Read Ebook: Owen Glyndwr and the Last Struggle for Welsh Independence With a Brief Sketch of Welsh History by Bradley A G Arthur Granville

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INTRODUCTION 1

BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE, 1359-1399 82

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

CONCLUSION 310

Wales after Glyndwr.

THE BARDS 333

CAREW CASTLE 40

HOLT CASTLE 86

POWYS CASTLE 92

RUTHIN CASTLE 110

OWEN GLYNDWR

INTRODUCTORY SKETCH OF WELSH HISTORY FROM THE SAXON CONQUEST OF ENGLAND TO THE RISING OF GLYNDWR

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 H?n, 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.

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.

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?"

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