The Killing of Prince Llywelyn of Wales, 10 December 1282

The Killing of Prince Llywelyn of Wales 10 December 1282 Ceidio Castle Studies Research & Publishing 2014 First published December 2014, ISBN 1-899376-90-4 9781899376902 Produced and published by Castle Studies Research & Publishing, Disgwylfa, Ceidio, Gwynedd, LL53 6YJ Internet website: www.castles99.ukprint.com e-mail: castles99uk@yahoo.co.uk Copyright © Paul Martin Remfry. Cover Photograph: The killing of Prince Llywelyn from the Rochester chronicle, BL. Cotton Nero Ms. D II, fo.182, by Jo Barwell. The Killing of Prince Llywelyn of Wales Contents Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 The Rise and Fall of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 The Primary Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Marcher Barons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 John Lestrange V, 1253 to 1309 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Roger Lestrange, before 1245 to 1311 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Peter Corbet, before 1240 to 1300 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Roger Mortimer of Chirk, before 1255 to 1326 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Robert Mortimer, May 1252 to April 1287 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 John Giffard, 1232 to 1299 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Reginald Fitz Peter, before 1214 to 1286 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Grimbald Pauncefot, before 1240 to 1289 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Roger Springhose, before 1233 to 1304 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Ralph Basset of Drayton and Simon Basset of Sapecote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Andrew Astley, before 1245 to 1300 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 The Welsh Barons Sir Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn of Powys, before 1215 to 1289 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 The sons of Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Llywelyn Fychan, the Dragon of Chirk, before 1261 to 1282 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Rhys ap Gruffydd, before 1240 to 1282 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 The Clerics Bishop Einion of St Asaph, before 1240 to 1292 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Archbishop John Peckham of Canterbury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 King Edward Plantagenet, 1239 to 1307 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 King Edward and Roger Mortimer (1231-82) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Peckham’s Excommunication of Dafydd ap Gruffydd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Roger Mortimer and Prince Llywelyn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Edmund Mortimer, between 1252 and 1283 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 The Early Primary Chronicle Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 The Later Primary Chronicle Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 The Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 The Secondary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Other Late Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Primary Written Sources Concerning the Killing of Prince Llywelyn . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Edmund Mortimer, between 1283 and 1304 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Prince Roger Mortimer of Wales? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Prince Llywelyn’s Killer and Robert Mannyng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 The Artistic Evidence for the Killing of Llywelyn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 The Battlefield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Glossary Advowson Bailiff Banneret The right of presentation to a church or benefice An officer who manages an estate for another A knight entitled to display a square, rather than a tapering banner and to command his own troop Barded An armoured horse Cantref A land unit consisting of two or more commotes Caput The central manor or head of an estate Carucate A ploughland, being a unit of assessment for tax Chirograph A legal document written on a piece of vellum, irregularly cut apart and divided among the parties Coif A chain mail hood worn over an arming cap Commote A Welsh land unit theoretically consisting of 100 trefs Curtilage The usually enclosed area encompassing the grounds and buildings immediately surrounding a home and used in the daily activities of domestic life Demesne Land held by a lord in his own hand Disseised To deprive especially wrongfully of seisin: to dispossess Distraint The seizing of possessions in order to clear outstanding debts Escheat The acquisition of title to property Hegemony A preponderant influence or authority over others Hundred English administrative land unit subject to royal justice Implead To sue or prosecute at law Knight's Fee Land held by service of providing a knight in time of war League Distance of usually three, but occasionally one mile Lucca Italian merchants who lent money like an early bank Marcher Lordship Land held in chief of the king, but separate of royal justice Messuage A dwelling together with its outbuildings, curtilage, and the adjacent land appropriated to its use Oyer and terminer To hear and determine a court case Panegyric A formal written verse for public consumption, praising someone Parcener A partner or joint heir Pipe Roll Exchequer account of the Shires Prebend A stipend allotted from ecclesiastical revenues Primogeniture The right of the firstborn male to inherit the family lands Pura Wallia That part of Wales that remained independent from English penetration and control Quitclaim The transfer of a title, right or claim to another Relict The survivor of a marriage, ie the widow or widower Seised Having ownership and legal title Surcoat An outer garment worn over armour Tallage A compulsory tax placed upon tenants by a lord Tref A village or hamlet being a taxable unit Venedotian Inhabitants of Gwynedd Vill Norman Hamlet originally equivalent to a manor, later a parish Welshry A district populated by Welshmen Figure 1, Various political divisions of Wales as mentioned in the text Prologue The title of this book will no doubt raise protests of: “But he was killed on the eleventh!” Unfortunately the original evidence says otherwise and that is the point of this entire book - to look at the evidence and not the later hearsay which has now grown through oft repeated mantra to be accepted as venerable history. Here is the story of the death of Prince Llywelyn, who did it, what the main actors’ motives were and, most importantly, why it was done in such a manner. The story of the death of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd of Wales has always been clouded in mystery. The last great attempt to unravel the enigma posed the question: We may never know exactly what occurred on the day the prince of Wales died: was it a sudden, even accidental, happening, or the result of a long-conceived plot; was he a lone fugitive or a prince who fell with his men in fierce combat? The conclusion of that survey found that: the last prince of Wales... met his death, as he had lived, at the head of the defenders of his nation. And: we can only conclude that, probably somewhere near Llanganten, above the Irfon in Buellt, on the feast of St Damasus in the heart of winter, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd died by the hand of a soldier serving the king of England.*1 This conclusion was reached after much detailed study of what was considered ‘the evidence’ and it might be wondered whether these details are worth going over again. However the above conclusion was reached after a detailed study of Llywelyn’s entire career and was not focussed solely upon Llywelyn’s death. Therefore this current survey in even greater depth than any attempted before is necessary. It is hardly surprising that such a detailed study of the disparate and unfocused evidence comes to a completely different conclusion to those reached before. It should be noted that this is after it has been sifted and weighed and hopefully its full worth or otherwise uncovered. It should also be noted that such an exercise has not been undertaken before - the close examination of all the chronicles and what historical value they actually have to the events to which they relate. Within a hundred years of Llywelyn’s death contemporaries were already drawing conclusions from the prince’s killing and using them for their own benefit. Take for instance the late fourteenth century ‘Scottish chronicle’ of John Fordun. Truly in these days, evidently the year of our lord 1281, King Edward of the English, with an innumerable army, proceeded into Wales, where he conquered Llywelyn, the prince of the British race, and after not a few common people had been killed on either side, at length the prince himself was savagely and also seditiously killed, and so the dominion of all Wales, and the relics of the superiority of Britons which belonged to the enemy, he diligently sought out. Therefore, in an indication of great delight, and likewise on account of the victory over the Welsh previously wished for *1 Smith, J.B., Llywelyn ap Gruffydd: Prince of Wales [UWP, 2001], 565-67. 1 and obtained*2, he held a round table in Wales beneath Snowdon. And the same king, the whole of the papal tithe in his kingdom for six years, according to the real worth of all the income of the ecclesiastics, collected in aid of the Holy Land and deposited in diverse monasteries and cathedral churches of his kingdom, he carried off by the strong hand, hence the expedition to the Holy Land was impeded, indeed with the countless sum of money, Wales, it is said, he obtained, of the same fortresses, castles and town walls he fortified, likewise the heaviest wars, which a little afterwards he inflicted upon the Scots, he had organised that money for these costs. Meanwhile Dafydd, the brother of this Prince Llywelyn of Wales, in London by the same tyrant king had such judgement delivered, that he should be dragged by horses as a traitor, to be hanged as a plunderer, to be beheaded as a robber, that his entrails should be burnt and that his body should be divided into four parts, and to the four parts of the kingdom which he pleases the parts of the body should be sent. Moreover in that very place he issued this edict, through all England and Wales to be proclaimed by the voices of criers, that none of British birth, of whatever condition he might be, within walled towns, castles, fortresses or any garrison whatever, on penalty of loss of life and limb, should he spend a night. Therefore this is briefly inserted wherein the chapter, lest any provincial people, reading through the said account, unchastened by the example of the Welsh, should unwarily fall under the dominion of the miserable servitude of the English.*3 This was probably written sometime between 1363 and John’s death in 1385, although the chronicle was later continued by Abbot Walter Bower of Inchcolm down to 1437 and he may have modified the text further. The piece was obviously written by a chronicler hostile to Edward I, who had died in 1307 and he makes numerous mistakes that could have been corrected by reference to sound contemporary sources. However, as the chronicler himself admits, his intention was didactic, to warn others of the folly of not being wary of the English, rather than a desire to record the true course of events ‘warts and all’. As such it may enlarge our knowledge of fourteenth century history, but it does not tell us anything concrete about what happened in 1282 - or even 1281 as this chronicler would have it. Fordun does however show how Llywelyn’s death was regarded in some quarters well after the event. Indeed John tells us that he diligently searched the records of other monasteries in both England and Ireland to aid his chronicle ‘we gather from various writings of old chroniclers...’ - an admirable aim in which he was by no means the first practitioner, even if his writings did not add up to his ideals. Around the same time as this was written, another patrician was thinking along similar lines to Fordun concerning the collapse of native power in Wales. On 10 May 1372, the following statement was issued from Paris by a descendant of Owain Gwynedd (d.1170) at a time when a French fleet was formed with the intention of invading the British Isles. Owain of Wales to all those to whom these letters should come, greetings. The kings of England in times past have treacherously and covetously, tortuously and without cause and by deliberate treasons, slain or caused to be slain my ancestors, kings of *2 Most likely there is an error in the transcript or the Latin at this point and Fordun should have used supra (over) rather than ab (by) as has been translated above. Otherwise the clause might have read, ‘and likewise instead of a petty victory [parade?] by the Welsh previously wished for and obtained’. *3 Fordun, Johannis, Chronica Gentis Scotorum [Edinburgh, 1871] I, 308-9. 2 Wales, and others of them have been expelled from their country, and that country they have by force and power appropriated and have submitted its people to diverse services, the which country is and should be mine by right of succession, by kindred, by heritage and by right of descent from my ancestors the kings of that country which is my heritage. I have visited several Christian kings, princes and noble lords and have clearly declared and shown unto them my rights therein and have requested and supplicated their aid, and have latterly come unto the most puissant and renowned sovereign Charles... king of France... and have shown unto him my right in the aforesaid country and have made unto him the aforenamed requests and supplications, and he having had compassion upon my state and understanding the great wrong that the kings of England have done unto my ancestors in former times, and that the present king of England has done unto me... has granted me his aid and the assistance of his men at arms and fleet in order to recover the said realm, which is my rightful heritage as has been said...*4 The ancestry of this Owain of Wales or Owain Lawgoch (d.1378) is still uncertain despite much academic work since 1900, but what he said is beyond dispute and to answer just one of his assertions is the purpose of this book. What was the fate of one of Owain’s ‘ancestors’? Was Prince Llywelyn of Wales ‘tortuously and without cause’ slain or ‘caused to be slain... by deliberate treasons’? Against this view is the current widely held opinion that Llywelyn was slain in glorious battle in an unexpected encounter with his sworn enemies. This latter view is often stated in our own day and age and proudly boasted on the pages of Wikipedia, backed by much academic assertion but little or no contemporary evidence. Which view is correct? That of a fourteenth century prince, fourteenth century scholarship, modern ‘scholarship’, or is there a third answer? In the following pages of this work that question will be examined from many and varied angles. This book does not run as a narrative, but chases many themes and may appear disjointed, but this is a hunt for the evidence and many stones must be upturned. Hopefully at the end of all this a clear picture will emerge to put the question of who killed Llywelyn and why to rest for ever. *4 Translated from Thierry, A., Histoire de la Conquete de l’Angleterre par les Normands, notes et pieces justificatives, No.7 as printed in Y Cymmrodor [1899-1900], 61-2. 3 Introduction It is difficult to begin a book which hopes to cover a single moment in history when a prince and his principality were effectively extinguished. Even defining that moment is next to impossible. Did the principality of Wales cease to exist with Llywelyn’s life in the falling of a sword blade in December 1282, or did it continue until King Edward I officially annexed Gwynedd some fifteen months later by his well known statute of Rhuddlan? Posing such a question may seem semantic, but isn’t history made up of such questions? Did Llywelyn die in battle or was he murdered? Both assertions are often put forward, but what is the evidence behind them and more importantly is it valid? Indeed, with all the controversy surrounding the matter what is real evidence and what is simply made up ‘fact’ to support various historical arguments? Was Llywelyn’s brother Dafydd his natural successor as prince of Wales or was he a usurper? In all cases the answer to these questions tend to depend on which side of the fence you sit upon with your own personal appreciation of history. History may be an art and not a science, but that does not mean that we do not need to treat our evidence scientifically. If a piece of evidence does not fit into our personal opinion it is an historically criminal act to ignore it, or even worse to pretend that it does not exist. By all means bring the fact up and state why you think it to be worthless, but do not consign it to the oblivion you may think it deserves. Because you do not understand that fact, or its brutality offends you, it does not mean that it is an unimportant piece in the jigsaw. A contemporary medieval statement that is wrong - or at least appears to be wrong as far as it can be judged now, centuries after the event it refers to - can throw extra light on medieval events and our understanding of them. All recorded events, even those whose interpretation may be wrong, should be considered by the modern historian, before any attempt is made to come to a balanced perspective. Indeed in compiling a narrative it is always advisable to place unsettling facts in your footnotes as what is meaningless or wrong to you may, when added to further information, suddenly allow matters to make much more sense. It is the historians’ job to make history understandable - it is not their job to create history according to their own biases. What then can we say about the death of Llywelyn in an Introduction? This death has been a crucial waystone in the history of both England and Wales. For England it symbolised the closing of a troublesome back door of internal distractions when Anglo-Norman rulers preferred to face south into a militarily powerful Europe. In Wales it ended the last embers of a kingship that had been struggling for centuries and politically completed the revolution of English Common Law which had been penetrating into the cantrefs for generations. These broad historical themes are much too abstract and complex to examine in a book about a single death, but they shape the story of what happened. It is today no more possible to properly examine a killing without looking at the suspects and their environment, as it is impossible to sensibly tell the story of Llywelyn’s death without doing the same. What then is necessary to make sense of the conflicting modern claims about the prince’s death? To answer this it will be necessary to examine what was occurring in Wales and what were the objectives of Prince Llywelyn, his adherents and his enemies. This will be done in the opening chapters of this book where the value of the evidence that has survived about this killing will be examined and evaluated. After looking at the suspects we shall examine the contemporary evidence and what was said about the killing in later eras. Only then will we be properly prepared to deduce what may have happened in December 1282. 4 Finally, before moving on to the main text, it should be remembered that today most murderers are intimates of the victim*5. It would seem probable that such a truism was accurate eight hundred and indeed even eight thousand years ago. Therefore any search for the killer or killers of Prince Llywelyn must look closely at his relatives, friends and intimates, as far as we can now judge them. Therefore, as ever, our knowledge of the present is taken as a measure of the past. To achieve the aim of discovering why and how Llywelyn was killed it is necessary to spend much time examining the history of Gwynedd immediately prior to Llywelyn’s death, as well as the affairs of many of his contemporaries and indeed of the men who recorded the events that led to the killing of Prince Llywelyn of Wales. *5 *6 Fox, J & Zawitz, M., Homicide Trends in the United States [2006]. The life of Llywelyn is covered in depth by Smith, J.B., Llywelyn ap Gruffydd [Cardiff, 1998]. 5