Vienna, marched along the southern bank of the Danube, to Hainburg,
crossed that river, and advanced to Marcheck, on the banks of the
March or Morava, where he was joined by the Styrians and Carinthians,
and the forces led by the King of Hungary. He instantly despatched two
thousand of his Hungarian auxiliaries to reconnoitre and interrupt the
operations of his adversary. They fulfilled their orders with spirit
and address, for Ottocar, roused by their insults, broke up his camp,
and marched to Jedensberg, within a short distance of Weidendorf,
whither Rudolph had advanced.
While the two armies continued in this situation, some traitors
repaired to the camp of-Rudolph and proposed to assassinate Ottocar,
but Rudolph, with his characteristic magnanimity, rejecting this
offer, apprised Ottocar of the danger with which he was threatened,
and made overtures of reconciliation. The King of Bohemia, confident
in the superiority of his force, deemed the intelligence a fabrication
and the proposals of Rudolph a proof of weakness, and disdainfully
refused to listen to any negotiation.
Finding all hopes of accommodation frustrated, Rudolph prepared for a
conflict, in which, like Cæsar, he was not to fight for victory alone,
but for life. At the dawn of day, August 26, 1278, his army was drawn
up, crossed the rivulet which gives name to Weidendorf, and approached
the camp of Ottocar. He ordered his troops to advance in a crescent,
and attack at the same time both flanks and the front of the enemy,
and then, turning to his soldiers, exhorted them to avenge the
violation of the most solemn compacts and the insulted majesty of the
empire, and by the efforts of that day to put an end to the tyranny,
the horrors, and the massacres to which they had been so long exposed.
He had scarcely finished before the troops rushed to the charge, and a
bloody conflict ensued, in which both parties fought with all the fury
that the presence and exertions of their sovereigns or the magnitude
of the cause in which they were engaged could inspire. At length the
imperial troops gained the advantage, but in the very moment of
victory the life of him on whom all depended was exposed to the most
imminent danger.
Several knights of superior strength and courage, animated by the
rewards and promises of Ottocar, had confederated either to kill or
take the King of the Romans. They rushed forward to the place where
Rudolph, riding among the foremost ranks, was encouraging and leading
his troops, and Herbot of Fullenstein, a Polish knight, giving spurs
to his horse, made the first charge. Rudolph, accustomed to this
species of combat, eluded the stroke, and, piercing his antagonist
under his beaver, threw him dead to the ground. The rest followed the
example of the Polish warrior, but were all slain, except Valens, a
Thuringian knight of gigantic stature and strength, who, reaching the
person of Rudolph, pierced his horse in the shoulder, and threw him
wounded to the ground. The helmet of the King was beaten off by the
shock, and being unable to rise under the weight of his armor he
covered his head with his shield, till he was rescued by Berchtold
Capillar, the commander of the corps of reserve, who, cutting his way
through the enemy, flew to his assistance. Rudolph mounted another
horse, and, heading the corps of reserve, renewed the charge with
fresh courage, and his troops, animated by his presence and exertions,
completed the victory.
Ottocar himself fought with no less intrepidity than his great
competitor. On the total rout of his troops he disdained to quit the
field, and, after performing incredible feats of valor, was
overpowered by numbers, dismounted, and taken prisoner. He was
instantly stripped of his armor, and killed by some Austrian and
Styrian nobles whose relations he had put to death. The discomfited
remains of his army, pursued by the victors, were either taken
prisoners, cut to pieces, or drowned in their attempts to pass the
March; and above fourteen thousand perished in this decisive
engagement.
Rudolph continued on the field till the enemy were totally routed and
dispersed. He endeavored to restrain the carnage, and sent messengers
to save the life of Ottocar, but his orders arrived too late, and when
he received an account of his death he generously lamented his fate.
He did ample justice to the valor and spirit of Ottocar; in his letter
to the Pope, after having described the contest and the resolution
displayed by both parties either to conquer or die, he adds: "At
length our troops prevailing drove the Bohemians into the neighboring
river, and almost all were either cut to pieces, drowned, or taken
prisoners. Ottocar, however, after seeing his army discomfited and
himself left alone, still would not submit to our conquering
standards, but, fighting with the strength and spirit of a giant,
defended himself with wonderful courage, until he was unhorsed and
mortally wounded by some of our soldiers. Then that magnanimous
monarch lost his life at the same time with the victory, and was
overthrown, not by our power and strength, but by the right hand of
the Most High."
The body of Ottocar, deformed with seventeen wounds, was borne to
Vienna, and, after being exposed to the people, was embalmed, covered
with a purple pall, the gift of the Queen of the Romans, and buried in
a Franciscan convent.
The plunder of the camp was immense, and Rudolph, apprehensive lest
the disputes of the booty and the hope of new spoils should occasion a
contest between his followers and the Hungarians, dismissed his
warlike but barbarous allies with acknowledgments for their services,
and pursued the war with his own forces. He took possession of Moravia
without opposition, and advanced into Bohemia as far as Colin.
The recent wars, the total defeat of the army, and the death of
Ottocar had rendered that country a scene of rapine and desolation.
Wenceslaus, his only son, was scarcely eight years of age; and the
Queen Cunegunda, a foreign princess, was without influence or power;
the turbulent nobles, who had scarcely submitted to the vigorous
administration of Ottocar, being without check or control, gave full
scope to their licentious spirit; the people were unruly and
rebellious, and not a single person in the kingdom possessed
sufficient authority to assume and direct the reins of government. In
this dreadful situation Cunegunda appealed to the compassion of
Rudolph, and offered to place her infant son and the kingdom under his
protection. In the midst of these transactions Otho, Margrave of
Brandenburg and nephew of Ottocar, marched into Bohemia at the head of
a considerable army, took charge of the royal treasures, secured the
person of Wenceslaus, and advanced against the King of the Romans.
Rudolph, weakened by the departure of the Hungarians and thwarted by
the princes of the empire, was too prudent to trust his fortune to the
chance of war; he listened therefore to overtures of peace, and an
accommodation was effected by arbitration. He was to retain possession
of the Austrian provinces, and to hold Moravia for five years, as an
indemnification for the expenses of the war; Wenceslaus was
acknowledged King of Bohemia, and during his minority the regency was
assigned to Otho; Rudolph, second son of the Emperor, was to espouse
the Bohemian princess Agnes; and his two daughters, Judith and
Hedwige, were affianced to the King of Bohemia and to Otho the Less,
brother of the Margrave. In consequence of this agreement Rudolph
withdrew from Bohemia, and in 1280 returned to Vienna in triumph.
Being delivered from the most powerful of his enemies, and relieved
from all further apprehensions by the weak and distracted state of
Bohemia, he directed his principal aim to secure the Austrian
territories for his own family. With this view he compelled Henry of
Bavaria, under the pretext of punishing his recent connection with
Ottocar, to cede Austria above the Ems, and to accept in return the
districts of Scharding, Neuburg, and Freistadt as the dowry of his
wife.
But, though master of all the Austrian territories, he experienced
great difficulties in transferring them to his family. Some claimants
of the Bamberg line still existed: Agnes, daughter of Gertrude and
wife of Ulric of Heunburg, and the two sons of Constantia by Albert of
Misnia. Those provinces were likewise coveted by Louis, Count Palatine
of the Rhine, and by his brother Henry of Bavaria, as having belonged
to their ancestors, and by Meinhard of Tyrol, from whom he had derived
such essential assistance, in virtue of his marriage with Elizabeth,
widow of the emperor Conrad and sister of the Dukes of Bavaria. The
Misnian princes, however, having received a compensation from Ottocar,
withheld their pretensions, and Rudolph purchased the acquiescence of
Agnes and her husband by a sum of money and a small cession of
territory. He likewise eluded the demands of the Bavarian princes and
of Meinhard by referring them to the decision of the German diet, In
the mean time he conciliated, by acts of kindness and liberality, his
new subjects, and obtained from the states of the duchy a declaration
that all the lands possessed by Frederick the Warlike belonged to the
Emperor, or to whomsoever he should grant them as fiefs, saving the
rights of those who within a given time should prosecute their claims.
He then intrusted his son Albert with the administration, convoked, on
August 9, 1281, a diet at Nuremberg, at which he presided in person,
and obtained a decree annulling all the acts and deeds of Richard of
Cornwall and his predecessors, since the deposition of Frederick II,
except such as had been approved by a majority of the electors. In
consequence of this decree another was passed specifically
in-validating the investiture of the Austrian provinces, which in 1262
was obtained from Richard of Cornwall by Ottocar.
Carinthia having been unjustly occupied by Ottocar, in contradiction
to the rights of Philip, Archbishop of Salzburg, brother of Ulric, the
last duke, the claims of Philip were acknowledged by Rudolph, and he
took his seat at the Diet of Augsburg as Duke of Carinthia. On the
conquest of that duchy he petitioned for the investiture, but Rudolph
delayed complying with his request under various pretences, and,
Philip dying without issue in 1279, the duchy escheated to the empire
as a vacant fief.
Rudolph, being at length in peaceable possession of these territories,
gradually obtained the consent of the electors, and at the Diet of
Augsburg, in December, 1282, conferred jointly on his two sons, Albert
and Rudolph, Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. But at their
desire he afterward resumed Carinthia, and bestowed it on Meinhard of
Tyrol, to whom he had secretly promised a reward for his services, and
in 1286 obtained the consent of the electors to this donation. By the
request of the states of Austria (1283), he declared that duchy and
Styria an inalienable and indivisible domain to be held on the same
terms, and with the same rights and privileges, as possessed by the
ancient dukes, Leopold and Frederick the Warlike, and vested the sole
administration in Albert, assigning a specific revenue to Rudolph and
his heirs, if he did not obtain another sovereignty within the space
of four years.
EDWARD I CONQUERS WALES
A.D. 1277
CHARLES H. PEARSON
Up to the time of Edward I, Wales, which had been partially
subdued by Henry I, was a source of continual disturbance to
the English kingdom. Long before the accession of Edward,
the greater part of Welsh territory was parcelled out into
little English principalities. Under John and Henry III,
Llewelyn the Great, Prince of Wales, maintained his
independence until 1237, three years before his death, when
he submitted in order to secure the succession of his son
David. Upon David's death, in 1246, the principality of
Wales was divided between Llewelyn and Owen the Red, sons of
Griffith ap Llewelyn, David's illegitimate brother. Civil
war soon followed, and in 1224 Llewelyn made himself master
of the land.
Llewelyn might have reached absolute independence had he not
taken part with Simon de Montfort in the barons' war against
Henry III. With the defeat and death of Montfort at Evesham
(1265) the prospect of a new Welsh sovereignty vanished;
Llewelyn purchased a peace and was recognized by Henry as
prince of Wales, retaining a part of his territories.
When Llewelyn was summoned as a vassal of the English crown
to the coronation of Edward I (1274), he refused. Twice
again was he summoned to do homage to the King, but still
evaded the summons. Upon his final refusal to come to the
parliament of 1276, his lands were declared to be forfeited,
and in 1277 Edward led an army into Wales.
The whole force of the realm was summoned to meet at Worcester in
June, 1277, and so well was the command obeyed that Edward found
himself able to dispose of three armies. With the first he himself
operated along the north, opening a safe road through the Cheshire
forests, and fortifying Flint and Rhuddlan, while the ships of the
Cinque Ports hovered along the coast and ravaged Anglesey. The _corps
d'armée_, under the Earl of Lincoln and Roger Mortimer, besieged and
reduced Dolvorwyn castle in Montgomeryshire. The third was led into
Cardigan by Payne de Chaworth, who ravaged the country with such vigor
that the South Welsh--being probably disaffected to a prince not of
their own lineage--surrendered the castle of Stradewi and made a
general submission.
Edward had avoided the fatal errors of previous commanders, who had
risked their forces in a barren and difficult country. His blockade
was so well sustained that Llewelyn was starved, rather than beaten,
into unconditional submission.
With singular moderation, Edward had declined receiving the homage of
the southern chiefs. He now granted Llewelyn honorable terms, November
5, 1277. A fine of fifty thousand pounds was imposed to mark the
greatness of the victory, but remitted next day out of the King's
grace. Four border cantreds,[72] old possessions of the English crown,
which Llewelyn had wrested from it in the wars of the late reign, were
to be surrendered to the English King, who already occupied them.
Prisoners in the English interests were to be set free, and Llewelyn
was to come under "an honorable" safe-conduct to London and perform
homage. Edward had promised David [73] half the principality, but with
a reservation at the time that he might, if he chose, give him
compensation elsewhere. He now elected to do this, moved, it would
seem, simply by the wish not to dismember Llewelyn's dominions, and
David was made governor of Denbigh castle, married to the Earl of
Derby's daughter, and endowed with extensive estates. In every other
respect Llewelyn was tenderly dealt with. The hostages exacted were
sent back. The rent of one thousand marks stipulated for Anglesey was
remitted. When the Prince of Wales came to London to perform homage he
received the last favor of all, and was married sumptuously, at the
King's cost, to Lady Eleanor de Montfort.
There is no reason for supposing that Edward cherished any covert
plans of absorbing Wales into England. Having wiped out the dishonor
of his early years, and replaced England in its old position of
ascendency, he had no motive for reviving bitter memories or
dispossessing a great noble of his fief. The King's conduct in giving
his cousin to one who was only her equal through a usurped royalty;
the inquests held in the marches to determine border law; the
instructions to the royal judges, to judge according to local customs;
the special commission appointed when Llewelyn thought himself
aggrieved are curious evidence of fair-mindedness in a strong-willed
and almost absolute sovereign. But in one respect Edward was
ill-fitted to deal with an uncivilized people. He was overstrict for
the times even in England, where his subjects almost learned, before
he died, to regret the anarchy of his father's reign. But his officers
were nowhere harsher than in Wales, where the people, unaccustomed to
a minute legality, complained that they were worse treated than
Saracens or Jews. Old offences were raked up; wrecking was made
punishable; the legal taxes were aggravated by customary payments; and
distresses were levied on the first goods that came to hand, whether
Llewelyn's own or his subjects'.
The people of the four annexed cantreds were soon ripe for rebellion,
David was alienated from the English cause by petty quarrels with
Reginald Gray, Justice of Chester, who insisted on making him answer
before the English courts, hanged some of his vassals, and carried a
military road through his woods. The Welsh gentlemen complained that
they were removed from offices which they had purchased, brought to
justice for old offences which ought to have been condoned by the
peace, and deprived of their jurisdiction in local courts. For a time
the lady Eleanor tried to mediate between her husband and her cousin.
But it was impossible that a stern, just man like Edward, penetrated
with the most advanced doctrine of European legists and deriving his
information from English employés, should be able to understand the
position of the chief of a semibarbarous nationality, who thought
outrages on law matters to be atoned for by fines, while he brooded
with implacable rancor over every slight, real or fancied, to his own
position as prince of Wales, representative of a dynasty that had
ruled "since the time of Camber the son of Brutus."
Moreover, Llewelyn thought, perhaps unreasonably, that he had been
betrayed by Edward. He said that on the day of his marriage the
English King had forced him to subscribe a document to the effect that
he would never harbor an English exile or maintain forces against
Edward's will. There was little in all this that was not implied in
Llewelyn's position as vassal, and he himself did not complain that
the conditions had ever been offensively pressed. A king who had
granted such liberal terms as Edward might perhaps claim, with reason,
that his conquered vassal should never threaten him with hostilities.
But the offence was none the less deadly, that it was justified by the
relations of subject and sovereign.
A curious superstition precipitated an outbreak, In the time of Henry
I some Norman had fabricated the so-called prophecies of Merlin, which
were designed to reconcile the Welsh to the Norman Conquest. Henry was
designated in them as the lion of justice, and it was given as a sign
of his reign that the symbol of commerce would be split and the half
be round. The prophecy had already been fulfilled by the regulation
for breaking coin at the mint, and making the half-penny a round piece
by itself. In 1279 Edward issued the farthing as an entire coin. The
change recalled the memory of Merlin's prophecy; and the vague
oracles, that had been compiled to describe Henry's dominion over the
Saxons, were easily interpreted to mean that a Welsh prince should be
crowned at London, and retrieve what its natives regarded as the lost
dominion of the principality.
Llewelyn, it is said, consulted a witch, who assured him that he
should ride crowned through Westcheap. But the Prince of Wales also
relied on less visionary assurances. The "quo-warranto" commission was
prosecuting its labors vigorously, and had produced a widespread
discontent in England, where men said openly that the King would not
suffer them to reap their own corn or mow their grass. Llewelyn was in
correspondence with the malcontents, and received promises of support.
His brother David was easily induced to join the rebellion, and began
it on Palm Sunday, 1282, by storming the castle of Hawarden, and
making Roger de Clifford, its lord and Edward's sheriff, his prisoner.
Flint and Rhuddlan were next reduced, and the Welsh spread over the
marches, waging a war of singular ferocity, slaying, and even burning,
young and old women and sick people in the villages. The rebellion
found Edward unprepared, but he met it with equal vigor and
efficiency. Making Shrewsbury his head-quarters, and moving the
exchequer and king's bench to it, he summoned troops not only from all
England, but from Gascony.
It is possible that the foreign recruits were intended to strengthen
the King's hands against subjects of doubtful fidelity, but no real
embarrassment from the disaffected was sustained. The troops mustered
operated in two armies, which started from Rhuddlan and Worcester, and
enclosed Llewelyn, as before, from north and south. Meanwhile the
ships of the Cinque Ports reduced Anglesey, "the noblest feather in
Llewelyn's wing," as Edward joyfully observed. But the King was
faithful to his old policy of a blockade. A bridge of ships was thrown
across the Menai Straits, and the forests between Wales proper and the
English border were hewn down by an army of pioneers. The King's
banner, the golden dragon, showed that quarter would be given.
As the war lasted on, negotiations were attempted; and the Archbishop
of Canterbury, who had threatened the last sentence of the Church
against Llewelyn and his adherents, was sent over to Snowdon to hold a
conference. Llewelyn had already been warned that it was idle to
expect assistance from Rome. He was now summoned to submit at
discretion, with a hope--so expressed as to be a promise--that he and
the natives of the revolted districts would have mercy shown them. In
private he was informed that, on condition of surrendering Wales, he
should receive a county in England and a pension of one thousand
pounds a year. David was to go to the Holy Land, and not return except
by the King's permission. These terms were undoubtedly hard, but could
not be called unreasonable, as, by the subjugation of Anglesey, the
principality was reduced to the two modern counties of Merionethshire
and Carnarvonshire. Llewelyn and his barons preferred to die fighting
sword in hand for position and liberty. The Primate excommunicated
them and withdrew.
About the time of this interview, November 6th, there was a sharp
skirmish at Bangor. Some of the Earl of Gloucester's troops crossed
over before the bridge was completed, except for low-water mark, and
were surprised and routed, with the loss of their leader and fourteen
bannerets, by the Welsh. This encouraged Llewelyn to resume offensive
operations, and he poured troops into Cardigan to ravage the lands of
a Welshman in the English interest. The English forces in Radnor
marched up along the left bank of the Wye, and came in sight of the
enemy at Buelth, December 10th. Llewelyn was surprised during a
reconnaissance and killed by an English knight, Stephen de Frankton.
After a short but brilliant encounter, in which the English charged up
the brow of a hill and routed the enemy with loss, they examined the
dead bodies, and for the first time knew that Llewelyn was among the
slain. A letter was found on his person giving a list, in false names,
of the English nobles with whom he was in correspondence, but either
the cipher was undiscoverable or the matter was hushed up by the
King's discretion.
Llewelyn, dying under church ban, was denied Christian sepulture. His
head, crowned with a garland of silver ivy-leaves, was carried on the
point of a lance through London, and exposed on the battlements of the
Tower. The prophecy that he should ride crowned through London had
been fatally fulfilled.