CHAPTER I_Owen Glyndwr and the Last Struggle for Welsh Independence With a Brief Sketch of Welsh History

Transcriber's Note

Superscripted letters are preceded with a carat character, e.g. Hen^r.

OWEN GLYNDWR

AND THE LAST STRUGGLE FOR

WELSH INDEPENDENCE

WITH A BRIEF SKETCH OF WELSH HISTORY

ARTHUR GRANVILLE BRADLEY

AUTHOR OF "HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS IN

NORTH WALES," "SKETCHES FROM OLD

VIRGINIA," "THE FIGHT WITH FRANCE

FOR NORTH AMERICA," ETC.

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK

27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET

LONDON

24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND

The Knickerbocker Press

1901

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

Heroes of the Nations

EDITED BY

Evelyn Abbott, M.A.

FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD

FACTA DUCIS VIVENT, OPEROSAQUE

GLORIA RERUM.--OVID, IN LIVIAM 265.

THE HERO'S DEEDS AND HARD-WON

FAME SHALL LIVE.

OWEN GLYNDWR

Heroes of the Nations

A Series of Biographical Studies presenting the lives and work of

certain representative historical characters, about whom have gathered

the traditions of the nations to which they belong, and who have, in

the majority of instances, been accepted as types of the several

national ideals.

12^o, Illustrated, cloth, each, $1.50

Half Leather, gilt top, each, $1.75

FOR FULL LIST SEE END OF THIS VOLUME

[Illustration: GLYNDWR'S MOUNT, GLYNDYFRDWY.

Miss Walker.

_Frontispiece._]

[Decoration]

PREFACE

If this little book purported to be a biography in the ordinary sense

of the word, the scantiness of purely personal detail relating to its

hero might be a fair subject of criticism. But men of the Glyndwr type

live in history rather by their deeds, and the deeds of those they

lead and inspire. This is peculiarly the case with the last and the

most celebrated among the soldier patriots of Wales. Though so little

remains to tell us of the actual man himself, this very fact has

thrown a certain glamour and mystery about his name even in the

Principality. While numbers of well-informed Englishmen are inclined

to regard him, so far as they regard him at all, as a semi-mythical

hero under obligations to Shakespeare for such measure of renown and

immortality as he enjoys, if the shade of Henry the Fourth could be

called up as a witness it would tell a very different story. It is at

any rate quite certain that for the first few years of the fifteenth

century, both to England and to Wales, to friends and to foes, Owen

was in very truth a sufficiently real personality. What we do know of

him, apart from his work, might well suggest infinite possibilities to

the novelist and the poet. It is my business, however, to deal only

with facts or to record legends and traditions for what they are

worth, as illustrating the men and the time.

Glyndwr is without doubt the national hero of the majority of

Welshmen. Precisely why he takes precedence of warrior princes who

before his day struggled so bravely with the Anglo-Norman power and

often with more permanent success, is not now to the point. My readers

will be able to form some opinion of their own as to the soundness of

the Welsh verdict. But these are matters, after all, outside logic and

argument. It is a question of sentiment which has its roots perhaps in

sound reasons now forgotten. There are in existence several brief and

more or less accurate accounts of Glyndwr's rising. Those of Thomas,

written early in this century, and of Pennant, embodied in his well

known _Tours in Wales_, are the most noteworthy,--while one or two

interesting papers represent all the recent contributions to the

subject. There has not hitherto, however, been any attempt to collect

in book form all that is known of this celebrated Welshman and the

movement he headed. I have, therefore, good reason to believe that the

mere collection and arrangement of this in one accessible and handy

volume will not be unwelcome, to Welsh readers especially. Thus much

at least I think I have achieved, and the thought will be some

consolation, at any rate, if I have failed in the not very easy task

of presenting the narrative in sufficiently popular and readable

guise. But I hope also to engage the interest of readers other than

Welshmen in the story of Glyndwr and his times. If one were to say

that the attitude of nearly all Englishmen towards Wales in an

historical sense is represented by a total blank, I feel quite sure

that the statement would neither be denied nor resented.

Under this assumption it was thought well to attempt a somewhat fuller

picture of Wales than that presented by the Glyndwr period alone, and

to lead up to this by an outline sketch of Welsh history. The earlier

part, particularly, of this contains much contentious matter. But in

such a rapid, superficial survey as will fully answer our purpose

here, there has scarcely been occasion to go below those salient

features that are pretty generally agreed upon by historians. The kind

manner in which my _Highways and Byways of North Wales_ was received,

not only by English readers but by Welsh friends and the Welsh press,

makes me venture to hope that my presumption as a Saxon in making this

more serious excursion into the domain of Welsh history will be

overlooked in consideration of the subject dealt with.

A continuous intimacy of many years with the Glyndyfrdwy region begat

a natural interest in the notable personage who had once owned it, and

this gradually ripened into a desire to fill, however inadequately,

what seemed to me an obvious want. Before venturing on the task I took

some pains to ascertain whether any Welsh writer had the matter in

contemplation, and so far as information gathered in the most

authoritative quarters could be effective it was in the negative. As

this was at a time when the Welsh people were considering some form

of National memorial to Glyndwr, the absence both in fact and in

prospect of any accessible memoir of him overcame what diffidence on

racial grounds I had naturally felt and encouraged me in my desire to

supply the want.

A full list of the authorities I have consulted in the preparation of

this work would, I have reason to understand, be too ponderous a

supplement to a volume of this kind. Before noting any of them,

however, I must first acknowledge the very great obligations I am

under to Professor Wylie for his invaluable and exhaustive history of

Henry IV.; not merely for the information contained in the text of his

book, but for his copious notes which have been most helpful in

indicating many sources of information connected with the persons and

events of the time. The following are some of the chief works

consulted: Dr. Powell's translation of Humphrey Lloyd's _History of

Wales_ from the chronicle of Caradoc of Llancarvan, Ellis' original

letters, _Annales Cambriæ_, Rymer's _Fœdera_, Williams' _History of

Wales_, Warrington's _History of Wales_, Tyler's _Henry V._, Adam of

Usk, Matthew of Paris, Hardyng's and other chronicles, Giraldus

Cambrensis, the historians Carte, Walsingham, and Holinshed,

Bridgeman's _Princes of South Wales_, Lloyd's _History of the Princes

of Powys Fadog_, the Iolo MSS., Owen's _Ancient Laws and Institutions

of Wales_, _Archæologia Cambrensis_, the Brut, and, of course, the

Rolls series. Among living writers who have been helpful in various

ways and have my best thanks are Mr. Robert Owen, of Welshpool, the

author of _Powysland_, the Revd. W. G. Dymock Fletcher, of Shrewsbury,

who has made a special study of the neighbouring battle-field;

Professor Tout, who has published an interesting lecture on Glyndwr

and some instructive maps connected with the period; and Mr. Henry

Owen, the well known authority on Pembrokeshire and author of _Gerald

the Welshman_; nor must I omit a word of thanks to Mr. Owen Edwards,

whose kind encouragement materially influenced my decision to

undertake this book.

I am under most particular obligations to that well known Welsh

scholar, Mr. T. Marchant Williams, for suggestions and criticisms when

the book was still in manuscript, and also to my lamented friend, the

late Mr. St. John Boddington, of Huntington Court, Herefordshire, for

assistance of a somewhat similar nature.

I am also greatly indebted to Miss Walker, of Corwen, for several

photographic scenes in Glyndyfrdwy, which she most kindly took with an

especial view to reproduction in these pages, and to Messrs. H. H.

Hughes and W. D. Haydon, both of Shrewsbury, who rendered a like

service in the matter of Glyndwr's other residence at Sycherth.

[Decoration]

CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION 1

The Romans in Wales--Cunedda--Christianity--Arrival of

Saxons--Their Conquest of Severn Valley--The Latin and

Welsh Churches--The Three Divisions of Wales--Arrival of

Danes--Strathclyde Britons Occupy Vale of Clwyd--Howel

Dda and His Laws--Growing Intercourse between Welsh and

Saxons--Llewelyn I.--Griffith ap Llewelyn--Harold's

Invasions of Wales--Arrival of Normans--William I. and

William Rufus in Wales--Norman Conquest of Glamorgan--

The Flemings Settle in Pembroke--Wars between Owen Gwynedd

and Henry II.--Howel ap Owen Gwynedd--Dafydd ap Owen

Gwynedd--Giraldus Cambrensis on the Welsh--Religious

Awakening in the Twelfth Century--Powys and the English

Power--Llewelyn the Great, 1195--King John's Invasion of

Wales--Llewelyn recognised as Ruler of All Wales--Dafydd

ap Llewelyn Succeeds--He Persecutes his Brother Griffith

and Makes War on the English--Henry III. in Wales--

Llewelyn ap Griffith, Last Prince in Wales--Long Struggle

against Henry III. and Edward I.--Death of Llewelyn and

his Brother Dafydd--Final Conquest of Wales--Edward I.

Enacts Statutes of Rhuddlan, Builds Castles, and Provides

for the Future Government of the Country--Wales between

the Conquest and Glyndwr's Rising.

CHAPTER II

BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE, 1359-1399 82

Owen's Birth and Descent--His Youth--His Connection with

Henry IV. and Richard II.--Sycherth--Glyndyfrdwy--

Marriage--Family.

CHAPTER III

GLYNDWR AND LORD GREY OF RUTHIN, 1400-1401 110

Lord Grey of Ruthin--Anglo-Welsh Towns--Owen's Unsuccessful

Lawsuit--Contemptuous Treatment by the English Court--

Bad Faith of Grey towards Owen--Griffith ap David--Grey

Appeals for Aid against Welsh Insurgents--Grey's Attempt

to Capture Owen--Owen Assumes the Leadership--Iolo

Goch--Owen Raids Ruthin--The King Invades Wales but to

no Purpose--The Prince of Wales Left in Command at

Chester--Owen Winters at Glyndyfrdwy.

CHAPTER IV

OWEN AND THE PERCYS, 1401 135

Hotspur in North Wales--Prince Henry--Conway Taken by

the Welsh--Retaken by the English--Percy Acts against

the Welsh--Owen Goes to Plinlimmon--War Carried to the

South--Flemings of Pembroke Defeated by Glyndwr--Owen

Triumphs in South Wales--King Henry again Invades

Wales--The King in Cardigan--Invasion without Result--

The English Army Retires to Shrewsbury--Owen and the

Percys--Welsh Social Divisions--Owen Captures Grey at

Ruthin--Grey Held to Ransom.

CHAPTER V

THE KING AND HOTSPUR, 1402 163

Portents--Bishop Trevor--Howel Sele--Mortimer Defeated

at Pilleth, and Taken Prisoner--The King Refuses to

Ransom Mortimer--Glyndwr in Carnarvonshire--Great

Invasion of Wales by King Henry--Magic and Tempests

Overwhelm the English Advance--Defeat of the Scots at

Homildon--Hotspur and the King Dispute about Scottish

Prisoners--Mortimer Invites His Radnor Tenants to Join

Glyndwr.

CHAPTER VI

THE BATTLE OF SHREWSBURY, 1403 185

The King in Need of Money--Prince Henry at Shrewsbury--

He Destroys Owen's Property--Letter from the Prince

Concerning this--Glyndwr in the Vale of Towy--Victory of

Anglo-Flemings near Carmarthen--Urgent Appeal for Royal

Assistance from Brecon--Petitions for the Same from

Herefordshire--The Welsh Overrun Western Herefordshire--

Glyndwr at Carmarthen--He Consults a Soothsayer--The

Plot of the Percys--Battle of Shrewsbury--Glyndwr's

Connection with the Movement--He Appears in Flint--The

King Prepares for the Invasion of Wales.

CHAPTER VII

OWEN AND THE FRENCH, 1403-1404 212

Beleaguered Castles--The King Invades Wales--He Reaches

Carmarthen and Hurries Home Again--Glyndwr Takes more

Castles and harries Herefordshire--The French Land at

Carmarthen--Anglesey--Carnarvon--Glyndwr Captures

Harlech--He Calls a Parliament at Machynlleth--Davy

Gam--Glyndwr Sends Ambassadors to Paris--Bishop Trevor

Joins the Welsh--Herefordshire and the English Borders

Ravaged--Urgent Appeals for Succour to the King--The

Earl of Warwick Defeats Glyndwr--Glyndwr Gains a

Victory--He Forces Shropshire to Make Terms--Owen's

Court at Harlech--Iolo Goch.

CHAPTER VIII

WELSH REVERSES, 1405 237

Desolation of Wales--Owen's Methods of Warfare--Country

Houses of the Period--Welsh Rural Life and Population--

Glyndwr Not a Rebel--Lady Despencer and the Young Princes--

Prince Henry's Letter on the Battle--Welsh Defeated at

Mynydd-y-Pwll-Melyn--Owen's Brother Killed, and his Son

Captured--The Percys Rise in the North--Depression among

Owen's Followers--Landing of the French at Milford--The

Allies March to Worcester--Battle of Woodbury Hill--

Retreat of Franco-Welsh Army to Wales--King Henry

Unsuccessfully Invades Wales--Cadogan of the

Battle-axe--Departure of the French--Pembroke Makes

Terms with Owen.

CHAPTER IX

THE TRIPARTITE INDENTURE, 1406 263

The Tripartite Indenture--Defeat and Execution of Lord

Percy and Bardolph--Owen's Letter from Pennal to the

King of France--The Papal Schism--Owen's Star Waning--

Anglesey--Dejection in the Vale of Towy--Glyndwr's

Lonely Wanderings--The Valle Crucis Story--The

Berkrolles' Story--Iolo Goch's Lament.

CHAPTER X

ABERYSTWITH. OWEN'S POWER DECLINES, 1407-1409 284

Owen's Movements Vague--The King Failing in Health but

Anxious to Enter Wales--Preparations for Siege of

Aberystwith--The King Shrinks from Going to Wales--A

General Pestilence--Prince Henry Leads a Large Force to

Aberystwith--Terms of Surrender Arranged--Agreement

Upset by Owen's Sudden Appearance--Fall of Aberystwith

and Harlech--Death of Mortimer--Owen Sinks into a

Guerilla Leader--Pardons and Punishments--Death in Paris

of Bishop Trevor.

CHAPTER XI

LAST YEARS OF OWEN'S LIFE, 1410-1416 300

Harsh Laws Enacted against the Welsh--Davy Gam--A General

Pardon Offered by Henry V.--Owen an Outlaw in the

Mountains--Owen, Left Alone, Disappears from History--

Henry V. Sends him a Special Pardon--Kentchurch or

Monnington the Scene of Owen's Death--Some Remarks on

his Policy.

CHAPTER XII

CONCLUSION 310

Wales after Glyndwr.

APPENDIX

THE BARDS 333

[Decoration]

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

GLYNDWR'S MOUNT, GLYNDYFRDWY _Frontispiece_

CAREW CASTLE 40

[From old print.]

CORWEN AND PEN-Y-PIGIN, FROM THE DEE 44

VALLE CRUCIS ABBEY 54

CONWAY CASTLE 78

DOLGELLY AND CADER IDRIS 82

HOLT CASTLE 86

[From old print.]

POWYS CASTLE 92

[From an old engraving from painting by W. Daniells.]

LLANGOLLEN AND DINAS BRÂN 96

SYCHERTH, FROM THE SOUTH 100

RUTHIN CASTLE 110

[From old print.]

AN OLD STREET, SHREWSBURY 120

CARCHARDY OWAIN, GLYNDWR'S PRISON HOUSE AT LLANSANTFFRAID 130

INTERIOR CONWAY CASTLE 140

OLD BRIDGE AT LLANSANTFFRAID, GLYNDYFRDWY 154

LOOKING UP THE MAWDDACH FROM NANNAU 166

OLD LODGE AT NANNAU, NEAR THE SITE OF THE "OAK OF DEMONS" 168

PILLETH HILL, RADNORSHIRE 176

SYCHERTH, FROM THE NORTH 186

HAY 190

BATTLE-FIELD CHURCH, NEAR SHREWSBURY 200

CARNARVON CASTLE 218

MACHYNLLETH 220

OWEN'S COUNCIL HOUSE, DOLGELLY 224

HARLECH 232

CAERPHILLY CASTLE 244

MANORBIER CASTLE 262

ABERYSTWITH CASTLE 290

MONNINGTON COURT AND CHURCH 300

PORCH OF MONNINGTON CHURCH AND GLYNDWR'S REPUTED GRAVE 308

PEMBROKE CASTLE 312

[From a photograph.]

KENTCHURCH COURT, WITH GLYNDWR'S TOWER 314

[Decoration]

OWEN GLYNDWR

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY SKETCH OF WELSH HISTORY FROM THE SAXON CONQUEST OF

ENGLAND TO THE RISING OF GLYNDWR

400-1400

The main subject of this book is the man whose memory, above that of

all other men, the Welsh as a people delight to honour, and that

period of Welsh history which he made so stormy and so memorable. But

having what there is some reason to regard as a well founded opinion

that (to the vast majority of English readers) the story of Wales is

practically a blank, it seems to me desirable to prepare the way in

some sort for the advent of my hero upon this, the closing scene of

Cambrian glory. I shall therefore begin with a rapid sketch of those

nine centuries which, ending with Glyndwr's rising, constitute roughly

in a political and military sense the era of Welsh nationality. It is

an audacious venture, I am very well aware, and more especially so

when brought within the compass of a single chapter.

Among the many difficulties that present themselves in contemplating

an outline sketch of Welsh history, a doubt as to the best period for

beginning it can hardly be included. Unless one is prepared to take

excursions into the realms of pure conjecture and speculation, which

in these pages would be altogether out of place, the only possible

epoch at which to open such a chapter is the Saxon conquest of

England. And I lay some stress on the word England, because the fact

of Wales resisting both Saxon conquest and even Saxon influence to any

appreciable extent, at this early period, is the keynote to its

history.

* * * * *

What the British tribes were like, who, prior to this fifth century,

lived under Roman rule in the country we now call Wales, no man may

know. We do know, however, that the Romans were as firmly seated there

as in most parts of Britain. From their strong garrisons at Chester,

Uriconium, Caerleon, and elsewhere they kept the country to the

westward quiet by means of numerous smaller posts. That their legions

moved freely about the country we have evidence enough in the metalled

causeways that can still be traced in almost every locality beneath

the mountain sod. The traces, too, of their mining industry are still

obvious enough in the bowels of the mountains and even beneath the

sea, to say nothing of surface evidence yet more elaborate. That their

soldiers fell here freely in the cause of order or of conquest is

written plainly enough in the names and epitaphs on mortuary stones

that in districts even now remote have been exposed by the spade or

plough. But how much of Christianity, how much of Roman civilisation,

these primitive Britons of the West had absorbed in the four centuries

of Roman occupation is a matter quite outside the scope of these

elementary remarks. Of civilisation beyond the influence of the

garrisons there was probably little or none. As regards Christianity,

its echoes from the more civilised parts of the island had probably

found their way there, and affected the indigenous paganism of the

mountains to an extent that is even yet a fruitful source of

disagreement among experts. Lastly, as it seems probable that the

population of what is now called Wales was then much more sparse in

proportion to the rest of the island than in subsequent periods, its

condition becomes a matter of less interest, which is fortunate,

seeing we know so little about it.

With the opening of the fifth century the Romans evacuated Britain. By

the middle of it the Saxon influx, encouraged, as every schoolboy

knows, by the Britons themselves in their weakness, had commenced.

Before its close the object of the new-comers had developed and the

"Making of England" was in full operation.

For these same conquered Britons many of us, I think, started life

with some tinge of contempt, mingled with the pity that beyond all

doubt they fully merit. Mr. Green has protested in strong terms

against so unjustifiable an attitude. He asks us to consider the

condition of a people, who in a fiercely warlike age, had been for

many generations forbidden to bear arms; who were protected by an

alien army from all fear of molestation, and encouraged, moreover, to

apply themselves zealously to the arts of peace. That men thus

enervated made a resistance so prolonged is the wonder, not that they

eventually gave way. If this nation, which resisted for a hundred

years, is a fit subject for criticism, what can be said of their

conquerors who, five centuries later, in the full enjoyment of warlike

habits and civil liberty, were completely crushed in seven by a no

more formidable foe?

While the pagan Saxons were slowly fighting their way across England

towards the Severn and the Dee, the country about and behind these

rivers had been galvanised by various influences into an altogether

new importance.

After the departure of the Romans, the Welsh tribes, less enervated

probably than their more Romanised fellow-countrymen to the east,

found in the Scots of Ireland rather than the Picts of the North their

deadliest foes. It was against these western rovers that the

indigenous natives of what for brevity's sake we are calling Wales,

relearnt in the fifth century the art of war, and the traces of their

conflicts are strewn thick along the regions that face the Irish Sea.

But while these contests were still in progress, three powerful tides

of influence of a sort wholly different poured into Wales and

contributed towards its solidity, its importance, its defensive power,

and its moral elevation.

[Sidenote: 400-500, Cunedda.]

(1) Out of the north, from Cumbria and Strathclyde, came the great

prince and warrior Cunedda, whose family seem to have taken

possession, with or without resistance, of large tracts of Wales,

Merioneth, Cardigan, and many other districts deriving their names in

fact from his sons. His progeny and their belongings became in some

sort a ruling caste; a faint reflection of what the Normans were in

later days to England.

Cunedda is said to have held his Court at Carlisle, and to have

wielded immense power in the north and north-west of Britain. If he

did not go to Wales in person he undoubtedly planted in it his

numerous and warlike offspring, who, with their following, are usually

regarded as the founders of the later tribal fabric of Wales, the

remote ancestors, in theory at any rate, of the Welsh landed gentry of

to-day; but this is a perilous and complex subject.

[Sidenote: Christianity.]

(2) In this century, too, came the first wave of a real and effective

Christianity, with its troops of missionaries from Brittany and

Ireland, in the front rank of which stand the names of St. David and

Germanus or Garmon, Bishop of Auxerre. The latter is generally

credited with the organisation of the Welsh Church, hitherto so vague

and undefined. It was, at any rate, during this period, that the

Church assumed definite territorial form, and that the Welsh diocese

and the Welsh parish, their boundaries roughly approximating to the

present ones, came into existence. Through the fifth, sixth, and well

into the seventh century, church building and religious activity of

all kinds flourished marvellously in Wales; while Christianity was

being steadily and ruthlessly stamped out over the rest of Britain by

the advancing pagans, native chieftains vied with foreign

ecclesiastics in building churches, cathedrals, and cells; and great

monastic houses arose, of which Bangor Iscoed, on the Dee, with its

two or three thousand inmates, was the most notable. The mountainous

region that in former days had been among those least influenced by it

was now the hope of the island, the seat of religious fervour, the

goal of the foreign missionary and the wandering saint.

[Sidenote: Arrival of the Saxons, 577.]

[Sidenote: British refugees in sixth century.]

(3) The third, and perhaps not the least powerful, factor in the

making of Wales was the advance of the Saxons. After their great

victory of Deorham they destroyed the British strongholds of Bath,

Gloucester, and Cirencester, and about the year 577, or 130 years

after their first landing in Britain, they appeared on the Severn. The

exact fate or disposal of the natives, whom with ceaseless fighting

they thus drove before them, is a matter of perennial controversy. The

ferocity of the conquerors, aggravated, no doubt, by the stubborn

resistance of the conquered, is a fact beyond all question and should

be emphasised, since its direful memories had much to do with the

inextinguishable hatred that was felt for so many centuries, and to a

certain degree is still felt, by many Welshmen towards their Saxon

foes. It may fairly be assumed that the extirpation (though the term

is much too strong) of the native stock was most marked in the eastern

parts of Britain, and that as the tide of conquest swept westward its

results in this particular were much modified. But however great the

slaughter or however considerable the native element that was retained

upon the soil by its conquerors, it is quite certain that the influx

of British refugees into Wales throughout the sixth century must have

been very large. Among them, too, no doubt, went numbers of men and

women of learning, of piety, and sometimes perhaps even of wealth, for

one need not suppose that every Briton waited to be driven from his

home at the spear's point.

[Sidenote: Cynddylan at Uriconium and Shrewsbury.]

A fierce onslaught in great force brought the invaders to the walls of

the Roman-British city of Uriconium, where Cynddylan, Prince of Powys,

with all the power of Central Wales, made a vain but gallant effort to

arrest the ruin:

Cynddylan with heart like the ice of winter.

Cynddylan with heart like the fire of spring.

He and his brothers were at length all slain, and his armies routed.

Uriconium or Tren was sacked, and higher up the valley the royal

palace at Pengwern, as Shrewsbury was then called, was destroyed.

These terrible scenes are described for us by Llywarch Hên, one of the

earliest British bards, himself an actor in them, who thus laments

over the wreck of Pengwern:

"The Hall of Cynddylan is dark

To-night, without fire, without bed;

I'll weep awhile, afterwards I shall be silent.

"The Hall of Cynddylan is gloomy

To-night, without fire, without songs;

Tears are running down my cheeks.

"The Hall of Cynddylan, it pierces my heart

To see it roofless, fireless;

Dead is my chief, yet I am living."

or again, on the destruction of Tren:

"The eagle of Pengwern screamed aloud to-night

For the blood of men he watched;

Tren may indeed be called a ruined town.

"Slain were my comrades all at once

Cynan, Cynddylan, Cyncraith,

Defending Tren the wasted city."

In a few years the Saxons were beaten back, and Pengwern, with the

surrounding country, once more became British, and remained so till

the days of Offa, King of Mercia.

[Sidenote: Augustine and the Welsh bishops, 601.]

By the close of the sixth century Christianity had been introduced by

Augustine into the south-eastern corner of England, and there is no

more suggestive scene in Welsh history than the famous meeting of the

great missionary with the Welsh bishops on the banks of the Severn. It

accentuates in a striking manner the cleavage between the Eastern or

the Latin Church, and that of the West and of the Welsh. Augustine,

about the year 601, fresh from his victories over paganism among the

Kentish Saxons, and having journeyed far through still heathen

regions, approaches these Western Christians with a kindly but

somewhat supercilious and superior air. The seven Welsh bishops--or

so-called bishops, for the full development of the office as

understood later was not yet completed--were ready waiting for him on

the banks of the lower Severn. They were a deputation of the Welsh

Church, and, seeming already to scent patronage in the air, were fully

prepared to resent any sign of it in the Roman missionary. The latter,

it appears, knew very little about the Western Church, with its roots

in Ireland, Armorica, and Gaul, and what he did know he did not like.

The arrogance of Augustine fully justified the Welshmen's suspicions,

and he still further roused their indignation by hinting that they

should take their instructions and receive their consecration from

Canterbury, as representing Rome. Coming from a man who appeared to

them but the missionary bishop of a handful of recently converted

barbarians, this was a little too much for ecclesiastics who had

behind them three or four centuries of Christianity, and knew nothing

whatever of the Latin Church. Augustine, too, spoke disparagingly of

their customs, and with particular severity of the absence of celibacy

in their Church. This must have touched them to the quick, seeing that

numbers of the offices and benefices in the Western Church were more

or less hereditary, and that even saintship was frequently a matter of

family, the tribal sentiment being predominant. All these things,

together with their difference in Easter observance and in shaving the

head, horrified Augustine, and he spoke so freely as to put all hope

of combination out of the question. Indeed, the Welsh divines were so

offended that they refused even to break bread beneath the same roof

as the Roman saint. At a second conference Augustine, seeing he had

gone too far, proposed that, even if they could not conform to each

other's customs, they should at least combine in efforts to convert

the rest of England. Such endeavours did not commend themselves in the

least to the Welshmen. Whatever missionary zeal may have existed among

Welsh churchmen it did not include the slightest anxiety about the

souls of the accursed conquerors of Britain, the ruthless ravagers and

destroyers of their once civilised and Christian country. It is

probable that Augustine did not realise the fierce hate of the

despoiled Celt towards the Saxon. At any rate his patience at length

gave way, and as a parting shot he in effect told the Welshmen that

since they shewed themselves so criminally careless about Saxons'

souls, they should of a surety feel the prick of Saxon spears. This

random threat, for it could have been nothing more, was strangely

fulfilled within a few years' time, when the victory of the pagan

Ethelfred at Chester, which sundered the Britons of Wales from those

of North-Western England, culminated in the sacking of Bangor Iscoed

and the slaughter of twelve hundred monks.

[Sidenote: 601.]

This futile conference of 601 marks the beginning of the long struggle

of the Welsh or Ancient British Church to keep clear of the authority

of Canterbury, and it lasted for some five hundred years. Till the

close of the eleventh century the bishops of the four Welsh dioceses

were, as a rule, consecrated by their own brethren. St. David's

perhaps took rank as "primus inter pares" for choice, but not of

necessity, for there was no recognised Welsh metropolitan. Ages

afterwards, when Canterbury had insidiously encroached upon these

privileges, the Welsh clergy were wont to soothe their wounded pride

by the assurance that this transfer of consecration had come about as

a matter of convenience rather than of right. Long, indeed, before the

final conquest of Welshmen by Edward the First, their Church had been

completely conquered, anomalous though such an inverted process seems,

by Norman bishops. A Welshman, though his sword might still win him

political recognition and respect, had little more chance of Church

preferment in the thirteenth century than he had in the eighteenth or

the first half of the nineteenth. As early indeed as 1180 that

clerical aristocrat of royal Welsh and noble Norman blood, Giraldus

Cambrensis, pertinently asks the same question which from generation

to generation and from reign to reign through the Hanoverian period

must have been on every native churchman's tongue in the Principality,

"Is it a crime to be a Welshman?"

[Sidenote: The Latin and British Churches.]

There is no occasion to enlarge upon the subtle methods by which the

Norman Church anticipated the Norman sword in Wales. Sleepless

industry no doubt was one. Another was the agency of the newer

monasteries, filled with Norman, English, and foreign monks and for

the most part devoted to the Latin Church. Persistent denial of the

validity of St. David's in the matter of consecration may in time,

too, like the continuous drip of water on a stone, have had its effect

upon the Welsh, even against their better judgment. On one occasion we

know that some of their princes and nobles, stung by what they

regarded as excessive exactions on the part of the Church, stooped so

far as to throw in the faces of their prelates the taunt that their

consecration was invalid. Such an attitude did not tend to lighten the

immense pressure which was exercised in favour of the supremacy of

Canterbury; and long before Welsh princes had begun to take orders

from Norman kings, Welsh bishops were seeking consecration from

Canterbury, unless indeed their thrones were already filled by Norman

priests.

[Sidenote: Divisions of Wales.]

It is not only the ecclesiastical but also the secular divisions of

Wales, that in a great measure date from these fifth and sixth

centuries. The three chief Kingdoms, or Principalities, into which the

country was apportioned, stand out from these days with consistent

clearness till they are gradually broken into fragments by the Norman

power: On the north was Gwynedd; in the centre, Powys; on the south,

Deheubarth or South Wales. As St. David's was the premier see of the

four Welsh dioceses, so Gwynedd was even more markedly the first among

the three Welsh Kingdoms. Its ruler, when a sufficiently strong man to

enforce it, had a recognised right to the title of "Pendragon" and the

lip homage of his brother princes. When a weak one, however, filled

the precarious throne, any attempt to exact even such an empty

tribute would have been a signal for a general outbreak.

Gwynedd included the present counties[1] of Flint, Anglesey,

Carnarvon, and most of Merioneth, together with the northern part of

Denbighshire.

[1] The present counties of Wales were not in existence as such

till after the final conquest by Edward I. Even then, as we shall

see, only six were created; the larger part of the Principality

retaining its feudal lordships until the reign of Henry VIII.

There were ancient subdivisions of the three Welsh Kingdoms ruled

over by petty Princes owing allegiance to their immediate

overlord; and their names still survive in those of modern

counties or districts. Ceredigion, for instance, remains as

Cardigan, Morganwg as Glamorgan, while the vale of Edeyrnion and

the county of Merioneth still preserve the memory of two sons of

the conquering Cunedda. But the units of old Welsh delimitation

were the "Cantrefs" and the "Commotes," which even to this day are

often used for purposes of description, as well as occasionally

for ecclesiastical and political divisions. Of Cantrefs there

would be something like three to the modern county, while each

"Cantref" again consisted of two "Commotes."

[Sidenote: Powys.]

Powys cannot be so readily defined in a line or two, but, roughly

speaking, it was a triangle or wedge driven through Central Wales to a

point on the sea, with a wide base resting on the English border, the

present county of Montgomery representing its chief bulk. Its capital

was Pengwern or Shrewsbury, till the eighth century, when Offa, King

of Mercia, enraged at the inroads of the Welsh, gathered together his

whole strength and thrust them permanently back from the plains of

Shropshire to the rampart of hills along whose crests he made the

famous Dyke that bears his name. Thenceforward Mathraval, and

subsequently Welshpool, became the abode of the Princes of Powys.

[Sidenote: Deheubarth.]

The Southern Kingdom, or Deheubarth, was also something of a triangle,

but reversely placed to that of Powys, its point lying on the English

border, and its broad base stretching along the Irish Sea from the

mouth of the Dovey to the capes of Pembroke.

Of these three divisions, Powys, as will be obvious even from the

brief and crude description of its boundaries here given, had the

greatest difficulty in holding its own against both Saxon and Norman.

South Wales, on the other hand, was the thorniest crown, for it

included to a greater degree than the others semi-independent

chieftains, such as those of Morganwg and Cardigan, who were inclined

to pay their tributes and their homage only when their overlord, who

held his Court at Dynevor on the Towy, was strong enough to enforce

them.

[Sidenote: Warfare in Wales.]

Thus for nearly seven centuries there were separate sources of strife

in Wales, and three distinct classes of warfare. First there came the

meritorious defence of the country against Saxon, Dane, and Norman, in

which, upon the whole, there was much creditable unanimity. Secondly,

during the lulls from foreign invasion, there was almost constant

strife between North and South, Powys holding as it were the balance

of power between them. Lastly there were the purely provincial

quarrels, when heady chieftains fell out with their superiors, as a

form of entertainment to which South Wales, as I have already

remarked, was peculiarly prone.

[Sidenote: Roderic divides Wales, 877.]

But, after all, it is not quite accurate to give such emphasis to the

existence and definition of the three Kingdoms till the death of

Roderic the Great in 877. Several kings had essayed with varying

success to rule all Wales, but it was Roderic who with scanty

foresight finally divided the country between his three sons, laying

particular stress on the suzerainty of Gwynedd. The prevalent custom

of gavelkind worked admirably, no doubt, in private life among the

primitive Welsh, but when applied to principalities and to ambitious

and bloodthirsty princelings the effect was usually disastrous. To

mitigate the dangers of his unwise partition, Roderic ordained a

scheme which would have proved of undoubted excellence if the practice

had only been equal to the theory. This was to the effect that if any

two of the Princes of Wales quarrelled, all three were to meet in

conclave in the wild pass of Bwlch-y-Pawl, through which the present

rough road from Bala to Lake Vyrnwy painfully toils. Here they were to

settle their difficulties peacefully; and as it was presumed that only

two would be parties to the quarrel, the third was to act as arbiter.

For some centuries after this we know very well that the successive

rulers of the three Kingdoms drenched Wales in blood with their

quarrels, but no tradition remains of a single conference at this wild

spot among the hills, where the infant Vyrnwy plunges down through

heathery glens and woods of birch and oak to the most beautiful

artificial lake perhaps in Christendom.

[Sidenote: Cadvan.]

The sins of omission must of necessity be infinite in dealing with so

vast a subject in so compressed a space, and sins of omission, if not

confessed in detail, sometimes affect the accuracy of the whole.

Something, for instance, ought to be said of the pastoral character,

even in these early days, of all Wales, except perhaps Anglesey and

West Carnarvon; of the tribal organisation and the laws of gavelkind;

of the domestic and family nature of the Church, whose minor benefices

at any rate were largely hereditary, and whose traditions were

intensely averse to centralisation. Among other things to be noted,

too, is that Cadvan, who flourished in the seventh century, is

generally regarded as the first genuine King of Wales, just as

Roderic, nearly three hundred years later, was the great

decentraliser.

[Sidenote: 815. Saxons conquer Cornwall.]

Another important date is that of 815, when a Saxon victory in

Cornwall destroyed the last vestige of British independence in

England. For hitherto the Britons of Wales had by no means regarded

themselves as the mere defenders of the soil they occupied. Steeped in

the prophecies of Merlin and his contemporaries, which assured them of

the ultimate reconquest of the whole island of Britain, they still

cherished dreams which may seem to us by the light of history vain

enough, but in the opening of the ninth century they still fired the

fancy of a proud, romantic, and warlike race.

[Sidenote: Saxons made little way.]

Amid the conflicting evidence of rival chroniclers, Saxon and Welsh,

it is not often easy to select the victors in the long series of

bloody combats that continued throughout the centuries preceding the

Norman Conquest. Whatever victories the Saxons gained, they were not

much less barren than their defeats. Nominal conquests were sometimes

made of the more vulnerable districts, but they were not long

maintained. At the next upheaval such loose allegiance as had been

wrung from the provincial ruler was repudiated without a moment's

thought, and often indeed the Saxons beyond the border found

themselves in their turn fighting for hearth and home.

[Sidenote: The Danes, 890.]

In the ninth century the Danes appeared upon the scene. Though they

harried Wales from time to time, both in the interior and on the

coast, their doings in England were so incomparably more serious that

their Welsh exploits almost escape our notice. About the year 890,

Danish outposts were established beneath the Breiddon hills, that

noble gateway of mid-Wales, through which the Severn comes surging out

into the Shropshire plains. Hither four years later came that

formidable Danish leader, Hastings, with the Anglo-Danish forces of

East Anglia and the north behind him. King Alfred, who was in the

west, hastened to the scene and contributed to this strange spectacle

of Saxons and Cymry fighting side by side. A decisive victory at

Buttington, near Welshpool, rewarded their efforts, and though the

struggle between Dane and Saxon was of great service to Wales by

bringing a long immunity from the attacks of her hereditary foe, the

Danish name calls for little more notice in Welsh annals.

Seeing that vague dreams of reconquest still lingered among the Welsh,

England's difficulty, to apply a familiar modern aphorism, should

have been Cambria's opportunity. But readily as the three Welsh

Princes, when their common country was in danger, were accustomed to

combine, and efficiently as they raided in independent fashion across

the English border, cohesion for a serious aggressive movement was

almost hopeless. The moment that they were safe, they turned their

arms against each other. The whole history of Wales, from the days of

Roderic to those of Edward, with a few brief intervals, is one long

tale of bloody strife.

[Sidenote: No Saxon settlement.]

Nor were the Princes of Gwynedd, Powys, and Deheubarth always content

to fight their quarrels out alone. As time went on they grew more

accustomed to their Saxon neighbours, even if they did not love them

more. Occasional amenities became possible. Intermarriages between the

two aristocracies were not unknown, and when they had progressed thus

far a Prince of Powys would scarcely have been human if he had not

occasionally been tempted to call in Saxon aid against his powerful

rivals of Gwynedd or Deheubarth. But in spite of this dangerous game,

played often enough and in later Norman days so fatal, the soil of

Wales, so far as any serious occupation or dominion is implied,

remained inviolate throughout the whole Saxon period.

[Sidenote: Strathclyde Britons occupy the Vale of Clwyd.]

[Sidenote: Saxon settlement prevented by Strathclyde Britons.]

[Sidenote: Victory of Anarawd, 878.]

One very narrow escape from a permanent lodgment of Saxons, of which

the Welsh chronicle tells us, should not perhaps be passed over. It

occurred in the days when Anarawd, one of the sons of Roderic, was

ruling over North Wales, at the close of the ninth century. More than

a hundred years before, the Mercians, under Offa, had driven the Welsh

finally from Shropshire and pressed them back behind the famous Dyke,

whose clearly marked course still preserves the name of their warlike

monarch. The great Saxon victory on Rhuddlan March, at the mouth of

the Clwyd, had occurred soon afterwards, and the wail of the defeated

is still sounded in one of the most notable of Welsh airs. But Offa's

Dyke had been since then considerably overleaped, and the slaughter of

Rhuddlan had been long avenged. When the descendants of these same

Mercians poured once more into the pleasant country that lies upon the

north shore between Chester and the Conway, the invaders of the

"Perfeddwlad," as this region was then called (a term I shall use for

convenience throughout this chapter), proved too powerful for Anarawd.

He was driven back into Snowdonia and Anglesey, and the Saxons settled

down in the Vale of Clwyd and upon either side of it, with a

deliberation that, but for an opportune accident, would have probably

converted a large slice of North Wales into a piece of England for all

time. But just as the Strathclyde Britons in the days of Cunedda had

brought to Wales in the time of her need after the Roman departure a

valuable and warlike element, so their descendants, four centuries

later, came just in time to save what are now the Celtic districts of

Flint and northern Denbigh from becoming Saxon. These people, hard

pressed in north Lancashire, Cumberland, and even beyond, by Danes

and Saxons, decided to seek a new home, and their thoughts naturally

turned to Wales. They made overtures to Anarawd, begging that he would

grant them of his abundance sufficient territory for their needs. But

Anarawd's kingdom had, as we have seen, been sadly circumscribed, and

his homeless subjects from the east of the Conway were already on his

hands. A bright thought struck him, and he informed his Strathclyde

kinsmen that if they could reconquer the Perfeddwlad they were welcome

to it. Necessity, perhaps, nerved the arms of the wanderers, and the

Saxons, who, as Dr. Powell quaintly puts it, "were not yet warm in

their seats," were driven headlong out of Wales. The Mercians,

however, were not the kind of men to sit quietly down after such an

ignominious expulsion; they made vigorous preparations for taking

their revenge, and retrieving their fortunes and their honour. The

Strathclyde Britons sorely doubted their powers of resistance to the

great force which now threatened them, so, carrying all their cattle

and effects back again across the Conway, they begged Anarawd in his

own interest as well as in theirs to support them. The Prince of

Gwynedd rose nobly to the occasion and, joining all his forces to

those of his immigrant kinsmen, they met the returning Saxon invaders

near Conway, and in a pitched battle drove them back to the Dee with

prodigious slaughter, never to return. So the country between the two

rivers was preserved to the Cymric race and saved from becoming, as

for the moment looked extremely probable, another Cheshire or

Shropshire.

Anarawd, however, could not rest content with his triumph over the

Saxons. As an illustration of the thirst for war that seems to have

been chronic with most of the Welsh Princes, it may be noted that,

with the Saxons vowing vengeance on his borders, he did not hesitate

to march into South Wales and make an unprovoked attack upon its

Prince, his own brother.

[Sidenote: Howel Dda, 940.]

But with the death of Anarawd and his brothers, various contingencies,

which need not detain us here, made Howel Dda, or Howel the Good, both

the heir and the acceptable ruler of all three provinces. His reign

was unique in Welsh annals, for it was not only long, but almost

peaceful. This excellent Prince turned his brilliant talents and force

of character almost entirely to the civil and moral elevation of his

people. He drew up his famous code of laws, which, as is sometimes

asserted, unconsciously influence the legal instincts of remoter Wales

even to this day. In the preparation of this great work he summoned

his bishops and nobility and wise men to meet him at Ty Gwyn on the

Towy, for it should be noted that this ruler of a temporarily united

Wales was in the first instance Prince of Deheubarth.

[Sidenote: The laws of Howel Dda enacted.]

Here this select assembly spent the whole of Lent, fasting and praying

for the Divine aid in their approaching task. Howel then picked out

from among them the twelve most capable persons, with the Chancellor

of Llandaff at their head, and proceeded to examine in exhaustive

fashion all the laws of the Cymry. Of these they eliminated the bad,

retained the good, and amended others to suit present requirements.

This new code was then ratified by the entire assembly before it

dispersed. Three copies were made, and it is significant of the change

already creeping over the Welsh Church, that Howel and his four

bishops are said to have journeyed to Rome and submitted one of them

to the Pope for his approval. The Laws of Howel Dda may be read to-day

by anyone with access to a reference library. The rights of every

class of person are herein clearly set forth, and the precise value of

each man's life according to his rank, and of every animal's hide and

carcase accurately defined. The tribal sanctity of land, too, is well

illustrated by a law forbidding the owner of an estate to mortgage it

to anyone but a kinsman. Books, harps, swords, and implements of

livelihood were exempted from distraint, while among livestock horses

were placed in the same category, as being necessary for defence.

Suits in connection with land could not be heard between February and

May, or between May and August, since these were the periods of

seed-time and harvest, while all cases touching inheritance were to be

heard by the King himself. The latter is pictured to us as sitting in

his judicial chair above the rest of the Court, with an Elder upon

either hand and the freeholders ranged upon his right and left.

Immediately below the King sat the Chief Justice of the Province, with

a priest upon one side of him and the Judge of the Commote upon the

other.

[Sidenote: Value of articles fixed by Howel Dda.]

After hearing witnesses and taking depositions, the two judges and the

priest retired to consider the verdict. This done, the King took

counsel with them, and, if he agreed, delivered judgment himself. If

the case was too involved, however, for a satisfactory decision, the

matter was settled by the simple expedient of single combat. A fixed

price, as I have remarked, was set upon almost everything, both living

and inanimate. One is surprised, for instance, to find an apple tree

worth 60_d._, and a tree planted for shelter worth 24_d._, while a

coracle is only worth 8_d._ A salmon net is appraised at just double

the last amount, while a spade, again, is rated at a penny only.

Though the skin of an ox or hart is fixed at 8_d._ the near extinction

of the beaver is significantly shewn by its value of 120_d._ Dogs,

too, vary most curiously on the list. A common cur is held at 4_d._, a

shepherd dog at 60_d._, and the best sporting dogs at four times the

latter sum. There is special mention, too, of chargers, hunters,

roadsters, pack-horses, and draught-horses for carts and harrows.

Horses are not to be broken till their third year; while three rides

through a crowd is the legal test of "warranted broken." Cows and

mares, too, are prohibited from ploughing. We learn also in this

singular price-list the current value, among other things, of a

battle-axe, a bow with twelve arrows, a white-hilted sword, a shield

enamelled with blue and gold; of plaids, too, striped and chequered

stuffs, mantles trimmed with fur, robes, coats, hose, buskins, shoes,

gloves, caps, bonnets, girdles, and buckles.

There are stringent laws against cruelty to animals and in favour of

hospitality. Game laws existed of the strictest kind, classifying

every animal of the chase and dealing with the management of hounds,

and the etiquette of hunting. For their ardour in these pursuits, the

Welsh were distinguished among nations, not being surpassed even by

the Normans themselves.

The customs obtaining in the royal household are tabulated in Howel

Dda's code with extraordinary minuteness, and the duties of every

official, from highest to lowest, strictly defined; from the Chaplain,

Steward, Judge, and Master of the Horse down to the porter and

birdkeeper. The perquisites, it may be noted, of the Master of the

Horse are all colts under two years old, taken in war, and all gold

and silver spurs thus acquired; those of the porter, every billet of

wood he could snatch from a passing load, with one hand, as he held

the gate with the other, and any swine out of a herd that he could

lift breast high by its bristles only!

Of the bards there is so much to be said elsewhere that we need only

remark here that the duties of the Bardd Teulu, or Poet Laureate, were

to follow the army and sing the "Unbennaeth Prydain" or "Monarchy of

Britain" before, and if triumphant after, the battle; to perform at

all times before the Court, and also privately to the Queen, only in

so low a tone as not to disturb the King and his courtiers. This

illustrious functionary was valued at 126 cows.

A remarkable official was the "Crier of Silence," who beat a

particular pillar in the great hall with a rod when the noise became

excessive, and had for his perquisites the fines that were exacted for

any such undue boisterousness. Strangest by far of all was the King's

"footholder," whose duty it was to sit under the table at meals and

nurse his Majesty's foot, and to "scratch it when required."

Nor can we forget the "Pencerdd," the Chief of Song, who was of

popular election and presided at the Bardic Gorsedd held every third

year, and held only at Aberffraw in Anglesey, the royal residence of

Gwynedd; for the Eisteddfodau were held by all the Welsh Princes

apparently at will. The Pencerdd was expected to know by heart the

prophetic song of Taliesin. He lodged in the quarters of the heir

apparent, and was presented by the King with a harp and key.

[Sidenote: Renewed conflicts, 950.]

Howel the Good died about 950. With the divisions and disputes of his

sons and nephews Wales quickly lost its unanimity, and once more the

flame of war was lit from one end of the country to the other by these

foolish broilers, in attempts to despoil each other of their

respective portions. The question was at length settled for a while by

a great battle at Llanrwst, where the men of North Wales utterly

discomfited those of the South, pursuing them with fire and sword far

beyond the northern boundaries of Deheubarth.

[Sidenote: Growing intercourse between Welsh and Saxon.]

[Sidenote: Eadgar rowed by Welsh Princes on the Dee.]

Towards the close of the tenth century we begin to get glimpses of

those amenities between Cymry and Saxon, which a now common religion,

a common foe in the Danes, and considerable private intercourse, had

rendered inevitable. We find King Eadgar himself, for instance, at

Bangor, helping Iago ap Idwal, Prince of Gwynedd, against his nephew

Howel ap Ievan. Everything, however, being amicably arranged, the

Saxon King actually remains in friendly fashion at Bangor, and bestows

gifts and endowments upon its see. Finally the two recent disputants

return with Eadgar to Chester, and take an oar in that celebrated crew

of kinglets which rowed the Saxon monarch upon the Dee. Gwaithvoed,

Prince of Powys, who was invited to assist in this somewhat inglorious

procession, seems to have been the only one of the Welsh _Reguli_ who

refused the honour. "Tell the King," said Gwaithvoed, "I cannot row a

barge, and if I could, I would not do so, except to save a life,

whether king's or vassal's." On being pressed by a second messenger

from Eadgar, his brief answer was: "Say to the King, 'Fear him who

fears not death.'"

It is not easy to define the precise attitude of the Welsh Princes

towards the King of England as the Saxon period drew towards its

close. Though the ancient Britons had become crystallised into

Welshmen, the old tradition of the island as a whole with an "Emperor"

in London, and a general scheme of defence against foreign foes, was

not yet dead. The Saxons, though little loved, had become an accepted

fact, and there seems to have been no particular reluctance among the

Welsh princes to pay lip homage, when relationships were not too

strained, to the "King in London," and tribute, too, as representing

the ancient contribution to "the defence of the island."

[Sidenote: Llewelyn I., 1000.]

For the last hundred years prior to the Norman conquest, one follows

the bloody path of Welsh history in vain efforts to find some

breathing space, wherein rulers turned their attention to something

besides the lust of power and the thirst for glory. It was about the

year 1000 when the first of the three Llewelyns succeeded to the

throne of North Wales. Under a King whose title was absolutely

indisputable, and who possessed some force of character, it seemed as

if the sword was now for a season, at any rate, to remain undrawn. But

it was not to be; for in no long time the throne of South Wales fell

vacant, and there was, unhappily, no direct heir. So the nobles of the

Province, fearing, and with some reason, that Llewelyn would seize the

opportunity to attach the Southern Kingdom to his other dominions,

brought forward a creature of their own, a low-born adventurer, who

claimed to be of the royal lineage. This precipitated the catastrophe

which it was designed to prevent, and Llewelyn fell upon Deheubarth

with the whole force of Gwynedd. The fight lasted through a whole day,

and the slaughter was immense, but the Northerners again prevailed.

[Sidenote: Griffith ap Llewelyn.]

But there were also years of peace under Llewelyn ap Seisyllt, and of

conspicuous prosperity, so the chronicler tells us, in which "the

earth brought forth double, the people prospered in all their affairs,

and multiplied wonderfully. The cattle increased in great numbers, so

that there was not a poor man in Wales from the south to the north

sea, but every man had plenty, every house a dweller, every town

inhabited." Llewelyn fell ultimately before Carmarthen, and his throne

was seized by Iago ap Idwal, a collateral relative. He in turn was

quickly overthrown and slain by Llewelyn's warlike son Griffith, who

enjoyed what from a purely military point of view might be called a

successful reign.

The Danes at this time began again to make attacks on Wales, but were

defeated in Anglesey, and again in the Severn valley.

[Sidenote: Griffith ap Llewelyn attacks South Wales.]

Flushed with victory, and without a particle of excuse, Griffith now

turned upon South Wales, ravaged it with fire and sword, and drove out

its new Prince, Howel ap Edwy. Howel, however, came back with an army

of Danes and Saxons, so had times changed in Wales, but only to meet

with disaster and defeat at the hands of the vigorous Griffith. Yet

again the indomitable Howel returned with a fresh army to try his

luck, and so certain was he this time of victory that he brought his

wife to witness it. But again disaster overtook him, and his wife,

instead of sharing his triumph, was carried off to share his

conqueror's bed.

Thus rolls on the tumult and the turmoil of the old Welsh story. The

wonder is when and how the laws of the wise and peaceful Howel Dda

found scope for application, and we can only suppose that the partial

nature of these fierce struggles atoned in some measure for their

continuity. Yet through all this devastation Church property, of

which there was now a considerable amount and of a tangible kind,

seems to have been well respected. The Danes alone were regardless of

shrines and monasteries; and we hear of them at St. David's and

Llanbadarn and other sacred spots along the seacoast doing wild work.

[Sidenote: 1040.]

[Sidenote: Harold and Griffith.]

The twenty years preceding the battle of Hastings were busy years in

Wales, and the foremost name of that epoch in England came to be

perhaps more dreaded among the native Welsh than that of any other

Saxon since the days of Offa. But Harold, Earl of the West Saxons and

commander of the English armies, got much deeper into Wales than Offa

had ever succeeded in doing, and indeed came much nearer than any of

his predecessors to a conquest of the country. Griffith ap Llewelyn,

Prince of Gwynedd by right, and of all Wales by force, was, as we have

seen, no mean soldier. He was Harold's adversary, and the last Welsh

Prince to face the Saxon power. This, the final quarrel of five

centuries of strife, was, for a wonder, not of Griffith's seeking.

We have seen how greatly modified the cleavage between the two peoples

had by now become. Intermarriages had taken place in the higher ranks,

alliances had been formed, and Saxon influences in matters such as

land tenure and Church government had been sensibly felt beyond the

Severn and the Dee. So now, while the shadow of the Norman invasion

was hanging over unconscious England, Algar, Earl of Chester, falling

out with King Edward, did nothing particularly unusual when he fled

to the warlike son of the first Llewelyn, and tried to embroil him in

his quarrel. Griffith was peacefully hunting at his second residence

at Aber near Bangor, and had indeed made good use of a few years of

peace, but he was not the man to turn a deaf ear to any prospect of a

fight. The upshot was a very serious war, in which Griffith and his

ally were for a long time singularly successful. They defeated Edwin

of Mercia in a great battle near Welshpool; they afterwards took

Hereford, won a victory at Leominster, and penetrated as far as

Wiltshire.

[Sidenote: Harold in Wales.]

[Sidenote: Death of Griffith, 1061.]

A brief truce ensued with Harold, who had been opposing them, and then

the struggle began afresh. The tables were now completely turned.

Harold's memorable invasion of Wales took place, in which he was

assisted to success by the many enemies Griffith had made in his

high-handed annexation of Deheubarth. The Welsh Prince, after a

stirring reign of thirty-four years, perished during this campaign of

1061 at the hand of a hired assassin. His head, like that of many

another Welsh leader, was sent across the border in a basket, and

received at Gloucester by Harold with much demonstrative satisfaction.

The latter, in the meantime, had marched to the Conway, and afterwards

through South Wales. He had been victorious everywhere; and now

nominated fresh rulers to the vacant thrones of Gwynedd and

Deheubarth, under promise of vassalage to the English Crown.

The tenure of the three Welsh Princes was always complicated and,

indeed, liable to fluctuation with the balance of power, both in Wales

and across the border. In theory, Powys and South Wales owed lip

homage and a nominal tribute to the Prince of Gwynedd as "Pendragon."

The latter, on behalf of Wales, owed a similar service to the King of

England and, as I have mentioned before, was not inclined to dispute

it so long as his independence was respected. Harold's so-called

conquest only altered matters to the extent of making the three Welsh

provinces theoretically equal and individually vassals of the English

Crown. This paper arrangement would have probably remained a dead

letter or would have been maintained just so long as there was an arm

strong enough to maintain it. But a people were coming to eliminate

the Saxon as an aggressive power, and to take his place,--a people who

would not be satisfied with lip homage and occasional tribute.

[Sidenote: 1066. Welsh and Normans.]

The great struggle in England between Norman and Saxon seemed by the

mere force of contagion to set the Welsh Princes once more by the

ears. Some of them, however, in accordance with their generous

tradition of loyalty to the soil of the Britain they had lost, joined

the West Saxons in their resistance to this new and formidable foe.

Others essayed to make use in their domestic quarrels of the crafty

Norman, who was only too glad to get a finger so cheaply into the

Welsh pie.

The followers of William of Normandy, indeed, lost no time in turning

their attention to Wales. Within ten years of the battle of

Hastings,--almost immediately, that is to say, after the completion of

the conquest of England,--they began their marauding expeditions

across the border, and were not unnaturally surprised at finding

themselves confronted by a people so entirely different from those

they had just subdued. But these initial successes taught the Welsh

nothing, and they still continued their fatal internecine strife.

[Sidenote: The Normans in Wales.]

The first serious lodgments of the Normans were made at Montgomery,

where a baron of that name built the castle, whose fragments still

look down from their rocky throne upon the windings of the upper

Severn. Rhuddlan, at the mouth of the Clwyd, the site of an even then

ancient fortress, was next occupied and strengthened. Flushed with

their easy conquest of England, the Normans had already begun to

regard Wales as if it also belonged to them; and still the quarrelsome

Welsh chieftains continued to engage these formidable new-comers in

their disputes. At Chester, Hugh Lupus, its Earl of famous memory, and

the nephew of the Conqueror, held in secure confinement the person of

the Prince of Gwynedd whom he had seized by treachery. He then

proceeded to farm out the realm of the captive prince, but as he only

received £40 as rental the sum is more eloquent than any words would

be to express the nature of the hold he had won over it. It is more

than likely the contractors had a bad bargain even at that figure.

[Sidenote: Lupus, Earl of Chester, invades North Wales, 1075.]

In the conspiracy of 1075, when William was on the continent, many of

the Welsh nobles joined, and had consequently their share of the

hanging and mutilating that followed its discovery. Lupus, however,

marched an army through the North and built or rebuilt castles at

Bangor, Carnarvon, and Anglesey. He was closely followed by the

Conqueror himself, who with a large force proceeded with little

apparent opposition through the turbulent South, received the homage

of its king, Rhys ap Tudor, and its petty Princes, and then repaired

with great pomp to the cathedral of St. David's, at whose altar he

offered costly gifts. This kind of triumphal progress, as the Saxons

well knew, though the Normans had yet to learn the fact, did not mean

the conquest of Wales. King William in this single campaign seems to

have imbibed some respect for Welshmen, for he spoke of them on his

death-bed as a people with whom he had "held perilous conflicts."

Infinitely more dangerous to Welsh liberty was the experiment next

tried by a native Prince of acquiring Norman aid at the expense of

territory. The story of the conquest and settlement of Glamorgan is

such a luminous and significant incident in Welsh history, and was of

such great future importance, that it must be briefly related.

[Sidenote: Norman settlement in Glamorgan.]

[Sidenote: 1091.]

The present county of Glamorgan was represented, roughly speaking, in

ancient Wales by the subkingdom, or, to use a more appropriate term,

the lordship of Morganwg. It had acquired its name in the ninth

century through the martial deeds of its then proprietor, "Morgan

Fawr," or "Morgan the Great." Morganwg, though part of Deheubarth,

was at times strong enough to claim something like independence, and

indeed the uncertain relationships of the smaller chieftains of South

Wales to their overlord at Dynevor may well be the despair of any one

attempting to combine tolerable accuracy with unavoidable brevity. But

these remarks are only relevant for the purpose of emphasising the

comparative importance at all times in Wales of the country we call

Glamorgan; and this was due not only to its size and to its seacoast,

but to its comparative smoothness and fertility. In the year 1091, in

the reign of William Rufus, one Iestyn, a descendant of Morgan the

Great, was ruling over Glamorgan, and as he was upon anything but

friendly terms with his feudal superior, Rhys ap Tudor, Prince of

South Wales, he bethought him of calling in alien aid, a habit then

growing lamentably common among Welsh chieftains.

[Sidenote: Iestyn and Einion.]

[Sidenote: Fitzhamon.]

[Sidenote: William Rufus and Wales.]

[Sidenote: Marriages with Normans.]

[Sidenote: Turberville at Coity.]

The Saxons had ceased to exist as a military power, and the Normans

stood in their shoes. Iestyn knew nothing of Normans, but he had a

friend named Einion who was reputed to have had much experience with

them. To Einion, then, he repaired and promised him his daughter's

hand, which presumably carried with it something substantial, if he

would bring a band of Normans to his assistance in his dispute with

Rhys. Einion consented to be his intermediary and without much

difficulty secured the services of Robert Fitzhamon and twelve

knightly adventurers who served under him. The Normans in due course

arrived and rendered Iestyn invaluable assistance in resisting his

lawful sovereign. They then, so runs the chronicle, having received

their pay, quite contrary to Norman custom peacefully re-embarked at

Cardiff and weighed anchor for home. But Iestyn, before they had well

cleared the harbour, was injudicious enough to repudiate the promise

of his daughter to Einion, whereupon the exasperated princeling put to

sea, interviewed Fitzhamon, and persuaded him to return with his

friends and his forces and eject the faithless Iestyn from his rich

territory. One may well believe it did not take much to win over the

Normans to so attractive and congenial an undertaking. At any rate

they reversed their course with much alacrity, returned to Cardiff,

ejected Iestyn, and after some fighting, assisted by Einion's people,

divided the province among themselves, each building one or more great

castles, whose ruins are notable features in Glamorganshire scenery

to-day. The blood of Fitzhamon's knightly followers courses in the

veins of many an ancient family of South Wales, and one of them at

least is still directly represented in name as well as lineage. This

conquest must be placed among the earliest in Wales, and it became the

type of many future Norman settlements, though it was the outcome of

an incident, while the others were for the most part deliberately

planned. The reign of Rufus was memorable for these filibustering

expeditions. They were executed under the sanction of the King, who

found in them a cheap method of granting favours to his barons,

particularly those who had perhaps not come out so well as they could

have wished in the partition of England. They might, in short, take of

Wales as much as they could keep, subject only to holding what they

acquired as feudatories of the King. There will be more to say about

these Marcher barons later on. In the meantime, Brecheiniog, or

Brecon, had been also conquered by another Norman, Bernard de

Newmarch, with a similar band of followers, and secured by a similar

system of castle building. Montgomery and other points in North and

South Wales had been occupied, but they were for the most part purely

military outposts. The occupation of Brecon and Glamorgan by a Norman

aristocracy is a salient and permanent factor in Welsh history. This

does not, however, imply that such filibustering barons were allowed

to settle quietly down in their seats. Before the end of the reign,

indeed, they were driven out, and William Rufus himself, who marched

through Wales more or less upon their behalf, had, after all, to

retire discomfited: but they were soon back again. It was not wholly

by brute force that they held their own. Life would hardly have been

worth living upon such terms, and as a matter of fact, so far as one

can read between the lines of these old chronicles, there does not

seem to have been at first the same antipathy between Norman and

Welshman as had formerly existed between Saxon and Welshman. Marriages

carrying Welsh property with them seem to have been readily arranged.

A singular and romantic instance of this was in the matter of Coity

Castle, whose ruined walls still hold together near Bridgend, and of

the Turbervilles who even yet, after all these centuries, retain their

name and position in Glamorganshire. For Paine Turberville, one of

Fitzhamon's twelve knights, having been by some mischance forgotten in

the distribution of land, inquired of his chief where he was to look

for his reward. "Here are arms and here are men," replied Fitzhamon;

"go get it where you can." So Turberville went to Coity, which was

still unconquered, and summoned Morgan, the Welsh lord, to surrender

it into his hands. Whereupon Morgan came out leading his daughter, and

passing through the army, with his sword in his right hand, came to

Paine Turberville, and told him that if he would marry his daughter,

and so come like an honest man into his castle, he would yield it to

him; but if not, said he, "let not the blood of any of our men be

lost, but let this sword and arm of mine and those of yours decide who

shall call this castle his own." Upon that Paine Turberville drew his

sword, took it by the blade in his left hand and gave it to Morgan,

and with his right hand embraced his daughter. After settling matters

to the satisfaction of all parties he went to church and married her,

and so came to the lordship by true right of possession; and by the

advice of his father-in-law kept under his command two thousand of the

best of his Welsh soldiers.

Turberville, having now achieved so secure a position without the aid

of Fitzhamon, very naturally refused to pay him tribute or own him as

his overlord, but voluntarily recognised Caradoc, the son of the

dispossessed Iestyn, as his chief. This caused unpleasantness, but

Turberville, with his two thousand Welshmen and his father-in-law's

help, was too strong for Fitzhamon, and he had his way. It must not,

however, be supposed that these martial settlers as a class by any

means followed the example of the later Norman adventurers in Ireland,

and became "more Welsh than the Welsh themselves." They were too near

their King, at whose will they held their lands, and not far enough

removed from the centre of Anglo-Norman life, to throw off its

interests and lose touch with their connections. Nevertheless the

confusion of authority in South and Mid-Wales increased considerably

as time went on; for not only did Norman barons marry Welsh heiresses,

but occasionally a Welsh chieftain would win back a Norman-Welsh

lordship by marriage, and present the anomalous spectacle of a

Welshman holding Welsh land as a direct vassal of the King of England

in entire independence of his district Prince. But these occasional

amenities among the higher aristocracy but little affected the mass of

the Welsh people, who stood aloof with lowering and uncompromising

sullenness.

[Sidenote: Welsh and Norman.]

It was this intolerance of foreigners, bred in the bone and blood of

Welshmen, or this excessive patriotism, call it what you will, that

made possible their long and heroic resistance to the Norman yoke, and

for so long upheld the tottering thrones of their not always honest,

and always quarrelsome, Princes. They hugged their pedigrees and

cherished their bards, who in turn played with tireless energy upon

the chords of national sentiment and martial memories. No transfer of

land to Normans, whether due to the sword or to more peaceful methods,

was regarded as otherwise than temporary. As in parts of Ireland at

the present day, generations of occupation by an alien stock commanded

no respect beyond what belonged to the force of ownership. The

original owners might be long extinct in fact, but in the mind they

were the owners still. The Anglo-Saxon has a short memory; and is

practical even in matters of sentiment. Four or five generations are

sufficient to eliminate the memory of the humble or alien origin of

the _parvenu_, and are quite enough to fill his cup of social

reverence to the brim; perhaps fortunately so. The Celt, and

particularly the Welsh Celt, is fashioned differently. With him the

interloper remained an interloper far beyond his children's children,

and this mental attitude had much to do with the facility with which a

popular leader could at all times stir up strife in Wales, whatever

might be the odds against success.

We have seen, then, the first wedge of alien occupation driven into

this hitherto virgin refuge of the ancient British stock. For we must

remember that, in spite of continual warfare, the Saxons had made no

impression calling for notice in a brief survey like this. We must

remember, also, that the Norman settlements were wholly military. The

followers that came with these adventurers were just sufficient to

garrison their castles. They were but handfuls, and lived within or

under the protection of the Norman fortress: their influence upon the

blood of the country may, I think, be put aside with certain

reservations, as scarcely worth considering.

[Sidenote: 1105. Pembroke and the Flemings.]

The severance of half the present county of Pembroke from Wales in the

reign of Henry the First must by no means be passed over if one is to

get a proper idea of what was meant by Wales at the time when this

story opens. It was in this King's reign that a large body of Flemings

were flooded out in the Low Countries by a great inundation, and

despairing of finding a fresh home in their own crowded fatherland,

they applied to the King of England to allot them territory out of his

presumed abundance.[2] In their appeal the King saw another means of

putting a bridle on the Welsh, at no expense to himself, to say

nothing of the advantage of posing as a philanthropist. He granted

therefore to the Flemings just so much of the south-western promontory

of Wales as they could hold and conquer, together with the peninsula

of Gower, which juts out from the coast of modern Glamorgan. Pembroke

was the more important and populous colony of the two. The native

inhabitants, it may be presumed, were few in the twelfth century; at

any rate the Flemings had no difficulty in driving them inland and

forming a permanent settlement. There was no assimilation with the

natives; they were completely pushed back, and in a short time Normans

came to the assistance of the Flemings. The great castles of

Pembroke, Manorbier, Haverford-west, and Tenby were built, and

speaking broadly the south-western half of the modern county of

Pembroke became as Teutonic, and in time as English, as Wiltshire or

Suffolk. Continual fighting went on between the native Welsh and the

intruders, keeping alive the animosity between the two races and

laying the seeds of that remarkable cleavage which makes the county of

Pembroke present to-day an ethnological curiosity without a parallel

in the United Kingdom.

[2] Some accounts say that Henry first received them in England,

but got uneasy at the number which accumulated there and ordered

them all into south-west Wales. Small lodgments of Normans and

other aliens would seem to have preceded the Flemings.

[Illustration: CAREW CASTLE.

FROM OLD PRINT.]

Owen Glyndwr and the Last Struggle for Welsh Independence With a Brief Sketch of Welsh History · 第 1 / 13 章