi de Heyn," a king's man, held great estates of
the two princes without rendering anything to them. The documents cited in
Pees. S. Wales, p. 126, appear to refer to this potentate, and not to Maredudd ap
Rhys of Deheubarth.

^Rec. Carn. 252 (domino de Kemedmaen). David, who is first mentioned
(as a hostage) in 1241 (M. Paris, Chron. iv. 317), had with him on this occasion
(nth July, 1252) his mother Senena and Bishop Richard of Bangor.

83 Rymer, i. 291 (Portsmouth, 8th July).

BETWEEN TWO TIDES. 709

two places a chartered borough, thereby signifying that the CHAP,
royal power was to be regarded as a fixture in the Creuddyn
peninsula.^* There was no thought of creating a new Earl of
Chester ; ^^ on the contrary, the crown was bent upon making
the most out of this valuable bit of territory, and in 125 1 John
de Grey was replaced as justiciar by Alan la Zuche, who
promised to make the Welsh portion of his charge consider-
ably more profitable to the exchequer. ^^ " Unhappy Wales ! "
is the not inappropriate comment of Matthew Paris upon this
transaction. Northern Powys was held by the sons of Madog ap
Gruffydd,^''' of whom Gruffydd, who had married Emma, a
daughter of Henry Audley,^^ was the senior, ruling over the
two Maelors, east and west of the Dee.^^ Southern Powys
belonged to Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, who was also married
to an English wife, namely, Hawise Lestrange, and was lord
of Cyfeiliog, Mawddwy, Arwystli, Caereinion, Llannerch
Hudol, Ystrad Marchell, Deuddwr, and Mochnant above the
Rhaeadr.®^ Cydewain had been restored in 1248 to Owain
ap Maredudd, the son of its former lord.^^ Meirionydd was in
the hands of Maredudd ap Llywelyn, of the line of Cynan
ab Owain Gwynedd.®^ Mechain was divided between three
brothers, Llywelyn, Owain, and Maredudd ap Llywelyn. ^^

^■* Charter Rolls, i. 378-9 ; cf. Eng. Hist. Rev. xvii. (1902), pp. 284, 287-8.

85 See the notification of loth May, 1247 (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 501).

8^ M. Paris, Chron. v. 227 ; cf. Ann. Cest, s.a.

^'^ The four brothers, Gruffydd, Maredudd, Hywel, and Madog, join in execut-
ing a document in favour of Valle Crucis in December, 1247, which is witnessed
by their men of Maelor, lal, Cynllaith, and Mochnant (Is Rhaeadr). See Arch,
Camb. I. iii. (1848), 228-9, and III. x. (1864), loo-i.

8^ Trib. System, app. p. 103. She was the widow of Henry Tuschet of Lee
Cumbray, who died in 1242 (Eyton, Shrops. vii. pp. 343-5).

*^ He gave to Valle Crucis in 1254 land in Stansty, near Wrexham (Arch. Camb.
I. i. (1846), 151-2 ; cf. Palmer, Country Townships of Wrexham, 1903, p. 183).

^° Gruffydd's possessions in 1277-8 are set forth in the deed printed in Mont.
Coll. i. 124-8. For his wife see note 32.

91 Rot. Fin. ii. 37. B.T. has O. " ab Rotbert " by mistake.

92 He died in 1255 (Ann. C. MS. B. ; B.T.), and was, probably, the son of
the elder " Lewelinof. Mereduc" who recovered Meirionydd in 1241 and was with
David in 1245 (Rymer, i. 258).

9^ Bridgman discusses the difficult question of the family history in Mont. Colt.
i. 197-203. The true key is supplied by Cal. Close R. Ed. I. i. 399, 434, whence
it appears that Llywelyn ab Owain Fychan (Rot. Pat., 45) had three sons : (i)
Llywelyn Fychan (Rot. Fin. i. 342 ; Rymer, i. 258) ; (2) Owain ; (3) Maredudd
(these three appear in Rymer, i. 370 s.a. 1258) and that Llywelyn Fychan left two
sons, Gruffydd and Maredudd, who shared Mechain Iscoed with their uncles in 1277.
VOL. II. 23

7IO HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. " Divide and rule " was also the policy of the king's

' advisers in South Wales. The united front opposed to the
English power by the princes of Deheubarth did not survive
the death of David ; in the following April, Maredudd ap
Rhys Gryg and Maredudd ab Owain made their peace with
Henry and were forthwith sent to help Nicholas of Meules in
the task of reducing to obedience the recalcitrant Maelgwn
Fychan.®* Maelgwn was a prince of some energy and was
allied by marriage with the chieftains of Meirionydd and
Cydewain. But the coalition against him wa^ too strong to
be withstood ; he was forced to seek refuge in North Wales '^
and, later in the year, to surrender himself to the king's
mercy. In November, he was allowed to return to Cere-
digion, there to keep a sadly diminished state as lord of the
two commotes of Geneu'r Glyn and Iscoed.^® His men con-
soled themselves with the thought that, though Maelgwn's
day was over, his son Rhys was daily growing into the like-
ness of the ideal deliverer whom they hoped to see hurl back
ere long the tide of English conquest. But their hopes were
blasted by Rhys's early death in 1255 ; he and his two sisters
were, within the space of a few months, laid to rest together
in the chapter house of Strata Florida.^^ Another South
Wales chief came to terms with the king in the summer of
1246. By the death ot Rhys Mechyll in 1244,^^ his son
Rhys Fychan had become the heir to Dinefwr, but his
path was beset with many hindrances — the rivalry of his
uncle, Maredudd,^* the hostility of his mother, Matilda de

a* B.T. ; M. Paris, Chron. iv. 551 ; Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 479 (27th April).

8^ According to Ann. C. MS. B., in Meirionydd; it appears from Cal. Pat.
Rolls, i. 486 (30th August) that he afterwards passed to Southern Powys.

86 ^»n. C. MS. B. ; Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 493 (25th November). He lived to
see the revival of Welsh power under Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, but took no part in
the movement and died in 1257.

^"^ Ann. C. MS. B. ; B.T. Rhys died at the end of June, 1255, Gwenllian,
wife of Maredudd ap Llywelyn of Meirionydd, at Llanfihangel y Creuddyn (for
the form " gelynrot " see Meyrick, Card. 286) on 25th November, 1254, ^nd
Margaret, wife of Owain ap Maredudd of Cydewain, on 25th September, 1255.

'^^ Ann. C. MS. B. ; B.T. On 6th April, 1244, the king gave his protection
to Matilda de Brausa, widow of Res, son of Res, until her children came of age
(Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 422). Matilda was, no doubt, of the house of Gower.

89 Maredudd was invested by Gilbert Marshall, about 1240, with the com-
motes of Emlyn above Cuch and Ystlwyf, probably in succession to Cynan ap
Hywel — see Cole, Docts. 47-8, and chap, xviii. note 44. He began to claim his

BETWEEN TWO TIDES. 7ii

Breos,^"" and the overshadowing menace of the castle of Car- CHAP,

XIX

marthen. He did homage in the August of this year ^"^ and
contrived to retain his position as ruler of the ancestral seat of
Deheubarth notwithstanding all opposition.

Royal and baronial authority asserted themselves at almost
every point of vantage in South Wales. In Northern Cere-
digion the king retained a considerable part of the territory
of Maelgwn, lying around Llanbadarn Fawr, which he ad-
ministered through a Welsh bailiff, one Gwilym ap Gwrwared^**^
of Cemais. Cemais itself had been recovered for English rule
by Nicholas fitz Martin.^"^ The great inheritance of the
Earls Marshalls had, on the death of Anselm, the last of the
line, in December, 1245,^"* been divided among the numerous
coheirs who represented the daughters of the house, but the
English hold upon South Wales was not thereby seriously
weakened. The king's half-brother, William of Valence,
became lord of the castle and county of Pembroke ; 1"^ Earl

hereditary due in 1244 (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 447 — 27th December), and had ap-
parently succeeded in getting four commotes before February, 1246, when further
offers were made to him (ifeirf. 474). In 1250 his lands included the commote
of Catheiniog in Cantref Mawr and the castle of Llandovery in Cantref Bychan
(H. and St. i. 476-8).

^"'See B.T. s.a. 1248, which records the recovery by Rhys of his castle of
Carreg Cennen (in Iscennen), treacherously handed over by his mother to the
" French ".

"1 Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 485 (20th August).

"Mnn. C. MS. B. and B.T. s.a. 1252. For William, see Letters, Hen. III.
i. 426, where he appears in 1244 (the true date) as a Pembrokeshire tenant of the
Earl Marshall; Charter Rolls, i. 347; Meyrick, Card. (2), 206 (pedigree of the
lords of Tywyn, near Cardigan).

103 Nicholas, son of William fitz Martin and Angharad, daughter of the Lord
Rhys (Rot. Fin. i. 144-5), ^^er being in wardship for many years, came to his
own about 1230.

^''^ Earl Gilbert had been succeeded by his brother Walter, who died at
Goodrich Castle towards the end of November, 1245 (M. Paris, Chron. iv. 491 ;
Ann. C. MSS. B. C. ; Rot. Fin. i. 444). The death of Anselm at Chepstow a
month later, before he had been invested as earl (Paris, ut supra; Ann. C. MS.
B. ; Ann. Wigorn.), removed the fifth and last of the sons of the great Earl
Marshall, none of them, by a singular fatality, leaving any issue.

"^ Pembroke had at first been assigned, in the general partition, to John,
son of Warin of Montchensy and Joan, fifth daughter of the first Earl Marshall.
But he died shortly afterwards, in June, 1247, and his portion passed to his sister
Joan (Rot. Fin. ii. 14), who in the August of the same year was married to William
of Valence (M. Paris, Chron. iv. 627-9; Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 506; Sweetman, i. 433)
William was the fourth son of Count Hugh of La Marche and Isabella of
Angouleme (whose first husband was King John). According to Tout (Diet.
Nat. Biog. Ixi. p. 373), it is probable he was never formally created earl.

23 *

712 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Roger of Norfolk succeeded, in right of his mother, to Chepstow
^^^' and Nether Went ; ^*"' Earl Richard of Gloucester obtained
Caerleon and Usk;^°^ Emlyn, with the castle of Cilgerran,
passed to William Cantilupe.^"^ Cardigan and Carmarthen,
with their respective districts, the king continued to keep in
his own possession.^"^ Kidwelly was still in the hands of its
former mistress, Hawise of London, but her first husband,
Walter de Breos, was dead, and in 1244 she had married a
second time, carrying her inheritance, which included the lord-
ship of Ogmore in Glamorgan, to Patrick of Chaworth.^^**
William de Breos, having attained his majority, now ruled
Gower in place of his father John.

Passing from West Wales to the marchland, one notes the
strength of the lordship of Glamorgan, ruled since 1 240 by the
vigorous Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford,
no unworthy scion of that ancient line. He proved his ability
to hold the Welsh chieftains of his domain in subjection by
expelling Hywel ap Maredudd from Miskin in 1246, so that
he was forced to take refuge in Gwynedd and abandon his
territory to the chief lord.^^^ It was perhaps a result of this
energetic action that no trouble henceforth arose in the other
mountain fiefs ; Morgan Crookback was succeeded at Baglan
by his son Morgan,^^'^ Morgan of Caerleon at Machen by his

108 He was the son of the eldest daughter, Matilda.

1" Through his mother, Isabella Marshall.

1"* Cal. Pat. Rolls, Ed. I. i. 9. William Cantilupe, third in succession of
that name, married Eva de Breos, whose mother, Eva, was the fourth of the
Marshall daughters. He died in 1254 (M. Paris, Chron. v. 463), leaving his son
and heir. George, under age.

i"" Robert Waleran had the custody of Cardigan and Carmarthen and of the
former possessions of Maelgwn Fychan on 26th September, 1250 (Rot. Fin. ii.
87).

110 Walter de Breos married Hawise and obtained the honour of Kidwelly
and Carnwyllion in July, 1223 (Pat. Rolls, i. 376-7). He died, apparently, during
the war of 1233-4 ; cf. Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 17 and Close Rolls, ii. 447. The second
marriage took place early in 1244 {Ann. Theokesb. p. 133), and in the December of
that year Patrick and his wife fined one hundred marks for the possession of
Kidwelly {Rot. Fin. i. 410). For Hawise's position in Ogmore see Cart. Glouc.
i. 284-5 ; Cartae Glam. i. io8,

"1 B.T. For Hywel see chapter xviii. note log. The conquest of Miskin
was final, and the earl built there the castle of Llantrisant {Arch. Camb. VI. i.
(1901), 1-7).

112 For a list of the fiefs of Glamorgan and their value in the middle of this
century see Cartae Glam. i. 107-9. Morgan Gam died in February, 1241 {Ann.

BETWEEN TWO TIDES. 713

grandson, Maredudd ap Gruffydd/^^ and Rhys ap GrufFydd in CHAP,
Senghenydd by his son Grufifydd.^^'^ Time was transforming ^ *
these turbulent raiders into feudal barons, scarcely to be dis-
tinguished from the Turbevilles of Coety, the Sumerys of
Dinas Powis, and the Umfravilles of Penmark, among whom
they lived.

Like the Marshall estates, the Breos group of lordships had
been divided among daughters, of whom William de Breos had
in 1230 left four. Isabella, the widow of David, received
Haverford ; ^^^ Eleanor, the wife of Humphrey de Bohun, took
Brecknock as her portion ; Eva, married to William Cantilupe,
had Upper Gwent and Abergavenny assigned to her ; ^^" Matilda
enriched her husband, Roger Mortimer, with Radnor.^^'' Builth
alone was retained by the king in his own hands. It was in
1246 that Roger, son of Ralph Mortimer, came by his father's
death into possession of those border manors ^^^ which, with
Maelienydd, Gwerthrynion, and Radnor, were gradually raising
the family into a position of high importance and qualifying
its head for the title of Earl of March. Other changes which
fall to be recorded among the lesser baronial houses of the
border are the succession in 1 248 of a new John of Monmouth,
son of the old bearer of the name,^^^ the marriage of Matilda
Lacy, heiress of Ewias and Ludlow, first to Peter of Geneva

Theokesb.), leaving two sons, viz., Lleision ap Morgan (see Cartae Glam. iii.
429-30; Margam Abb. pp. 256-8) and Morgan Fychan (ob. 1288), who followed
him in this order in the Welsh lordship of Avan (Margam Abb. pp. 312-13).

'^3 Morgan of Caerleon, holding the commotes of Edlygion in Gwynllwg and
Llebenyddin Gwent, but not Caerleon itself, died a little before 15th March, 1248
(Rot. Fin. ii. 31). There was doubt, at first, as to the legitimacy of Maredudd ap
Gruffydd (Inq. p. mortem. Hen. HI. p. 36), but the bishop of Llandaff certified
in 1251 in his favour (H. and St. i. 478-9) and later he is found holding one com-
mote (i.e. Edlygion) of the Earl of Gloucester at " Machhein " (Cartae Glam. i.
109).

11^ " Griffid ab Rees tenet ii cummod (i.e. Uwch Caeach and Is Caeach)
in Seingeniht " (ibid.). Rhys died in July, 1256 (Ann. ad 1298).

"^ See note 69 above. After her death, the manor of Haverford (i.e., Rhos)
passed to Humphrey de Bohun the younger, who had married her sister Eleanor
(Madox, Baronia Anglica, pp. 45-6, note ; Cal. Pat. R. Ed. I. 54).

"6 Charter Rolls, ii. 41. i" See p. 734.

"8 For Ralph's death see Ann. C. MS. B., B.T. The castles of Wigmore,
Cefnllys and Knucklas (Y Cnwc Glas = the Green Hillock) were in the king's
hands on 2nd October, 1246 (Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 489). Roger fined 2,000 marks for
his father's lands on 26th February, 1247 (Rot. Fin. ii. 7-8).

"« Rot. Fin. ii. 41-2.

714 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, and then to Geoffrey of Genville,^^*' and the entry upon his
lands at Oswestry and Clun of John fitz Alan, whose father
John died in 1241.^^^ The generation which had witnessed
the struggle against the tyranny of John and preserved its
memories was quitting the scene, to be replaced by the actors
in the great drama of the Barons' War.

Two of these actors, the interweaving of whose fortunes in
the web of destiny forms the concluding episode of the present
narrative, step forward at the close of this period into the fore-
front of the stage. In 1254 the young Edward was invested
by his father the king with all the crown possessions in Wales ;
in 1255 Llywelyn ap Gruffydd became ruler of the whole of
Gwynedd above Conway. The time was still far distant when
they were to be the protagonists in a decisive struggle between
England and Wales, but fate had already in a sense pitted
them against each other. Born in 1239, the heir to the Eng-
lish throne was now being carefully provided for ; a marriage
was arranged for him with a princess of the royal house of
Castile, and, in order that he might have a suitable appanage,
Henry bestowed upon him Ireland, Gascony, Cheshire, and
Wales, the last mentioned including the Middle Country, with
Diserth and Degannwy, the lordships of Cardigan, Carmarthen,
Montgomery, and Builth, and the three castles of the famous
trilateral of Upper Gwent, Grosmont, Skenfrith, and White
Castle.^^^ This action betokened a purpose of drawing the
reins still tighter than had yet been the case ; it was not enough
that the country should be, as Alan la Zuche alleged, thoroughly
pacified and brought under English control ; ^^^ it must yield
a larger revenue, and, with this end in view, the Middle Country
was entrusted to Geoffrey Langley, a royal officer whose ex-
perience had hitherto lain chiefly in the administration of the

12° On the death of Walter Lacy in 1241 (M. Paris, Chron. iv. 174), his
grand-daughters, Matilda and Margaret, succeeded to his estates. Matilda
married Peter in 1244 (Rot. Fin. i. 413-14) and was a widow in September, 1249
(ihid.y ii. 6i).

121 See Rot. Fin. i. 360-1, 384, 417.

^22 The grant was first made on 14th February (Rymer, i. 297) and renewed
oniith October (ibid.-iog). " Alium castrum " is, of course, a mistake for " Album
Castrum ". Edward was formally invested with the earldom of Chester, in the
person of his representative, Bartholomew of the Peak, on 26th March {Ann. Cest.
s.a. 1254).

"» M. Paris, Chron. v. 288,

BETWEEN TWO TIDES. 7i5

rough and masterful justice of the Forest.^^* It was at this CHAP,
juncture that the prince of Gwynedd came to the enjoyment
of that full and undivided authority for which his talents so
eminently fitted him. A quarrel had arisen between him and
his brother Owain, which, as it concerned the partition of
Gwynedd,^^^ probably arose out of some demand made on be-
half of David, and in the summer of 1255 ^^® the matter was
referred to the arbitrament of war. Llywelyn awaited the
armies of his brothers at Bryn Derwin,^^^ in the mountain pass
which leads from Arfon to Eifionydd, not far from the battle-
field of Bron yr Erw, and there in the space of one hour in-
flicted upon them a signal defeat, taking both Owain and
David prisoners.^^^ His triumph was complete and secured for
him that lordship of Anglesey and Snowdonia which was only
wrested from him with life itself. He was now ready to play
his part on the wider platform of South and Mid Wales.

'^'^'^Rot. Fin. ii. 87, 91, etc.

12s «' Super terrarum participacione " (Ann, Cest. s.a. 1255).

126 B.T. 1254 = 1255 (see note i above), the year given by Ann. Cest. and
Ann. C. MS. B. According to the latter, the battle was fought " hisdem diebus "
as an event ascribed to the neighbourhood of 24th June, and another occurrence
dated 25th September was " non multum post ".

^"■^ Llygad Gwr {Myv. Arch. I. 344 (239-40)) refers to the battle of" Brynn
derwin " as fought " yg gymysc aruon ac eityonyt " and " ger drws deuvynyt,"
so that it is beyond a doubt to be located near the modern Bwlch Derwyn and
Derwyn Fawr (corruptly " Derwydd " and " Derwen " in the maps), on the
borders of the parishes of Clynnog and Dolbenmaen. Bwlch Dau Fynydd is a
little to the west. See Cyff Beuno, 31.

^^^ B.T. makes David escape, but Ann. Cest. confirms the account oi Ann.
C. MS. B.

CHAPTER XX.

LLYWELYN AP GRUFFYDD.

I. The Conquest of Powys and the South.

(The age of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd fares better at the hand of the English
historian than most epochs of Welsh history, and has been fully treated by Tout
in Wales and the March in the Barons^ War (Owens College Essays, 1902) and
Edward I. (English Statesmen Series) and by J. E. Morris in The Welsh Wars of
Edward I. I have also used B^mont's Simon de Montfort.)

CHAP. The last stage has now been reached in the history of
XX. Wales under native rule. And at no period is the interest of
the story more personal ; for from beginning to end the tale
of these twenty-six years centres in the doings of Llywelyn ap
Gruffydd, who is not only the foremost of the princes of Wales,
but also the single force which is of any account in Welsh
politics. Rivalry with him is out of the question ; he domin-
ates the country with as genuine a mastery as that of Llywelyn
the Great, and at last attains a wider territorial influence, as he
boasts a prouder title, than was enjoyed even by his grand-
father. The ruinous end of his career may justly qualify one's
admiration and suggest that he had not, with all his merits,
the statesmanlike insight and prudence of the elder Llywelyn,
but it invests the whole with the light of romance, touches it
with a most poignant pathos, and closes the narrative in a vein
of dignified tragedy, as who should tell the vain struggle of
weak human will against the resistless forces of Nature.

The victory of Bryn Derwin had placed Llywelyn in a
commanding position in North Wales, and it was not long ere
he obtained the opportunity of playing the part of national
leader against the English.^ At the end of 1256 there was a

1 Ann, C. and B.T. continue to be the most valuable sources for the internal
history of Wales during this period. The 1255 of the latter = 1256, the 1256 =
the first half of 1257 ; thenceforward the printed dates are correct.

716

LL YWEL YN AP GRUFFYDD. 7i 7

revolution in the Middle Country. Edward had during the CHAP,
summer paid his first visit to the county and city of Chester,
from which he drew his title of earl, had been taken thence to
Wales, to see his castles of Diserth and Degannwy, and had
received the homages due to him in the district^ All had
passed off smoothly, without untoward incident, but, when the
Welshmen of the four cantrefs realised after his departure that
no improvement in their lot was to be looked for from their
young lord, beset as he was with a train of foolish, roystering
cavaliers,^ and that they were left as before to the tyrannous
exactions of Geoffrey Langley, who was seeking to extend the
English shire system to these border regions,* they broke out
into revolt and summoned the prince of Gwynedd to their aid.
Llywelyn was nothing loth ; releasing his young brother David,
who, he thought, would be a useful ally,^ and taking with him
Maredudd ap Rhys Gryg, whom Rhys Fychan and the Eng-
lish had ejected from South Wales, he crossed the Conway ^
and within one week had extended Gwynedd to its old bounds.
The castles of Diserth and Degannwy, still held by the
foreigner, were left enisled in the midst of what was now purely
Welsh country,''' and Llywelyn carried his victorious arms
almost as far as Chester itself.^

He had chosen a most favourable opportunity for his
enterprise. The winter was a wet and stormy one, such as
always served the Welsh well in resisting an English attack.^
Geoffrey Langley was in England and did not hear until it
was too late to retrieve the disaster of the losses his rapacious
policy had entailed upon his master.^*' Edward himself was
powerless ; he had no money for measures of retaliation, nor
had his thriftless father, now drawing near the great crisis of
the reign ; even when a loan was obtained from the king's
brother. Earl Richard of Cornwall, it proved useless, so serious

2 According to Ann. Cest. he arrived at Chester on 17th July and left it, after
the visit to Wales, on 3rd August.

^ M. Paris, Chron. v. 598. * Ann. Dunst. p. 200. ^ Ann. Cest.

^ About ist November [Ann. Cest. and Paris, v. 592).

"^ Ann. Cest. says that "vallem Moaldie" [i.e., Ystrad Alun) was occupied,
and probably the castle was taken at this time. See notes 90 and 115.

^ Paris, V. 594. <* Ibid. 593.

1" On 6th November, 1256, he was with Edward at Windsor (Charter Rolls,
>• 454)-

7 1 8 HISTOR V OF WA LES.

CHAP, were the hindrances to a campaign against Llywelyn. Ob-
' stacks of will and temper seconded those created by nature ;
the great men of the realm, angered by continual misgovern-
ment, were in no mood to oblige the crown and relieve it of
its embarrassments — rather, they sympathised with the insur-
gents as victims of a common tyranny, and the very barons of
the march, hereditary foes of the Welsh, viewed their rebellion
with toleration, if not actual friendliness.^^ The attitude of the
magnates is reflected in that of the chroniclers ; Matthew Paris,
who was moved to such righteous indignation by the revolt of
David in 1244,^^ now holds up the Welsh as a noble example
to the timorous English, and tells with evident zest and ap-
preciation the story of the valiant fight for their ancestral laws
and liberties fought by these brave descendants of the famous
champions of Troy.^^

The easy triumph won by Llywelyn in the Middle Country
set his ambition afire and led him to dream of still greater
successes. His quick imagination showed him that the hour
was ripe for the restoration of the supremacy of Gwynedd over
the rest of Wales, and he set out at' once upon the path trodden
to such good purpose by his grandfather. At the beginning
of December, with a great host of warriors which included very
many well-equipped knights,^* he invaded Meirionydd, driving
out Llywelyn ap Maredudd, who had just succeeded his father
as lord of this cantref.^^ Thence he moved on to Ceredigion,
conquered what was held for Edward around Llanbadarn, and
bestowed it upon Maredudd ab Owain, who gladly acknow-
ledged the suzerainty of Llywelyn in return for this grant and
that of the cantref of Buellt, won from the grasp of the crown
at the same time.^^ Ystrad Tywi witnessed the next assertion
of Llywelyn's power ; here Rhys Fychau was ejected from

" Paris, V. 593, 597-8.

'^ Ibid. iv. 324. ^^ Ibid. v. 639.

'•* The numbers given by Pans (Chron. v. 597, 614) are, no doubt, much ex-
aggerated, but the army was clearly a formidable one.

1' For his father see chap. xix. note 92. In Letters, Hen. HI. ii. 123-4, i^
a petition from Llywelyn, asking the king to provide for him, since he has lost
Meirionydd through his loyalty.

18 Llywelyn was at Llanbadarn on 4th December and was met by Maredudd
at Morfa Mawr, near Llannon, a grange of Strata Florida (Sir. Flor. 179, app.
xcvi.), on the 6th {Ann. C. MS, B,).

LL YWEL YN AP GR UFF YDD. 7 r 9

Dinefwr and Carreg Cennen/''' and his uncle Maredudd, re- CHAP
stored by the strong arm of his northern protecter, gained
possession of the whole of the Great and the Little Cantref.^^
The last conquest of the year was Gwerthrynion, taken from
Roger Mortimer and retained by Llywelyn for himself, who
elsewhere had followed the judicious policy of his grandfather
and used his acquisitions to reward his allies.

After a Christmas which was certainly not wanting in
elements of festivity, the prince of Gwynedd took the field once
more in January, 1257, and turned his attention to Powys,
Gruffydd ap Madog had already been put to flight and his
territories ravaged as part of the movement of the previous
year.^^ Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn was now made to suffer for
his adherence to the cause of the crown ; Llywelyn invaded
the valley of the Severn, occupied the country as far as Pool
and burnt the little town which clustered round Gruffydd's
castle at that place, Gruffydd himself withdrew beyond the
Severn and sought the help of John Lestrange and John fitz
Alan, who could do nothing, however, but hold Montgomery.''**'
Flushed with this victory, the Northern army then transferred
itself to a new district, and in February and March was busy
in the region between the Towy and the Tawe, winning the
Welsh of Gower, Kidwelly and Carnwyllion to Llywelyn's
obedience, and undermining the power of Patrick of Chaworth
and William de Breos. The distracted king sought to bring

1'' He was married to Llywelyn's sister Gwladus, who died in 1261 (S.T.),
but such ties counted for little in Welsh warfare.

18 The particulars given in Charter Rolls, i. 475, seem to show that, before
his expulsion and flight to the North, Maredudd had Hirfryn and Perfedd in Cantref
Bychan, Mallaen, Caeo, and Catheiniog in Cantref Mawr, and Emlyn uwch Cuch
and Ystlwyf in Dyfed, while Rhys had Is Cennen in Cantref Bychan, and Maenor
Deilo, Mabudryd, and Mabelfyw in Cantref Mawr. I transpose Catheiniog and
Is Cennen, assuming a clerical error in this respect on the strength of the refer-
ences to Dryslwyn and Carreg Cennen and of H. and St. i. 476-8.

1® Paris, Chron. v. 597, 613. As nothing is said on the subject in Ann. C.
or B.T., it is possible that Paris has here made a mistake, as he has undoubtedly
done on p. 646.

20 See Ann. C. MS. B. for the details. After " filius Grifini " (top of p. 92)
supply " terram Grifini," dropped by the scribe as a result of " like ending ".
The name " Trwst Llywelyn " (near Berriew) may perhaps preserve the memory
of the stampede "in campo magno inter Hafren et Eberriw". Montgomery
itself was attacked before the end of March, and in the sack of the town a promi-
nent burgess named Baldwin, for whom see Str. Flor. app. xxix. and Charter
Rolls, i. 404, was killed.

720 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, the influence of his brother Richard, just elected emperor, to
bear upon the situation, but, though Llywelyn replied cour-
teously, and even amicably, to the great man's representations,
he would yield no jot of his conquests, and, short of peace on
his own terms, was only prepared to agree to a long truce, such
as would enable him to consolidate his gains.^^ He returned
to Gwynedd before Easter, and in May won a minor success in
Mechain Uwchcoed, where he took the castle of Bodyddon,
not far from Llanfyllin.^^

There followed, at the beginning of June, so crushing a
defeat of the English in the valley of the Towy that Henry was
at last stung out of his attitude of helpless protest.-^ Rhys
Fychan had persuaded the king's representatives in South
Wales to attempt his reinstatement, and with this object the
experienced royal official, Stephen Bauzan,^* set out on 31st
May from Carmarthen with a considerable force. The day
was a Thursday, and, upon the arrival of the host before
Dinefwr, they found the surrounding hills occupied by a still
larger force under Maredudd ap Rhys and Maredudd ab
Owain, who, having their enemies thus at their mercy, harassed
them with darts and arrows throughout the Friday. On
Saturday, while matters were in this critical position, Rhys
suddenly changed sides, and, fleeing with a few of his men to
the shelter of Dinefwr, left his allies in the lurch. There was
nothing for it but to beat a retreat, and a retreat under these
circumstances soon became a rout ; first, the baggage and
sumpter horses were lost ; then, about midday, at a place

'^ The letter printed by Shirley and by him tentatively assigned to the summer
of 1267 (ii. 312-14) is clearly an answer to the expostulations made by Richard in
1257 (Paris, V. 613), and was probably sent in the March of that year, when he
was in England {ibid. 622), under the cover of safe-conduct to be found in
Rymer, i. 354. The offer to give up the commotes of Creuddyn and Prestatyn
meant nothing, for they were dominated by the castles of Degannwy and Diserth,
which Llywelyn did not win until 1263.

^ Bodyddon, locally known as " Bydyfon," is a township in the parish of
Llanfyllin, and within it is Tomen yr Allt, near Abernaint, which may well be the
castle mound.

23 For a full account see Ann. C. MS. B. The place called Cymerau, out
of which Ab Ithel evolved his " mutual engagement " (p. 343), is apparently not
now known by that name, but it was probably at the confluence (cymer) of the
Towy and the Cothi.

'^ He had been seneschal of Gascony (Letters, Hen. III. ii. 400) and was
•'regi carissimus" (M, Paris, Chron. v. 646).

LL YWEL YN AP GRUFF YDD. 72 1

called Cymerau, a general attack was made by the Welsh, CHAP,
and the expedition, with its leader, was overwhelmed. No
such disaster as this had befallen the royal authority in South
Wales for a generation, and the king showed his sense of its
gravity by calling together the feudal array to meet him at
Chester on 1st August for a campaign against the dauntless
Llywelyn and his confederates.^^

Meanwhile, the Welsh made haste to reap the fruits of
their victory.^** The castles of Laugharne,^'^ Llanstephan, and
Narberth were carried by storm, and at midsummer ^^ the
Northern leader again came south to direct operations. With
the aid of the Maredudds and Rhys Fychan, all for the moment
in alliance with him, he ravaged Cemais and seized its castle of
Newport, raided Rhos and threatened Haverford, and finally,
in the middle of July, attacked Glamorgan and destroyed Earl
Richard's castle of Llangynwyd.^^ It was now time to return
north to meet the expedition which the king was bringing to
North Wales. Great preparations were made to repel it ;
women, children, cattle and other belongings were moved from
the low-lying hamlets into the rocky security of Snowdon,
meadows were ploughed, mills destroyed, bridges broken, and
fords made impassable by the digging of holes in their midst.^**
But the attack proved to be a much less formidable affair than
had been expected. Henry set out from Chester with a great
host on 19th August,^^ and, with the help of a naval contingent
from the Cinque Ports,^^ raised the siege of Diserth and of

^^ The terms of the writ are given in a St. Alban's memorandum printed in
M. Paris, Chron. vi. 372-3. It was afterwards resolved to assign a number of the
knights to a South Welsh expedition (Rymer, i. 361).

^^ Ann. C. MS. B. wants all the events of 1257 after the middle of June, but
they are supplied by B.T. under the fresh year 1257 (P- 344)' ^"<^> ^s it was
previously a year in arrear, this error puts its chronology right again.

2'' For the "aber foran " of B.T. (Bruts, 374) read " aber coran " as s.a.
1 189, and see chap. xvi. note 4.

28 MS. C.oiB.T.

29 Paris, V. 642 ; B.T. The latter has 'Mian geneu " (Bruts, 375), but there
is no place of this name in Glamorgan, while Llangynwyd, in the lordship of Tir
yr larll (The Earl's Land), was the seat of a castle in 1246 (Cartae Glam. iv.
592) and is mentioned about 1262 as a manor of the chief lord, much injured by
war (ibid. i. 113).

*" Paris, V. 639.

^"^ Ann. Cest., which says that the king arrived in Chester on the 5th. Cf.
Charter Rolls, i. 472.

'^^Ann. Osen. p. 117.

723 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Degannwy. But beyond the latter fortress he did not venture
to penetrate ; after waiting in vain for assistance which had
been requisitioned from Ireland,^^ he abandoned the struggle
and withdrew ingloriously to Chester, with Llywelyn hanging
upon the skirts of his army and cutting off all who fell behind
in the retreat.^* This was the king's last invasion of Wales
and the most unprofitable.

Llywelyn's star was now fairly in the ascendant, and,
shortly after the king's withdrawal, Gruffydd ap Madog re-
solved to throw in his lot with the winning interest and to
desert the English for the Welsh side.^^ With this accession
of strength, the prince of Gwynedd was able to complete his
conquest of Southern Powys and to expel Gruffydd ap Gwen-
wynwyn from all his territories, so as to bring the whole of
North Wales under his power. Having arranged to tide over
the winter months by means of a short truce,^^ the king was
preparing to renew the conflict in 1258,^^ when the uprising of
the barons against his misgovernment, so long threatened and
so long delayed, at last burst irresistibly upon him and changed
the whole current of affairs in the English state. The Welsh
question was now quite overshadowed by the gravity of the
constitutional crisis ; it sank into a subordinate place, and the
reforming party gladly accepted a solution of it which freed
them for more serious business. They came armed, indeed, to
the famous assembly which met at Oxford on nth June,^*
in apparent readiness for the muster of the knighthood of the
realm at Chester on the 1 7th, but it was with no intention of
actually taking the field in another Welsh expedition. They
were firmly convinced that the need of the hour was to limit
the authority, not of Llywelyn, but of the king, and accordingly
the abbot of Aberconwy had no difficulty in securing for his
master a truce for thirteen months which allowed him to

^^ Antt. Legg. p. 29. A note cited in Sweetman, ii. 91, shows the king was
at Degannwy from 26th August to 4th September.

3* Paris, V. 651.

35" Circa festum Sancti Michaelis " {Ann. Cest.). Cf. B.T.

38 It expired in April (Paris, v. 676).

3'' On 14th March the knights were summoned to Chester for a Welsh
campaign, to open on 17th June (Stubbs, Const. Hist. ii. p. 76). This was
reluctantly agreed to at the " Hoketide " Parliament (Paris, v. 677).

38 Paris, V. 6g6.

LL YIVEL YN AP GRUFFYDD. 723

retain all his conquests and only conceded to Henry the right CHAP,

to revictual the hard-beset castles of Diserth and Degannwy
In their fierce opposition to the king's misrule in England,
many of the barons overlooked, or made light of, their sub-
stantial interests in Wales, for it has been pointed out that
among the reformers were nearly all the lords of the March,
men who stood to lose heavily by any policy of concession to
Llywelyn.*" It is true that the last to suffer at the hands of
the Welsh had been the bitterly hated William of Valence,
whose Pembrokeshire lands had been attacked by the men of
Cemais and Peuliniog, and who had angrily denounced the
leaders of reform as responsible through their lukewarm
conduct for his loss.*^ But this was a mere chance ; the
revived patriotic fervour of Wales was equally dangerous to
all foreign lords, and men like Earl Richard of Gloucester,
Roger Mortimer, Humphrey de Bohun, risked much when they
allowed Llywelyn to grow strong in order that they might
have leisure to work out the problem of the regeneration of
the English realm.

How strong Llywelyn had now become appears from
a notable step which he took in the early part of this year
1258. Every Welsh prince except Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn
was now on his side, and he resolved to turn these allies into
feudal vassals and to cement their union under his sway by the
assumption of a new title. At an assembly of the magnates of
all Wales, he received the homage and fealty of the minor
chieftains of the land,*^ and it was, no doubt, with the assent
of this gathering that he now began to style himself " prince of

3» Rymer, i. 372. A safe-conduct had been issued on 2nd June to Llywelyn's
envoys, who were coming under the escort of Peter of Montfort (tiid.), and,
therefore, it may be presumed, by arrangement with the barons. According to
Paris (v, 727), Llywelyn would have paid at this time 4,500 marks for a peace
recognising his conquests, but the king would not hear of it.

*" See Tout in Owens College Essays, pp. 88-91.

*i Paris, V. 676. Ann. C. MS. B. records a raid upon Cemais on Monday,
ist April, by men of Pembroke and Rhos, avenged not long afterwards by the
Welsh of Cemais and " Plumauc " (read " Pluwiauc").

*^ The only direct mention of this assembly is in B.T., but something of the
kind is implied in the account of the trial of Maredudd ap Rhys in 1259. Indeed,
the names given in the Scotch document of i8th March (see note 47 below) may
well be regarded as forming a list of those present, and the document itself as an
immediate result of the assembly.

724 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP. Wales ".*^ His grandfather's " prince of Aberffraw and lord
■ of Snowdon," sonorous though it was and implying much, was
not sufficiently clear cut for his ends ; he desired a title which
would justify the furthest stretch of his ambition. Nor did
he mean this sovereignty of all Wales to be a form merely,
without practical effect. Not long after the meeting of the
princes the inevitable defection took place ; Maredudd ap
Rhys, whom the crown had been seeking for some time to
detach from his connection with Llywelyn,** made his peace
with the English,^^ who saw in him a convenient instrument
for the punishment of the treacherous Rhys Fychan. At once
the allies bore down upon him, and, led by Llywelyn, ravaged
his lands in the upper valley of the Towy. He retained his
castles, but, even with the aid of Patrick of Chaworth, the
king's seneschal in the district, could make no headway against
the hostile forces arrayed against him, and was severely
wounded in a battle fought near the bridge of Carmarthen.
He was to find later that the vengeance of Llywelyn had not
exhausted its means of punishing the betrayer of the common
cause.

The union of all Wales under his leadership led Llywelyn
to look abroad and form schemes for foreign alliances. He
saw that he might add much to the strength of his position by
allying himself with the national party in Scotland, which was
vigorously opposing the influence of Henry HI. in that king-
dom. His overtures were well received, and on i8th March,
1258, the Earl of Menteith and his associates put in the hands
of the Welsh envoy, Gwion of Bangor, a document *" in which
they bound themselves to make no separate peace with the

•*3 The earliest use of the title by Lljrwelyn which I can date is in the Scotch
agreement. The letters assigned in Rymer, i. 336, 339, 340, 341 to 1256 (in
which it occurs) belong, not to that year, but to 1262 and 1263. It was, of
course, not recognised by the English government.

^* On i8th October, 1257, Henry announced that he had received Maredudd
into his favour and had given him his own land, that of Rhys Fychan (see note
18 above) and two commotes, viz., Mabwnion and Gwinionydd, of the land of
Maredudd ab Owain (Charter Rolls, i. 475).

*5This was not long after ist April (Ann. C. MS. B.).

*^ Rymer, i. 370. Bain (Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, i. 421 —
cf. Pref. p. xliii) understands the 1258 of this document to be 1258-g. But the
Earl of Menteith died in November, 1258 (Paris, v. 724), and " Maredud fil. Ris "
ceased to be an ally of Llywelyn in the April of that year.

LL YWEL YN AP GR UFF YDD. 725

king of England, to give him no aid against the Welsh and to CHAP,
encourage trade intercourse between Scotland and Wales.
Henry's difficulties at home soon deprived the compact of its
importance by relieving both Scotch and Welsh of the fear of
invasion, but it has great interest as revealing the width of Lly-
welyn's outlook and the extent of the support which he now
enjoyed, as shown by the list of princes who joined him in his
appeal to the sister nation in the north.^^

Good fortune seemed to wait upon every movement of the
Welsh, until it was not strange that they believed their arms
to be under the special blessing of heaven. Early in Septem-
ber*^ David ap Gruffydd, Maredudd ab Owain, and Rhys
Fychan were together in Emlyn,*^ where a conference was
proposed between them and Maredudd ap Rhys, who, with
Patrick of Chaworth, was at Cardigan with a large force,
assembled from all the marcher lordships of West Wales. The
meeting was to have come off at Cilgerran, but Patrick, un-
happily for himself, was persuaded to deal treacherously ^^ with
his foes, and on the evening of 4th September attacked them
with all his host. Notwithstanding the surprise and their
inferior numbers, the Welsh successfully met the onslaught,
and in the rout which followed the lord of Kidwelly was slain.

The year 1259 saw no diminution of Llywelyn's greatness.
He signalised it, indeed, by a new assertion of his authority as
prince of Wales. On 28th May Maredudd ap Rhys, who had
fallen into his hands, was formally tried by his peers and

*'' They are his brother David (Owain Goch was still in prison — see Paris, v.
718), Gruffydd ap Madog of Maelor, Maredudd ap Rhys, Maredudd ab Owain, Rhys
Fychan, Owain ap Maredudd of Cydewain (see p. 709), Madog ap Gwenwynwyn
(of Mawddwy — see Mont. Coll. i. 118), Maredudd ap Llywelyn of Mechain, Ma-
dog Fychan (brother of Gruffydd ap Madog — see B.T. s.a. 1269), Owain ap
Bleddyn and Elise and Gruffydd, sons of lorwerth — the last three grandsons of
Owain Brogyntjm. The list may be usefully compared with that of David's allies
in 1245 (Rymer, i. 258).

'^^Anti. C. MS. B. dates the battle of Cilgerran 4th September, Ann. Theo-
kesb. (p. 166, where " Keyrmerdin " is, of course, used very vaguely) 7th Septem-
ber.

*^B.T. p. 346, where the cantref is meant and not (as implied in Lewis, Top.
Diet.) the present Newcastle Emlyn. The " Maynour " of Ann. C. MS. B. is
Maenor Deifi.

^"The assertion of B.T. that there was " torri kygreir" (breaking of a com-
pact) on the English side is fully confirmed by Paris (v. 717), and must, therefore,
outweigh the " seducti " of Ann. Theokesb.

VOL. n. 24

726 , HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, fellow-vassals in a council held in Arwystli, convicted of
treason to his lord and imprisoned. He languished in Cric-
ieth Castle until Christmas, when Llywelyn released him on
receiving as pledges of future obedience his eldest son and his
two castles of Dinefwr and Newcastle, with the commotes of
Maenor Deilo and Emlyn above Cuch in which they stood."
Thus did the man who five years before had been but the
obscure lord of a few cantrefs in the north prove his claim to
have established that entirely new thing — a veritable principal-
ity of all Wales, and the English government, immersed in
other business, had no alternative but to stand aside and let Lly-
welyn take his course. The usual summons went out this year
for a campaign in the summer against the Welsh, ''^ but largely
as a matter of form ; it was to France, where the king made
his way in November, that all eyes were turned, and what was
desired from Llywelyn was a renewal of the truce. This was
arranged with him by royal commissioners on 25th June, at
Rhyd Chwima, the " ford of Montgomery," which witnessed
so many compacts of the kind, and a month later was con-
firmed by the king.^^ Peace was thus secured on the border
for another twelvemonth, from ist August, 1259, to the same
date in 1260. Llywelyn, not knowing how soon a reunion of
the English forces might snatch his hard-won acquisitions
from his grasp, would gladly have gone further and negotiated
a peace, but his envoy to the court. Bishop Richard of Bangor,
got no satisfaction on this head, though ready to offer a sum of
16,000 marks for terms acceptable to his lord.^*

Llywelyn's overtures might be rejected, but his progress
was not thereby stayed. While the king and the baronial
leaders jealously watched each other, he was adding to his
gains. The castle and lordship of Builth had been entrusted

"i4nw. C. MS. B. How Maredudd had become possessed of Dinefwr is not
clear. " Castelh Nowid" (c/. Charter Rolls, 475) here makes its first appearance
in the Welsh annals. It was built by Maredudd (" Novum Castrum de Emlyn
supra Cuth") about 1240 (Cole, Docts. 47-8), and its name suggests that the site
was a new one. The " old " castle of Emlyn was Cilgerran. Maredudd held the
commote, first of Gilbert Marshall and then of the Cantilupes.

^^Flores, ii. 429. On the death of Matthew Paris in 1259, his post as chron-
icler at St. Alban's was taken up by an unknown monk, who continued it until
1265. His work, long known by the name of " Matthew of Westminster," forms
the basis of what Rishanger and Trevet have to say of the Barons' War.

53 Rymer, i. 387. ^* Flores, ii. 435.

LL YWEL YN AP GR UFF YDD. 727

by the government to Roger Mortimer, who had driven out CHAP,
the Welsh tenants of Maredudd ab Owain. On the loth of ^^"
January, 1 260, the prince of Wales appeared with an army in
the district, restored the balance in favour of the Welsh and
took the lordship into his own hands. Leaving a body of
troops to besiege the castle, he then made his way, with a
goodly company of mail-clad horsemen, westward to Dyfed
and burnt the town of Tenby.^^ In April, his allies from
Kerry and Cydewain poured into the valley of the Teme and
set fire to Knighton.^^ On 17th July the resistance of the
garrison at Builth suddenly collapsed ; three of the men who
manned the castle walls let in the Welsh besiegers under cover
of night, out of ill-will, it is said, towards a clerk or notary set
in authority over them.^^ Forthwith, Rhys Fychan and his
followers were upon the scene and made sure of the advan-
tage won for the Welsh by razing the castle to the very
foundations. Elfael was now exposed to the inroads of the
followers of Llywelyn, and the submission of the Welsh chief-
tain ^^ who had hitherto been unfriendly and kept in check by
the holding of his son as a hostage, was at once ensured. He
did homage to the prince and received in return his son's re-
lease, with a handsome gift of money.

Meanwhile, the party struggles which had arisen out of the
constitutional movement paralysed the English defence. The
king, busy with the French negotiations, wrote from the
neighbourhood of Paris when he heard of Llywelyn's attack
upon Builth to urge the barons to drop their plans for a
February parliament and concentrate on the Welsh question. ^^
But no heed was paid to his words ; domestic problems were
still all-absorbing, and the party conflict was at its height when
the news arrived of the fall of the castle. It chanced that its

^^Ann. C. MS. B. s.a, 1259; B.T. s.a. 1260 (" heb wneuthur drwc y neb "
refers to the Welsh of Deheubarth) ; Letters, Hen. HI, ii. 149.

^^ Ann. C. MS. B. s.a. 1260, where " Trefetland" is for " Trefeclaud, " i.e.,
Tref y Clawdd.

" Ann. C. MS. B. Rymer, i. 398 gives the same date. MS. C. of B.T. (p.
346, note c.) has a different explanation of the affair ; Llywelyn's men, it alleges,
got in by a lucky accident. No doubt this was the wardmen's story 1

5** I cannot trace the connections of " Owein ab Maredud o Eluael " (B.T,).

''^ The letter was written from Luzarches on 26th January, 1260 (the i6th of
the roll is an obvious slip — see B^mont, 186, note), and three copies were sent to
Richard of Cornwall, Edward, and the justiciar (Letters, Hen. IH. ii. 148-50).

24 *

728 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, owner, prince Edward, and its custodian, Roger Mortimer,
were on opposite sides, for the former was in temporary alli-
ance with the Earl of Leicester, while the latter was one of
the following of the Earl of Gloucester, which had at the mo-
ment the support of the king. Hence the easy capture of this
important fortress became a subject of recrimination, until
Mortimer found it necessary to obtain from Henry and the
royal council a formal statement that he was entirely free from
blame in the matter.^*^ All parties agreed in thinking that
the crisis called for action, and the king, with the assent of the
barons, summoned the feudal array for 8th September, upon
which day the Earl of Gloucester and a part of the force
were to assemble at Shrewsbury, while the rest, under the Earl
of Leicester, was to meet at Chester. ''^ There was, as yet, no
thought of Earl Simon as a possible ally of the prince of
Wales, although the time was approaching when hard necessity
was to bring this about. But there was enough distrust in the
air to incline all, when the first gust of military enthusiasm
was over, to negotiation rather than war ; Llywelyn was, as
usual, ready to treat, and on the 22nd of August a meeting
took place at the ford of Montgomery between his commis-
sioners, the bishop of Bangor and the abbot of Aberconwy,
and those of the king, which resulted in the renewal of the truce
for another period, not of one but of two years. ®^

This lengthened period points to a desire on both sides for
peace, which, though not formally and finally proclaimed, was
to be attained in substance, as in the closing years of Llywelyn
the Great, by a succession of truces. The compact of 1260
was better kept than any of its predecessors and the two
years which it covered are among the quietest in Welsh history.
In England, events were slowly ripening for the fatal breach
between the king and the reformers ; in Wales, Llywelyn was
resting on his oars and moving gently with the auspicious
current which made for his triumph.

"o Rymer, i. 398. For the political situation see B^mont, 188. It is signifi-
cant that Edward afterwards repudiated the document.

81 Rymer, i. 398-9 ; Flares, ii. 454.

82 Power to conclude a peace or a truce was given to the royal commissioners
on loth August (Rymer, i. 400). For the instrument actually drawn up see
Rymer, i. 404.

LL YWEL YN AP GR UFF YDD. 729

II. Llywelyn and Earl Simon. xx. *

Llywelyn maintained his attitude of judicious neutrality
throughout the year 1261 and almost to the close of 1262.
Invitations to throw in his lot with the reformers were not
wanting to him, but he deemed it prudent to set them aside.^^
Even the opportunity afforded by the sudden death of the
great Earl of Gloucester in July, 1262, was allowed to pass by ; ^*
the Earl of Hereford, to whom the custody of the Gloucester
inheritance was given, had some natural alarm for the safety
of Glamorgan,®^ but no army from the north disturbed the
peace of its borders. Breaches of the truce occurred, suffi-
cient to afford a pretext for the renewal of the border warfare, .
but Llywelyn was content to await the working, which was
none too expeditious, of the machinery provided for the
peaceable settlement of disputes."'" A rumour reached Henry
at Amiens in the summer of 1 262 that he was dead, giving
occasion for a very interesting letter in which the king discloses
his plans for such an emergency.®^ The prince had no son to
succeed him, and what was to be feared, therefore, was the
advent of his brother David to the full and undiminished
measure of his power. David, it appears, was to be check-
mated by the release from captivity of his elder brother,
Owain, the king was to recover the homages of the minor
Welsh chieftains, and the barons of the march were to as-
semble at Shrewsbury to carry out this programme by force.
Help was looked for from Gruffydd ap Madog, his brother
Hywel, and the Southern dissident, Maredudd ap Rhys. As
it chanced, these ingenious schemes were rendered vain by
the circumstance of Llywelyn being alive ; they prove, how-
ever, how much there was which it was deemed hopeless to
accomplish in his lifetime. His authority was paramount

"5 See the king's letter of 8th January, 1262, in Rjoner, i. 414.

«^ The earl died on 15th July {Ann. Theokesb., Osen. ; Rot. Fin. ii. 378).
His son Gilbert, born 2nd September, 1243 {Ann. r/(eoit«6.), received seisin of
his father's lands in July, 1263 {Rot. Fin. ii. 402-3).

6» Letters, H. IIL ii. 217-18.

8« Redress was promised in June, 1262, for certain injuries done to Gruffydd
ap Madog (Rymer, i. 420), but the matter was still pending in the following
September (Letters, ii. 214-17).

"■^ Rymer, i. 420.

73° HISTORY OF WALES,

CHAP, in Wales, and for the moment he exercised it in the interests

of peace and good neighbourhood.

At the end of 1 262 the air once more grew thunderous and
the march was speedily involved in a conflagration which set
the whole realm alight"* On 29th November the men of
Maelienydd took Roger Mortimer's new castle at Cefnllys by
stratagem and proceeded to dismantle it ; when Roger and
young Humphrey de Bohun came with an army to repair
the broken walls, Llywelyn swooped upon them with a still
larger force, closely beset them in the ruined fortress, and then
induced them to accept the offer of a free passage through his
lines across the border. Their undignified retreat led many
to suspect an understanding, although, in point of fact there
was none ; ^^ Llywelyn merely wished to facilitate the con-
quest of Maelienydd, and before Christmas had reduced the
castles of Bleddfa, Knucklas, Knighton, Norton, and Presteign,
and added an extensive region to the area under his rule.
His men ravaged the Herefordshire lowlands as far as Weobley
and Eardisley, and Bishop Peter of Hereford, a royal partisan
who between the Welsh and the barons was betwixt two
fires, left his episcopal seat in a panic and betook himself to
Gloucester.'^*' Llywelyn then pushed on for Brecknock ^^ and
soon had the whole lordship at his feet ; even in its furthest
corner of Ystrad Yw his banner was triumphant, until his
border was but a few miles from Abergavenny."^

The king, who had just returned from France in very feeble
health, wearily set about the defence of the borders. Appeal-
ing to the marcher lords to forget their quarrels, he arranged
that troops should assemble in February, 1263, at Ludlow
and at Hereford to withstand the threatened inroads of the

«^Ann. C. MS. B. ; B.T.; Ann. Cest. ; Flores, ii. 476. For letters of
Henry in regard to this campaign in Maelienydd see Letters, ii. 227, 228, 229,
and for Llywelyn's defence, ibid. 232, 233.

^^ So Bishop Peter (Rymer, i. 423) and the king himself, in a letter to
Edward (ibid.).

■"'Ibid. ''^B.T.

^* Letter of Peter of Montfort in Letters, ii. 230-1 , which clearly belongs to the
beginning of 1263. Reginald fitz Peter was lord of Dinas and Blaenllyfni, in
succession to his brother, Herbert, and his father, Peter fitz Herbert. Roger
Pichard was lord of Ystrad Yw, with a castle at Tretower, Roger Tony of Elfael
Is Mynydd, and Robert le Wafre and Robert T^rbeville of mesne lordships in
Brecknock.

LL YWEL YN AP GR UFFYDD. 731

jubilant men of the hillsJ^ Peter of Montfort, a supporter of CHAP.
Earl Simon's but not a relative, played his part well, if his own *

account is to be believed,^^ and at the end of the month offered
a stout resistance at Abergavenny to a Welsh host, led by
Gronw ab Ednyfed "^^ and the princes of South Wales, which
but for this would have swept over the fair fields of Gwent.
Nevertheless, a genuine campaign against the Welsh was more
than ever impossible ; the real desire of the great men of the
realm was to fight out the domestic quarrel. Edward, who
had shown little interest in the fate of his Welsh possessions,^^
crossed over from France and in April led a force into North
WalesJ^ But he did nothing beyond giving a little temporary
relief to the hard-pressed garrisons of Diserth and Degannwy,'^^
and was soon recalled by his father, who had begun to per-
ceive, after despatching his son to the border, that the real
crisis was in the heart of his own realm. David, dissatisfied
for some reason with his brother's treatment of him, chose this
moment, with singular lack of insight, for transferring himself
from the side of Llywelyn to that of the king, and was
promised the cantrefs of Rhufoniog and Dyfifryn Clwyd, but
this ill-timed abandonment of a rising cause had no effect upon
the situation. ^^

The landing of Earl Simon at the end of April, after a
short absence abroad, marks the beginning of the civil war.
With no such rival as the late Earl of Gloucester to contest
his right to leadership, Simon now placed himself at the head
of the party of reform and organised it for war. The Welsh

" Letters, 5. 236, 237-8.

^^ See his French letter in Rymer, i. 339-40 and Letters, ii. 219-21 (transla-
tion, 367-9). This is not only wrongly assigned by Rymer to 1256, but even
by Shirley is antedated 2nd October, 1262, at a time when there is no other evi-
dence of commotion on the border. Hardy has pointed out [Syllabus to Foedera,
vol. iii. p. xvi) that " le feste Seint Mathi^ lapostle " is the day of St. Matthias
(24th February), not that of St. Matthew (21st September), and thus a date is
arrived at, viz., 5th March, 1263, which well suits the position described in the
letter.

76 por " W(r)enoch ab Edenavet seneschal Lewelin " see p. 743.

■^8 See the king's letter of expostulation (December, 1262) in Rymer, i. 423.

'''' He was at Shrewsbury on 15th April (ihid. 425).

'^The campaign is noticed in B.T.; Wykes, 133 ; Flores, ii. 478.

''^B.T.; Ann. Cest. ; Cal. Pat. R., Edw. I. i. 231-2 (patent of loth October,
1277, confirming one of 8th July, 1263). According to Ann, Cest., David was
anxious to bring about the liberation of his brother Owain.

732 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, march was still the stronghold of the baronial interest, and it
was here the struggle broke out. About the end of June an
attack was made upon the bishop of Hereford, who had been
persuaded to return to his diocese, by a coalition which included
Roger Clifford, John fitz Alan, Humphrey de Bohun, the
young Earl Gilbert of Gloucester, and Hamo Lestrange ; Peter
and his Savoyard canons were captured in their cathedral and
shut up in the Clifford castle of Eardisley.^*^ The allies next
took possession of Gloucester, Worcester, and Bridgenorth,
until they had made themselves supreme in the West. Two
powers can hardly wage war simultaneously against a third
without entering, however divergent their ultimate aims, into
a working alliance, and thus it was inevitable that Llywelyn
and the barons should draw together and forget age-long
enmities and feuds in the excitement of the conflict with the
crown. It was, no doubt, with the goodwill of the reformers
that the prince of Wales, aided by Gruffydd ap Madog, laid
siege about ist July to the long threatened castle of Diserth ;
he took it by storm on 4th August and utterly destroyed it,
thus closing its brief history of twenty-two years. ^^ Welsh-
men were besieging Bridgenorth on the one side as the barons
attacked it on the other, and thus, though as yet there was no
formal treaty, the understanding between Earl Simon and
Llywelyn, so fruitful of results in later years, had virtually
come into existence. ^^

This first stage of the civil war ended as abruptly as it had
begun ; the king and Edward yielded to the forces which the
Earl of Leicester had marshalled against them, and in the
autumn both parties were pressing Llywelyn to agree to a
truce, with the object of saving Degannwy.^^ It was agreed
that the place should be revictualled, but the compact was not
carried out ; on the 28th September the garrison, reduced to
the direst straits by famine, threw their gates open to the

^^ Ann. Dunst. pp. 221-2 ; Flores, ii. 479-80; Papal Letters, i. p. 411. For
John fitz Alan's seizure of Bishop's Castle on 12th July see Roll of Bishop
Swinfield, ed. J. Webb for the Camden Society, vol. ii. Introd. p. xxii.

81 Ann. C. MS. B. ; B.T. (" a chaer faelan ") ; Ann. Cest. For the foundation
of the castle and its various names see chap. xix. note 35.

^^ To the evidence adduced by Tout (Owens College Essays, 99, note 73)
may be added the express statement of Ann. Cest., that the siege of Diserth was
undertaken " de mandato baronum ".

83 Rymer, i. 430, 433.

LLYWELYN AP GRUFFYDD. 733

besiegers, and not a foot of land remained to Edward any CHAP,
longer in North Wales.^^ It was almost immediately after-
wards that a very important change took place in the balance
of parties in England, and the fall of Degannwy, following
upon that of Diserth, had no doubt its share in bringing about
this result. Edward, whose policy had hitherto been neither
steadfast nor clear, saw in the alliance between the barons and
the Welsh great possibilities of mischief to the realm, and in
the parliament which met in October used all the arts of
diplomacy to break up the baronial coalition and to detach
as many of its members as possible from their allegiance to
Earl Simon.^^ He was remarkably successful, and, in particular,
contrived to win over to the royalist cause almost all the men
of the march, who had hitherto been zealous champions of
reform. Not only the Earl of Hereford and Roger Mortimer,
who had for some time withdrawn from the active reformers,
but also John fitz Alan, Hamo Lestrange, and Roger Clifford,
the very men to whose initiative the war was due, now
espoused the cause of the king, who also had the support of
James of Audley, Reginald fitz Peter, and William de Breos. It
was this defection of quite one-half the baronial party which
induced Earl Simon, at the close of the year, to agree to submit
the dispute to the arbitration of St. Louis.^^

Meanwhile, Llywelyn secured the allegiance of the last
Welsh prince who held out against his authority as prince of
Wales. On I2th December, 1263, he came to an agreement
with Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, who, true to the policy of his
house, had hitherto resolutely opposed the claims of Gwynedd.^'^
Gruffydd submitted to Llywelyn as suzerain and lord, and in
return received those of his territories which the northern
prince had occupied. He had probably contrived to hold his
castle at Pool through all vicissitudes, but the western uplands

8Mm». C. MS. B. ; B.T.; Ann. Cest.

^*For the revolution effected by Edward see Flares, ii. 484; Ann. Dunst.
p. 225 ; Wykes, p. 137. The first two speak of bribery (" terris amplis,"
"maneria"), but the " callidis allectionibus " of the third — the persuasive
reasonings of a statesman — had probably more weight.

88 For the state of parties in December, 1263, see the letters of the king and
of the barons in the award of King Louis (Rymer, i. 433).

^'' Ann. C. MS. B. ; B.T. For the terms of the agreement see Mont. Coll.
i. 117-ig (from a Peniarth MS.).

734 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, of Cyfeiliog, Arwystli, Caereinion, and Mochnant had for several
years been lost to him and were now regained as the price
paid to him for his homage. The two princes entered into an
alliance against their enemies along the border, and it was
stipulated that Gruffydd should have all conquests north of
the Camlad,^^ while Llywelyn, as lord of Kerry and Cydewain,^'^
should keep those made to the south of that river. The
former at once took advantage of the bargain to wipe off an
old score against Thomas Corbet of Cause, whose lands in the
" Gorddwr," or country " beyond the water " of Severn he
annexed to his own.^"

The French arbitration, with its uncompromising verdict
for the king, brought no peace to the land, and at the begin-
ning of 1 264 Earl Simon reopened the conflict. He was now
in acknowledged confederacy with Llywelyn, and the border
war dropped into its more familiar aspect of a contest between
the Welsh and the lords marchers, though the Earl of Gloucester
and Humphrey de Bohun were still on the baronial side. In
February a baronial army, led by Henry of Montfort, went
west to wreak the vengeance of the party upon Roger Mortimer,
whose castle and town of Radnor were destroyed, with the
help of an army brought by Llywelyn to South Wales. ^^
Reprisals soon followed ; Edward and the marchers captured
the Bohun castles of Huntington and Hay, and thence pene-
trated into Brecknock, which was taken from Humphrey and
bestowed upon Mortimer.®^ Such was the prelude of the
campaign which reached its crisis in the battle of Lewes (14th
May), a victory for Earl Simon as brilliant as it was unexpected,
which placed the king in his hands and made him the real
ruler of England for more than a twelvemonth. The marchers

88" A Kejmiynardo inferius versus Slosub (Salop)."

89 He had probably taken possession of Cydewain on the death of Owain ap
Maredudd in 1261.

*" For the relations between Gruffydd and Thomas at this time see Mont.
Coll. i. 26-32. Tout is no doubt right in locating the Gwyddgrug of Ann. C.
MS. B. and B.T., not at Mold, which was out of Gruffydd's reach, but in
Gorddwr, where there was a castle of the name, of which the site is unknown
(Owens College Essays, p. loi, note 75).

^^Ann. C. MS. B. (end of annal 1263); Flores, ii. 486; Ann. Dunst. p.
227. On 4th February the king wrote to the sheriffs of Gloucester, Salop and
Worcester, bidding them bar the passage of the rebels across the Severn (Letters,

»• 253-4)-

^Ann. C. and Flores, as in foregoing note.

LL YWEL YN AP GRUFFYDD. 735

escaped from the field without serious loss, and henceforward CHAP,
their compact resistance in the West was one of the most
serious military problems with which Simon had to deal. In
the task of their reduction Llywelyn gave substantial assist-
ance ; he co-operated with the earl in an expedition in the
summer which won for the government the castles of Hereford,
Hay, Ludlow, and Richard's Castle, and ended in a temporary
submission of the marchers at Montgomery. ^^ When they
again took to arms in the autumn and were again attacked by
Earl Simon, the prince of Wales set upon them in the rear and
thus helped to bring about a second capitulation at Worcester
in Decem.ber.^* On neither occasion was there any real settle-
ment, for the policy of the marchers was merely to gain time,
but Llywelyn undoubtedly played his part well and the
barons had no reason to regret their choice of him as an ally.
Llywelyn, on his part, regarded the recognition of his con-
quests as the price to be paid for his alliance, and at the end
of 1264 Earl Simon was able to meet his wishes in the matter
of the Cheshire border. The justiciar of Chester, Alan la
Zuche, with the renegade David, had held Chester for Edward
throughout the greater part of the year, but in November the
royalist defence broke down, and the county, with all its
appurtenances, was taken from the heir to the crown and
bestowed upon the Earl of Leicester.^'' On 5th January, 1265,
Henry of Montfort, acting for his father, met Llywelyn and
Gruffydd ap Madog at Hawarden and secured peace along
the line of the Dee by abandoning all claim to the lands and
castles which had fallen into Welsh hands. Could the great
earl have been as sure of his hold upon the mouth of the
Severn, all might have been well with him ; with Llywelyn
as his good friend, he might have contrived to hold the barons

33 For this expedition see Flores, ii. 498-9. It may be assigned to June or
July. Richard's Castle belonged to Hugh (son of Robert) Mortimer, who had
succeeded to the inheritance of his mother, Margaret de Say, in 1259 (Rot.
Fin. ii. 302-3). For a reference to the capture of " La Haye " in this campaign
see Letters, ii. 280 (2nd March, 1265).

^* Flores, ii. 502-4.

^■'' See An?t. Cest. pp. 86-90 ; Ann. Dunst. p. 235 (expedition of the Earl of
Derby). The grant of Cheshire to the earl is assigned by Ann. Cest. to November
("post festum omnium sanctorum ") ; the charter of 20th March, 1265 (Charter
Rolls, ii. 54 — cf. Rymer, i. 454), probably embodies a somewhat fuller grant than
the first.

736 HTSTOR V OF WALES.

CHAP, of the middle march in check. But this was the weak spot in
XX ....

the impressive edifice of his power ; he could not, or, it may

be, in foolish confidence he neglected to retain the slippery
loyalty of the young Earl of Gloucester, with the result that
Gilbert passed over to the marcher party and gave it the solid
basis of strength which it needed. On the 28th of May
Edward escaped from his captivity at Hereford and a new
war began, in which the odds were all against Earl Simon and
his ruin all but inevitable.

The earl, with his puppet king, was in the heart of a
hostile country, which the vigour of Edward and his followers
was making more hostile every day. By the loss of Worcester
his road to London and the friendly east was barred against
him. It was natural, therefore, he should turn to Llywelyn
and offer him better terms than any yet suggested on the
English side, in return for a thorough-going alliance. The
bargain was struck at Pipton, near Glasbury on the Wye,"^
where, on 19th June, the prince of Wales was encamped with
a great company of his vassals, including the two Gruffydds
of Powys, Rhys Fychan of Dinefwr, and Owain ap Bleddyn
of Edeyrnion. Simon promised, in the king's name, the re-
cognition of the title of prince of Wales, with the suzerainty
of the other Welsh chieftains which this implied, the restora-
tion of all lands (including Montgomery and, no doubt, Car-
marthen) taken at any time from the first Llywelyn or his son
David, and the cession of Painscastle,^^ Hawarden, and Whit-
tington. For these ample concessions, which were deemed by
the ordinary Englishman a great blot upon the fair fame of
the reformer,®^ Llywelyn agreed to pay thirty thousand marks,
in ten annual instalments, and to render willing obedience to

^8 The document executed by Llywelyn will be found in Letters, Hen. HL
ii. 284-6 (dated 19th June, 1265, " in castris juxta Pyperton ") ; the king's letter
is in Rymer, i. 457 (Hereford, 22nd June). Pipton is a hamlet in the parish of
Glasbury, which once had its own church — see Arch. Camb. IV. xiv. 223 for a
" capellanus de Piperton ".

"■^ Henry gave Painscastle in 1233 to Ralph Tony as his lawful inheritance
(Wendover, iv. 279; Close Rolls, ii. 268). In 1239 Ralph died at sea (Paris,
Chron. iii. 638), leaving his heir, Roger, under age ; Painscastle was subsequently
entrusted to the keeping of the Earl of Hereford [Rot. Fin. ii. 108 — 20th June,
1251). Roger died in 1264, in possession of the castle and its appurtenances
(Inq. p. mortem. Hen. III. p. 188).

»* See especially Antt. Legg. pp. 73-4.

LL YWEL YN AP GR UFF YDD. 737

the king, but, chiefly and above all, to support the existing chap,
government, as controlled by the earl, against all its enemies.^^
Fortified by this alliance, Simon moved southward, hoping to
cross the Severn from Newport and so reach Bristol ; he took
Monmouth, Usk, and Newport itself, all Gloucester castles at
the time, without much difficulty, and let Llywelyn loose upon
the plains of Gwent^'^** But Edward's army successfully
barred the passage of the river and turned the earl, dragging
the captive king in his train, back into the Welsh uplands.
Here he was safe, under the protection of the prince of Wales,
but could make no long stay ; the diet of the hardy folk of
the hillsides, reflecting in its abundance of milk and meat and
its meagre supply of bread the pastoral habits of the country,
was repulsive to the corn-fed warriors of the lowlands,^"^ and
at the beginning of August he was in Hereford once more.^**^
On 4th August at Evesham was fought the fateful day
which not only reversed the verdict of Lewes, but closed for
ever the eventful career of the Earl of Leicester. In the army
at the head of which he fell, there was a large contingent of
Welsh foot, as the result of the treaty with Llywelyn, but it
proved of little service, taking to flight at the outset of the battle
and vainly seeking refuge in corn-fields and gardens.^**^ Welsh
troops, accustomed only to the methods of fighting which
were a tradition in their forest-clad hills, were not as yet of
much value in the pitched battles of feudal warfare, and the
absence of all the Welsh leaders is enough to show that no
great result was expected from their participation in this cam-
paign. It may be that, as has been maintained,^*^* Llywelyn
missed a great opportunity in not embarking more heartily
and unreservedly in the cause of Earl Simon, but, while a

»9 Peter of Montfort was one of the two knights who carried the king's
charter to Llywelyn.

"Mmk. C. MS. B, ("Mori" for " Mon ") ; Wykes, 166-8 (for " Hulkes"
read " Huske ") ; Flores, iii. 3-4. The king and the earl were at Monmouth on
28th June (Rymer, i. 457).

loiYVykes. Cf. Gir. Camb. vi. 180 ("Came plenius, pane parcius vesci
solent ").

^"2 The account given in a Battle chronicle partially printed by B^mont (373-
80) of the capture by Edward at this time of Brecon, Hay, and Huntington appears
to me to be due to confusion with the events of February, 1264.

^'^3 Flores, iii. 5.

104 By pjof. Tout in Owens College Essays, 115.

738 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, capable warrior and skilful in the management of his own
people, he had not the keen understanding of foreign con-
ditions and the power to adapt himself to them which dis-
tinguished his greater namesake. It was, for him at least, the
safer and surer course to keep to the limits of Wales, and in
the next few years the policy of caution was fully justified.

Evesham made the march once more a solid mass of re-
sistance to the Welsh.^"^ Ten days after the battle Edward
regained possession of his county and city of Chester,^"^ and
it seemed likely that Llywelyn might have a hard struggle to
maintain his position. In the event he did so without diffi-
culty, and even succeeded in breaking new ground. In
September he aroused general alarm by capturing the castle
of Hawarden, which he forthwith, for the protection of the
Mold valley, completely destroyed.^''" The army sent against
him under Hamo Lestrange and Maurice fitz Gerald was
scattered in flight. His position was so strong that the old
talk of concluding a truce with him was revived,^"^ and Car-
dinal Ottobon, the papal legate who arrived in England on
29th October to lend his aid in the general restoration of
royal authority, showed especial interest in the matter, hoping
that as an outsider and as representing the most exalted power
in Christendom he might effectively arbitrate between the two
peoples.^"^ For the present, however, peace was not attain-
able, and the year 1 266 was spent in conflict, in which Llywelyn
continued to have the advantage. On 15th May Roger
Mortimer, the most formidable of the lords of the middle
march, was signally defeated in an attempt to occupy
Brycheiniog, barely escaping with his life in the overwhelming

106 The only notable marcher who fought on the losing side in this battle was
Humphrey de Bohun (Flores, iii. 6). He was imprisoned in Beeston Castle
{Ann. Cest.) and died there on 27th October, 1265 {Mon. Angl. vi. 135), leaving
a son, Humphrey, aged seventeen (Inq. p. mortem, H. HI. p. 205).

106 On Edward's arrival at Beeston, Luke Tany surrendered Chester Castle
to him on 13th August, and was succeeded by the royalist James Audley {Ann.
Cest.).

10'' /1mm. Waverl. 366 (" Hameclin " is, no doubt, for " Hawe(r)din "). The
castle was in existence in June, 1265 (Rymer, i. 457), but had disappeared before
September, 1267 {ibid. 474).

108 On 28th November James Audley was empowered to conclude a truce
until the following Lent (Rymer, i. 466).

109 A safe-conduct was issued on 14th December to the messengers of
Llywelyn coming to interview the cardinal {ibid. 467).

LLYWELYN AP GRUFFYDD. 739

slaughter of his men.^^*^ Llywelyn's cause, in short, was un- CHAP,
affected by the overthrow of the Montfort party ; he had built
up for himself a power which could stand alone, and it became
clear to the government, after the lapse of a couple of years,
that no ordinary terms would satisfy a prince who had achieved
successes so remarkable.

In England the aftermath of the sweeping victory over the
Montfort party had been a long struggle with the defeated
remnant, ending in the concession of reasonable terms. It was
a struggle which developed opposing interests among the
triumphant royalists, Roger Mortimer holding out against any
compromise, while the Earl of Gloucester exerted himself to
save his former associates from irremediable ruin.^^^ These
differences, sharp enough to be a serious menace to the hard-
won peace of the realm, aided Llywelyn in maintaining his
ground ^^^ and formed an additional reason for agreeing to his
demands. In the autumn of 1267, the eleven years' war was
at last closed by a formal pacification. Henry and the
cardinal took up their quarters at Shrewsbury, and, after a
month's negotiation, agreed on 25th September to terms
which met the wishes of Llywelyn."^ On the 29th the prince
of Wales did homage and swore fealty at Rhyd Chwima, the
ford of Montgomery, and Ottobon, greatly rejoicing at the re-
conciliation of the king and this " great and puissant member
of the English realm," issued a document embodying the
particulars of the compact.^^*

The Treaty of Montgomery was a remarkable triumph for
Llywelyn, in the completeness with which it recognised his
claims. In the extent of its concessions it did not fall far

^^^ Ann. Waverl. p. 370. ^^^ Owens College Essays, 120-3.

"2 According to B.T., Llywelyn and Earl Gilbert were allies at the beginning
of 1267.

"* Henry was at Shrewsbury as early as 28th August (Charter Rolls, ii. 79).
By 6th September he was deep in the Welsh negotiations (Letters, ii. 314-6).
The cardinal received authority on 21st September to arrange a peace (Rymer,
i, 473), and the peace itself mentions the 25 th as the day on which it was accepted
by Henry and Edward and by the Welsh envoys, Einion ap Caradog and
Dafydd ab Einion.

"* Rymer, i. 474. The "duw gwyl galixte bab" oi B.T. (Bruts, 378), i.e.,
14th October, perhaps has its origin in some confusion between " pridie id. Oct."
and " pridie Kal. Oct." For a reference to this peace as made at " Rhyd-
chwima " see Peckham, ii. 452, and for the cardinal's satisfaction with what he had
done, Eng. Hist. Rev. xv. (1900), p. 118.

740 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, short of the Treaty of Pipton, so that almost as much was ob-
tained from the restored king of a united England as had
been wrung from the leader of a discredited party tottering
to its fall. The foremost concession was the acknowledgment
by the crown of Llywelyn's right to bear the title of prince of
Wales, which was now confirmed to him and to his heirs ; the
title carried with it feudal overlordship over the other chieftains
of the Welsh race, with the exception of Maredudd ap Rhys,
whose devotion to the English cause was rewarded by per-
mission to remain a direct vassal of the king. Hardly less
important were the territorial gains which Llywelyn secured.
The four cantrefs of the Perfeddwlad are resigned to him
by the crown. Robert of Montalt is to be released,^^^ and
Hawarden is to be restored to him, but he is to build no
castle there for thirty years. Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn is to
have all the land he held as the king's ally, but to give up
later conquests. Llywelyn is to have Whittington (with due
regard to existing interestsy^® Kerry, Cydewain,^!'^ Builth,^^^
Gwerthrynion, and Brycheiniog ; "* even Maelienydd, if he can
demonstrate his right to it, though in the meantime Roger
Mortimer may build a castle there. As against these con-
cessions, Llywelyn is required to make suitable provision for
his brother David, either by giving him what he had at the
time of his secession in 1263, or, if this be now deemed in-

""C/. Ann. Cest. s.a. It would appear that Llyweljii retained Mold, for
he dates a letter from the place on istMay, 1269 (H. and St. i. 497-8).

118 See Owens College Essays, 125, note.

^1' Kerry and Cydewain, originally in no way connected and until 1849 in
different dioceses, came into the hands of Llywelyn about 1262 (see note 89
above), and were thereafter usually coupled together in royal grants.

11® So I interpret the " Burget " of Rymer. Builth, taken by Llywelyn in
1259-60, and not recovered (despite the grant to Edmund of Lancaster on 28th
December, 1266 — Charter Rolls, ii. 67), was essential to the maintenance of the
prince's position in Mid Wales, whereas Abergavenny (suggested in Owens
College Essays, 124) was of little importance to him, even were there evidence
that he had won it. Further, the king had no " right " (" jus quod habet in ea ")
in Upper Gwent, which belonged to the young George Cantilupe (Cal. Close R.
Ed. L i. 71, 114), while Builth had been treated since 1240 as the property of
the crown.

'^* At his death Humphrey de Bohun held the lordships of Hay and
Huntington, but the bulk of Brecknock was in the hands of Llywelyn. See Inq.
p. mortem, Hen. HL p. 205. It is clear from Cal. Pat. R. Ed. I. i. 169, and
Close R. i. 393, that Llywelyn also retained Elfael, of which the heir, Ralph
Tony, was a minor.

LLY WEL YN AP GR UFF YDD. 74 1

sufficient, by such augmented grant as may be approved by CHAP,
the two Gruffydds of Powys, Hywel ap Madog, Owain ap ^^*
Bleddyn, and Tudur ab Ednyfed. He is further to pay for
his privileges the substantial sum of 25,000 marks, being 5,000
less than in 1265, and careful provision is made for the pay-
ment year by year of the instalments of this amount, until the
whole has been wiped off.

Since the coming of the Normans no Welsh prince had
attained to such a height of authority and landed influence.
Llywelyn the Great had, indeed, held some important places,
such as Cardigan and Montgomery, not included in the grant
to Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, but he had no such position along
the southern march, from Kerry to Crickhowel, as in 1267
enabled the younger prince to present a firm front to Roger
Mortimer at every point of the border. Moreover, he was but
prince of North Wales and his claim to lordship in the South,
despite its substantial basis of fact, was never formally re-
cognised by the crown. The son of Gruffydd might well be
pardoned for thinking that he had raised his country to a state
of security and well-being unknown before, and founded a
principality that would stand the test of time and of many a
futile English attack. If his hopes were belied, it was be-
cause the circumstances of the hour disguised alike the inherent
weakness of his own position and the latent strength of that
of the English king.

III. Peace and Supremacy.

From the coming of the Normans to the Peace of Mont-
gomery, Wales had never been under the rule of a single
prince, and the nine years of Llywelyn's tenure of unchallenged
power are, therefore, full of interest as a picture of what might
have been the history of the country for generations had the
fates looked with a kindlier eye upon Welsh independence.
Gilbert of Gloucester was, until the ire of King Edward was
aroused, the only formidable enemy with whom the prince of
Wales had to contend, and thus he had leisure to work out
the salvation of his people. That he was not able to build up
in these years an enduring structure must be, at any rate in
part, ascribed to his lack of foresight and penetration. Well
VOL. II. 25

742 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, able to lead his folk in time of war and to guide them along
familiar and well-trodden paths, he had not the instinct which
scents danger from afar, is beguiled by no facile victory, and
draws its forces together for the coming battle, while the un-
seeing eye has not as yet discerned the rising of its shadow
above the horizon.

Little light is thrown by contemporary authorities upon
the home policy of Llywelyn during this period. He was un-
married and had, apparently, no plans for the succession. He
continued to keep his elder brother, Owain the Red, in cap-
tivity, despite the protests of the bards, with whom the im-
prisoned prince was popular, and who did not shrink from
telling Llywelyn that brother should forgive brother, as both
hoped for Divine mercy, and that it was God's prerogative
alone to deprive a man of his lawful inheritance. ^^° Another
brother, Rhodri, was also kept in prison as a difficult person,
although in 1272 an effort was made to dispose of him re-
spectably by giving him money to marry an Irish heiress.^^i
The match did not come off, and Rhodri ultimately solved
the difficulty by escaping to England.^^^ David had been
specially provided for in the peace, and, although difficulties
arose as to the execution of its terms, was at last settled in
1 269 ^^^ upon land of his own, through the mediation of the
bishops of Bangor and St. Asaph.-^^"* He was with his brother
at the siege of Caerphilly in November, 1271,^^^ and is
mentioned as of his council in September, 1273.12^ Never-
theless David, the restless, discontented, shifty schemer, true
neither to the Welsh nor to the English side, was Llywelyn's
evil genius ; first by conspiring against him he was the means

120 See the poems of Hywel Foel in My v. Arch. I. 392-3 (266-7). According
to Leland [y/ales, p. 84), Owain's place of confinement was Dolbadarn Castle.

I'^iSee Cal. Close Rolls, Ed, I. i. 506 (nth September, 1278), whence it
appears that on 12th April, 1272, at Carnarvon, Rhodri executed a deed renounc-
ing all right to anv share of Gwynedd on condition of receiving from Llywelyn
1 ,000 marks to enable him to marry the daughter of John le Botillier. For John
and his daughter Edmunda, who afterwards married Thomas de Muleton, see
Sweetman, ii. pp. 34, 189.

122 Trivet, 298. He was, perhaps, the " Roderic " son of " Griffin " who in
January, 1275, went abroad with the queen mother (Cal. Pat. R. Ed. I. i. 76).

i23Llyfr Coch Asaph, fo. 53a, in Arch. Camb. III. xiv. 161.

12* See the papal confirmation (Lyons, i8th August, 1274) '" Rymer, i. 515,

"» Cartae Glam. i. 136, ^^s Rymer, i, 505,

LL YWEL YN AP GR UFF YDD. 743

of bringing about the disastrous war of 1277, and then, by CHAP,
luring him into the ill-judged outbreak of 1282, he achieved
his final overthrow.

Trusty counsellors of other than royal blood were not
wanting to Lly welyn. Two sons of the great Ednyfed Fychan
were much engaged in his affairs ; the elder, Goronwy, suc-
ceeded his father as seneschal or " distain " of Gwynedd, and
was constantly with the prince, attesting the Scottish agree-
ment, the compact with Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, the Treaty
of Pipton, and the Peace of Montgomery.^^^ He died on 1 7th
October, 1268,^^^ mourned by Bleddyn Fardd and the Little
Poet as " the buttress of Gwynedd," the loss of whom made
all men sad —

Hard it is to learn to be without him.^^''

His brother, Tudur, who had been no less active in Llywelyn's
service,^^*^ followed him as " steward of Wales " ^^^ and was the
prince's chief adviser in the stormy year 1277. Both Goronwy
and Tudur would seem to have worthily upheld the traditions
of their office, which made them guardians of the dignity of
the court in the absence of their lord.^^^ Another " uchelwr "
often found engaged in Llywelyn's business was Einion ap
Caradog, who seems to have been lord of Penychen in Eifion-
ydd.^^^ Of a younger generation was Goronwy ap Heilyn of
Rhos, prominent in the events of the disastrous close of the
prince's career.^^*

Llywelyn's relations with the Church were, upon the whole,
friendly and free from serious strain, although he was not, like
the Lord Rhys and Llywelyn the Great, conspicuous as a
monastic founder and benefactor. The age for the establish-
ment of new religious houses was, in fact, passing by, and the
reaction was setting in which is well typified by Edward I.'s
Statute of Mortmain. Two bishops occupied the see of Bangor

127 See Rymer, i. 370, 474 ; Letters, H. III. ii. 220, 286 ; H. and St. i. 489;
Mont. Coll. i. (1868), 117.

128 B.T. 356. 129 jj/yj,. Ayck. I. 369-70 (254), 390 (265).

I**' See Rymer, i. 394, 474; H. and St. i. 489, 505; Mont. Coll. i. 117;
Cartac Glam, i. 124.

131 Cal. Close Rolls, Ed. I. i. 506. "2 LL. i. 364 (§ 25).

133 Rymer, i. 370, 474; H. and St. i. 489, 505 ; Mont. Coll. i. 117; Gwydir
Fatn. 25.

134 Letters, Hen. IIL ii. 351 ; Rymer, i. 548, Peckham, ii, 447-51, 458-60,

35 *

744 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, in the latter half of this century, whose successive episcopates
cover the unusually long period of seventy years. Richard,
consecrated about 1237,^^^ supported GrufFydd in the conflict
with David,^^" but was at first no friend of Gruffydd's son ; he
took refuge, after the settlement of 1 247, in the abbey of St.
Alban's and made this his home, with occasional visits to
Wales, for the next ten years.^^^ About 1258, possibly as the
result of the truce of that year, he ranged himself on Llywelyn's
side and he acted as envoy for him in 1259 and 1260.^^^ Then
came a quarrel about a matter which was a fruitful subject of
discord in this age in Wales, the limits of royal and of epis-
copal jurisdiction. The laws of Hywel the Good, dating from
a time when the bishop often o'ertopped the local chieftain in
dignity and power, conceded much in the way of ecclesia.stical
immunity which Llywelyn, here following in the footsteps of
his grandfather, was unwilling to allow. A settlement was
patched up in 1261 by the efforts of the bishop of St. Asaph,
the sons of Ednyfed, and other clerical and lay mediatons,^^^
but the dispute flared up again in 1265, when Richard inter-
dicted the performance of Divine worship in the prince's chapel.^***
At last, in 1 267, after the conclusion of the Peace of Mont-
gomery, he abandoned the struggle, begging the pope to relieve
him of a charge which old age, increasing weakness, and the
malignity of his flock made too heavy for him to bear.^*^ He
was succeeded by Anian, or Einion,^*^ a cleric of a more ac-
commodating temper, who kept on good terms with Llywelyn
until the final crash, and was afterwards no less acceptable to

^^^ Reg. Sacr. (2), 58. The date is approximately determined by the " plus-
quam triginta annis" of H. and St. i. 496.

"8 M. Paris, Chron. iv. 8, 148.

1^ Ibid, iv, 647 ; v. 288, 432, 608. He was with David ap Gruffydd in Lleyn
in 1252 {Rec. Cam. 252).

^^^Flores, ii. 435 ; Rymer, i. 399.

13* H. and St. i. 489-93 (from a Peniarth copy, taken from Llyfr Coch Asaph).
The arbitrators say that " principem Lewelinum (ab lorwerth) et suos succes-
sores " were the first to seize wreck and treasure-trove on church land (p. 490).
See LL. i. 554 ; ii. 54 for a rule as to halving wreck in such cases.

I'*" H. and St. i. 494. The royal order to withdraw or suspend the interdict
comes, of course, from Earl Simon (15th May, 1265).

"1/6/^.496-7.

1'"* The name Anianus was in use in the early Gallican Church and became
popular in Wales at this time, no doubt as an ecclesiastical rendering of Einion.

LLYWELYN AP GRUFFYDD. 745

Edward I.^^^ In 1278 bishop and prince, it is true, were at CHAP,
variance,^^* but in 1280 their differences were composed.^^^
The Pontifical or service-book of Anian, containing the words
and music of the many liturgical functions in which he had to
bear a part, is still among the treasured possessions of his
cathedral.i*^

At St. Asaph two bishops bearing the popular name of
Anian were the contemporaries of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd.
Anian I. was appointed in 1249, when the English were in full
control of the valley of the Clwyd, and accordingly acknow-
ledged without reserve the authority of the crown in all matters
touching his election. ^"^^ He found no difficulty, however, in
working with Llywelyn after the conquest of 1256, and acted
in 1 26 1 as one of the arbitrators in the dispute between the
prince and his brother prelate of Bangor.^^^ Anian II. suc-
ceeded to the bishopric in 1268,^*^ having previously, it is said,
been prior of the Dominican convent at Rhuddlan, not far from
the cathedral. " The black friar of Nannau," as he was fami-
liarly styled, was a highly combative ecclesiastic and engaged
in more than the usual number of lengthy lawsuits on behalf
of the privileges of his see. He fought the abbey of Shrews-
bury over the patronage of Oswestry, that of Valle Crucis over
the churches of Llangollen and Wrexham, Isabella, widow of
John litz Alan III., over the advowson of Llanymynech, and
the bishop of Hereford over the diocesan rights of Gorddwr.^^"
It is not surprising that this " foremost champion and assertor
of the rights of his bishopric " should come into conflict with
Llywelyn. At first, their relations were amicable ; the bishop
assented to the submission of doubtful church claims to the

1*3 Leave to elect a successor to Richard was given on 8th November, 1267
and Anian received the temporalities on 12th December, 1267 (Godwin (2), 620).
For his consecration see Reg. Sacr. (2), 63. He is found in close association
with Llywelyn in 1268 [Cartae Glam. i. 124), in 1272 (Cal. Close Rolls, Ed. L
i. 506) and in 1273 (Rymer, i. 505).

"'' Rymer, 1. 559. "^ Peckham, i. 125.

^*8 For an account of this MS. see B. Willis, Bangor, pp. 70-2, 192-9.

^*'' Ann. Wigorn. s.a. 1249 ; H. and St. i. 475-6. ^-"^ H. and St. i. 489.

1** Anian L died before Michaelmas, 1266, when the bishopric was in charge
of a " custos " named Maurice (H. and St. i. 495). In 1267 a certain John was
consecrated, with Bishop Anian of Bangor {Reg. Sacr. (2), 63), but he died in a
few months, and on 21st October, 1268, Anian H. was consecrated in his stead
(H. and St. i. 498, note a).

i5o For details see Thomas, St. Asaph, pp. 41-5.

746 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, verdict of a jury,^^^ helped the prince to a settlement with his
brother David/*^ and acted as his envoy at the court of Henry
III.^^^ But in 1273 Anian began to accuse his lord of hostility
to the church, and especially to the monks, and, although the
Welsh Cistercian abbots, assembled at Strata Florida, strongly
protested to the pope against this attempt to blacken the fame
of a most just and pious ruler,^^* he did not relax his opposition,
but carried on the quarrel persistently,^^** until the Peace of
Conway brought it to an end by removing almost the whole
of his diocese from Llywelyn's control.

While Llywelyn was thus frequently embroiled with his
bishops, he was on the best of terms with the members of all
religious orders. In 1274 the abbots of Whitland, Strata
Florida, Cwm Hir, Ystrad Marchell, Aberconwy, Cymer, and
Valle Crucis joined in his defence against the charges of the
bishop of St. Asaph, and assured the pope that he was a
prominent and vigorous champion of their order. He gave
Aberconwy the royal chapels of Llanbadrig and Llanbeblig,
attached to his courts of Cemais and Carnarvon respectively,""
and was often aided by Cistercian abbots in the transaction of
business of state.^^^ The new orders of friars flourished under
his protection ; in addition to the Franciscan convent of Llan-
faes, founded by his grandfather, Dominican priories came into
existence at Bangor and at Rhuddlan, the former before
1251,"^ and the latter before 1268,"^ and the favour shown
to this latest development of ascetic zeal by Llywelyn may
readily be guessed from the appearance in his train of friars so

1*1 See the convention of Mold, arrived at on ist May, 1269 (H, and St. i.
497.8).

''*'^ See notes 123 and 124 above.

1*3 In October, 1272 {Cartae Glam. i. 139, 140). On 12th April of that year
he was with Llywelyn at Carnarvon (Cal. Close R. Ed. I. i. 506).

"* H. and St. i. 498-9.

"* H. and St. i. 502-3, 503-5, 51 1-6. ^^'^Rec. Cam. 148.

1*^ See Rymer, i. 372 (abbot of Aberconwy), 532 (abbot of Cymer).

1*8 On i6th January, 1251, the justiciar of Chester was ordered to allow the
friars preachers of Bangor to carry victuals " per aquam de Gannoc et alibi "
(Close Rolls, 35 Hen. IH., cited in The Reliquary, vol. xxiv. p. 225). The prior
of the preachers of Bangor was concerned in the agreement between Llywelyn
and Bishop Richard and also in that with Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn.

1*9 The date of the appointment of Bishop Anian II. of St. Asaph. He was
succeeded at Rhuddlan by a certain Cynwrig — see charter of 1270 in Trib. System,
App. 105 (Fr[atr]e Kenewrike Priore de Buthlan).

LL YWEL YN AP GR UFFYDD. 747

unmistakably Welsh as Jonas of Bangor and leuan Goch and CHAP,
lorwerth ap Cadwgan of Llanfaes.^"" ^^*

In passing to the consideration of Llywelyn's relations
with his brother princes, the " barons " whose homage formed
the solid foundation of his titular dignity of " prince of Wales,"
one is tempted to look for signs of internal weakness, such as
might help to explain the collapse of 1277. But it is difficult
to find them ; the principality never wore so flourishing an
aspect as in the year or two which preceded its reduction
by Edward I. to the limits of Gwynedd above Conway. If
anything, its weakness was geographical ; its interests in the
middle march, constantly inviting attack from England, proved
a snare to Llywelyn, who spent his energies at Caerphilly and
Dolforwyn, instead of securing his position in Ceredigion and
Ystrad Tywi, which history had shown to be the true strong-
holds of the independent South.

His hold upon Powys was complete until the outbreak of
the war. Grufifydd ap Madog of Maelor, who, true to the
policy of his house, had adhered to the cause of Gwynedd
from an early stage in the struggle with Henry III., died in
December, 1269, and was buried in his father's foundation of
Valle Crucis.^^^ His brothers Hywel and Madog quitted the
scene about the same time, leaving no male issue,^^^ and thus
Powys Fadog came into the hands of the four sons of Gruffydd,
with the exception of Maelor Saesneg and its castle of Overton,
which were reserved for the dowager, Emma Audley, and did
not again come under Welsh rule.^^^ Of the four co-heirs,
Madog, the eldest, had Welsh Maelor, or Bromfield,^^* Gruffydd
received lal,^®^ to Llywelyn was assigned the region south of

180 In 1263 (Mont. Coll. i. 117). Cf. " frater Johannes Rufus " of H. and
St. i. 489.

191 B.T. The Red Book text (Bruts, 379) is corrupt.

192 For Madog Fychan see Rymer, i. 258 (Maddok f. Maddok), 370 (Madant
Parvo) ; Letters, Hen. III. ii. 286. He died in December, 1269 (B.T.). Hywel
appears in M. Paris, Chron. iv. 318 ; Charter Rolls, i. 309 ; Letters, H. III. ii.
286 ; Rymer, i. 420. He was alive in September, 1267 (Rymer, i. 474), but died
before his brother Gruffydd, without heir to his manor of Eyton {Trib. System,
App. 102, 104).

193 Trib. System, App. 101-3. For Emma see chap. xix. note 88, In 1278
she resigned Maelor Saesneg to the king (Cal. Close R. i. 513).

191 Cal. Close R. i. 399.

195 He appears as " dominus de Yale " in February, 1278 (Arch. Camb. III.
xiv. (1868), 329).

748 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, the Dee,^*^ and to Owain, Bangor Iscoed ; i^'^ and it is significant
of the subordinate position of all four that the provision they
made for their mother in 1270, by a deed executed at Dinas
Br^n Castle, was submitted to Llywelyn for his approval.^*^
South of the Tanat the political aspect of Powys was very
different ; except for the small holdings of Madog ap Gwen-
wynwyn in Mawddwy ^^^ and of the posterity of Llywelyn ab
Owain Fychan in Mechain below the Forest/"** the whole
country was in the hands of one prince, who from his castle of
Pool ruled over almost the whole of the modern Montgomery-
shire. But the power of Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn was no
menace to Llywelyn, for until 1274 he was his cordial
supporter and ally, joining, for instance, in the campaign of
1 27 1 against Caerphilly,^^* and, when he turned traitor and
cast off his allegiance, he was easily driven out of his territories
by his overlord, who for the moment was stronger than
ever. Moreover, Llywelyn commanded the southern bordar
of Powys by his hold upon Kerry and Cydewain, a hold which
he strengthened in 1273 by building in the latter district, on a
rock which frowns above the Severn, the castle of Dolforwyn,
a challenge flung out to the royal walls of Montgomery.^^^

It was in 1274 that the conspiracy was hatched which
Llywelyn avenged by the conquest of Southern Powys.^^^ The
moving spirits were Gruffydd's wife, Hawise Lestrange, who

^'" In an ode addressed to him by the poet Llygad Gwr he is called " dreic y
weun " (the Dragon of Chirk), and reference is made to his exploits in the Ceiriog
Valley and against Whittington (y drewen) and Ellesmere (My v. Arch. I. 341).
He held Glyndyfrdwy also (Cal. Close R. i. 399— Glenfridewe), and Llanarmon
(Charter Rolls, ii. 213) and Lledrod (Peckham, ii. 463), the last two in Cynllaith.

1®'' Charter Rolls, ii. 266. Bankerbur(y) is the " Bancornaburg " of Bede,
H.E. ii. 2 — cf. Bankeburw of Tax. Nich. 248.

188 ti Cum confirmacione Lewelini tunc principis Walliae" {Trib. S. App.
102).

^'* For references to Madog see Rymer, i. 258, 370. By the convention of
1263 he was to retain Mawddwy for life as the vassal of his brother Gruffydd
{Mont. Coll. i. 118).

^^° See chap. xix. note 93. ^'^ Carfae Glam, i. 136.

^'^ Dolforwyn ("The Maiden's Meadow" — see chap. viii. p. 249) is a
township in the parish of Betws Cydewain. The castle is first mentioned by
this name in B.T. s.a. 1274, but it would seem to be beyond a doubt the castle
at " Abrunol," i.e., Abermule, which Llywelyn was ordered on 23rd June, 1273,
to desist from building (Rymer, i. 504). For an account of the ruins see Med.
Mil. Arch. ii. 3.

i"Our information comes from B.T. and the letter of the dean and chapter
of Bangor to the Archbishop of Canterbury (i8th April, 1276) in Rymer, i. 532.

LLYWELYN AP GRUFFYDD. 749

kept the incriminating documents in a strongbox in Pool Castle, CHAP,
and her eldest son, Owain, but Gruffydd was undoubtedly in
the secret. The plan was to work upon the jealousy of David,
secure his aid in the assassination of Llywelyn, and then raise
him to the vacant throne ; in return, David promised Owain
his daughter in marriage and the cession to Powys of Kerry
and Cydewain. All this was to be carried out in February,
but storms and floods of more than common violence threw
the schemes of the conspirators into confusion and nothing
was done. Soon the story oozed out and its echoes reached
the ears of Llywelyn, but at first his information was only
enough to create a strong suspicion and was not so precise as
to justify extreme action. David was cited before the prince's
council at Rhuddlan and questioned about his proceedings,
while Gruffydd was summoned to meet his overlord at Dol-
forwyn and required to ^\vq up Owain as a hostage for his
loyalty and good behaviour, the cantref of Arwystli and a part
of Cyfeiliog being in addition taken from him as a warning of
the dangers of treason.^^* It was not long, however, ere the
whole design was laid bare ; David fled to England, without
waiting for the further examination which was to take place at
Llanfor in Penllyn, and Owain, under what pressure it is
impossible to say, unburdened himself of the details of the plot
to the bishop of Bangor. Again Llywelyn sent messengers to
Grufiydd, who upon their arrival at Pool were well received.
But that ve,v night the prince of Powys, with his wife, children,
and househc.;d goods, made his escape to Shrewsbury ; ^"^ the
Northern envoys were clapped into the castle dungeon, the
walls were manned and the banner of Powys set defiantly
streaming from the height of the topmost tower. This was

I'''* This was in April. The "thirteen trefs beyond the Dovey in Rhiw
Helyg " taken out of Cyfeiliog would appear to be represented by the modern
parish of Llanwrin (Owen, Pemb. i. 221), but one hesitates to accept the asser-
tion of the jurors of 1375 and 1427 that this region " inter aquas de Dyvi et
Dewlas " anciently formed part of Meirionydd and had been wrongfully trans-
ferred to Cyfeiliog about 1200 (Mont. Coll. i. 255-6). Their account of this
matter and also of the position of Arwystli is full of obvious historical errors, and
the Dulas was certainly the western boundary of the commote in 1201 (Penn.
iii. 459 — charter of Gwenwynwyn).

I'^^At the end of December the sheriff of Shropshire was told to allow
Gruffydd and his " familiares " to dwell in Shrewsbury until further orders (Cal.
Close R. i. 142).

75® HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, an invitation to battle which Llywelyn met with alacrity ; he
captured and destroyed the castle and forthwith occupied the
whole of Gruffydd's lands.^'"'

With West Wales, the ancient kingdom of Deheubarth,
Llywelyn during this period concerned himself but slightly.
The suggestion has already been made that his neglect of this
region, in which his grandfather had achieved some of his
greatest successes, was a political error. But it is to be
remembered that there was no serious challenge here to his
position as lord paramount of the Welsh race. Ceredigion
and Ystrad Tywi were divided among puny chiefs, who could
not stand for a moment against the power of the ruler of
Gwynedd. In the former region Maelgwn Fychan was re-
presented by his grandson, Rhys leuanc, who, just before the
war of 1277, held the land north of the Ystwyth,^^^ while the
place of Maredudd ab Owain was filled by his three sons,
Owain, Gruffydd, and Cynan, sharers of a none too ample
domain to the south of that river.^"^ In Ystrad Tywi, the two
prominent figures of the previous generation, Maredudd ap
Rhys and Rhys Fychan, disappear within three weeks of each
other ; Maredudd, who at the close of his life had been obliged
to submit to the overlordship of Llywelyn, died at his castle of
Dryslwyn on 27th July, 1271, and Rhys Fychan (or leuanc)
at Dinefwr on 17th August, in the same year.^^^ Their re-
presentatives and heirs were Rhys ap Maredudd and Rhys
1/ Wyndod, the latter tracing his descent through three other
chiefs of the name of Rhys to the great bearer of that name
whose broad patrimony was now so broken and dismembered.

Nothing was done during this period to weaken the English
hold upon West Wales. Edward had transferred his lordships
of Cardigan and Carmarthen to his younger brother, Edmund,

^'8 Among other territories Llywelyn occupied Gorddwr, taken by Gruffydd
from Thomas Corbet, as far as Bausley (Cal. Close Rolls, i. 374).

1'^ Rhys's brother Llywelyn died on 13th January, 1265 {B.T. 352). Rhys
himself first appears in 1274, when he obtained Perfedd (the " Middle " commote
of the cantref of Penweddig) ; see B.T, 360.

^^^ For references to these three see B.T. s.a. 1273, 1274, 1275. Owain died
in the last -mentioned year, leaving a young son, Llywelyn.

^''^ B.T. 358, where "y whechet dyd wedy Awst" is obviously a mistake for
"vi ante Kal. Aug." Maredudd was buried at Whitland and Rhys leuanc at
Talley. For the concession of Maredudd's homage to Llywelyn see Bridgeman,
Princes of South Wales (1876), p. 147.

LLYWELYN AP GRUFFYDD. 75'

some little time before the conclusion of the Peace of Mont- CHAP,
gomery,^^^ and the Earl of Lancaster continued to bear rule
over them until 1279. A survey of Carmarthen and its ap-
purtenances made in 1275 ^^^ shows us this ancient centre of
royal authority in a state of indifferent repair and bringing but
a poor revenue to its owner, but at the same time little troubled
by fear of attack from the Prince of Wales. The five-towered
donjon, the great tower, the hall, chapel, stable and kitchen, the
castle gate and the castle wall were all in a state of great
dilapidation, and the whole value of the lordship was under
;^50'per annum. But in the three commotes of Elfed, Derllys,
and Widigada, attached to the castle, there was a great multi-
tude of Welshmen who rendered kine and did suit at their
lord's court ; in the borough there were 181 burgesses, and in
the country around knights who did feudal service to the
lordship for holdings at St. Clear's, Laugharne, Llanstephan,
and Abercywyn.^^^ The shadow of Llywelyn's power did
not, apparently, darken the sky at Carmarthen, which on
the west joined hands with William of Valence, lord of
Pembroke, and on the east with Pain of Chaworth, lord of
Kidwelly.i«^

It was in Eastern South Wales that Llywelyn was at this
time busy, guarding his conquests and even extending them.
He kept his hold upon Builth, Gwerthrynion, and Elfael ^*^^
without much difficulty, though he had no title to the last-men-
tioned district under the Treaty of Montgomery. But in
Brecknock his task was more difficult. The young Humphrey

18" On 6th December, 1265 \^ng. Hist. Rev. x. (1895), p. 31).

181 por text and translation see Royal Charters, 45-50. The commission given
on 19th May, 1275, to master Henry of Bray (keeper of Abergavenny) and Hywel
ap Meurig is in the Patent Rolls (Cal. Ed. I. i. 119).

182 John Laundry, holder in 1275 of one knight's fee in the lordship, was
" dominus de Lantelyo Abercowen " (Carm. Cart. No. 45). His ancestor
Landric was in this region as early as the reign of Henry I. (Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I.
89).

183 On the death of Patrick of Chaworth in 1258, his widow, Hawise, lady
of Kidwelly in her own right, obtained the custody of his land and heir (Rot. Fin.
ii. 308; cf. Inq. p. m. Hen. HI. p. 113). In due course Pain succeeded and in
1275 he appears as holder of the barony of Kidwelly and Carnwyllion. " Hawise
of London " died in 1274 (1"^- P- "i- Ed. I. p. 38).

18* For Llywelyn's conquest of Elfael after the death of Roger Tony in 1264,
and his power there until dislodged in 1276, see Cal. Pat. Rolls, Ed. L i. 169, and
Cal. Close Rolls, i. 393.

752 HISTOR Y OF WALES.

CHAP, de Bohun, grandson of the Earl of Hereford,^^^ was by no
means disposed to acquiesce in the abandonment to the Welsh
of his mother's inheritance in the valley of the Usk, which had
been under the rule of Anglo-Norman masters since the days
of William Rufus, He took up arms to assert his rights and
hostilities followed, in which the crown, mindful of its obliga-
tions under the peace, at first strove to play a mediating part.
In 1272 Henry declared his readiness to see that redress was
given for any act of violence on the part of Humphrey,^^** and
in the following year Reginald fitz Peter, of Dinas and Blaen-
llyfni, and his vassal, Hugh Turbeville of Crickhowel, were
rebuked by the king for gratuitously throwing themselves into
the fray.^*'^ In 1274 again, the king's envoys to Llywelyn
were specially charged with the duty of arranging a truce
between him and Humphrey de Bohun.^^^ The zeal of the
government in this matter cooled with the development of its
own quarrel with the prince, and in 1275 it begins to treat
Humphrey as the rightful Lord of Brecknock.^^'' But Llywelyn
held his ground at Brecon, nevertheless, until the general
movement against him two years later forced him to relinquish
a prize of which he was, no doubt, pardonably proud.

The stiffest encounter of these years was between Llywelyn
and Earl Gilbert of Gloucester. Not only did the former's
tenure of Brecknock bring him into touch with the lordship of
Glamorgan, but it would even appear that during the baronial
struggle he had encroached considerably upon its borders and
attached to his cause the chieftains whose lands lay round the
upper waters of the river Tafif. It was, perhaps, for undue
favour to Llywelyn that Gruffydd ap Rhys, last of the ruling

'8' Humphrey became Earl of Hereford upon the death of his grandfather on
24th September, 1275 (Mon. Angl. vi. 135 ; cf. Inq. p. m. Ed. I. p. 70).

1*' Letter of 30th October in Curiae Glam. i. 138-40.

^*' Cal. Close Rolls, i. 56 (13th September, 1273). Peter fitz Herbert had been
succeeded at Blaenllyfni in 1235 by his son Herbert {Rot. Fin. i. 282-3), who died
in 1248 {ibid. ii. 35) and was followed by his brother Reginald. The lordship
was reckoned a third of the barony of Brecknock and included Talgarth and
Llangors. Reginald held it until his death in 1286 (Inq. p. m. Ed, I. 365).
An entry in the Charter Rolls (ii. 248) shows that Hugh Turbeville held Crick-
howel (or Ystrad Yw Isaf) of Reginald as a mesne lordship.

188 Cal. Pat. R. i. 48.

189 See the commission of 8th February, 1275, to determine whether the manor
of Glasbury was (i) within the county of Hereford, (2) an independent marcher
holding, or (3) parcel of the lordship of Brecknock (Cal. Pat. R. i. 116-7).

LL YWEL YN AP GR UFFYDD. 753

house of Senghenydd, was taken prisoner at Cardiff at the CHAP,
beginning of 1 267 and despatched for safe keeping across the ^^'
sea to Kilkenny.^^*^ The Peace of Montgomery included no
settlement between the two great western magnates, and early
in 1268 Gilbert began the building of that elaborate fortress
at Caerphilly which was to stand sentinel at the entrance of
the Rhymney valley and guard the lowlands around Cardiff
from the inroads of their dangerous new neighbour. About
the same time Llywelyn fought a battle with the knights of
Glamorgan, in which a son of the lord of Penmark was slain.^®^
In the September of this year, after a conference with royal
commissioners sent to Montgomery to bring about a general
settlement of grievances, the two antagonists agreed at Gwen-
ddwr in Cantref Selyf to lay their claims before four Welsh and
four English arbiters, and in the meantime Llywelyn was
allowed to retain Senghenydd north of the Caeach and Miskin
north of Pontypridd.^^^ There was, however, no finality about
this settlement ; in October, 1270, war blazed out again, and
Llywelyn took advantage of the renewal of the conflict to de-
stroy the castle at Caerphilly, the rising towers of which he had
watched with so jealous an eye.^*^ Next year Gilbert, with
undaunted resolution, addressed himself once more to the
building of this stronghold, which represented the last word in
the science of fortification.^^* The prince of Wales brought a
formidable army to the spot, and was on the point of repeating
his exploit of the previous year, when the bishops of Lichfield
and Worcester appeared upon the scene, and on 2nd November
induced him to desist from his operations by giving a pledge
that the castle would be taken into royal custody and no fur-
ther building allowed. The pledge was honestly given, but

^^o Ann. ad 1298. For Gruffydd see Cartae Giant, i. log.

1^^ Ann. ad 1298.

1^2 Cartae Glam. i. 123-5. The bishop of Exeter and other royal commis-
sioners met at Montgomery on 14th September, 1268 (Rymer, i. 477), and this
agreement followed on the 27th. " Pontem Monachorum in Cantref (s)ely " was,
no doubt, near Gwenddwr, where the Cistercian abbey of Dore had property
{Mon. Angl. v. 554).

i»3 Ann. ad 1298 give the date as 13th October. I follow B.T. as to the
year and connect the incident with the royal letter of i6th October, 1270 (Rymer,
i. 486).

i»* Ann. ad 1298 (ist June). For an account of the extensive ruins see Med.
Mil. Arch. i. 315-35.

754 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, the government were not strong enough to carry it out ; by
some carelessness or treachery, the place in a little while fell
again into the hands of the earl, and the duel between him
and Llywelyn thus ended in his favour.^^^

If in this particular, however, the prince of Wales failed to
realise the utmost stretch of his ambition, he was, without
Caerphilly, a most potent lord. As his poet Bleddyn intimates,
his power extended without a break from the banks of the
Taff to the furthest coasts of the isle of Anglesey.^^^ Pope
Gregory X. recognised his exceptional position in the English
realm and excused his officers and subjects from the necessity
of answering citations to England issued by the Archbishop
of Canterbury ; their cases were to be dealt with by means of
commissioners sent to Wales.^®'^ Ere the sun of Welsh inde-
pendence set for ever, it shone with a refulgent evening glow,
pleasant to look upon in its wealth of golden pageantry, but
changing, even as the eye rested upon it, into the dull pallor of
nightfall.

IV. The Downfall.

With the war of 1277 begins the story of the Edwardian
Conquest of Wales — a long story, crowded with interest and,
as an episode in English military history, already told in
some detail by Mr. J. E. Morris. Though it has other aspects
than the military, it is no part of the design of the present
work to embark upon it and to describe the fundamental
changes which created the Wales of the fourteenth and fif-
teenth centuries. This would be to enter upon a new subject,
more fitly reserved for separate treatment; It will be enough
for the present to complete the narrative of the period of in-
dependence by briefly tracing the personal fortunes of the last
native ruler of Gwynedd to the day of his inglorious death.

Llywelyn's relations with the crown during the closing
years of Henry III. were thoroughly cordial. He paid the

1** For the bishops' instructions (25th October, 1271), see Cartae Glatn. i.
133-4, and for their convention with Llywelyn (2nd November), ibid. 134-6. A
letter from Henry to his brother Richard tells us what happened {ibid. 136-8), and
another to Llywelyn, dated 22nd February, 1272, is a lame attempt at an ex-
planation (Letters, H. HL ii. 342-4).

196 Myv. Arch. I. 368 (253). " Forth Wegyr " is Cemais harbour.

197 H. and St. i. 500-1 {.bora Rymer, i. 515).

LLYWELYN AP GRUFFYDD. 755

annual render of 3,000 marks prescribed in 1 267 with regular- CHAP,
j^y. W8 ^^^ both sides showed great anxiety to maintain the
terms of peace agreed upon in that year. As the government
continued to be in the same hands for some time after the old
king's death in November, 1272, while Edward's return was
awaited, the prince's attitude underwent no marked change at
this time, and in September, 1273, he can write an amicable
letter from Rhyd Lanfair to his " particular friend, Reginald
de Gray, justiciar of Chester," acknowledging the receipt of an
invitation to the coronation and promising to send venison for
the royal larder.^^^ But from the moment of Edward's acces-
sion, while there was as yet nothing like a breach, Llywelyn
begins to eye the king with suspicion, and distrust, born of the
old baronial struggles, silently takes the place of the former
confidence and goodwill. The payment of the yearly tribute
ceases ; '^^ moreover, another obligation is persistently evaded,
and Llywelyn cannot be got to swear fealty to the new sove-
reign.^"^ Nor are matters mended when the king himself
makes his appearance in the realm ; the prince of Wales was
absent from the great crowning ceremony of 19th August,
1 274, and, though later in the year he sent messengers to
treat with Edward at Northampton,^"^ no progress had been
made towards an understanding when the abortive conspiracy
of David and the house of Powys darkened the current of
Llywelyn 's thoughts and hardened his suspicion into unfeigned
hostility. Both David and Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn fled
to England, and it was when Llywelyn learnt that they had
been sheltered there and received into the royal favour that

1**^ At the death of Henry, the only sum in arrear was one of ;;f 2,000, due at
Christmas, 1271, and assigned by the king, first to Alexander III. of Scotland and
then to the London merchant, Poins of " Mora" (Calendar of Documents re-
lating to Scotland, vol. i. No. 2580 ; Cal. Close R. Ed. I. i, 2, 57 ; Cal. Pat. R.
i. 72).

189 Rjrmer, i. 505. Reginald was justiciar from 1270 until Michaelmas, 1274
(Ann. Cest), " Ryd Gastell " belonged to Aberconwy and adjoined its lands at
Pentre Foelas (Williams, Aberconwy, pp. 166-7).

200 For remonstrances on this head see Rymer, i. 505, 519 ; Cal. Close Rolls,
i. 2, 57, no.

2"' See Rymer, i. 499, for the fruitless mission of the abbots of Dore and
Haughmond in January, 1273.

^"2 Rymer, i. 519. Edward was at Northampton in the early part of Novem-
ber, 1274.

7S6 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, he cast off all show of friendliness and prepared for a
struggle.2*'^

Meanwhile, Edward was beginning to show natural irrita-
tion at the virtual refusal of homage and fealty. In Septem-
ber, 1275, he visited Chester, where Llywelyn was duly
warned to present himself, but with no result.'^'^* At the very
moment he was laying his grievances before the pope, accusing
the king of infringing the peace and, in particular, of harbour-
ing his fugitive barons ; he would do homage, he explained, if
any safe place were proposed ; as it was, he declined to risk
his liberty and his princely power.^°* Against such deep-
seated suspicion, argument and remonstrance were of no avail,
and it was, no doubt, a satisfaction to Edward when fortune
placed in his hands a weapon of a different kind, which he
hoped would at once end the dispute. A little before his fall
Earl Simon had planned a marriage between his only daughter
Eleanor and the Prince of Wales ; ^"^ the scheme had then been
abandoned, but in 1275, the parties being still unmarried, and
the lady twenty-three,^"^ it was revived. By whom the initia-
tive was taken at this time is not apparent, but the revival of
the proposal may be connected with the death of the Countess
of Leicester in the spring of this year,'^*^® leaving her daughter

303 About Christmas the sheriff of Shropshire was ordered to allow Gruffydd
ap Gwenwynwyn and his companions to dwell in the town of Shrewsbury until
further orders (Cal. Close R. i. 142). The result is seen in the events described
in a letter of Llywelyn's, written from Aberyddon, which Shirley (Letters, H.
III. ii. 328) assigns (with some doubt) to ist May, 1269, but which should clearly,
for the following reasons, be dated 22nd May, 1275 : (i) The reference to " forma
pacis " shows that the letter belongs to the period 1267-76. But there is nothing
to suggest that Llywelyn and Gruffydd had any quarrel, or that the former occu-
pied Ystrad Marchell, Llannerch Hudol, and Arwystli, between the peace of 1267
and the rupture of 1274. (2) Llywelyn is known to have been at Aberyddon on
25th May, 1275 (H. and St. i. 505), a date which in 1275 was only three days
removed from "vigilia Ascensionis ". (3) In May, 1275, the " parliamentum Lon-
doniae," i.e., of Westminster, the first of the reign, was just over. The new date
proposed, of course, involves a slight change in the text of the letter, viz., the sub-
stitution of " E " for " H " in the address.

2«'' Rymer, i. 526, 528 ; Cal. Close R. i. 196, 241 ; Ann. Cest.

203 Rymer, i. 528 (H. and St. i. 506-8). I cannot identify " Treschyn ". At a
later time John XXI. intervened with the king on behalf of Llywelyn — see Papal
Letters, i. p. 452.

208 This is asserted by Trevet (294) and Ann. Winton (121).

207 She was born at Kenilworth in October, 1252 {Diet. Nat. Biog. xxxviii.
p. 282).

208 She died between gth January (Cal. Close R. Ed. I. i. 224) and 3rd June,
1275 (Inq. p. mortem, Ed. I. p. 90). As '^she h<ic| been fully reconciled to

LL YWEL YN AP GRUFFYDD, 757

without protection, and with Llywelyn's growing determina- CHAP,
tion to thwart the king by all means in his power. Whether
the prince really hoped to revive the Montfort party in England
one can scarcely tell, but there is no doubt that Edward re-
garded the alliance as a menace and took steps to prevent its
being carried out until, at any rate, Llywelyn's submission had
made it harmless. After a marriage by proxy in her French
home,^°^ the bride, whose beauty was such as befitted the con-
sort of a prince,^^^ sailed, in the heart of the winter of 1275-6,
for the Welsh coast, escorted by her brother Amaury (who
was a cleric) and a number of knights and friars. But off the
Scilly Isles the ship was waylaid by vessels from Bristol,^"
and its light-hearted company brought in dejection to that
city, whence Eleanor was soon carried off for safe custody to
Windsor, and Amaury to the royal prison of Corfe.^^^

Llywelyn, notwithstanding this mischance, had still no
thought of submission, and at the end of 1 276 Edward began
to make ready for a Welsh campaign on an unprecedented
scale. The prince of Wales had not misjudged the military
strength of his position, for it cost the king ^23,000 ^^^ and
twelve months' labour to bring him to terms ; it was in his
judgment of the political situation that he went astray.
Throughout the baronage were unanimous in their support of

her nephew, the king, and had received her dower lands (Aym. Dunst., p. 258
and Cal. Pat. R. Ed. I. i. 59), it is not likely that the match was her work.

209 B.T. says that Llywelyn wedded her " drwy eireu kyndrychawl," i.e., per
verba de praesenti. This is confirmed by Ann. Dunst. (266 — " per nuntios ") and
Llywelyn accordingly calls her his wife in 1276 (Rymer, i. 535).

210 See especially the "juvencula elegantissima " oi F lores, ii. 46.

211 The accounts of the capture differ in detail. But it is certain that it was
effected by sailors from Bristol — see Cal. Pat. R. Ed. I. i. 161. Further, Cont.
Fl. Wig. refers to a certain knight named " Thomas Archidiaconus " as the man
who laid the plot (216), and it is, therefore, significant to find that on 28th May,
1276, the sheriff of Cornwall was ordered to pay ;;f 20 to " Thomas le Ercedekne "
for expenses incurred by him in carrying out a mysterious commission of the king's
in that region (Cal. Close R. i. 292). This confirms the statement of Trevet
that the capture took place " ad insulas Sillinas," on the direct route, and not,
as other chroniclers allege, near Bristol, the vessel having accidentally got out
of its course (Gervase ii. 283 ; Wykes, 267).

^^^ Ann. Osen. 267. The order of 23rd January, 1276, as to prisoners whom
the king is sending to Corfe, has reference, no doubt, to Amaury and his com-
panions (Cal. Close R. i. 266) and enables us to assign the capture to the early
weeks of the year.

^^ Morris, 140- 1,

VOL. II. 26

75^ HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, the crown, and no trace appears of the cleavage of the Mont-
fort period. To this result Llywelyn, there can be no doubt,
had himself contributed by his endeavour to build up a power
in the marches ; no sooner was the signal given for a general
attack upon him than Ralph Tony won for himself Elfael,^^*
the Earl of Hereford Brecknock,^^^ Peter Corbet Gorddwr,^^*"
and many another baron realised that the hour had now
come to enforce claims upon Welsh soil which had long been
in abeyance. This unity on the English side was not matched
by any like spectacle on the side of the Welsh. David was
with the king, and it was proposed, at one stage of the war, to
make him and Owain Goch princes of Gwynedd in Llywelyn's
stead.^^'^ Grufifydd ap Gwenwynwyn was one of the earliest
to profit by the general uprising against the prince of Wales
and soon recovered his patrimony in Southern Powys.^^^ The
princes of South Wales, as was to be expected from so divided
a group of insignificant chieftains, offered no united front to
the invader. First, Rhys ap Maredudd of Dryslwyn, inherit-
ing his father's enmity towards Llywelyn, made his peace with
the captain of Edward's forces in South Wales ; ^^^ next, Rhys

v/ Wyndod surrendered Dinefwr and Llandovery,^'^** which thus

passed finally from the line of Rhys ap Tewdwr ; lastly, the
minor chiefs of Ceredigion, Rhys Fychan and the house of
Maredudd ab Owain, bowed to the storm and did homage to
the king at Worcester.^^^ In this way Edward deftly cut
away the props which supported the power of the prince of
Wales before he aimed a single blow at Llywelyn himself

The operations of 1276-7 fall, in fact, into two parts.
From November to July, Edward was engaged in clearing the
ground by means of expeditions working from Chester, Mont-
gomery, and Carmarthen. The force which set out from
Chester recovered Mold and Northern Powys ; the Mont-
gomery contingent won Southern Powys for Grufifydd ap
Gwenwynwyn, and Cydewain, Kerry, Builth, and Gwerthrynion
for the king ; while it was the Carmarthen section which re-

21* Cal. Pat. R. i. 169— c/. Cal. Close R. i. 393. ^ib b.T. 364.

216 Cal. Close R. i. 374.

2" Rymer, i. 544 (Flint, i6th August, 1277). ^lajgy, 36^.

21* See the agreement of nth April, 1277, *" Rymer, i. 542.
22opeckham, ii. 451 ; Cal. Pat. R. Ed. I. i. 212. "^^B.T. 366.

LLYWELYN AP GRUFFYDD. 759

moved all obstacles to the restoration of royal authority in CHAP.
Ystrad Tywi and Ceredigion.^^^ In the summer the second
stage of the war began ; Edward himself took the field and,
taking his start from Chester, mov^ed upon Snowdonia by the
familiar coast road. As he passed on, he secured his com-
munications by building strongholds at Flint and Rhuddlan,
which at a later time grew into formidable castles ; a fleet
from the Cinque Ports beset Anglesey and not only harassed
Llywelyn's rear, but also, by burning the harvest of that fruitful
isle, threatened him with famine in his rock-hewn citadel.
Edward had, in fact, learned the secret of successful warfare
against Gwynedd, which was, to treat the inaccessible wilder-
ness of Snowdon as a natural fortress, capable, by a skilful
combination of naval and military power, of being starved into
surrender. Llywelyn found it impossible to shake himself free
from the grip of his adversary, and on 7th November, 1277, he
finally agreed to the terms proposed to him on behalf of the
king.

The Treaty of Conway 223 humbled Llywelyn as signally
as that of Montgomery had exalted him. By it he lost
all his conquests in South and Mid Wales and even that
Middle Country between the Conway and the Dee which no
strong ruler of Gwynedd had ever let slip, and which he had
held from the beginning of his victorious career. His territory
was confined within the comparatively narrow bounds of
Gwynedd above Conway. His feudal authority fared no
better ; all the homages of his barons, the princely vassals
whose obedience made him venerable and great, were taken
from him save five ; he was left lord of four chiefs in the vale
of Edeyrnion ^^* and of Rhys Fychan, who had been driven
from Geneu'r Glyn across the Dovey to Meirionydd.^^^ He
was further forced to release his brother Owain, whom he had
held so long a captive, and to provide him with land, which
he did by establishing him in the cantref of Lleyn.^^e Yox
David the king himself made provision, giving him the land-

^22 Morris, 118-26. 223 por its text see Rymer, i. 545.

2^* These were (i) Dafydd ap Gruffydd ab Owain Brogyntyn, whose elegy
was sung by Bleddyn Fardd {Myv. Arch. I. 369 (253-4)) I (2) Elise ab lorwerth
ab Owain ; (3,4) Two sons of Owain ap Bleddyn ab Owain. For the family see
chap. xix. note 51.

2^5B.r. 368. 2a6j3.r. 370.

26*

76o HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, ward two of the Four Cantrefs, namely, Rhufoniog and
Dyffryn Clwyd, with the lordship of Hope,^^^ and therewith the
hand of his kinswoman Elizabeth, daughter of the Earl of
Derby and widow of William Marshall of Norfolk.^^^ Llywelyn
was reduced to the position he had held in early life, before his
triumphant spear had swept all before it ; he was but one of
a group of princes who divided Gwynedd between them.

Yet, despite his humiliation, he was not crushed and still
held a position which many an English earl might envy.
Edward made no ungenerous use of his victory, and indeed
always treated Llywelyn as a dangerous opponent whom he
was bound to keep under, but for whom he had a high
personal regard. Some of the harsher conditions of the treaty
were there as matters of form merely and were afterwards
waived ; ^* moreover, the prince was not deprived of his title,
and, according to one authority,^^'^ the motive for leaving him
five of his old feudatories was that it might not be altogether
shorn of its former dignity and honour. Thus the storm of
1277 was followed by a calm which lasted for four years.
Llywelyn accepted his defeat and the lower rank to which
fortune had once again assigned him with resignation and with
no treacherous hinderthought in his heart ; convinced of the
solid strength of Edward's power, he set himself to fill the
dignified place in the realm which was still reserved for him.
At Christmas he went to London and rendered the long de-
ferred homage,^^! and in return received a promise that his
bride should be released and given to him.232 The king was
at first somewhat doubtful of the sincerity of Llywelyn's con-
version to the policy of peace and good neighbourhood, but

"' Cal. Pat. R, Ed. I. i. 231-2 (loth October, 1277); Peckham, ii. 445.

"8 The marriage had taken place before 2nd January, 1278 (Cal. Close R.
i. 491). Trevet (298) is the authority for the lady's parentage and his account is
confirmed by the statement of Hemingburgh that she was a relative of the king's
(ii. 9), for Robert Ferrers, eighth Earl of Derby, married a daughter of Hugh XI.
of Lusignan, half-brother of Henry IH.

"^^ Immediately after the conclusion of the treaty, Edward remitted the war
indemnity of 50,000 marks and the prescribed annual render of 1,000 marks for
Anglesey (Rymer, i. 546, 547).

230 Trevet, 297.

231 Cont. Fl. Wig. ii. 218-9; Ann. Winton. p. 125; B.T. 370. For the
safe-conduct see Rymer, i. 548.

^2 On 4th January, 1278, the king was inquiring what dower Llywelyn
proposed to allow to Eleanor (Rymer, i. 549).

LL YWEL YN AP GR UFFYDD. 76 1

the quiet lapse of the summer months of 1278 and a meeting CHAP,
with the prince near Rhuddlan in September showed him that
he had nothing to fear.^^^ On 13th October the marriage of
the prince of Wales and Eleanor of Montfort at last took place,
in Worcester Cathedral, in the presence of the king and the
queen and' a brilliant assemblage of English magnates.^^* Thus,
as the Annals ofOsney say, with a romantic enthusiasm not
usual in the recording of mediaeval weddings, did Llywelyn win,
" with a heart that leapt for joy, his beloved spouse, for whose
loving embraces he had so long yearned ".

The final breach between Llywelyn and the king came
suddenly and there is little in the history of the preceding three
years to suggest that it was impending. No doubt, the
prince had his grievances, but they were not of the first order,
and Edward was taken completely by surprise when news was
brought to him at Devizes of the outbreak of March, 1282.
The cause of the war was the oppressive rule of the royal
officials, now as of old doing their master grave disservice, in
the districts which had been taken from Llywelyn, and the prince
was drawn into the field, not so much by his own wrongs as
by those endured by his former subjects. The situation re-
called that of 1256, but whereas in that year he had made his
political fortune by lending a willing ear to the cries of the
men of the Four Cantrefs, the same course of action followed
in 1282 wrought his irretrievable ruin.

It was David, hitherto the friend and the favourite of the
English, who, deeply dissatisfied with the position of affairs in
his lordships of Denbigh and Hope, first threw down the gage
of battle, and on the eve of Palm Sunday took the castle of
Hawarden by assault. In the week ensuing, and, no doubt,
as the result of previous arrangement, the chieftains of the
South attacked the royal castles of Aberystwyth, Llandovery,
and Carreg Cennen. The revolt had now become general in
South and Mid Wales, and, when Llywelyn resolved to make
common cause with the insurgents and once more to challenge

^^Ann.Osen. p. 276. Edward was at Rhuddlan from the 8th to the 12th
of September.

234B.T. ; Ann. Osen. ; Cont. Fl. Wig. ; Trevet (298). Edward bore the
cost of the festivities and conveyed the bride's luggage as far as Oswestry — see
Blaauw, Barons' War, second ed. p. 333, note, where " Whitchurch " is the
usual mistranslation of" Album Monasterium ".

7^2 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, the might of Edward, the whole country was aflame and the
^^- king had the entire Welsh problem upon his hands. In the
measures which he adopted, he repeated to a large extent the
expedients which had proved so successful in 1277. A force
of knights was sent as before to clear the way, Edward him-
self came down to North Wales and the conquest of Anglesey
was undertaken, with the aid of the sailors of the Cinque Ports,
as a preliminary to the shutting up of Llywelyn and David in
their stronghold of Eryri. These were steps well calculated
in the course of time to bring the conflict to an end, but the
process was slow and the Welsh were in the meantime en-
couraged to resist by more than one serious check to the designs
of the English king. On June i6th a force led by the Earl
of Gloucester was defeated near Llandeilo Fawr. On November
6th a still graver disaster befell the troops operating in
Anglesey ; attempting to cross the bridge of boats which had
been thrown across the Menai Straits near Bangor,^^^ some
sixteen knights, with their followers, were set upon by the
Welsh and overwhelmed. It is not surprising that Llywelyn
brushed aside the well-meant but clumsy efforts of Archbishop
Peckham at mediation, rejecting his offer of an English estate
worth ;^iooo a year, and cast about him for new methods of
defence.

What he had especially to fear was that Edward, undeterred
by his reverses, would at length reproduce the situation
which had forced upon the Welsh the Peace of Conway and
effectively blockade the region of Snowdonia. To meet this
danger, Llywelyn resolved to make his way to the South,
where resistance to the foreigner had somewhat flagged, and
there create a diversion which would relieve the pressure upon
Gwynedd. In the month of November he appeared in the
highlands of Builth. The lordship was in the hands of the
king, and the castle, standing on the south side of the Irfon
where it falls into the Wye, had lately been rebuilt at consider-
able cost. To win over the Welsh tenants of the district was
an easy matter, but to capture the castle, defended by John
Giffard and a body of Shropshire levies, was a serious military

235 .« luxta Bangoriam " (Trevet, 304). Powel (272) defines more precisely
as " the place called Moel y donn " (near Portdinorwic), but upon what authority
is not evident.

LL YWEL YN AP GR UFFYDD. '- 763

undertaking, and it was in the endeavour to accomplish it that CHAP,
the last Prince of Wales of the native line came to his melan-
choly end.

He died, not at the head of his army in a well-fought fray,
but almost alone, in an unregarded corner of the field, as he
was hastening from some private errand to rejoin the troops
who were holding the north bank of the Irfon against a deter-
mined English attack. The man who struck him down with
his lance, one Stephen Frankton, knew not what he had done,
and it was only afterwards that the body was recognized. It
is probable that the true story of that fateful i ith of December
will never be rightly known and, in particular, why Llywelyn,
with dangers on every side, had thus allowed himself to be
separated from his faithful troops. But, mysterious accident
though it was, the prince's death was decisive for the struggle
between the two races ; without him, the Welsh could not
continue the conflict, and, though Edward had still much to do
to secure the fruits of victory, the turning point had been
reached in the contest between Welsh independence and the
English crown. Only Llywelyn ap Gruffydd could give life
to the cause which must eventually succumb to the centralising
tendencies of English politics.

Upon recognition of the fallen hero, his head was cut off
and sent to Edward, who exhibited it to the army in Anglesey
and then despatched it to London, so as to gratify the citizens
with concrete evidence of his triumph. The body, when
some ecclesiastical scruples had been satisfied, was buried in
the abbey of Cwm Hir,^^^ where, however, nothing remains to
mark the site of the grave. Llywelyn's wife, Eleanor, had
died in childbirth in June in the midst of the conflict and had
been buried in the friary at Llanfaes. The little Gwenllian,
their only child, soon fell into the hands of the king, and spent
her days as a nun of Sempringham. No heir, therefore, carried
on the traditions of the lost leader, and his followers felt there
was nothing more to live for —

O God ! that the sea might engulf the land !
Why are we left to long-drawn weariness ?

was the lament of the desperate Gruffydd ab yr Ynad Coch,

'^'^ So the contemporary Bury chronicler (Cont. FI. Wig. ii. 227).

764 HISTORY OF WALES.

CHAP, who read the tragedy of the hour in the beating of the wind
and of the rain, the sullen wash of the waves upon the grey
beach, the roar of the wind-whipt oaks that miserable and
more than wintry December, It was for a far distant gener-
ation to see that the last Prince had not lived in vain, but by
his life-work had helped to build solidly the enduring fabric of
Welsh nationality.

GENEALOGICAL TABLES-

I. THE LINE OF GWYNEDD.

Rhodri Mawr, d. 878.

I \ i

Anarawd, d. 916. Cadell, d. 909 ? Merfyn, d. 904.

Idwal Foel, d. 942. See table No. 2.

I - j I

lago, captured 979. Idwal or leuaf, d. 988 ? Meurig, d. 986.

Cystennin, Hywel, d. 985. Cadwallon, d. 986. Idwal, d. 996.

I I

Cynan, d. 1005. lago, d. 1039,

Cynan,
m. Ragnhildr of Dublin.

Gruffydd
[jiee next page)

766

HISTORY OF WALES.

THE LINE OF GWYNEDD {continued).

Gruffydd ap Cynan,

d. 1137,

m. Angharad, dau. of Owain ab Edwin.

OwAiN GwvNEDD, Cadwaladr,

d. 1170, d. 1172.

tn. (i) Gwladus, dau. of |

Llywarch ap Trahaearn ; Cadfan.
(2) Christina, dau. of
Gronw ab Owain.

Cadwallon,
d. 1132.

Susanna, Gwenllian,

m. Madog m. Gruffydd

ap Maredudd. ap Rhys.

By (I) By (I) By (2)

By (2)

Rhun,
d. 1 146.

Hywel, lorwerth Maelgwn,
d. 1 1 70. Drwyndwn
m. Marared,

dau. of Madog

ap Maredudd.

David,

d. 1203,

m. Emma

of Anjou.

Rhodri,
d. 1195,

m. dau. of
Rhys ap

Gruffydd.

Cynan,
d. 1173.

Owain. Gruffydd.

Llywelyn Fawr,

d. 1240,

tn, Joan, dau. of King John.

By Joan. |

Gruffydd,
d. 1200.

Hywel,
d. 1216.

Gruffydd,

d. 1244.

«. Senena.

David,

d. 1246,

m. Isabella

de Breos.

I .
Gwenllian,

d. 1281,
m. William

de Lacy.

Helen,
m. John,

Earl of
Chester.

Gwladus Ddu,
d. 1251,

ni. (i) Reginald
de Breos
{d. 1228),
(2) Ralph
Mortimer
(d. 1246).

Angharad,

tn. Gruffydd

Maelor.

Gwenlli;
m. Owa
Cyfeilio

Maredudd,
d. 1212.

Llyw^yn
Fawr.

Llywel
Fycha

Margaret,
tn. (i) John
de Breos
(d. 1232),
(2) Walter
Clifford
(d. 1263).

Owain Llywelyn

Goch. y Llyw Olaf,

d. 1282,
tn. Eleanor de Montfort.

Rhodri.

•David,

d. 1283,

m. Elizabeth

Ferrers.

Gwladus,

d. 1261,

m. Rhys ap

Rhys Mechyll.

Maredudd

d. 1255,

m. Gwenlli:

dau. of

Maelgwi

Fychani

Llywfl
d. i2|

GENEALOGICAL TABLES.

767

2. THE LINE OF DEHEUBARTH.
Rhodri Mawr, d. 878.

Anarawd.
See table No. i.

Cadell, d. gog ?

Merfyn.

Clyaog, d. 920,

Hywel Dda, d. 950 ?
m. Elen, dau. of Llywarch ap Hyfaidd.

Rhodri, d. 953.

Edwin, d. 954.

I
Owain, d. 988.

Einon, d. 984.

Edwin.

I I I

Gronw. Tewdwr, Cadell.

I d. 994. I

Edwin. Tewdwr.

,rwel, Maredudd, Owain.
[044. d. 1035.

Uchtryd.

I I I

jedudd, d. 1072. Rhys, Hywel,

I d. 1078. d. 1078.
ruffydd, d. 1091.

Owain,
d. 1 105.

Rhydderch,

m. Hunydd, dau.

of BleddjTi ap

Cynfyn.

Maredudd, d. 999.

Angharad,

m. Llywelyn ap Seisyll.

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn,
d. 1063.

I I I

Maredudd, Idwal, Nest,

d. 1070. d. 1070. m. Osbern
fitz Richard.

I I I

Maredudd. Owain. Rhys ap Tewdwr, a. 1093,

m. Gwladus, dau. of Rhiwallon
ap Cynfyn.

-warch, Gronw, Rhiryd, Meilyr, Angharad, Gruffydd, d. 1137, Hywel. Nest,

1118. rf. 1124. rf. 1124. rf. 1124. m. Gruffydd m. Gwenllian, dau. of w. Gerald of

I ap Cynan. Gruffydd ap Cynan. Windsor.

Christina,

m. Owain Gwynedd. By Gwenllian.

irawd, Cadell, Maredudd,
1143. d. 1175. d. 115s.

I
inon, d. 1163.

Yr Arglwydd Rhys,

d. 1197,
m. Gwenllian, dau. of
Madog ap Maredudd,

{por descendants, see next page)

Gwladus, Nest,

m. (i) Caradog m. Ifor Bach,
ab lestyn ;
(2) Seisyll ab
Dyfnwal.

768

HISTORY OF WALES.

THE LINE OF DEHEUBARTH (continued).

Yr Arglwydd Rhys.
By Gwenllian. |

Gruffydd, Maredudd Cynwrig, Rhys Maredudd, Maelgwn, Hywel Maredudd, Gwenlli
d. I20I, Ddall, d. 1237. Gryg, d. 1201. d. 1231. Sais, Archdeacon d. 1231

m. Matilda, d. 1239.

dau. of
William de Breos.

d. 1234.

d. 1204. of Cardigan, m. Edny
I d. 1227. Fychai

Cynan.

Rhys leuanc,

d. 1222.

Owain,
d. 1236.

Rhys Mechyll,

d. 1244,

m. Matilda de Breos.

Maredudd,
d. 1271.

Maelgwn Fychan

(or leuanc),

d. 1257.

Maredudd,
d. 1265.

Rhys Fychan (or leuanc),
d. 1271,
m. Gwladus, dau. of
Gruffydd ap Llywelyn.

Rhys.

Rhys,
d. 1255.

Gwenllian,

d. 1254,

m. Llywelyn

ap Maredudd.

Marared

d. 1255,

m. Owain

Mareduc

Owain, rf. 1275. Gruffydd. Cynan. Rhys Gruffydd. Llywelyn. Llywelyn,

I Wyndod. d. 1265.

Llywelyn.

Rhys
leuanc.

GENEALOGICAL TABLES.

769

&0 .

>>'-i

ffi^-

ct^

-i^rt-2

c
O

770

HISTORY OF WALES.

4. THE LESSER DYNASTIES.

ARWYSTLI AND CYDEWAIN.

Trahaearn ap Caradog,
d. 1081.

Meurig,
d. 1 106.

Griffri,
d. 1 106.

Llywarch.

Owain.

leuaf,
d. 1 130.

I
Hywel,
d. 1185.

lorwerth, Maredudd, Madog. Robert, Gwladus,
d. 1130. d. 1129, d. 1171, m. Owain

I Gwynedd,

Maredudd, |

d. 1244. Owain o'r Brithdir

I d. 1197.

Owain, d. 1261,
OT. Marared, dau. of Maelgwn Fychan.

RHWNG GWY A HAFREN.

Elstan Glodrydd.

Cadwgan.

Idnerth. Goronwy, Llywelyn,

I d, iioi. d. logg.

Madog, I

d. 1 140, Hywel,

tn. dau. of Rhys ap Tewdwr ? d. 1106.

Hywel, Cadwgan, Maredudd, Cadwallon, Einion Clud,

d. 1142. d. 1142. d. 1146. d. 1179, d. 1177.

tn. Efa of Powys. I

Maelgwn, Hywel.
d. 1 197.

Cadwallon, d. 1234.

Einion o'r Forth, Walter.
d. 1191,
OT. dau. of
Rhys ap Gruffydd.

SENGHENYDD.

Ifor ap Meurig,
tn. Nest, dau. of Gruffydd ap Rhys.

Gruffydd, d. 121 1.

Rhys, d. 1256.
Gruffydd.

Cadwallon.

GENEALOGICAL TABLES.
GWYNLLWG.

771

Gruffydd,

d. 1055.

I
Caradog,
d. 1081.

I.
Owain.

Rhydderch ab lestyn,
d. 1033.

Rhys,
d. 1053.

Meirchion.

Caradog, d. 1035.

Rhydderch, d. 1076.

Maredudd
(of Cantref Bychan).

I
Hywel, d. 1141.

Morgan, lorwerth,

d. 1158. m. Angharad, dau. of

Bishop Uchtryd.

I
Owain Pen Carwn.

I
Owam,
d. 1172.

Hywel.

Morgan, d. 1248.

I
Gwerfyl, w. Gruffydd.

I
Maredudd, d. 1270.

Dyddgu,

m. Seisyll ap

Dyfnwal.

Morgan.

Caradog,
m. Gwladus, dau. of
Gruffydd ap Rhys.

MORGANNWG,
lestyn ap Gwrgant.

Gruffydd.

Goronwy.

Morgan.

Morgan Gam,
d. 1241.

Lleision.

Maredudd.

I
Hywel.

Morgan Fychan,
d. 1288.

I
Owain.

Rhys.

Cadwallon.

I
Morgan.

VOL. I,
1-356

VOL. II.
357-771

INDEX.

The numbers refer to pages, bolder type indicating the principal reference.
n = note.

Aaron of Isca, 103 and n.**.

Abbots, reversion of property of, 312

Aber, 236, 686, 705.

— Llech, battle of (iog6), 406-7.

— Lleiniog castle, 392, 404.

— Menai, 380, 469,

— Tywi, battle of (1044), 361.
Aberafan, 440, 504.
Aberconwy, Abbey at —

English devastation of (1245), 704-5.
Foundation of, 236, 6oi and «.'*'.
Gifts to — from Llywelyn ab lorwerth,

601 ; from Llywelyn ap Gruffydd,

601, 746.
Aberconwy, Abbot of, 722, 728.

— battle of (1194), 588-9 and n.''^.
Abercorran (Laugharne), 574 n.*. {See

also Laugharne.)
Aberdaron —

Clas at, 237 and n.*^, 433, 457.
Norman church at, 468.
Aberdovey, Welsh parliament at (1216),

649.
Aberdyfi castle, 506.
Aberffraw —
Church at, Norman doorway of, 468.
Danish sack of (968), 351.
Supremacy of, in Gwynedd, 231, 682
and M.i*!, 690.
Abergavenny —

Castle, 644, 670 M.88, 679.

Massacre of (1175), 547-8; avenged,

568.
Norman possession of, 442-3.
Roman remains at, few, 79.
otherwise mentioned, 713, 740 n.^^^.
Abergele, 206 ; church, 240.
Abergwili, battle of (1022), 347.
Aberhonddu, 652, 674; castle. See

Brecon.
Abermule (Abrunol). See Dolforwyn.
Aberrheidol castle. See Aberystwyth.
Aberriw (Berriew), 171 ; church, 249.
VOL. n.

Aberteifi castle (Earl Roger's), 410 and
«.2, 489.

(Rhys ap Gruffydd's), 542, 618.

— town, 582. See also Cardigan.
Aberystwyth castle (Gilbert fitz
Richard's) —
Gruffydd's siege of (1116), 426, 434

«•"*. 435-
Hywel's destruction of (1143), 490.
Site of, 426.
Aberystwyth castle (at mouth of the

Rheidol)—
Ll)rwelyn's capture and rebuilding of

(1208), 621.
Maelgwn's capture of (1197), 584.
Rhys' destruction of (1164), 514 and

Welsh attack on (1282), 761.
Aberystwyth castle (Falkes of Bre-

aut^'s), 636-7, 638 M.127.
Abraham, Archdeacon of Gwent, 367.
— , Bp. of St. Asaph, 675 n.i", 689

— , Bp. of St. David's, 222, 460.
Accomplices, penalties against, 306.
Adam, Bp. of St. Asaph, 252, 558-9

and n."".
— of Roch, 660 w.",
Adamnan, 202.
Aeddan ap Blegywryd, 346-7.
^Ifgar, Earl of Mercia, 364-5, 368-g

and n.^^.
iElfhere, Earl of Mercia, 350 and n^°^.
^Ifric, Earl of Mercia, 350.
JEWe, King of Deira, 178 «.«".
Aesica (Great Chesters), 74.
iEthelflaed, Queen of Mercia, 327,

331-2-

iEthelfrith, King of Bernicia, 162 n.\
163, 178-80 and n.^, 183.

iEthelred, Ealdorman of Mercia, 327,
328.

^thelsige, 350 and w.^i".

^thelwulf. King of Mercia, 325 andn.^".

773 27

774

INDEX

VOL. 1.

1-356

Aetius, 99 and n.^*.

Afan Buellt, 253.

Agnes (Nest), wife of Bernard of Neuf-

march^, 397 nP^, 437, 438.
Agricola, Julius, 57-8.
Aidan, King in Argyll, 179.
Ailbe of Emiy, St., 154 and n.i".
Aillt. See Villeins.
Aircol (Agricola) of the Long Hand,

132, ^ and n.i»*.
Alan Fergant, 317.

— of Brittany, Count, 443.
Albanus of Verulamium, 103.
Alberbury, 218; church, 247.
Albion, meaning of name, 29, 30,
Album Monasterium, places so called,

635 M."».
Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury, 202.
Alexander I., King of Scotland, 463 and
n.6.

— III., Pope, 521.

— , Cistercian Abbot, 625.

— (Cuhelyn), Archdeacon of Bangor,

556 n.'*^ 562 and n.'^''.

— , Bp. of Lincoln, 525 n."^

Alfred, King of England, Mercian
policy of, 327 ; Welsh kings under
overlordship of, 328 ; successes of,
against Danes, 327, 329 ; death of,
330; Asser's biography of, 227;
mentioned, 334.

— of Marlborough, 396.

Alicia de Clare, wife of Cadwaladr, 491

and n.'*.
AUectus, 527 and m.^^'.
Allmuir, Eochaid, 98.
AUt Cunedda, 118.

— Glud (Dumbarton), 165 and »».".
Alltudion, status of, 293 and n.*''.
Alretone. See Cause.

Amaury de Montfort, 757 and w."'^.
Amminius, 49 and n.^^.
Amlodd Wledig, 100 n,^^.
Amobyr, 218, 311 and m.'^".
Amwythig. See Shrewsbury.
Anarawd ap Gruffydd of S. Wales, 475,

484, 489, 501-
Rhodjri, King of Gwynedd, 326

and nP, 328-30 and nn.^-^,

332.
Ancestor-worship, trace of, 304 ayid

Aneirin, 169 and n?^, 170.

Angharad, wife of Gruffydd ap Cynan,

417 n.®^, 464 and n?, 469.

Gruffydd ap Madog, 566.

lorwerth ab Owain, 484.

Llywelyn ap Seisyll and later

of Cynfyn, 347, 372, 378

Rhodri the Great, 257, 325.

Angharad, wife of William fitz Martin,

711 M.l''^.

William of Barry, 555.

Angle (on Milford Haven), 321 w.^;

church, 557.
Anglesey (Mona, Mon) —
Aberconwy lands in, 601.
Agricola's conquest of, 58.
Arfon, Lleyn and Arllechwedd com-
bined with, 237-8, 589.
Brythonic conquest of, 120.
Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd driven from,

490.
Cantrefs and commotes of, 229 et seq.
Cromlechs abundant in, ii.
Danish conquest of (853), 322 and

M.i", 325 K.i® ; ravages in later loth

cent. 351, 352.
Druidism in, 11, 41, 44, 55.
Ednyfed's descendants in, 685.
Edwin's conquest of, 184 and n.^"^,

185 M.99.
Fertility of, 230, 605.
Magnus Barefoot's rout of Normans

in (1098), 409-10.
Manx troops in (1193), 588.
Name, derivations of, 185 n."", 321.
Ogams not found in, 114.
Physical features of, 229-30 and n.*.
Render for, remitted (1277), 7^° nP^.
Roman occupation of, evidences of,

67-8.
Suetonius' conquest of, 55.
Anian (Einion), Bp. of Bangor, 744-S
and MM.'^^-", 749.

— L, Bp. of St. Asaph, 745.

— IL, Bp. of St. Asaph, 745-6 and

nniM^ 153.

Anlaf Cuaran, 352.

Annest dau. of Gruffydd ap Cynan,

464 n.''.
Anselm, Abp. of Canterbury, 414, 449,

452-

— , Bp. of St. David's, 675 m.'".

Archenfield (Erging) —
Church preferment in (nth cent.), 215.
de Burgh's grant of (1227), 672 and

«.95.

Devastation of, by Gruffydd ap Lly-
welyn, 367.
Dubricius connected with, 47-8.
Llandaff connected with, 332 «.*'.
Offa's Dyke not continued to, 200.
Welsh character of, 280.
Arderydd, battle of (c, 575), 166 and «.'"'.
Ardudwy, 238, 490, 564 and nM'', 687,

residence of chieftains of, 69.
Arfon {see also Carnarvon and Segon-
tium) —
Church lands in, 235.
Commotes of, 234.

VOL. II.
357-771

INDEX

11^

Arfon (cont.) —

Meaning of name, 233.

Privileges of, 234, 690.

Situation and features of, 233-5.

otherwise mentioned, 589, 601.
Arglwydd, 309 and n?^'^. [See also

Kings.)
Arllechwedd, 235-6, 237, 589, 601,
Armorican peninsula. See Brittany.
Arnulf. See Montgomery.
Arthen, King of Ceredigion, 257.
Arthfael ap Hywel, King of Gwent,

347.

■ Noe, King of Gwent, 348.

Arthur, King, 99, 125-6 and n.*, 167,

246, 248.
Arwystli —

Description of, 249-50.
Gruffydd deprived of, 749.
Gwenwynwyn's acquisition of (1197),

584.
Roger of Shrewsbury's possession of,

388, 390.
otherwise mentioned, 621, 709, 734.
Aryan languages, distribution of, 18.
Ashford manor (Derbyshire), 615, 619

M.^*, 646 M.i'"*, 699 n.^'^.
Asser, Bp. of St. David's and Sherborne,

215, 226-8, 328.
Athelstan, Bp. of Hereford, 365, 367.
— , King of Wessex, 334 n.^^, 335-6,

337-
Atiscross, hundred of, 386 and m."'.
Atrebates, 104.
Audley, Emma, 709 and n.**^, 747 and

— , Henry, 666 w.^*, 709.

— , James, 733, 738, ««."•*, i°*.

Augustine St., Abp. of Canterbury, no,

172-7, 179 M.^^.
Aurelian, Paul, 144, 154.
Aurelianus, Ambrosius, lOl, 132, 140.
Aurelius Caninus, King, 132.
Aust (Penrhyn Awstin), 174-5 ""^ »•■***•
Avice. See Isabella of Gloucester.
Avretone (Overton). See Richard's

Castle.
Awst (Augustus), Prince of Brycheiniog,

271.
Aylesford finds, 30 m.".

B. Saes. —

Dating peculiarities of, 343 m.^^ 346

M.^", 362 W.12, 476 n.®5, 536 n.i.
Loss of latter part of MS. of, 585

Badon Hill, battle of (c. 504), 125, 126

M.8, 127 and M.*, 136.
Baernice (Byrneich, Bryneich), 163 and

Baglan, 712.

Bala castle, 614.

— Lake (Llyn Tegid, Pimblemere),

245 and M.92.
Baldwin, Abp. of Canterbury, 561-3

and H.132, 569, 574.
Ballon family, 442-3 and n.^^^.
Bangor, meaning of word, 192-3.

— Fawr yn Arfon (on Menai Straits) —
Founder of, 175, 193.

Hugh's castle at, 392.

Meurig's episcopacy opposed, 481,

483-4.
Monastic origin of, 208 n.^^.
Owain Gwynedd buried in, 522.
Subordination of, to English Primate,

448-9, 455. 521.
Territorial possessions of, 235.
Bangor Iscoed Monastery (on the
Dee)—
Bede's name for, 195, 748 ».•'''.
Life at, 211 n.^^.
Origin of, 193.

Representation of, at Augustine's
Oak, 175 ; at battle of Chester,
i8o.
Bardism, villeins disqualified for, 292

n.^^, 294.
Bards —

Court poet (bardd teulu), 130, 315,

530.

Famous names among, in 6th cent.,

169-70.
" Monarchy of Pictland, The," 530.
Oral tradition among, 86.
Pencerdd, 315, 530.
Place-names connected with, 529

Training of, 529-30.
Uchelwrs as patrons of, 299.
Bardsey I. (Ynys Enlli), 147, 213, 216-17,

237-

Barons' War, outbreak of (1258), 722;
Earl Simon's leadership, 731-3 ;
French arbitration, 733-4 ; renewal
of conflict (1264), 734; battle of
Lewes, 734 ; capitulations of Mont-
gomery and Worcester, 735 ; Eves-
ham (1265), 737-8 and M.i""' ; close
of hostilities (1267), 739.

Barrows in Wales —

Few of pre-Roman Iron Age, 33.
Long barrow race, 14 and n.*^,

15-
Nature of, 12.
Remains found in, 8.
Round, 17-8, 22-3.
Stone circles round, 23-4.
Barry, Gerald of. See Giraldus Cam-

brensis.
— , Philip of, 555, 557, 560.
, Robert of, 538 and n.", 555.

776

INDEX

VOL. I.

1-356

Barry, Wflliam of (of Manorbier), 423,

473 »•". 555-
— Island, 213, 423 n?^.
Basaleg church, 278 and nn."^-^, 442

n.i»9, 444.
Basingwerk (Dinas Basing) —

Cistercian Abbey at, 456, 500 and

n.6», 594.
English fortification at, 500.
Owain Gwynedd at (1157), 497-8.
Wat's Dyke ending at, igg and n?^.
Basingwerk castle —

Henry II.'s relief expeditions to, 515-
6; his strengthening of, 518 and

Owain Gwynedd's capture of (1166),

519-
Baskerville family, 438 and n.^»».
Battle Abbey, cells of, 431-2 and n^^^y

436-7-
Battles and fights —

Aber Llech (1096), 406-7.

— Tywi (1044), 361.
Aberconwy (1194), 588-9 and n?'^.
Abergwili (1022), 347.

Alfred's victory over Danes (878), 327.
Badon Hill (c. 504), 125, 126 «.«, 127

and n.', 136.
Bouvines (1214), 642.
Bron yr Erw (1075), 379 n?^, 380

n?\ 383.
Brunanburh, 334 ».*'.
Bryn Derwin (1255), 715 attdMM.i^B.s.
Carmarthen bridge, near (1258), 724.
Celli Carnant {1096), 406 and m.^".
Chester (615), 179-81.
Cilcennin (1210), 633-4.
Cilgerran (1258), 725 and n.*'.
Coed Yspwys (1094), 403.
Coedaneu (1194), 5^9 and n.".
Coleshill (1149), 494.

— or Coed Eulo (1157), 497-8 and

Crug Mawr (1136), 473 and n.*^.
Cymerau (1257), 720-1 and nP.
Cymryd (887), 326, 328 and n.^\
Degsastin (603), 179.
Evesham (1265), 737-8 and n.i<»*.
Garth Maelog, 197 and ?t.''.
Goodwick (1078), 393 and w.'i*.
Gwaeterw (1075), 380-1.
Heavenfield (634), 187 and n.^".
Hereford (760), 197 and n.^^.
Irfon, on bank of (1282), 763.
Leominster, near (1052), 363.
Lewes (1264), 734.
Lincoln (1141), 489.
Llandeilo, near (1213), 641.
Llandudoch (1091), 398,
Llangollen, near (1132), 467 and m.^"
Llanrwst (954), 344, 345.

Battles and fights (cont.) —

Loughor and Swansea, between

(1136), 470.
Louvain (8gi), 329.
Machawy valley, in (1056), 368.
Maes Gwenllian (1136), 470.
— Maen Cymro (1118), 465 and w.^'*.
Maserfeld ? Oswestry (642), 188-9

and nn."»-i».
Mechain {1070), 377.
Meigen (633), 186 and nn^'>^, "*.
Menai Straits, at (1282), 762.
Moelfre (1157), 499 and n."*.
Montgomery, near (1244), 703.
Mynydd Cam (1081), 384-5 and n.^^,

531-
Nant Carno (950), 344.
Painscastle (1198), 586 and nn.*^-",

590, 617.
Pencader (1041), 360.
Pencon or Pencoed, 197.
Penllecheru (1088), 398 and «."«.
Pentraeth (1170), 549 and «.«'.
Porthaethwy (1194), 589.
Pwll Dyfach (1042), 360.
Rhuddlan (796), 201 and n.^^,
Rhyd y Groes (1039), 351, 3S9-6o and

n.*.
Tregeiriog (1165), 516 and n.'".
Trwst Llywelyn (1257), 719 n?°.
Wich (1146), 491.
Winwaed Field (655), 190-1.
Ystrad Rwnws (1116), 422 and n.^''.
Bauzan, Stephen, 720 and nJ^*.
Bee, Walter de, 427 and «.^®, 472.
Becket. See Thomas a Becket.
Beddgelert —

Monastery at, 217, 601 and n.^*^.
Physical type at, 15.
Bede, evidence of, 174, 179, 186.
Belgae, 30-1 and mm "-^*.
Bells, Celtic, 223 ; St. David's bell at

Glascwm, 233 m.^^", 254, 307.
Belyn of Lleyn, 184 and »."■*.
Benfras, Dafydd, 691.
Benlli, King of Powys, 243.
Berber race, Welsh affinities with, 16.
Berddig (King's poet), 367.
BerkroUes, Roger, 679 m.^^^.
Bernard, Bp. of St. David's, establishes
Austin canons at Carmarthen, 432 ;
in controversy as to Welsh metro-
politanate, 480-2 and nnJ''-^^ ; esti-
mate and career of, 453-4 ; otherwise
mentioned, 207, 433 m."i, 469 n?^,

478, 485. 593.
Bernicia —
Ascendancy of, under /Ethelfrith,

163, 178.
British hostilities against, 163-4.
Founding of, 162.

VOL. II.

357-771

INDEX

777

Berriew (Aberriw), 171 ; church, 249.
Berrington (near Tenbury), 397 m.^^^,

437-
Bertha, wife of William of Briouze,

547 and nJ"^.
Berwyn mountains, 246, 517.
Beuno, St., 171 and w.^*, 234-5, 249.
Beuno's Well (Clynnog), 235.
Bidford manor, 647, 656, 657 and w.^*.
Billingsley, peace of, 365 and n?"^, 367.
Bishops, reversion of property of, 312

and M.1^1.
Bishop's Castle, 680, 732 m.**".
Bistre (Bishopstree), 366, 387,
Black Book of Carmarthen, 528 n.!"**.
Blaen Llyfni castle, 621, 644.

— Forth, 427, 434 and «."«.
Blanchland Abbey (Whitland), 594 and

M.1«S 595,

Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, King, 252, 367,
369 M.31, 372 and n.4", 374, 377-8,
392.

— Fardd, 743, 754, 759 n.'^"^.
Bledri, Bp. of Llandaff, 449 71.189,

— (story-teller), 535 m.^os.

— ap Cydifor, 428 and w.*"*, 432.
Blegywryd ab Einon, 340-1 and n?^.
Blood-feud (Galanas), 287-8 and nn.^'^-^i,

290.
Blwchfardd, 169.
Boadicea. See Boudica.
Bodyddon (Bydyfon) castle, 720 and

Bohun, Humphrey de, the elder. See
under Hereford, Earls of.

— , the younger (son of Earl of

Hereford), 702, 713 and

w•"^ 723, 730, 732, 734, 738

n.i"'^, 740 n."».
— , (son of preceding). See under

Hereford, Earls of.
Bolanus, Marcus Vettius, 56, 57.
Boilers family, 570.
Bon y Dom, 8 n.^^.
" Bonedd y Saint," 148 w."''.
Book of Kells, 220-1.

— of Taliesin, 118.
Border, English —

Civil wrar between Stephen and Ma-
tilda, during, 478-80.

Domesday survey regarding — north,
385 et seq. ; south, 394.

Feuds of, difficulties created by,
567.

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn's conquests on,
366-7.

Gwenvv^nwyn's attacks on (1196),
583.

Llywelyn's raiding of (1234), 679.

South, vulnerability of, 536.

Truce of 1214, 641-2.

Border, English (cont.) —
Warfare —

Provision supply to Welsh pro-
hibited, 673 and M.i"'*.
Records of, scanty, 195, 197, 201-2.
Boudica (Boadicea), 55 and n.^*.
Boundaries, determination of, 305 and

Bramber, 666 n.^*, 677.

Bran the Blessed, 103 and n,*^, 234,

238, 244 and «.^^.
Branwen, 234, 238.
Bravonium, 73.

Brecknock (see also Brycheiniog) —
Bohun acquisition of, 713 ; dispute

regarding, 752 and w.^^*.
Breos possession of, 671 n.^^, 713.
Fitz Herbert's possessions in, 621.
Hereford Earl's recovery of (1276), 758.
Llywelyn's acquisition of (1262), 730.
Mortimer's acquisition of (1264), 734;

defeat (1266), 738.
Norman possession of, under Rufiis,

436-8, 443.
Treaty of Montgomery as concernmg,
740.
Brecon castle (Aberhonddu), 398, 438,
644, 670 M.**", 674 and n."^.

— Priory, 397 n.^^^, 436-7 and nnJ^*, '^^
Brefi, Synod of, 157, 158.

Breiniol, Y Cantref (Senghenydd), 275,

277.
Brendan, the elder, 142.
Brenin, 309 and n.^'^^. {See also Kings.)
Breos, Eleanor de, wife of Humphrey
de Bohun, 713 andn.^^^.
Eva de, wife of Wm. Cantilupe, 712

M.108, 713.
Giles de, Bp. of Hereford, 644 and

M«.i»8.60^ 647 and nn."6-».
Isabella de, wife of David ap
Llywelyn, 670, 695, 705 atid n.^^.
John de, 658, 666 n.«», 672 and n.^*,

677.
Matilda de, wife of Gruffydd ap
Rhys, 577, 652 M.'*''^.

, wife of Roger Mortimer, 713.

Maud (Matilda) de, wife of Rhys

Mechyll, 700 «.■*", 710 w.^**.
Philip of (nth cent.), 402-3 and w.",
436 and n.^^^.

(i2th cent.), 547 M.^^, 548.

— de (13th cent.), 658 m.^".
Reginald de, 620, 644-5 and h.i^^,
648, 650, 652, 658 and n.^", 666
and M.^3.
— , Walter de, 65 S n.^^, 712.

— (Briouze), William of (end of nth

cent.), 402, 403 M.".

, (i2th cent.), 546 w.", 547

and «.^*.

778

INDEX

VOL. 1.

1-356

Breos, William de (son of Wm. of
Briouze and Bertha sis. of Earl
Roger of Hereford), massacre of
Abergavenny by, 547-8 ; Maelgwn
in custody of, 578; storms St.
Clear's, 580 ; makes terms with
Rhys, 581-2 ; lands of, 570 ; castles
built by, 585 ; ruined by King
John, 620 ; estimate of, 570-2 ;
otherwise mentioned, 568, 572,
577. 581. 616, 631 and w.»*.

— , (son of preceding), 620, 632.

— , (son of Reginald), 666 and

nn.^^-*, 668, 669 ; intrigues
with Joan and is hanged,
670-1 and nn.^^-**.

— , (sonofJohn),677,7i2,7i9,733.

Breyrs. See Uchelwrs.

Bridgenorth (Brug), 732 ; castle, 413,

496 and n.", 643 «.'".
Brigantes, 52-4, 57, 82, 163.
Briouze. See Breos.
Brittani, 35.
Brittany (Armorica) —

British in, aloof from Franks, 172.
Cromlechs near Auray in, 12.
David, St., reverenced in, 155 and
n}^^\ story regarding his archi-
episcopal pall, 4S1, 486.
Geoffrey of Monmouth's attitude

towards, 524.
Gildas' exile and death in, 143.
Language of, 19.
Link between Britain and continent,

no.
Samson's connection with, 146.
Viking host from (915), 332.
Bro Morgannwg, 301 m.***.
Brochwel ap Meurig,KingofGwent,327.
— Ysgythrog, Prince of Powys, i8o

n?^, 181, 196 «."', 247.
Bromfield. See Maelor.
Bron yr Erw, battle of (1075), 379 "•'*»

380 n?^, 383.
Bronllys castle, 438, 678 m.^**.
Bronze Age —
Art of, 22 and n.'^'^, 23.
Burial customs of, 22.
Celtic invaders of, 18-20, 25 m.''".
Cremation introduced in, 21-2.
Physical characteristics of, 17.
Remains of 24-5.
Tombs of, 17.
Tribal life in, 23.
Weapons of, 20-1.
Brug. See Bridgenorth.
Brychan, 270-1, and n.'^'', 272.
Brycheiniog {see also Brecknock) —
^thelflaed's invasion of, 331.
Bernard of Neufmarch^'s attempt on,
397 ; mastery of, 402, 436.

Brycheiniog {co7it.) —

Cantrefs and commotes of, 271 et seq.

Danish ravaging of (896), 330.

Early history of, 270-1.

Hywel's devastation of, 477.

Miles of Gloucester master of, 438.
Bryn Celli Ddu, neolithic remains at,
9, 12.

— Derwin, battle of (1255), 715 and

Brynach Wyddel, St., 130, 263.
Bryneich, 163, and «.".
Brynkir stone, 113.
Brythonic languages, 19.
Brythons —

Characteristics of, 32-3, 43.

Civilisation of, 33-6.

Coinage of, 34, 37 and n.^^.

Date of settlement of, in Britain, 30
and w.".

Ordo vices a tribe of, 41.

Roman conquest of, 51.

Wales little affected by, in pre-
Roman times, 37 ; conquered by,
III, 116, 119-20.
Buddugre (in Maelienydd), 255 and n}'^^.

— castle (in lal), 492 and a.^'^.
Buellt. See Builth.

Builth (Buellt) cantref and lordship —
Description of, 253 and n.^^^.
Dowry, as, 670, 705 w."".
Edward invested with, 714.
English acquisition of (1276), 758.

— crown in possession of (1230), 713.
Fortification of, under John, 634.
Invasion of (1217), 652.

John of Monmouth in possession of,

699 and M.3^.
Llywelyn ab lorwerth in possession
of, 671 M.92, 681.

— ap Gruffydd's possession of (1256),

718 ; (1259), 726-7 ; (1267), 740 ;
(1275), 751 ; his attack on
(1282), 762.
Norman conquest of, 402-3* 436.
Treaty of Montgomery as concerning,
740 and n}^^.
Builth castle, 253 nP^, 644, 662, 727.
Burgh, Hubert de, castles given to,
644 M.^83 . relations with Llywelyn
(i22i), 656; (1227), 664 ; combina-
tion against, 663 ; Montgomery
granted to, 667 ; the Kerry cam-
paign, 667-9 ; acquisition of lands
by, 672-3 and nn.^*, ^"^ ; war with
Llywelyn (1231), 673-5 '^''^'^ nn}^^,
"'■'-s ; fall of, 677 ; carried to Chep-
stow, 679 M.^*^ ; otherwise men-
tioned, 651 n.^"!, 662, 670 n.^'".
Bwlch Gwernog, 68 w.^^, iii »."''.
Byrneich, 163 and m.".

VOL. II.
357-771

INDEX

119

Cadafael, King of Gwynedd, 190, igi.
Cadell ab Arthfael, King of Gwent, 348.

— ap Gruffyd ap Rhys, 475, SOI-3,

598.

— ap Rhodri, King, 326 and n.^, 330,

332.

— Ddyrnllug, 243.
Cader Idris, 251.
Cadfael, St. See Cadog.

Cadfan ab lago, King of Gwynedd,
116, 181 -2 and n.^, 231.

— ap Cadwaladr, 491 n.^^, 504.
— , St., 251 and nP^.

Cadog, St. (Cadfael), 130, 158-9 and

M.186^ 273.

Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon, 230-1 and
nn.^, i«.

— ap Gruffyddap Cynan, invades Cere-

digion, 471-5 ; opposition to Bp.
Meurig, 481, 483 ; at battle of
Lincoln, 489; murder of Anarawd,
489 ; hostilities and rupture with
Owain, 490-1 ; English marriage
of, 491 and W.I8 ; relations with
Henry II., 496 andn.** ; reinstated
by Henry II., 500; hands over
Llanrhystud castle to Cadfan,
504 ; death of, 550 and w.^^ ; esti-
mate of, 489 ; otherwise men-
tioned, 464, 466 M.19, 468, 511,
516, 520, 521, 613 «.^
Cadwallon ab Ifor Bach, 607-8 and
M.1^5, 637 and n.^*.

— ab leuaf. King of Gwynedd, 344-5.

— ab Owain Cyfeiliog, 565.

— ab Owain Gwynedd, 549 «.•**.

— ap Cadfan (Caedualla), King of

Gwynedd, 182-8 and nn.^-^^ 98,

235-

— ap Caradog ab lestyn, 572 m.^*''.

— ap Gruffydd ap Cynan, 464, 466 and

W.19, 467.

— ap Madog ab Idnerth of Maelienydd,

477 w•*^ 5", 516, 545 and m.42,
533i 558, 559, 567. 600 and m.i»».

— Lawhir ab Einion Yrth, 120.
Cadwgan, Bp. of Bangor, 651, 688-9

and nn.^"!-:*.

— ab Owain, King of Gwent, 338 and

n.6s, 348.

— ap Bleddyn, successes of, against

Normans (1094), 403-4 J Aies from
Anglesey, 409 ; Ceredigion ceded
to, 415 ; strong position of, 415-6 ;
bestows Meirionydd upon Uchtryd
ab Edwin, 416, 466 ; disgraced by
Owain, 417-20 ; restored to Cere-
digion, 419; dispossessed, 420;
reinstated, 420 ; killed, 421 ; sons
of, 417 n.^'^ ; otherwise mentioned,
398, 400, 412.

Cadwgan ap Gronw ab Owain, 467.

— ap Madog ab Idnerth, 477 n.^*.

— ap Meurig ap Hywel, King of Mor-

gannwg, 362, 367, 372, 377.
Caeo, 267, 435, 719 n.^^.
Caer Caradog, 52-3 and n.^^.

— Dyf, 439 M.142. (See also Cardiff.)

— Gai, 246 ; fort, 65, 69-70.

— Gybi (Holyhead)—
Legend of, 232 and n.^^.
Monastery at, 203, 205 jj.^", 218.
Roman remains at, 67-8.

Caereinion, 249, 421, 709, 734; castle

church, 245 n.^.
Caergwrle, 71.

Caerhun, 63, 64, 65-6, 167 n.^^.
Caerleon (Caerllion ar Wysg) —
Castle at, 546, 679, 699 n.^, 701

lorwerth's lordship of, 507; his de-
privation, 540-1 ; his recovery of the
castle (1175), 546.

Lantarnam (Nant Teyrnon) Abbey
near, 600 and nn. iss.s^

Legend as to Dyfrig's archbishopric
at, 147 attd «."°, 156.

Llywelyn's attack on (1231), 674 and

Metropolitanate of, 486.

Norman in Domesday survey, 395,

396 and n,^^,
Roman legions at, 62 and n.^*.
Roman remains at, 76-7. {See also

Isca.)
otherwise mentioned, 478 and m.*^,

653, 654 and M.21'?.
Caerphilly castle, 742, 748, 753-4 and

Caersws (Roman fort), 71-2, 249.
Caerwedros, 259 ; castle, 472.
Caerwent —

Asser at, 227.

Celtic origin of, 38 and n.^^.

Church of St. Stephen at, 279 and
n.282

Walls of, 80.
Caesar, British expeditions of, 47-8.
Caeth, status of, 292-3.
Cai Hir ap Cynyr, 69.
Caldy Island (Ynys Byr), 213, 220-1

and «.i^^, 265.
Calixtus II., Pope, 436 n.^^, 443

M.163.

Calpurnius, father of St. Patrick, loi,

107-8.
Cantii, 35.
Cantilupe, George, 712 w.'"^, j^q

— William (the third), 712 and n.^"^.
Cantref, derivation of name, 301-2.

— Breiniol, Y, 275, 277.

78o

INDEX

VOL, I.
1-356

Cantref Bychan, Y—

Area and commotes of, 267 «.***, 268.

Cliffords overpowered in, 477 ; re-
instated (1158), 506-7; expelled
(1165), 519.

Maredudd ap Rhys Gryg's posses-
sions in, 719 n}^.

Norman supremacy in, 429 and n.^'".

Rhys ap Gruffydd confirmed in pos-
session of, 541.

Rhys Gryg's possession of, 649.
Cantref Mawr, Y —

Area and commotes of, 266-8.

Maredudd's possessions in, 719 n}^.

Norman rule over, 429.

Physical characteristics of, 536.

Rhys and Owain ap Gruffydd in
possession of (1213), 641.

— ap Gruffydd reinstated in (1163),

513-
otherwise mentioned, 597, 649.
Cantref Orddwyf (Meirionydd), 119.
{See also Meirionydd.)

— Selyf, 271 andn.^**, 438 n.i" ; com-

mote, 438 and M."^.

— y Gwaelod legend cited, 5, 25-6.
Cantrefs —

Commotes in relation to, 300-1 and

nn.^'^, 8^ 302, n.^^.
Court of—

Constitution of, 302-3 and n».*^,

Matters dealt with by, 303-5.
Gwlads synonymous with, 302 «."".
Office associated with, single instance

of, 301 n.**.
Self-sufficingness of, 310.
Cantrefs and commotes —
Boundaries of, 281.
Lists of, 280-1.
Caradog, King of Gwynedd, 133, 201
».3^ 237 and n.*''.

— ab lestyn, 440 and n.^*", 504 ; sons

surviving, 572 «.*®^.

— ab Ynyr, King, 279 n.^^i^

— ap Brin Fendigaid, 90.

— ap Gruffydd ap Rhydderch, King of

Gwynllwg, 372, 373, 377, 384-5,

393-

— Fynach of Rhos, 528 n.^'^, 591-3

and nn.^^, **.

— of LlancarCan, 134-5, 528 and n.^^''.

— of the Stout Arm (Freichfras), 90.
Caratacus, 38, 50, 52-3, 89, 90; legend

of father of, 103 and n.*^.
Carausius, 92 and n.^, 94-5.
Cardiff borough founded, 439 and nM*.
Cardiff castle —

Building of, by Fitz Hamon, 402,

439-
Henry II. at (i 172), 543. j

Cardiff castle {emit.) —

Kidnapping of Earl William from
(1158), 508.

otherwise mentioned, 278, 677 n.^^,
679.
Cardiff town —

Burning of (1185), 571.

Roman remains at, 77-8.
Cardigan {see also Aberteifi) —

Cell of Chertsey Abbey, 596 and

Llywelyn in possession of (1234),

681.
Name, derivation of, 401 n,"^.
Pembroke Earl's claim of (1240),

695.
Cardigan castle {see also Aberteifi) —
Building of, 401.
Clares in possession of, 426, 504.
Creation of, into marcher holding

(1229), 672 and n.^*.
English Crown in possession of,

699, 712.
Llywelyn entrusted with (1218K 653-

4 and M.^i" ; deprived of (1223),

661 ; his capture of (1231), 674-5,
Marshall custody of, terminated

(1226), 666.
Peter of Rivaux' acquisition of, 677

Rebuilding of (1240), 695.
Rhys ap Gruffydd's capture of, 519.
Welsh victory near (1136), 472-3.
otherwise mentioned, 633, 645 and
n.^^**, 649, 656,
Cardigan lordship, Edward invested
with, 714 ; his transference of,
to Edmund (1265), 750-1 and

— town, Rhys' protection of, 606.
Carew, Celtic cross at, 220-2, 264.

— (Caeriw, Caer Rhiw) family, 423

and n.''", 519, 619 n,*°.
Carmarthen (Maridunum) —
Black Book of, 528 m,i6».
Bridge at {1233), 428 k,'*^.
Cell of Battle Abbey at, 431,
Demetae situated at, 39.
Exchequer record regarding (1130),

428 and MM,**'-'.
Priory at, 432 and n,"^, 454,
Roman fort at, 74-5.
— roads from, 75.
Carmarthen castle —

Creation of, into marcher holding

(1229), 672 and «,**.
English crown in possession of, 699,

712.
Hywel ab Owain's capture of, 501.
Llywelyn's acquisition of (1215), 648

and w.i^.

VOL. II.
357-771

INDEX

781

Carmarthen castle {cont.) —
Lljrwelyn entrusted with (1218), 653-

4 and n.^8; deprived of (1223),

661.
Marshall custody of, terminated

(1226), 666.
Pembroke Earl's grant of, 695 n?.
Peter of Rivaux' acquisition of, 677

Rebuilding of (1145), 479, SOI.
Rhys ap GrufTydd's attack on (1159),

510 ; his siege of (1189), 574.
— Gryg imprisoned in, 641 ; his

siege of (1234), 680.
Royal fortress, 427-8, 645 and w.^^".
Survey of (1275), 751.
Carmarthen lordship, Edward invested
with, 714 ; his transference of, to
Edmund (1265), 750-1 and n.^^".
Carmarthen town —

Burnt by Rhys ap Gruffydd, 581.
Siege of (1234), 680.
Carnarvon {see also Arfon and Segon-
tium) —
Early references to, 234 n.^i.
Hugh's castle at, 392.
Legends concerning, 234.
Name, origin of, 234.
Roman fort at, 65.
Royal residence at, 686 m.***^.
Site of, 235.
Carneddau Hengwm, g.
Carneddi, 8-g,

Carnwyllion, 269 and nn.^^^, 2"^, 574,
649, 659 and n.^, 712 «."", 719,

751 M.l"*.

Carreg Cennen, 719 ; castle, 269 and

W.230, 761.

— y Gof cromlechs, 13.
Carreghofa castle, 412 and n.*^, 509

and M.s", 565 and n^^^, 585.
Cas in place-names, 442 m.^^".
Cassiterides, 27 and nn.
Cassivellaunus, 36.

Castell Coch (Trallwng — Powis castle),
249, 583 w.*^ 680 w.i'i",

— CoUen, 72, 74 «.■"*.

— Cymer, 252, 466 and n.".

— Dwyran, 121, 132; church, 262.

— Gwis. See Wiston.

— Hywel, 427 «.8^, 503 nJ^, 506-7.

— Newydd (Newcastle in Emlyn),726,

and n.^^.
ar Wysg, Y. See Newport.

— Paen (Painscastle, Castle Maud),

585 and WW. 55.8,
— • Tomen y Mur. See Mur y Castell.

y Rhodwydd, 492 n,'^^, 500.

Caswallon ap Beli, 90.
Catheiniog, 267, 719 w.i^.
Cathen ap Cawrdaf, St., 267.

Catraeth, battle of, 170-1.

Catuvellauni, 49-51.

Cause (Alretone), 389, 477 and n.",

734-
Cave remains —

Neolithic, 6-7.

Palaeolithic, 2-3.
Ceadwalla of Wessex, 182 n.^.
Cefn Amwlch, 10 n.^^, 116.

— Caer fort (Pennal), 70.

— Cynfarchan, 652 atid m.^i".

— Meiriadog, 2, 7.

— Llys, 255 ; castle, 713 m."8, 730.
Celli Carnant, battle of (1096), 406

and M.^".
Celtic Church. See Church — British.
Celts-
Bronze Age invaders, question as to,

18-20, 25 M.'"*.

Continental, culture of, 28.

Galatae distinguished from, 31.

Geographical position of the " Celts
of history," 19.

Language of the " Celts of history,"
20.

Name, inaccuracy of, 18-9.

Progenitors of, 18.
Celynnog (Clynnog) Fawr, 235 and

«•**, 351. 380, 469.
Cemais (in Anglesey), 231, 686 n.^^^
Cemais (in Dyfed) —

English possession of, 711.

Llywelyn's ravaging of (1257), 721.

Norman ownership of, 425.

Situation of, 262-3.

Welsh possession of, 576, 580.

otherwise mentioned, 148, 263, 473,
567, 645, 663 M.*''.
Cenarth Bychan, 418 andn.^^, 425 ».*".

— Mawr, 114,260,458.
Cenedl —

Adolescence, age of, 289.

Affiliation of sons to, 286-7 and w.^'.

Degrees of kinship included in, 285
and n.^.

Independence of members of, 289.

Nature of, 284.

Officers of, 285-6 and n.^^.

Subdivision of, for land inheritance,
300.
Cenwulf, King of Mercia, 201-2.
Ceolwulf, King of Mercia, 327.
Ceredig, King of Elmet, 183 and w.*^.

— Wledig (Coroticus), lOO, loi w.^^,

126-7, 136.
Ceredigion —

Boundaries and cantrefs of, 256-60

and n.^^^.
Clare family's acquisition of, from

Cadwgan, 420, 426.
Deheubarth's recovery of, 504-5.

782

INDEX

VOL. I.

1-356

Ceredigion [cont.) —

Early rulers of, 257.

Gwynedd's ravaging of (1136), 471.

"Land of castles," 427.

Llywelyn's conquests in (1256), 718.

Lords of, under Llywelyn ap Gru-
ffydd, 750.

Maelgwn ap Rhys supported by, 577.

Name, origin of, 117, 119.

Rhys ap GrufFydd's aggressions in
(1164), 514 ; his recovery of (1165),
518-9 ; confirmed in possession

of (1171), 541-
Roger of Hertford's activities in

(1 158), 506.
otherwise mentioned, 597, 649.
Cerialis, Quintus Petilius, 57, 58,
Cerryg y Gwyddyl, battle of, 120.
Chandos, Robert of, 444.
Chaworth, Pain of, 751 and n.*"^.
— , Patrick of, 712, 719, 724, 725.
Chepstow castle, 375, ^142, 538 «,*, 679

and n.'^', 699 n.^^.
— Priory, 444.

Chertsey Abbey, 596 and »."*.
Chester (D6va), (see also D€va) —
Authorities as to, cited, 61 n.^".
Battle of (615), 179-81.
Danish seizure of (893), 329.
Edgar's convention of kings at (973),

349 and w.i"'.
English acquisition of, 195.
Lestrange in possession of (1240),

6g6 and n.".
Roman remains at,58 and M.2^,62-3,65.

— roads running out of, 63 and n.'^,

69.
St. Werburgh's Abbey, 195, 366, 392,

456 nj'^, 463 n.', 469 and n.".
Simon de Montfort's acquisition of

(1264), 735 and M.*^
Synod at (601), 175.
Chester, earldom of, Edward invested

with, 714 n.^^.
Chester, Earls of —

Hugh of Avranches (the Fat), char-
acteristics of, 381 and M."* ; im-
prisons Gruffydd, 385 ; strong
position of, 386-7 ; operations in
Mon and Arfon, 392 ; defeats
Gruffydd and Cadwgan, 408-9 ;
otherwise mentioned, 383, 389-
91, 403, 463 and n.K

— n. (son of Ranulf IL), 495 and

n.^'', 565 and m.^", 570 n."^.
Ranulf L (le Meschin), 456 n.^, 465
n.'», 479-

— n. (son of preceding), appeal by,

to Stephen, 479-80 and n.""^,
491 ; Welsh contingent raised
by, 489 w.*" ; aids Madog against

Chester, Earls of (co7tt.) —

Owain, 494 ; death of, 495 ;
abbey founded by, 500 and «.** ;
otherwise mentioned, 456 and

n.240, 491 W.19

Ranulf III. (son of Hugh II.), marriage

of, 565 n.^"^, 570 anrf m.^'^^; comes

to terms with Llywelyn, 654 ;

cordial relations with him, 657

and M." ; death of, 677 and n."* ;

otherwise mentioned, 661, 663-

4 and n.^i.

Richard (son of Hugh I.), 463 and

n.^, 465 n.".

Chiefs, greater and lesser (see also

Kings), 309 and n.^^^.
Chirbury, 331 and n.*^, 366, 388, 389

and M.i^.
Chirk, 602 atid n.^^^ ; castle, 520.
Christianity in Britain (see also Church,
British)—
Beginnings of, 102 et seq.
Heresy v. Orthodoxy, 106.
Insularity of, in Augustine's time,

no, 172.
Monasticism. See that heading.
Status of, in 5th cent., 109, 140,
172.
Church, British (see also Church,
Welsh)—
Augustine's conferences with, 174-5,

177.
Easter, method of computing, 170-7,

203.
Excommunication a favourite weapon

of, 178.
Gifts to, by kings, 140.
Gildas' influence in, 141.
Isolation of, during 6th cent., no,

172.
Monasticism. See that heading.
Orthodoxy of, 173.
Reputation of, in 6th cent., 173.
Rome, attitude towards, 173 ; sub-
mission in 7th and 8th centuries,
202-3.
Saints' days in, 149.
Status of, in early 6th cent., 109, 140,

172.
Synods, 447 n."»;— of Brefi, 157; of
Whitby (664), 202.
Church, Welsh (see also Church, Brit-
ish)-
Abbots in, 205-6, 214; lay, 206.
Archbishop, significance of title, 204

Bishop, title of, 207.

Cells, establishment of, 431-2, 436-7»

443-4-
Claims advanced by, after death of

Henry I., 480-5.

VOL. II.
357-771

INDEX

783

Church, Welsh {font.\ —

Clergy, disability of, for judicial

offices, 341 and m.".
Easter, date of, observed by, 176-7,

203.
Hermits, 217-8.
" King's chapels," 219.
Lands of, immune from royal raiding,

318.
Llywelyn ap Gruffydd's relations

with, 744 et seq.
Marriage amongst secular priests,

215, 557 and m.^**.
Monastic origin of principal churches,

205-8.
Monasticism. See that heading,
" Mother churches," 218.
Nepotism in, 210-1, 215.
Organisation of, 205-8.
Peculiarities of, 204.
Plundering of, by Normans, 457-8.
Re-dedication of churches by Nor-
mans, 458-9.
Revenues of, diverted to English

abbeys, 457.
Rome, submission to (768), 203-4.
Subordination of, to English primate,

448 et seq.
Villein tenants of, 313 n.^^^.
Villeins disqualified for office in, 292
«.39^ 294.
Churches in Wales —

Date of earliest remaining, 209.

" King's chapels," 219.

Monastic origin of principal, 205-8,

209.
" Mother churches," 218.
Re-dedication of, by Normans, 458-9.
Whitewashing of, 468 and n.^^.
Cian, 169 and nn.^", ^^.
Ciaran, St., 142.
Cilcennin, fight at (1210), 633-4.
Cilgerran —

Battle of (1258), 725 and n.*^.
Emlyn lordship of, 425 and n.^".
Re-dedication of church at, 459.
otherwise mentioned, 260, 266.
Cilgerran castle, 519, 619, 645, 649,

661, 699 tt.^^.
Cilowain, 458, 498 n.^^.
Cistercians. See under Monasticism.
Citeaux. See Monasticism — Cister-
cian.
Cities of Britain, status of, loo-i.
Clan. See Cenedl.
Clare family —

Establishment of, in Ceredigion, 426
and w.^i ; overwhelmed (1136),
472; restored (i 158), 506; expelled
(1165), 519; dispossessed (1171),
541.

Clare family (cont.) —

Gloucester, Earls of. See that head-
ing.
Territory of, in Gwent, 442.
otherwise mentioned, 569 and n.^''^.
Clas, 205 and n.^° ; Norman attitude

towards, 457.
Claudius, Emp., 50, 53.
Cleobury, 395 ; castle, 496 and n.'*^
Clifford, 395 ; castle, 375.
— , Roger I., 668.
— , — II., 732.

— , Richard fitz Pons. See Fitz Pons.
— , Walter (I.), son of Richard fitz Pons.
438, 442 and n.i^^, 477 and
M."S 506-7.
— , — (II.), 643 and M.'56_
— , — (III.), 666 W.65, 678 and n.»2»,

679 »."6,
Clifford family —

Established in Cantref Selyf, 438.
Overwhelmed in Cantref Bychan
(? 1 136), 477 and M." ; restored
(1158), 506; expelled (1165), 519;
dispossessed (1171), 541.
otherwise mentioned, 596.
Clun, 570, 680 «."", 714.
Clydno Eiddin, 165, 168.
Clydog, King of Seisyllwg, 332, 333.
Clynnog (Celynnog) Fawr, 235 and

w.^^ 351. 380, 469.
Coed Rhath, 502 and n.^.

— Yspwys, battle of (1094), 403.
Coedaneu, battle of (1194), 589 and

Coeten Arthur cromlechs, 10 and ».'*'",

II and n.^*.
Coety, lordship of, 440 and n.^^^.
Coleshill, 407 «.'', 456 M.'*^^.
— , battle of (1149), 494.

— or Coed Eulo, battle near (1157),

497-8 and n.*^.
Columba, St., 165-6, 210, 211.
Columbanus, 173.

Colwyn castle, 254, 581, 585 anrf «.•".
Commote, definition of, by Giraldus,

277 «.273^

Commotes —
Court of, 300.
Origin of, later than of cantrefs,

301, 339 »•"*•
Condover manor, 665, 667, 669.
Conovium (Caerhun), 65. (See also

Caerhun.)
Constance, heiress of Brittany, 565

M.^51, 570.
Constantine of Devon, King, 131.
Conway. See Aberconwy.
— , Treaty of (1277), 746, 759.
Corbet (1086), 388.
— -, Peter, 758.

784

INDEX

VOL. I.

1-356

Corbet, Robert, 652 n.^oa.
— , Thomas, of Cause, 652 and m.^"*,
679 M.^, 734 and n.*".

— family, 587 w.e".
Cornavii, 41, 61, 73 andn?'^.
Cornwall —

Church of, submission by, to Rome,

202.
Roman neglect of, 60, 61 «.**.
Cornwall, Earls of —
Reginald, 510, 511.
Richard, 673 and «."i, 696 wm.", ",
717, 720 and n.'**, 727 m.^".
Coroticus. See Ceredig Wledig.
Corwen (Corfaen), 516; church, 245.
Co-tillage, 295 and m."*, 296 n.^'^.
Coygan cave remains, 2.
Cremation, origin of, 21-2.
Creuddyn (Ceredigion), commote of, 258
and n.>^8, 667 n.**, 700 n.^.

— (Gwynedd), commote of —
Degannwy castle dominating,720n."^
Situation of, 239.

otherwise mentioned, 601, 709.
Criccieth castle, 238, 693, 726.
Crickhowel (Crughywel) castle, 437

and n.*^'.
Criminal law and procedure, mediaeval,

305-7.
Cristin (Christina), wife of Owain

Gwynedd, 488, 522, 549.
Crogen castle, 614 and n.'".
Cromlech, meaning of name, lo-ii.
Cromlechs, 10 and m«.''*-^', ii and n.'",

12 and »».*", *S 13 and ».•" ; Berber,

16-7.
Crosses, carved, 220-2, 258, 263 ; wheel

crosses of Margam and Llanilltud,

276.
Crug Mawr, 260; battle of (1136), 473

and n.**.
Crughywel castle, 437 and m.i^*.
Cruithni, affinities of name, 29.
Crwth (crowd), 549 and n.^^.
Cunedda Wledig, lOO, 102, I18 ; family

of, 1 17-8.
Cuneglasus (Cynlas), 133.
Cunobelinus, 49.
Curig, St., 250.

Cwm Hir Abbey, 594, 600 and nn.^^*-*,
602, 676 and hM^, 763.

Grange, 668 and n. '^

Cybi, St., 130, 218, 232 and n.^s.
Cydewain —

English acquisition of (1276), 758.
Kerry associated with, 559 ».^^, 740

Llywelyn ab lorwerth's overlordship

of, 683.
— ap Gruffydd's possession of, 734,
740. 748.

Cydewain {cont.) —

Situation of, 249.

otherwise mentioned, 390, 709.
Cydifor ap Daniel, Archdeacon of Car-
digan, 461.

— ap GoUwyn, 398.

Cydweli castle, 576, 649. See also

Kidwelly.
Cydweli commote —

Cadell ap Gruffydd's ravaging of,
502.

Norman possession of (1106), 429.

Situation of, 269 and n."'*.
Cyfar and cyfeir distinguished, 295 ».''*.
Cyfeiliog —

David's invasion of (1244), 701 and

Owain Gwynedd's possession of

(1162), 510.
Rhiw Helyg region of, 749 «.'''*.
Situation of, 250.

otherwise mentioned, 416, 487, 599,
621, 709, 734.
Cyfeiliog, Bp. of Llandaff, 327 m.**, 332

and «.**, 347.
Cylch (free quarters), 312.
Cymaron castle, 580, 585 and n."*.
Cymer castle, 252, 466 anrf w.", 602.
Cymerau, battle of (1257), 720-1 and

«.■".
Cymry (see also Welsh) —
Bards of, 169-70.

English attitude towards, 171, 177-8 ;

alliance with Mercia, 185, 189-90.

Landholders alone constituting, 293

and w.2B».
Leaders of, 164-8.
Name, derivations of, 164, 191-2.
Tribes included under title of, in,

164.
Welsh, separated from Cumbrians,
183, 191.
Cymydmaen, 237 and «.**, 708.
Cynan, Abbot of Whitland, 596 and

— ab lago, 379.

— ab Owain Gwynedd, 490, 497-8,

511, 549 «.«*, 550-1.

— ap Brochwel, ruler of Meirionydd,

250.

— ap Hywel ab leuaf. King of Gwynedd,

346.

— ap Hywel ap Rhys, 634, 002 n.**,

710 M.'**.

— ap Maredudd ab Owain, 750.

— ap Rhodri Molwynog, 231 and n.^^,

323.
Cynddelw the Great (poet), 529, 533;

quoted, 509, 510, 589 and nJ^,

691.
Cyndeyrn (Kentigern), St., 166.

VOL. II.
357-771

INDEX

785

Cynfael castle, 252, 490, 534 and w.^^^.
Cynfal, St. (Rockfield), 459.
Cynfyn ap Gwerstan, 371, 378 n^".
Cyngen, King of Powys, 204 w.^*, 244^

324-5 and nn. ^'', ^^.
Cynidr, St., 272 and w.^^s, 459.
Cynlas, 133 and w.^'.
Cynllaith, 246, 389, 566, 584 and n.*^,

709 n.^''.
Cynllo, St., 256.

Cynog, St., 272 atid m.248^ ^07, 486.
Cynwrig, Prior of Rhuddlan, 746 w.^^*.

— ab Owain Gwynedd, 549 n.^*.

— ap Rhiwallon of Maelor, 379, 380.

— ap Rhys ap Gruffydd, 568, 577-8

and n.^*.

— the Tall of Edeyrnion, 404.
Cystennin ab lago, 352.
Cytiau Gwyddelod, in and n."''.

Dadanhudd, 304 and mw.^""-^.
Dafydd. See David.

— ab Owain Gwynedd — repels Henry

II., 497-8; kills Hywel at Pen-
traeth, 549 and 7t.^* ; aggressions
of, 550-1 ; marriage with Emma,
551 and nJ^ ; hostilities against
Rhodri and sons of Cynan, 551-2 ;
swears fealty to Henry II. (1177),
553 ; position of, in Rhuddlan, 564-
5 ; defeated by Llywelyn, 588-9
and n.''^ ; closing years in Eng-
land, 590; otherwise mentioned,
515. 575. 613 n.\
Danes —
Alfred's victory over (878), 327.
Anglesey ravaged by (853), 322 and

n.i", 325 «.^^.
Ethelred's employment of ships of,

350.
Ireland, in. See wider Ireland.
Merfyn's success against, 324.
Pwll Dyfach defeat (1042), 360.
Slave-trading by, 292, 351.
Wales ravaged by (gth cent.), 322-3,
329-30 ; (early loth cent.), 332 ;
(later loth cent.), 351 and n."^
Welsh assistance to, against Wales,

362.
Wessex in league against (937), 336.
York, settlement at, 328-30, 335 n.^^.
otherwise mentioned, 214, 258, 263.
Daniel ap Sulien, Archdeacon of Powys,

453 and n.2i8^ ^gj
David, St. (Dewi) career and fame of,
152-9; synod of Brefi, 157, 259;
status of, as archbishop, 486 ; bell
of, at Glascwm, 223 w.^^s, 354,
307 ; otherwise mentioned, 121,
144, 148 M.l*.
— , Archdeacon of Bangor, 521.

David, Archdeacon of St. Asaph, 685.
— , Bp. of Bangor, 455, 468-9, 483 and

■ — ab Owain Gwynedd. See Dafydd.

David ap Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, defeated
and imprisoned by Llywelyn, 715
and «.^2^; released by Llywelyn
for 1256 campaign, 717 ; goes over
to the English (1263), 731 and nJ^ ;
provisions as to, in Treaty of Mont-
gomery, 740-1 ; evil influence of,
on Llywelyn, 742-3 ; conspiracy
against Llywelyn and flight to
England (1274), 749. 755; Ed-
ward I.'s provision tor, 759-60 and
M.^^ ; hostilities of 1282, 761 ;
otherwise mentioned, 708 and n.^,
725 and n.'", 729, 735.

— ap Llywelyn ab lorwerth, recog-
nition of, as heir — by English
government (1220), 656 and n.',
687 ; by the Pope (1222), 687 ; by
Welsh magnates (1226), 687 ; does
homage (1229), 669, 687 ; granted
Purleigh Manor, 679 and n.^^ ;
marriage to Isabella de Breos,
670-1, 687 ; conflicts with his
brother Gruffydd, 687, 693 ; re-
ceives fealty of Welsh princes
(1238), 692-3 ; at Council of Glou-
cester, 694 and n.^; negotiations
with England as to lands in dis-
pute, 695-7 ; English expeditions
against, 697-8 and nw.^**, ^\ for-
midable hostilities against English,
701-5 ; death of, 705 ; estimate of,
706 ; otherwise mentioned, 665,
671 M.*2, 677 «.i2i_

Ddiserth, Y, churches so called, 213

De Bee, de Burgh, de Breos, etc. See

Bee, Burgh, Breos, etc.
De la Mare, Richard, 427 and n.^^, 472.
De Rebus Gestis Mlfredi (Asser), 223,

227.
Decangi (Deceangli), 40-I, 52, 54, 64,

65-
Decantae, 40.
Deceangi, 64.
Deceangli. See Decangi.
Degannwy —

Destruction of, by English (822),

202 ; by David (1241), 698.
English possession of, 698-9.
Importance of, 240.
Llywelyn's acquisition of (1200), 613

and w.'.
Welsh raid on, against Robert of

Rhuddlan, 391.
otherwise mentioned, 40, 129 and

786

INDEX

VOL. I.
1-356

Degannwy castle —

Building of (1245), 704, 705.

Chartered borough, 708-9.

Creuddyn dominated by, 720 «.''•

Destroyed and rebuilt (1210), 632.

Llywelyn ab lorwerth's capture of
(1213), 640.

— ap Gruffydd's hostilities against
(1257), 722, 723 ; his acquisi-
tion ol (1263), 732-3.

otherwise mentioned, 687, 714, 717.
Degsastdn, battle of (603), 179.
Deheubarth —

Cantrefs and commotes of, 256 et seq.

Recovery of territories by, under sons
of Gruffydd ap Rhys, 500-5.

Regions comprising, 501.

Royal residence of, 267-8.
Deifr, 178 and n.**.
Deiniol, St. 175, 193.
Deira —

Bernician king's annexation of, 178.

Dsmish settlement in, 328-30, 335
n.«.
Deisi, 261.
Demetae, 38-9, 74.

Demetia (Dimetian peninsula), 75, 261.
Demetian Code, 342, 355,
Denbigh, lordship of, 761.
Derllys, 266 and «.'"'', 751.
Dermot, King of Leinster, 537-9 and

nn.\ 3, 6, «.
Deuddwr, 248, 709.
Deugleddyf, 264, 424-5, S76. S8o, 596-
Deva {see also Chester) —

Christian remains not found at, 105.

Name, origin of, 61.

Outpost of, 71.

Roman camp at, 54 ; nature of, 64 ;
purpose of, 82 ; site of, 62.

Twentieth legion at, 57, 60, 6l-2,

71-
Devon —
Church of, submission by, to Rome,

202.

Roman neglect of, 60, 61 m.^".
Dewi. See David, St.
Deyrnllwg, 243 n.''^.
Diarmaid Mac Maelnambo, King of

Dublin, 380 «.'■».
Didius Gallus, Aulus, 54 and n.
Dimet, 261.
Dinas Br4n (Dinbren) castle, 244 m.^'',

748.
Dinbych y Pysgod (Tenby), 265 and

«.M3.

Dinefwr —

English acquisition of (1276), 758.
Importance of, 268.
Maelgwn's seizure of (1205), 619.
Maredudd's possession of ,726 awd n.*^

Dinefwr (cont.) —

Rhys Fychan ejected from (1256),

719.
— Gryg's conspiracy regarding
(1195), 580.
Dineirth castle (Ceredigion), 472, 506,

617, 621.
Dineirth (Llandrillo) church, 240.
Dingereint (Din Geraint, Cardigan),
401 and n.". {See also Cardigan.)
Dinweiler castle, 511.
Diserth castle —

Destruction of, by Llywelyn ap

Gruffydd, 732.
Founding and names of, 699 and

M.3».

Llywelyn's hostilities against (1257),

721, 723.
Prestatyn dominated by, 720 n.^^.
otherwise mentioned, 701, 703, 708,

714. 717- i

Diserth church, 456 n.^^.
Distain, office of, 622 n,^*.
Divination by Druids, 45-6.
Divorce, mediaeval laws regarding,

291 and nn.*^-**.
Dolbadarn, 235 ; castle, 742 «.*'".
Dolforwyn, 249 and «."* ; castle, 748

and n.'"^.
Dolgynwal (Yspyty Ifan), 604 and n.">*,

690.
Dolw^ddelan, 236, 587 a«dH.** ; castle,

550 and H.''^.
Dore Abbey, 689 and m.2»3.
Druid, etymology of name, 44 m.'*.
Druidism —
Account of, 43-6.
Anglesey a centre for, 11, 41, 44,

55-
Cromlechs associated with, ii.

Dryslwyn castle, 750.

Dubhgaill, 322 m.^", 326.

Dublin-
Danish power centred at, 330, 352.
English acquisition of, 539, 540.

Dubricius. See Dyfrig.

Dumbarton (Allt Glud), 165-6 and «.'8.

Dumnonii, 60.

Dunod (Dinoot) Abbot, 175, 193.

Dunoding, cantref of, 238 andn.^'^.

Dyddgu, dau. of Owain, 545 n.".

Dyfed—

Cantrefs of, 261 et seq.
Characteristics of, 260.
Danish ravaging of (later loth cent.),

351. 352.
English raiding in, 198 and n.^'', 202.
Episcopal houses in (loth cent.),

207-8 and ««.*', ''^.
Extent of, 261 and n.^**.
Foreign colony of, 537. 555. 560.

VOL, II.

357-771

INDEX

787

Dyfed (co«f.) —
Gruffydd ap Rhys in (1137), 475.
Hywel's possession of, 333.
Norman acquisition of (1093), 401.
Ogam inscriptions in, 115.
Region designated by, 38-9.
Rhys ap Gruffydd's aggressions in

(1159), 510-1.
Welsh in possession of Eastern (1146),

502.
Dyffryn Clettwr, 504 m.''^,
Dyffryn Clwyd —
Commotes of, 241.
David ap Gruffydd granted possession

of (1277), 760.
English possession of (1247), 708.
Gwynedd's acquisition of (1124),

467.
otherwise mentioned, 465 and ».**,

515-
Dyfhwal ap Tewdwr, Prince of Strath-
clyde, 197 n}^.

— Moelmud, 122, 123 ; Triads of,

318-9.
Dyfrig (Dubricius), Bp., 146, 147-8,
210 n?^ ; churches of, 280.

Eadric Streona, 350 and «."'.

— the Wild, 374-5.

Ealdgyth, wife of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn,

369-
Ealdred, Bp. of Worcester, 362, 368.
Eanfrith, King of Bernicia, 187.
Eardisley, 201 ; castle, 732.
Easter, date of, 176-7, 203.
Ebediw, 218, 311 and w.^^o^ 530.
Ebor^cum. See York.
Eceni, 51, 52, 55.
Edeyrn, 117.
Edeyrnion —

Llywelyn ab lorwerth's overlordship
of, 683.

Owain Gwynedd's invasion of, 510
and n.^''.

Situation of, 245.

Treaty of Conway's provisions as to,

759-
Welsh host assembled in (1165), 516.
otherwise mentioned, 118, 385, 389,
566 and n.^^^, 599.
Edgar, King of Wessex, 348, 349-50.
Edling, position of, 309-10 and nn.^^-'*.
Edmund, King of Wessex, 334 n.^^.

— of Lancaster, 740 w.^^^, 750-1.
Ednyfed Fychan, 657 w.^^, 677 m.^^^,

684-5 and «M.'8^-''S 694, 696 «.",
705 and M.^i, 707 and n.'"'.
Edred, King of Wessex, 348.
Edward the Confessor, King, 359, 363,
373 ; grants by, to Gruffydd, 366,
387.

Edward the Elder, King, 330-2, 335-

— L, King, invested with crown pos-

sessions in Wales (1254), 714 ;
first visit of, to Wales (1256), 717 ;
relieves Diserth and Degannwy
castles (1263), 731 ; yields to Earl
Simon, 732 ; detaches nobles firom
the Earl, 733 and n.^^ ; escapes
from Hereford, 736; turns Earl
Simon from the Severn, 737 ; re-
gains Chester, 738 and w.'"^ ;
Llywelyn's distrust of (1272), 755 ;
hostilities against Llywelyn (1276-
7). 758-9 ; Treaty of Conway, 759
and n.^^ ; final conflict with
Llywelyn, 761-3 ; favours Lly-
welyn's marriage, 761 and 71.^^*;
otherwise mentioned, 727 m.^',
728, 737 M.102, 743.

Edwin, Earl of Mercia, 369, 374.

— , King of Northumbria, 179, 183-6.

— , brother of Earl Leofric of Mercia,
360.

— ab Einon, 346.

— ap Gwriad, King of Gwent, 348.

— ap Hywel Dda, 337 and «.*i,

344-

— of Tegeingl, 467.
Edwy, King of Wessex, 348.

Efelffre (Velffrey), 265, 542, 597, 6ig

Egbert, Abp. of York, 214.
— , King of Mercia, 325.
Eglwys Ael (Llangadwaladr) church,
231.

— Cymun inscription cited, 113 n.".
Eifionydd, 238 and «.", 564, 601,

743.
Eilaf, 350 and «."«.
Einion ab Einion Clud of Elfael (Einion

o'r Forth), 545 n.«, 563, 567 and

M.183, 585 and n.^.

— ap Caradog of Penychen, 739 «.i",

743.

— ap Gwgon quoted, 691.

— ap Rhys of Gwerthrynion, 545 and

— Clud ap Madog (of Elfael), 477 «.*»,

511 and n.^"^, 516, 545 and «.**,
553 > ^00 and n}'^^.

— Fychan, 685, 694, 696 n.^"^.
Einon ab Anarawd, 507, 513.

— ab Owain of Deheubarth, 345, 346,

350.

— ap Cadwgan, 417 m.'', 422, 466.

— ap Gruffydd ab Elise, 271 n.^**.
Eisteddfod, first, 548-9.

Elbodug (Elfodd), Bp., 203-4and nn.^^-

«, 224.
Eleanor, wife of William Marshall the
younger, 663, 671 ».".

788

INDEX

VOL. I.

1-356

Eleanor of Montfort, wife of Llywelyn ap
Gruffydd, proposal for marriage of,
756-7 ; wedded by proxy, 757 and
M.'"" ; captured and imprisoned at
Windsor, 757 and n.^"; marriage
in Worcester Cathedral (1278),
761 ; death of, 763.
Elen, dau. of Llywarch ap Hyfaidd, 333.
Elenydd, 513 n."".
Elfael—

Castles in, by Wm. de Breos, 585

and MM.'®-'*.
Dynasty of, 406 n.'^, 477 m.".
Gwallter ab Einon's occupancy of,

645-
Lake-burst in, 469 and n?*.
Llywelyn's overlordship of (1260),

727 ; his possession of (1264-76),

740 M."9, 751 and n.^»*.
Mortimer's recovery of (1144), 436

M.J=a, 477, 479, 501.
Norman possession of (1195), 581.
Situation and features of, 254.
Tony's acquisition of (1276), 758.
otherwise mentioned, 436 m.'^, 567,

675.
Elfed (in Dyfed), 266, 751.
Elfodd (Elbodug), Bp., 203-4 '*'"^ "m.""-

■•3, 224.
Elgar, hermit of Bardsey, 592 m,^*.
Elias, Bp. of Llandaff, 675 m."i.
Elise (Elisedd) ab Anarawd, 337 and

W-". 347-

— ab lorwerth ab Owain Brogyntyn,

683 and M.i'*, 703 M.'i, 725 M.'*'',

759 «.'"*.

— ap Gwylog (Elisedd, Eliseg), King

of Powys, pillar of, 244 and n.*'^
245 and M.^*, 602 and m.^'".

— ap Madog, lord of Penllyn, 566

and M."*, 613-4.

— ap Noe, 348.

— ap Tewdwr, King of Brycheiniog,

271, 327.
Eliud. See Teilo.
Elizabeth, wife of David ap Gruffydd,

760 and nP^.
Ellesmere, 553 and n.^*, 570, 590, 604

M.158, 616-17 and nn.2«, «», 638 n.

"9, 646 M.170, 698, 748 M.16«.

Elmet (Elfed), kingdom of, 183.

Elstan Glodrydd, 406 m.^i.

Eltutus. See Illtud.

Elwystl ab Awst, 271.

Ely (near Cardiff), Roman remains at,

83 n."9.
Emlyn —
Carew possession of, 425, 519, 619

Castles of, old and new, 726 m.'^.
Marshall possession of, 619 n.^".

Emlyn {cont^ —
Situation of, 266.
Welsh recovery of (1165, 1171), 519,

542.
otherwise mentioned, 597, 661, 663
M.*', 710 M.99, 719 M.^*.
Emma, wife of Dafydd ab Owain, 551

and nJ^, 590, 613 n.'.
— , — of Gruffydd ap Madog, 709 and

M.88.

Emrys Wledig, 100.

Emyr Llydaw, 145.

Engan, 133,

Engelard of Cigogn^, 634 and m."", 640

and m.^^", 642, 663.
England, Welsh popular name for, 201.
English (see also Saxons.)

Cymry attitude towards, 171, 177-8 ;

alliance with Mercia, 185, 189-90.
Estimate of, by Giraldus Cambrensis,

555-
Enoch, Abbot of Ystrad Marchell, 599

and nJ^.
Erethlyn, 184 and m.^'.
Erging. See Archenfield.
Erin. See Ireland,
Eryri, 233 and w.*\ 605.
Essex, Earl of (Geoffrey de Mandeville),

646 M."i, 648-9, 651 n.^\
Esyllwg, 282.

Ethelbald, King of Mercia, 197.
Ethelbert, King of Kent, 172, 174, 179.
Ethelred, King of Wessex, 350.
Ethelric, King of Bernicia, 178 n,^^.
Etthil (Ethyllt), dau. of Cynan ap

Rhodri, 231, 323 m.^^, 324 «.''.
Eugenius III., Pope, 481 and m.*'.
Eustace, Bp. of Ely, 629 n.^, 630.
Evesham, battle of (1265), 737-8 and

M.IO*.

Excommunication, practice as to, 662-3.
Exestan, hundred of, 366, 387, 389.
Ewenny Priory, 593 and mm."**-".
Ewias, situation of, 279 and n.*^.

— Harold, 395 and n.^^, 474 n.**;

castle, 363, 375.

— Lacy, 395 and n.^^, 443, 474 m.''".

Falkes of Breaut^, 620 and m.*^, 632

and M.Wl, 636, 638 MM.127, 132, 640,

645 M.i^'', 663-4 and n.".
Ferrers, Earl, 427 m.*^, 544.
Ffernfael of Gwerthrynion, 224 n.^**,

253-

— ab Ithel, King of Gwent, 274 and

M.2»».

— ap Meurig,iKing of Gwent, 327.
Fferyllwg, origin of name, 282.
Fines —

Amounts of, 305, 306 w.^^".
Destination of, 311.

VOL. II.
357-771

INDEX

789

Finngall, 322 m.^".
Finnian, the elder, 142.

— of Moville, 142.

Fitz Alan, John, I., 652 and w.^"', 679

n.i^*, 714.
, John, II., 714, 719, 732 and ».*",

733-
, William, I., 478, 493 and n.^,

497, 508.
, — , II., 570, 629, 652 n?'^^.

, — , III., 652 M.2»3.

— Baderon, William, 396 and w.^*^,

443 and n.^^^.

— Baldwin, Richard, 415 and n.^^, 427.
, William, 401 and m.^, 406.

— Corbet, Robert, 388.
, Roger, 388, 389.

— Count, Brian, 443, 470, 478, 495

— Gerald, David, Bp. of St. David's,

482-3, 538 «.^", S4if 556, 557

M.^»^ 559-

, Maurice, 423, 473, 502 and n.^.

, William, 423 and w.""', 502, and

n.^, 542 and n.^.

— Gilbert, lialdwin, 474.

, Gilbert, Earl of Pembroke, 479.

, Richard, Lord of Ceredigion,

427, 471 and n.^, 473 n.'^, 491,

506 nJ*, 569 M.^''^.

— Godebert, Richard, of Rhos, 538 and

71.-'.

, Robert, 538 n.'.

— Hamon, Mabel, wife of Earl Robert,

441.

, Robert, ecclesiastical policy of,

443 and n.^^, 457 ; castle built
by, 278, 402 and w.*, 439 ; death
of, 441.

— Harold, Robert, 474 and n.*^.

— Hay, William, 502 and n.^*, 557.

— Henry, Henry, 499 and n.^-^, 538

, Meilyr, 538 and «.*.

— Herbert, Peter, 621 and n.*'', 643

and n.!^**, 651 and m.^"", 730 n.''^

— Hugh, Osbert, 581 w.^^.
, Robert, of Malpas, 386.

— John, Eustace, Constable of Chester,

498.
, Payn, 443 and n.^^s^ ^^5^ ^jy^

493-

— Martin, Nicholas, 711 and m.^"^.
, Robert, 425, 431, 473, 478, 567

, William, 567 and n.^^^, 576 and

M.14, 578, 648 M.185, 711 n."3.

— Mathew, Herbert, 702-3.

— Norman, Hugh, 492 n.^^.

— Osbern, Hugh, 581 n.^^.
, William, 374-6, 444.

VOL. II. 2

Fitz Peter, Geoffrey, Justiciar, 586 and

n.^'*, 615.
, Reginald, 730 n.''^, 733, 752 and

— Philip, Henry, 576 n.^^.

— Pons, Richard, 429 and w.^"", 434,

438, 477 and w.^i 596 M.i^^.

— Richard, Gilbert, 420, 426, 427 and

n.^^, 432, 491 M.^**.
, Osbern, 394 n.^^^, 395 atid n.^^^,

397-
; Robert, of Haverford, 633 and

, Walter, of Nether Went, 538 n.*.

— Robert, Walter, of Dunmow, 569

and M.^'^i.

— Rolf, Turstin, 396 and n.^^'^, 443.

— Scrob (Scrop), Richard, 363, 395.

— Stephen, Robert, 499 and m.^^, 504,

519. 538 and «•^ 539. 542, 597
and n.^^^.

— Tancard, Richard, 425 and n.'''', 505

n.''^, 592 nn.^^-^, 633 and n.^"*.

— Warren, Foulk, III., 646 n. "i, 652

and M.20S 661 and n.^*.

— William, Baderon, 443 and n.^'^.
, Odo, 542 M.2*.

— Winibald, Roger, 443.

— Wizo, Philip, 576 and n.^^.

, Walter, Lord of Deugleddyf,

424 n.''3, 425 and n.''^, 502,
604 and M.^^'.
Fleming family, 441 n.^^^, 460.
Flemish settlement in Pembroke, 424

and n.''* ; in Rhos, 475.
Flint-
Castle at, built by Edward I., 759.
Roman remains near, 64.
Flintshire, place-names in, 201.
Foliot, Hugh, Archdeacon of Salop,

688 n.i9».
— , Reginald, 625, 630.
Food renders to the king, 312-3 and

Forts, Roman, 65 and n.*^, 80.
Fosterage, custom of, 310, 379, 549-50.
Franciscan friars, 686, 690.
Frankton, Stephen, 763.
Frontinus, Sextus Julius, 57.
Fulchard, Abbot of St. Dogmael's, 431.

Gaelic Summer, the, 588.
Gaels. See Goidels.
Gaius Caligula, Emp., 49.
Galanas, 287-8 and nn.^*-^^, 290.
Galatas —

Characteristics of, 32, 43.

Civilisation of, 33-4.

Conquests of (4th cent. B.C.), 31-2.

Galli the Roman form of name, 19.

Language of, 20.

790

INDEX

VOL. I.
1-356

Galli. See Galatae.

Gangani, 39 «.*", ■*".

Garth Grugyn castle, 700 n.^'.

Garth Maelog, battle of, 197 and n}^.

Gellan (harpist), 530 n. ^*^.

Gelligaer, 608 and ny>^ \ Roman fort

near, 78 and n.®^.
Gelli Gandryll, Y (La Haie Taill^e),

437 and n}^.
Geneu'r Glyn, 257, 700 «.3», 710;

castle, 427 and «.^.
Geoffrey, Bp. of St. David's, 625, 628
w.'^s, 630, 688.

— of Anjou, 551.

— of Genville, 714.

— of Monmouth, Bp. of St. Asaph,

career of, 524-5 ; History of the
Kings of Britain by, 523, 524 ;
names of, 523-4 and nn.^**-^ : esti-
mate of, 318, 523 ; estimate of his
work, 527 ; sources of his work,
525-7 ; otherwise mentioned, 485,

494 7/.''*.

Gerald of Barry. See Giraldus Cam-
brensis.

— of Windsor, Constable of Pembroke,

401, 407-8, 416, 418-9, 422,

425.

Germanus of Auxerre, St., loi, 106 ana
«.", 243, 245 n.»*, 254.

Gherbod of Flanders, 381.

Giffard, John, 762.

Gilbert, Bp. of St. Asaph, 485 and
n."".

— , Earl of Gloucester, Earl of Hertford,
Earl of Pembroke. See Glou-
cester, Hertford, Pembroke.

Gildas, name of, 135 n.*'; nationality
and family of, 135-6; status of,
loi ; publication of De Excidio by,
138 ; nature of the work, 139-41 ;
authenticity of the work, 161 ; MSS.
and editions of the work, 160-1 ;
visit to Ireland, 142 ; fragmentary
writings of, 143 n.*^ ; exile and
death of, 141, 143 ; influence of,
141-2 ; characteristic of work of,
125 and n.^ ; style of, 136-7, 224 ;
estimate of, 98 ; estimate by con-
temporaries, 134, 142 ; by poster-
ity, 141 ; lives of, 134-5, 161 ;
otherwise mentioned, 144, 156,

173-
Giles de Breos, Bp. of Hereford, 644
and nn.is8-8", 647 and ««."«-», 658

Giraldus Cambrensis, family of, 423
and nJ'^, 555 ; upbringing of, 556 ;
made Archdeacon of Brecknock,
557 ; withstands Bp. Adam, 559 ;
disappointed of bishopric of St.

David's, 559-60 ; in Paris, 560 and
n.^^^ ; Administrator of St. David's,
560 ; visit to Ireland, 560 and
n.^^" ; in the royal service, 561 ;
with Prince John in Ireland, 561 ;
The Topography of Ireland, 561
and n.^'^ ; with Abp. Baldwin in
Wales (1188), 561-2; Itinerary
of Wales, 564 atid n.^*^ ; Descrip-
tion of Wales, 564 and n.''"' ;
mission to Wales on accession of
Richard, 574 and m."; frequent
visits to Wales (1191), 579; in
North Wales (1201-2), 615 ; second
controversy as to see of St. David's,
624 cf seq. ; residence of, at Lland-
duw, 273 ; on Bp. lorwerth and
Bp. Cadwgan, 688 ; churches held
by. 557; bishoprics refused by,
626 M.'^"; death of, 631 and w.*"* ;
estimate of, 480 n.''', 554-5, 631 ;
mentioned, 218.
Giustilianus (? Justinianus), 154 and

Glamorgan (see also Morgannwg) —
de Burgh's influence in (1230), 672.
Falkes of Breaut^'s power in (1207),

620.
Fiefs of (middle of 13th cent), 712

n."».
Gloucester Earl's possession of, 700.
Lljrwelyn's attack on (1257), 721.
Norman conquest of, 402 and ».'.
— possession of, 439-42.
Strength of lordship of (middle of

13th cent.), 712.
mentioned, 695 m.*.
Glamorganshire antiquaries, 222, 319.
Glanville, Ranulf, 568, 569, 570 «."»,

580.
Glasbury (Y Clas ar Wy), 207 m.®, 272
and n.249, 397, 457. 678 n."*, 752

M.l»9.

Glascwm church, 158, 223 m.^'*, 254-5

and n}*'', 307.
Glastonbury lake village remains, 42

and n."", 43.
Gloucester —

Roman times in, 80.

St. Peter's, cell of, 432, 593, 596 and

Simon de Montfort's acquisition of,
732.
Gloucester, Earls of —

Gilbert de Clare (d. 1230), 668, 672
and n.^^.

(d. 1295), 732, 734. 736. 739

and M,"*, 741, 752-4.
Richard de Clare, 672 and n}*, 700 ajid
«.*", 702, 712, 723, 728, 729 and

VOL. II.

357-771

INDEX

791

Gloucester, Earls of (cont.) —

Robert, son of Henry I., 439, 441-2

Mid M.is^ 450, 478-9, 484, 493, 503,

525 and n^^^, 595.

William, grandson of Henry I., 503,

508, 511, 545 ««^ "-"^ 571. 596

Glyn Rhondda, 441, 674 n.^°^.

Glyndyfrdwy, 245, 602, 748 fi.^^.

Glywys, King, 273, 278.

Glywysing, 159, 273-5.

Godfrey, Bp. of St. Asaph, 520 n.^^?^ j^g^

— , son of Harold, 351-2.

Gododin, 170.

Godred Crowan, King of Man, 404 and

M.22, 588 ».•?«.
Goidelic language, 19, 120-22.
Goidels —

Brythonic conquest of, iii, Il6, II9-
20.

Caesar's account of, 36-7.

Irish, in Wales and Cornwall, 96-7.

Migration of, to Britain, 20.

Ogam inscriptions of, 112-6.
Goodwick, battle of (1078), 393 and

Gorddwr, 734 and «.*'", 750 m.^^^, 758.
Gorfynydd (Gorenydd, Gorwennydd,

Gro Nedd) cantref, 275 and n.^^*.
Goronwy (Gronw) ab Ednyfed Fychan,

657 «•". 731 and nJ^, 743.
ab Idnerth, 406 «.3i.

— ap Heilyn of Rhos, 743.
Gower (Gwyr) —

de Breos acquisition of, 658 and n."'.
Extent and famous sites of, 269.
Hywel's rising against (1135), 470

and n.^^.
Long Hole excavation, 2.
Maredudd ap Gruffydd's ravaging of,

503-
Peter of Rivaux' acquisition of, 677.
Welsh and English, origin of distinc-
tion of, 430.
otherwise mentioned, 574, 672, 712.
Grainville, Richard of, 440 and m.^^*.
Gratian I., Emp., 92.
Gray, John de, 705, 707, 709.
— , Reginald de, Justiciar of Cheshire,

755-
Gregory I., Pope, 172, 175 m.^".

— IX., Pope, 689 W.203,

— X., Pope, 754.
Griffri ap Trahaearn, 417.
Gronw ab Ednyfed. See Goronwy.

— ab Owain ab Edwin, 465, 467, 522.

— the Radiant, 245, 317.
Grosmont castle, 644 w.^'^^, 672 and n.**,

677 n.i22, 679 and n?-'^^, 714.
Gruffydd ab Elise, King of Gwent, 348.

— ab Idnerth, 406.

Gruffydd ab Ifor Bach, of Senghenydd,
545 and n.^''.

— ab lorwerth, 725 ».*''.

— ab Owain, King of Gower, 338 «.'*•,
348.

— ab Owain Brogyntyn, 683 and n.'***,
703 w.'^.

— ap Cadwgan (Councillor), 634.

— ap Cadwgan ap Bleddyn, 417 ».".

— ap Cynan ab lago, King of Gwy-
nedd, family and youth of, 379 ;
relations with Robert of Rhuddlan,
380-1; seizes Gwynedd, 380; routs
Trahaearn, 380-1 ; attacks Rhudd-
lan, 381-2 ; defeat by Trahaearn
and flight to Wexford, 383 ; victory
of Mynydd Cam, 384-5 ; imprison-
ment of, 385, 390 n.i"* ; escape of,
404 ; storms Aber Lleiniog, 404 ;
flies from Anglesey, 409 ; recovers
the island, 410 ; position of, in
1 106, 416 and nJ'^ ; makes peace
with Henry, 421 ; relations with
Gruffydd ap Rhys, 433, 464 ;
Henry's expedition against (1114),
463-4 ; acquisition by, of Rhos and
Rhufoniog, 466 ; death of, 468-9
andn."^; Pencerddof, 531 ; other-
wise mentioned, 245 «.^, 455, 492,

— ap Cynan ab Owain, hostilities by,
against Rhodri, 588 ; territories of,
589 ; gifts by, to ecclesiastical
foundations, 601, 602 and nnM''-^,
613 n.® ; King John's grant to, 615 ;
death of, 589 n.''*, 6l2 ; burial-place
of, 589 nJ*, 601 w."3; otherwise
mentioned, 551, 564.

— ap Gruff'ydd Maelor II., 747.

— ap Gwenwynwyn, English leanings
of, 701 ; territories of (1247), 709 ;
Llywelyn's successes against
(1257), 719 ; completely expelled
by Llywelyn (1257), 722 ; submits
to Llywelyn's suzerainty (1263),
733-4 and n.^ ; provision as to, in
Treaty of Montgomery, 740; re-
lations with Llywelyn till 1274,

748 ; conspiracy against Llywelyn
and flight to Shrewsbury (1274),

749 and «."*, 755-6 n.'^^ ; recovery
of territories (1276), 758; other-
wise mentioned, 650, 695, 697,

699. 707. 736, 741-

— ap Llywelyn ab lorwerth, parentage
of, 686 and «.^*** ; hostage to King
John, 636 M.^2^ 639 nP^ ; released,
646 and nP"^; conflicts with his
brother David, 687, 693 ; relations
with his father, 687 ; imprisoned,
687 ; released, 692 ; lands ac-

792

INDEX

VOL. I.
1-356

quired by, 692 and n^^ ; deprived
by David, 693 ; imprisoned by
David, 693 ; again imprisoned,
694 and n?; delivered to King
Henry, 698 ; imprisoned in the
tower, 700 ; death and burial of,
701 and nn.*^, •'^ ; estimate of,
686 ; mentioned, 661.
GrufTydd ap Llyvvelyn ap Seisyll, wins
victory of Rhyd y Groes, 359-60 ; of
Aber Tywi, 361 ; alliance with
Earl Swegen, 361 ; defeats Nor-
mans near Leominster, 363 ; ac-
quires Deheubarth, 364 ; alliance
with /Elfgar, 364 ; pillage of
Hereford, 365 ; border conquests
by, 366-7 ; acquisition ol Gwent,
367 ; victory over Leofgar, 368 ;
peace with King Edward, 368 ;
marriage with Ealdgyth, 369 ;
escapes Harold, 369-70 ; death
of, 370 ; characteristics of, 357-9 ;
estimate of, 371.

— ap Llywelyn Fychan, 709 w.®^.

— ap Madog ap Maredudd (Maelor I.),

509. 553. 565, 566, 583. 587 «.*'■'•

— ap Madog ap Gruffydd (Maelor II.),

against David, 697 ; rewarded by
England, 699; punished by David,
701 ; Llywelyn's successes against
(1256), 719 ; goes over to Lly-
welyn (1257), 720 ; wife of, 709
and «.*•* ; death of, 747 ; other-
wise mentioned, 684, 709 nn. ^'', **,
725 M.*^, 729 and M.*", 732, 735.

— ap Madog ap Gruffydd of lal, 684.

— ap Maredudd ab Owain ab Edwin,

398.

— ap Maredudd ab Owain ap Gruffydd,

750.

— ap Maredudd ap Bleddyn, 465 m.^°.

466.

— ap Rhodri, 640 and n}^"^.

— ap Rhydderch, 361-3, 364, 367

MM.25-6.

— ap Rhys ap Gruffydd, marriage of,

577 and n}^ ; enmity of, against
Maelgwn, 577-8 and «.'*, 584 ;
acknowledged heir of Rhys, 584 ;
captured by Maelgwn, 584 ; im-
prisoned, 585 ; released, 586 ;
vanquished by Geoffrey fitz Peter,
586-7 and nw."^-* ; successes
against Maelgwn, 617 ; supports
the St. David's claim, 627 w.'^^ ;
death of, 618 and w."'" ; estimate
of, 577 and n!^^ ; mentioned, 576.

— ap Rhys ap Gruffydd of Senghenydd,

713 and «."•*, 752-3.

— ap Rhys ap Tewdwr, rising of

(iii6), 433-5 ; at peace with

Henry, 435; rising of (1136),
470, 472 ; death of, 475 ; other-
wise mentioned, 401 and nS\ 439,
464.

Guala (papal legate), 651, 653.

Guilsfield (Cegidfa), 599 n}'^'^ ; church,
247, 248.

Guy, Dean of Bangor, 689 m.^"^.

Gwaeterw, battle of (1075), 380-1.

Gwalchmai ap Meilyr, 532, 552.

Gwallog, 163.

Gwallter ab Einion Clud, 585 m."^*,

645-
Gwarthaf, Y Cantref, 261, 265-6, 649

Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio, 165, 167 and

Gwenllian, (natural ?) dau. of Gruffydd

ap Cynan, 417 n.".
— , dau. of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, 763.
— , wife of Ednyfed Fychan, 684.
— , — of Gruffydd ap Rhys, 435, 464

n.'', 470 and n.-^"^.
— , — of Maredudd ap Llywelyn of

Meirionydd, 710 n.*''.
— , — of Rhys ap Gruffydd, 562 «.'•*",

577 «•"•
Gwent —

Archers of, 609.
Danish ravaging of (896), 330.
Norman acquisition of, 375, 442-3.
Gwent Iscoed, 275, 278-9 and ww.'*'*-*',

546 and n.-*''.
Gwent Uchcoed (Upper Gwent) —
Hereford earldom's acquisition of

(1141 or 1142), 495 n.'*°.
Miles of Gloucester's acquisition of,
495 «.*", 547 n.'^; end of male line

("75). 547-
Situation and features of, 275, 279.
mentioned, 713.

Gwentian Code, 342, 355.

Gwenwynwyn ab Owain Cyfeiliog,
rivalry of, with Llywelyn of Gwy-
nedd, 573, 613 ; activities of, on
the border, 583 ; assists Maelgwn,
584 ; receives Carreghofa, 585 ;
relations with King John, 614-5,
619 and M.^", 621, 623 ; alliance
with Maelgwn, 619 ; supports the
St. David's claim, 627 w.''^, 629 ;
restored by John, 633 ; turned
against John, 638, 640; relations
with John in 1215, 642-3 ; with
Llywelyn (Dec. 1215), 648; de-
fiance of Llywelyn, 649 ; death and
estimate of, 650 and n.^^* ; other-
wise mentioned, 565, 634.

Gwern y Gof, 668 and JiJ^.

Gwerthrynion —
Dynasty of, 224.

VOL. II.

357-771

INDEX

793

Gwerthrynion (co«^) —
English acquisition of {1276), 758.
Llywelyn's possession of, 7I9» 74°)

751-
Mortimer possession of, 713.
Situation and features of, 253-4 and

nP'^, 255 M."^, 256.
Treaty of Montgomery as concerning,
740.
Gwgon, Bp. of Llandaff, 348, 349 n>^^.
— ' ap Meurig, 416.

— ap Meurig, King of Ceredigion,

257. 325-
Gwilym ap Gwrwared of Cemais, 711
and w.^''^.

— Rhyfel, 551.

Gwinionydd, 260, 663 w.^^, 700 «.^^.
Gwion, Bp. of Bangor, 563 and m.^^',

575-

— of Bangor, 724.

Gwlad, cantref the successor of, 302

and w.'".
Gwladus, wife of Caradog ab lestyn,

440 n.150, 545.
— , — of Owain Gwynedd, 549 m.^*, 587.
— , — of Rhys Fychan, 719 nP.

— Ddu, wife of Reginald de Breos,

and of Ralph Mortimer, 645 and

W.164, 666 W.8*, 669 W.82.

Gwledig, meaning of title, 99-100 and

M.3».

Gwrdas, See Uchelwrs.
Gwrgant, father of Bp. Nicholas, 484
and n}^^.

— ap Rhys (bard), 507.

Gwrgeneu ap Seisyll of Powys, 383

and n '^*, 385.
Gwrgi, 165, 317.

Gwriad (father of Merfyn Frych), 323.
Gwrin Farfdrwch, 250-1,
Gwrtheyrn (Vortigern), 254,
Gwyddgrug castle, 734 m.®".
Gwyddneu, Plain of, story of submerg-
ence of, 26.
Gwydion ap Don, 122, 260.
Gwylog, 244.

Gwyn ab Ednywain, 622 and «.'^, 684.
Gwynedd —

Bequests illegal in, 312.
Brythonic conquest of, 120.
Cantrefs of, 229 et seq.
Cenedl affinities in, 285 and «.'"'.
Cistercian movement in, 601.
Eisteddfod honours won by, 549.
Land succession custom of, 300 n.^'^K
Name, meaning of, 40.
Norman possession of — under Robert
of Rhuddlan, 387-8 ; under Earl
Hugh, 392 ; Welsh recovery under
Cadwgan and Gruffydd (1094), 404,
462 et seq.

Gwynedd {cont.) —

Roman forts guarding, 65,
Royal residences of, 686 and w.'*'.
Warfare against, nature of, 759,
" White churches " in, building of,
468 and M.21.
Gwynllwg, cantref of —
Churches of, 275, 278.
Cistercians in, 600.
Danish ravaging of (896), 330,
Falkes of Breautd's acquisition of

(1207), 620.
Name, forms of, 159 and n.^^^.
Norman possession of, 442 and «.^*^.
Gwynllyw, 273 ; church of (St. Wool-
lo's), 278, 442 and n.'^^^ ; Life of,
cited, 531.
Gwyr. See Gower.

Haesten, Danish leader, 329 and n.-'"'.
Haie Taill^e, La (Y Gelli Gandryll),

437 and n.1^3. See also Hay.
Hait, Sheriff of Pembroke, 424, 502

Hallstatt culture, 28 and n.^, 33.
Hamelin of Ballon, 442-3 and n}'^^,

444.
Hamlet. See Tref.
Harold, Earl of Wessex, 364, 365, 368,

369-72, 373.
Hasculf mac Torkil, King of Dublin,

539-
Haverford, 660 and n.^'^ ; castle, 424-5
andnj'^, 705 n.**", 721 ; manor, 713
and nP^.
Hawarden —

David's capture of (1282), 761.
Treaty of Pipton as concerning (1265)

736.
— of Montgomery as concerning,

740.
mentioned, 347 «."", 386.
Hawarden castle, 738 and n.'^"''.
Hawise, Countess of Gloucester, 508.

— (Avice), wife of King John. See

Isabella of Gloucester.

— Lestrange, wife of Gruffydd ap

Gwenwynwyn, 709, 748-9.

— of London, lady of Kidwelly, 659

n.^*, 712 and w."", 751 n.^^'*.
Hay castle, 644, 650, 670 k.^**, 674 and
"•^"^» 734i 735 and n.^'^.

— lordship, 438 m.^^'', 740 m."".
Heavenfield, battle of (634), 187 and

Hecana (Magesaetas), 196.

Helen, wife of John the Scot, 657 and

«.!■».
Helen's Causeway (Sarn Helen), 68 and

n.", 74, 78.
Henfynyw, 154 and h.'"*^.

794

INDEX

VOL. I.

1-356

Henllan Amgoed, 265-6.

— on the Wye, 147.
Henry, Bp. of Llandaff, 651.
— , Earl of Warwick, 430, 432.

— , Lord of Brecknock and Upper
Gwent, 547 and. m.**.

— v., Emp., 455.

— I., King of England, dealings of,

with Earl of Shrewsbury, 412-3;
with lorwerth, 414-5 ; with Cad-
wgan ap Bleddyn, 415, 419-20 ;
with Owain, 421-2 ; subjugation
of S. Wales under, 423 et seq ;
policy of, regarding Cantref
Mawr, 429 ; ecclesiastical policy
of, 453 ; expedition against Gru-
ffydd ap Cynan, 463-4 ; death of,
462 ; otherwise mentioned, 480-1
and nP, 493.

— II. King of England, work of, at

accession, 495 ; expedition against
Owain Gwynedd, 496-9 ; twice
receives submission of Rhys ap
Gruffydd, 506-7 ; relations with
Madog ap Maredudd, 508 ; ex-
pedition against Rhys ap Gru-
ffydd (1163), 512 and n.**^; rein-
states him in Cantref Mawr, 513;
quarrel with Abp. Thomas, 514;
expedition against all Wales
(1165), 515-7; the inglorious re-
treat, 517; barbarity to Welsh
hostages, 517, 597; long absence
abroad, 518, 520 ; murder of Abp.
Thomas, 536-7, 539 ; relations
with King Dermot, 537 ; relations
with Rhys ap Gruffydd, 537, 540,
542 ; attitude towards Earl
Richard in Ireland, 539-40; ex-
pedition to Ireland (1171), 542;
return through Wales (1172),
542-3 ; cordial relations with
Rhys, 542, 569; revolt of his
sons (1173-4), 544, 545 ; relations
with Welsh princes (1175), 546;
refuses Giraldus bishopric of St.
David's, 559-60 ; employs him at
court, 561 ; receives fealty of
Welsh princes (1177), 552-3;
avenges Cadwallon's death, 567 ;
death of, 563, 573 and n.^ ; crus-
ading zeal of, 561 and n}^^;
mentioned, 473 n.*^.
— III., King of England, accession of,
651; Treaty of Lambeth (1217),
653 ; repudiates Pembrokeshire
raid, 660; receives submission of
Llywelyn (1223), 663 ; comes of
age, 664 ; continues friendly re-
lations with Llywelyn, 664-5 '■>
French expedition (1230), 669 ;

preparations against the Welsh
(1231), 675 ; measures against
Earl of Pembroke, 678; truce of
Brockton, 680 and nn.^**, "^,
681; pact of Middle (1234), 681;
negotiations with David as to dis-
puted lands, 695-7; expedition
against David, 697-8 and nn}^, 22 .
relations with Innocent IV., 702 ;
military measures against David,
702-5 ; expedition against Lly-
welyn (1257), 721-2 ; the Barons'
War, 722 ; truce with Llywelyn,
722-3 ; measures attempted
against Llywelyn (1260), 727-8;
renewal of truce, 728 ; letter of,
on rumoured death of Llywelyn,
725 ; attempts against the Welsh

ii263), 730; yields to Earl Simon
1263), 732; in hands of Earl
Simon, 734, 736-7; death of, 755 ;
mentioned, 720, 752.

— ab Arthen, 461.

— ap Cadwgan, 417 «.".

— of Essex, Constable of England, 498

and ».".

— of Umfraville, 561 m.i99.

— son of Robert, Canon of St. David's,

625 n.'^*, 629 n.^^.
Herbert of St. Quintin's, 440, 441 ». ^**,

651 M.199,

Hereford —
Athelstan's convention of Welsh

princes at (c. 926), 335.
Battle of (760), 197 and n.^".
Diocese of, founded, 196.
Name, origin of, 282,
Norman settlement at, 363 and n}^'^,

374 ; " customs of Breteuil," 375.
Sack of, by Gruffydd (1055), 365.
Hereford, Earls of —

Bohun, Humphrey de (the elder), 702,
729-733. 736 n.^\ 752 n.^8».

— , (grandson of preceding), 738

M.105, 751-2 and n.^^*, 758.

Miles of Gloucester, 436 n}^^, 438,

446, 474, 478, 495 and n^\ 547

Ralph, 363 and n}^.
Roger (1075), 376, 442.
— (son of Miles), 477 nJ"^, 495-6 and
«.■•«, 546 and M.52.
Hereford castle, 735.
Hermits, 217-8.
Hertford, Earls of —

Gilbert, ist Earl, 491 and «.'", 504

n.''", 506 nj*.
Roger, 498 and w.""", 506 and nJ*,
511, 514, 541 M.26, 596 M."^.
Herv6, Bp. of Bangor, 392, 448 andn.^^*.
— of Montmorency, 538-9 and ».*■'.

VOL. II.
357-771

INDEX

795

Herwald, Bp. of Llandaff, 209 ».'", 367

M.25, 442 M.189, 4^9, 592 and n?^.
Hirfryn, 268, 719 n?^.
Historia Brittonum (Nennius), 223-6

and MM.i'*!-^.
" Hoianau " quoted, 691-2.
Holyhead (Caer Gybi)—

Clas at, 203, 205 M.^", 218, 457.

Danish ravaging of (961), 351.

Legend of, 232 and n.^.
Holyhead Island, Roman remains at, 89.
Holywell castle, 632.
Honorius, Emp., 93, 94, 100.

— I., Pope, 202.
— • n., Pope, 480.

— HI., Pope, 651 and n.^^^, 665.
Hope, 198, 387 ; lordship, 760, 761.
Hospitality general in mediteval Wales,

306-7.
Hubert de Burgh. See Burgh.
Hugh, Bp. of St. Asaph, 686 and m.^^*,
689 M.20'*, 694, 696 M.12.

— the Ass (Lasne), 394 w.^^i,

— the Fat (of Avranches). See under

Chester, Earls of.
Humfreville, Robert of, 440, 441 n.^^^.
Huntington castle, 670 n.^^, 734.

— lordship, 740 n.^i*.
Hussa, King of Bernicia, 163.
Hwlffordd. See Haverford.
Hyfaidd ap Bledri, 262 and «.^®', 327,

328.
Hywel (886), 204 n.**.

— ab Edwin, King of Deheubarth, 358,

360-1.

— ab leuaf, King of Gwynedd, 344,

350-

— ab leuaf, of Arwystli, 493 and n.'^^,

496, 510, 566 and n.^^^, 598.

— ab lorwerth of Caerleon, 541, 545-69

572 and MM.^^*-'', 600 and n.^^*,

— ab Ithel, of Rhufoniog, 383, 384

n.^'', 416, 465-6.

— ab Owain ab Edwin, 384 w.*'', 393.

• — ab Owain ap Morgan, 348 and w.'""^
362 and n.^'^.

— ab Owain Gwynedd, hostilities of,

against Cadwaladr, 489-90 ; cap-
tures Carmarthen castle, 501 ;
destroys Castell Gwis, 502 ; im-
prisons Cadfan, 491 w.^', 504;
death of, 549 and m.®"* ; poetic
talent of, 533-4; otherwise men-
tioned, 427 M.^^, 504 and n.""^, 511.

— ap Cadwallon, 558, 585.

— ap Caradog, 237.

— ap Cynan, 666.

— ap Gronw, 406 n.''^ 407, 415-6.

— ap Gruffydd ap Cynan, 613 and

n.^, 622, 634 and m."^, 647 and

Hywel ap Madog ab Idnerth, 477 n.^^.

— ap Madog ap Gruffydd, 684, 709

M.*^^, 729, 741, 747 atid H.i''2.

— ap Maredudd ap Bleddyn, 465 m.^",

477 M.^".

— ap Maredudd ap Caradog of Miskin,

674 and n.'°3, 700 »,*", 703 n.",
712 and nfi\

— ap Maredudd ap Rhydderch of

Cantref Bychan, 470 n.^^, 472, 477
and n.^i.

— ap Maredudd of Brycheiniog, 470

and M.31, 477 and n.*'".

— ap Rhodri Molwynog, King of Gwy-

nedd, 231, 323.

— ap Rhys, Kin? of Glywysing, 275

and n.2^2, 276 and n.^'^'', 327 and
n.29, 347, 348-

— ap Rhys ap Tewdwr, 401 and n.^.

— Dda (the Good), King of South

Wales, dominions of, 333 ; visit to
Rome, 334-5 and w.^s ; close re-
lations with English Court, 335-7 ;
English land charters attested by,
336, 353 ; ruler of all Wales, 337 ;
codification of laws by, 284, 294,
338-43 ; death of, 342.

— Sais ap Rhys ap Gruffydd, released

by Henry II., 542 ; in Normandy,
544 ; given St. Clear's, 576 ; sup-
ports his brother Maelgwn, 577-8,
releases his father, 580 ; death of,
618 and M.3^.

Iago ab Idwal ap Meurig, King of Gwy-
nedd, 181 M.80, 358, 379.

— ab Idwal Foel, King of Gwynedd,

337aMrfw.65, 344, 348,349.

— ap Beli, King of Gwynedd, 181 and

lal—

Cistercian movement in (Valle Crucis
Abbey), 602 and mm.^^"-^.

Gwynedd's acquisition of, 492, 494.

Madog ap Gruffydd in possession of,
584 a7td w.*^.

Situation and features of, 244-5.

otherwise mentioned, 389, 709, 747.
Iberians —

Characteristics of, 15, 38 and n.^^.

Druidism originating with, 44.

Picts identified with, 29.

Silures. See that heading.

Silurian affinities with, 15-6, 25.

Villeins the remnant of, 297.
Ida, King of Bernicia, 162.
Idris, ruler of Meirionydd, 251 and

Idwal Foel, King of Gwynedd, 332-3,
335-7 and nn.^^, s*.

— leuaf. See leuaf,

796

INDEX

VOL. I.

1-356

lestyn ap Gwrgant, King of Morgannwg,

402, 440.
leuaf (Idwal), 337 and n.^^, 344, 349,
leuan ap Sulien, 256 m.^*^, 460-1.
Ifor ab Idnerth, 406.

— ap Meurig (Ifor Bach), 507-8 and

n.''9.
Illtud, St., 137, 143-S and «m.95-1»*, 210.
Imprisonment of captives, 385.
Ingimund, 330-1 and n.^*.
Inheritance, law of, 286, 587.
Innocent II., Pope, 446, 481.

— III., Pope, on Manx marriage ques-

tion, 617 and n.*8 ; interdicts John,
620 ; the St. David's controversy,
626-30 and nJ^ ; encourages
Welsh against John, 638 ; John's
submission to, 641 ; denounces
Magna Carta, 647.

— IV., Pope, 702.
lona, 202, 2 10.

lorwerth, Bp. of St. David's, 603-4 °"*'^
«."«, 651, 653, 688 and n.i96.

— ab Owain ap Caradog of Gwynllwg,

Richard fitz Gilbert destroyed by,
471 ; marriage of, 484 ; succeeds
Morgan, 507 and n.^" ; deprived of
Caerleon, 540 ; retaUation, 541 ;
continued hostilities against
Henry, 545-6.

— ab Owain Gwynedd, 549 n.^*, 550.

— ap Bleddyn, 412-5, 419, 420.

— ap Madog (lawyer), 354-5, 690 and

— ap Madog of Maelor, 703 «.''.

— Goch (the Red) ap Maredudd, 496,

500, 509, 516, 520.
Ireland —

Anglo-Norman conquest of, as affect-
ing Wales, 537.
Cadwallon's flight to, 185 and m.*^
Christianising of, by St. Patrick,

109.
Churches of, submission by, to Rome

(7th cent.), 202.
Culture of, in gth cent., 220-1.
Danes in —

Anglesey ravaged by, 322, 326.
Dublin and Limerick dynasties,

352.
English alliance with, 365, 515, 517-

8 and n.^^.
Finngall in contest with, 322 n.'".
Ingimund's expulsion, 330 and

».S8.

Slave-trading by, 292.

Welsh alliances with, 398, 409,
490 and «.^*.
Edward invested with (1254), 714.
Eisteddfod competitors invited from,

548.

Ireland (cont.) —

Gildas' visit to, 142.

Giraldus Cambrensis' visits to (1183),
560 and M.130 ; (1185), 561.

John's expedition to (1210), 631-2.

Monasticism in (6th cent.), 142.

Ogam inscriptions of, 113, 114.

Roman remains in, 97.

Scots from, 95-6.

Traditions as to, in ancient Wales,
III and n.^''.
Is Cennen, 268, 269, 719 n.^^.
Isabella, wife of William Marshall,

571-

— de Breos, wife of David ap Llywelyn,

670, 671, 687, 705 n.*"".

— (Isabel, Hawise, Avice), of Glou-

cester, first wife of King John and
of Earl of Essex, 571 awSw.!^^, 575,
620 n.''^, 649, 651 and n.^^i.

— of Angouleme, second wife of King

John, 711 K.io^.

— of Sai, 570.
Isca (Caerleon) —

Inscriptions at, 76.
Outposts of, 77, 79.
Roman camp and fortress at, 53,

76-7 ; purpose of, 82.
— roads from, 77.
Second Augustan legion at, 60, 76.
otherwise mentioned, 103 and n.**,
105.
Iscoed in Ceredigion, 260, 618 n.^^, 700

».'^ 710.
Isles of the Saints, 213.
Ismail (Ysfael), St., 264.
Ithel ab Athrwys, 274.

— ap Morgan, 274.

— ap Rhiryd ap Bleddyn, 417, 419.
Itinerary of Antonine, cited, 63.

" ludeu, Restoration of," 190 and

Iwerydd, 407 n.^^.

Jesters at Welsh Court, 563 and «."*.
Joan, wife of Llywelyn ab lorwerth,
illegitimacy of, 616 jj.^s, 665;
marriage of, 616 and n.^^ ; inter-
mediary between Llywelyn and
John, 635, 665, 667 and ».''* ; warns
John, 639 ; intrigue with William
de Breos, 670 and n.^^ ; reinstate-
ment of (1231), 685 and w.^''^ ; death
and burial of, 686 ; estimate of,
685 ; mentioned, 642, 677 w.^^i.
John, Bp. of St. Asaph, 745 n."".
— , King of England, marriage of, with
Hawise of Gloucester, 575 ;
patches up a peace in Wales
(1189), 575; policy of, during
Richard's absence, 579; relations

VOL. II.
357-771

INDEX

797

with Gwenwynwyn, 614-5, ^^9
and n.^^t 621, 623 ; relations with
Maelgwn, 618 ; under interdict,
619-20 ; Welsh policy of, 614 ;
friendly relations with Llywelyn,
614-7, 622-3 ; attitude to the St.
David's claim, 628 and n.'''', 629 ;
Irish expedition (1210), 631-2 ;
hostile relations with Llywelyn,
631-4 ; expeditions against Lly-
welyn (121 1), 634-5 ; English
hatred of, 637 ; vengeance on
Welsh hostages, 693 and w.^^^
cancels preparations for great
Welsh expedition, 639 and ny^"^
submits to the Pope, 641 ; seeks
Welsh support, 642-3 and nw.^^^-^
Magna Carta, 646 ; favours Gwen
wynwyn (1216), 649 and nn}^-^
death of, 650 ; otherwise men-
tioned, 561, 571, 606 M.i'"', 688
and n,^^^.

— XXL, Pope, 756 n.205.

— , son of Warin of Montchesny, 711

— of Monmouth, 643 and m.^'^, 679

and n.'^^^, 696 n.'^'^, 699, 702.

— of Monmouth (son of preceding),

713-

— of St. Quintin, 679 m.^^*.

— of Torrington, 596.

— the Scot, 657, 677 and n.^2% 696,
Jordan, Archdeacon of Brecknock, 557

and M.i'^.
Joseph, Bp. of LlandaflF, 204 n.*^, 361

».^. 367 «.^®, 449 M.^^*.
Judge of the Court, 315.
Julius of Isca, 103 and n.*^.
Justinianus (? Giustilianus), 154 and

Kbndbrchurch in Archenfield 272

Kenfig, 571 ; stone, 112.

Kentigern (Cyndeyrn), St., 166.

Keri (Ceri), 253 andnn.^^*, i^**, 255 w.^***.

{See also Kerry.)
Kerry —
Cydewain associated with, 559 n.^^'^,

740 n."''.
English acquisition of (1276), 758.
Lljrwelyn ap Gruffyd's possession of,
734. 740, 748.
Kerry campaign (1228), 667-9.
Kidwelly, 618 and n.'^^, 659 and n."^*,
699, 712 and M.^i", 719, 751 and

— battle of (1136), 470 and n. 32.

— borough of, 430.

— castle, 648, 674.

— priory, 432.

Kings or chiefs —
Aillts of, 294.
Court of, persons constituting, 301

Division of kingdoms on death of,

309-10.
Fees to, 218, 311.
Food renders to, 312-3 and nn.^^"^,

139_

Fosterage of children of, 310, 379,

549-50-

Free quarters, right to, 312.

Guard of (teulu), 316-7.

Heirs of, position of, 309-10 and

MW.123.4_

Homage by, to English crown, 328.

Military expeditions of, 317.

Officers of the court of, 314-6.

Privileges of, 311-4.

Property reverting to, 31 1-2.

Residences of, 313-4.

Villeins of, 313.
Kinnerley castle, 661 and n.'^^, 678 n}"^^.
Kinsige, Abp. of York, 449 and w.^^".
Knighton, 394 and m.^^i^ ^27 ; manor,

658 n.^' ; castle, 730.
Knights Hospitallers, 596, 604 and

n."®, 690.
Knucklas castle, 713 m."**, 730.

La Tene, Galatic remains at, 33, 34.

La Zuche, Alan, 709, 735.

Lacy, Hugh de, 405, 443.

— , Margaret, 714 w.i^o.

— , Matilda, 713-4 and m.™.

— , Roger de, 395, 397, 405, 443.

— , Walter de (d. 1085), 395 and n^^^.

— , — (d. 1241), 631, 643 and «.^^^

679 M.186, 714 n.iao.
Lake dwellings, 7.
Land —

Charters of, English, attested by
Welsh kings, 336, 353.

Disputes regarding, settlement of,

303-4-
Encroachment, Welsh passion for,

305-
Goods and chattels as distinguished

from, 259 n."^*, 311.
Status dependent on possession of,

293.
Succession, law of —

Free trefs, in, 299, 300 and n.^^.
Taeogdrefs, in, 296, 297.
Taeogdref, 296.
Uchelwrs, tenure by, 299.
Waste, regarded as the king's, 311.
Lanfranc, Abp. of Canterbury, 448.
Langley, Geoffrey, 714, 717, 727 n.^^.
Langton, Stephen, Abp. of Canterbury,
619, 641-2, 662.

798

INDEX

VOL. 1.
1-356

Lantarnam (Caerleon) Abbey, 600 and

nii."8-8.
Lantwit Major. See Llanilltud Fawr.
Laugharne (Talacharn), 265-6, 543, 574
n.S 751-

— castle, Welsh capture and loss of

(end of i2th cent.), 574 and ».* ;

648, 721.
Laundry, John, 751 n.'^.
Laurence, Prior of Bardsey, 629 n.^".
Laurentius, Abp. of Canterbury, 178.
Law, criminal, in mediaeval times,

305-7-
Laws, Welsh codes of —

Character of, non-Roman, 88.

Editions of, 284.

Hywel's codification of, 284, 294,

338-43 ; amendments by Bleddyn,

378.
Latin versions of, 342, 355-6.
Recensions of, three, 341-2, 354-6'
Right to live recognised by, 306.
Venedotian Code, 354-5, 6go and

Lawyers not drawn from clergy, 341.

le Sor, John, 679 nP^.

— , Robert, 440-1 and n."', 651 «."».

le Wafre, Robert, 730 «.'".

Leicester, Countess of, 756-7 and n?^^.

— Earl of (Simon de Montibrt), heads

party of reform (1263), 731 ;
understanding with Llywelyn,
732 ; success of, 732 ; agrees to
arbitration of St. Louis, 733 ;
battle of Lewes, 734 ; confederacy
with Llywelyn, 734-5 ; Cheshire
granted to, 735 and n.»* ; Treaty
of Pipton, 736-7 and n.*" ; death
at Evesham, 737; mentioned,
728.

Leintwardine, 73, 395.

Leofgar, Bp. of Hereford, 367-8.

Leofric, Earl of Mercia, 368.

Leofwine, Earl of Mercia, 351.

Leominster, 363, 676 and n."''.

Lestrange, Hamo, 732, 733, 738.

— Hawise. See Hawise.

— John, 696 and n.", 697 n.^', 702,

719.
Letard Little King, 475 and n.".
Leucarum, 78.
Lewes, battle of (1264), 734.
Lincoln, battle of (1141), 489.
Literary revival in 12th cent., 523, 528.
Llan Degeman church, 208.

— Usyllt church, 208.

— y Gwyddyl, battle of, 120.

— Ysmael church, 208,
Llanafan Fawr church, 253.
Llanamddyfri (Llandovery), 429 and

n.io», 580.

Llanamwlch, 145; cromlech, looftdn.'",

12.
Llanarmon yn lal, 6-7, 748, n.^^ej

church, 245 and «.***.
Llanarthneu church, 158 and n.^** ; clas,

268.
Llanbadarn Fawr (in Ceredigion), 74

M.''^, 206, 208 and n.87, 258 and nn.

^'''-^ 360; cell formed at, 432-3

and n."i,
Llanbeblig, 67, 235, 746.
Llanbister, 558 ; church, 256 and n>'^'^.
Llancarfan (Nant Carfan) in Morgan-
nwg, 158, 206 and n.^"^, 276-7,

457-
LlandafT —

Archmonastery a title of, 207.

Book of St. Chad at, 214 and n.^"-*,

222-3.
Dyfrig's remains transferred to, 147.
Gwent property of, 279.
Llandeilo Fawr claimed by, 268.
— Ferwallt claimed by, 269-70,
Re-dedication of, by Normans, 459

and M.ass.
Spoliation of, by Normans, 458.
Subordination of, to English Primate,
449-50.
Llanddewi Brefi, 74, 259.
Llanddowror, 266; church, 208 n.®*.
Llandeilo (nr. Maenclochog), 114.

— Abercywyn church, 208 n.^^.

— Fawr church, 268 and n. 225 ; battle

of (1213), 641 ; mentioned, 680.

— Ferwallt (Bishopston), 269-70.
Llandeulyddog (Carmarthen) church,

208, 266, 428, 431.
Llandinam, 206 and «.**, 510; church

249-50 and n.^i".
Llandough, 206, 276 «.^*.
Llandovery —
Cell at, of Great Malvern, 596 and

«."■>.
Clifford overthrow in, 477 ; reinstate-
ment (1158), 507 and «.■">.
English acquisition of (1276), 758.
Llandovery castle, 429, 434, 511, 618,
619, 633, 649, 663 «.*^, 761.

— (Llanamddyfri) church, 429 and

— town, 606 and n.^''".
Llandrillo (Dinerth) church, 240.
Llandrygarn chapel, 218.
Llandudoch, battle of (1091), 398.

— church, 431

Llandudclud (Penmachno) church' 236,

550 and w.^".
Llandyfrydog church, 409 and n.^''.
Llanfaes (Anglesey), 232 and n.^^, 686

and n.i*3.
Llanfair Caereinion church, 218, 248.

VOL. II.
357-771

INDEX

799

Llanfair Mathafarn Eithaf, 499 and nJ>* ;
cromlech near, 13.

— ym Muellt church, 253. (See also

Builth.)
Llanfihangel Castell Gwallter, 427 n.^",

472, 504 and nJ^.
Llangadock castle, 619, 621.
Llangadwaladr (Anglesey) 182, 231.

— (Bishton), 279.

Llangarran in Archenfield, wooden

church at, 209 n.''^.
Llangathen church, 267.
Llangenydd, 592 and n.^^, 646 n}^^ ;

priory, 432, 440.
Llangors, 151 and w.^^", 272, 439, 752

M.^*'^ ; lake dwelling, 7.
Llangurig church, 250, 598 m.^^".
Llangyfelach church, 158, 205 m.^", 269

and n.234,

Llangynidr church, 272 m.^^*.
Llangynllo church, 256 n?-^^.
Llangynwyd castle, 721 and n.^^,
Llanhuadein (Lawhaden) church, 264.
Llanidan (Anglesey), 55 nP''^ ; stone

circle in, 23.
Llanidloes church, 250.
Llanilltud Fawr, 144 and n. ^'"', 457 ;

wheel crosses of, 275-6. (See also

Llantwit Major.)
Llanio (Luentinum), 39, 74.
Llanllugan nunnery, 603 and ».'**, 648

Llanllyr nunnery, 603 and n.^^"^,
Llannerch, 241.

— Hudol, 248, 709.

— Panna, 189 and nP*.
Llanrhystud, 596 w."^ ; castle, 504,

506.
Llanrwst, battle of (954), 344, 345.
Llansadwrn church, 150 and m.^'*.
Llansannan, 150, 241.
Llansantfifraid Cwm Toyddwr, 253 nP^,

598, M.124.

— (Elfael) nunnery at, 599-600.
Llansilin church, 246.
Llanstephan, 502, 751 ; castle, 574, 648,

721.
Llanthony priory, 445-6 and ^iji.^^'-",

625.
Llantilio (White Castle), 644 and n}^^.

677 W.123.

Llantwit Major, 83, 205, 206, 222 and

M.13*. (See also Llanilltud Fawr.)
Llanwinio stone, 113 m.''^.
Llanwnda church, 557.
Llanwnnog church, 250.
Llanwnnws, inscribed stone at, 220 and

Llanwrin church, 251.
Llanymawddwy church, 148.
Llanynys, claswyr of, 206 and «.*•'.

Llawddog, St., 266, 459.
Lleision ap Morgan Gam, 713 m."^.
Llew Llaw Gyfifes, 238, 245, 317.
Lleyn —

Commotes of, 236-7.

Danish ravaging of (later loth cent.),

351-
Gruffydd ap Llywelyn in possession

of, 692, 693.
Llywelyn's acquisition of (1201), 613.
Name, meaning of, 236.
Owain Goch established in (1277),

759-
otherwise mentioned, 40, 379, 380,
382, 589, 708 and M.81.
Llowes in Elfael, hermit of, 217-8.
Llugwy cromlech, 10 m.^^, 12.
Llygad Gwr cited, 748 n.^^^.
Llyn Llydaw lake dwelling, 7-8.
• — Syfaddon, 272, 331. {See also Llan-
gors.)

— Tegid (Pimblemere, Bala Lake),

24s and n.83, 566 n.^^».
Llywarch ab Elidyr, 165.

— ab Owain, 466.

— ap Hyfaidd, King of Dyfed, 333.

— ap Llywelyn (bard) quoted, 683,

691.

— ap Trahaearn, 419, 422, 435, 467,

493 «-^*. 549 «•**•

— H€n (the aged), 169-70, 246, 323.

324-

— the Red of Rhos, 686.
Llywel, 272.

Llywelyn ab Idnerth, 406 n.^J,

— ab lorwerth Drwyndwn, family and

upbringing of, 587 and nn. ^*-* ;
rivalry of, with Gwenwynwyn of
Powys, 573, 613 ; defeats Dafydd
ab Owain, 588; territories of, in
Gwynedd (1195), 589 ; progress of
(1199-1203), 612; reprisals against
Elise, 614 ; friendly relations with
King John, 614-7, 622-3 \ becomes
Lord of all Gwynedd (1200), 615 ;
treaty of 1201 with King John,
615 ; marriage with Joan of Eng-
land, 616 ; occupies Southern
Powys, 621 ; supports the St.
David's claim, 627 n.'''*, 629 and
n.^" ; hostile relations with John,
631-4 ; terms of submission to
John, 636 ; with John at Cam-
bridge (1212), 637; re-captures
former possessions, 638 ; receives
English manors from John, 647 ;
leader of all Welsh chieftains
(Dec. 1215), 647-8 ; successes,
648 ; crushes Gwenwynwyn, 649-
50; partition of S. Wales (1216),
649, 656 ; hostilities against

8oo

INDEX

VOL. I.
1-356

Reginald de Breos, 652 ; Peace of
Worcester, 653-5 : friendly rela-
tions with England, 656-7 ; cor-
dial relations with Earl Ranulf
of Chester, 657 ; supports John de
Breos, 658 ; hostile relations with
William Marshall, 659-61 ; de-
prived of Cardigan, Carmarthen
and Montgomery castles, 662 ;
submits to Henry, 663 ; continu-
ance of friendly relations with
England, 664-5 > authoritative
position towards Welsh princes,
666 ; the Kerry campaign, 667-g ;
title assumed by, in 1230, 66g,
682 and n.i*** ; intrigue of Joan
and execution of William de
Breos, 670-1 and nn/^-^ ; hos-
tilities against Hubert de Burgh,
673-5 and n.i"'' ; excommunicated,
675; truce of Novr. 1231, 676;
joins baronial opposition to Henry,
679 ; scope of authority and over-
lordship of, 682-3 ; relations with
his son Gruffydd, 686 ; attitude
towards religious bodies, 689-90 ;
paralytic stroke, 692 ; death of,
693 ; bards in age of, 691 ; other-
wise mentioned, 245, 565, 601
and n}^, 604.

ab Owain ap Maredudd, 750 ny>^.

ab Owain Fychan, 683 and n.*^"*,
709 «.''', 748.

ab Owain Gwynedd, 549 «."■'.

ap Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, shares
Gwynedd inheritance with Owain,
707 ; defeats and imprisons his
brother, 'jv^andnn}'^'^-^; successes
of 1256-7, 717-22; assumes title
of Prince of Wales, 723-4 and
M.^3 . truce of 1257, 722 and n?^ ;
of 1258, 722-3 ; of 1259, 726 ; of
1260, 728 and n.^"^; alliance with
Scotch, 724-5 and nn.*"^-^, 746-7 5
campaign in Maelienydd, 730 and
K.** ; destroys Diserth castle, 732 ;
gains Degannwy castle, 732-3 ;
understanding with Earl Simon,
732 ; receives submission of
Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, 733-4
and n.^"' ; confederacy with
Earl Simon, 734-5 ; satisfied as to
his Cheshire border, 735 ; Treaty
of Pipton, 736-7 and m.^" ; suc-
cesses after Evesham, 738 ; Treaty
of Montgomery, 739-41 and n?^^ ;
keeps Owain imprisoned, 742 and
«.i2o J relations with the church,
744 et seq. ; relations with vassals,
747-8 ; conspiracy of Gruffydd
ap Gwenwynwyn against (1274),

748-9, 755-6 n.203; conquest of
S. Powys by, 750 ; dispute regard-
ing Caerphilly, 753-4 and m.^** ;
relations with Henry HI. (1267-
72), 754-5 ; marriage by proxy to
Eleanor of Montfort, 757 and
M.*"*; hostilities ot 1276-7, 758-g ;
Treaty of Conway, 759; marri-
age with Eleanor of Montfort,
761 ; hostilities of 1282, 761-2 ;
death and burial, 763 ; estimate
of, 738, 74l"2 ; comparison of,
with Llywelyn the great, 738 ;
comparison as to territories, 741 ;
otherwise mentioned, 703 m.",
739 «."'*•

— ap Gruffydd ap Madog, 747-8 and

— ap Madog, 509.

— ap Maredudd ap Llywelyn, 718 and

— ap Rhys ap Maelgwn, 750 n}''"'.

— ap Seisyll, 347.

— Fawr ap Maredudd ap Cynan, 647-

8, 683, 698 n.2s, 703 n.'^J, 709 H.''2.

— Fychan ap Llywelyn ab Owain

Fychan, 683 m.^'">, 697 n}^, 703
n.^^, 709 and n."^.

— Fychan ap Maredudd ap Cynan,

6g8 M.28^ yo3 M.'i.
Longchamp, William, Justiciar, 579.
Loughor castle, 645 ?j.i**. {See also

Leucarum.)
Louis VHL, King of France, 647, 651,

653.

— IX., King of France, 733-4.
Lucius, King of the Britains, legend as

to, 103 and n.*^.

— n.. Pope, 481.
Ludlow, 661 n.-**, 713, 735.
Lupus of Troyes, 106.

Lybian race, Welsh affinities with
language of, 16.

Mabelfvw, 267, 719 «.i8.
Mabinogion, date of, 692.
Mabudryd, 267, 719 w.^* ; castle in, 501

and M.*^.
Mabwnion, 259, 663 n.*'', 700 m.^";

castle, 514.
" Maccudecceti " inscription, 114, 121.
Machen, 712, 713 m.^^^ ; chapel, 278

n.^** ; castle, 701 nS^.
Macsen Wledig, 93 and n.^, 100.
Madog ab Idnerth of Rhwng Gwy a

Hafren, 406 n.^^, 477 and n.'*".

— ab lorwerth Goch, 553.

— ap Bleddyn, 398.

— ap Cadwgan, 417 w.''^.

— ap Gruffydd Maelor L, territories of,

583-4 ; supports the St. David's

VOL. II.
357-771

INDEX

801

claim, 627 nP^ ; friendly with
Llywelyn (1205), 634 «."* ;
against Llywelyn (1211), 634;
relations with John (1212), 638
and M.131 ; (1215), ^42 ; supports
Llywelyn (Dec. 1215), 648;
fidelity of, to Llywelyn, 683 and
WM,i58-iB« ; otherwise mentioned,
602 and w.^^i, 616 ».2^.

— ap Gruffydd Maelor IL, 747.

— ap Gwenwynwyn of Mawddwy,

703 «/'!, 725 w.^'', 748 and n.i""*.

— (Fychan) ap Madog ap Gruffydd,

684, 703 M.^^, 709 n.^'', 725 M.*'',
747 and M.i®^.

— ap Maredudd of Powys, at battle of

Lincoln, 489 ; power and domain
of, 492-4 and nn?^-'^ ; death of,
508-9 and w.*^; otherwise men-
tioned, 496 and M.*®, 533, 566

W.^-"'', 584 M.'*^.

— ap Rhiryd ap Bleddyn, 417, 419-21.
Maedhog of Ferns, St., 155 and

Maelgwn ab Owain Gwynedd, 549
M.^S 550, 551.

— ap Cadwallon ap Madog of Maelie-

nydd, 563, 567, 585.

— ap Gruffydd ap Rhys, 435, 470.

— ap Rhys ap Gruffydd, dons the

cross, 563 ; local support of, 577
and n?^ ; enmity of, against
Gruffydd, 577-8 and n}^, 584 ;
imprisoned (11 89) and released
(1192), 578 ; imprisons his father
(1194), 578 ; captures Aberystwyth
and secures Gruffydd, 584 ;
worsted by Gruffydd, 617 ; aided
by King John, 617-8 ; sells Car-
digan to King John (1199), 606
nP^, 618 ; supports the St. David's
claim, 627 n?''\ 629 ; surprised
by Rhys and Owain, 633-4; turns
against John, 637, 638 ; relations
with John (1215), 642 ; in alliance
with Rhys and Owain ap Gruffydd,
645 ; with Llywelyn (Dec. 1215),
648 ; territories allotted to (1216),
649 ; accession of territory to, on
death of Rhys leuanc, 657 ; sub-
mits to Henry, 663 and «.^^ ; death
of, 674 n}^^ ; otherwise mentioned,
576, 634, 636, 662, 666 and m.*^**.

— Fychan ap Maelgwn ap Rhys — in

the war of 123 1, 674 ; resists
Gilbert Marshall, 695 and ».»;
against David, 697 ; reduced to
two commotes, 710 ; death of,
710 M."^ ; otherwise mentioned,
680, 700 np, 703 M.'i.

— Gwynedd, 117, 128-31, 145, 529.

Maelienydd —

Cistercian Abbey in (1143), 594.
Dispute as to (1220), 657 and n?^.
Dynasty of, 40(6 n.^\ 477 n.^^.
Llywelyn's campaign in (1262), 730

and M.^^.
Mortimer recovery of (1144), 479,

501.
Situation and features of, 255.
Treaty of Montgomery as con-
cerning, 740.
otherwise mentioned, 253 and w.^*",
436 n}"^, 580, 713.
Maelor, English character of, 366.
Maelor, Welsh (Bromfield) —
Commotes of, 477 and w.^*".
Conquest of, temporary, by Earl of

Chester (1177), 565.
otherwise mentioned, 244, 709 and
w.**^, 747.
Maelor Saesneg —
English possession of, 747 and n}'^'^.
Llywelyn ab lorwerth's overlordship

of, 683 and M.^^*.
otherwise mentioned, 389 h.'"", 491,
583 «.4^, 584 and «.'*•''.
Maenclochog, 645.
Maenols, 297 m.''", 313 n.^*".
Maenor Deilo, 267, 719 n}^.
Maerdref, court of, 308 and w.^^^.
Maes Gwenith, 278, 279 m.^**".

— Gwenllian, battle of (i 136), 470.

— Maen Cymro, battle of (1118), 465

and M.i'*.

— Mynis church, 253.
Magesaetas (Hecana), 196.
Maglova, 70.

Magna Carta, 646 and nn}-^^-"''^.
Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway,
408 «.3'', 409-10, 413 w.*^, 414.

— (Maccus), son of Harold Hardrada,

352 and M.i20^ 269.
Mahel, Lord of Brecknock and Upper
Gwent, 547 and nn.^^-'',

— son of Bernard of Neufmarchd, 438.
Malbanc, William, 381.

Malcolm the Maiden, King of Scotland,

496, 513-
Mallaen, 267, 719 n}^.
Malpas (nr. Caerleon), priory at, 444.
Man, Isle of —

Edwin's conquest of, 184.

Merfyn's origin in, question as to,

324 and M.i^.
Norsemen in (798), 322 ; (1102), 414.
Rhodri ab Owain's allies from (1193),
588.
Manaw Gododin, 116, 117, 324 and

Manawyddan ap Llyr, 122.
Mandeville, Geoffrey de. See Essex.

8o2

INDEX

VOL. I.
1-356

Manorbier, 555 and n.»i ; castle, 423,

503"
Manx language, affinities of, 19, 20,
Marared, dau. of Gruffydd ap Cynan,

464 n?.
March. See Border.
Marcus, Bp., 213 »j."S 220 m.^^t.
Maredudd, King of Dyfed, 262.
_ ab Edwin, King of Deheubarth,

358, 360.
ab Owain ab Edwin, King of

Deheubarth, 372, ^6-7, 39^.
_ ab Owain ap Gruffydd, 700 and

n.3», 703 n.", 710, 718, 720-1, 725

and n.-*'.
_ ab Owain ap Hywel Dda, King of

Deheubarth, 344, 345-6, 347. 35°.

351-
_ ap Bleddyn, 412, 415, 417. 42I»

422, 463, 464-S ^.

— ap Cadwgan, 417 nJ", 422.

— ap Caradog ab lestyn, 572 «."'.
ap Cynan, hostilities of, with

Rhodri, 588; territories of (1195-
1200), 589 ; deprived of land by
Llywelyn, 613; death of, 648
W.181 ; otherwise mentioned, 551,
564, 602 and 7tn.^"-^.

— ap Gruffydd, 713 and »."*.

— ap Gruffydd ap Rhys, 435, 475 <»««

n.", 501-2, 505-

— ap Hywel, Lord of Edeyrmon, 509

of, under Treaty of Montgomery,
740 ; death and burial of, 750 and
M.i''9 ; otherwise mentioned, 699,
703 «.*S 725 n.'»'', 729.
— Ddall ap Rhys ap Gruffydd, 517 and

n.i2o, 580 n.^\ 597-
Mar gam —

Church, 151, 275; crosses at, 222,

276.
Cistercian convent of, 440 «."', 595

and »."«, 600 M."», 674.
Name of, 275 n.^\
Margaret, wife of lorwerth Drwyndwn,

587 and M."",
_, — of John de Breos, 658, 677 n.^^e,
_, — of Owain ap Maredudd, 710

Maridunum, 39, 74-5, 266. (See also

Carmarthen.)
Marriage customs of mediaeval Wales,

289-90 and wn.2», «, »».
Marshall, Earl. See Pembroke, Earl of.
— , Anselm, 711 and «."*.
— , Isabella, 712 n.^".
— , Joan, 711 M.i»».
— , Matilda, 712 and n.^"^.
Martin of Tours, 425 and «.■"*.
— of Tours, St., 105 and nJ>'^.
Maserfeld (? Oswestry), battle of (642),

188-9 and nw.""-".
Massalia (Marseilles), Greek colony at,
28.

— ap Hywel ap Maredudd, 477 n.^"

— ap Madog ab Idnerth, 477 n.»».

— ap Madog ap Gruffydd, 684, 703

n.®^, 709 n."'.

— ap Maelgwn, 594 and nM.io^-"'.

ap Llywelyn ab Owain Fychan, 709

"•"^ 725 n-*^-

— ap Llywelyn Fawr ap Maredudd,

709 and n.^.

— ap Llywelyn Fychan of Mechain,

709 n.**^.

— ap Rhicert, 708 and n.^K

— ap Rhotpert of Cydewain, 603, 638

n.131, 648 n.i82, 663, 683, 697.

— ap Rhydderch, 429, 434- „,

— ap Rhys ap Gruffydd, 580 and n.^*,

581, 618 and n.=*^ 627 nJ^.

ap Rhys ap Gruffydd, Archdeacon

of Cardigan, 580 n.'^*.

ap Rhys Gryg — makes peace with

Henry, 710 ; territories of, 710
and n.^^ ; with Llywelyn in 1256
campaign, 717; restored in Ystrad
Tywi, 718-9; defeats the English
at Cymerau, 720-1 ; defection to
Henry avenged by Llywelyn, 724
andn.**; trial and imprisonment
of, by Llywelyn, 725-6 ; position

Mathrafal, 196 n.i», 249 and w."";

castle, 638.
Mathry church, 557.
Matilda, Emp., 441, 478-9. 494«
— , Queen, 445, 446.

— (Maud), wife of William de Breos,

585-6, 632.

— de Breos, wife of Gruffydd ap Rhys,

577 and M.^8, 618 and n.^^, 619

— de Breos, wife of Rhys Mechyll,

710 and «.'°".

— of Clare, wife of William de Breos

the younger, 658 n.^^.

Matilda's castle. See Painscastle.

Maud, wife of Richard Earl of Glou-
cester, 700 n.*".

Mauger, Bp. of Worcester, 629 m.^S
630.

Maurice of London, 430 and n.^"", 470,

593-

— of Prendergast, 538 and «.".
Mawddwy, 250, 709. 74^ and m.i«».
Maximus, Emp., 92-3 and nn.^-\ 104.
Mechain, cantref of, 247 and nw.^''''-^

683, 709; battle of (1070), 377.

— Iscoed, 709 «.®^ 748.

— Uwchcoed, 720.
Mediolanium, 70-1.

VOL. II.
357-771

INDEX

803

Mediterranean race, Silurian affinities

with, 15-6.
Meering, law of, 305 and n?-^^.
Mefenydd, 258, 700 m.^*.
Meidrum, 266.
Meifod church, 218, 247-8 and n>^^,

508 and n.^'^.
Meigen, battle of (633), 186 and nn^^^-'^.
Meilyr (seer), 546 ww.'*^-'''', 599 «.^^^.
— , Canon of St. David's, 629.

— ab Owain, 467.

■ — ap Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn, 384-5.

— Brydydd, S31-2 ; poem by, 384 n.^^,

531-
Meirionydd —
Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd driven from,

490.
Cymer Abbey in, 602 and n.^*^.
Dynasty, situation, and features of,

250-2.
Gwynedd's acquisition of (1123), 466-

7-
Hugh's castle at, 392.
Hywel ap Gruffydd's acquisition of

(1202), 613.
Llywelyn ab lorwerth's overlordship

of, 683, 687 and M.191-
— ap Gruffydd's acquisition of (1256),

718.
Old name for, 119.
Restoration of, to sons of Maredudd,

698 and W.28.
Rhys' claim to, unavailing, 564-5.
otherwise mentioned, 550, 553, 589,
709 and M.*^.
Melangell, St., 247.
Menai Straits, Romans' passage of, 55,

58.
Mercia —

iEthelflaed's rule in, 331.
Ascendency of, under Penda and
Wulfhere, 186, 189, 195 ; under
Ethelbald and Offa, 197.
Cymry in alliance with, 185, 189,
Welsh alliance with, against Nor-
mans, 374.
West Saxon overlordship of, 325,
327 ; direct rule over, 332.
Merewald, King of the Hecana, 196.
Merfyn ap Rhodri, 326 and nP^ 332.

— Frych, King of Gwynedd, 224, 231

n?-^, 238, 323-4 and n.^^.
Merlin (Myrddin), 169-70.
Mersete, hundred of, 366, 389.
Meurig, Abbot of Cwm Hir, 600.
— , Bp. of Bangor, 469 n.^^, 481, 483-4

and ».*^, 521.
— , King of Glywysing, 274.

— ab Arthfael ap Rhys, King of Mor-

gannwg, 275 and n.^"!.

— ab Idwal, 346.

Meurig ap Gruffydd, 493.

— ap Hywel ab Owain, King of Mor-

gannwg, 348, 362, 367 and n.^^

— ap Tewdrig, 274.

— ap Trahaearn, 417.

Mevanian Is., 183-4 ^^^ ^•^- {^^^ o^^o

Anglesey and Man.)
Middle, Pact of (1234), 681.
Milburh, St., 196.

Miles of Gloucester. See under Here-
ford, Earls of.

— of St. David's, 538 and w.".
Milestones, Roman, 66-7, 75, 78.
Minstrels, professional, 45.
Miskin, 600, 674 n.^"^, 712 and m."^
Mochnant, division of, 246-7, 520.

— Is Rhaeadr, 709 n.^''.

— Uch Rhaeadr, 697 «.^', 709.
Moel Fenlli, 89, 243 and «.*".
Moelfre, battle of (1157), 499 and n.^*
Mold-
David ap Llywelyn's recovery of

(1245), 703-
English acquisition of (1247), 708 ;
recovery (1276), 758.
Mold castle —

Llywelyn ab lorwerth's capture of
(1199), 59a and M.81, possession
(1218), 654.
— ap Gruffydd's retention of (1267),

740 «."*.

Montalt barons' tenure of (1188),

570; their claim (1240), 695;

Roger in possession, 699 and n.'^^.

Owain's capture of (1146), 456 w.^^*,

467, 480, 492.
Site of, 492 M.^i.
Moldsdale (Ystrad Alun), 492 and n.^^.
Mon, Mona. See Anglesey.
Monasticism in British Church —
Cells, establishment of, under Nor-
mans, 431-2, 436-7. 443-4.
Cistercian foundations —
Characteristics of, 595-6.
Early types of, 593.
Llywelyn ab lorwerth's attitude

towards, 689-90.
Nunneries, 603 ; at Llansantffraid,
599, 603 ; sites of various, 597 et
seq.
Degeneration of communities, 214,

220.
Dominican Priories at Bangor and

Rhuddlan, 746.
Extension of monastic movement to

Britain, 105.
External relations of monasteries,2i3.
Gildas' attitude towards, 137.
Giraldus Cambrensis' attitude to-
wards, 556.
Growth of (in 6th cent), 141.

8o4

INDEX

VOL. I.
1-356

Monasticism (cont.) —

Ireland, in (6th cent.), 142.
Knights Hospitallers, 596, 604.
Learning of monks inconsiderable,

223- , ,

Life of monastic communities (7th

and 8th centuries), 208-13.
Llywelyn ab lorwerth's attitude to-
wards, 689-90.
_ ap Gruffydd's attitude towards,

746.
Meudw3raid groups before Norman

Conquest, 203 n?"^, 217.
Premonstratensian Order, 603.
Rhys ap Gruffydd's attitude towards,

596 et seq.
Rigorous school of, iSS-^-
Territorial endowments of communi-
ties, 214-5.
Monmouth, Norman settlement at, 375,
396 and n.^^^.

— castle, 375, 679, 737-

— priory, 444, 445 "•"*•
Montalt, barons of, 570, 695.
— , Robert of (i 199). 59°-
— , — of {1267), 74°- ^ , .,
_, Roger of, 695 ».«, 697, 699 and n.^\
Montfort, Eleanor of. See Eleanor.
— , Henry of, 734. 735- ,
— , Peter of, 731 and nJ*, 737 »• •
— , Simon de. See Leicester.
Montgomery —

Boilers lordship over, 570.
Gwenwynwyn's acquisition of, 649
and n.'^^
Montgomery (New)—
Building of, 662 and n.*'.
Burnt by Llywelyn ab lorwerth (1231),

673-4.
Sacked by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd

(1257), 719 w."".
Welsh recovery of, under Treaty of
Pipton, 736.
Montgomery, Arnulf, 401 and n.^ 412
n.*\ 413 afid n. **, 414 and n.", 424,
431 and n.^"^.
— , Hugh, Robert, Roger. See under

Shrewsbury, Earls of.,
— , Treaty of (1267), 739-41 and m."*.
Montgomery castle —

Building of, by Earl Roger, 389
de Burgh presented with (1228), 667.
Welsh capture of (1095), 405-
Montgomery lordship —

de Burgh presented with (1228), 607.
Edward invested with, 714.
Montgomeryshire, Roman forts in, 70-1.
Morcar, Earl of Northumbria, 374.
Morfran, Abbot, 206 «.", 49° and m.i*.
Morgan (British chief of late 6th cent.),
163, 165, 166.

Morgan ab Athrwys (Morgan Mwyn-
fawr), 274, 281.

— ab Owain ap Caradog, 471 n.^*, 470
and nn.^^-^, 507 and m.^".

— ap Cadwallon, 674 n."»

_ ap Cadwgan, 417 n.", 422.

— ap Caradog ab lestyn, 545, 572.

— ap Gruffydd ap Rhys, 435, 470.

— ap Hywel of Gwynllwg, 653 and
n.2'3, 674 and «.i"*, 70I and n.*\
712-3 n."*.

— ap Seisyll, 541- _ .

— Fychan ap Morgan Gam, 712 and

— Gam (Crookback), &7± and »."»,
703 ».", 712 and n."'*.

— H6n ab Owain ap Hywel, King of
Morgannwg, 336, 33^ and n. ,

348-
Morgannwg {see also Glamorgan) —

Cantrefs of, 275 et seq.

Commotes of, 301 n.«^.

de Burgh's influence in (1230), 673.

Independence of, 273.

Name, origin of, 274 atid nJ'^.

Norman conquest of, 402.
Morgeneu, Bp. of St. David's, 352.
Mortimer, Hugh, L, of Wigmore,
recovery by, of Elfael and
Maelienydd, 436* «-"^ 477.
479, 501; subjugated by
Henry H., 495. 49^ »"<* "• '
otherwise mentioned, 436, 477

_ — , n. (son of Roger I.), relations
' of, with John, 643 and n.i^s ;

death of, 666 and m."" ; men-
tioned, 657 and M.12, 658.
_, of Richard's castle, 735 »•• ^
— Ralph, L (1086), 388, 395. 397, 49^

_, -, H. (son of Roger L), 645 m.^*^
666 and «.6^ 7i3 and »."»
697 and «.'■*".

Roger, L, imprisoned (1179), 5^7

banished (1191). 579; df
feated by Rhys ap Gruffydd
581 ; death of, 657 n.^^ . men
tioned, 570, 580.

(son of Ralph H.), possessions

' of, on the border, 7^3 and

M."8 ; the fall of Builth, 727-8 ;
overwhelmed by Llywelyn
(1262), 730; joins Henry's
party (1263), 733 ; suff"s bar-
onial vengeance, 734; routed
by Llywelyn (1266), 738;
advocates no conipromise,
739 ; provision as to, in Treaty
of Montgomery, 740; men-
tioned, 719. 723-

VOL, II,

357-771

INDEX

805

Mur y Castell (Tomen y Mur), 68-9,

238, 405, 463.
Murkertagh O'Brien, King of Dublin,

413 and M,**, 414, 419.
Myddfai, 268-9 and n.229, 649 m.i»o,
Mynydd Cam, battle of (1081), 384-5
and n.^^, 531.

— Islwyn, 278 nP^, 600.

Mynyw (Menevia). See St, David's.
Myrddin (Merlin), 169-70,

Nanheudwy —

Madog ap Gruffydd in possession of,

584 and n.*^.
Situation of, 246 arid n.^"^.
Tudur ap Rhys Sais in possession of,

389 and M.!"".
mentioned, 467 and n?^, 602 n^^^.
Nanhyfer, See Nevern.
Nant Carfan. See Llancarfan.

— Carno, battle of (950), 344,

— Conwy, 236 and n.^^.

— Teyrnon (Lantarnam, Caerleon),

Abbey, 600 and nnP^-^.
Nantmel church, 256 w,^^^,
Narberth castle, 434, 648 and n}^'^,

660 and n.25, 721.
Natural children, Welsh law regarding,

286-7 and nn. ^^.s-
Neath Abbey, 440 nn.^*^, ^^^, 444 and
«,i", 594,

— castle, 440, 571-2, 674 and n?°^.
Nennius (Nyniaw), 204, 224, 226.
Neolithic age —

Cave remains of, 6-7.

Cromlechs a product of, 13,

Culture of, 5-6,

Geographical conditions of, 4-5.

Period of, 5.

Physical type and race of, 13-6.

Stone implements of, common to

succeeding age, 13.
Tombs of, 6, 8-10, 13.
Traces of, persisting, 4,
Weapons of, persisting, 13, 21, 41.
Nest (Agnes), wife of Bernard of

Neufmarch^, 397 n.^^^, 437, 438.

— , wife of Gerald of Windsor, 416-8,

442 M,^^8, 499 and nn.^^, ^^, 502

n.^*, 555-

— , — of Ifor ap Meurig, 507, 545 n.*^.

— , — of Merfyn Frych, 324 and n.^^;

325-
— , — of Osbern fitz Richard, 369 and

n.^, 395. 397 n,^*'-
Nether Went. See Gwent Iscoed,
Neufmarch^, Bernard of, 397 and n.^'*,

402, 436 and nn.^^-*, ^^, 457.
Nevern (Nanhyfer) —

Church at, 263 and n«,2'>i.3.
Cromlech at, 10 and «.*^.

Nevern (cont.) —
Cross at, 220-2, 263.
Norman remains at, 425.
Nevern (Nanhyfer) castle, 425, 576 and

M.", 578, 580, 648 M.I86. .
Newborough (Rhosyr — in commote of

Menai), 232, 499 «.*"', 686 n.^^K
Newcastle Emlyn (Castell Newydd),

726 and M.*^.
Newport (New Borough, Castell New-
ydd ar Wysg) —
Castle of, 442 and n.^^", 648 and
n.^^^, 675, 677 w.i^, 679, 721, 737.
St. Woollo's at, 159, 313 n}'^^, 442.
Nicholas, Abbot of Vaudey, 669 and

»t,^i ; 671.
— , Bp. of Llandaff, 484-5 and nn.^'^^-^,
525 w.i'^.

— of Meules, 707, 710.
Nobis, Bp. of Llandaff, 215.

— , Bp, of St. David's, 215, 226, 486.
Noe ab Arthur of Dyfed, 244.

— ap Gwriad, King of Gwent, 348.
Nonnita, mother of St. David, 153 and

nw.^o-^,
Norfolk, Roger, Earl of, 712 and n.^o^,
Normans —
Ecclesiastical policy of, 430-2, 436-7,

443-4. 457-9-
Defensive works of, 473-4.
Norsemen —
No settlement of, in Wales, 321.
Place-names due to, 321 and nn.^, ',

323 M.ii.
Wales ravaged by, 322-3.
Northumberland, Robert, Earl of, 405.
Northumbria —

Ascendency of — under Edwin, 183-5 ;
under Oswald, 188 ; under Oswy»
191.
Cadwallon's ravaging of, 186-7, 188.
Church of, submission by, to Rome

(664), 202.
Decline of (8th cent.), 197.
Irish monks in, 211 w.®*.
Monasteries of, degeneration of,
214.
Northumbrian Kings, record of, 162

and n.^.
Norton (Radnorshire), 394 and n.^^i^

658 n.^* ; castle, 730,
Nunneries, Cistercian, 603 ; at Llan-
Uugan, 603, 648 n.i82 ; at Llansant-
ffraid, 599, 603.
Nyniaw, St., 105 and m.*^.

Odd of Barry, 423.

— of Carew, 423 nJ^, 557.

Offa, King of Mercia, 196 and m.^",

197-201 andnn.^'', i^, ^''>.
OflFa's Dyke, 198-201, 244.

VOL. II.

8o6

INDEX

VOL. I.
1-356

Ogam inscriptions, 20, ii2-6<
Ogmore, 430, 712; castle, 440.
Olaf Godfreyson, 334 ny^.
— , son of Godred, 588 n.'".
Ordovices —

Civilisation of, 42-3.

Roman forts in territory of, 70-2.

— hostilities against, 52, 54, 58.

Situation of, 39, 41-2.

Stock of, 41.

mentioned, 119.
Orosius, Paulus, 139.
Orreby, Philip of, Justice of Chester,

657 n.i*.
Osney Abbey, 524.
Osric, King of Deira, 187.
Ostorius Scapula, 38, 51-3.
Oswald, St., King of Northumbria,

187-9.
Oswestry —

Battle at (642), 189 and »«.""-!.

Burning of (1234), 680 n."".

English recovery of (1155), 508.

Fitz Alan family at, 508, 570, 650,
714.

Henry II. at (1165), 516 and n."^

John at (121 1), 635-6 and «."*.

Madog's seizure of, 494.

Rainald the sheriff in possession of,

389.
Oswy, King of Northumbria, 176 n.",

189-91.
Otadeni (Votadini), 170.
Otto (Papal legate), 696 and «."
Ottobon, Card., 738-9 a«d nn.ios, "3, i".
Overton (Avretone — Richard's Castle),
395 and n}^.

— Madog, 683.

Overwent. See Gwent Uchcoed.
Owain ab Edwin, 407 n.'', 408, 410,

416, 464-

— ab lorwerth of Caerleon, 540, 545.

— ap Bleddyn ab Owain Brogyntyn,

683 and n."«, 703 n.", 725 «.*'',

736. 741-

— ap Cadwgan, 417-22, 463-4.

— ap Caradog, 429, 434.

— ap Caradog ab lestyn, 572 n?^''.

— ap Dafydd, 590, 640.

— ap Gruffydd ap Cynan. See Owain

Gwynedd.

— ap Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, 749.

— ap Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. See

Owain Goch.

— ap Gruffydd ap Madog, 748.

— ap Gruffydd ap Maredudd. See

Owain Cyfeiliog.

— ap Gruffydd ap Rhys — with Rhys

acquires Cantref Bychan, 619 ;
relations with Llywelyn, 621 ;
success against Maelgwn, 633-4 !

supports Llywelyn (1211), 634;
in submission to John, 636, 638
ayid n}^ ; routs Rhys with Eng-
lish aid, 640-1 ; in alliance with
Maelgwn, 645 ; with Llywelyn
(Dec. 1215), 648 ; territories as-
signed to (1216), 649; hostilities
against Reginald de Breos, 652 ;
accession of territory to, on death
of Rhys, 657 ; submits to Henry,
663 ; otherwise mentioned, 618,
662, 666-7 aw^ w-^*) 674, 680.
Owain ap Gruffydd Maelor, 583 and m.**.

— ap Hywel ab leuaf. See Owain o't
Brithdir.

— ap Hywel ap Rhys, King of Gwent,

335, 348.

— ap Hywel of Kerry (1245), 703
n.".

— ap Hywel Dda, King of Deheubarth,
344-5, 348.

— ap Llywelyn ab Owain Fychan,
709 and n.^^.

— ap Madog ap Maredudd. Se« Owain
Brogyntyn and Owain Fychan.

— ap Maredudd of Cydewain, 709, 725
n.^\

— ap Maredudd of Elfael, 727 and

— ap Maredudd ab Owain, 750 and

— ap Morgan, King of Morgannwg,

348-

— Brogyntyn ap Madog ap Maredudd,
494 and «.=*!, 509, 566 and n.^^^.

— Cyfeiliog ap Gruffydd ap Maredudd,
title of, 487 ; settled by his uncle
Madog, 487, 493 ; in the muster
at Corwen, 516 ; on English side,
520-1 ; poetic talent of, 533-4 ;
opposed to Abp. Baldwin, 563 ;
death and estimate of, 583 and
M.^i ; English estimate of, 553 and
nfi^ ; otherwise mentioned, 509
and M.^**, 565, 599.

— Fychan ab Owain Fychan, 683 and
w.i^^, 697 n.l^

— Fychan ap Madog ap Maredudd,
509 and «.*•*, 520, 521, 533, 553
and n.ss, 565 and n>^'^, 683 w.i*'*.

— Goch (the Red) ap Gruffydd ap
Llyweljm, imprisoned by David
(1238), 693 ; delivered to the King,
698; released (1244), 702 ; divides
Gwynedd inheritance with Lly-
welyn, 707; defeated and im-
prisoned by Llywelyn, 715 ; kept
imprisoned, 742 and n?^^\ released
and established in Lleyn, 759;
otherwise mentioned, 725 n.*^,
729, 731 ».'?», 758.

VOL. II.
357-771

INDEX

Owain Gwynedd ap Gruffydd ap Cynan I Pembroke, Earls of (.ok;.)-
— invades Ceredicinn. ait. a >».f . i\*«.„u-,ii r^-.w , ^ -rr, ' ,

807

— invades Ceredigion, 471-4, 475 ;
opposition of, to Bp. Meurig]
481, 483 ; hostilities against Cad-
waladr, 490 ; victorious progress
of, 491; loss of his son Rhun,
492; capture of Mold, 456 k.238^
467, 480, 492; builds Castell of
Rhodwydd, 492 and k.23 ; secures
lal and Tegeingl, 242, 492, 494 ;
Henry II. 's expedition against
(1175). 496-9 ; pacific attitude
towards Henry II., 510, 511 ; ris-
ing of 1165, 514-8; attacks royal
castles in Tegeingl, 519-20; con-
troversy as to see of Bangor, 521 ;
refusal of, to give up his wife
Cristin, 488, 522 ; death of, 522
and W.136 ; estimate of, 488 ; sons
of, 549 M.*'* , otherwise mentioned
464, 466-7 and «.", 513.
— o'r Brithdir (ap Hywel), 566 and n.^i
584 and n.*'', '

Oystermouth (Ystum Llwynarth), 269
and n.»3B ; castle, 645 m,i«8

Pabell Llywarch Hen, 246 n.^*.
Padarn, St., 130, 155, 159 and m.'iss.
— (Paternus) Beisrudd, 117, 118
Painscastle (Castle Maud)-.
Cession of, to Llywelyn by Simon

de Montfort, 736.
Maud's defence of, 585-6 and nn.^^-«
Rebuilding of (1231), 675 and n."5. '
Rhys success against (1196), 581.
Tony possession of, 736 n.^'^.
mentioned, 254.
Painscastle, battle of (1198), 586 and

nn.*^-», 590, 617.
Palasolithic remains, 1-3.
Pandulf (Papal legate), 641, 6-56.
Pantulf, William, 388, 413.
Parliament, first Welsh, 649.
Parys Mountain copper mines, 68 n ^^
Pascal II., Pope, 448.
Pastoral basis of Welsh society in

i2th cent., 605.
Paternity, procedure to establish, 286.
Patrick, St., loi, 107-9.
Paulinus, St., i^, 154, 272.
— Suetonius, 54-6, 57, 61.
Pebidiog, 261, 263-4, 4o8.
Pelagius, 106 and «.85.
Pembroke —

Henry II. at (1171), 541 and nnP-*.
Priory at, 431.
Pembroke, Earls of—
Clare, Richard of, 511, 537-40, 546,

Fitz Gilbert, Gilbert, 479, 501, 537

Marshall, Gilbert, 681, 695 and n.^,
699, 710 n.s^ 711 W.104.
Richard, 678 and n.^27 5-g gg^
681.
. Walter, 711 m.io4_
— , William (the elder), 571 and nJ^^,
619 and n.^o, 645, 651-3, 654,
655, 660 M.26 . en(j of jjj^jg jjj^g

of, 711 and w.iO'i.

— , William (the younger), 658-61 and

n.i», 662 ?».", 666, 668, 671

and nn.^'', ^i, 673.

Pembroke castle, 401, 405, 407, 415,

416, 418 «.s«, 423, 645, 660, 699

Pembrokeshire —
Cromlechs in, 25.
Dyfed inclusive of, 261.
Flemish colony of, 424 and n.''^.
Llywelyn's raid in (1220), 650-60 and
nn.^'i, 24, 28^

Norman colonisation of, under Henry
I I., 423 et seq.

— magnates of, 537.

Place-names in, 321-2 and «.«.

Roman remains not found in, 75.
Penbryn, 119, 260.
Pencader, 267, 512.
— , battle of (1041), 360.

— castle, 501.

Pencarn, ford of, 512 and n.^''.

Pencelli castle, 644 afid K.162.

Pencenedl, 285-7.

Pencerdd, 529-30.

Pencon or Pencoed, battle of, 197.

Penda, King of Mercia, 183, 185-6,

188-91, 195.
Penfro cantref, 261, 265, 424, 574.

— commote, 301 n.^^.
Pengwern. See Shrewsbury.

«.'*2, 246, 566 and

Penllyn, 245 and

WM.158.9^ -gg_

Penmachno (Llandudclud) church, 236

and W.38, 550 aizd w.^".
Penmaen Mawr, 23, 25.
Penmon —

Clas of, 232, 689 and ?j.206,

Danish ravaging of (971), 351.

Norman church at, 468, 469 m.28.

Seiriol's church at, 133 «.*".
Pennant Melangell, 247.
Penrhos Lligwy, 232 ; stone, 114.
Pentecost, Osbern, 363, 396.
Penteulu, 310, 311 nM".
Pentraeth, battle of (1170), 549 and

Penweddig (Y Cantref Gwarthaf), 257
and H.i6«, 258, 432, 75 and w.i".

Penychen, cantref of, 275 «.264 276
and M.2B9.

8o8

INDEX

VOL. I.
1-356

_126^ 127.8^ 576, 582, 624, 688,

of Winchester, 663, 676-7,

Peredur, 165, 317.

Perfedd (of Cantref Bychan), 268, 719

— (of Penweddig), 257-8, 700 nP, 75°

nP'.
Perfeddwlad —
Cantrefs of, 239.
English possession of (1247), 708 and

n.80.
Langley entrusted with, 714.
Llywelyn ab lorwerth's loss and re-
covery of (1211), 636, 638.

— ap GrufTydd's recovery of (1256),

717; his championship of
(1282), 761.
Treaty of Montgomery as concern-
ing, 740.
Peter, Abbot of Whitland, 625 and n.«',

628, 629.
— , Bp. of Hereford, 730, 732.
— , Bp. of St. David's, 454, 559-60 and

nn "

— , Bp.
680.

— of Geneva, 713-4 «•""•

— of Rivaux, 677 and n.l*^ 681.
Petronius Turpilianus, Publius, 56.
Peuliniog, 265, 649 n."*.
Peverel, William, of Dover, 553 n.^s.
— , — , of Nottingham, 500 and Jt.®".
Philip of Briouze. See Breos.
Phoenician traders, 27.
Picard, Lord of Ystrad Yw Uchaf,

437-
Pichard, Roger, 730 n.^*.

Picot of Sai, 388, 395, 417 w.", 419-

Picts —

Ceredig's relations with, 126.

Early inroads by, 95.

Nyniaw's mission to, 105.
Pill, Priory of, 660 and nP .
Pimblemere (Llyn Tegid, Bala Lake),

245 and n.*^, 566 nP^.
Piran, St., 543 and n.^*.
Piro's monastery, 210 n.", 211 ».**,

212 n."".
Plague of 6th cent., 131, 481.
Plautius Silvanus, Aulas, 50-1.
Pleistocene age, 1-3.
Ploughing, 296 and nn.^^-''^.
Poer, Ranulf. 546 nP, 548, 568.
Poets. See Bards.
Pontius, Archdeacon of St. David's,

629 n.^^.
Pool. See Welshpool.

— castle, 748-9, 750.
Porius stone, 115.

Porthaethwy, 41; battle of (1194). S^g-
Posidonius, travels of, 35.
Powis castle (Castell Coch), 249, 583
M.", 680 n.i*".

Powys —

Break-up of, after Madog's death

(1160), 509.
Brythonic occupation of, 42.
Cantrefs of, 242 et seq.
Capital of, transference of, 196 n.^*.
Characteristics of, 243.
Cunedda's relations with, 119.
Division of, into Powys Fadog and
Powys Wenwynwyn, 493 n.^^, 584
and n.^^.
Dynasty of, 243.

English raiding m (gth cent.), 202.
Frontier of, nature of, 411.
Gruffydd ap Cynan's aggressions

against, 464.
— ap Gwenwynwyn's claim to, 695.
Limits of, in 12th cent., 242 n.''*.
Llywelyn ap Gruftydd's conquests in

(1257), 719. .

Ogam inscriptions not found m, 115.
Predominance of, under house of

Bleddyn, 411.
Rhodri's acquisition of (855), 324.
Prawst, wife of Seisyll (dau. of Elise

ab Anarawd), 347 and n."".
Prestatyn, 199, 201, 720 n."^.
— castle, 518 and nP'^.
Presteign castle, 730.
Pretanic Isles, 29 and n.^.
Priestholm I. (Ynys Lannog), 184, 213,

216 and w.iii, 232, 689 and n.^"^
Prince of Wales, title of, 723-4, 736,

740.
Pryderi, 260.
Prydyn (Scotland), affinities of name,

29.
Pwyll, King of Dyfed, 263, 291 n.^^.
Pytheas, travels of, 27, 28 and n.*, 29.

Radnor —

Burnt by Llywelyn (1231), 674 and

Destruction of, by baronial army

(1264), 734.
Rhys ap GrufTydd's victory at (1190),

581-
Radnor castle, 644, 650, 670 m.^', 674

andnP\ 679, 734.
Radnor lordship —

Domesday survey as concerning,

394 a7id M.^^.
Mortimer acquisition of, 713.
Norman possession of, 402 3, 436.
Raedwald, King of East Anglia, 181.
Ragnhildr, 379 and nP.
Ramald of Bailleul, 388, 389, 493.
Ralph, Abp. of Canterbury, 455.
— of Toeni, 395.

Rannillt, dau. of Gruffydd ap Cynan,
464 nJ.

VOL. II.
357-771

INDEX

809

Ranulf, Earl of Chester. See Chester.
Raymond the Fat, son of Wm. fitz

Gerald of Carew, 539.
Red Book of Hergest, 123.
Regan, Morice, 538.
Reginald, Earl of Cornwall, 510, 511.

— King of Man, 588 and n.'", 617 and

M. 29.

Reiner, Bp. of St. Asaph, 563, 575, 651,

657 n.", 689 M.20*.
Relics of saints in criminal procedure,

307-
Revel, V/illiam, 438 and m.i**.
Rhain (Irish pretender), 346.

— ap Cadwgan, King of Dyfed, 262,

281.

— Dremrudd, 271, 282.
Rhayader, 15, 254.

Rhedynog Felen Abbey, 601 and

Rheinwg, 262, 281-2.
Rhiryd ab Owain, 467.

— ap Bleddyn, 398.
Rhita the Giant, 233 n?^.
Rhiw Helyg, 749 w."^.

Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn, 371 and «.■*»,

374. 377.
Rhodri ab Elise, King of Gwent, 348.

— ab Ithel, King of Glywysing, 274.

— ab Owain Gwynedd — kills Hywel,

549 and M.'^'*, hostilities with
Dafydd, 551-2; connection with
Rhys, 565 ; hostilitits with sons
of Cynan, 588 ; marriage with
Manx prmcess, 588, 617 ; death
of, 589 and n?^ ; otherwise men-
tioned, 563, 564, 575.

— ap Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, 742 and

nny^-"".

— ap Hywel Dda, 344.

— Molwynog, King of Gwynedd, 231

and n}'^.

— the Great, King of Gwynedd, 257,

324-6, 328 M.^".
Rhos in Dyfed —
Flemish colonisation of, 424.
Llywelyn ab lorwerth's ravaging of

(1220), 660.
— ap Gruffydd's raiding in (1257),

721.
Rhys ap Gruffydd's devastation of

(1189), 574 and n.*.
Situation ol, 264.
Rhos in Perfeddwlad —
Belyn's fight at, 184.
English possession of (1247), 708.
Gwynedd's acquisition of (11 18), 465-

6.
Situation and extent of, 239-40.
Rhoscrowther (Llandegeman) church,
208, 265.

Rhosyr (Newborough), 232, 499 «.'**,

686 M.181.
Rhuddgaer, Roman remains at, 68.
Rhuddlan —

Gruffydd ap Llywelyns possession

of, 366, 370.
Norman possession of, 380, 381, 382,
485.
Rhuddlan, battle of (796), 201 and n.^^.
Rhuddlan castle —

English resumption of (1157), 5°°
and n.^^ ; relief expedition to (1165),
515; strengthening of, 518 and

M.123.

Llywelyn's capture of (1213), 640.
Owain Gwynedd's acquisition of (c.
1150), 494; his siege and capture
of (1167), 519-20.
Rhuddlan castle (built by Edward I.),

759-

— Teifi, 260 and n.^^^, 597.
Rhufoniog —

Cantret and commotes of, 240-1.

David ap Gruffydd granted possession
of (1277), 760.

English raiding in (816), 202 ; posses-
sion (1247), 708.

Gwynedd's acquisition of (1118), 465-
6.

mentioned, 601.
Rhun ab Owain Gwynedd, 488, 492,
549 w-^'*-

— ap Maelgwn Gwynedd, idj andn.^'^,

168.
Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, 252-4, 516.

— Nedd ac Afan, 440, 674 w.i"*.
Rhyd Chwima, 726, 739.

— y Groes, battle of (1039), 351, 359-

60 and n.^.
Rhydderch ab lestyn. King of S,
Wales, 347.

— ap Tewdwr, 429, 434 and n.^^*.

— (Hael) ap Tudwal, 163, 165-7, ^^^-
Rhydygors castle, 401, 405, 406, 427.
Rhygyfarch ap Sulien, 153 and n.^^'', 452

n.208, 460.

— of Cardigan, 519 and n.^*'*.
Rhys ab lestyn, 440 and n.^^^.

— ab Ithel, King of Glywysing, 274.

— ab Owain ab Edwin, King of Deheu-

barth, 377, 392-3, 406 n.^K

— ab Owain ap Morgan, 348.

— ap Gruffydd ab Ifor, 674 and nA"^,

700 n.^'>, 703 n.^i, 713 and n.^^*.

— ap Gruffydd ap Rhys (Yr Arglwydd

Rhys) — storms Mabudryd castle,
501 ; builds Tomen Las, 505 ;
submits to Henry H., 506-7 ;
attacks castles of Dyfed, 510-1;
captures Llandovery (1162), 511;
again submits to Henry (1163),

8io

INDEX

VOL. I.
1-356

512-3; attacks Ceredigion, 514;
rising of 1165, SH ; reconquers
Ceredigion, 518-g; aids Owain to
capture Rhuddlan, 520; excep-
tional position of, 536; favoured
by Henry, 537. 540-2 ; attitude
towards Dermot's Irish invasion,
538 ; confirmed in his possessions,
S41-2; appointed "Justice" of S.
Wales, 543 aw'i «•'=*; called "the
Lord Rhys," 543 <^^^ »•" I .^'f

Henry (ii73). 544 ««/"«•- '

organises first Eisteddfod, 548-9;

claim of, to Meirionydd, 553, 565 ;

entertains Abp. Baldwin, 562,

566-7 ; difficulties with his sons,

568-9; close of reign of, 572".

raids by, in S. Wales (1189), 574;

hostility against King Richard,

575 • attacks by, on Norman

castles, 575-6; hostilities against

Normans, 581; death of, 573.

582 ; estimate of, 542 ; attitude of,

towards monastic institutions, 596

et sea , 603 ; family feuds among

sons of, 577-8, 580; otherwise

mentioned, 334, 435. 475 o»» »• '

521, 562 n.^'*". , ,

Rhys ap Gruffyddap Rhys(son of Matilda

de Breos). See Rhys leuanc.

— ap Hywel ap Maredudd, 477 ;"»•'"-'•
_ ap Maelgwn Fychan, 710 and n.^\

— ap Maredudd of Dryslwyn, 750, 75b.

— ap Rhydderch, 363 a"*^ «•"• „.
_ ap Rhys ap Gruffydd. See Rhys

Gryg.

— ap Rhys ap Maelgwn. See Rhys

leuanc. „, t- u

— ap Rhys Mechyll. See Rhys Fychan

(of Dinefwr).
_- ap Tewdwr, King of Deheubarth
pedigree of, 393 ""^ «• 5 **
Mynydd Cam, 384-5, 393; suc-
cesses of, 398; death of, 398, 400
n 1, 402 and n.» ; otherwise men-
tioned, 334. 417, 451-2, 591, 597

_ Fychan (leuanc) ap Rhys Mechyll
of Dinefwr, difficulties of, l\o-\ ;
ejected from Dinefwr and Carreg
Cennen (1256), 718-9 ««^ »;V,''
possessions of, in Great and Little
Cantrefs, 7^9 »•'': deserts from
the English, 720; destroys
Builth Castle, 727; death and
burial of, 750 a«^"- '^* "> otherwise
mentioned, 700 ».89, 717, 725 a"'^
n ^"^ 736.

— Grvg (or Fychan) ap Rhys ap Gru-
ff?dd, epithets of, 577 »•" ! sup-
ports his brother Gruffydd, 577;

conspires against his father, 580;
imprisoned, 581 ; acquires Cantref
Mawr, 619 ; supports the St.
David's claim, 627 «.", 629;
secures Llandovery castle, 633;
turns against John, 637, 638;
disasters of, 641; released by
John, 645 and n}'^'^ \ with Lly-
welyn (Dec. I2i5),648; territories
allotted to (1216). 649; ejected
from Gower, 658 and nP\ sub-
mits to Henry, 663 and n^^, in
war of 1231, 674; death of, 680;
othervrtse mentioned, 578, 617
n.3», 621, 634, 636, 652, 662.
Rhys leuanc ap Gruffydd ap Rhys— with
Owain acquires Cantref Bychan,
619 ; relations with Llywelyn,
621 ; success against Maelgwn,
633-4; supports Llywelyn (12 11),
634 ; in submission to John, 636,
638 and nP"^; routs Rhys with
English aid, 640-1 ; in alliance
with Maelgwn, 645 ; with Lly-
welyn (Dec. 1215), 648; territories
assigned to (1216), 649, 656 ;
hostilities against Reginald de
Breos, 652; dispute with Lly-
welyn (1221), 656; death of,
657 ; mentioned, 618 and k.^*.

— leuanc (Fychan) ap Rhys ap

Maelgwn of Ceredigion, 750 and

«.^", 758, 759- ^ ^^. .

— Mechyll ap Rhys Gryg of Dinefwr,

700 and M.*9, 710.
_ Wyndod ap Rhys Fychan, 750, 758.
Rich, Edmund, Abp. of Canterbury,

680.
Richard, Abp. of Canterbury, 556 n^°\

— , Bp. of Bangor, 694 and n?, 708 ».**,
726, 728, 744 and MM.""-'"'.

— , Earl of Pembroke. See Pembroke.

L, King of England, joins second

crusade, 563; Welsh disorders
after accession of, 574 ; coronation
of, 575 ; absences from England,
578-9 and n^' ; death of, 614 ;
estimate of, 573 ; mentioned, 571.

of Beaumais, Bp. of London, 414,

419, 421.

Richard's Castle (Avretone, Overton),
395 and M.122, 581 and m.^*, 735
and n.»^ , „„

Robert, Bp. of Bangor, 635 and n."^,

coo ^ 201

— , Bp. of Bath, 482 and n.^^.
— , Earl of Gloucester. See under
Gloucester, Earls of.

— ap Llywarch, 648 n}^.

— ap Madog, 666 ».«''.

VOL. II.
357-771

INDEX

811

Robert, son of Jonas, Canon of St.

David's, 625 «.64, 629 «.82.
— , — of Earl William of Gloucester,

508 and W.81.

— Curthose, Duke of Normandy, 441.

— of Belleme. See under Shrewsbury.

Earls of.

— of B6thune, Prior, 446.

— of Ewias, 474 and nJ^.

— of Hay, 442 and m.iss, 444.

— of Mold, 491-2 and w.^i,

— of Rhuddlan, Gruffydd ap Cynan's

relations with, 380-2; in posses-
sion of Gwynedd, 387-8; down-
fall and death of, 390-1; men-
tioned, 383, 386.

— of Vieuxpont, 638-40,

— the Wolf, 638 and «.i29.

Roger, Bp. of Salisbury, 428 and n.^\
429-30 and M.102, 432, 446, 470 M.32.
— , Earl of Hertford. See Hertford.

— (monk of Battle), 436-7.
Roman conquest of Britain, 50-9.
Roman occupation of Britain

Forts erected during, 65 and n.^^-80.
Influence of, after withdrawal, 101-2'

308.
Lead-smelting during, 64-5.
Military character of, 60.
Relations of Welsh with their con-
querors, 81-3 ; language evidence,
84-8.
Remains of, in Wales and on Welsh
border, 61, 80, 89, 198 ; few military
traces on the border, 72-3; nega-
tive evidence, 83.
Roads made during, 63, 66.
Spanish auxiliaries in, 74, 79.
Termination, of, 92-4, 96.
Twentieth Legion in, 57, 60, 6l-2,

66.
Walls built during, against the bar-
barians, 95 and n.^^.
Rome, pilgrimages to, from Wales,

204 and M.^*, 334.
Rothley manor, 665 and m,»», 667, 660

675.
Ruthin, 241.

I St. Asaph (conf.)~

Ancientness of see of, 242.

Gilbert's consecration to (1143), 485
and M.ii".

Monastic origin of, 208 «.«8,

Spoliation of, by Normans, 458.
St. Clear's, 751 ; Cluniac Priory of, 501

~ Clear's Castle, 576 and n.12, 580,

648, 670 «.86.

St. David's (Mynyw, Menevia)—
Archdeaconries of, 558 «."».
Church jorganisation at (7th and 8th

cents.), 205.
Claswyr of, 207.
Danish ravaging of (later loth cent.i.

351- '

David's connection with, 154.
Fame and importance of, 207. 267-il

atid W.20V, 451. '' *"•» '*

Glascwm's connection with, 255.
Goidelic chieftain of, 121, 154
Henry IL's visit to (1171), 541 and

nn.^*-°.
Independence of, 447-8 and m.is",
Metropolitanate controversy, 486 •

under Bp. Bernard, 480-2 and

Sabrina, 249 and m."*.

Sadyrnfyw, Bp. of Mynyw, 264 and

Saer (Norman knight), 415 and n.«9

416.
Sai, Robert of (Picot), 388, 395, 417

«.^S 419.
Saint, river, 67 and w.^".
— , signification of term, 148 «."6.
St. Asaph — I

Abeyance of See of, in nth and 12th

cents., 455-6.

««.y6; (1176), 559; (iT88),562;

(1 198-1203), 624^^5^^.
Mercian attack on (1012), 350.
Norman bishop of (1115), 425]

— re -dedication of 458-9.

— spoliation of, 458.
Rebuilding at cathedral of fi^th

cent.), 688 and n.200. * ^

Rhys ap GrufiFydd buried in, 582 and

Subordination of, to English Primate.

451, 453-
Wilham the Conqueror's visit to
(1081), 393-4.
St. Dogmael's Abbey, 431 and m.^"^

— Harmon's, 254 and m."^^

— Ishmael's, 208, 458.

— Issell's, 208.

— John family, 441 m.ibs.

— Julian's, 76.

— Patrick. See Patrick.
Saints, Welsh —

Genealogies of, 148 and w.i"^
Lives of, 152 and n^^^.
Re-dedication by Normans of churches
founded by, 458-9.
Salisbury, Patrick, Earl of, 511.
Salkeld church, 646 m.i70.
Samson, Bp. of St. David's, 486.
— , St., Abp of Dol, 144.7, 210-11 and

nn.^s, 81, 310 K.i2^ 481, 486.
Sanan, dau. of Dyfnwal, 417 w.57,
— , dau. of Noe ab Arthur of Dyfed
244.

8l2

INDEX

VOL. I.

1-356

Sanctus (Sant), 153-4 ('■^^ n.^*'.
Sam Badrig, 26.

— Helen, roads so called, 68 and n.'^,

74. 78.
Saxons (see also English) —
Advance of, in later 6th cent., 141,

162-4.
Conquest by, of S.E. Britain —
Continental intercourse as affected

by, no.
Welsh indifference towards, in,
125.
Early inroads by, 94-5.
Say, Helias of, 477 n.^*.
— , Hugh de, 581 and n.^*.
— , Margaret de, 735 n.'*.
Scandinavians. See Danes and Norse-
men.
Scotland —

Eisteddfod competitors invited from,

548.
Lljrwelyn's alliance with national
party in (1258), 724-5 and m»."-^

48.7_

Troops from, with Henry II. against
Welsh (1165), 515.

Welsh names for, 29.
Scots —

Argyll, in, 179, 187.

Ceredig's relations with, 126.

Early inroads by. 95-6.

Wessex, in league against (937), 336.
Segontium, 67. (See also Carnarvon.)
Seinhenyd. See Swansea.
Seiriol, St., 133, 232 and n.^^.
Seisyll, Abbot of Strata Florida, 598.

— ap Clydog, King of Ceredigion, 257,

261, 266, 281.

— ap Dyfnwal, 545 and n.*'', 547,

548.

— BryfTwrch, 529, 533, 550.
Seisyllwg, 257 and n.^^^, 262, 325.
Selgovae, 41.

Selyf, Cantref, 271 and w.'", 438 n.^".

— ap Cynan, ruler of Powys, 180 n.""*,

181 and n.''^, 243.
Senan of Clare, St., 155.
Senena, wife of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn,

708 M.82.

Senghenydd —

Kidnapping of Earl William to (1158),

508.
Welsh possession of, in Norman

times, 441.
mentioned, 674 n.^"*, 713 and n."*.
Senghenydd (ancient = Y Cantref Brei-

niol), 275, 277 and nJ"^.
Shrewsbury —

Early mention of, 196 and nn.^, i".
Henry II. 's army at {1165), 516.
Llywelyn's acquisition of, 643.

Shrewsbury, Earls of —

Montgomery, Hugh, 403-4 and n.^^,

405 «.!»», 408-9.
— , Roger, 385, 388-90, 400-1, 403

M.18.
Robert of Bell^me, 403 n?^, 410,
412.
Shrewsbury castle, 493, 643.
Sigurd Magnusson, 413 m.^''.
Silchester, British Christian Church

discovered at, 104.
Silures —

Characteristics of, 38.

Iberian origin of, 15, 25.

Roman conquest of, 52-g.

— occupation of country of, 75 et

seq.
Situation of, 37-8 and «.'•''.
Simeon of Clynnog, Archdeacon, 469

and n.2», 483 and «.»».
Simon de Montfort. See Leicester.
Singing, Welsh skill in, 533-4.
Sitric of the Silken Beard, King of

Dublin. 352, 379.
Siward family, 441 w.^*^.
Skenfrith castle, 644 and n.^^^, 672 and

n.*, 677 n}"^, 714.
Slave class (Caeth), 292-3.
Slebech commandery, 596 and n.^^,

604 and «.!*'.
Smithcraft, 292 and «.*'.
Snowdon, names of, 233 and n.^.

— region. See Gv*^nedd.

Spanish auxiliaries of Romans in Wales,

74. 79-
Stephen, Constable of Cardigan castle,

473-
— , King of England, Welsh revolt
after coronation of, 470 ; relations
with the barons, 471, 474 ; diffi-
culties during civil war, 478-9,
493 ; captured at battle of Lincoln,
489 ; death of, 495 m.^* ; estimate
of, 573 ; mentioned, 471, 524.

— of Lampeter, 427 and n.^^.
Stigand, 449 w.is".
Stilicho, 93.

Stone circles, 23-4.

— crosses, 220-2.
Stradling family, 441 n.^*'.
Strata Florida Abbey —

Assembly of 1238 at, 692-3 and w.^^"*.
Colonies of, 600-1.
Gifts to, 617 M.^", 619 «.'8.
Royal retreat and burial-place, as,
503, 618 and n?^, 657 n.^", 674

Site of, 259, 597-8 and nn.^^s.s.
Strata Marcella. See Ystrad Marchell.
Strathclyde Britons, 202, 336.
Submerged Hundred, story of, 5, 25-6.

VOL. II,

357-771

INDEX

813

Suckley manor, 647, 657 and m.^*.
Suetonius Paulinus, Caius, 54-6, 57, 61.
Sulien, Bp. of St. David's, 215, 384,

451 and n.208^ 459-61.
Sully, Raymond, 651 w.^^*, 679 m.^^b.

— family, 441 n}^"^.

Susanna, wife of Madog ap Maredudd,

464 n.'', 566 M."7,
Swansea (Seinhenyd) —

Burnt by Rhys Gryg, 638.

Llywelyn's acquisition of, 652 and

Name, origin of, 321 «.*.

Norman founder of, 430.

Peter of Rivaux' acquisition of, 677.

mentioned, 270.
Swansea castle (Seinhenyd), 576, 645,

n.^-68, 658 and n>^.
Swegen, Earl (son of Godwine), 361,

363-
Sybil, wife of Miles of Gloucester, 438,

495-

Taeog. See Villeins.

Tafolwern, 250, 488 n?, 701 n.*^ ;

castle, 488 «.^, 510 and n.®*.
Talacharn. See Laugharne.
Talgarth, 249, 271 «.'■''**, 272 and n.'^^^,

397, 438, 752 w-^".
Talhaearn, 169 and nn?^, ^.
Taliesin, 131, 169 and nP, 170 ; Book

of, cited, 53 M.'*.
Talybont (Gower), 645 n}^'^.

— (nr. Towyn,) 252.

Talyllychau (Talley) Abbey, 603 and

M.166, 688.
Tancard, Castellan of Haverford, 425

and n?"^, 592 and m.*^.
Tangwystl, 686.
Tany, Luke, 738 m.i««.
Tasciovanus, 49.
Tathan, St., 279 and m«.281-2.
Tegeingl —

Cantref and commotes of, 241-2.
Dafydd ab Owain's plundering of,

515-
Deceangli in, 41.

Foreign element in, 201 , 456 and nP^ ;
English recovery (1157), 500 ;
(1247), 708.
Name, derivation of, 241 «.''*.
Owain Gwynedd's acquisition of (c.
1 149), 494; attacks on castles in,
519-20; mentioned, 697, 698.
Tegid, 117.

Teifi, river, 74, 259, 473 ; valley, 597-8.
Teilo, St. (Eliud), 132, 155, 159 and

M.18®, 262, 268, 459.
Tenby (Dinbych y Pysgod) —
Burnt by Llywelyn (1260), 727.
Cave remains from, 2.

Tenby (cont.) —
Church, 557.

Fish abundant at, 265 and n^^.
Maelgwn ap Rhys' raid on (1187), 577.
Maredudd ap Gruffydd's capture of,

503-
Name, origin of, 322 nj.
Teulu, 316-7.

Teulyddog, St., 432 n.i<"*, 459.
Tewdos, Cantref, 271 and w.^**.

— ap Rhain, King of Dyfed, 97.
Tewdrig, 274.

Tewdwr ab Elise, King of Brycheiniog,

331. 336.

— ap Rhain, King of Brycheiniog, 271.
Teyrnllwg, 179 w.**'', 243 n.''^.

Theft, penalties for, 305-6 and mw.^"*, 1^".
Theobald,Abp.of Canterbury, 481-5, 525.
Theoderic, King of Bernicia, 163.
Theodosius I., Emp., 92.
Thomas, Abp. of York, 448.

— of London (or Becket), Abp. of

Canterbury, 512, «.»*, 514, 521,
536 and n.^ 539, 562 ny^'.

— of Erdington. 652 m.^os, 658 n.".
Tindaethwy, 231, 232.

Tombs, neolithic, 8-10, 13.
Tombstones, engraved and decorated,

220-2.
Tomen y Mur. See Mur y Castell.

— y Rhodwydd, 492 n?'^.

Tony, Ralph, 736 m.^^ 740 n."*, 758.
— , Roger, 730 n?"^, 736 w.*'', 751 n.^^*.
" Topography of Ireland, The," 561 and

Tostig, Earl of Northumberland, 370.
Towyn Meirionydd —
Clas at, 457, 490 and nM.
Danish ravaging of (963), 351.
Norman church at, 468 ; abbot of,
206 and 71.^'', 490; inscribed stone
in, 222 n.^'^''.
St. Cadfan's church at, 251-2.
Traeth Lafan legend cited, 5.

— Mawr, Y, 238.

Trahaearn (raider of Gelligaer), story
of, 608 and M.'^^.

— ap Caradog, King of Gwynedd,

seizes Gwynedd. 378 ; routed by
Gruffydd, 380-1 ; regains Gwy-
nedd, 383 ; defeats Rhys at Good-
wick, 392-3 ; slain, 385 ; men-
tioned, 531.
Trallwng castle, 583 and n.*^. {See also
Welshpool.)

— Llywelyn, 248 and m.^".
Treaties, truces, etc. —

Billingsley, peace of, 365 and n.^,

367.
Brockton, truce of (1234), ^^o and

„„.145^ 1*7, 681.

8i4

INDEX

VOL. I.
1-356

Treaties, truces, etc. {cont^ —

Conway, peace of (1277), 746, 759.

Lambeth (1217), 653.

Llywelyn ab lorwerth's — with John

(1201), 615; with Henry III.

(1231), 676.

— ap Gruffydd's with Henry HI. —

(1257), 722 and M.38 ; (i258|,

722-3; (1259), 726; (1260),

728 and n.^"^.
Middle, pact of (1234), 681 and n."».
Montgomery, submission of the

marchers at (1264), 735.

— (1267), 739-41 and w."-*.
Pipton (1265), 736 and m.»8.
Wallingford, peace of (1153), 495.
Woodstock, peace of (1247), 708.
Worcester, capitulation of the

marchers at (1264), 735.
— , peace of (12 18), 653-5, 684 and

«.169.

Trebellius Maximus, Lucius, 56.
Trefdraeth (Cemais), 648 n>^^.
Trefgordd, 295-7 «»<' »».", ".
Trefs—

Free, 297-8 and n.''" ; food renders

due from, 312-3.
Signification of term, 295 and n.'®,

297 n.''°.
Taeogdref (trefgordd), 295-7 o.nd
nn.", 8"*.
Tregeiriog, skirmish at (1165), 516 and

Tre'r Ceiri, 11 1 n.**^ ; fortress, 13 n.**.
Tretower, 79, 437 ; castle,. 730 nJ^.
Triads, 122-3 ! of Dyfnwal Moelmud,

318-9; cited, 22.
Tribal names in early place-names,

significance of, 38 m.^".
Tryffin, King of Dyfed, 153, 262.
Tud, 302 and «.*.
Tudor dynasty, ancestry of, 685.
Tudur ab Ednyfed, 741, 743.

— ap Rhys Sais, 389 and n.^°^.
Tumps, 25.

Turbeville, Gilbert, 651 m.i»», 679 «."«,

700 M.'"'.

— , Henry of, 679 m.^'''*, 680 and m."2.
— , Hugh, of Crickhowel, 752 and n.^^''.
— , Payn of, 440 and n.^'^.
— , Robert of, 437 and n."^.

— , (13th cent.), 730 nJ^.

Turbevilles of Coety, 440 and «.^".

— of Crickhowel, 437 and nA'^"^.
Tuschet, Henry, of Lee Cumbray, 709

Tutbury castle, 544.

Ty Gwyn ar Daf, Y. See Whitland.

Tydecho, St., 130, 148 and n."^, 250.

Tyfoe, St., 459.

Tysilio, St., 247.

UcHELWRS, 298-9 atid n.'*, 302-3, 361

n.».
Uchtryd, Bp. of Llandaflf, 484 and nn.^"^-
104^ 523 w.i",

— ab Edwin, 407 and m.", 408, 4j6»

419, 466 ; castle of, 466, 602.
Ui Liathain, 118.
Ulster, Hugh, Earl of, 634.
Umfraville, Gilbert, 679 n^^.
— , Henry of, 561 n.^^a.
Urban, Bp. of Llandaff, 147, 440 m.^",
445. 446, 449-51 and nn."», "8,

'"'^ 454.

Urien ap Cynfarch, 163, 165.
Usk (Burrium), 38 «.»», 80.

— castle, 478, 546 and m.^", 678, 679

and M.^^*, 699 «.**, 737.

— river (Isca), 38, 76, 442.
Uthr Bendragon, 145.

Valle Crucis Abbey, 248, 602 and

nn.^^"-^, 709 «.8*, 745.
Venables, Gilbert de, 387.
Venedotia. See Gwynedd.
Venedotian Code, 342, 354-5.
Veranius, Quintus, 54.
Vere, William de, Bp. of Hereford,

569 and n.^'"-i.
Vespasian, Emp., 50, 51, 56-7, 60.
Village communities, mediaeval, 294-7.
Villeins (aillt, taeog) —

Food renders due from, 313 and

„„ 137 139^

Hamlets of (trefgordd, taeogdref),
295-7 """^ nn.^'', *'>.

Iberian remnant constituting, 297.

Maerdrefs of, 313.

Military obligations of, 317.

Vocations forbidden to, 292 «.'*, 294.
Viroconium (Wroxeter), 54, 73-4.
Vortigern (Gwrtheyrn), 102, 254.
Vortiporius. See Voteporix.
Votadini (Otadeni), 118, 170.
Voteporix (Vortiporius), King of Dyfed,
101-2, 115, 121, 132-3, 262 and nP^.

Waleran, Robert, 712 m.^"*.
Wales {for particular districts, castles,
etc., see their iiames) —

Border, English. See that heading.

Churches in. See Churches.

Exports from (12th cent.), 606.

Imports to (i2th cent.), 605-6 and

Irish settlers in, during Roman occu-
pation, 97.

" Prince of," title of. See Prince.

Roman remains in. See under Roman
Occupation.

Tribal divisions of, in pre-Roman
period, 37-41.

VOL. II.

357-771

INDEX

815

Wales, South —

Baldwin's crusading tour in (1188),

562.
Bequest of property in, customs as

to, 3 1 1-2.
Geographical weakness of, 536.
Llywelyn's partition of {1216), 649,

656.
Rhydderch ab lestyn's dynasty in,

347-
Rhys ap Gruffydd appointed Justice
of, 543 and n?^\ his raiding in
(1189), 574
Uchelwrs in, power of, 302-3.
Wallingford, peace of (1153), 495.
Walter, Abbot of St. Dogmael's, 625,

627-8 and n.^^, 630.
— , Archdeacon of Oxford, 524.
— , Lord of Brecknock and Upper

Gwent, 546-7 and n.^^.
— , Prior of Brecon, 437.

— ap Llywarch, 513.

— , Hubert, Abp. of Canterbury, vigor-
ous policy of, as Justiciar, 579-80 ;
acknowledges Gruffydd ap Rhys,
584 and nJ^ ; the St. David's
controversy, 625-6, 630; men-
tioned, 563, 583.

— the Sheriff of Gloucester, 427 and

M.9«, 446.
Warband (teulu), 316-7, and mm.^^^-^.
Warfare, Welsh, methods and weapons

of, 607-9.
Warin of Shrewsbury, 383, 388.
Warwick, Earls of —
Henry, 430 and n.i''*.
Roger, 430 and n.^"*, 478.
Watling Street, 54, 63.
Wat's Dyke, 199 and n.^*, 497.
Wechelen, 217-8.
Welsh (see also Cymry) —
Characteristics of —

Boldness and fearlessness, 607.
Energy and hardiness, 607.
Frankness, 611.
Hospitality, 609-10.
Impulsiveness and emotionalism,

15-

Instability, 611.

Intellectual capacity, 535, 611.

Mobility in war, 606-7.
Dress of, 6io and n.^^.
Food of, 605.
Habits of, 607, 610.
Houses of, construction of, 314, 607.
Nationality, emergence of (655), igi.
Occupations of, 606, 607.
Welsh language —

Brythonic origin of, 19-20 ; Brythonic

character, 30, 84, 85.
Hamitic affinities of, 16.

Welsh language (cont.) —
Norse loan-words in, 321 n.^.
Roman occupation as affecting, 84-8.
Syntax, peculiarities of, 16.
Welsh Laws. See Laws.
Welshpool (Pool, Trallwng Llywelyn),
247, 248 and n.^^^ 421, 583 and
n.^s.
Wenlock nunnery, 196 and n.^.
Wentloog, 278. (See also Gwynllwg.)
Wentwood forest, 278 and n.^'^^.
Werburgh, St., Abbey of, 195, 196,

366, 392, 469.
Wessex —

League against (937). 336.

Mercian vassalage to, 325, 327 ;

direct rule established, 332.
Rise of, 202.
Whitby, Synod of {664), 202.
White castle (Llantilio), 644 and n.^^^,

672 and n.^*, 677 n.^^'^, 714.
Whitland (Y Ty Gwyn ar Daf), 151
atid M.i^*, 266, 339, 594.

— Abbey, 652 w.^i", 490 m.^*, 594-5

and n.i^s, 596-7 and nn.^^''-^.
Whittington, 388, 646 n.^''^, 736, 740,

748 M.^^^ ; castle, 661 and n.^*.
Wich, battle of (1146), 491 and m.^".
Widigada, 267, 659 and n.^*, 699 and

».^*, 751.
Wigmore castle, 375, 395, 496 and

n.'*^ 713 M.118.
Wihenoc of Monmouth, 396 and n.^^^,

444-S, 524-
Wilfrid, Bp. of St. David's, 403 m.is,

407, 408, 430 «."!, 451-2.
William I. (the Conqueror), King of
England, 375, 393-4.

— II. (Rufus), King of England, dis-

order on accession of, 390, 397 ;
leaves for Normandy (1094), 403
and nM ; returns to England, and
represses English rebellion, 405,
443 ; invasion of Gwynedd, 405-6
and nP ; again in Wales (1097),
408 and n.^^ ; mentioned, 401.
— , King of Scotland, 622-3, 638.

— (knight, of Llanthony), 445-6.
— , son of Gerald of Windsor, 473.

— of Brabant, 420 and w.*".

— of Briouze, 402, 403 n}^. (See also

Breos.)

— of Christchurch, 671 n.^.

— of Cornhill, Bp. of Lichfield, 642.

— of Falaise, 425 n.''^.

— of London, I., 430 n,^^, 440, 441

— of London, II., 576 and n.i», 618.

— of Valence, 711 and n.^°', 723, 751.
Wills, death-bed, 311-2.

Winibald of Ballon, 443 and m."', 444.

VOL. I.
1-356

INDEX

VOL. II.
357-771

Winwaed Field, battle of (655), 190-1

and M.132.
Wiston castle (Castell Gwis), 425 and

n.''^, <fX2, 576, 580, 660.
Wizo (Fleming), 425 and n.'^^, 604 n.^^''.
Wledig (Gwledig), meaning of title, 99-

100 and n.^".
Women —

Cenedl custom regarding, 285.
Criminal law as regarding offence

against, 305.
Hermits, 218.
Inheritance of paternal land, excluded

from, 299, 300 H.83
Marriage fee paid by, 218, 311.
Status of an heir's mother not ac-
counted, 286, 587.
Wedded, status of, 290-1 and nn.^'-''.
Woodstock, peace of (1247), 708.
Worcester, peace of (1218), 653-5. 684

and n}^^.
— , Simon de Montfort's acquisition of,

732 ; loss, 736.
Wroxeter (Viroconium), 54, 73-4'
Wulfhere, King of Mercia, 195.
Wulfstan, Bp. of Worcester, 397.
Wyddfa, Y, 233 n."".
Wye, river, as boundary, 199, 200 n?^.

Y Gaer, Roman forts so called, 71, 75.

79-
Ynys Enlli (Bardsey I.), 2l6 and n."«.

{^ee also Bardsey.)
— Lannog. See Priestholm.
York (Eboracum) —

Danish settlement at, 328-30, 335 n."*^.
Roman garrison at, 60, 63, 64.

Ysfael (Ismail), St., 264.

Yspyty Ifan (Dolgynwal), 604, 6go.

Ystlwyf (Ysterlwyf, Oisterlaph), 266,

542 atid w.", 597, 619 n.*°, 663 n.*',

710 w.^*, 719 w.^*,
Ystrad Alun (Moldsdale), 244, 492 and
M.21.

— Fflur. See Strata Florida.

— Marchell Abbey (Strata Marcella),

509 n.^^ 583, 599 and n.^^,
602.

— Marchell commote, 248, 599 and

n.^^^, 709.

— Meurig, 427, 596 «."^ ; castle,

505t 506, 578, 581 a»<i »■".
621,

— Peithyll castle, 435.

— Rwnws, battle of (11 16), 422 and

Ystrad Tywi—

Cantrefs and commotes of, 266 et

seq.
Deanery of, 513 nP'^.
Gruffydd ap Rhys supported by,

577-
Llywelyn's conquests in (1256),

718-9 and n}^.
Lords of, under Llywelyn, 750.
Seisyll's conquest of, 257, 262.
Welsh possession of (1165), 519.
mentioned, 542 w."', 619.

— Yw, 272, 437, 730 and nJ^.
Ystradffin chapel (Capel Peulin), 151 and

n.i3i.
Ystrwyth, 622 and n.""*, 642 n."^, 685,

656 n.*, 657 «.".
Ystum Llwynarth. See Oystermouth.

Aberdeen: the university press.

fsti^sm^ 'sitrr . mkr2 d vre

PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

715

L56

1912

V.2

Lloyd, (Sir) John Edward

A history of Wales
2d ed.

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest"

See other formats