Medieval Wales c.1050-1332: Centuries of Ambiguity by David Stephenson

Author:David Stephenson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786833884
Publisher: University of Wales Press
Published: 2013-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

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By the close of 1283 Edward I’s armies and their allies in Wales and the March had secured the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the capture and execution of his brother Dafydd, and the capture, death or surrender of the lords who had supported them. The accoutrements of princely rule and dignity had been seized: the portion of the True Cross, alleged to have been handed down from prince to prince, was taken to the king by some of Dafydd’s men, while the seals of Llywelyn, his wife Eleanor and his brother Dafydd, were melted down and made into a chalice, given by Edward to Vale Royal abbey; Llywelyn’s coronet was presented to the shrine of St Edward at Westminster.1

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ROYAL DOMINANCE IN WALES

The king emphasized his triumph in 1284 by the holding of a Round Table at Nefyn in the Llŷn peninsula.2 Llywelyn had been eulogized as an Arthur, and by holding that most Arthurian of festivities Edward made it clear that he, and not the dead prince, was the true heir of Arthur; that point was made explicit when ‘the crown of the famous King Arthur, for long held in great honour amongst the Welsh’ was discovered and brought to Edward.3 The reality of conquest was made evident by the continuation of the programme of castle-building begun by Edward after the war of 1277, which extended the stone manifestations of royal power into western Gwynedd.4 And in the Statute of Wales of 1284, the new administrative structures of northwest Wales were established.5 There could be no doubt that a conquest had been effected. New laws were made, new boroughs were created and beyond the Edwardian Crown lands newly conquered territories were parcelled up and given out to the king’s noble lieutenants, in the form of marcher lordships.

From the 1280s onwards, the March represented the greater part of Wales, extending in a great arc from east of the Conwy to the Dee, excluding only the three discrete territories of Tegeingl, Hopedale and Maelor Saesneg which constituted the new county of Flintshire, dependent on Chester.6 From the middle waters of the Dee the March then ran southward through much of eastern Wales. It included not only the bulk of the territories of the former northern Powys, but also the great barony of (southern) Powys, whose lords were determined to assume the status of Welsh barons of the March, and whose territory, extending as far west as the tidal reaches of the Dyfi, effectively severed the northern from the southern and western Crown lands.7 Much of the Middle March was Mortimer territory, while to the south lay the de Bohun land of Brycheiniog which bordered the various lordships of Gwent and the great Clare lordship of Glamorgan, where the March turned westwards, running along the whole of the southern coastal region and its hinterland, as far as the south-western extremity of Dyfed. These marcher territories were not fixed after 1284; some, such as the lordship of Builth, were now part of the March and now in the possession of the Crown.

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