hands of his relations. Thus the great palatine earldom of Chester,
having lapsed to the Crown through failure of heirs, was granted in
1254 to the king's eldest son, Edward. Besides Chester and its
dependencies Edward received Montgomery and the royal lands in South
Wales (Cardigan and Carmarthen), Ireland and Gascony--in fact all the
territory outside England over which the king had rights. These
possessions were calculated to give the heir to the throne a varied
experience and splendid training in the art of government. Edward was
in need of such training, as the story of his early years shows. He
was only sixteen years of age in 1255, but in the Middle Ages men
lived short lives and matured very early. Edward was married in 1254,
and had much experience in war and statesmanship before he was
twenty. It was a wild time, and young Edward was among the wildest
spirits; as he rode through the country, accompanied by his two
hundred followers--mostly rollicking and arrogant foreign
adventurers--who robbed and devastated the land, and thrashed and even
mutilated passers-by for fun, people looked forward with great fear to
the accession of such a ruffian. A few years of responsibility, and
failure, soon changed him into the noblest and most law-abiding of the
Plantagenets. It was Wales which gave him his first lesson. He first
tried his hand at the reorganisation of the "Middle Country," making
it "shire-land," introducing the English law and administrative
system; the same policy was put in force in Cardigan and Carmarthen,
which formed one shire with a Shiremoot and the usual institutions of
an English county. Some Welshmen had already petitioned the king for
the introduction of English law into Wales, complaining that by Welsh
law the crime of the guilty is visited on the innocent relations. At
best it was a task which required very careful management, and Edward
and his advisers were as yet quite unfitted for it, prone as they were
to violent methods, having an insolent contempt for all customs and
habits which differed from those to which they were used, and all
classes except their own. The result is thus expressed by the Welsh
chronicler: After Edward returned to England, "the nobles of Wales
came to Llywelyn, having been robbed of their liberties and made
captives, and declared they would rather be killed in war for their
liberty than suffer themselves to be trampled on by strangers. And
Llywelyn was moved at their tears, and invaded the Middle Country and
subdued it all before the end of the week." In this work Llywelyn was
assisted by descendants of Rhys, the princes of South Wales, who in
Cardigan suffered from Prince Edward's policy in the same way as the
men of the Middle Country or Four Cantreds. This union of North and
South Wales is one of the special characteristics of the struggle
under Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. That the Welsh of the North should join
those of the South was, notes Matthew Paris, "a circumstance never
known before." And Llywelyn was statesman enough to see the importance
of this union and take steps to strengthen it. After recovering the
Middle Country, he marched south, took possession of Cardigan and
Builth--then a possession of the Crown, though in the custody of
Mortimer--and gave these districts to Meredydd, grandson of the Lord
Rhys, to hold as vassal--a wise measure, intended to bind the South to
him by common interests. Matthew Paris, who holds up the Welsh
resistance to tyranny as an example to the English, puts in Llywelyn's
mouth a striking speech in favour of unity: "Let us then stand firm
together; for if we remain inseparable we shall be insuperable"--the
very words of Gerald of Barry, whose advice had borne some fruit. But
Meredydd soon proved a traitor, and the failure of Henry III.'s
campaign in 1257 was less due to the union of the Welsh than to the
disunion of the English.
3. This brings us to the third event referred to above--the
proclamation of Edmund as King of Sicily. The Pope was trying to
conquer Sicily, but wanted some one else to pay the war budget. After
trying various people he induced Henry III. to accept the crown of
Sicily for Edmund and promise enormous sums for the payment of the
papal armies, and pledge his whole kingdom as security for the
payment. This, coming on the top of many years of misgovernment and a
long series of extortions, led directly to the crisis of the
reign--the revolution known as the Provisions of Oxford in 1258, by
which the powers of government were taken away from the Crown and
given to committees of barons.
The disaffection against Henry III. at once made itself felt in the
Welsh war. "Those who had promised the king assistance did not come;"
and when the whole knighthood of England were called out to meet at
Chester, only "manifold complaints and murmurs were heard." We might
have expected the Marcher Lords at any rate to rally round the king;
but they were not disposed to assist in building up a royal power in
Wales which would endanger their independence, and were glad enough to
stand by and see the scheme thwarted. Some of them even went so far as
to send secret information to the Welsh prince. The king had to
retreat ingloriously, pursued by Llywelyn, and followed by the
derisive sneers of the enemy. It may interest some of us to note that
in this war the English army fought, as often, under the Dragon
standard; probably the Dragon made in 1244 by Edward Fitz Odo, the
King's goldsmith, who was commanded to make it "in the manner of a
standard or ensign, of red samit, to be embroidered with gold, and his
tongue to appear as though continually moving, and his eyes of
sapphire or other stones agreeable to him." This was in 1257; the king
was still less able to attack Llywelyn in 1258 and the following
years, and had to agree to an ignominious truce.
Almost the whole English baronage under the leadership of Simon de
Montfort, Earl of Leicester, and Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester,
combined against the king, who was only supported by the royal family
and those of his foreign relations to whom he had given earldoms and
baronies and bishoprics in England or Wales. If Llywelyn had contented
himself with occupying the royal lands in Wales--the territories
granted to Edward--and with seizing Powys, which held to the English
king, he would have had nothing to fear at this time from the English
baronage, and the Crown was powerless to resist. It is clear from the
English chroniclers that there was a genuine admiration for the Welsh
resistance on the part of the English people. "Their cause," says
Matthew Paris, "seemed a just one even to their enemies." But Llywelyn
attacked the great Marcher Lords; it was difficult for a champion of
Welsh patriotism to avoid doing so--it may be also that Llywelyn
failed to grasp thoroughly the political situation in England, as he
certainly failed to grasp it after the accession of Edward I. The
first to suffer severely from him was Roger Mortimer, lord of the
Middle March; thus Llywelyn drove him out of Gwerthrynion and
Maelienydd, and added these territories to his own. Successes like
these roused great enthusiasm among the Welsh gentry, though they
excited the alarm and jealousy of some of the princes (such as
Meredydd, and Llywelyn's brother David, who "by the instigation of the
devil" deserted the cause and went over to the English). But the good
men of Brecon revolted from their lord, the Earl of Hereford, and
adhered to Llywelyn, who came down and received their homage in 1262.
The general situation was altered by these events. It became clear to
the Lords Marchers that their power was endangered by Llywelyn's
success, and that they must make common cause with Prince Edward. The
Lords Marchers began to form the royalist party. Thus Mortimer, who in
1258 was among the leaders of the baronial opposition to the Crown,
was in 1260 acting with the king against the barons. The Mortimers
were the most directly affected of all the Marchers by the successes
of Llywelyn, not only because their territories lay near Gwynedd, but
because nearly all their lands lay in or close to the Marches; they
had all their eggs in the same basket, while the other leading Lords
Marchers had large possessions elsewhere, from which they drew the
bulk of their revenues, using their March lands as a recruiting-ground
for their troops. Thus to the De Clares their estates in Kent were
probably worth more as a source of income than the whole of Glamorgan;
and they also had estates in Hertford and Suffolk and Hampshire, and
elsewhere; the Fitzalans were great landowners in Sussex; the Bohuns
of Hereford had broad acres in Huntingdon, Essex, and Hertford. To
these men the limitation of the royal powers--especially of the power
of taxing, and the king's right to employ foreigners in places of
trust--was more important than the checking of Llywelyn's advance,
which certainly weakened the king and made it easier to enforce
constitutional rights against him.
Still we have here one of the causes which broke the unity of the
baronage, which created a royalist party, and led to open war. This
has hardly been enough emphasised. It is generally said that the
question on which the barons split was the question of the recognition
of popular representation in the government of the country--the
question, in a word, of a House of Commons--Simon de Montfort being
the leader of the popular cause, Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester
(till his death in July, 1262), the leader of the oligarchic party,
which aimed merely at transferring the royal power to a committee of
barons. This was undoubtedly the most important cause of the quarrel,
because it was a question of principle big with results for the
future, affecting the whole course of English history, while the
attitude which the barons ought to take towards Llywelyn was merely
for the barons a matter of political tactics. But it is probable that
the latter loomed larger in the eyes of contemporaries--certainly in
the eyes of most of the Lords Marchers.
Hence it came about that, when war actually broke out in the spring of
1263, the elder of the Lords Marchers fought on the side of the
king--such as Roger Mortimer and Humphrey de Bohun--though the younger
men--young Gilbert of Gloucester and Humphrey de Bohun, the son of
Hereford--remained under the spell of Simon de Montfort's fascination
and high-minded enthusiasm. The war began in the Welsh Marches, Simon
attacking the forces of Edward of Chester and Roger Mortimer--the
principal royalists. As these were also the most formidable enemies of
the Welsh, Llywelyn at the same time attacked them from the other
side, the baronial party and Welsh co-operating, though without any
formal alliance or friendly feelings. Thus in 1263 the baronial army
besieged Shrewsbury, which defended itself till "a countless host" of
Welshmen, came up and began to attack it from the other side; the town
then surrendered to the barons lest it should fall into the hands of
the Welsh.
This campaign led to a very great defection from the baronial side:
the Lord Marchers generally--such as Clifford and Fitzalan--deserted
Simon, who appeared as a traitor to the country. How great the
defection is shown by Simon's words: "Though all should leave me, yet
with my four sons I will stand true to the just cause, which I have
sworn to uphold for the honour of the Church and the good of the
kingdom; I have been in many lands, pagan and Christian, but in none
have I found such faithlessness as in England."
The royalists were now the strongest party in the Marches, and in 1264
Edward and Mortimer gained a number of successes over the troops of
Simon and Llywelyn (who seem to have been acting together) and
captured Brecon. But they were called off to the main seat of war in
the Midlands, and Simon inflicted a crushing defeat on the royalists
at Lewes, in Sussex, 1264. It appears that Welsh archers fought in
Simon's army, but these would be South Welsh, not North Welsh, the
troops of Gilbert de Clare, not those of Llywelyn. The Marchers who
escaped from Lewes were followed up by Simon, and being encircled by
his forces and those of Llywelyn, submitted in December, 1264.
But Simon in the hour of triumph was now near his fall, which was made
inevitable by the defection of Gilbert de Clare and whole of the
Gloucester interest. The causes of the quarrel as given in the
chronicles are mainly personal. Simon, with all his greatness, was
quick-tempered and overbearing, inclined to seize power for himself,
and perhaps even avaricious; one may infer this from the statement of
a friendly chronicler, William Rishanger: "his habitual prayer to God
was that he would save him from avarice and covetousness of worldly
goods." But, apart from merely personal questions, it is to be noticed
that the closer the relations between Simon and Llywelyn became, the
less cordial became his relations to Gilbert de Clare. Thus when Simon
co-operated with Llywelyn in bringing Mortimer and the Marchers to
submission in December, 1264, Gilbert began to intrigue with them; and
soon after the famous parliament of 1265 had transferred to Simon the
earldom of Chester--thus relieving Llywelyn of his most dangerous
neighbour, Prince Edward--Gilbert definitely joined Mortimer and
Edward. The meeting between the three at Ludlow is very important;
for Prince Edward now, at the instance of Gloucester, definitely
pledged himself to the cause of reform and good government. It may be
said for the Red Earl of Gloucester that in deserting Simon he did not
desert his cause. To ensure the future of English liberties it was no
longer necessary to support De Montfort: "henceforth it was not Simon
but Edward who best represents the cause of orderly national
progress."
A few days after the desertion of Gloucester Simon made his first
formal treaty with Llywelyn, ceding to him Hawarden, Ellesmere,
Montgomery, Maud's Castle, a line of fortresses along the eastern
border, recognising his right to the title of Prince of Wales, and to
the homage of all the Welsh barons, while Llywelyn engaged to supply
Simon with five thousand spearmen and raid the estates of Mortimer and
De Clare. The first part of the campaign of Evesham was carried out in
Gwent. Prince Edward held the line of the Severn, separating Simon at
Hereford from his English partisans. Simon, while waiting for his
English supporters to concentrate, entered Monmouthshire, where
Llywelyn's spearmen joined him and ravaged the Gloucester estates,
trying to entice the royalists into Wales. Edward followed; but--his
pupil in war as in politics--the young prince outgeneralled him at
every point, and Simon only escaped at Newport by hurried flight
across the river, burning the bridge behind him. He kept the Usk
between him and his enemy, but this involved a long march north,
through mountains and barren country, and he got back to Hereford with
a half-starved army, only to find the line of the Severn held more
strongly than ever. We cannot follow out the rest of the campaign,
marked as it was by brilliant strategy on the part of the young
Edward, which proved him a born master of the art of war. In the final
battle all the advantages were on his side, and one cannot blame the
spearmen of Gwynedd for trying to save themselves by flight at the
"murder of Evesham." The body of the great Earl of Leicester was
shamefully mutilated by the conquerors, and his head sent as a
fitting present to Matilda de Braose, wife of Roger Mortimer.
The struggle continued for two years both in England and Wales. In
England Simon's adherents held out owing to the severity of the terms
which the victorious party insisted on. They are known as "The
Disinherited," and their cause was championed by the two
enemies--Llywelyn and Gilbert de Clare. The "Brut" states that in
1267, "Llywelyn confederated with Earl Clare; and then the earl
marched with an immense army to London; and through the treachery of
the citizens he got possession of the Tower. And when King Henry and
his son Edward heard of this they collected an immense army and
marched to London and attacked it, and upon conditions they compelled
the earl and citizens to submit." "The Annals of Winchester," a
contemporary English chronicle, relate the same event, but omit any
mention of Llywelyn: "Earl Gilbert took London, and the Disinherited
flocked to him as to their saviour; peace was settled in June, and
many of the Disinherited were pacified at the instance of the Earl of
Gloucester." It is clear that each of these rivals posed as champion
of the Disinherited, but for opposite reasons. Llywelyn's object was
to encourage their resistance and keep England divided by civil war;
Gilbert's to insist on better terms in order to induce them to yield.
Gilbert was successful in bringing about peace and reform. The
Disinherited were allowed to pay a fine instead of losing all their
property, and many of the legal reforms demanded by the baronial party
at the beginning of the struggle were embodied in the Statute of
Marlborough. And now the Earl of Gloucester employed his resources in
strengthening his Glamorgan lordship to resist the threatened invasion
of Llywelyn by building Castell Coch and Caerphilly.
Llywelyn continued his victorious career as long as war lasted. In
1266 he inflicted a crushing defeat on Mortimer at Brecon. In the
autumn of next year, when peace had been established in England, he
came to terms, through the mediation of the papal legate, in the
Treaty of Montgomery. Llywelyn kept the four cantreds of the Middle
Country; also Cydewain, Ceri, Gwerthrynion, Builth, and Brecon. But
Maelienydd was restored to Roger Mortimer, though Llywelyn reserved
his right to appeal to the law against this article. Further, the
Prince of Gwynedd received the hereditary title of Prince of Wales,
and was recognised as overlord of all the Welsh barons in Wales,
except Meredydd ap Rhys, who remained immediate vassal of the King of
England: his territories therefore in the Vale of Towy were withdrawn
from the power of Llywelyn. The Prince of Wales in return did homage
and agreed to pay him 25,000 marks by instalments. The treaty is less
favourable to Llywelyn than that of 1265. His rights in Deheubarth
were curtailed, and he gave up his claims to Ellesmere and Montgomery,
and possession of Maelienydd.
The papal legate who arranged the treaty is not to be congratulated on
his draftsmanship. Many things were left undecided, and a series of
disputes arose. Thus Llywelyn seems to have claimed suzerainty over
the Lord of Senghenydd as one of the "Welsh barons," though that term
was surely only meant to include the Welsh barons who held directly of
the king, not the vassals of the Lord of Glamorgan. But it is evident
that Llywelyn did not try to abide by the treaty. He continued to
intrigue with the English barons, posing as the successor of Simon de
Montfort, and failing to see that Edward I. was the political heir of
the great earl. He tried to throw off the suzerainty of England, with
the result that he lost the independence of his country. He lived in
an atmosphere of enthusiasm and flattery, and failed to realise the
limits of his power. The bards by whom he was surrounded exercised a
"highly pernicious influence in practical concerns," and ill-repaid
his generosity by urging him to attempt the impossible.
"His bards are comely about his tables,
I have seen him generously distributing his wealth,
And his meadhorns filled with generous liquors.
I never returned empty-handed from the North.
The bards prophesy that he shall have the government and
sovereign power;
Every prediction is at last to be fulfilled."
But if Llywelyn lacked the hard head of the practical statesman, if
he did not, like his grandfather, merit the title of "the Great," he
will always remain an attractive and striking figure in history; he
possessed qualities which made him an ideal representative of the
Cymric race in the Middle Ages:--
"A bold and bounteous lion--the most reckless of givers,
Man whose anger was destructive; most courteous prince;
A man sincere in grief, true in loving,
Perfect in knowledge."
UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON.
=SOME WELSH BOOKS.=
=WALES.= By OWEN M. EDWARDS. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s. ("The
Story of the Nations" Series.)
=THE WELSH PEOPLE.= By JOHN RHYS, M.A., and DAVID
BRYNMOR-JONES, Q.C., M.P. Third Edition, revised. Demy
8vo, cloth, 16s.
=THE WELSH LIBRARY.=
Edited by OWEN M. EDWARDS, Author of "Wales." Each
volume Foolscap 8vo. 2s. Cloth, 1s. Paper.
=Vols. 1-3. THE MABINOGION.=
(_In Preparation._)
LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN.
Transcriber's Note
Minor typographic errors in punctuation and variations in hyphenation
have been corrected without note.
The following amendments have been made:
Page vi--Cymry amended to Kymry--"... Thomas Stephens,
"Literature of the Kymry"; ..."
Page 21--harminously amended to harmoniously--"... and a
prince of North Wales working harmoniously together."
Page 34--FitzHamon amended to Fitzhamon--"... daughter
and heiress of Fitzhamon, conqueror of Glamorgan."
Page 37--Caradog amended to Caradoc--"... attributed to
Caradoc of Llancarven, on which his biographers ..."
Page 80--omitted word 'the' added--"... fighting in
Wales till the end of ..."
Page 84--Senghennydd amended to Senghenydd--"Ivor ap
Meyric was Lord of Senghenydd, ..."
The single oe ligature (in Coeur), and superscripts within century
numbers have not been retained in this version. The single dagger symbol
is indicated using a + symbol.
The illustration on page 88 (Cardiff and Caerphilly Castles) has been
moved so that it is not in the middle of a paragraph.
Repeated headings at the start of each essay have been deleted so
there is only one instance left for each.
Advertising material has been moved to the end of the text. Bold in
that material is indicated =like this=.