Gwynedd

“ Having suppressed the independence of Wales, Edward now took steps to keep Gwynedd itself in permanent subjection by building the castles of Conway, Carnarvon, Criccieth and Harlech within the ancient patrimony of the princes of North Wales, whose legitimate race was now extinct save for Llewelyn's daughter Gwenllian, who had entered the convent of Sempringham. ”

“ No writer before or after him has used the Welsh language with such force and skill, and he will ever remain the stylist whom all Welsh writers will strive to imitate. The magic of his work has endowed the stately idiom of Gwynedd with such glamour that it has now become the standard idiom of Welsh prose. ”

“ Llywelyn the Great rose into power in 1194, and reigned until 1240—a long reign, and in many ways the most important of all the reigns of the Welsh princes.
Llywelyn’s first task was to become sole ruler in Gwynedd. The sons of Owen Gwynedd had divided the strong Gwynedd left them by their father, and their nobles and priests could not decide which of the sons was to be supreme. Iorwerth, the poet Howel, David, Maelgwn, Rhodri, tried to get Gwynedd, or portions of it. Eventually, David I. became king; but soon a strong opposition placed Llywelyn, the able son of Iorwerth, on the throne. ”

“ Llewelyn, thy qualities are noble, I will valiantly make my path broad with the edge of my sword. May the prints of the hoofs of my prince’s steeds be seen as far as Cornwall. Numerous are the persons that congratulate him upon this success, for he is a sure friend. The lion of Gwynedd, and its extensive territories, the governor of the men of Powys, and the South, who hath a general assembly of his armed troops at Chester, who ravageth Lloegr to amass spoils. In battle his success is certain, in killing, burning, and in overthrowing castles. ”

“ North Wales comprised the Welsh kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys. Gwynedd covered the present shires of Anglesea, Carnarvon, and Merioneth, and the mountainous districts round Snowdon. [836] Powys stretched from the estuary of the Dee to the upper course of the Wye, and roughly included Flint, Denbigh, Montgomery, and Radnor shires. Hugh of Avranches, Earl of Chester, was the great instrument of Norman [Pg 257] conquest in Gwynedd, and in the northern part of Powys, which lay so near his own dominions. ”

“ It was thought that there should be one king over the whole people,but it was very rarely that every part of Wales obeyed one king. The country was divided into smaller kingdoms. In many ways Gwynedd was the most powerful. It was very easy to defend; for it was made up of the island of Mon (Anglesey) , the promontory of Lleyn, and the mountain mass of Snowdon. Its steep side was thus towards England,and its cornlands and pastures on the further side. It was also the home of the family of Cunedda, from Maelgwn to the last Llywelyn. ”

“ Owain Gwynedd, the subject of the following poem was the eldest son of Gruffydd ab Cynan, Prince of Gwynedd, or North Wales, and he succeeded his father on his death in 1137. Father and son were illustrious warriors and patriotic rulers. They were also celebrated for their munificent protection of the Welsh Bards. The Saxons had established themselves at the castle of Wyddgrug, now Mold, and thence committed great ravages on the Welsh in that vicinity. ”

“ This included not only the four cantreds of Perveddwlad, but also those southern districts between the Dovey and Carmarthen Bay in which, since the times of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, the rule of the lords of Gwynedd had gone on side by side with that of the lords-marchers and the royal officials. The bailiffs of the young earl at once wished to show his power. In 1255 they made a survey of the lands and castles in Gwynedd, aiming apparently at the subjection of the four cantreds to the jurisdiction of the palatine authorities at Chester. ”

“ He was the son of Cynan, an expatriated prince of Gwynedd, by Raguel, daughter of Anlaf or Olafr, Dano-Irish king of Dublin and the fifth part of Ireland. After a series of the strangest adventures he succeeded in regaining his father’s throne, on which he died after a glorious reign of fifty years. He was the father of Owen Gwynedd, one of the most warlike of the Welsh princes, and was grandsire of that Madoc who, there is considerable reason for supposing, was the first discoverer of the great land in the West. A truly remarkable book is the one above mentioned, which narrates his life. ”

“ The princes of Wales were again confined to the highlands of Gwynedd.
For the next few years there was peace upon the borders. In 1248 Henry allowed Owain and Llywelyn to transfer the body of their father from the Tower to Aberconway Abbey (Brut y Tywysogion, p. 335) . The princes of Gwynedd were too weak to be able to do Henry much harm, and soon quarrelled with each other. Llywelyn, though the younger, was certainly more able and energetic than Owain, and showed such an ascendency as to provoke universal jealousy among the Welsh chieftains. ”

“ For, altogether, it was great fun.
Now there was once a Prince of Gwynedd, in Wales, named Math, who was so fond of having his feet held, that he neglected to govern his people properly. He spent all his time lounging in an easy chair, while a pretty maiden held his heels and toes. He committed all public cares to two of his nephews. These were named for short, Gily and Gwyd.
The one whom the king loved best to have her hold his feet was the fairest maiden in all the land, and she was named Goewen. ”

“ Maelgwyn, that King of Gwynedd whose name recurs so often in the history of North Wales, that gigantic man of fitful valour and still more fitful piety, determined to unite all the strength of the west under one ruler, the better to oppose the conquering Saxons. It was agreed that all the princes and knights who had any pretensions should meet together in the estuary of the Dyfi, the dividing-line between North and South Wales; that they should there [Pg 155] seat themselves on chairs upon the shore, and he who contrived to keep his seat the longest should be the king. ”

“ Owen Gwynedd “left behind him manie children gotten by diverse women, which were not esteemed by their mothers and birth, but by their prowes and valiantnesse.” By his first wife, Gladus, the daughter of Llywarch ap Trahaern ap Caradoc, he had Orwerth Drwyndwn, that is, Edward with the broken nose; for which defect he was deemed unfit to preside over the principality of North Wales and was deprived of his rightful inheritance, which was seized by his brother David, who occupied it for the space of twenty-four years. ”

“ In 1171 Rhys again invaded Powys, and forced Owain to surrender seven hostages for his good behaviour. But a quieter time now followed in Wales. Davydd, prince of Gwynedd [see Davydd I] , Owain Gwynedd's son and successor, was Henry II's son-in-law. The Lord Rhys had become the king's 'justice in South Wales.' Henry found it wisest to leave the Welsh princes pretty much to themselves, and they on their part found it prudent to recognise his supremacy. Power in Wales was, moreover, so divided that no single Welsh prince had much chance of winning great triumphs over his neighbours. ”

“ LLYWELYN ab IORWERTH, called Llywelyn the Great (d. 1240) , prince of North Wales, afterwards prince of Wales, was the son of Iorwerth, the only one of the many sons of Owain Gwynedd [q. v.] who had, from the ecclesiastical point of view, any claim to be called legitimate. About 1176 Iorwerth was expelled from Gwynedd by his half-brother, Davydd ab Owain [see Davydd I] , who thus became, in name at least, lord of Gwynedd. But Iorwerth and his other brothers continued to molest their successful rival, whose real dominions seldom extended far beyond the vale of Clwyd. ”

“ Throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries what may be called Welsh Wales, as distinct from Norman Wales, [27] was divided into the three main divisions of Gwynedd, Powys, and Deheubarth. As the result of the important battle of Mynydd Carn in 1079, [28] Gwynedd and Deheubarth henceforth remained under the rule of the House of Gruffydd ap Cynan and that of Rhys ap Tewdwr, respectively. Powys continued as before to be governed by the House of Bleddyn. These three families were all sprung from Rhodri the Great and were consequently of the true Cymric lineage of Cunedda Wledig. ”

“ The main body of Welsh law was to remain in force; but it was subject to a good deal of modification. For the protection of the land, and especially for the subjugation of Llewelyn's stronghold of Gwynedd, a circle of the newly-devised concentric castles was built—Conway, Beaumaris, Carnarvon, Criccieth, and Harlech. ”

“ It was the chief aim of Owen Gwynedd to be the ally of the Lord Rees; and in this he succeeded, though his brother Cadwaladr, in his desire for Ceredigion, had killed Rees’ brother, to Owen’s infinite sorrow. The princes of Powys, Madoc and Owen Cyveiliog, were in the same alliance also, and they were helped in their struggle with the Normans. Unity was never more necessary. Henry II. brought great armies into Wales. ”

“ The Princes of Powys and South Wales were absolved from their oath of homage to the ruler of Gwynedd, which Principality shrank once more to the banks of the Conway. In the meantime Griffith with his young son Owen was left by Henry to languish in the Tower, till, filled with despair, he made a bold bid for freedom. Weaving ropes out of his bed-clothing he let himself down by night from his prison window; but, being a corpulent man, his weight was too much for such slender supports, and he fell from a great height to the ground, breaking his neck upon the spot.
Dafydd makes war on the English. ”

“ Deheubarth and eighteen cymwds of Gwynedd [plus Gwrtheyrnion and Buallt or parts thereof] . Now in the three old lists of the cantrevs and cymwds of Wales, [31] there are variations in those of Gwynedd, chiefly because certain of these divisions were debatable ground between Gwynedd and Powys, and partly also owing to the errors of scribes who misread some cymwds under wrong cantrevs because of the proximity of one name to another. ”

“ Llywelyn now took possession of the throne of North Wales, thus bringing in the family of Howel Dda in the person of his descendants, and representing some sort of triumph of South Welsh over North Welsh. Llywelyn'a brief reign was one of exceptional prosperity. He is styled 'supreme king of Gwynedd, and the chief and most renowned king of all the Britons' (Brut y Tywysogion, p. 37) . ”

“ South-Welsh and West-Welsh—​that is now no longer the men of the peninsula of Cornwall, but the men of the peninsula of Dyfed—​were in arms no less than the men of Gwynedd. Invasion of England. Gruffydd and Cadwgan burst into the neighbouring shires, Cheshire, Shropshire, and Herefordshire; they burned towns, carried off plunder, and slew Frenchmen and Englishmen alike. [244] The Saxon, 101 the old enemy, had not become less an enemy, because he had, through his own conquest, become an accomplice in the invasions of his conquerors. Deliverance of Anglesey. Gwynedd was now free ”

“ In this neighbourhood therefore we should perhaps expect the office of gwledig to linger on until the catastrophe of the year 577. But already, with the death of Arthur, the centre of political interest in Wales has passed permanently in the person of Maelgwn Gwynedd to the House of Cunedda. Henceforth the political history of Wales may be treated quite apart from that of the Devonian peninsula, although the actual cleavage did not take place till the Battle of Deorham. ”

“ In Wales you get fierce frays and frequent shedding of blood; on the borders you get callous cruelty to a prisoner, or the disfiguring of dead bodies—even that of Simon de Montfort, the greatest statesman of the Middle Ages in England—on the battlefield when all passion was spent.
Take the rulers of Wales again. Griffith ap Conan and Llywelyn the Great had the energy and the foresight, though their sphere was so much smaller, of Henry II. And what English king, except Alfred, attracts one on account of lovableness of character as Owen Gwynedd and Owen Cyveiliog and the Lord Rees do? ”

“ As a magician Gwydion is also prominent, and by magic he governed Gwynedd. He was the cleverest of men and possessed terrible strength, while his prophetic powers are emphasized in a Triad, and he had supreme gifts as story-teller and bard. His successful raid on Pryderi's pigs which came from Annwfn suggests that, like Cúchulainn, he is the culture hero bringing domestic animals from the god's land to earth, and perhaps for this reason a Triad calls him one of the three cowherds of Britain, guarding thousands of kine. Irish myth also frequently speaks of cattle brought from the síd. ”

“ Then these two came forth and armed themselves, and they fought. And by force of strength, and fierceness, and by the magic and charms of Gwydion, Pryderi was slain. And at Maen Tyriawc, above Melenryd, was he buried, and there is his grave.
And the men of the South set forth in sorrow towards their own land; nor is it a marvel that they should grieve, seeing that they had lost their lord, and many of their best warriors, and for the most part their horses and their arms.
The men of Gwynedd went back joyful and in triumph. ”

“ I should have been loth to quit Wales without visiting the Deheubarth or Southern Region, a land differing widely, as I had heard, both in language and customs from Gwynedd or the Northern, a land which had given birth to the illustrious Ab Gwilym, and where the great Ryce family had flourished, which very much distinguished itself in the Wars of the Roses—a member of which Ryce ap Thomas placed Henry the Seventh on the throne of Britain—a family of royal extraction, and which after the death of Roderic the Great for a long time enjoyed the sovereignty of the south. ”