The Decline of the Welsh Rising.

I've just noted that Pugh dates the Woodbury Hill affair to 1405, whereas Davies puts it in 1404 and questions whether it even happened. I followed Pugh in Fetterlock, but where historians differ, how is a humble novelist to know? According to Wylie, Henry IV was in Worcester in August 1405, but not in 1404 as Davies states. Looks like Davies may be mistaken here, unless his instinct that it never happened at all is the correct one.

Anyway, the French departed, and Henry IV's government began to achieve progress. In Autumn 1406 the submission of Anglesey was completed and the population made to sue for pardon and pay fines. They had been taking a major hit from Anglo-Irish raiders and it was all too much. The fall of Anglesey put the squeeze on Owain's supply of food, as it was one of the most productive areas of Wales. In addition it was now much easier for the English to mount a sea blockade of the remaining rebel strongholds of North Wales and cut off supplies to Harlech and Aberystwyth.

As mentioned earlier, a siege of Aberystwyth was abandoned in 1407 despite the sterling staff work of the Duke of York, but nevertheless it fell in the late summer of 1408. In February 1409 the last stronghold, Harlech fell to Gilbert, Lord Talbot, and his brother, John Talbot, Lord Furnival, later to win fame as Earl of Shrewsbury and father of Lady Eleanor Talbot.

Owain's wife was captured at Harlech along with her daughter Catrin, Catrin's children, and other members of Owain's immediate family. Sir Edmund Mortimer died during the siege, some say through starvation. (There is also a legend that he escaped to Scotland, but it's almost certainly just that.)

Thereafter Owain's rising was reduced to a guerrilla campaign, though his followers were still, for some years, to prove capable of producing scares and shocks. Owain was never captured, and died apparently in September 1415, though no one is sure to this day where he is buried. (There are several theories.)

The last of his six sons, Maredudd, continued the struggle in remote Merioneth, and as late as 1417 the rebel Lollard, Sir John Oldcastle, tried to make contact with him there, only to be captured en-route by Lord Charleton of Powys.

Maredudd was offered a pardon that same year, but didn't accept it until 8 April 1421. According to Welsh legend some of Owain's followers continued the struggle after that, right through to the arrival of the 'redeemer' Henry VII. If they did, it would have been hard to distinguish their activity from that of routine banditry.

If anyone would like more detail about Owain without getting a book out, there's a useful site here.

Turn of the tide in Wales

The years 1404 and 1405 were perhaps the high point of Owain's rising. During 1404 he had control of almost all Wales, and his enemies were reduced to the occasional foray from one of their remaining garrisons. He was able to conduct diplomacy with France and Scotland, and even to hold parliaments. He removed the Welsh Church from the dominion of Rome and adhered to the rival pontiff at Avignon. He even received French military assistance.

How useful this was is in some question. One suspects the French knights had a bit of a culture shock in Wales. According to some accounts Owain advanced, with French aid, to Woodbury Hill, some eight miles from Worcester, where he was faced by Henry IV and an English army. Neither side feeling strong enough to attack the other, the Franco-Welsh army backed down and retreated.

R R Davies questioned whether this actually happened, and the fact that there is doubt demonstrates the difficulty of adequately describing the Glyn Dwr years, and maybe also the power of myth.

Anyway, in 1405 the famous Tripartite Indenture was signed between Owain, Edmund Mortimer and Northumberland to divide the kingdom between them. This was probably a reaction to the failure to get Mortimer's nephew, March, into their hands, but was a classic case of counting chickens that hadn't been hatched.

Henry IV was preparing a further massive invasion of Wales, but in the event had to take his troops north to deal with Scrope's rising - as usual the rebellious elements failed to get their act together and the King was able to deal with them in detail. Though he had not long since spared his York cousins from execution, Henry was obviously in a ratty mood, as he had Scrope (the Archbishop of York!) and Thomas Mowbray, the young Earl Marshal, summarily beheaded.

Henry fell ill almost at once (divine intervention perhaps?) and was never quite the same man again. His visits to Wales were over for good, but his cause there began to prosper.

In the spring of 1405 Glyn Dwr's forces in the south of Wales suffered heavy defeats in successive battles at Grosmont and Pwll Melyn at the hands of Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and the Talbot brothers. Owain's brother was among the dead and his eldest son, Gruffudd, was captured and apparently spent the rest of his life in the Tower. His brother-in-law, John Hamner, was also captured but got away with a fine of 500 marks, a huge amount for someone of his relatively modest standing.

The rising was far from over, but this was the beginning of the end. In August commissioners were sent to the men of Usk and Caerleon to discuss terms of surrender. Meanwhile, in the north, Gwilym ap Gruffudd ap Gwilym, the most powerful man in Flintshire, surrendered himself to be imprisoned at Chester, along with his brothers and four supporters. Anglesey, the bread basket of Wales, was raided by royal naval forces based in Ireland. The island was to be forced into submission during the following year.

Owain's Followers

Owain's followers were a good cross-section of the Welsh population, including many landowners but also a range of lesser folk, as can be seen from subsequent pardons and other documentation. Many Welsh students and labourers reportedly returned home from England to join the rising. He had very broad support among the clergy of Wales, the Grey Friars (notably Ricardian during the early 1400s) being particularly prominent followers.

The motives of these people are not hard to understand - for a beginning, a long suppressed desire for a ruler of Welsh blood, indeed a Welsh state. At a more practical level, they were hard pressed by financial exactions, lived more often or not at the mercy of the corrupt officials of absentee English lords, and were oppressed by laws that treated them virtually as enemy aliens in their own land.

What is perhaps more interesting is the fact that, even from the beginning, Owain attracted a number of English followers. In some cases (especially when he looked like winning) these probably included 'colonists' who wanted to secure their future within an independent Wales. For others though the decision seems to have been a political one, as much rooted in hostility to Henry IV's government as in any interest in 'freedom for Wales'.

Owain was also able to form alliances with English nobles opposed to King Henry, the most obvious cases being the Earl of Northumberland and Sir Edmund Mortimer. Whether these alliances would have survived a victory for the combined opposition it's impossible to know. My guess is that they wouldn't have survived very long.

Conversely, and quite contrary to modern myth, not all the Welsh supported Glyn Dwr. For example, the Welsh tenants of Pool (now Welshpool) remained loyal to the Charlton family throughout the rising, and were subsequently rewarded with an enhanced charter of liberties. Another case is the famous Davy Gam (Dafydd Gam) who remained steadfastly loyal to Bolingbroke (His feudal lord as Lord of Brecon) and was prominent in arms in the King's service against Owain. For many, loyalty to a lord was still more important than loyalty to the concept of a 'nation'.

Unfortunately for Owain, his support was what modern pundits would call 'flaky'. As long as he was successful people flocked to his banner, but as soon as the tide turned decisively against him most hurriedly submitted to Henry and bought pardons.