^^ V" ^v ^/r?^^^^ ^ .-O' V '/>, ^ .^^-^ \ _ V 1 « .-iV -0^ ,0 c . 7> <3 .^^' 0^ cO' M C ^ OO^ <^ -^^ , ' ->-, -^ ^/^ * .x^^' -^^ ■' a\ sOo^ o■^ ''.i- , \ \V ■-r- 0- .x'^^' "^^ .#' ^-^^ .^^\ '^C- O 0^ A ■\" * °/- * ' N ^ ^'^^ ^ ^ „ ^/. '^^ <^' >. .^ ^y r' -0^ >0o^ -. .^' -<. c^^ ^y- v> o OO ^, .-^^ v\^" ■<■. GREAT NATIONS WALES WALES HER ORIGINS STRUGGLES AND LATER HISTORY INSTITUTIONS AND MANNERS BY GILBERT STO N E Sometime Scholar of Gonville and Caius College Cambridge B.A. LL.B. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE RIGHT HON. ELLIS J. GRIFFITH K.C. M.P. NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS (y TO ELIZABETH STONE Printed at tht, Ballantyne Press London England INTRODUCTION ON no historical subject is the modem mind, saturated as it is with a superficial philosophy of Imperialism, so apt to go astray, and with dire consequences, as on the question of nationality. Sometimes the term ' nation ' is used even by statesmen and philosophers with a mere territorial or geographical significance, and made to include such widely divergent and utterly imrelated phenomena as, for instance, the Tyrolese and the Germans ; at other times it is used synonymously with the- much more modem and artificial term ' state.' The reason for this confusion is obvious. A nation, like most of the simple and elemental things of our experience, does not readily admit of definition, although the phenomenon itself is perfectly easy to recognize. When we take into consideration the nations of the West as we know them to-day, in a more or less complex state of development, we find it almost impossible to discover anything in the nature of a common denominator, a deciding char- acteristic for all of them. A common racial origin, a distinct language, political independence, peculiar and definite customs and traditions, a homeland with an unbroken and independent history, religious affinity, military unity, have all of them been suggested as distinguishing characteristics, but on appli- cation to concrete instances all of them fail. A modern poet came nearer the truth than all the philosophers when he said that " a community of memories and of hopes " is the common characteristic of all nations, but even this loose and spiritual definition requires, if not modification, at least restatement. Just as certam natural forces when brought into play under certain conditions produce certain characteristic results, so V HISTORY OF WALES also certain historical processes produce well-defined and easily recognizable results called ' nations,' These processes are always at work, and new nations are being continually called into existence, while old nations decay, disintegrate, and disappear. Nationality, from an evolutionary point of view, may only be a phase in a particular process of development, starting with the family and ending ultimately with the world-empire ; and, indeed, a certain type of philosopher is never tired of reminding us that in the interests of the human race generally the process needs accelerating : to them the Empire is a great deal nearer the ideal than the Nation, a proposition, for many reasons, demanding considerable demonstration, and with which we are not concerned. In this historical study the author's purpose has been to outline the processes which have been at work in the making of a peculiar and characteristic phenomenon — Welsh Nationality. Some people would very likely deny what to us appears to be an incontrovertible fact, that Wales of to-day is a distinct nation, and in support of their attitude would cite its relation- ship to the United Kingdom and to the British Empire. They would maintam, and with some truth, that at any rate since the Tudor period it has shared the same fortunes as England. Its political and social system is much the same as that of the United Kingdom generally, and its needs and interests are identical with those of the other territorial units in the kingdom. None of these propositions would be correct without very considerable quaUfication, but, admitting their strict accuracy for the sake of argument, it is still certain that they are all irrelevant considerations. Any person not of the comitry itself but coming into Wales from the outside is immediately conscious of the fact that he has entered a strange country. It may well be that he has come into a district which, like Ireland, speaks the English language ; still none the less will he feel that the people are in some strange and subtle way in permanent contrast with the Enghsh people themselves. It would be difficult to define vi INTRODUCTION the difference in any detail ; most people would be content to say that it was in atmosphere, which means little or nothing. But we know the causes which have produced the effect — the different forces which have been at work in moulding the character of the people of the Principality : they have believed and worked for things of their own ; they have lived and died for their own distinct ideals ; their memories are different, and so, to a large extent, are their dreams and their hopes ; and he who comes to them from other lands and other peoples immediately becomes aware of this independence of soul, if not of political organization. Then there is a still more important fact. The Welsh people themselves are generally conscious of their independent nationality. It is this consciousness that makes nations. This raised Bohemia from being a mere racial group into the dignity of nationhood. This consciousness of imity and independence at a great political crisis welded together the infinitely diverse elements of the United States and made a nation of the clashing factions. This consciousness kept Norway alive through all diplomacies and political exigencies until at last through the medium of literature the whole of Europe awoke to its national existence. It is this inward certainty of the soul that has made Ireland the chief and most difficult problem in British politics for many centuries. More, possibly, than any other force has this wrought miracles in history — from the days of the revolt of Israel against the Empire down to our times. We may deride and condemn it, as Turkey did with the Balkan States ; we may ignore it, as England did with Ireland ; we may for a time crush it with a tyrant's recklessness, as Austria did with Italy or Germany with Belgium ; in the end it will prove its power and win. Alone it is the supreme test of nationality ; and it exists in modern Wales, and is perhaps stronger to-day than at any other period of the nation's history because it is more universal — because it has captured the soul of the peasantry. We have already said that in the case of the Principality different forces • have been at work. It is too commonly vii HISTORY OF WALES thought that since what is generally known as the Conquest of 1282 Wales has travelled historically along the same lines as England. This book will show how misleading such a conception is, how at almost every single great crisis in our history this consciousness of independence of which we have spoken has asserted itself and led the Welsh people a way of their own. At no time in the history of our civilization has it been more important that a great Empire and its citizens should understand the true import and significance of this kind of individualist development — to see clearly why and how in national life different causes produce different and distinctive results, why and how different moulding forces produce different attitudes and dift'erent needs ; and it is on the ground that in this book we find this great and important truth set out that I commend it not only to Welsh readers, who will naturally be deeply interested in it, but also to a much wider circle of readers — to the British public. EIvUS J. GRIFFITH Vlll PREFACE THE history of Wales, which stretches back as far as that of any nation in Europe, and which presents to the student of peoples some most interesting problems, has been singularh^ neglected by historians until compara- tively recent years. The direct ancestors of the Welsh were offering sacrifices to their gods in Britain thousands of years before our era. The Welsh are, indeed, descended from races which conquered a large part of Western Europe, Albion, and Ireland ; their immediate ascendants, the Britons, opposed Caesar's landing and lived long under Rome's government, learning their lessons in Roman schools and pleading before Roman judges ; they fought stubbornly and for centuries against the barbarian Saxons, struggling as few people have had to struggle to preserve a great and widespread civilization. This people, driven back at last by force of overwhelming numbers to the mountains of Cymru, still held the flag of liberty aloft, met in succession and successfully Saxon and Angle and Dane, Norseman and Norman, until at last, worn out and embruted by centuries of warfare, they succumbed to the Norman castle-builders, as more than twelve hundred years before their ancestors had succumbed to the block-houses and forts of Frontinus and Agricola. A history of such an ancient people should be deeply interesting, yet until the middle of the nineteenth century there were singularly few histories produced relating to Wales or to Welsh movements. With the Annales Cambriae and the Brut y Tywysogion as foundation, the works of cleric chroniclers such as Caradog of Llancarvan, a few later writers made some effort to tell the story of their country. Humphrey ix HISTORY OF WALES lylwyd, Powel, and W3mne, working in turn on the primary authorities and editing the work of their predecessor, prevented Welsh history from falling into complete neglect. Some few others, such as Edward I^huyd in the seventeenth, Pennant and Warrington toward the end of the eighteenth, and Merrick in the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, carried on, in a partial manner, the good work. As the nineteenth century progressed several fresh workers came into the field. The publication of the Myvyrian ArchcBology of Wales in 1801-7 had supplied subsequent writers with much good material, but it was not until the foundation of the third Cymmrodorion Society in 1873 that any great historical movement took place, although already B. B. Woodward (1853) and Miss Wilhams (' Ysgafell ') (1869) had produced bulky volumes on this subject. From the seventies onward the flow of works upon general and particular Welsh history became more and more considerable. Any adequate notice of modern writers is not possible within the limits of these pages, but every student of Welsh history owes a deep debt of gratitude to the Cymmrodorion Society and to the Cambrian Archseological Society. Within the last twenty years, thanks largely to the researches conducted by a com- paratively small body of enthusiastic scholars, our knowledge of Welsh history has been very greatly extended. Improved texts of the Brut y Tywysogion and the A ncient Laws of Wales have recently been issued, and it may be that the time will soon arrive when Welsh history has a bibliography commensurate with its importance. In the following pages an attempt has been made to treat of the history of Wales from the earliest times to the present day. The work is, however, chiefly concerned with the doings of the Welsh up to the Act of Union (1535). Thence onward events are surveyed less closely, except that an occasional pause is made for the purpose of noting some great and important national movement. I am fully conscious of the fact that throughout the work many statements are made dogmatically wliich in the present X r PREFACE state of our knowledge are highly debatable. Thus I regard the earlier people who lived in Britain as belonging to the Semitic race. I use this term conventionally. Many writers employ the term ' Iberian.' This is unfortunate for two reasons : (i) There is no sufficient ground for connecting the Neolithics of Britain with the Iberian rather than with any other of the so-called Mediterranean races ; (2) the word is mis- leading, since it turns our attention to the Spanish peninsula for no very obvious or cogent reason. Other writers refer to the Mediterranean races. This has the advantage of being non-committal and the disadvantage of being vague. Others direct our attention to the Libyan tribe of the Hamitic family. These last writers seem to be best supported by the available evidence, and I have long pondered a change from ' Semitic ' to ' Hamitic,' especially since I am at pains to show the connexion between Neolithic man and Egyptian culture. The term * Hamitic ' is, however, vague and liable to be misconstrued, since several negroid races fall within that group. Again, as I point out in the body of the work, Neolithic culture, such as it was, was not improbably connected with that which flowed from the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates. This point of view, I think, is best brought into prominence by the use of the term ' Semitic,' but it must be understood that that term is used conventionally to denote men racially connected either with the Hamitics of Egypt or Libya or with the Semitics proper. Another point must be made clear. The title ' Briton ' is to-day borne by many peoples in many lands, few of whom, probably, realize that, strictly speaking, it is the Welshman alone who is entitled to that name. When in olden times the Anglo-Saxon chroniclers referred to their enemies the Britons they used the term ' Wealas ' or ' Bret-Wealas.' When in 1870 the German historian von Treitschke spoke of the Frenchmen of Lorraine he used the term ' Walsch,' inelegantly translated in Elsass and Lothringen Past and Present as ' Welsh.' Both terms expressed the same notion xi HISTORY OF WALES of enmity. The Welshman was the Saxon's enemy, but he was a Briton-enemy. This fact that the Briton, the Briton of that Britain which the Teutons invaded, was the ancestor of the modern Welsh- man must be borne in mind, otherwise the treatment of the ear her chapters of the book may be regarded as confused. Since this work has been designed in such a manner that an impression, however imperfect, may be obtained of the under- lying causes which have resulted in the development of the Welsh national character, it has been necessary to consider the history of the Welsh people rather than the history of that geographical area now known as Wales. Until the fifth century of our era the Welsh people were mainly found in Britain rather than in Cymru. The earlier chapters are therefore concerned with the inhabitants of Britain as a whole. A further result flowed from the desire to depict the gradual development of Welsh nationaHty. In the happiest of cir- cumstances it is not easy to provide an adequate picture of a people by a mere recital of wars, of political events, or of the intrigues or accomplishments of princes and statesmen. When one is considering the history of the Welsh people the difficulties, owing to several causes, chief of which are the scantiness of the original authorities, the nature of their compilation, and the date at which they were reduced to their present form, become almost insuperable. An endeavour has therefore been made to obtain an idea of the character of the ancient Welsh by a consideration of matters other than those which fall within the scope of a political history, using that term in its strictest sense. Their religion, laws, customs, and poetry have at least been glanced at. The spelling of Welsh names is always a difficulty, and it may aid the non-Welsh reader to follow the plan adopted if the following points are made clear : The forms Gruffydd, Maredudd, Owain, Howel, Conan, and lylywelyn are consistently used. Exception, however, is made in the case of Gruffydd ap Cynan (instead of Conan) and Gruffwdd (instead of Gruff^'dd), the son of I^lywelyn the xii PREFACE Great (with the consequent spelUng of Llywelyn Prince of Wales' name as lylywelyn ap Gruff udd). The purpose of these variations is to distinguish those important characters from other persons in Welsh history who bore similar names. The spelling of less common names has occasionally been varied also, chiefly because of a difference of period. The following is a list of BngUsh equivalents for Welsh names, taken in the main from the recently published Llyfr Baglan of John WilUams (edited by J. A. Bradney, F.S.A.) : Cadwgan = Cadogan Goronwy or Grono = Stephen Gruffydd or Gruffudd = Griffith Gwilym = William leuan, leun = Evan lorwerth = Edward Maredudd = Meredith Meurig = Merrick Owain = Owen = Eugene Price = ap Rice (or Rhys) Rhydderch or Rhodri = Roderick Rhys = Rees or Reece Rinallt = Reginald Tewdwr = Tudor = Theodore Vychan = Vaughan = I^ittle (or ' the Junior ') Nest, a common feminine name, comes from nes, nessa, ' near,' ' nearest,' and probably meant ' dear.' Welsh names are sometimes lengthy, men identifying themselves by reference to their father and grandfather. ' Ap,' meaning ' son of,' is a late form, being a corruption of ' map,' ' mab,' and is sometimes written ' ab.' It is con- nected with the Goidelic or Gaelic ' mac' For daughter, following John Williams, the contraction ' vz,' which comes from ' verch ' or ' ferch,' meaning ' daughter,' is used. The spelling of place-names has been checked with Professor Lloyd's History of Wales, but if errors or inconsistencies exist the fault is mine. Among the many works to which I am indebted for informa- tion, the following have been found particularly useful : (i) On the ancient period : Monumenta Historica Britannica, Dr. T. R. E. Holmes' Ancient Britain ; Sir John Rhys' Celtic Britain and Celiac and Galli ; Professor Haverfield's Military xiii HISTORY OF WALES Aspects of Roman Wales ; Sir John Rhys and Sir David Brynmor Jones' The Welsh People ; the late Dr. Hodgkin's Political History of England, vol. i ; Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson's Keltic Researches ; Dr. P. W. Joyce's A Social History of Ancient Ireland ; Mr. T. W. Rolleston's Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race ; Sir Norman Lockyer's Stonehenge ; Mr, B. M. Nelson's The Cult of the Circle-Builders ; M. Roessler de Graville's L'Art Celtique ; M. IDechelQites Manuel d'Archeo- logie prehistorique ; Mr. J. Romilly Allen's Celtic Art in Pagan and Christian Times ; and the various antiquarian journals, in particular ArchcBologia, ArchcBologia Camhrensis, and the Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. (2) On the middle period : Pre-eminently Professor I^loyd's History of Wales, selections from which have been used by the courtesy of the author and the publishers, Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co. The Brut y Tywysogion and the Annates Cambriae have formed the basis for the whole of this period, except the life of Gruff ydd ap Cynan, for which I have used Hanes Gruffydd ap Cynan (edited by Mr. Arthur Jones). Also Sir H. C. Hoare's translation of the Itinerary of Giraldus Camhrensis ; Dr. Henry Owen's Gerald the Welshman ; Gualteri Mapes de Nugis, etc. (edited by T. Wright) (a later edition, edited by Dr. James, has recently been pub- lished) ; Professor Skene's Four Ancient Books of Wales; Mr. G. T. Clark's Mediceval Military Architecture ; Sir R. W. Payne-Gallwey's Projectile-throwing Engines of the Ancients ; Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion and Y Cymmrodor (particularly Mr. Nicholson's article on Genealogies). Upon the Arthurian legends works by the following authors have been found of great value : Miss Jessie ly. Weston, Sir John Rhys, Mr. Alfred Nutt, Dr. Leo Landau, Mr. Stuart Glennie, Mr. W. W. Comfort, and Mr. W. H. Dickinson. Lady Charlotte Guest's translation of the Mabinogion has been used, in conjimction with Mr. Alfred Nutt's Mabinogion and Sir John Rhys' articles in the Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. (3) On the last period : The Statutes at Large ; the Calendar xiv PREFACE and Patent Rolls ; Sir H, Ellis' Original Letters ; Miss C. A. J. Skeel's The Council of the Marches in Wales ; Mr. J. A. Wylie's History of England under Henry IV (and the recently published part on Henry V) ; Thomas Pennant's Tours in Wales ; Mr. A. G. Bradley's Owen Glyndwr ; ' Owen Rhos- comyl's ' article in the Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion ; Sir John Rhys and Sir David Brynmor Jones' The Welsh People ; David Powel's Historic of Cambria ; Mr. H. T. Evans' History of England and Wales ; Mr. O. M. Edwards* Wales ; ' Maelog's ' Poems of Davyth ap Gwilym ; Edward Jones' Poetical Relicks of Welsh Bards ; and the Rev. W. M. Morris' The Renaissance of Welsh Literature. For the Note on coins Sir John Evans' British Coins has been almost entirely relied upon. On the laws of Wales, to which some prominence is given, the Aticient Laws and Insti- tutes of Wales (Record Commission) , together with Mr. Frederick Seebohm's Tribal System in Wales, have been mainly used, I must express my thanks to the Right Honourable Ellis J. Griffith, K.C., M.P., for his Introduction to the book ; the Right Honourable Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., K.C., for permission to use parts of certain articles which had appeared from my pen in the Law Quarterly Review ; Mr. J. Travis Mills, M.A., for much helpful criticism when the work was in proof stage and before ; Professor Haverfield for permission to use his map of Roman Wales; Major-General Sir Francis lyloyd, D.S.O., for permission to reproduce the portrait of Humphrey lylwyd in his possession ; Mr. John Ballinger, M.A., Librarian of the National Library of Wales, for help in obtaining a reproduction of the twelfth-century Grail manuscript and for various suggestions as to other illustrations ; Mr. C. C. Wood for help in revising the proofs and in compiling the Index ; the Assistants in the Coin and Manuscript Departments of the British Museum for making casts of coins and adding identi- fying notes thereon, and for making casts of seals ; and, finally, my wife for much help and assistance. GILBERT STONE I^ONDON, 191 5 XV CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Origins i Pre-Glacial Period : Neolithic Man : Pre-Goidelic Races : Life of Neolithic Man : The Bronze-users : The Goidels. II. The Circles and the Druids 15 The Circles : By whom Built : Astronomical Data : Mathematical Evidence : Antiquarian Con.siderations : Mythological and Religious Considerations : Folk Practices : Philological Evidence : Utility of the Circles : The Druids : Degeneration of the Druids : The Later Druids. III. The Brythonic Conquest 36 The Brythonic Invasion : Description of the Brythons : Brythonic or Late Celtic Art : Domestic Arrange- ments of the Brythons : Nature of the Brythons. IV. The Roman Occupation 48 Caesar's Two Landings : Roman Wars in Britain : Caratacus : Boadicea : Agricola : Pacification of Wales : Roman Forts : The Influence of Roman Civilization on Britain : Roman Roads : Roman Pottery and Remains : Famous Romans in Britain. V. The Anglo-Saxon Invasion 67 Commencement of Saxon Invasion : Maximus, or Maxen Wledig : Vortigern : Scots from Ireland : Weakness of Britain : The Saxon Attack : Results of Saxon Invasion : Important Battles : The Hallelujah Victory : Battle of Mount Badon : Deorham : Battle of Chester. VI The Birth of the Cymry 81 Cunedda Wledig : Vortigern : Dyfnwal Moelmud : Maelgwn Gwynedd : Weakness of the Welsh Tribal System fArthur : Votepori : Gildas the Reformer : The Struggle with Bernicia : Rhun : Cad van : Cadwallawn : Cadwaladr. b xvii HISTORY OF WALES CHAPTER ''^^^ VII Thk Social Condition of Pre-Norman Wales ioo Generalities : Welsh System of Land-tenure : Organization of the Tribe : Political Divisions : Status : The Bard : Welsh Druidism : Everyday Life of the Cymry : Domestic Architecture : Cures and Cunning : Valuations. VIII. Welsh Laws and Customs 123 The Welsh Laws : Position of Women : Law of Contract : Procedure : Criminal Law : Rules relating to Fire. IX. The Period of the Princes (from the Death of Cadwaladr to the Accession of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn) 139 Scantiness of Authorities : Ivor and Rhodri Molwynog : Conan and Howel : Merfyn Frych : Rhodri Mawr : The ' Black Pagans ' : Anarawd, Cadell, and Merfyn : Alfred and the Danes : Howel Dha : Owain ap Howel : Maredudd ap Owain : Llywelyn ap Seisyll. X. Gruffydd ap Llywelyn 168 Parentage and Character : Struggle for Deheubarth : Gruffydd Supreme in Wales : Decline in Power : Results of his Reign : Revival of the Arts. XI From the Death of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn TO the Death of Owain of Powys 179 Wales disrupted : The Normans : Bleddyn ap Cynvyn : Gruffydd ap Cynan and Trahaearn : Rhys ap Owain : Rhys ap Tewdwr : The Powysian Anarchy : Owain and Nest : Cadwgan and lorwerth : Madog. XII. The Welsh Romances 201 The Arthurian Legends : Origin : Dissemination : Lancelot and Peredur : Historical Values : The Rise of Chivalry. XIII. The Norman Castles 221 Influence on Welsh History : The Castle : Castle Architecture : The Motte : The Stone Castle : The Shell Keep : The Rectangular Keep : The Donjon Keep or Juliet : Methods of Attack : Engines of War. XIV Gruffydd ap Cynan 245 In Ireland : The First Expedition : Second Expedi- tion : Third Expedition : Gruffydd a Prisoner : Fourth Expedition : Fifth Expedition : William Rufus invades North Wales : Conflict with the Marcher Lords : Gruffydd's Rise to Power : Later Years. xviii CONTENTS HAPTER PAGE XV. OWAIN GWYNRDD 259 Attacks upon the South Wales Marchers : Gruffydd ap Rhys : Renewed Welsh Attacks : Conflicts between the Welsh : Owain's Successes against Stephen : Conflict with Henry II : Position in South Wales : Powys : Henry's Third Expedition : Welsh Successes. XVI. The Lord Rhys 278 Rise to Power : Conflict with England : Henry II advances into Wales : Power of Rhys established : A Patron of the Arts : Maelgwn : Position of Wales after the Death of Henry : Gwenwynwyn and Llywelyn. XVII. Geoffrey, Waeter, and Geraed 290 Geoffrey of Monmouth : Walter Map : The Goliards : Giraldus Cambrensis : Fight for St. David's : His Character and East Days : His Description of the Welsh. XVIII. Leyweeyn the Gre.\t 303 Elywelyn's Rise to Power : John and Ijywelyn : The Campaign of 121 5 : Llywelyn Eeader of the Welsh : The de Breoses : Llywelyn Supreme : Elywelyn and William Marshal : Friendship and Enmity : Elywelyn's East Years. XIX. The Downfaee 329 General Considerations : David and Gruffudd David's Death : The Rise of Elywelyn ap GrufFudd Elywelyn Prince of Wales : The Peace of Montgomery The Treaty of Conwa)^ or Aberconway : The Rising of 1282 : The Edwardian Conquest. XX. From the Conquest to Owain Geyndwr 350 Statute of Rhuddlan : Revolt : Madog : Peace : Elywelyn Bran : The Black Death : The Poets of the Fourteenth Century : Davydd ap Gwilym : lolo Goch : The Peasants. XXI. OwAiN Geyndwr 369 Birth and Early Years : Eord Grey of Ruthin : Owain in Arms : The Alliance : Battle of Shrewsbury : South Wales and the French : Owain's Decline : East Days. XXII. WAEES AND EnGEAND UnITED 39I General Sketch of the Period from Owain to the Present Day : War and Lawlessness : Wars of the Roses : Union and Eaw : The Act of Union : Parlia- mentary Representation : The Renaissance : The Civil War : "The Nonconformists : Conclusion. xix HISTORY OF WALES PAGE Note A. Barrows, Cromlechs, Dolmens, and Gor- SEDDS 409 The Long Barrow : Cromlechs, Dolmens, Gorsedds : The Round Barrow Note B. Coins 415 Romano-British Coins : British Coins : (a) Unin- scribed ; (&) Inscribed : Welsh and Norman Coins. Note C. Welsh Musical Instruments 421 The Harp : The Crwth : The Pib-corn, etc. : Giraldus on Welsh Music. Welsh Seals 427 Selection of Important Dates 429 Inde.x 433 XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS MAPS PACK CoAST-i^iNK OF Waives in the Neoi^ithic Age 3 Roman Waives 48 Humphrey I^i^wyd's Map of Wales 156 Waives showing the Sites of its Casti^es ' 222 PLATES PLATE The WeIvSH Bard Frontispiece 1. Figurine de Brassempouy 4 From L'Art Celtique, by Charles Roessler, and described by him at pp. 44 et seq. It was discovered in 1894 ^7 MM. Roessler and de L,aporterie at Brassempouy. M. Roessler, though he admits that the style of hair- dressing is Egyptian, says that the face (which is that of a woman) is not typical of that people, but would rather seem to belong to a Mongolian race. The head is very brachycephalic. M. Roessler dates it as belong- ing to the somewhat vague period known as the Quaternary. When found it lay 3 m. 80 c. under the surface of the soil. The figurine is carved from a piece of ivory, and it may be that it represents a type present in this island in Neolithic times. Near it lay, among other bones, some rhinoceros teeth. Mammoth teeth were also found near by. 2. Arrow- and IvAnce-heads of Chipped Fi,int 6 Found in Scotland, and now in the British Museum. 3. F1NE1.Y WORKED Stone Hammer-head 8 Probably of the Neolithic period ; so symmetrically cut that it would be beyond the skill of any modern flint- worker to chip it. Reproduction from the cast in the British Museum. Foimd at Maesmore, Corwen, Merionethshire. xxi HISTORY OF WALES PLATE PAGE 4. Bronze Pai^stave, Torc, Armi^ets, and Rings 10 Found in 1825 together at Hollingbury Hill, near Stanmer, Sussex. The two spiral rings, when found, were threaded on the torc. Several armlets of gold have at various times been dug up. The present group is described in the ArchcBological Journal, vol. v, p. 323, where they are attributed to the Bronze Age. 5. (i) Bronze Pan 12 Found at Aylesford. Of fine workmanship, and belonging probably to the I,ate Celtic period. Described in A rchceo- * logia, vol. hi, p. 378. In the British Museum. (2) A THIN Bronze Vessel 12 It at one time had handles. Found at the entrance to the earthworks called ' The Berth,' Baschurch, Salop. It probably belongs to the early Iron Age. It may have been used as a water-clock, for, owing to its thinness and the fact that the bottom is pierced with a small hole, it would slowly fill if placed on the surface of water. When a certain mark was reached it would then be refloated by an attendant. This system of telhng the time is known to have been practised in India and Ceylon. In the British Museum. 6 Cinerary Vase 14 Found in 1886 with many others in the famous Late Celtic Urn Field at Aylesford, Kent, and described in Archcso- logia, vol. lii, p. 329. It is of fine clay covered with brown-coloured ' varnish.' The foot or pedestal is an unusual feature. Height, 14 in. In the British Museum. 7. Bas-relief relating to the Temple of Sippar i8 Made by Nabu-Pal-Iddina, king of Babylon, about 870 B.C., to record his restoration of the Temple of the Sun-god at Sippar. It represents Baal enthroned, and shows symbolically the three sacred numbers 3, k, and 7. The three discs at the top represent the Moon, Sun, and Venus. The god holds a rod and ring, repre- senting the sacred number k. The relief was protected by terra-cotta coverings, on the back of one of which is an inscription of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon 625-604 B.C. It is described by Professor King in his monograph Boundary Stones and Memorial Tablets in the British Museum. In the British Museum. 8. Assyrian Boundary Stone 20 Showing a symbohsm not dissimilar from that in Plate 7. Fully described, with inscription translated, by Pro- fessor King in his monograph Boundary Stones and Memorial Tablets in the British Museum. In the British Museum. xxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE PAGE 9. Entranck to the Tumulus at New Grange, IRE1.AND 22 This Neolithic burial-place is in many ways re-jiarkable. In size the mound is 280 feet wide and 44 feet high. It is of the chambered type, and the dead whose remains it covered were placed in stone sarcophagi. These were ransacked by the Danes. The large stone shown lying on its side at the entrance is covered with spiral markings not dissimilar from those found on the chalk objects shown in Plate 10 and on many other Neolithic remains. Inside the tomb a solar ship roughly scratched on the walls has been discovered. 10. FOOD-VESSEI. AND CovER AND ThREE ChALK Obj ECTS 24 From Neolithic or early Bronze Age barrows. The food- vessel was found at Canton, East Riding of Yorkshire. In these food-vessels, which are commonly found in the barrows, remains of animal and vegetable foods have been discovered. The three lower objects are of chalk, and come from a child's tomb in Yorkshire. They may have been used as idols. They are ornamented with the usual spiral markings, and if the smallest of the three be examined a rude representation of a human face will be seen. Schliemann found somewhat similar markings on vases at Hissarlik. The style of the carving recalls Neolithic and Bronze Age antiquities from the Mediterranean area. These objects are described in ArchcBologia, vol. lii, p. 25, where they are assigned to the Bronze Age. In the British Museum. 11. Bronze Implements, Spear-heads, etc. 38 From Ty Mawr, Holyhead Moimtain. They were found with certain other remains in 1832, and are interesting because the type is very similar to those found in Ireland. The whole find is fully described in the ArchcBological Journal, vol. xxiv, pp. 253 et seq. In the British Museum. 12. Bronze Mirror 40 Foimd about 1833 at Trelan, Bahow, parish of St. Keverne, Cornwall, in a stone grave, with beads, armlets, and other personal ornaments. It belongs to the Late Celtic period. It is circular in form, 6 in. in diameter, with an elegantly designed handle projecting 2^ in. from the edge. When found one side was still quite brightly polished. Both sides of the mirror are flat; one is engraved with a pattern typical of the period. It is described, together with other mirrors of a like period, in the ArchcBological Journal, vol. xxx, p. 267. There is a very similar mirror in the Mayer Museum, Liverpool. In the British Museum. xxiii HISTORY OF WALES PLATiE PAGfi 13. Bronze and Enamei, Shield 42 Found in the river Witham, Lincolnshire. This and an equally fine shield found in the Thames, near Battersea, have been described as the most beautiful examples of Late Celtic art which have come down to us. The shield illustrated is noticeable both for its artistic design and its workmanship. It is decorated with coral studs. The Battersea shield, on the other hand, is ornamented with red enamel and repouss^ work ; the enamel is still perfect, though the colour appears to have faded somewhat. Enamelling seems to have been very popular with the Brito-Romans, and in the Shrewsbury Museum a large cake of blue enamel found at Viroconium is to be seen. The present shield may date from a period anterior to the coming of the Romans. In the British Museum. 14. The Aylesford Pail 44 So called from the place where foxmd. Probably the wooden part was originally of ash, and would be boimd together by the bronze bands, the upper one of which is well ornamented in the Late Celtic style. The part which connects the handle to the pail will be observed to be fashioned in the form of a head, a somewhat unusual form in Late Celtic work. The pail is now in the British Museum, and is described in Archcsologia, vol. lii, p. 361. 15. A Bilingual Inscription found at Nevern, Pembrokeshire 46 Above the inscription is in Roman characters, below in Ogham writing. It has recently been described by Sir jolm Rhys, in Archcsologia Cambrensis, 6th Series, vol. xiii, pp. 376 et seq. Reference may also be made to the epigraphic notes of the same writer in Archcsologia Cambrensis, 5th Series, vol. xiii, pp. 98 et seq., and his table of Oghams and debased Latin capitals at pp. 297 et seq. of the same volume. The reading of the Ogham in the present inscription is " Maglicmias maqi Clutar . . ." ; the stone then breaks off. It was doubt- less a monument to the Gold el Maglocu (or in its Latin form Maglocunus), the son of Clutorios. 16. General View of the Excavations round THE Basilica of Viroconium (Uriconium, Wroxeter) 54 In the left-hand foregroimd are the remains of the hypocaust of the baths. This city was of considerable size, with a circumference of some miles and stretching at' least from Wroxeter to the Severn. The ruins, which are some seven miles from WeUington, in Shropshire, are being slowly opened up. Already part of a street, xxiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE PAGB showing shops and a blacksmith's forge, has been iinearthed, besides the town hall and baths. Among the ruins many objects of Samian, Upchurch, Roman- Salopian, and common ware have been found, also glass vessels, jewellery, tombstones, etc. One of the most interesting finds was an oculist's seal, now in the Shrews- bury Museum. 17. Seated Figure of a Goddess 56 Found, together with the sculptured head of a god, at Caerwent, Monmouthshire, in 1908. Carved out of local yellow sandstone, it is probably the work of a local sculptor, as has been stated by M. Esperandieu and the learned writers in Archcsologia, vol. Ixii (i), where, at p. 16, it is described. It is not unlike the Gallo- Roman figures found in France. 18. Caerwent : The Round Temple 58 Showing the outer wall and east gate, looking north. This interesting Roman ruin was discovered by accident by some workmen digging for stone in September 1912. Some skeletons found in it, evidently of corpses flung there when the temple was already in ruins, probably speak of some Saxon raid. The excavations are described by Mr. A. E. Hudd, F.S.A., in ArchcBologia, vol. Ixiv, pp. 437 et seq. 19. Bilingual Sepulchral Monument 6o Dedicated by Barate, a Palmyrean or Syrian, to his British wife Regina, formerly a freedwoman and of the race of the Catuvellauni. She died at the age of thirty years. Regina is elegantly gowned, and has her jewel-box by her side. Below the Latin inscription the husband has had written in the characters of his native land the short sentence : " Regina, the freedwoman of Barate, alas ! " The monument is now in the South Shields Museum, and we are indebted to the Secretary of the Public Library for the photograph from which this reproduction has been made. 20. Roman Milestone 62 Found at Rhiwiau, Llanfairfechan, co. Carnarvon. It bears the name of the Emperor Hadrian, and was originally set up some eight miles from the Roman station of Canovium in a.d. 121-122. In the British Museum. 21. Examples of Samian Ware and Roman Cut Glass 64 No. I (numbering from left to right, down) : A GauUsh bowl made by the potter Divixtus at Lezouz, Puy-de- Dome. It was found at Castor, Northants. It belongs to the latter part of the first century. The decoration consists of panels containing human figures ; the modelling is vigorous. The type is No. 30. No. 2 : XXV HISTORY OF WALES PLATE PAGE Gaulish bowl made by the potter Cinnamus at Lezouz. Period, middle of the second century. Found at Lincoln. The decoration takes the form of medallions and standing figures. Type No. 37. No. 4 : GauHsh bowl made by the potter Meddilus, from L,a Graufesenque, Aveyron. Period, late first century. Found near London. The formal decoration is hghtened with figures of men and animals. Type No. 29. No. 5 : A very beautiful Gauhsh vase, made at Lezouz. Period, tliird century. Found at Felixstowe, Suffolk. Orna- mented with slip and moulded decorations. Type No. 37. A large number of fragments of Samian and other ware have been found at Viroconium, and bear the marks of a considerable number of potters. No. 3 : This rare cup of cut glass comes from a Roman cemetery at Barnwell, Cambridgeshire. All these objects are in the British Musemn, 22. Roman Jug 66 An elegant example of the more common Roman glass. It was found in a grave at Bayford-next-Sittingbourne, Kent. It is of pale olive-green glass. Height, g^ in. It is described in Archcsologia Cantiana, vol. xvi, p. 2. In the British Museum. 23. Eliseg's Pillar 84 Seen from the Concenn Inscription side and with the pro- tecting raiUngs removed. It is fully described by Sir John Rhys in his article All Around the Wrekin, in Y Cymmrodor, vol. xxi, pp. 39 et seq. Concenn was possibly the son of Cadell, king of Powys c. 800. In the inscription as preserved by Edward Lhuyd, the an+iquary, who read it in 1696, we find Cadell given as the son of Brochmail, the son of EHseg. 24. The Round Table at Winchester Hall 90 Possibly that referred to by Caxton in his Introduction to Malory's Marie d' Arthur. 25. Facsimile of F. 49B MS. Cotton. Vitell. cm (British Museum) 118 The work from which this portion of a page is reproduced deals with leechdoms, wort-cunning, and star-craft, and has been edited by Cockayne. It forms three volumes in the Rolls Series. Although a work con- cerned primarily with the cures and cunning of the Saxons, it is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the social condition of this island in the tenth century. Immediately above the drawing of a snake appears the word nasbjie- The sentence below, beginning with the words Pl^ naebjian, may be translated as follows : " For bite of snake, this wort, which we named cyno- glossum, is of good advantage, pounded and swallowed xxvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE PAGE in wine." The next paragraph gives a cure for a quartan ague, etc. Besides cures the work contains much information relating to foods, mode of Hfe, etc., in those times. 26. CeIvTic Cross in IvLAnbadarn P'awr Churchyard 120 This cross of grey granite is perhaps the finest example of an old Celtic cross in Wales. In its present condition it stands some 8 feet above the ground. One panel contains a rude representation of a human figure, probably some Churchman, for the right hand appears to be raised as in the act of benediction, and in the left hand there would appear to be a pastoral staff. There is another ancient stone monument in the same churchyard, and popular legend informs us that they were the stone flails of Archbishop Sampson. A full account of these early Christian Celtic crosses will be found in ArchcBO- logia Cambrensis, 5th Series, vol. xvi, pp. i et seq. 27. St. Winifred's (or Wenefrede's) Well 136 This well, which gives its name to Holywell, is named after the virgin Wenefrede, who lived, according to tradition, in the seventh century. She was sister to St. Beuno, under whose care she was placed. A neighbouring prince, won by her beauty, was con- sumed with passion for her, and when she refused to gratify his desires he drew his sword and struck off her head. The story proceeds to tell us that the prince (Caradoc) instantly fell down dead and was swallowed up by the earth. The head, rolhng down the hill upon which the tragedy had occurred, stopped near St. Beimo's Church, and from the spot where it rested a spring of pure water with wonderful heahng qualities burst forth. The tale ends on a happy note, for we are told that St. Beuno, taking the head, united it to the body and his sister returned to life. For further details reference may be made to Pennant's Tours in Wales, vol. i, p. 44. 28. Offa's Dike 144 The Fosse is seen on the left. One of the earliest references to the Dike occurs in Asser's Life of Alfred : " Fitit in Mercia moderno tempore quidam sirenuus, atqiie univetsis circa se regibus et regionibus finitimis forinidolosus rex, nomine Offa : qui vallutn magnum inter Britanniam atque Merciam de mari usque ad mare facere imperavit." 29. Remains of the Later Castle of Deganwy 148 Deganwy was for centuries the seat of the royal house of Cunedda, and was the favourite stronghold of Maelgwn Gwynedd in the sixth century. The castle, of which only ruins now remain, is of course of much later date. The ancient hold was abandoned, and is said to have been struck by lightning in 8 1 2 . The castle was destroyed xxvii PAGB HISTORY OF WALES PLATE by the English in 822, but was restored by Hugh the Fat, Earl of Chester, and was occupied by Robert of Rhuddlan. It fell into the hands of Llywelyn the Great in 1200, and was destroyed and rebuilt in 1210. It was again destroyed, to be again rebuilt by Henry III in 1245. In 1263 it was captured by Llywelyn ap GrufEudd, and passed from him finally at the time of the Edwardian Conquest. 30. Map of Waives by Humphrey Li.wyd 156 Humphrey I,lwyd, the eminent Welsh physician and antiquary, lived 1527-1568. Perhaps this was one of the maps which he dedicated and sent to Ortelius when on his deathbed, accompanying the gift with a letter, dated August 3, 1568. For a portrait of I^lwyd see Plate 55. 31. The Water Tower and Wai.es, Chester 176 This picture is given the particular place it occupies in this book not because the walls illustrated belong to the early years of the Norman Conquest, but because it was from Chester that the first great effort was made by the Normans at the subjugation of Wales. The same remark apphes to the next Plate. 32. Rhuddean Castee 186 Robert of Rhuddlan was one of the first of the Normans to establish a footing in North Wales. The present castle, however, belongs to a much later period, the first steps toward its building having probably been taken by Edward I, c. T-'i'jj. The foundation of Flint Castle belongs to the same year. 33. The Sepuechrae Urn which Contained the Ashes OF Bronwen 204 This urn was discovered in a grave on the banks of the Alaw, in Anglesey, in 1813, at the place called Ynys Bronwen (Bronwen's Isle). Sir R. C. Hoare, in a communication to the Cambro-Briton, vol. ii, p. 71, refers to it as fol- lows : "A farmer . . . having occasion for stones . . . and having observed a stone or two peeping through the turf of a circular elevation on a flat not far from the river [Alaw], was induced to examine it, when, after paring off the turf, he came to a considerable heap of stones, or carnedd, covered with earth, which he removed with some degree of caution, and got to a cist formed of coarse flags canted and covered over. On removing the lid, he found it contained an urn placed with its mouth downwards, full of ashes and half-calcined fragments of bone." The learned antiquary then calls our attention to the passage in the Mabinogion : "A square grave was made for Bronwen, the daughter of Elyr, on the banks of the Alaw, and there she was buried." Branwen (or Bronwen), ' the White-bosomed,' xxviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE PAGE is a heroine of one of the best known of Welsh stories, and is famed for her charms and her woes. Davydd ap Gwilym, in addressing his inamorata Morvydd, likens her fairness to that of Bronwen. The urn is now in the British Museum. 34. Page from " Ystoryaeu Seint Greal " 210 The Ystoryaeu Seint Greal (Peniarth MS. No. ii, formerly Hengwrt MS. 49) is the earliest known Welsh Graal MS It is now in the National Library of Wales, to which it (among other MSS. and books) was presented by Sir John WilUams. Lady Charlotte Guest, in her Mabinogion, states that this manuscript (which was then at Hengwrt) dates back to the time of Henry I. The manuscript is described in the Historical Manu- scripts Commission's Report on Manuscripts in the Welsh Language, \o\. i, pp. 321-322 (1899), and has been edited and printed by Canon Williams in Selections from the Hengwrt Manuscripts, vol. i, Y Seint Greal, published in 1876. The page shown is t. 26 v. Re- produced by the courtesy of Sir John Williams, G.C.V.O., and Mr. John Ballinger, M.A . 35. The Building of Hastings Castle 226 From the Bayeux Tapestry. Reproduced in ArchcBologia, vol. Iviii, p. 323, from Vetusta Monumenta, vol. vi. Mr. Round, in his article The Cooties of the Conquest, refers to this as " the priceless witness of the Bayeux Tapestry " to show that William the Conqueror, after he landed in England, threw up as defence works mounds of the motte type. 36. Caerphilly Castle 234 From G. T. Clark's A Description of the Castles of Kidivelly and Caerphilly. Also described in the same writer's MedicBval Military Architecture, vol. i, p. 315. There he says, inter alia : " Caerphilly is by very much the most extensive castle in Wales, and is reputed to cover, with its outworks and earthworks, about thirty acres." An imaginative illustration drawn bj' H. Gastineau appears in Woodward's History of Wales, at p. 470. 37. Kidwelly (Cydweli) Castle 236 From G. T. Clark's A Description of the Castles of Kidivelly and Caerphilly. Also described by the same author in his Mediaeval Military Architecture, vol. ii, p. 153. The castle stands from 80 to 100 feet above the river — shown to the right of the picture — on the right bank. The river-banks are here steep and rocky, a fact which does not sufl&ciently appear in the drawing. 38. Attack on a Castle 238' The drawing shows the use of the terebra in an attack upon a castle, and the means adopted to protect the attackers xxix HISTORY OF WALES PLATE PAGE from the arrows, Greek fire, and stones hurled or shot from the castle walls or brattices by the defenders. From In Feudal Times, by E. M. Tappan, Ph.D. 39. Prnmon Church and Priory 256 Gruffydd ap Cynan on his death left to this Norman church at Penmon, among many others, money for its better upkeep. Perhaps in his day it was one of those lime- washed buildings with which, as his biographer puts it, Gwynedd was decked as is the firmament with stars. The modern church appears to be a somewhat common- place structure. The priory is shortly described by Pennant in Tours in Wales, vol. iii, p. 35. 40. Basingwerk Abbey 262 This Cistercian abbey was founded by Ranulf of Chester in 1 1 31. Originally a house of the Order of Savigny, it later became attached to the Order of Citeaux. If Dugdale's date be correct, it would seem to have been one of the earliest of the foreign monasteries in Wales. It was certainly founded before 1137. 41. The Gateway, Strata Fi^orida Abbey 286 Ystrad Fflur Abbey, or, to give it its Latinized name, Strata Florida — in EngUsh ' the Vale of Flowers ' — was founded in 1164 by the banks of the Fflur, on land which had been given by Robert fitz Stephen. It was increased in wealth by the Lord Rhys, as a result of which the present building was commenced on the banks of the Teifi. It is probable that at least one of the Welsh chronicles was kept by the ecclesiastics of this religious house. 42 Geoffrey's Window, Monmouth 292 This window, now part of the school attached to the parish church of Monmouth, is by tradition that of the cell in which Geoffrey of Monmouth, Milton's " soothest- shepherd," whose claims to be regarded as a serious historian were finally destroyed by Polydore Vergil, composed his British history. It is described in ArchcBologia Cambrensis, 6th Series, vol. ix, p. 27, where its period is said to be the fifteenth century. 43. Ruins of the Bishop's Palace, St. David's 298 The palace has been described as a structure of a single date and style. Its founder, Bishop Gower, held the see from 1328 to 1347. The style of the palace is therefore Decorated. It has also been said to be tmsurpassed by any existing English edifice of its )iind. W. Basil Jones and E. A. Freeman, in their work The History and Antiquities of St. David's, speak thus of it : "One can hardly conceive any structure that more com- pletely proclaims its pecuhar purpose ; it is essentially a palace and not a castle. . . . The prominent points XXX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE TAGS are the superb rose-window of the hall, and the graceful spire of the chapel, importing an abode, not of warfare, but of hospitaUty and religion. Of domestic work so strictly ecclesiastical but few examples remain." 44. Llanbadarn Fawr 302 Mediaeval tradition, voiced by Giraldus Cambrensis, alleged that lylanbadarn Fawr was once a cathedral church. E. A. Freeman, however, in Archceologia Cambrensis (3rd Series, vol. ii, p. 224), has appropriately grouped it among the smaller cruciform churches. He refers to it as " the noble fabric of Llanbadarn-fawr, near Aberystwyth." An engraving appears in Petit's Church Architecture. 45. CiLGERRAN CASTI.E 3^4 This castle occupies an exceedingly strong position upon a high ridge of land jutting out into the val'oy of the Teifi. On one side is a deep ravine, on the other steep cliffs. According to Clark, " though it might be called technically an Edwardian castle [it] was, like others, of rather earher date than Edward I." Of course a castle existed at Cilgerran long before the time of Edward I, for in the middle of the twelfth century it was a stronghold of the Carew family. Under John the lordship of Emlyn, and with it Cilgerran Castle, passed from the Carews, and in 1204 we find WiUiam Marshal obtaining possession of Cilgerran. Later, under Llywelyn the Great, it was granted to Maelgwn, but was regained by the Earl Marshal in 1223. Its subsequent history is not important. In 1863 a con- siderable portion of the breastwork fronting the river fell down, and later the building was still further ruined owing to an immense fall of masonry consequent upon quarrying operations near by. It has since been the object of a grant from the Cambrian Archaeological Association. Cilgerran is not described in either G. T. Clark's Mediceval Military Architecture or A. Hamilton Thompson's Military Architecture, but has been shortly considered in Archesologia Cambrensis (3rd Series, vol. v, p. 340 ; vol. ix, p. 345). It has been the subject of a painting by Turner. 46. SEAIv OF lyLYWEIrYN THE GrEAT 318 Photograph from a cast of the seal, now in the British Museum. Mr. de Gray Birch, in his Catalogue of Seals in the British Museum, has thus described it : " Creamy-white ; fine, but very imperfect. About 3J in. when perfect. Obv. To the r. In armour : hauberk, surcoat, round helmet, broad sword in r. h. and scabbard at the waist, shield slung by a strap over the r. shoulder. Horse gallop- ing, with saddle, breast-band, and reins. [Legend :] + SIG . . . WE. Rev. A small oval counter-seal. xxxi HISTORY OF WALES PLATE PAGE With mark of the handle, ij X i in. Impression of an antique oval intaglio gem. A boar passant to the r. under a tree. [Legend :] + siGiLivVM SERCETVM I,EWI,INI." It is attached to Cott., ch. xxiv, 17. 47. Montgomery Castile 322 As in the case of many other ruins of Welsh castles, it is by- no means certain what is the precise history of this building, now fallen to decay. New Montgomery was built during the reign of Henry III, but old Montgomery has a much more ancient history, having probably been founded by Baldwin in the early years of WilUam the Conqueror's reign. Subsequently Roger de Montgomery made it his stronghold, but toward the end of the eleventh century it was taken by the Welsh. It was rebuilt by the Montgomery's, and was subsequently frequently attacked. The new castle, commenced about October 1223, was later granted to Hubert de Burgh. It was taken by Llywelyn the Great, and in the fourteenth century was in the hands of the Mortimer family. In the Civil Wars it was seized by Sir Thomas Myddleton, and withstood a siege by the Royahsts, being subsequently reheved by the Parlia- mentarians after a bloody but decisive struggle. It was later dismantled, and to-day exists only as a complete ruin. 48. The Coffin of I^i^ywei^yn the Great, I^lanrwst Church 326 The Church of Llanrwst (probably named after a Welsh St. Fergus or Grwst) contains many brasses and tombs, among others several brasses of the Wynn family aind the tomb of Howel Coytmor. Pennant, in his Tours in Wales (vol. ii, p. 305), also tells us that " in this church is preserved the stone coffin of Llewelyn the Great, with the sides curiously cut into quatrefoils. That prince was interred in Conwy Abby ; but at the dissolution the coffin was removed to this place." 49. Queen Eleanor's Chamber, Conway Castle 344 Conway Castle, built by Edward I, was commenced in 1283, and several years were occupied in erecting it. It would seem that the window seen through the archway, which lit the chamber of Queen Eleanor, was of painted glass, such as is described in the poem The Squire of Low Degree, when, speaking of the King of Hungary's daughter, the poet says : " In her oryall there she was Closyd well with royall glas ; Fulfylled yt was with ymagery." 50. Caernarvon Castle 352 This castle was commenced a few months after Conway, and was probably designed by the same architect. It has xxxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE PAGE been described as undoubtedly the chief of the three greatest military works executed by Edward I (G. T. Clark, Medicsval Military Architecture, vol. i, p. 309). No castle in Britain is more uniformly and skilfully designed, and none has survived the ravages of Time more successfully. It is built upon the banks of the Seiont, near whose waters the Romans placed their camp of Segontium. The castle gets its name from the fact that it stands on the shores of Arvon, and it is placed not far, perhaps, from the earlier Welsh camp of Caer-yn- Arvon. 51. Seai. of Edward, Prince of Waives 358 (Earl of Chester, Count of Ponthieu and Montreuil, eldest son of King Edward I, and afterward Edward II.) Photo from a cast of the seal, now in the British Museum. Mr. de Gray Birch, in his Catalogue of Seals in the British Museum, thus describes it: "Plaster casts, from fine but chipped impression 3| in. Ob. To the r. In armour : hauberk of mail, flowing surcoat, helmet with vizor closed, fan plume, sword, shield of arms slung by a strap over the r. shoulder. Horse galloping, caparisoned and plumed. Arms, England, with a label of three points of difference. [Legend :] Edwardvs ILI,VSTRIS REGIS ANGWE FIUVS. Rev. Within a curved rosette of eight semicircular cusps, with a sunken trefoil in each spandril, and suspended by the strap or giiige from an oak-tree between two slipped branches of the same, a shield of arms : England, with a label of five points. [Legend :] [EdJwardvs princeps + WAi,LiE OMES CESTRIE ET PONT . . . IVI." 52. The Mound where Sycharth stood 370 53. ' Geyndwr's Prison,' Carrog 382 54. Tomb of vStr T^hys ap Thomas 394 In the body of the work we have been able merely to glance at Sir Rhys, one of Henrj^ VII's strongest supporters, who after a full life at court and in the field retired to Carew Castle to spend an honourable retirement, bearing with him the signal honour of inclusion in the Most Noble Order of the Garter. An excellent sketch of this worthy from the pen of the late David Jones is to be found in Archcsologia Camhrensis, 5th Series, vol. ix, pp. 8r et seq., where the text of his will is also given. We are told that Sir Rhys was, in accordance with the directions contained in his will, buried in the chancel of the Church of the Grey Friars at Caermarthen, for he had directed that " fyve pounds lands be given to the frdres of Karmerdyn for a chantry then to f ynd two prests to pray forme and my wife for ever." He also made other gifts to these friars. The subject of the present illus- tration is the tomb which was built in the chancel. It bears the effigies of Sir Rhys and Dame Jenett, his wife, who was probably buried there with her husband. c xxxiii HISTORY OF WALES PLATE PAGE 55. Portrait of Humphrey Llwyd 398 From the picture in the possession of Major-General Sir Francis Lloyd, D.S-O., by permission. " Humphry lylwyd was the son and heir of Robert LlwA'd- or Lloyd, by Joan, daughter of Lewis Pigott. His father was descended from an old family called Rosendale, which removed from Lancashire in 1297 to Foxhall, near Denbigh, and acquired the name of Llwyd by an intermarriage with the Llwyds (or Lloyds) of Aston, near Oswestry " [Dictionary of National Biography) . For further details see the Note to Plate 30. Humphrey Llwyd must be carefully distinguished from Edward Lhuyd (some- times spelt ' Llwyd '), the natural son of Edward Llwyd of Llanvorda, near Oswestry, who lived from 1660 to 1709, and was famous as a Celtic scholar, antiquarian, and naturalist. 56. Oliver Cromwell's Seal, showing Five Welsh ouarterings 4o2 Photograph from a cast of the seal, now in the British Museum. Mr. de Gray Birch, in his Catalogue of Seals in the British Museum, has thiis described it : " Red. I in Oval; a shield of arms of six quarterings : I, Cromwell ; 2, Caradoc Vreichfras ; 3, CoUwyn Ap- Tangno, Lord of Efiouydd ; 4, lestyn Ap-Gwrgant, Prince of Glamorgan ; 5, Madoc Ap-Meredith, last Prince of Powys ; 6, Murfyn. Crest on helmet, wreath, and mantling, a demi-lion rampant, holding fieur-de-Us." See also Henfrey's Numismaia Cromwelliana. 57. Harlech Castle 404 Harlech is a concentric castle of the Edwardian type, and, standing as it does on a bold and rugged headland of rock which once jutted out into the sea, it must have been an extremely difficult fortress to reduce before the days of gunpowder. The south-west tower bears the name of Bronwen, the Welsh heroine already referred to in the note to Plate 33. The castle is described at length in G. T. Clark's Mediceval Military Architecture (vol. ii, p. 74). See also Timbs' Abbeys, Castles, and Ancient Halls of England and Wales, vol. ii, p. 457, where it is stated that the site was previously occupied by a British fortress called Twr Bronwen. The present castle was probably built by Edward I some time about 1286. 58. The Investiture of the Prince of Wales at Carnarvon Castle 406 It was on Thursday, July 13, 191 1, that Edward, seventh of his name to bear the title, was made and created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester. For the first time an English prince addressed the Welsh people in their native tongue, and for the first time an English xxxiv PAGE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE prince was formally invested with the insignia of his high office in Wales itself. The ceremony took place at Carnarvon Castle, where from the Queen's Gate tradition has it that the first EngUsh Prince of Wales, then a baby, was presented to the somewhat sulky populace. Now, more than six centuries later, the people gathered in their thousands from all parts of the Principality to show their goodwill toward the young Prince and the Throne. By Order in Council proclaimed on February 4, 191 1, it wasprovided that the arms of the Prince would include the armsof Wales. " Quarterly or and g'w/es, four lionspassant guardant counterchanged." The Prince's arms now consist of the Royal Arms differenced by the Prince of Wales' label, and charged in the centre with an in- escutcheon of the arms of Wales (lylywelyn's), instead of the arms of Saxony. The inescutcheon is ensigned with the Prince's coronet to show that the arms are territorial, not personal. A dragon gii., the ensign of Cadwaladr, is one of the badges. 59. CromIvEch near the Roman Road between Aber AND Roe Wen 410 60. Uninscribed British Coins 414 61. Inscribed British Coins 416 62. Romano-British Coins 418 63 Welsh and Norman- Wei.sh Coins 420 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT Forms of Solar Ships 24 The Grave Pit, Aylesford 46 Roman Strigils 57 Plan of a Roman Fort at Housesteads, on Hadrian's Wall 58 Drawing of a Rude Form of Plough 117 Plan of Cardiff Castle 230 Plan of Ludlow Castle 232 Plan of Caerphilly Castle in 1842 235 XXXV HISTORY OF WALES PACK Catapult 240 Designed by I,eouardo da Vinci. From his // Codica Atlantico. Unusual Type of Ballista 241 Shaped in the form of an immense bow and arrow. Designed by Leonardo da Vinci. From his II Codica Atlantico. The Trebuchet 242 Showing the manner in which the propulsive force was obtained by dropping a heavy weight. From In Feudal Times, by E. M. Tappan, Ph.D. OwAiN Glyndwr's Great Seal 378 OwAiN Glyndwr's Privy Seal 378 Ground Plans of Chambered Long Barrows, and of Chambers contained in them 410 lyONG Barrow with Peristaijth and Walling Restored 411 Bell-shaped Round Barrow 413 Disk-shaped Round Barrow 413 Bowl-shaped Round Barrow 413 Round Barrow Burial, showing Skeleton protected BY A Covering of Stones 414 The Crwth 423 The Pib-corn 424 xxxvi CHAPTER I ORIGINS A FEW years ago history was based on evidence purely documentary, or at least on legends, which, owing to their generality or their inherent probability, had been treated for a long time as containing true germs of history, although transmitted from man to man by word of mouth in the form of a story or a poem. To-day history, even a short and simple history having no pretension to complete- ness, would be regarded as imperfect if it failed to take note of those dim, remote ages, until lately called prehistoric, which are gradually, by the aid of the pickaxe of the excavator and the studies of the ethnologist, philologist, and astronomer, being brought nearer and nearer to us in living, though not, of course, in mathematical time. Excavations which have been made in caves and river- beds and elsewhere have brought to light the remains of a race which inhabited the island of which Wales forms a part tens of thousands of years ago. For convenience and to hide our ignorance we term this race Palaeolithic man. Of him we need say nothing save that he hunted with stone implements of a rude sort, that he was a drawer of pictures, that he was a savage knowing no culture — a cave-dweller who lived on his cunning as a hunter rather than on his skill as a tiller of the soil or as a shepherd of flocks. An account of Palaeolithic man, though not impossible, is undesirable in this history, since between him and us lies the Glacial period, which, without doubt, swept away completely and for thousands of years all traces of human life from that part of the world which lies north of the Thames. No particle of Palaeolithic blood can A I HISTORY OF WALES turn to life one thought in any man who lives in England or in Wales to-day. The same cannot be said of Neolithic man. From his entry on the stage of history the story is a con- tinuous one. Atavism doubtless places him occasionally in our midst to-day. Competent authorities have, indeed, suggested that the modern Frenchman is nearer akin in temperament to the Neolithic than to the Gallic race. In the game way the Welshman of to-day can trace himself back to pre-Celtic times. With this race, therefore, our history must commence. Neolithic Man The men of the New Stone Age came into this island some time, we know not when, after the ice had receded to the normal north. The influx is to be assigned, not to a year, but to centuries or millenniums of years. All through our account of this period it must be remembered that man was ever changing, possibly ever progressing. Tribes rose to power and fell into servitude. Races died out or merged with other races. The period which elapsed between the commencement and the end of the Neolithic period is greater than that which separates the building of the Great Pyramid from the bridging of the Menai Strait. Notwithstanding this, how- ever, it is necessary in the present state of our knowledge to treat the period as though it extended over but a few years. We must regard the age, for the purpose of description, as one which knew not change. From the remains which have been found in burial- places, cromlechs, barrows, caves, and elsewhere, we shall attempt later on a description of Neolithic culture. Before doing so, however, it is desirable to put shortly before the reader the various steps in the genealogy of the Welsh race from the post-Glacial period up to the commencement of the Roman invasion. The earliest ancestors were, as we have said. Neolithic man. The earlier members of this group would seem to have been short men whose average height was not more than 5 feet 2 ORIGINS 4 inches.^ Their heads were long and narrow and the cast of face mild. Even before bronze was introduced — that is to say, before 2000 B.C. — they were conquered by a broad-headed CoAST-i,iNE OF Waives in the Neoi^ithic Age {A. Sam Badrig) From Archcsologia Cambrensis, by permission of the Cambrian Arcliseological Association. race who were thick-set but short in stature. These in turn were conquered, possibly shortly after the introduction of bronze, by a round-headed people of robust build, tall and ^ The women's average height was 4 feet 10 inches. This suggests that they were the 'hewers of wood and drawers of water,' a stunted growth showing a hard life. HISTORY OF WALES savage-looking. All this had happened long before the Goidels — the earlier branch of the Celtic race — ^had removed westward from the Continent to Britain. These Goidels, the direct ancestors of the modern Gael, first crossed the western strait in about the middle of the Bronze Age — that is to say, about 1000 B.C., or perhaps later. They in turn were followed and dispossessed of southern Britain by the Brythons, the direct ancestors of many of the inhabitants of modern Wales, shortly after the commencement of the Iron Age. The period of their coming is generally assigned to the fourth century B.C. It was this people who ruled in Britain, at least in southern Britain, when Caesar stepped on to our shores. Having shortly described the races which honoured this island with their presence in those early times, it is desirable to retrace our steps and consider generally their nature. In the account which follows we group the first three races under one head. We thus make the tripartite division of Neolithic man, the Goidel, the Brython. The Pre-Goidelic Races It is a matter of some difficulty to decide of what race the men were who inhabited Britain before the Goidel came. Sometimes the word Pict is used. This term is not, however, very satisfactory, since it means simply a painted man — as does Scotti ^ — and refers to the custom of the inhabitants of south-eastern Britain in Caesar's time, who tattooed them- selves with figures of birds, beasts, and fishes. When Caesar referred to woad-painted men he was talking of Brythons, and clearly distinguished between these Brythons and the men of the liinterland, whom he described as a pastoral, nomadic people, having their wives in common, and living in a state of complete barbarity. Whether Caesar was quite just to them in this last particular we shall have to consider. From what we have said, it will be observed that the terms Picts and Scots are unfortunate expressions. They are made more so by the fact that in later times they acquired a specialized 1 Now doubted; possibly Scotti = 'the Ancient People.' Plate I. Figurine de Brassempouy From " L'Art Celtiqiie," by M. h'cessler de Graville (Librairie Chas. Foulavd, Paris) ORIGINS meaning, referring to tlie men of Caledonia and Ireland. We shall therefore in the remaining part of this chapter abandon the use of these terms and refer to the Semitic ^ race. The researches of Sir Norman lyockyer and his band of helpers into the astronomical significance of Stonehenge and the other circles of Britain, together with the independent mathematical investigation carried on by B. M. Nelson at Hestinsgarth in the Shetlands and elsewhere, taken in con- junction with the philological discovery made by Professor Morris Jones that Welsh is exactly paralleled so far as its syntax is concerned with Egyptian and Berber and the pre- Celtic languages of the Hamitic family— allied to the Semitics — have proved, we think conclusively, that from about 3600 B.C. at latest Britain was inhabited by a race connected by blood with the Babylonians or Egyptians and in close contact until at least 1300 B.C. with Egyptian culture and Egyptian priest- craft. The subject being an interesting one, and one which has only received attention within very recent years, we shall consider the matter at some length in the chapter follow- ing. For our present purposes it is desirable to add that the evidence of folk-stories, superstitions, and legends, together with the researches before mentioned, suggest that these people were a stone-using people ; that they inhabited well- nigh the whole world from the Himalayas to the Orkneys, excepting Scandinavia, Germany, and Russia ; that they were skilled in mathematics and astronomy and worshipped Baal and Astarte or Venus. They were non-Celtics, and were possibly a matriarchal and not a patriarchal people. Professor Rhys has pointed out that the Mabinogi of Math is explicable only on the supposition that inheritance was traced through the mother and not through the father. This Mabinogi of Math, one of the stories from the Red Book of Hergest, is, so far as the manuscript is concerned, a compara- tively late production, dating after the Norman Conquest, yet the story itself would seem to go back to very early times. One of the most astonishing things which modern research is 1 We use this word in the conventional sense explained at p. si. HISTORY OF WALES revealing is the length of folk-memory. Cotton rags were being tied to trees near wells in Wales within recent years. Last century in Persia a tree was seen covered with rags close to a large monolith. The same observances have been noted in Ceylon. The practice goes back to the worship of Baal and is referred to in the Old Testament. Near Carnac com- paratively recently a practice similar to one common to the builders of circles in Britain and ui America of running naked round the circle on the ist of May was observed. Recently small boys did the same at Stirling, in Scotland. Many other examples could be added, and the whole evidence accumulated proves, we think, almost as conclusively as is possible short of absolute demonstration that the pre-Goidelics were, in the main, a non-Celtic people of the Semitic or Hamitic race, possibly matriarchal, 1 in touch with the East, worshipping Baal, and extending over the whole of these islands even to the Shetlands. The same conclusions to a considerable extent are arrived at when we consider pre-Celtic inscriptions — what Sir John Rhys calls Pictish inscriptions. ^ The Life of Neolithic Man When we seek to describe the life of the people, the difficulty which assails us springs out of the diversity of the material on which to work rather than upon absence of facts. We could take the reader on to Salisbury Plain, then the chief centre of the worship of the sun, and on the ist of May bid him observe the thousands of men, women, and children who had gathered there as to a sacred place to pay their devotions to the summer sun. There in the dawn we might have heard music ascending to heaven from their temple to Apollo or to Baal, while priests made sacrifices to their gods that the harvests might be good. Or we could transport him to some eminence from whence to watch the building of a tomb. Across the plain we should have seen thousands of slaves 1 The couvade survived in Ireland and Yorkshire as late as Christian times. This is neither an Aryan nor a Semitic custom. " The actual cutting of these dates, of course, after the Roman invasion. 6 ORIGINS toiling with ropes and logs of wood/ pulling or lifting the heavy stones which went to line these burial-places ; mean- while priestly architects mark out the places into which the sacred stones must be placed. lyittle by little the mighty edifice is raised, covered with earth, and completed. Had we been of the priestly class, we should have known how to design the entrance tunnel so that the dead, sitting in state facing the east, should at the last, when his spirit awoke, welcome the sun as it rose in the sky. We should have known that the broken weapons lying around, the food jars and domestic appliances, were there to welcome in spirit the soul of the dead. The sword must be broken or killed, so that its spirit could welcome its master. We should have known how to plant the encircling stones, the meaning of those spiral markings, those solar ships, the countless curious signs marked on the walls of these sanctuaries. The tomb is raised. The funeral rites must now be observed. It may be that the priests headed the procession, swinging incense cups ; then came the corpse and the mourners. ^ Perhaps a few favourite slaves were driven manacled to the funeral pyre on which they were to be sacrificed, so that the spirits of the under- world might be propitiated.^ After the interment, which was doubtless marked by many sacred ceremonies, a feast was held by the surviving kin. Then at ^ The details given are all based on definite evidence. We choose for description the most typical events and daily doings of those times. The period we are describing may be fixed approximately at 2000 B.C. That music was part of the service at Stonehenge is to some extent a matter of imagination, but our account is based on Hecataeus of Abdera, who, however, was describing the Celts in a Western island before 300 B.C. As we shall see, there is every reason to believe that their reUgion came to them from the more ancient inhabitants. As to the tombs. Rice Holmes has said : " The immense toil which must have been expended in constructing such [monuments] by labourers who had only deer-horn picks and stone tools proves not only density of population, effective organization, and the despotism which the chiefs must have exercised, but also a religious awe, the compelling force of which we, who live in a world that has grown old, can hardly conceive." * As to this order there is practically no evidence. 3 Whether suttee practices were common is a matter about which there is grave doubt. 7 HISTORY OF WALES last the dead, clothed in its linen shift/ was left alone to await the awakening. The entrance hall was not closed ; a stone slab was placed at the mouth, pierced in the centre by a large hole through which the dead could see the sun, or through which its spirit could escape. ^ Passing from these religious rites, let us go down the Brandon FHnt Mines. Here again we could have seen an important and typical part of the life of Neolithic man. Descending the rope which probably led down the shaft, armed with a deer- horn pick, we could have mined the flints even as to-day they are got by the flint-workers of the district. We could have passed down workings like those of a modern coal-mine, carrying a lamp to guide us made of rough clay filled with a wick and tallow.^ Coming again to the surface, we could have gone to the neighbouring factory of one of the most impor- tant cutlers in Britain. On the way we might have passed herdsmen following cattle on the downs, or " lithe, swarthy hunters returning from the chase," stopping perchance at some round hut to purchase a bowl of milk with a piece of venison.* Arriving at our destination, we could have seen some of the foremost craftsmen chipping with hammers of flint the stones, but lately gained from the neighbouring mines, into axes and chisels, hammers, reapers, arrow-heads, lance-heads, and the hundred and one objects necessary to the fighter and hunter and farmer in those times. ^ Had we journeyed all over Britain we should have found 1 Carbonized remains of linen which have come down to us belong to a somewhat later period. ^ Neohtliic tombs were long, long-chambered, or round. The round ones must be distinguished from the later round heaps of stone or earth which contain a few cinerary urns or perhaps a skeleton, and wliich belong to the Brythonic period or later. If a cinerary urn is found it generally points to an early Celtic or Bronze Age burial. The peoples of the Bronze Age practised cremation. Neolithic men did not, as a rule ; they interred their dead. See further Note A. ^ These have been picked vip in some of the ancient workings. 4 The teeth of Neolithic man point to a diet mainly composed of milk and meat. * For an excellent description of the tools, implements, and ornament used in Neolithic times reference may be made to Rice Holmes's Ancient Britain. When he comes to describe the people and their rehgion we beHeve that he regards them as being in a more backward state than they reall}^ were. Plate III. Finely worked vStone Hammer-head ORIGINS many tribes and clans of different races. We should have witnessed many tribal wars, some on a petty, some on a large scale. We should have found a considerable population, all, or nearly all, living in small houses, in a simple manner, depending rather on the chase and on pasturage than on agriculture for their Uving. All these people we should have found highly superstitious and completely dominated by the priestly class, who, there is reason to believe, as we have said and as we shall see, were men of considerable learning who could write and could calculate. The Bronze-users As time went on metal was introduced. How the dis- covery was made we do not know. All we can say is that bronze was known in Egypt 3700 years before the Christian era, and that it was probably introduced into Britain from Europe by traders, not Phoenician,^ working along the western trade routes, some time about 2000 b.c.^ At first it must have been extremely precious, and doubtless did not oust the old stone implements from general use for many years. The change from stone to bronze cannot alone account for the conquest of the earlier people by the tall, round-headed men who, as we have said, came into Britain shortly after the commencement of the metal age. Bronze was still the rare possession of kings and chiefs when they came. It must not be imagined that the new-comers exterminated the older population. As we have seen. Neolithic man lived here in considerable numbers, and has not improbably formed the main substratum of the Welsh race from ancient to modern times. As Dr. Rice Holmes has said when speaking of this invasion : "In Wiltshire and other parts of southern Britain the old population would seem to have been largely dis- possessed or subdued ; but the skeletons found in the barrows of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, of Yorkshire and the other Northern counties, indicate that there the immigrants mingled 1 The Phoenician theory has long been abandoned. * Different dates have been assigned. Evans fixes the Bronze Age in Britain at 1400-1200 B.C. We follow the majority. HISTORY OF WALES more or less peacefully with the people whom they came among." Long after they came, flint weapons — arrow-heads, spear-heads, etc. — were in common use. In course of time mines were opened. Ireland became even in the Bronze Age one of the most important centres of the Northern gold-mining industry.^ Copper was mined in Cardiganshire, Anglesey, and near lylandudno ; tin mixed with lead came from Cornwall, where also copper- mines were worked. With the development of metal-work the taste for personal adornment also appears to have grown. The wealth of the people seems to have increased and the lot of the women became more happy. Both the men and women of the Bronze Age liked finery. In the barrows and hut-circles of the period remains have been found of all kinds of bronze implements, including even razors ; of clothing of leather, of linen, and of wool ; as well as ivory, bone, and bronze pins ; jet, amber, and glass ornaments ; jet buttons, some being beautifully engraved, others made of stone or bone or wood, and most of them pierced in such a manner that the thread did not show through. Buttons were apparently used by men only, the women content- ing themselves with pins and brooches of bronze, bone, and ivory. Some of the bronze daggers had handles exquisitely worked. One which has been found had a wooden handle beautifully inlaid in a chevron pattern with thousands of golden rivets, each smaller than the smallest pin. In one Welsh tomb were found the remains of a knight who had had his horse furnished with golden trappings. Long before that barrow was opened, yet as late as last century, a legend was current in the neigh- bourhood that a warrior in golden armour was to be seen riding slowly round the mound. Besides amber and jet ornaments the women ^ wore orna- ments of gold, gold brooches, gold and ivory armlets. Rings, however, and ear-rings were rare. Sometimes it is evident that sham jewellery was purchased. Just as to-day some people, delighting in pearls, being unable to purchase the real ^ The South rehed upon the Rhodesian mines. ^ The men, of course, were equally vain. 10 Plate IV. Bronze Palstave, Torc, Armlets, and Rings found on HoLLiNGBURY Hill, near Stanmer, Sussex io ORIGINS ones, are content with imitation, so in the past vitreous paste beads were bought instead of real glass ones. In the same way, ' gold-filled ' rings made of bronze gilded were worn by people whose means prevented them from buying those of soHd gold. Many things have changed since then, but human nature remains the same. One of the most extraordinary facts belonging to this time was, however, the disparity between the richness of the people's dress and the discomfort of their homes. As Dr. Rice Holmes, speaking of the Heathery Burn cave, says : " Here was a family well armed, equipped with the best tools of the time, owning flocks and herds, and rich enough to load their women with ornaments, yet content to live in a dark, damp cavern traversed by a stream, which one night rose in flood and drowned them in their sleep. . . . That they inhabited it, if not permanently, ^ at least for long periods, is proved by the abundance of pottery as well as by the heaps of refuse, which represented the remains of a long succession of meals." Though, of course, the majority of the men of the Bronze Age did not live in caves, they prob- ably lived in rude huts, possibly, in some cases, in construc- tions similar in design to the tombs. As time passed the wealth, though not of necessity the culture, of the people increased. They were still mainly pastoral. They were still divided into many clans. The old religion seems to have weakened or to have changed. The priestly class still retained, however, much of its influence. Fighting was probably frequent, and the wonderful ' forts ' ^ scattered up and down the country show an advance in military skill. The Goidels It was while Britain was in this stage of development that the Goidels first appear upon the scene. A fierce war has raged for some years now as to the relation- 1 They may, of course, have been refugees. This would account for their having their vah^ables around them. 2 Of which Maiden Castle is the most famous. II HISTORY OF WALES ship between the Goidels and the earHer inhabitants of Britain. Sir John Rhys beHeves that the Goidels came west, following the general lines of the Aryan advance. Professor Kuno Meyer, on the other hand, holds a very definite opinion that the Goidels came from Ireland. He says : " Whether we take history for our guide, or native tradition, or philology, we are led to no other conclusion but this : that no Gael ever set foot on British soil save from a vessel that had put out from Ireland." We should have thought, from the nature of the authorities, that this was putting the case much too high. There are at least some grounds for believing that the Goidels came west with the general Aryan movement, conquered the aboriginals of Britain, and were subsequently driven west and north by the Brythons. It is clear that the Megalithic people inhabited Ireland, and went there from Europe. It can hardly be contended that they found there the Aryan Celts of the Goidelic race. If the Celts came later than the MegaUthic people of the Neolithic age, as they almost certainly did, we can see no reason whatever why the Goidels should pass over Britain and go straight to Ireland.^ These obvious objections Professor Kuno Meyer seeks to escape mainly, we believe, by showing that from a.d. 270 onward there were many raids from Ireland directed against the Welsh or Brythons. He points out that the eighth-century tale of Indarba mna nDesi tells us how the Desi, an Irish tribe, having been defeated by Cormac MacAirt, left their old holdings and went in part under the leadership of Eochaid, son of Artchorp, to Dyfed (South Wales), and remained permanently there. This of course explains the presence of Gaels in South Wales. It does not prove that there were no Gaels in Britain before. It does not help us very much with the condition of affairs in 1000 B.C. Nor does the fact, if fact it be, that Ogham writing was in- vented in Ireland. Granted that the barrows in Britain have yielded no Goidelic skeletons, we must remember that the presupposed time of their coming here synchronizes with cremation burial. In short, all the evidence that we have ^ It must be remeiubered that all sea journeys were made coastwise. 12 Pi . 7v'"T ro...-,...; • ^nal,, Caersws, Caerfl' <^d tbai: there was lY small for • >A>z.^. .:. less scattercvi Wples 'ith Caerleon went, Cardiff, i^i.v.., V ^way between • d Caermaii !.e farther to , Cit Uygaer, midway between i'tuydarren and Caerleoj ■ , , ..; ; wiilhca east, making an apex to the equilateral triangle haxdng the ..\ne between Caerleon and Caerwent as base, was Usk. Farth- r north was Abergavenny, while nearly forty --'- -^ ■•'' ■ — •■ ^.^ <'^' '.'-^ •^•' ■• 1 •'■ ^-- ^•■'"amous ... this eh Cohen to the north- /hich excavations burden the text :, desirable to enter ,5, tlie roads joining 'St which have been found Is: (I) fOi', :\ who i\:.ii;(.- U_[J ci leg . udmg food-stufi's ; (2) for ■ (cohors quingenariu ^f of fi -■-:) or 1000 men ■ ' /.•■•:'■ V nanned bv outposts, V h , Pontruiydd Hall ; • :Ted to in the text) . Hiu, where gold-mines were '. eeji Gaer an«l Abctg.-iveuay ; and at Pyle, d ' , ias leave it do'i' ..:r Plate XYII. vSeatkd Figure oe a Goddess From " Archcvologia," vol. l.xii, by permission of the Society of Antiquaries of London 56 THE ROMAN OCCUPATION In none of the military posts were women permitted to reside. In none were civilians allowed to live. In none were baths to be found. It must not be thought that the Roman soldier did not bathe. The Romans had a saying that they con- quered the world with the strigil ^ rather than with the sword. The meaning of this was that the bath, together with the gymnastic exercises connected therewith, ren- dered the muscles so supple and strong that the Roman soldier rarely met his match in hand-to-hand fighting. It is therefore to be ex- pected that a bath would generally be found near a fort. In fact, these were always placed just outside the fort wall, near a well or a stream. The bath used was the hot-air type invented by Sergius Orata, who lived in the time of Iv. Crassus, the orator. 2 These baths were doubtless placed outside the camp for the same reason that, in the laws of Howel, forbade baths and smithies within a defined distance of a hamlet — the risk of fire was too great. The fort itself, whether large or small, was generally of the same type. Enclosed by a rectangular wall having rounded ^ The scraper used like the rubber in a modern Turkish bath. It was the emblem of the bath, and a representation of it was frequently sculptured over the main doorway. * We need hardly remind the reader that the bath, though a source of Roman strength in the beginning, was a cause, among many others, of Roman decadence. Such practices as bathing in asses' milk or in water loaded with perfumes became fasliionable. Mixed bathing, of course, early became common, and in the later EJmpire an altogether extravagant amount of ti.ne and money were spent on the baths. 57 Roman Strigii,s HISTORY OF WALES corners and sometimes protected by one or two ditches, the main buildings, which were sometimes of stone, some- times of brick, and sometimes of wood, or an admixture of all three, consisted of a central headquarters for the officers, commandant, and staff, a granary and stables, and, as a rule, on the other side of the central building a series of barracks for the soldiers. Between the outer wall and the inner buildings iqaHsnip p»u ijmnm-rrqTTiTi mn ' I I ■ r I I < I II I I I ' i iiii»iiitii»i \ Maximus, or Maxen Wledig There was another and an earlier event which must be borne in mind when considering the overthrow of the Brythons. Toward the end of the fourth century a Roman court official of humble origin named Maximus was quartered in Britain. This man, a Spaniard by birth, was destined to win for a short time an empire, to deplete a country of its youth, and to become the hero of a Welsh romance. Taking advantage while in Britain of the discontent which the misrule of Gratian had brought about, this adventurer caused himself to be elected emperor, placed himself at the head of an army which 68 THE ANGLO-SAXON INVASION comprised a large part of the bravest and most adventurous youth of Britain, crossed over to the Continent, met, defeated, and slew Gratian, obtained control of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, which he ruled justly, and at last fell, after having worn the imperial purple for a few months. This was the Maxen of Welsh romance. That he left a deep impression on the minds of men in Britain is unquestionable. He was looked upon by them as a leader worthy to be followed, as a great fighter and a national hero. For our present purpose, however, we must insist only upon the salient fact that he led from Britain almost all the best fighting men. This cannot but have had a serious effect upon the fortunes of the country when it had to grapple with barbarian invaders. It is, indeed, significant that it was shortly after this adventurous career of Maximus that the Saxons begin to appear with ever-increasing frequency. Britain, now weakened by the loss of its youth on many a Gaulish battlefield, was soon to lose the remnants of the legionaries. Thus denuded of its fighting men, it is not surpris- ing that the Saxons commenced to come ever more frequently to the attack. j VORTIGERN It was not, however, until toward the middle of the fifth I century that the invaders actually obtained a permanent footing in this island, and then, according to the old historians, it was rather the folly of a British king than defeat in war that was responsible for the intrusion. The position of the island defenders was, however, extremely difficult, and it is doubtful whether Vortigern, who is generally held responsible j for the commencement of the Saxon settlement, could avoid 'taking the fatal step for which in the following centuries he was so bitterly blamed.^ j ^ Roger of Wendover tells the story as follows. Speaking of Hengist and I Horsa, who had, according to Roger, come to help Vortigern against the i Picts and Scots, he says : " When at last they stood before the king, he asked them respecting the faith and religion of their ancestors, on which Hengist replied, ' We worship the gods of our fathers — Saturn, Jupiter, and the other deities who govern the world, and especially Mercury, whom in J our tongue we call Woden, and to whom our fathers dedicated the fourth 69 HISTORY OF WALES The position of affairs at this time may perhaps be stated as follows. The northern wall which under Roman rule had kept the Picts or Caledonians of Scotland at bay for centuries was now practically undefended or insufficiently defended. The result was that the barbarians of the north succeeded in accomplishing what they had for years been attempting to do — break the southern bonds which kept them from the fertile land of north central Britain. Vortigern, who was then, perhaps, one of the strongest of the British leaders, found it impossible to withstand the northern barbarians for the reasons which we have shortly stated above, and consequently called in the aid of the Saxons, promising a grant of land in southern Britain as payment for the alliance. The Saxons came, the barbarians were, perhaps, checked, but one enemy had been exchanged for another, and the second state of Britain was worse than the first ! Who tliis Vortigern was, if, indeed, he is not entirely legendary, we do not know with any accuracy. If we identify him with King Gwrtheyrn and follow Sir John Rhys we must regard him as the Goidelic king of the Brythons of that part of Britain called in later times Powys. It will perhaps be remembered that in the third century a Goidelic tribe called the Desi had come from Ireland to South Wales and had established itself in that country. Sir John would give to the words ' Gwrtheyrn Gwrtheneu,' in the Brut, which Williams ab Ithel translated as ' Vortigern of Repulsive lyips,' the meaning that Vortigern spoke a language which was unknown to his subjects — that, in fact, he was a Goidel ruling Brythons. From this, in conjunction with other facts, he suggests that Vortigern the Goidel was either the founder or an important member of the Goidelic dynasty of Powys, and possibly an day of the week, which to this day is called " Wodensday." Next to hiin we worship the most powerful goddess Frea, to whom they dedicated the sixth day, which, after her, we call " Friday." ' ' I grieve much,' said Vorti- gern, ' for your behef or rather for your unbeUef ; but I am exceedingly rejoiced at your coming, which, whether brought about by God or otherwise, is most opportune for my urgent necessities.' " We have lost the naivete of those old chroniclers ! 70 THE ANGLO-SAXON INVASION ancestor of that Bliseg whose name is preserved to us on a pillar still standing in the neighbourhood of Valle Crucis Abbey, near Llangollen. However this may be, we may perhaps regard Vortigern as a British king of importance. He is mentioned by name by Bede and is referred to by Gildas, and, as we have seen, is spoken of in the Brut as well as in the later chronicles. According to Bede and the Chronicle, the date when the Saxons were called in to his aid was 449, and their reward consisted in the gift of lands in Kent. Thus the new- comers obtained a footing, and having done so they seem to have lost little time in acquainting their kinsfolk oversea of the wealth of the new country and the ' nothingness ' of its inhabitants. Invaders from Ireland It is probable that it was not merely against the Picts and the Angles and Saxons that the Britons had to contend. Apart from the early migration of the Desi tribe, it is fairly certain that throughout the fourth century the Scots from Ireland had been making frequent depredations on the western shore of Britain. If Gildas is to be believed, they came over the Irish Sea in small boats called coracles, each holding but a few men. But though the men in each boat were few the boats themselves were many. That they caused great loss to the western part of the island is probable, that they settled in ever-increasing numbers is possible. It was the age when the Goidels avenged the losses which the Britons had inflicted upon them in the earlier times of which we have already spoken. Causes of Britain's Weakness Bearing in mind that the Britons were thus faced on the one hand with heavy losses due to the withdrawal of their best blood to fight the battles of Maximus — and that this best was very good is shown by the fact that Maximus won for himself, for a few short months at any rate, the rulership of the Western world — and to the decline of Roman power, with the consequent withdrawal of the legions, and on the other 71 HISTORY OF WALES hand with three barbarous and warlike nations, each desiring to filch away part of the wealth which Roman rule had created, we believe that the reader will find that the defenders of Britain were neither the nithing men that the Angles thought them to be nor the degenerate cowards that the Briton Gildas would have us regard them as being. The Saxon Attack With regard to the struggle which followed we propose to say but little, the reason being that the Anglo-Saxon conquest belongs rather to the history of England than to that of Wales. It is evident, however, that the Welsh were much more con- cerned with the northern invasions than with those of the south. Whether the southern Britons ever retreated to Wales in sufficient numbers to carry with them a memory of their former history is extremely doubtful. It would seem that they were, to a large extent, overwhelmed by their conquerors. In the north, however, the story is different. Right up to the time of the battle of Winwaed the chieftains of Wales and of Strathclyde were, intermittently at any rate, working together to defeat and overcome the invader. As to the Anglo-Saxon conquests in the south, these we propose to pass over very quickly. Right from the beginning battles were very frequent. In 455 Hengist and Horsa, the leaders of the new-comers, fought against Vortigern ; the year following Hengist and Aesc (the successor of Horsa, who was slain in the earlier battle) slew 4000 Britons ; in 465 they are again found fighting with the Britons (Welshmen ^) and inflicting heavy loss, for we read that many Welsh nobles fell in this engagement. By 473 the conquest of Kent was well- nigh complete, but it had not been gained without nearly twenty years of fiercely contested battles. The conquest of Sussex now began. In 477 and 485 two more battles were fought against the Welsh, with much loss of life, and in 491 occurred the massacre of Anderida — the Roman camp already ^ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle always uses the term ' Welshman ' (or Wealas) — i.e. foreigners or enemies — when referring to the Biitons. 72 THE ANGLO-SAXON INVASION referred to — where all the inhabitants were put to the sword. By 495, when another important engagement took place, the invaders had pushed still farther along the southern shore, and had reached, apparently, almost as far as Southampton. Wessex was now the object of their attack. Battles were constantly being fought, and by 530 the Isle of Wight was in the bands of the Saxons. After forty years of continuous warfare (apart from the fighting in the south-east) the new- comers could claim Hampshire and the Isle of Wight as conquered territory. Right through the sixth century the struggle continues, the earlier inhabitants being driven ever farther west or slain or reduced to slavery. Towns were swept away, and the cities which had been raised in Roman times overthrown, sacked, pillaged, and destroyed. A stubborn and continued resistance was undoubtedly made by the Britons. For at least a hundred |; and fifty years the struggle went on. Nor were the battles { few and far between ; on the contrary, it seems to have been ' one long-continued battle. It was a war of dispossession, a Ij war between a warlike and a numerous people and a brave but 1 1 peaceful nation fighting for its life and its nationality. il I Results of the Saxon Invasion \ The modern mind has some difficulty in imagining what J those dreadful years must have been like to the Britons. They J had lived in almost perfect peace (in the south) for centuries ' before the departure of the Romans. Even if we had to rely I solely upon the evidence of Gildas, we should know that they j| were accustomed to live in cities with soHd walls, well-planned I citadels, with well-built houses. They were accustomed to ] all the commercial methods of Rome. Their goods were ; housed in warehouses and shops. Churches were built. I Justice was administered in imposing basilicas and town-halls. . Orchards were planted and gardens flourished.^ The state of I Roman Britain was both peaceful and pleasant. It was upon ' ^ Compare Giraldus Cambrensis' account of Caerweut in the thirteenth century, given as a footnote to p. 59. 73 HISTORY OF WALES this fair and wealthy country that the storm of barbarian invasion broke. For a hundred and fifty years the men of Britain defended their homes and attempted to beat back the tide of conquest. Saxon, Angle, Jute, Pict, and Scot in turn, or all at once, swept down upon them. The cities were destroyed, the gardens laid waste, the accumulated wealth of Roman times seized. The defenders who had at first fought to preserve their property now fought to preserve their lives. Even this they barely succeeded in doing. Rome was appealed to, but Rome could not hear. Generation succeeded genera- tion and still the hideous devastation continued. Toward the end Britons must have been fighting against Saxons who hardly knew the meaning and the purpose of the buildings, of the pottery, of the wall-surrounded orchards, now fruitless and overgrown with weeds, which in the times of their great- grandfathers had been possessed by men of their own rank and of their own nation. Roman culture had been neutralized by Saxon barbarity.^ At the end of the struggle, when the Britons had been beaten back to the fastnesses of Wales, they carried with them, as we shall see, but a faint memory of the arts, crafts, and learn- ing of Roman times. They were once more a pastoral people, living in houses rudely constructed, made to be readily movable, planned so that the inhabitants could readily leave them without great loss. Gardens and orchards were almost unknown, corn was relied upon less than milk and meat. The people themselves were hardy, used to the rigours of an open-air life, asking but little of life save liberty.^ All this must be borne in mind if the subsequent history of Wales is to be understood. As we shall see, in the years to come it was just this simplicity of life, this hardihood, this mobility, which made the conquest of Wales by the Normans almost impossible. Nothing strikes the student of the early history of Britain ^ It was a similar blight, falling upon southern Europe, which broke down Roman and Byzantine culture, heralded the Dark Ages, and plunged Europe into ignorance for at least six hundred years. * Giraldus, writing in the thirteenth century, describes the Welshman of his day in very similar terms. The Renaissance had not yet arrived. 74 THE ANGLO-SAXON INVASION so forcibly as the difference between the Anglo-Saxon invasion and the Norman Conquest. Hengist, Aelle, Cissa, Cerdic, Cynric, Ceawlin, Cutha, Ceolwulf, and the rest rise up to lead the Saxon invaders. Ten years pass, a century passes, and a few acres are won, a county is lost, a province is wrested from the Britons. On the other hand, William landed in 1066, fought one important battle, and was crowned king, and although some attempts at revolt and resistance were made subsequently, they were but half-hearted, and William, after but a short reign, was enabled to transfer a well-established crown to his son. The reason probably is that the inva- sion was indeed an invasion, the conquest but a conquest. The Saxons came as a people to dispossess and destroy a people ; William came leading his Normans to gain a throne and govern a people. There was no question of a general dispossession. The Hallelujah Victory Though it would be undesirable in a short history of Wales to give an account in detail of the Saxon invasion, we have thought it useful to point out its general effect. It is also necessary to advert to a few battles which more nearly touch our subject. The first great victory which the Britons won over the Picts and Saxons, or Scots, took place almost at the commence- ment of the struggle, in about 429. Germanus, who had been sent by Pope Celestine to attempt to purge the Britons of the Pelagian heresy, had, after working several miracles, at last succeeded in winning the confidence of the nation he had been sent to teach or improve. It was he who was the hero of this encounter, known to history as the Hallelujah Battle, and the victory was due less to the bravery of the Britons — which, indeed, was not tested — than to his strategy. Assembling his none too numerous host in a valley surrounded by moun- tains,^ he caused them on a given signal to shout with one ^ The site of tliis battle was probably near Mold, in Flintshire, probably at Rhual, in the place now occupied by the park of Lieut. -Colonel B. E). PhiUps. 75 HISTORY OF WALES voice the word ' Hallelujah ! ' This shout, echoing from the surrounding liills, was magnified into such a roar of triumph that the opposing army, feeling themselves overwhelmed by numbers, fled, leaving their arms behind them in their fear. The victory was at once complete and bloodless. According to the two historians Gildas and Nennius, who were both Britons,^ early in the sixth century an important victory was won by their countrymen at the battle of Mount Badon. The stories are conflicting and confused, but it would seem that the battle did actually occur, and not improbably it accounts for the comparative peacefulness of Cynric's reign. It is not known who was the leader of the British. Gildas talks of Ambrosius Aurelianus, the last Roman descended from the imperial house left in Britain ; Nennius gives us as leader that quasi-historical hero Arthur. The Annales Canibriae also assigns the victory to Arthur, and gives the date of the battle as 516. It is not known where the battle was fought. Some think it was on the Welsh border, possibly in South Wales ; some believe it took place in Scotland. It does not appear to have been noticed by historians generally that there were two battles fought on Mount Badon, according to the Annates Camhriae, the second one being assigned to the year 665, on wliich occasion a certain Morcant was slain. These two victories would appear to be the only considerable ones won by the Britons of which we have any account — unless we are to regard the battle of Fethan-lea, fought in 584 by Ceawlin and Cutha against the Britons, as a Saxon reverse. The statement in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is ambiguous. On the other hand, the invaders won two decisive battles which we must mention, since they resulted in the Britons of Wales being cut off from their countrymen of Cornwall on the one side and of Strathclyde on the other. The first of these victories was that of Deorham in 577, the other was the victory of Chester in c. 613. The events leading up to these battles and the battles themselves we will now consider shortly. ^ Nennius is an unknown quantity. Some think tliere never was such a person, and refer to his work of tlie Hisloria Brittonum simply. 76 THE ANGLO-SAXON INVASION Deorham In 571 an important victory had been won by the Saxons at Bedford, which resulted in the occupation of several towns in Oxfordshire and Bucks, and doubtless established a base from which the invading army could push on up the Severn to the Dee. By 577 the Saxons appear to have got as far as Gloucestershire, a progress so slow that it would seem to tell of some long-protracted siege or of continual petty warfare. However this may be, the Saxons appeared in that year at Deorham, a place some ten miles east of Bristol. Ceawlin, with Cuthwine his brother, led the Saxons ; Coinmail, Condidan, and Farnmail ^ headed the Brythons. The result was clearly an overwhelming victory for the Saxon arms. All the British leaders were slain. The cities of Gloucester, Cirencester, and Bath (Bathan-Ceaster) fell to the conquerors. As we have said, the Cymry of Cornwall and Somerset were cut off from their more northern kinsmen, and finally the way was open for the Saxons' advance up the valley of the Severn. It seems highly probable that this advance was one continuous massacre of a leaderless and beaten people by a savage invader. We read that many towns and vast quantities of booty were taken by Ceawlin, until at last, in 584, when he fought the battle of Fethan-lea (possibly somewhere in Cheshire), where his son was slain, he " departed in anger to his own land." It is to this campaign that we must trace the destruction of the Roman city of Viroconium.^ This important town, which now lies a ruin, mostly buried under fields which have been ploughed for centuries, can still be traced from some of the more important remains which appear above the surface of the soil. Parts of the site have ^ Descended from Pascent, son of Vortigern or Gwrtheyrn, according to Rhys in Y Cymmrodor (vol. xxi, p. 57). * Sir John Rhys has suggested that the destruction of Viroconium (called in later times Uriconium) may have been the work of the Goidelic invaders of Wales who came from Ireland in the time of, or after, the migration of the D^si tribe. For the suggestion see his article entitled All Around the Wrekin, in Y Cymmrodor, vol. xxi. We prefer to regard it as the work of the Saxons. 77 HISTORY OF WALES been opened up by the spade of the excavator. Lying some eight miles from Shrewsbury and some seven miles from Wellington, it well repays a visit, being one of the most in- teresting and tragic ruins of the kind in this country. There still remains visible part of the wall of the basilica or judgment- hall, built in the Roman manner, and doubtless used by the Romans as the centre of administration and justice. Near by are the ruins of the baths, a luxury which the Romans at all times and in all places seem to have found necessary. This near juxtaposition of the baths to the court reminds one forcibly of the rule of Roman law whereby it was provided that slaves could be manumitted by the master mentioning the matter to the praetor (judge) even on the way to the baths. There one can see Roman pottery, the outline of Roman shops, including a smithy, and the general plan of a Roman street. Ploughmen are constantly turning up parts of buried skeletons in the vicinity. This, then, was the Roman town, and this is what Ceawlin left of it. Perhaps the bones of the family of lylywarch Hen, the great Cymric poet and the founder of a form of poetry, lie buried there even yet. That his children perished in the general massacre is certain. To return. The battle of Fethan-lea seems to have marked the boundary of the Saxon advance at that time. Ceawlin was beaten back and for a while there was peace. But soon the Angles well-nigh completed what the Saxons commenced — the isolation of Wales from the rest of the Cymry. Before passing on to the short description of the battle by which this was accomplished, we would remind the reader that in 594 Augustine had set out on his great mission to endeavour to bring the barbarian Saxon within the Church. Centuries before this, of course, the Brythons had known Christianity, had even been tainted or acquainted with the Pelagian philosophy, or heresy as some say. They had strong beliefs, and Augustine does not seem to have approached the leaders of the ancient British Church in a particularly tactful manner. At this time the chief seat of learning in Britain was Bangor, in the county of Flint (now a little hamlet on the side of the 78 THE ANGLO-SAXON INVASION Dee), From the monastery there estabhshed (it contained over two thousand inmates) the learned ecclesiastics came to speak with Augustine. It is perhaps worth bearing in mind, especially by those who are tempted to regard the Cymry of those days as a wild and barbarous people, that the following disputation was concerned with the precise day on which Easter should be held, an argument based mainly on astronomy — a science in which the Welsh seem to have been proficient. The result was an open quarrel between the new and the old sect — a quarrel which wrought Augustine to prophesy the ruin and overthrow of the Britons by their enemies the Angles and Saxons, whom St. Augustine was endeavouring to win over to his creed and religion. We echo and repeat the words of the late Dr. Hodgkin — echo because we cannot improve, repeat because we respect : "It was a golden opportunity that was offered for the reconciliation of two great hostile races at the feet of one Saviour, and that opportunity lost never returned. The wound which the Saxon invasions had caused, still comparatively fresh, might possibly have been then healed by first intention. Unhealed then, it went festering on for centuries ; and more than once or twice since the days of Augustine, Christianity, which ought to be the great reconciler of men, has proved itself the great divider between Celt and Saxon." The Battle of Chester Augustine's prophecy was only too fatally fulfilled. Some time about 613 Aethelfrith the Angle, king of Bernicia, led his army from York to Chester (or Caerlegion, as the Welsh chroniclers call it). The Britons had as vanguard a great number of monks from the monastery of Bangor, who had come to aid the Britons and their king Brochmail ^ with their prayers. Aethelfrith refused to regard them or their persons as sacred, and on learning that they rendered spiritual, or moral, if not active, support to his enemy, ordered his soldiers * See Y Cymmrodor, vol.xxi, p. 104 (table). There were many Brochmails, This king was probably of the house of Powys. 79 HISTORY OF WALES to attack them. The result was that more than a thousand monks were slain. Their prayers seem to have been of little aid either to them or to their king, for Brochmail, appalled at this disaster, hardly contested the fight, but fled with his men, utterly broken and demoralized. As a result of this complete victory Chester fell. It was sacked by the victor and remained a waste for centuries. As a more far-reaching result Strath- clyde was cut off from the north of Wales ; the Cymry of Cumberland were severed, almost for ever, from their one-time compatriots of Gwynedd. By that victory, in conjunction with the earlier one at Deorham, the Britons were driven into the part of Britain which is now Wales. The border counties, however, were still disputed territory. It was reserved for Wulfhere, Offa, and the Norman barons to draw the line which to-day severs England from the more ancient kingdom. With these few disjointed facts we must be content in our treatment of the Saxon invasion, regarded from the point of view of invasion rather than of conquest. In the chapter following we shall have something to say of the leaders of the Welsh in those troublous times, but our knowledge of what was happening in Wales, or even in Strathclyde, during all this period is very indefinite ; and as to the miseries which befell the Britons in England, that is a subject which is impertinent and out of place in a history of Wales, except in so far as it throws a light upon subsequent Welsh history. 80 CHAPTER VI THE BIRTH OF THE CYMRY SO far we have been looking at the history of Wales rather through the spectacles of the Romans and the Saxons. We have therefore on occasion used the foreigner's word — ' Welsh,' ' Welshman ' meaning a stranger, an enemy. Now we will, with the reader's permission, treat of this nation as the Cymry — the nation of compatriots, of brothers. We have so far roughly pointed out how the aborigines were conquered by the Goidels ; the Goidels by the Brythons, who forced them partly into the fastnesses of North and South Wales, driving in a wedge between the Goidels of North Wales and South Wales — a wedge represented in more recent times with substantial accuracy by the kingdom of Powys. We have seen how the Roman came, conquered, and civilized ; how the Saxon and Angle invaded, massacred, and embruted. We have now restricted the geographical limits of our story to modern Wales and the border counties. Cornwall and the country of the West Welsh or the Southern Cymry is severed from the Cymry of Demetia. The Cymry of Strathclyde and Cumberland are divided by the rising power of Mercia from their kindred of Gwynedd. We must now retrace our steps a little and see what has been happening through all the troublous times of the Anglo- Saxon invasion in Wales itself. Two names stand out with some distinctness even as early as the later years of the Roman occupation. These are Vortigern and Cunedda. The former was king or chief of the Britons of mid- Wales, the latter was at first a chief of F 8i HISTORY OF WALES North Britain who afterward came south with his tribe to fight against and finally overcome the Scots or Goidels of northern Wales. Of both these leaders we must say some- thing. CUNEDDA WlEDIG Cunedda Wledig (King Cunedda) came down from the north, probably from guarding the great wall built by Hadrian between the Tyne and the Solway Firth, to fight against those Goidels who had not improbably come over from Ireland to aid their countrymen of North Wales to conquer the Brythons of Powys-land. It would seem ^ that the Brythons of Central Wales, finding themselves hard pressed by the Goidels with the Scottish allies,^ sent to their Brythonic kinsmen of Strathclyde for aid. Cunedda replied by leading in person his followers, including his sons, twelve in number.^ This occurred late in the fourth or early in the fifth century — that is to say, after Maximus and shortly before the departure of the Roman legions and the coming of the Saxons. Cunedda came to aid ; he remained to conquer. Of the details of the struggle we have no knowledge. In the result, however, we find him established as king of Gwynedd, and to him we must trace the foundation of that royal or princely house which ruled over their territory from the royal town of Deganwy, or, in later times, from Aberffraw, in Mon. All Cunedda' s sons appear to have settled in Gwynedd except the eldest, who died in Scotland, leaving a son, Merion, who succeeded to what would have been his father's share of the spoils of the newly conquered territory. This Merion then appears to have ruled over the cantref Merion, from whence is derived the present name of the county of Merioneth.* Merion, after ^ There are several conflicting theories current as to the exact relationship existing between Goidel and Brython in Wales during this period. * The Scots at this time, we need hardly remind our readers, were Goidels who came from Ireland (from whence the Gaelic stream came first to Wales, and later, or perhaps contemporaneously, to western Scotland and the Isles). ' The Annates Cambriae gives nine, Nennius eight as the number. * These derivations should be regarded as doubtful. 82 THE BIRTH OF THE CYMRY the death of his grandfather, Cunedda, seems to have been regarded as the head of his house, and we find him assignii^ to the other sons of Cunedda various tracts extending over Cardigan (Ceredigion, from Ceredig, another of the sons), Gwynedd, and Mon. Of course all this is extremely doubtful, our authorities being legends and legendary genea- logies. But when one has no better historical guides it is . necessary to accept their services, or for ever give up the : attempt to find a path through the tangled history of early societies. ! VORTIGERN The next king of the Cymry of whom we know something ; more than the mere name is Vortigern. Of him we have already spoken in the preceding chapter. He is probably later than Cunedda by about half a century, and ruled over i Central Wales, and possibly over Herefordshire as well. Unlike ! Cunedda, he was, according to Sir John Rhys, a Goidel, so that we have the interesting spectacle of a Goidelic king ruling I over the Brythons of Powys-land while a British king is ruling i over the Goidels of North Wales. Vortigern, as we have ' already stated, is regarded by the old historians as responsible for the invitation to the Angles to aid him in repulsing the Picts, and under date 449 we find the interesting entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to the effect that " Wyrtgeorn invites the Angles to Britain. They come over in three keels and ' land at Heop wines-fleet, and he gives them land in the south- east of the country on condition of their fighting the Picts. This they do successfully, but they send home for more of their I countrymen, telling them of the worthlessness of the Britons and the goodness of the land." ^ The result of that unhappy invitation we have already referred to. We merely add here , that it would seem that Vortigern was a leader of much power j in Britain, and if he were really a Goidel merely ruling over a I division of Wales it is difficult to see why he should be acting , ^ We quote from the late Thomas Hodgkin's volume in The Political History of England, p. 88. I 83 HISTORY OF WALES in this important matter alone when the step thus taken was one which obviously affected the whole of Britain. After the death of Vortigern our knowledge of the Welsh leaders practically ceases for more than fifty years. Such names as Pascent and EHseg, it is true, flit before us, but they are mere names preserved to us only in genealogies or in legends engraved upon the sculptured stone. It is not, indeed, until the year 500 that we come across the next ruler of whom we know anything of living interest. Dyfnwal Moelmud The king of whom we now speak was Dyfnwal Moelmud, who is supposed to have lived at the commencement of the sixth century. He was apparently a leader of the Strathclyde Britons and a grandson of Coel Odebog. He became in later times and in bardic legend the first and greatest British legislator, and is mentioned as the author of the Triads ^ in the Triads themselves. These compilations, which we shall con- sider later, were, however, forgeries of a much later date, and consequently we can attach but little importance to what they say of their supposed author. We can assign about the same amount of weight to the statement of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who makes him the son of Cloten, king of Cornwall. The Vcnedotian Code, however, may perhaps be relied upon when it refers to him as a great measurer and settler of boundaries. We may therefore regard Dyfnwal as a person who did really live, and one who was famous as a lawgiver rather than as a soldier, but beyond that we can hardly go. Maelgwn Gwynedd Following upon Dyfnwal in point of time, though probably ruling over a country widely separated from Dyfnwal's territory, was that Maelgwn Gwynedd of whom we find such a terrible picture painted in the pages of Gildas. He, with Vortigern, was made to share responsibility for the loss of Britain to the barbarians, and, like Vortigern, his main sin 1 The Triads referred to are those printed in The Ancient Laws of Wales, vol. ii. 84 Pirate XXIII. Euseg's Pillar Photo Lettsome & Sons, Llangollen 84 THE BIRTH OF THE CYMRY probably consisted iu the fact that he was a powerful man who attempted to resist without success. Maelgwn Hir (the Tall), ruler of Gwynedd, the great-great- grandson of Cunedda, was certainly an outstanding figure in his time. Beginning his rise to power by the slaughter of his uncle and his uncle's troops, he seems to have shrunk before no crime which he felt was necessary to attain his ambition. If we would believe his detractors, we must hold him guilty of the murder of his wife and nephew, and as being the intro- ducer of an unusual and unpleasant vice. That Gildas, whose contemporary he was, had some good cause to hate his name seems clear, but when we find him referring to Maelgwn's bards as " rascally, lying quacks who serve him [by] spitting out their bacchanalian ravings " we confess to a feeHng that Gildas was jjrejudiced.^ Good or bad, it is certain that the royal house of which he was a representative lasted until 1282, when Prince I^lywelyn, last of the line to rule in Gwynedd, ^ was slain in the wars against Edward Plantagenet. It is also certain that he extended considerably the boundaries of Gwynedd and became a powerful king, as kings were accounted in those days, and, what is more to his credit, did not permit war to prevent him from encouraging the arts of peace, for he was the friend and patron of bards and poetry. There is an interesting legend connected with this Maelgwn which reminds one of the happenings connected with the later story of Cnut. It appears that, despite the evil things which Gildas has to say of him, Maelgwn was, as we have suggested, a vigorous, if unscrupulous, tribal chief. At first his energies were devoted to bringing the other tribes which lay to the south of his territory under his rule. After some struggles, the exact nature of which is unknown to us, tradition informs us that the various chiefs assembled at Aberdovey. There they were to decide who should be king of Britain. The lot, it was determined, should fall upon the one who could defy ^ The conflict between bard and monk was continuous in Wales throughout the mediaeval period. ^ David, of course, was not put to death by i^dward until October 1283, but he can hardly be regarded as having reigned. 85 HISTORY OF WALES the tide longest. In passing we may remark that owing to the extremely gradual slope of the sands at Aberdovey the tide rises there very slowly indeed. Maelgwn was fortunate in having as an ally one Maeldav, an enchanter, who fashioned for him a chair which could ride on the water. Upon this Maelgwn sat. The result, of course, is obvious. While his opponents were forced by the rising tide to retire, Maelgwn rode proudly on his magic chair. He was chosen king, and apparently united the western parts of Britain, bringing them all under his sway. The exact extent of his kingdom we cannot even guess at, although it not improbably included Cumbria. We do not know whether he ever led his troops against the Saxons, though of a certainty it was the eastern part of what was once his kingdom that was ravaged after the disastrous defeat at Deorham in 577. Maelgwn himself did not die on the battlefield ; he fell a victim to the yellow plague in 547. This Maelgwn was, as we have said, one of the reputed kings of Britain, whose title of Wledig was probably based on some sort of claim to be the successor of the Roman Dux Britanniarum. Weakness of the Welsh Tribal System With regard to these ancient kings it is necessary to observe that it is improbable that the territories over which they ruled were wide. Britain had from very early times been ruled by many kings. No permanent attempt at centralization of government seems ever to have been made by the Brythons at any period of their occupation of England or Wales. Occasionally a leader of greater power or wider view rises up and links together the scattered tribes into something of a kingdom, but for the most part these kings were, it would seem, mere tribal leaders. The reason for this we can only guess at in the present state of our knowledge of these early centuries. It is now fairly well established, thanks largely to the researches of Seebohm,^ that the Cymry had a highly developed system of tribal holding of land, a land system based, ^ And also, perhaps we should add, to the late Hubert Lewis. 86 THE BIRTH OF THE CYMRY , as regards the Cymry, though possibly not extending to the . strangers within their borders, almost entirely on kinship, on membership of a tribe or family — a land system under which the family estates remained in the tribe for generations, the descendants of a particular stock taking the place of their particular ancestors, until after so many generations a final division seems to have taken place, each of the persons to whom the various parts were given apparently establishing a new tribe, separate, as regards land-holding, from the rest. This matter we shall have to consider at greater length in a subsequent chapter. We mention it here in order to point out that such a system, which existed in Ireland in a similar form and with a similar effect, cuts right across any possible system of centralization. Nothing shows the statesmanship of WilUam I more clearly than the gemot of Salisbury, where he required all the tenants-in-chief of land in England to swear fealty to him as the one supreme overlord of all for their land. William had learnt his lesson in France. He had seen how the turbulent barons of the Continent (he himself was one of the most conspicuous examples) could defy their nominal chief, could wage war in his realm and, if need be, against him, and that with success. He determined that this evil system should never be planted in England by him. He found, however, that the seed was already there, yes, and truly that the custom of centuries had developed it into a strong and noxious plant. The gemot of Salisbury plucked it out for ever as regards England. Henceforth in England there was one king, one overlord, one person and one person only to whom all tenants of land (in those days particularly the birthplace of all political power) owed allegiance. With Britain, and in later times with Cymru, it was otherwise. Men had overlords, but they were petty tribal chiefs. These petty chiefs, it may be, were bound by weak ties, we believe very weak ties, to a higher or more important chief, but there would appear to have been no general system whereby these chiefs held their land from one general overlord, or indeed from any overlord. They would seem to have claimed their 87 HISTORY OF WALES holding, ultimately, as being descended from a landowning tribe, not as being the grantees of an overlord who had given them land in return for services, and for so long, and for so long only, as those services were rendered. In saying this we must not be understood to be supporting the now exploded theory that feudalism came in with the Conqueror. It was fairly developed in England doubtless some time before the Conquest. We are now speaking, not of Saxon England, but of Britain and of Cymru. This point should be grasped most carefully. We hold the view that no man can understand the most ordinary events of history without some knowledge of the everyday life, the circumstances of existence of the everyday man (the ' man in the street,* so to say), who when all is said and done is the person who forms the machine which the master minds control and move. It is useless to blame the Cymric chiefs for failing to join their forces under one chief who could lead them to battle against their numerous enemies with some hope of success when the root reason for this failure to coalesce is to be found, not in the absence of statecraft on the part of the leaders, but in the circumstances of the life of their followers, which of necessity split up interests into a thousand parts and made each little family tribe foreign in interest to the tribes which bordered on its own small holding. Exactly the same sort of evil division of national might into a myriad of small conflicting groups is to be seen in England in the Middle Ages in the world of commerce. Each little town bound by the ties of guild and borough community was as foreign to the neighbouring towns as Danzig is to Bath. Community of interest was lacking ; town fought against town ; charters were framed to beat down commercial dealing with the next town though it were but a league distant. The result was disastrous. For proof, look round the cities of England which are to-day thriving and prosperous. They are in numberless cases free towns which grew up in later times unencumbered by this vicious system of petty rivalry. It was, we believe, the same in Britain. All through this history, THE BIRTH OF THE CYMRY with a few important and honourable exceptions, we shall find no general attempt to gather all the available forces under one strong leader. Even when one would have thought all ' parties and all tribes should have joined to meet a common enemy we shall find either no combination or a weak one based on treaty interest, which, like all such, breaks down at the critical stage by a crafty opponent weaning away with bright promises one or more of the more easily bribed confederates. Arthur One of the kings of Britain who made some sort of successful attempt to consolidate the native forces against the Continental invaders was Arthur, if legend speaks truly. Even he, however, never ruled over all Britain, though his realm, which was in the west, seems to have been of considerable extent. Whether this same Arthur is a legendary character or was a real king is not by any means free from doubt. Gaxton seems to have had some doubts on the matter, for in his preface to Malory's Morte d' Arthur we find him writing: "Divers men hold opinion that there was no such Arthur, and that all such books as been made of him be feigned and fables, because that some chronicles make of him no mention, nor remember him nothing, nor of his knights. Whereto they answered, and one in special said, that in him that should say or think that there never was such a king called Arthur might well be aretted great folly and blindness. For he said that there were many evidences of the contrary. First ye may see his sepulchre in the monastery of Glastonbury. And also in Policronicon, in I the fifth book the sixth chapter, and in the seventh book the I twenty-third chapter, where his body was buried, and after found, and translated into the said monastery. Ye shall see also in the history of Bochas, in his book De Casu Principum, .part of his noble acts, and also of his fall. Also Galfridus in I his British book recounteth his life : and in divers places of i England many remembrances be yet of him, and shall remain perpetually, and also of his knights. First in the Abbey of 89 HISTORY OF WALES Westminster at St. Edward's shrine, remaineth the print of his seal in red wax closed in beryl, in which is written, Patricius Arthurus Britannic, Gallic, Germanic, Dacic, Impcrator. Item in the Castle of Dover ye may see Gawaine's skull and Cradok's mantle : at Winchester the Round Table : in other places Launcelot's sword and many other things. . . . And yet of record remain in witness of him in Wales, in the town of Camelot, the great stones and the marvellous works of iron lying under the ground, and royal vaults, which divers now living have seen. Wherefore it is a marvel why he is no more renowned in his ow^n country, save only it accordeth to the Word of God, which saith that no man is accepted for a prophet in his own country." It would certainly be marvellous if a king who had extended his sway over Gaul and Germany as well as England and Wales, and that in the sixth century, should have been regarded as of so little importance by his countryman and contemporary Gildas that he failed even to mention his name. It is clearly no answer to say that Gildas was a native of Strathclj'^de, and not of Wales or Cornwall. The deeds ascribed to Arthur by Wace, Walter Map, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and Thomas Malory, had they been true even to the tenth part, would have carried the name of Arthur far beyond the bounds of Strathclyde, would have been seized upon by a far less discern- ing writer than Gildas, and would have formed a bright interlude in his " tearful discourse concerning the ruin of Britain," as Bede described his history.^ Indeed, it were waste of space even to suggest that the Arthur of the Arthurian legends ever lived. It does not follow, however, that there was no such king, nor can we say that he did not accomplish some con- siderable deeds of valour and statecraft. Nennius, writing at the end of the eighth century, mentions him and ascribes twelve victories over the Saxons to his hero. The phrases in ^ Giraldus tells us, in explanation of the fact that Gildas does not mention his contemporary Arthur, that he, Gildas, angry at the death of his brother, prince of Albania (whom Arthur slew), threw into the sea " many excellent books, in which he had described the actions of Arthur." There is, of course, no ground whatever for this statement. 90 Plate XXIV. The Round Table ax Winchester Hall Photo G. W. Wilson 6- Co. 90 II THE BIRTH OF THE CYMRY which he relates these victories do not ring true. We suspect that there was but little true history underlying them. In one of them (also found in the Annales Cambriae) Arthur goes into battle bearing the image of the Virgin Mary on his shoulders ; the pagans thereupon flee, and suffer a great slaughter. One's thoughts instinctively turn to the battle of Chester, fought against these same pagans, where the Britons went into battle led by more than a thousand holy men, who had fasted so that their prayers might win victory for their side, and one remembers that the result of that act of piety was the massacre of the monks and the complete victory of the pagans. No one who bears in mind Cromwell's battle of Dunbar would deny to piety a victory-winning force, but Nennius carries little conviction to us when he tells us of the pagans fleeing at the mere sight of an image — of the significance of which they could not have had the remotest knowledge. Then, again, in the account of the battle of Mount Badon we find that Arthur himself and unaided is accredited with the slaughter of nine hundred and sixty men ! Romance ! The Annales Cambriae, a still later compilation, contains as one of its first entries, under date 516, an account of this Mount Badon battle, in which Arthur is described as the victorious leader of the Britons, and we have a poem celebrating the \ victory. We also find him mentioned, in conjunction with one Medrant, in the same chronicle under date 537. It is signifi- cant that he is not referred to in the Brut y Tywysogion {The ^Chronicle of the Princes). Giraldus Cambrensis, a much later writer, has, however, something to say of him. How it was that the name of Arthur lived on in the song of poet, Welsh, I English, and French, and in the later historio-romances of such ' men as Geoffrey of Monmouth and Giraldus we shall see when i we come to consider the Arthurian legends. i In this state of our knowledge we will merely express the ' hope that Arthur was a leader of the Britons on the borders of Wales, having his seat at Caerleon-upon-Usk ; improving the 'morals of his knights (there is ample historical evidence to jshow that these same Britons had learnt much evil as well as I 91 HISTORY OF WALES good from the Romans) ; endeavouring to unite his followers by giving to each equally with liimself a seeming equality ; and finally leading this noble and united band against the barbarian Cynric. One thing at least is sure. Cynric's reign is marked by a comparative absence of battles against the Britons. Somebody or something must have checked the invader about the time that Arthur is supposed to have lived. VOTEPORI The name of another South Wales prince or leader also flits before us. This was that king whose name appears as Voteporigis in the Latin and Votecorigis in the Goidelic tongue. Of him we know but little save his name. Gildas refers to him and makes him tyrant of Dyfed. He apj^ears under the name Guotepir as the ancestor, or perhaps we should say the precursor,! of Arthur. If we believe Gildas we must regard him as one of the men who were responsible for the loss of Britain. He is painted as the vile son of a good father, whose name was Aricol or Agricola. That he actually lived is certain, for a monument " In memory of the protector Vote- pori " was discovered in 1895 in about the centre of what must have been his kingdom of Dyfed. Whether we are to hold him guilty of the sins which Gildas would have us associate with his name is very doubtful. The use of the word ' protector * would seem to show that his subjects regarded him as not unworthy of a title which in past years was held by the Roman generals who held the country against the barbarians. Writers have suggested that this title of pro- tector in the case of Votepori meant simply that he was an honorary member of the emperor's bodyguard. Perhaps Mr. Nicholson is more correct when he gives it its more natural meaning, viz. that Votepori was regarded as the protector of his people. Whether he protected them against the Goidels ^ See Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson's article in Y Cymmrodor, vol. xxi, where he brings forward some convincing arguments to show that the so-caUed Harleian Genealogies are not, in some cases at any rate, genealogies, but merely tables of succession. The line in the table we quote from at present runs Guotepir — Cuicar — Petr — Arthur, etc. 92 THE BIRTH OF THE CYMRY of South Wales or of Ireland, or the Scots, or the Saxons, or ' sea-rovers, it is impossible to say. To sum up, we may perhaps regard Votepori as a king of 'Dj^fed somewhat earlier in date than Arthur, who made a mark upon his time as a leader of his people. We may, perhaps, acquit him of the sins of which Gildas accuses him, even as we look lightly upon the reputed crimes of that other king Cinglas of the genealogies (that Cuneglasus for whom Gildas has so many hard words), who was of the age of Maelgwn, and who probably did nothing more wicked than object to his brothers' generous gifts to the Church, and, maybe, contract [■an irregular marriage. Gildas the Reformer Before passing on to an account of the later kings of ancient Cymry it is desirable to say something of this Gildas whose name we have so frequently mentioned. In one sense he is the only living man of the sixth century in Britain. Although a monk rather than a man of action, yet, through his writings, this cleric is known to us far better than are those warriors whose lives must have been spent in fighting, in the protection 1 of the people, or in the extension of their power. This man of the Clyde was born in the year in which Arthur (is supposed to have fought and won the battle of Mount Badon. He therefore belongs in point of time to the com- mencement of the sixth century. He was evidently admirably [I educated, and possessed a considerable knowledge of the classics and a command of Latin (although, unfortunately, he has an unhappy style) so great as to be immeasurably superior I to the later author of the Historia Brittonum. In short, he was a schoolman, a classic, and a diligent student of the Bible. ,, As to his religion, he was a Christian, and, unlike Bede, came [1 of Christian stock and belonged to a Christian people. He *l refers to the ancient pagan worship as belonging to the far- away past. For him the old-time worship of trees and streams had no meaning. He was in all things a member of the British Church — indeed, a bigoted and narrow-minded 93 HISTORY OF WALES monk. In nationality, though, perhaps, by birth either a Goidel or a Briton, he was in sentiment entirely Roman. It is easy to see that his heart was well-nigh breaking at the thought that Roman learning and all the glories of that wonderful Empire were slipping away and that his countrymen were falling back into a relative barbarity. With this noble sorrow we cannot but sympathize, but it is a matter for regret that his continual lamentations and invective have robbed his work of much of its value as a history. That he had cause to inveigh against the wickedness of his age is probable. The age has not yet been in which one fired with religious zeal could not justly account his kind vile. As to Britain of the early sixth century, it is probable that it was in urgent need of a religious revival. This at least Gildas accomplished, so effectively, indeed, that the evening of his day was spent in directing the religious movement which his earlier writings had inspired. It was to this later movement that St. David belongs. The Struggle with Bernicia While this religious movement was progressing in eastern Britain a movement of a very different kind was advancing from the west and north. The kingdom of Bernicia, founded by Ide about the middle of the sixth century, was by the beginning of the seventh century an important state threaten- ing the very existence of the Cymry of both Strathclyde and Gwynedd, and ruled over by that Aethelfrith whom Bede describes as a very Saul for plundering his enemies, a leader who made more Britons slaves and drove more of the ancient inhabitants from their lands than any other Saxon king. Perhaps Professor lyloyd is correct when he suggests that it was the pressure which the rising power of Bernicia brought to bear upon the Britons of the west that created the term Cymry. The Briton and the Goidel cast aside race distinction in the face of a common foe and united as ' countrymen ' to make a combined resistance. It was perhaps to the earlier years of this struggle that 94 THE BIRTH OF THE CYMRY Urien ap Cynfach, mentioned in the Saxon Genealogies,* ^belongs. There we find him described as the greatest leader ^of the Britons ; we find him besieging his enemies in I^indisf arne and carrying out an important campaign, the final success of 'which was only prevented by the treachery of one Morcant sor Morgan, who planned and effected the death of his chief. 'The name Urien lived on, of course, in many a Welsh story, and it would seem that here we have a notable British chieftain of the north who spent his life resisting the inroads of the invaders. To about the same time, or perhaps earlier, belongs ithat Rhydderch who was credited with a great British victory at Arderydd, near Carlisle, in 575. His doings are, however, but little known to us, and we must pass him by and turn to a consideration of that other leader, Rhun or Run, who appears in the Harleian Genealogies as the successor of Mailcun or l-^£aelgwn Gwynedd. fRnuN In the laws of Howel Dha we find a reference to this Rhun, who is there also given as the son of Maelgwn. It appears that he was either the established or the usurping prince of -A.rvon. (The doubt exists since he is believed by some to Ldave been illegitimate.) Arvon was that part of Carnarvon which lies between Bangor and Celynwg. It appears that a certain Elidge the Courteous came to Arvon from the north and was slain. He appears to have been a man of importance, so that we find ' the men of the north ' coming southward to avenge his death. In this they were apparently successful, destroying Arvon with fire. Then it was that Rhun assembled the men of Gwynedd in arms, and proceeded after the northerners, who not improbably were retiring to their homes, as far as the river Gweryd (Wear ?). Having got so far, the leaders appear to have had a fierce discussion as to who was entitled to precedence in passing over the river. The whole Campaign seems to have been so protracted that it caused inurmurings on the part of the soldiers, who, we gather, had 1 Nennius, § 63. 95 HISTORY OF WALES good cause to want to get back to their homes. However this may be, we find Rhun granting the men of Arvon, ostensibly as a reward for the trials of this campaign, but possibly in order to strengthen his grip on the throne, fourteen privileges. In later times Cadwallawn found it desirable to extend similar rights to the men of Powys. These grants were unimportant in nature, so that one example must suffice. Thus we read that the men of Arvon were never to be required to drink ' stinted ' measure — that is to say, to drink a small amount measured with the finger. Cad VAN We have but little knowledge of the kings who reigned over Gwynedd or any part of Wales between the time of Rhun and Cadvan. From the Harleian Genealogies it appears that the successor of Rhun was Beli, and that after Beli his son, lago, ruled. Of Cadvan we know a little more. This king, the father of Caedwalla, or more correctly Cadwallawn, died c. 617. He was descended from Cunedda. He appears to have taken a leading part in the wars against the Northum- brians, which terminated so fatally in the battle of Chester. It has been conjectured that an inscription, Catamanus rex sapicntisimus opinatisimus omnium regum, found on a stone above a door in the church of lylangadwaladr, in Anglesey, refers to him. If this be so, it is probable that the centre of the royal power of Gwynedd had already been removed from Deganwy to Aberffraw — which remained the princely house until the final overthrow of the Welsh princes. Cadwallawn Cadvan is, however, chiefly known to history as the father of the more famous Cadwallawn, who apparently commenced to reign over Gwynedd in 617. This Cadwallawn inherited his father's enmity for the Northumbrians. Aethelfrith had earned the bitter hatred of the Venedotians ^ by his victory at Chester, and Cadwallawn seems to have set himself the task 1 An alternative name for the men of North Wales, or Venedote. 96 THE BIRTH OF THE CYMRY of wiping out this defeat and re-establishing the old connexion with his fellow-countrymen of Strathclyde. We read of him invading Northumbria in 629, where, however, he suffered defeat at the hands of Eadwine, Aethelfrith's successor. This battle, which probably took place near Morpeth, resulted in the Welsh king being driven back to Venedotia. According to the Annales Camhriae, we find, under date 629, a certain Catguollaun, who may be identified with Cadwallawn, besieged in the island of Glannauc. It has been suggested that this was the island of Priestholm, near Anglesey. We may perhaps infer from this that the Northumbrians had repUed to Cad- wallawn's bold move by carrying the war into his own country. However this may be, we find him escaping to Ireland. He appears to have used his time of exile in thinking out a scheme by means of which he could recover his lost fortunes and finally overthrow his hereditary enemies. The decision he came to is certainly surprising. One would have thought that the last ally with whom a Christian king would identify him- self would have been Penda the Mercian, who was regarded by his people as the champion of paganism against Christianity. Nevertheless Cadwallawn in fact did determine to join himself as ally with Penda ^ in order to work the final overthrow of the Northumbrians. In 633 the Mercian and the Venedotian invaded Northumbria and defeated and slew Eadwine at the battle of Hatfield Chase (Heathfield) . Penda does not appear to have followed up his victory, but Cadwallawn, with the slaughter of Chester and his own defeats in his mind, ravaged southern Northumbria. In this devastation of Deira he seems to have shown the greatest ferocity. Not only did he put to death man, woman, and child, but he put them to death by torture. In 634 we find him defeating and killing Osric, cousin to Eadwine, and Eanfrith, son of Aethelfrith. It seemed, indeed, as though Chester and the Irish exile were being amply repaid. With the accession to power of Oswald the tables were again turned. At the battle of Oswald's Cross (Heavenfield) , near Hexham, after certain pious exercises, ^ One genealogy makes him Penda's brother-in-law. G 97 HISTORY OF WALES the Northumbrians attacked and completely defeated the British king. Cadwallawn himself fled, was pursued, and slain on the banks of a small stream near Dilston, east of Hexham. Cadwaladr Cadwallawn left a kingdom shattered by this great defeat. His successor was Cadwaladr Vendigaid (the Blessed). Details relating to his reign are almost non-existent. He possibly joined Penda as ally, as his father had done, in which case he is somewhat ill-named, for the leader of the British forces which were undoubtedly allied to Penda played a singularly ignoble part, basely deserting with the whole of his followers the night before the battle of Winwaed, and thus contributing in no small degree to the defeat and death of the aged pagan fighter Penda of Mercia. For this piece of treachery that British leader (whoever he may be, and the dates tally with Cadwaladr's reign) earned the base title of ' the king who ran away.' ^ This battle of Winwaed has been regarded by some as the most important battle that was ever fought in pre-Norman England. Its site has been tentatively identified by J. Travis Mills as the place where " the Ermine Street crossed, and still crosses, the river Went near the modern Standing Flats Bridge, some two miles to the south of Pontefract." The importance of the struggle lies in the fact that it decided finally that the Britons were not to be henceforth the ruling race in England. ^ As to Cadwaladr, if he were not ' the king who ran away ' (and since we cannot prove it we must acquit him of that charge), we know singularly little of him. Even the place of his death is a matter of doubt, our two primary authorities, the Annates Cajnbriae and the Chronicles of the Princes, giving 1 Ivloyd states that it was Cadaf ael, mentioned in the Triads as one of the three peasant kings of Britain, who earned this title. Cf. Nennius, § 65. 2 From the point of view of Saxon history it was immensely important in consequence of the fact that Christianity was estabUshed as the dominant religion. 98 THE BIRTH OF THE CYMRY very different accounts. According to later historio-romancers, after reigning twelve years he was driven from Britain by the plague and sought refuge in Armorica, from whence he later returned to fight against the Saxons. Although showing the greatest personal bravery, he seems to have been fighting a losing battle, and we therefore find him retiring to Rome. Probably this last fact comes from the Chronicles of the Princes, which commences with the words : " Six hundred and eighty- one was the year of Christ when the great mortality took place through the whole island of Britain. And from the beginning of the world until that period one year was wanting of five thousand eight hundred and eighty years. And in that year Cadwaladr the Blessed, son of Cadwallawn, son of Cadvan, king of the Britons, died at Rome, on the twelfth day of May ; as Myrddin [MerHn] had previously prophesied to Vortigern of Repulsive lyips ; and thenceforth the Britons lost the crown of the kingdom, and the Saxons gained it." If we turn, however, to the Annates we find a less fulsome, ' but probably more accurate, account of Cadwaladr's death. Under date 682 we read : " There was a great sickness in Britain, in which Catgualart, son of Catguollaun, perished." And under date 683 we read that the same plague devastated Hibernia. So probably Cadwaladr died of the plague in his own country of Venedote.^ The entry in the Chronictes of the Princes is, however, signifi- cant in one respect. With the death of Cadwaladr the kings of Britain end. In future they are but princes. * Cadwaladr seems to have been a good son of the Church. Many churches claim him as their patron saint or founder, notably Llangadwaladr, in Mon. Professor Woyd, relying on the Saxon Genealogies (Nennius, § 64), places his death in 664, the year when the plague raged with much violence. See Lloyd, History of Wales, vol. i, p. 230 n. See also p. 139, post. 99 CHAPTER VII THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF PRE- NORMAN WALES ^ THIS is a convenient time in which to break in upon the current of our account of the development of the history of the Cymry in order to explain the social and domestic condition of Wales in the times anterior to the coming of the Normans. The period of which we are now treating may be roughly described as that which elapsed between the departure of the Romans and the commencement of the struggle with the Norman marchers. Our authorities are to some extent Saxon authorities, dealing with Saxon times and Saxon people. When we are relying on them we shall be careful only to choose those portions of their writings which reflection has persuaded us are applicable to the Cymry. The Britons, as we have already remarked, had been brought into intimate connexion for many centuries with the civiliza- tion of Rome. Compared with the Jutes, Angles, Saxons, and Danes who later invaded Britain, they were a polished and enlightened people. They were acquainted with Latin and Greek, and had in their possession many of the classics written in those tongues. They had inherited from the Romans an advanced knowledge of domestic architecture, and of the arts and sciences which were known to the Romans. They cannot but have been acquainted with Roman law They had learned the methods of Roman traders, and they 1 I' compilation which dates in manuscript form from the thirteenth ^ Or in certain cases since 1870. 104 P RE-NORMAN WALES centurj'. Howel had himself been in Rome ; he and his councillors had before them, without doubt, the Leges Barha- rorum or the Code of Charlemagne, both founded on the compilations of Justinian. It may be, therefore, that these rules got their Roman flavour in one or both of two ways : either because the Britons had engrafted Roman law and custom on to their own system during the Roman occupation or because of a too faithful copying of the Roman or barbarian codes bj' the scribes who at Howel's instigation compiled these Welsh laws. WTiich is the right alternative we are quite unable to determine. It appears to be a matter for indi\"idual opinion. Certain rules relatir^ to easements are so well developed and so near the Roman model that they rather suggest copying. In one important matter, however, we find Howel refusmg to follow the system of Italy. He expressly stated that the illegitimate son should be entitled to succeed on intestacy. Truly a most ancient rule, pointing back to the old system of a matriarchal state, where men traced their family through females.^ As we have said, no one but a countnrman or compatriot could hold land within the gu-ely. The question thus arises : ^ The Welsh rules relating to inheritance, birthright, fosterage, and the relationship between father and son have the most direct eaect upon Welsh history. Lt" there is one thing more than another which resulted in the weak- ness of the Principality, it is certainly the fact that on the death of a prince or chief his territory was divided up among all his sons. This was a weakness, tending as it did to decentralization. The system might have worked with tolerable success had brothers in Wales regarded one another as friends and near relatives. It is dear, however, that the bond between brothers was of the weakest description. Bom possibly of difierent mothers, some legiti- mate, others, according to modem views, illegitimate, their sole tie was their common father. As soon as infancv was left behind they passed from their father's house or palace into the family of a foster-parent. This foster- parent always attempted to advance his own foster-children, so that foster- brothers were much nearer in interest and friendship than brothers were. On a prince's death, as has been said, his territory was divided among his sons. These sons would enter upon their inheritance as strangers to one another, having qmte diverse interests and under the control, to some extent, of their foster-parents, who would probably in many cases seek to advance their own and their pupil's interest by setting brother against brother. That this pecuhar system had an immense influence on Welsh history will, we believe, be evident to the reader when the later chapters of this book have been perused. 105 HISTORY OF WALES Was it possible for a stranger ever to become a Cymro ? The answer, paradoxical though it may seem, is Yes and No ! No stranger could by his own unaided effort become a Cymro, except by saving the life of a Cymro, or by avenging his death, or by waging combat for him. But, though an individual stranger could not become of the kin of a Cymric tribe, a stranger tribe could come to be regarded as a Cymric tribe — but only by a residence in Cymru for nine successive genera- tions or by intermarriage with Cymraeses generation after generation for four generations. If a Cymraes married a stranger, her children were strangers and suffered the usual disabilities attaching to those who could not claim kinship with a Cymric tribe — ^viz. their evidence would not be admissible against a countryman, they would not be allowed to bear arms or to indulge in horsemanship or hunting, and they would be ineligible for the honourable professions of bard, scholar, or smith. On the other hand, it was possible for a Cymro to lose his kinship. Thus a traitor to his kindred was declared a kin- broken man and was banished from Cymru. When such a sentence was decreed we are told that it was required of every one of either sex and every age within hearing of the horn to follow the exile and to keep up the barking of dogs to the time of his putting to sea, and until he should have passed three- score hours out of sight. Truly a form of procedure calculated to impress upon the traitor a sense of the utter detestation in which his one-time kindred now held him. Organization of the Tribe As to the internal organization of the tribe, each tribe seems to have recognized three leaders : (i) the chief, who apparently represented the kin in the councils of the court and possibly acted as judge in the tribal court ; (2) the avenger, who led the tribe in battle, and whose duty it was to punish wrong- doers ; (3) the representative, who seems to have been the ambassador of the tribe in all dealings with foreign tribes or powers. We have a feeling, however, that this threefold 106 PRE-NORMAN WALES division of power owes itself rather to the Celtic love of groups of three and seven than to the fact that there were three such chiefs. Anyone acquainted with the Brelion law tracts will remember how frequently one finds forced triplets, as in the passage in the Senchus Mor : " There are three periods at which the world dies, the period of plague, of a general war, of the dissolution of verbal agreements." ^ These groups of three should not, we think, be too much relied upon. It is probable, however, that the chief who led the tribe in council was distinct from the chief who commanded in time of war. We are told that the former was the oldest efficient man in the kin to the ninth degree. It is evident that a more active leader would be required in wartime. The outward sign of membership of a tribe was the tonsure. Perhaps the reader will remember that in the story of Kilhwch and Olwen, Kilhwch, when asked by Arthur what boon he would like, rephed, " I would that thou bless my hair," where- upon Arthur took a golden comb and scissors. Doubtless Killiwch's request was construed as a request to be admitted as one of Arthur's tribe — as, in fact, Arthur's man and kinsman. We now pass from our outline treatment of the Welsh tribal system to a consideration of the daily life of the Welsh. Before doing so, however, it will be convenient to say some- thing about the territorial, political, and social divisions which existed. Political Divisions Wales itself, roughly speaking, was divided into three chief kingdoms, Gwynedd, Powys, Deheubarth. Kach of these kingdoms (including Anglesey, or Mon, which was part of Gwynedd) was divided into so many honours, and each honour into cantrefs, the cantrefs being subdivided into commots or cymwds. Thus Gwynedd was divided into what we may term the honours (an inelegancy, since this is a term of art foreign to Cymru) Mon (Anglesey), Arvon, Meirionydd, and Y Berfeddwlad (Inner Country). Mon in turn was divided ' Senchus Mor (Rolls Series), vol. i, p. 51. 107 HISTORY OF WALES into the cantrefs of Aber&aw, Cemais, Rossyr. Aberffraw was bisected into the cymwds Lleyn and Malltraeth. The cymwd (cymmwd) was the unit of government. Each cymwd and can- tref had an organization separate from those of its neighbours. It is probable that rulership of the cantref was given by the king or prince of Gwynedd, Powys, or Deheubarth, as the case might be, to some important tribal person, who thereupon became lord of the cantref. Sometimes we find several cantrefs under one man, who generally styles himself prince or king. Thus Merion, grandson of Cunedda, got as his share of the plunder of the Scots of North Wales the division of land which later became the honour or county of Meirionydd. In the normal case, however, it is probable that there was no intermediate between the chief of a cantref and the king or prince. This chief in turn appointed officers to carry out the executive duties of government in each cymwd. Thus we find in each cymwd certain persons such as the maer and canghellor, with definite duties. Each cymwd also had a court, presided over by a judge, probably chosen for his wisdom. Side by side with these political or governmental divisions it is necessary to remember that the tribal divisions existed. As in Rome, a son might have jurisdiction over his father in the public court of the cymwd, while his father was judge over him in the tribal court. Status The divisions of status were even more numerous. In the first place it is necessary to distinguish between countrymen or tribesmen, domiciled or intermarried strangers who were on the way to being treated as tribesmen, and strangers. The stranger was not improbably regarded as little more than a serf or slave. As we have seen, he was not permitted to bear arms — a fact which, if it stood alone, would lead us to believe that the non-tribesmen, having no power to fight, had few rights to claim. Even after a residence in Cymru for four generations, although such strangers seem to have been recognized by the tribesmen and could hold land under the tribal chief, they were by no means in the same position as tribesmen. They io8 PRE-NORMAN WALES held land, it is true, and their holding was recognized by the tribal chief, but they seem to have been mere nativi, persons bound to the land they tilled — unable to leave save by the consent of their superior. Thus we may say that the division into tribesman and non-tribesman was equivalent to the division free and unfree. The unfree were subdivided into taeogau, who had certain legal rights — e.g. they could make binding contracts — and caethion, or pure slaves. These latter performed all the more menial offices. The tribesmen were divided into classes : the royal class ; the noble class, or uchelwyr; the commoner s, or boncddigion. Within the classes all were equal, save that, as we have seen, the eldest in the tribe had pre-eminence, and, further, that the avenger and the representative had certain special rights and duties. Side by side with these main divisions there also existed, of course, the various grades of professions and employments. We may perhaps gather from the order of precedence recog- nized among the king's household in what respect and honour the various professions were held. Thus in the Venedotian Code we find the king's court formed of the following officers, arranged in the following order : a) The Chief of the Household. h) The Priest of the Household. c) The Steward. d) The Chief Falconer. 'e) The Judge of the Court. ;/) jThe Chief Groom. 'g) The Page of the Chamber. h) The Bard of the Household. The Silentiary. ;■) The jChief Huntsman. k) The Mead-brewer. .The Mediciner. w)'The Butler. n\ The Door ward. The Cook. (/))^The Candle-bearer. 109 HISTORY OF WALES This list does not mention the Smith of the Court, who was an important person. It may be that the above is not the strict order of precedence. We have an account of the position at table which the courtiers had to occupy, but the order is a little difficult to follow in consequence of the peculiar arrange- ment of the tables and screens in the royal palace. We may, however, say that of the chief professions the following w^as the order : (i) high executive officers ; (2) the priest ; (3) the judge ; (4) the bard ; (5) the smith ; (6) the mediciner. Of course there was no distinction between soldier and civilian, because all were soldiers. Each of these various persons had what we may term an ' insult value,' or saraad, as well as a life price (his 'worth'). Thus if anyone snatched anything out of a queen's hand it was necessary to pay her saraadl The king's saraad was rather extraordinary and deserves mention. It consisted of a hundred cows for each cantref ; a white bull with red ears for every hundred cows ; a rod of gold equal in length to himself and as thick as his little finger ; and a plate of gold as broad as his face and as thick as the nail of a ploughman who has been a ploughman for seven years. The saraad of the Chief of the Household was a third of the king's (except the gold) ; the priest's was an amount to be decided by the synod ; the steward's nine kine and nine score of silver ; the others down to the silentiary, six kine and six score of silver. The Bard We have seen that one of the important officers of the king's court w-as the bard. The bards occupy a very singular position in ancient Cymru. We read in Diodorus Siculus that among the Gauls (a similar race to the Cymry of Wales) there were composers of verses called bards. These sang to instru- ments similar to lyres. Strabo refers to the bards as being singers and poets, and they are mentioned by many of the ancient historians. Probably, indeed almost certainly, the bards were connected with the Druids. Their duties consisted in singing for the amusement or elevation of their patrons, "and no PRE-NORMAN WALES in recording by means of verses, so designed and so arranged in cadences that they were easily committed to memory, national events desirable to be known. They also had the recording of marriages and the drafting of genealogies com- mitted to their charge. They formed, according to the Triads, one of the three sacred classes whose members were inviolable. The harp was one of the three things privileged from distress. The court seems to have had two bards in attendance, the Chaired Bard and the Bard of the Household. In the sixteenth- century Triads we find the bardic office arranged in the usual threefold division. First was the Primitive Bard, whose right to be regarded as a bard appears to have depended upon his being the follower or disciple of a recognized teacher. It was this, the lowest class of bard, which had entrusted to it the duty of recording " everj'' memorial of art and sciences so far as they might be in its department . . . and likewise every memorial and record of country and kindred, in respect to marriages, and kins, and arms, and territorial divisions, and the privileges of the country and kindred of the Cymry." The second class were the Ovates, who seem to have been graduates in bardism approved by a session or congress of bards. They had not to show discipleship to another bard. They seem to have been the teachers of the arts and sciences. The last and highest class were the Druid bards. These seem also to have been teachers, philosophers, and leaders of religion. Too much reliance should not, however, be placed upon information contained in the Triads, for it is a sixteenth-century forgery purporting to describe the customs of the sixth century. It also suffers from its artificial construction — everything being grouped into threes, which manifestly could not have been the case in fact. It is therefore a relief to turn to the laws of Howel Dha, which at least do not attempt to sail under false colours, for our further information relating to the bards. Howel's laws were, as is perhaps known to the reader, drawn up with the aid of a committee selected from the Archbishop of Menevia, other bishops and the chief of the clergy, the nobles of Wales, and six persons from each cymwd, III HISTORY OF WALES who all met at the Y Ty Gwyn ar Dav, or the White House on the river Taff, which was near the site of Whitland Abbey in Caermarthenshire. The White House derived its name from the white rods of which it was constructed. It was a hunting lodge belonging to Howel. From the above-mentioned persons Howel selected twelve, and added as secretary, Blegywryd, Archdeacon of Llandaff, and brother to Morgan, king of Glamorgan, and to Geraint the Blue Bard, who was a poet and grammarian of importance. In the lolo manuscripts we find the following description of Geraint : " The oldest system on record of memorials and recollections is that of Geraint the Blue Bard upon poetic metres, and of all that is extant from before his time there is nothing remaining except what may be discerned by the learned by means of books. This Geraint was brother of Morgan the Aged, King of Gla- morgan, and he collected ancient records of poetry and bardism, and arranged them in a book of his own composition, and established them by the laws of the chair and Gorsedd in every country and dominion in Wales ; and Geraint excelled in knowledge and judgment, and every chair in Wales and England was given to him, from which he was called the Blue Bard of the Chair. After this he became domestic bard to Alfred, King of England, and he remained with him, giving instructions to the Cymry in England, and to the Saxons ; and in Winchester he lies buried." He has been tentatively identified with Asser. It will be remembered that Asser completed his account of Alfred's reign in 888 (at least his account ends with that year). The laws of Howel were com- pleted in their original form not later than 914, probably some few years earlier. Asser died in 908, according to the Annales Cambriae. Possibly the true date is 910. With such bards directly or indirectly concerned in its production, one might expect to find some details concerning bardism in the laws themselves, and in this expectation one is not disappointed. We read that the Bard of the Household had as special privileges his land free, his horse in attendance and his linen from the queen, his woollen clothing coming 112 PRE-NORMAN WALES from the king. He sat next to the chief of the household at the three principal feasts, and it was the chief of the household who placed the harp in the bard's hands when he was required to sing. When songs were desired, the chaired bard had to begin singing, first a religious piece, and secondly a song in honour of the king. After the chaired bard came the bard of the household, who sang songs on various subjects. One of the special privileges of the chief of the household was that he could require the bard to sing to him at any time. We find a delightful touch when we read that " If the Queen desire a song, let the bard of the household go to sing to her without limitation, hut in a low voice, so that the hall may not be disturbed by him." ^ Another duty of the bard was to celebrate a victory in song, singing, as the victors shared the spoil, the song called " The Monarchy of Britain " {Unbenaeth Prydain). His duties were, of course, quite different from those of the jester, who was much lower in the social scale. Welsh Druidism As we have said, intimately connected with the bards were the Druids, who, if we follow Diodorus Siculus and Strabo, are to be distinguished from the soothsayers. It will, of course, be remembered that the Druids and their religion had long since been superseded by Christianity. According to Suetonius, in the early days of the Roman occupation Claudius had forbidden the performance of the Druidical rites under severe penalties. As far as Wales is concerned Druidism had become at most a secret and fugitive religion by the end of the first century A.D. In Caledonia it lasted on, apparently, until about the time of Severus — that is to say, till some time early in the third century. With the passing of the Druids there appears to have been no lessening in the extraordinary veneration in which those leaders of religious, philosophical, and scientific thought had ^ He was also directed to sing to her the song of Camlan, i.e. Camelot. If this was because Camelot was the result of a woman's infidehty, and if this part of the laws was really of the tenth century, it has an important bearing upon the origin of the Arthurian legend. H '113 HISTORY OF WALES been held by the commonalty. Henceforth, however, it was the priests of the new order who were looked up to ; and they, in conjunction with the bards, were the upholders of the torch of learning in the dark ages of Welsh histor3\ We believe that many of the old Druidical practices and much of the old sun-worship lasted on long after the intro- duction of the Christian religion. Such an event as the interposition of the monks of Bangor between the opposing forces at Chester reminds one strongly of Druidic custom. Then, again, what is one to think when one reads in 191 2 of a young man being fined in South Wales by the magis- trates for stopping a bridal procession by stretching a piece of rope across the road and demanding tribute ? His substantial defence was that it was an ancient custom — similar, indeed, to the Hoke Day practices. Now it has been suggested quite recently,^ and the suggestion is supported by a certain amount of evidence, that this custom and the Hoke Day festival itself go back right to the time of the Druids ; right to the period when the sun-worshippers were raising the circle at Stonehengc — far past the time when Caesar landed in these islands. The rope stretched across the road represents the cord with which the sacrificial victim was caught and bound. The sacrifice itself and the watch to keep off evil spirits are also represented in modern observances. These ceremonies took place in the spring, and were not improbably sacrificial reHgious rites connected with the blessing of the forthcoming seed-time. We gather from Giraldus Cambrensis that the Welsh ploughed for oats in March and April, and for wheat in summer and winter. Since Hoke Day falls on the second Tuesday after Easter, it will be seen that it agrees roughly with the Welsh seed-time. Of course the fixing of the date from Easter {Pasg) argues against a pagan origin, but it is by no means clear that the early British Christians did not take over, so to say, the old pagan festivals and days of fasting. It would even be difficult at this distance of time and in the state of our authorities to ^ See the article by Dr. Bellot in Law Quarterly Review, 191 2. 114 PRE-NORMAN WALES deny definitely that the conflict between the British Church and St. Augustine regarding the fixing of Easter may not have arisen out of the fact that the British day was based on pagan calculations. However this may be, the new religion appears to have become quite early firmly fixed among the Britons.^ By the tenth century we find the Welsh monks, then, of course, the leaders of the ancient British Church and still the opponents of the Christianity planted in England by Augustine, pre- siding over colleges at Llanrillied and at Cattwg at which Saxon gentlemen went to receive the polish apparently unobtainable at that time (a.d. 959) in England. The result of this opening of the doors to the Saxon nobility was unfor- tunate for the monks, for we find Owain, son of Howel Dha, demolishing these colleges on account of the extension of their fellowship to Saxons. We have already mentioned the monastery at Bangor-on- Dee — a monastery containing more than two thousand monks at the time of the battle of Chester, a monastery which acted as a centre of learning, eradiating knowledge not only to the eastern part of this island, but also to Ireland. By the eighth century at latest monasteries had been established at Basingwerk and Coleshill, and Menevia was the centre of St. David's activities even in the sixth century. Everyday Life of the Cymry In considering the everyday life of the Cymry of the period of the kings, we will take the case of an average man who was neither a priest nor bard, smith, carpenter, or mediciner. Such a man would, as a rule, be engaged in agricultural pursuits, having as his sports — if a freeman — war, horseman- ship, and hunting. If but a youth he was taught farming, especially dairy-farming, and weaving. On coming of age he was given, as we have seen, land which he cultivated for himself. The system of land cultivation was not dissimilar to ^ Certainly not later than the fourth century, and possibly as early as the second century. HISTORY OF WALES the English manorial system, save that the grouping of the cottages was in Wales always in hamlets. All the mere labourer's work, whether on the land or at the lord's corn-mill, was done by persons who were unfree, the domestic and menial duties being performed by slaves. The farm labourers, though unfree, were not absolutely without rights. Being unfree, they could not, of course, have any share in the tribal lands. It would seem, however, that, in return for their services, the lord protected them from oppression and allotted to them a certain amount of land (worked on the strip or common field system), from which they raised the vegetables and food-stuffs with which to make such payments in kind as their lord might demand either in exchange for or in addition to direct service. Thus in later times we find villeins working at their lord's mill and doing carriage service besides paying rent (about 2s. 6d. a year) for their holdings. They were, however, relieved from the payment of reliefs and amobr (maiden-fee) . With regard to the payments in kind, the laws of Howel mention the following : sheep, lambs, kids, hens, cheese, butter, milk, hay, straw, fuel. In the later extents we read of six tenements rendering jointly three sheep, six lambs, nine hens, butter, one hundred eggs. The value was fixed at 5s. The distribution of the manorial estate would be somewhat as follows : In the centre would be found the mansion and home farm, and surrounding these, not improbably, the tribal lands inhabited by freemen. Outside, perhaps miles away, would lie the hamlets of the villeins. The villeins were called to work by the porter or horn- blower. They ploughed with oxen, according to Giraldus, and, as we have already stated, ploughing was done in March and April for oats and in summer and winter for wheat, thus pointing to a double harvest. As in Scotland and the Isle of Man, the ploughman walked backward when ploughing. These farm labourers worked under the supervision of a land-maer Oats formed the chief crop, though a large variety of cereals and field produce was not improbably known to the Welsh. 116 PRE-NORMAN WALES In a most interesting work dating from the tenth century, and dealing primarily with the everyday life, habits, diseases, food-stuffs, and cures common among the Saxons, we find a vast number of food-stuffs and drinks mentioned. We believe that the standard of living was much the same in Wales at a similar period and in times of comparative peace. Since this work throws some extremely interesting sidelights on the everyday life of the people of those times we purpose to make some mention of it. We are told that at banquets gleemen were generally in attendance to render songs appropriate to the occasion. At great feasts the dishes were of silver and the drinking-vessels were of glass. Glass had, of course, been manufactured in England long before the departure of the Romans, and the site of one of the most important factories has been dis- ^ , , . r .111 r Drawing of a Plough in covered not far from the border ot i^i^anstepiien ms. ii6 North Wales. These glass vessels were sometimes transparent, sometimes opaque. Salt was largely used, being brought from Cheshire and Worcestershire, where there were brine evaporation furnaces. The drinks used at that time were beer, ale, double brewed ale (containing malt and sometimes hops), mead (a sweet intoxicating drink) , wines, and certain others of a special kind — e.g. hydromel, and ' the southern acid drink' called oxymel, made from vinegar, honey, and water, and regarded as a cure for the ' half-dead ' disease and epilepsy. The fruits grown were sweet apples, pears, peaches, medlars, plums, and cherries. Several of these, without doubt, had been introduced by the Romans— sweet apples, for example.^ As to the food-stuffs, it would be wearisome to recount all the various delicacies open to the gourmet of a.d. iooo. We will content ourselves with mentioning that the Cymry were 1 As to ordinary trees, we find mentioned the oak, beech, birch, hawthorn, sloe-thorn, elm, maple, holly, and walnut. The last-mentioned was an imported tree ; the others were probably indigenous. 117 HISTORY OF WALES acquainted with oyster patties and they stuffed their fowls with bread and parsley. It is interesting to note that invalids had special dietaries allowed them. Thus we find the following mentioned as suitable for a sick man : chickens, giblets, pigs' trotters, eggs, broth, milk dishes, junkets. We also have preserved to us the daily allowance of a boy while being educated at a monastery. This youth was comparatively poor, since we are told that he drank ale or water because he could not afford wine. Among eatables he had the following choice : herbs, fish, cheese, butter, beans, and flesh meats. Doubtless we should add bread. ^ Domestic Architecture As to the domestic appointments, Seebohm, working, doubtless, on the authority of Howel's laws and Giraldus Cambrensis, has described the Welsh house as follows : " The tribal house was built of trees newly cut from the forest. A long straight pole is selected for the roof-tree. Six well-grown trees with suitable branches, apparently reaching over to meet one another, and of about the same size as the roof -tree, are stuck upright in the ground at even distances in two parallel rows, three in each row. Their extremities bending over make a Gothic arch, and crossing one another at the top each pair makes a fork, upon which the roof -tree is fixed. These trees supporting the roof- tree are called gavaels [? gavl], forks, or columns, and they form the nave of the tribal house. Then, at some distance back from these rows of columns or forks, low walls of stakes and wattle shut in the aisles of the house, and over all is the roof of branches and rough thatch, while at the aisles behind the pillars are placed beds of rushes, called gwelyau [lecti], on which the inmates sleep. The foot- boards of the beds between the columns form their seats in the daytime. The fire is lighted on an open hearth in the centre of the nave between the two middle columns." If this be an accurate description of an average Welsh tribal ^ The Welsh did not, however, eat much bread. Their diet consisted mainly of meat and milk and milk products. ii8 : ^ ^ pq W fti Q O iJ PRE-NORMAN WALES house, then we must confess that the Britons carried with them in their flight to Wales very Httle of the knowledge relating to domestic architecture which they must have possessed in some degree after so many centuries of Roman rule. That this description is correct we have no reason to doubt. Indeed, even the better sort of houses would seem to have been fashioned in similar manner. The reader will probably remember that the White House at which Howel's laws were compiled was a king's hunting-box built of white wattles. It is odd if the early Welsh were less cultivated and luxurious than the Saxons, yet the Saxons had feather beds, with bolsters and pillows.* Small houses were not even as elaborate as the rude con- struction mentioned above. They were simple wattle and wood buildings, circular in shape, with the fireplace in the centre and beds of rushes all around. The occupants slept as soldiers do to-day in tents — with their feet to the centre. Such buildings were probably inhabited by the taeogau. Cures and Cunning As we have already seen, medicine was a special profession. The mediciners were not improbably acquainted with the Greek and Roman authorities on surgery and physic. That the Saxons were possessed of such knowledge is certain, and it is almost inconceivable that the Britons should not have been. Most of the remedies we read of were herbal. Surgery seems to have been in its infancy. Some of the cures are based on charms or magic. Thus we find that the following was regarded as a cure for a fever : " Take the right foot shank of a black dead hound, hang it on the arm ; it shaketh off the fever." We have also an interesting charm given for catching a swarm of bees. The method was as follows : " Take some earth, throw it with thy right hand under thy right foot and say, ' I take under foot, I am trying what earth ^ Columba, writing to Rhydderch in the sixth century, foretold that he would die in bed " on his couch of feathers." 119 HISTORY OF WALES avails for everything in the world, and against spite and against malice, and against the mickle tongue of man, and against displeasure.' Throw over them some gravel where they swarm and say : " ' Sit ye, my ladies, sink. Sink ye to earth down ; Never be so wild As to the wood to fly. Be ye as mindful of my good as every man is of meat and estate.' " A great number of these cures reflect the immense amount of superstitions which were current throughout Britain in those ages. Since our authority is not Cymric, it would be undesirable to do more than merely mention the kind of fears that seem to have harassed the people. We find a recipe for a drink " against a devil and dementedness," and we have a cure in a case where the patient has been overlooked by the evil eye. Elf -sickness in one form or another seems to have been very common, and dreams and nightmares were the subjects of much study. In such a state of society it is perhaps superfluous to add that the love-philtre and its converse, the knot, were commonly sought after. We find an interesting cure for 'doing away a dwarf.' Thus we read : "To do away a dwarf, give to the troubled man to eat thost of a white hound pounded to dust and mingled with meal and baked to a cake ere the hour of the dwarf's arrival, whether by day or by night it be ; his access is terribly strong, and after that it diminisheth and departeth away." Valuations In the laws of Howel Dha we have reference to a vast number of articles used by the people of those times, the reason being that with the Welsh everything had an appropriate price or value, so that if a thing were injured or if the household goods had to be divided — e.g. between husband and wife on separation — the exact value of each thing was known. The Venedotian Code alone gives a list of more than two hundred and fifty articles whose value had been appraised. It is therefore obvious that we cannot give an account of these 120 Pirate XXVI. Cei^tic Cross in I,i.anbadarn Fawr Churchyard .O .i-ai P R E - X O R M A X v; ALES chattels in detail. Most of the things arc either C: articles of the chase, furniture, or instrunezitE -: husbiindry, agriculture, carp^entrs*, or smithcraft. 1h- ji:r^ iv.i its turdng-key are very prominent. The h r : len'i^j regarded as of great value, a king's hi.:v . - . - -- --^ score pence, while a willow pail was only wcr: ji : :ie j eniiv. An iron spade was likewise worth one penny ; a chicken " i= valued at one farthing. One of the most valuable thing: v. as the bufialo horn out of which certain highly placed persons were permitted to drink. These buffalo horns were valued at a pound, or the value of a hundred and twenty battle-axes or sixty gilded spurs. Plaids, pillows, and cauldrons were also set high in the hst of values, a pillow, probably of feathers, being priced at exactly the same amoimt as a weaver's loom, viz. at twenty-four pence. Many of the things which appear in this list were much later in date than Howel's time, and are probably later than the modifications introduced by Bleddyn in or about 1080. Perhaps we may trace them 10 David, son of Owain Gwynedd. WTiatever may be their exact date, such articles as hauberks and basnets look like Norman innovations. It is of some interest to note that the Welsh had not lost their ancient art of enamelling, for we find an ordinary shield valued at eight pence, but if it were enamelled blue or gold this value increased to twenty-four pence. Clothes were, as prices went in those days, rathrr rxr-ensive. A shirt and trousers were valued at twenty-fc _: .me, and a royal robe at one pound, a noble's robe being pricxrd somewhat less. Xo one else seems to have been allowed to wear a robe, but mantles were fairly common, any one who could afford the twenty-four pence necessary to pay for it being allowed to wear one. Caps were extraordinarily expensive, for a cap cost as much as a mantle. A boimet, on the other hand, cost but one legal penny. Truly the times have altered ! Besides chattels, other things had a price set upon them. Thus every part of the human body was duly valued, so that in case of injury the person wronged should know exactly how 121 HISTORY OF WALES much to claim from the wrongdoer. A typical Welsh touch (for Welshmen were always great talkers) is found in the value assigned to the tongue, for we read that " The worth of the tongue itself is equal to the worth of all the other members, because it defends itself." From what we have already said it will be evident to the reader that the ancient laws of Wales contain some very curious and interesting rules. With the legal aspect of these laws we have not been concerned in this present chapter. In the chapter following, however, we shall consider some of the more important laws and customs of the Welsh. 122 CHAPTER VIII WELSH LAWS AND CUSTOMS IN the previous chapter we touched on certain parts of the Welsh laws which referred more particularly to the social condition of the Welsh. We propose now to consider in rather more detail such parts of these codes as may be of interest to the general reader. Although these laws are reputed to have been compiled by Howel Dha, the form in which we have them contains additions by subsequent princes. Thus Bleddyn, Prince of Powys, made extensive changes in the Venedotian Code toward the end of the eleventh century. We know, for instance, that he altered the amounts of land assigned to the persons entitled on the various divisions among heirs. He also remodelled the rules relating to the restitution to be made by a thief, requiring full satisfaction instead of the fines obtaining in the time of Howel. Gruffydd ap Cynan, a still later Prince of Gwynedd, also made some changes reforming the rules regulating bards and minstrels. His son, not improbably, made still further additions. Again, about the same time we find Rhys, Prmce of Deheubarth, while making certain changes in the Welsh laws, falling into line with Henry II's judicial system. Owain Gwynedd carried the pro-Norman movement still farther. Welsh law continued, however, to be the law applicable in Wales until the time of Edward I. The Statute of Rhuddlan was then passed, which, while preserving certain Welsh characteristics, in effect brought Wales within the English system. Some of these pecuHarities linger even yet, but most of them were abolished by the Welshman Henry VIII. 123 HISTORY OF WALES We must now turn back and remind the reader that we are concerned with Wales of the tenth century or earHer. The first group of laws with which we propose to deal are the rules relating to women. One of the things which strike one most forcibly when reading this part of the Welsh codes is, on the one hand, the fairness of the laws to women, and, on the other, the laxness of morals. The times were, of course, rough and rude, and the Welsh were certainly no worse as regards morals than the Norse. But it strikes one as strange to pass from a rubric full of good sense, good law, and enlightenment to a rule so coarse in intent and phrasing that a learned editor and translator of the codes found it desirable to clothe such passages in the lyatin tongue The Position of Women As we have said, the attitude of the Welsh to their women- kind was extremely fair. Perhaps this may have been due to a remembrance of the old matriarchal state, which Sir John Rhys thinks may have existed in very early times. However this may be, we find girls and boys and women and men equally treated, in the main. Until the young Cymraes was twelve years of age she was maintained by her father even as children are to-day. When she had attained that age she was deemed a woman, and her position was very different. She then became entitled to her share in the personal property of the kin. Her father was no longer bound to maintain her. As the Welsh laws put it, " Every woman is to go the way she willeth, freely, for she is not to be revenant ; and nothing is due from her except her maiden-fee." This mention of the maiden-fee refers to a fine which was payable to the chief man whenever a Cymraes became a woman in the fuller sense either by marriage or otherwise. So free was the young Cymraes that, having attained the age of twelve, she was free to give herself in marriage, in which case she had to pay the maiden-fee. In the normal case doubtless the father maintained his daughters for years after they 124 WELSH LAWS AND CUSTOMS attained supposed womanhood, and until marriage, in which case, if he gave his daughter away, he was liable to pay the maiden-fee. We have no very full account of the Welsh marriage. There seems to have been a difference between an ' espoused wife ' and a ' wife.' Reading between the lines it would appear that the formal way to marry was by plight of faith together with a church ceremony. But any action showing intention to live together was sufficient to warrant the title ' wife.' The central fact was the taking home of the woman by the man- — the deductio in domum of the Romans — together with cohabitation. Whether they practised the pretty customs with garlands and roses which the Romans used we do not know. The same freedom which was the woman's before marriage continued afterward. She could leave her husband at any time. He could leave her at any time. Subsequent marriage operated as a divorce. On a woman marrying she took certain property to her husband as dower. This dower was to be hers " unto the end of the seventh year, and if there be three nights wanting of the seventh year and they separate, let them share into two portions everything belonging to them." The rules relating to the sharing of the property are given very fully in the Vcncdotian Code (which we are at present relying upon). The law stated with great particularity what things were to go to the husband and what to the wife. Where the law did not apply the husband had first choice, but apart from that they shared equally. If they had sheep and goats the husband was given the sheep, the wife the goats. This was unfair to the wife, of course. The children were divided up in a similar manner — not into sheep and goats, but according to numbers and ages. The husband took two out of three. He had the oldest and the youngest. The wife took the middlemost. To the wife went all the milking-vessels except one pail, all the dishes except one dish ; the car and yoke to convey her furniture from the house. She also took the lower stone of the quern, 125 HISTORY OF WALES the husband having the upper stone. She had the bed- clothes over them, he the bedclothes under them, but if he married again these went to his earlier wife, unless he cared to pay a fine. The wife also took the pan, trivet, broad axe, hedge-bill, ploughshare, all the flax, the linseed, the wool, the money-bag with its copper contents (gold and silver were divided). The food-stuffs were divided. Of personal clothes they kept their own except mantles, which were to be shared. In another part of the Welsh laws we find a delightful distinc- tion made between a " town-made mantle " and " every home- made covering." The mantles were, as we have seen, regarded as valuable. As to the debts, each had to pay them in equal shares. To mention the various things allocated to the husband would be to draw out the list to a tedious length. Appro- priately enough he was to take all the drinking-vessels. He also took all the corn, all the poultry, and one of the cats. The cat held a very special place in the Welsh household.* When we turn to the Welsh law of sale we find a special warranty, in the case of the sale of the cat, against any pro- pensity to caterwauling. The cat was regarded as quite a valuable animal, and a number appear to have been kept in every Welsh household. On separation before the seventh year the wife also received back her dower (three pounds in the normal case), her parapher- nalia, and her cowyll (one pound in the case of the ordinary person), and all presents made to her before marriage. If the wife left her husband without good reason she could only claim her cowyll, but if her husband subsequently married, he had to pay her a sum of money. If the wife was, while yet living with her husband, guilty of lightness, even of covertly kissing another man, her husband could repudiate her and she forfeited all her property rights. A woman could leave her husband and still claim her property in full for three causes ^ This, we suspect, comes from their Semitic ancestors. The cat was, of course, sacred in Egypt, and mummified cats may be seen in the British Museum. 126 WELSH LAWS AND CUSTOMS only. Two we will pass over, the third, leprosy, reminds us of the ravages which that dreaded disease made throughout England and Wales in those times. We have many memorials of the extent of its hold , The leper-holes ^ in many old churches speak of it. The frequent mention of the disabilities of lepers to contract tell of it, and of the banishment of these unhappy folk from the haunts of men. It is to the honour of women that we can say that examples are known of women following their husbands into their dreadful retreats when hopeless victims of this scourge, rather than forsake them, as, by law, they were entitled to do. On the death of the husband we read that the wife was " to have everything in two portions " except the corn. This she had only if an ' espoused ' wife. We understand by an * espoused ' wife one who was married in a formal way. When- ever a woman and a man lived together she obtained certain rights. If the cohabitation was of any duration she came to be looked upon as a wife. It may be remembered that the Romans made a similar distinction between materfamilias and uxor, though probably this has no connexion with the Welsh division. The husband could not defeat his wife's right of succession by leaving his property away from her. He could, however, bequeath the mortuary fees,^ and the fine payable to his lord, and money to pay all his debts. The Venedotian Code contains an interesting rule stating the three things for which a man might beat his wife. We will spare the reader mention of the first two. The third reason was giving anything away which she might not give. This introduces a long list of things which she might donate. The wife of a tacog, or villein, could give but few things. The laws only mention her headgear and the sieve. The sieve is frequently mentioned in the Welsh laws. It was one of the things specially given to the wife on separation, the * It has been doubted whether many so-called leper-holes had anything to do with lepers. At least one Saxon bishop was a leper. 2 For church rites, blessings, prayers, etc. 127 HISTORY OF WALES husband taking the riddle. The taeog^s wife could only lend the sieve " as far as her voice can be heard . . . request- ing its return." The wife of a uchelwr, or chief, could, however, give away quite a number of things, and could lend all the furniture without legally being liable to be beaten. Before we pass from the law relating to women we must remind the reader that the woman with separate property of her own could buy and sell and make herself liable for her debts. If she were married she could not sell without the consent of her husband unless she was possessed of separate property. This, we take it, refers to the dower. The dower normally went to the husband and wife as goods in com- mon, so to say. The giver of the dower could, however, as we have seen, declare a separation of goods at the time of marriage, in which case we assume that the separated property would be deemed the wife's. There were elaborate rules relating to fines payable if a woman were insulted or disgraced. The fine was generally regulated according to the position of her husband, if she had one, otherwise according to that of her eldest brother. Ancient Laws of Wales We hesitate to go into any detail with regard to legal rules and observances. I^aw is a dull subject to the general reader. Moreover, it is hopeless in the space at our disposal to make clear many legal rules to anyone unacquainted with the subject. We propose, however, to touch on one or two points which throw into prominence certain peculiarities of the average Welshman of that age. Everything could be paid for in money. That is the out- standing fact in early Welsh and Saxon law. From murder downward everything had its appropriate fine price, varying with the injury and the status of the injured. Law relating to Contract As regards the law relating to contract, the only part which has any living interest for the non-legal reader is that which 128 WELSH LAWS AND CUSTOMS contains the rules relating to buying and selling. Here again well-nigh everything had its appropriate price fixed. The part of the code now to be referred to is posterior to the time of Howel, but for our present purpose that is hardly material. We find in the Dimetian Code the price of a stallion fixed at one pound, a palfrey at a mark, a rouncy at 120 pence, a sumpter-horse at 80 pence, a draught mare at one cow, a brood mare at 120 pence. With these various values attached to horses it is interesting to compare the various mounts placed upon them by Chaucer in his Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Thus, upon the palfrey rode that monk who was described as An outridere that lovede venerie ; A manly man, to been an abbot able. On the other hand, a rouncy was good enough for the ship- man, while upon a mare, as a thing of less worth, rode the plowman. Nearly every kind of movable was appraised. We find the price fixed for cows, oxen, calves, swine, sheep, goats, cats, fowls, dogs, hawks, bees, harts (whose value was that of an ox, a hind's value being that of a ' fair ' cow), furs and skins, wood and trees, branches of trees, furniture, articles of hus- bandry, boots, clothing, saddlery, etc. These fixed prices are sometimes expressed as being the fine prices payable if the thing is injured or destroyed, and sometimes as the sale prices. Sales in those days were much more complicated affairs than they are to-day. They had to be held in specified places and before witnesses. If credit were given it was customary and necessary to give a surety or a pledge. On the sale of an animal the seller was treated as having war- ranted or guaranteed it against the diseases most common to that type of animal. Thus in the Dimetian Code we read : " Whoever shall sell a horse is to insure its dilysrwydd [title] until death ; and against the staggers, for three dew-falls ; against the strangles, for three moons ; against the farcy I 129 HISTORY OF WALES [or glanders], a year ; and, in addition, he is to insure it against any inward disorder." If these diseases or faults appeared within the limited time mentioned the horse could be returned. On the other hand, if certain other defects appeared — e.g. if the horse turned out to be a restive animal — the seller had to return a third of the price to the buyer, but the buyer had to keep the horse, and could not return it and demand the whole of his money back. As we have seen, a cat had to be warranted free from a propensity to caterwauling. Swine were to be warranted against devouring their young. In all cases, if fraud were shown the bargain was off and the person misled could recover his money. We shall later have occasion to refer to the Irish slave traffic. Women and children were most commonly dealt in at these sales. As M. Stocquart has pointed out, the sale of wives in very early times was one of the most important kinds of traffic. It is probable that the women sold in Ireland were often bought as wives rather than as slaves. The people depended on captives taken in war for their slaves ; purchase would be an unnecessarily expensive way of getting them. The trade was not, of course, limited to Ireland. In the earHest Anglo-Saxon doom (early seventh century) there is an interesting passage which shows that the custom was common in England. It runs : " If a man buy a maiden with diseased cattle, let the bargain stand if it be without guile, but if there be guile let him bring her home again and let his property be restored to him." This must, in our opinion, refer to wife-purchase and not to slave-buy- ing. If the latter, the cynical modern mind regards such a doom as putting a premium on diseased cattle and guile ! Procedure In early societies we find almost universally a considerable amount of attention paid to the mode of obtaining obedience to law. Compared with the amount of substantive law, or law which has to be obeyed, the amount of adjective law, or 130 WELSH LAWS AND CUSTOMS law relating to the means which must be taken to secure obedience, is to-day quite small. In tenth-century Wales and England it was about half the total law. It must always be remembered that in those days we had not to deal with one ' peace/ the ' King's Peace,' extending throughout the country. The number of jurisdictions was almost unlimited. Even as at the time of the French Revolu- tion many nobles in France retained the old seigneurial rights of trying and hanging without being responsible to anyone, so in earlier times private jurisdictions extended throughout England and Wales. In very early times we believe that the tribal chief had jurisdiction over the tribe. When the social arrangements of the community were more advanced, so that we had the dual organization of tribe and embryonic state, with a chief at the head of the latter, it is probable that both tribe and state would have courts. Within times of which we know the history we have indirect references to icourts of the tribe and to the lord's court. j The centre of the system which was established to enforce 'the carrying out of contracts and the paying of debts — that is ito say, law on the civil side — was the ' lord ' or chieftain. At jeach transaction witnesses or contract-men were present, and |if credit was given sureties were demanded. These sureties *were men who were pledged to see that the debtor paid. •The contract- men acted as arbitrators in case of a dispute ; lor, if arbitration failed, as witnesses if the action went to I trial. Arbitration was, of course, extremely common in the early iMiddle Ages both in England and Wales. At a later date special days were set aside for the amicable settlement of Idisputes. These days, called dies amoris, or love-days, are ;frequently referred to by both lyangland and Chaucer.^ In later times the arbitrator was generally a priest, and it was this fact which eventually accounted for the decHne of the system, the priests of later mediaeval England being notoriously ignorant and bribable. Even in Piers Plowman we find * The practice was very much earlier than In\ mUyt VnuT K mi^ \mim^^\m i\ci>vuFlinK U ° \.i¥ioia bf, p ) Ruthin ypIp .pJRErJ,,^ •Bangor Iscoecj/ (Budtlugr ^(^hester Ellesmere 'Cas Flemish . / \ Cardigan (AberteifiJ-'^ , / •V J, C r- I vv„^ Cas^lowel ' Vr*" Cilgerran -ffe^Sca^eEml Newport [Irevdraeth] <( Jil' Davids ^ Dinweileir / Dynevi^r Wistonj&A-is) (faerma'pthenOo-rJ^^wyn NarbeKh. S'Clea^<. , ,,„? , ,„,„„ ^ ,ri„. Oswestry . -^x^ Po"olXast1eJTralK;n^) Mathraval* 7p(,^^s Shreiisbl^ Caereinion> "^-' •C^stell Gwalter -.^^^ontiJomery Bridgnorth' 4llanfihan«(ilk / I 1 1 V^f^ 'Llanfihangel .. . ^, /. Llanidloes / ° /^ifetrjd IVleurig '-— .__^ Llanrhystud . \ N vVi?l/uirp\ Ludlow - „-,hr-' V, .CastellCollen_^6^^^-crV--u neirthr^ , \ AV D ^^^^^^T"^ "Richard? •Radnor Sw''^^ Pairts Castle -'l.lanymddyfri'N (Llandovery\ ( Piptoin* Aberhonddu IBrecon) Ewias HaFold White ^l^enfnth Castle, \^ uth V Narberfh.S'Clea^<^^LIarrstephen ^C-^-^^Cennan Aberg^^Oy ^^^^"* J Xr^-xJ^Q- Laugharne^AberT^w. / / / \ \ /"°"'"° V r\5-'-ii^^i^Carew _^Cydweli iKidwellyf / N (RaJlan\ k'embrWe ,,^ ^. tlLor,4hor,ILIych*rf ^ ,, \\ k^aglan l t ^ _^^^Manorbier ^ l^ cli''kc.^f^r,..H] \) , \ „. i ^ A—^-^ Sw^an^ea feeffiFi^nyd) y \ / f-'^^\^/Aberafan---J .Kaerphill '^■''^s'qySterf^°'JthlYstrum''Llwynarthl WALES Showing the Sites of the CASTLES Cardiff THE NORMAN CASTLES have troubled to enforce it with his army, and his administra- tive officers, the baiHffs and such-Hke, would have been impotent. The relatives, apart from having no effective writ which they could sue out, had no court to which to apply and complain. If the relatives were important they could complain to the king's court, they could appeal to the king, they could fight. That, however, is a special case. We are considering the position of a man of ordinary class. Standing alone, such a man was absolutely at the mercy of the lord of the district. The result was obviously to drive the lesser men into the camp of one lord or another. The ordinary man purchased the right to live, the right to have his wife protected and his children immune from outrage by becoming the ' man ' of a lord. He became the lord's tenant, bound to serve him in war, to protect him, to fight for him, to pay suit of court and to submit to the jurisdiction of his lord's court. On the other hand, he obtained some protection. If he were wronged unjustly by another lord, his lord could effectively complain, even as he would complain had another kicked one of his chairs about. The Castle One naturally asks, men being men, why and how did those men called ' lords ' obtain such outrageous powers ? The answer is, the castle. Protected and safe behind their castle walls, they could, as the writer in the Acta Sanctorum puts it, " protect themselves from their foes . . . subdue their equals, and oppress their inferiors." ^ Built in the first place by men who could command labour, either at the sword's point I or by gold got from the sale of slaves or the ransoms of captives, the castles enabled their owners to bring to subjection I the surrounding neighbourhood. The inhabitants were far j more subject to the lord than to the king. The eyes of the ' 1 Compare A nglo-Saxon Chronicle : " Bishop Odo and Earl William remained ! behind, and wrought castles widely throughout the nation and oppressed poor » folk ; and ever after that it grew greatly in evil." 223 HISTORY OF WALES great rarely turned to view the wrongs of the Httle. The lord could do well-nigh what he would with his subjects so long as his injustice were not general. General injustice would result in a state of things dangerous to the castellan himself, and, consequently, was rarely attempted. Moreover, it is to be remembered that the lords were men of family, more cultured than the average man, not without feelings of chivalry and honour. When this personal equation was removed, as at the time of the building of the adulterine castles of Stephen's reign, we see in what crimes power enabled the upstart lords to indulge. We may perhaps take as an example of the deeds which could be done with impunity in those days the excesses committed by William de Breose in his castle of Abergavenny. It will be remembered that William's uncle, Henry of Hereford, had been slain by the Welsh near Arnold's Castle in 1175. The nephew, planning a revenge, got a large number of Welshmen into his castle of Abergavenny, pretending to have a royal ordinance to deliver relating to the carrying of weapons by travellers. Once there he required them to take an oath not to carry weapons : " That no traveller by the waie amongst them should bear any bow, or other milawful weapon." Had they sworn they would have become unarmed, defenceless men to be shot at leisure. They refused, whereupon William had them condemned to death and hung. One of these Welsh- men was a noble of Gwent, Seisyll ap Dyfnwal, Not content with putting him to death, William sent men to Seisyll's home, captured his wife, slew her child in her arms, and brought her to Abergavenny to carry her sorrow for the death of her husband and her son to the arms of their murderer. It is to be understood that there was no redress sought for or obtainable in law ^ for this grievous wrong. Revenge was obtained, as Giraldus tells us, seven years after the event. As the shrewd Welshman observes, " the sons and grandsons of the deceased, having attained the age of manhood, took advantage of the absence * It is to be understood that we speak of what was possible in practice, and not merely in theory. See further for this incident p. 283. 224 THE NORMAN CASTLES of the lord of the castle, and, burning with revenge, concealed themselves, with no inconsiderable force, during the night, within the woody fosse of the castle. One of them, named Seisyll ap Eudaf, on the preceding day said rather jocularly to the constable, ' Here will we enter this night,' pointing out a certain angle in the wall where it seemed the lowest. . . . The constable and his household watched all night under arms, till at length, worn out by fatigue, they all retired to rest on the appearance of daylight, upon which the enemy attacked the walls with scaling-ladders, at the very place that had been pointed out. The constable and his wife were taken prisoners, with many others, a few persons only escaping, who had sheltered themselves in the principal tower. With the exception of this stronghold, the enemy violently seized and burned every- thing ; and thus, by the righteous judgment of God, the crime was punished in the very place where it had been committed." In such a state of society it will readily be understood that castle-building was one of the quickest ways to power, ^ and that around the castle gathered such trade and business enterprise as in those warlike times managed to exist. With these preliminary remarks we will pass to a short account of the development of castle architecture and of the means taken to attack and reduce the castle when built. Castle Architecture From the very earliest times earthworks as a means of defence had been common in England and Wales. In Shrop- shire alone a very large number of old earthworks still exist, the most famous being, perhaps, those which were raised on either side of the ridge leading to the summit of the Wrekin. As Oman has said, " Down to the eleventh century it is not too much to say that stonework was the exception, and palisaded earthworks the general rule, in all places where Roman works were not already in existence." * It was not, of course, permitted to every one who wished to build a castle. An unUcensed castle was called ' adulterine,' and was generally razed to the ground by the king. P 225 HISTORY OF WALES The Motte With regard to the mottes, burhs, or pre-Norman fortified places, there is at present a divergence of opinion among authorities. Perhaps the man who has done most for our knowledge of castle architecture is the late G. T. Clark, who devoted a large part of his life to the consideration of this question, which had previously been somewhat neglected by- antiquaries. The result was the publication of his Mediceval Military A rchitedure in England. This work, which appeared in book form in 1884, contained many papers read by him before various learned societies at widely different dates, with the result that there are evident certain contradictions and inelegances. For our present purpose Mr. Clark's monograph is important because it first launched the theory that the burh and the motte (or moated mound) were identical — that is to say, that the Saxon burh was an early type of fortified place similar in nature and design to the Continental motte. Thus we have Builth Castle (which consisted merely of an earthen mound protected by moats and ditches) assigned to the ninth or early tenth century, and we are informed by him that the Norman marcher lords captured and strengthened many of these ancient fortresses, as, for instance, at Builth, where, we are told, they probably contented themselves with erecting a wooden palisading on the old mound fortress. If we follow Mr. Clark we must say, then, that fortified places similar in nature, though not in architecture, to the Norman castles of a later date existed in England before the Norman Conquest, even before Edward the Confessor's Norman favourites had built their castles at Pentecost or Orleton (the Aureton of Doomsday, and later known as Richard's Castle ^) ; that, in other words, Saxons and, apparently, Welsh leaders were throwing up these earthworks to defeat their enemies or tame their own dependents, and that when William came he found a country already well supplied with mottes. * We are indebted to Mr. Round's article in Archaologia, vol. Iviii (1902), for this. 226 4 ^N-- THE NORMAN CASTLES Later writers, however, the chief of whom is J. H. Round, ^ have thrown great doubt upon this burh-motte theory, and we may probably assign the whole of the motte-castle-tower building to the Norman period. Even Richard's Castle and Pentecost Castle, which were undoubtedly built on the Welsh border before the Conquest, were raised by Normans in Edward's or Harold's train. They point out that all the old records when dealing with the Norman mottes use words which indicate original construction and not mere adaptation ; that where remains of these mottes have been found they are known to have been occupied and fortified by Normans ; that in many places where Saxon burhs are known to have been there are no remains of mottes. In view of these and many other arguments, for which reference may be made to Mr. Round's article in Archceologia,^ we may perhaps assume that the motte, equally with the castle, was of Norman or Con- tinental origin, and that before the Norman had introduced moated mounds and castles proper England knew but the ancient earthen ramparts ; the Roman camps, now fallen to decay ; the geweorcs, or fastnesses of banked earth, built mainly by the Danes ; and the hurhs built by the English, and per- haps by the Welsh, to resist the Danish attacks. In other words, the seigneurial fortress, whether motte or castle, was absent from England before the coming of the Normans. On the other hand, there is evidence to show that the palisaded, moated mound lived on well into the time of Henry I. Giraldus tells us how Arnulph de Montgomery (the younger son of Roger de Montgomery) erected at Pembroke " a slender fortress with stakes and turf, which, on returning to England, he consigned to the care of Giraldus de Windesor [Gerald of Windesor, younger son of Walter fitz Other], his constable and lieutenant-general, a worthy and discreet man." An excellent description of this type of castle or motte is to be found in the Acta Sanctorum. Of this account Oman 1 He is the leader of the opposition school. Others are Mr. W. H. St. John Hope, Mr. George Neilson, and Mrs. Armitage. 2 Vol. Iviii, pp. 313 e/ seq. He lays some stress on the fact that the Bayeux Tapestry shows the building of a motte-like castle at Hastings. 227 HISTORY OF WALES has said that " the description of this Flemish mound-fortress might serve for that of countless tenth- and eleventh-century strongholds in England" (and, we may add, Wales). We therefore feel justified in giving the description, which is a short one, in full. The passage, translated, runs as follows : " Bishop John [of Terouanne, in Flanders] had in the town of Merckem a mansion where he could abide with his retinue, while perambulating his diocese. Beside the court of the church there was a stronghold, which we might call a castle or a municipium. It was a lofty structure, built, according to the local custom, by the lord of that town many years before. For the rich and noble of that region, being much given to feuds and bloodshed, fortify themselves in order to protect themselves from their foes, and by these strongholds subdue their equals and oppress their inferiors. They heap up a mound as high as they are able, and dig round it as broad a ditch as they can excavate, hollowing it out to a very consider- able depth. Round the summit of the mound they construct a palisade of timber, to act as a wall ; it is most firmly com- pacted together, with towers set in it at intervals in a circle as best can be arranged. Inside the palisade they erect a house, or rather a citadel, which looks down on the whole neighbour- hood. No one can enter the place save by a bridge, which starts from the outer edge of the ditch and is carried on piers, built two or three together, gradually rising in height, so that it reaches the flat space on top of the mound and comes in opposite the gate of the palisade." The Stone Castle It was probably not until the reign of Henry I that stone castles became at all common. WiUiam I, it is true, had erected a few — e.g. the Tower of London — in unusually important places, but for William's adventurers stone castles were far too expensive.^ By Henry I's time the new-comers had ^ Practically all, if not quite all, the adulterine castles of Stephen's time were of earth and wood. Their owners were not men of much substance, and they were built far too quickly to have been well made of stone. They all fell like houses of cards under Henry II's attacks. 228 THE NORMAN CASTLES flourished so well that the stone castle was no longer beyond their powers. Even in that time, however, the shell keep was more common than the heavy and solid square keep. The reason was twofold. The shell keep was comparatively inexpensive and comparatively light. It could be built on a mound of made soil. In other words, the old motte could be converted into a shell-keep castle. It was otherwise with the rectangular keep. That massive form of architecture, though one of the glories of the Norman period, was quite unsuited to being placed on made ground. It required a solid foundation. It was also expensive to build. It had, however, the merit of strength. To-day there are far more examples of rectangular keeps in existence than of shell keeps, though in the twelfth century the latter were much more common than the former. The Shell Keep The shell keep is, perhaps, not so early a form as the rect- angular keep. It was, however, the simplest form, and as such we treat of it first. It was not so early as the rectangular keep for the simple reason that it could only be built with advantage on the old mounds or mottes, and they were regarded as sufficiently protected by wooden palisading until some time after the rectangular keep had been introduced. The shell keep consisted of a ring of fortifications surrounding an open court. The fortifications were placed to form various shapes, according to the necessities of the case. Sometimes they were circular, sometimes rectangular, sometimes irregular. Cardiff Castle ^ was an example of the shell keep. The castle, which dates probably from the early part of the twelfth century, covers a plot of ground nearly square in form, 200 yards east and west, 2i6 yards north and south. It was bounded on the north and east and partially on the south side by banks of earth, on the west and the remainder of the south side by a wall. These banks are about 30 feet high, 90 feet broad at the base and 12 feet at the summit. Along ^ The accounts of specific castles in this chapter are all based on G. T. Clark's Mediceval Military Architecture. 229 HISTORY OF WALES the top of the mound runs a Hght embattled wall about 6 feet high and 2 feet thick. At the south-east, north-east, and north-west angles the banks were enlarged, possibly for the purpose of carrying towers. Mr. Clark says : " The earthwork m Pi,AN OF Cardiff Casti,e A Outer Ward. E Keep. B Site of Shire Hall, c Site of Middle Ward. D Site of Inner Ward. F Lodgings. G Black Tower. H Town Gate. is returned about 70 yards along the south and 30 yards along the west fronts to give support to, and cover the commence- ment of, the walls of those sides, which, with an inconsiderable exception, are evidently very ancient, and were probably executed by Robert, Consul or Earl of Gloucester." Outside the bank, along the north, south, and east fronts, was a moat or wet ditch fed by the Taff. The total area inside 230 THE NORMAN CASTLES the castle wall was about lo acres, within the counterscarp of the moat about 13 acres. The whole place was strengthened by the raising of an earthwork some 32 feet high a little west of the centre of the north bank of the mound. The earthwork had a circular flat top some 36 yards across, upon which was built a shell keep, polygonal in shape, with twelve sides each about the same size, with walls 30 feet high and 9 feet thick, constructed of rolled pebbles. The entrance was by way of a gate-house, protected by a tower and portcullis. Altogether we may regard Cardiff Castle as a typical Norman structure of the shell-keep type. The Rectangular Keep Of this form Clark says : " The rectangular keep is, of all military structures, the simplest in form, the grandest in outline and dimensions, the sternest in passive strength, the most durable in design and workmanship, and, in most cases, by some years the earliest in date." Perhaps the noblest example of this type of fortress to be found in or near Wales is lyudlow Castle, in south Shropshire. The home of I^acys and of Mortimers, the residence of a king and the deathbed of a crown prince, the meeting-place of the notorious Council of Wales, the home of Milton when he wrote his Comus and of Butler when penning at least a part of Hudibras, this lovely marcher castle is full of historic associations. It has other claims upon the admiration of the wayfarer. Perched on a little hill, it looks down on the waters of the Corve and the Teme, which there flow swiftly enough to drive a little mill which nestles at the foot of the slope. On its other side, protected by an inner and an outer ward, it looks proudly over I^udlow town, a strange little place full of mediaeval memories and quaint old-world courtesies. The castle is to-day, save for a small portion, uninhabited and little more than a ruin, but sufficient re- mains to show how strong these fortresses must have been in the days before gunpowder enabled the attacker to blow the walls up and send his men through the breach thus 231 HISTORY OF WALES ,\\ \^^ \\ \V \\UW/%/in\\\\^^' .x.^^^""'"'""/'i,, '// %, %>i/t PI.AN OF I,uDi Pi o M Pi PL, Q ^ < K « u g A ^ o X O u 'A s O « kF-t cO fij W § Pm ^ S O M o hH o M ^ r i w fH < 1-r FL( GRUFFYDD AP CYNAN We are in doubt as to what engagements took place, if any. The Welsh princes seem to have offered peace on terms. The EngHsh king on his part doubtless had little relish for guerrilla warfare among the forests and glens of Snowdonia. Peace was made. Gruffydd lost no territory, but recognized Henry as overlord ; made homage ; swore fealty and paid a heavy fine. Henceonward Gruffydd seems to have reahzed that Henry was too strong to be opposed, and, like a wise man, realizing the strength of the other side, he determined to court the favour of his powerful overlord. We believe that this is the explanation of the prosperity of the succeeding years in Gwynedd. Gruffydd continuously pursued the policy of friendship with the English court. In the year following he surrendered Gruffydd ap Rhys, who had fled to him for safety, to the English. In 1116 he visited the English court, where we are told Henry entertained him " splendidly." In 1121, although the biographer makes Gruffydd a party to the opposition to Henry's second invasion, it is probable that the Annates and the Brut are right in saying that Gruffydd took no part in it, and, in fact, threatened active hostility against any Powysians who sought safety within his dominions. He seems to have pursued the same policy of peaceful friendship with the king of Ireland, so that his realm was freed from the evils resulting from frequent piratical raids. At the same time he stationed his sons (who included Owain Gwynedd, one of the greatest of the Princes of Gwynedd in after-years) on the border, so that attacks from rival princes could be checked before his people were plundered or his country devastated. The result of these wise measures was a period of great prosperity for Gwynedd. As his biographer says, " He increased all manner of good in Gwynedd, and the inhabitants began to build churches in every direction therein, and to plant the old woods and to make orchards and gardens and surround them with walls and ditches, and to construct walled buildings, and to support themselves from the fruit of the earth after the manner of the Romans. Gruffydd on his part K 257 HISTORY OF WALES made great churches for himself in his chief places, and constructed courts and [gave] banquets constantly and honourably. Wherefore, he also made Gwynedd glitter then with limewashed churches like the firmament with stars. He ruled his people with a rod of iron." Gruftydd was now growing old. In his later years he lost his sight, and we find, as we should expect, the direction of all military affairs falling to his sons Cadwallon, Owain, and Cadwalader, who, as we shall see, greatly strengthened the position of Gwynedd, though, indeed, Cadwalader was to prove far less worthy than his elder brothers. As time went on Gruffydd devoted his energies to works of mercy. He became a munificent benefactor of churches and religious foundations, and when at last he died, in 1137, at the very advanced age (for that time) of eighty-two, he left many bequests to reli- gious houses, including twenty shillings to the Church of Christ in Dublin, where he was born.* * It was in the time of Gruffydd that the Flemings came to Dyfed. The Brut has the following account of the settlement under date 11 05 (the better date is 1 108) : " A certain nation, not recognized in respect of origin and manners, and unknown as to where it had been concealed in the island for a number of years, was sent by King Henry into the country of Dyfed. And that nation seized the whole cantred of Rhos, near the eflflux of the river called Cleddy v, having driven off the people completely. That nation, as it is said, was derived from Flanders. . . . This was on account of the encroachment of the sea on their country, the whole region having been reduced to disorder and bearing no produce, owing to the sand cast into the land by the tide of the sea. At last, when they could get no space to inhabit, as the sea had passed over the maritime land, and the mountains were full of people, so that all could not dwell there on accoimt of the multitude of men, and the scantiness of the land, that nation craved of King Henry and besought him to assign a place where they might dwell. And then they were sent into Rhos, expelling from thence the proprietary inhabitants, who thus lost their own country and place from that time until the present day." 258 CHAPTER XV OWAIN GWYNEDD 1137-1170 THE years 1135-37 saw the deaths of Henry I of England and Gruffydd ap Cynan and Gruffydd ap Rhys of Wales. The death of the powerful Henry was instantly taken advantage of by the Welsh, who appear to have decided to make one great effort to rid themselves of their Norman conquerors. The uprising does not seem to have been entirely unexpected by the strangers resident in Wales, for according to Giraldus Cambrensis many of the Flemings of Dyfed, anticipating that the storm which threatened must shortly break and destroy them, had sold their possessions and abandoned their country of adoption for ever. Their foresight was soon shown. Almost immediately after the death of Henry we find Howel ap Maredudd attacking the Norman and English colonists in Gower. A battle was fought somewhere near Swansea in 1136, in which the Welsh were victorious and inflicted a very heavy loss (for those days) upon their opponents. The news of the victory seems to have travelled with the rapidity of a forest fire. For the colonists it was hardly less terrible in its results. Gruffydd ap Rhys, who had struggled so long to rid Deheubarth of the Normans, now decided to adventure one more blow in the cause of freedom. To make more sure of success he appealed for help to Gwynedd, now, as we have seen, a flourishing and happy state under the peaceful rule of Gruffydd ap Cynan. Gruffydd of Gwynedd seems also to have realized that, the lion of England being dead, the time had come to rise up against the Normans. It was perhaps hardly Gruffydd who had the 259 HISTORY OF WALES deciding of the matter. Old and blind as he was, he had ceased to take any active part in the government of his country. The mantle of power had descended, however, on to shoulders quite as strong as his had been. Owain Gwynedd, so called to distinguish him from his contemporary Owain Cyfeiliog, was, as we shall see, a brave fighter, a valiant leader, a clear thinker, and a strong ruler. These qualities, only too rare in the princes of Wales, enabled him, in later years, to do great things for his country. The journey of Gruff ydd ap Rhys to Gwynedd was not fruitless. The sons of Gruffydd ap Cynan agreed to join him, and together the allies arranged to descend upon the Normans of the south. During Gruffydd ap Rhys' absence a misfortune had, however, befallen the Welsh arms. Gruffydd's lady, Gwenllian, spurred on by a patriot's zeal, had led a Welsh army against the castle of Cydweli (Kidwelly). The attempt was doomed to utter failure. Her army was attacked by Maurice, the Norman leader, and routed. The brave Amazon was herself slain, together with her young son Morgan, while another son was captured. Attacks upon the South Wales Marchers Retribution quickly followed. The Norman leader in Ceredigion, Richard de Clare, ^ who had paid an unsuccessful visit to Stephen's court to request aid in defending the Norman possessions in South Wales, was returning to his lordship. Used to the peaceful times of Henry I, he seems to have ignored the warnings of Brian de Wallingford,^ who had told him of the dangerous condition of affairs and had urged him to accept an armed escort. Richard de Clare, ignoring the warnings, plunged on into the woods, preceded by a minstrel and a singer, the former accompanying the latter on the fiddle, and protected only by a few followers. Murder over- took him in the thick woods of the vale of the Gronwy at Coed Grono, or Grwyne. One of the Welsh chronicles assigns the deed to Morgan ap Owain, a man of good ^ Richard Etz Gilbert. * Brian fitz Count. 260 OWAIN GWYNEDD family and position, who had been wronged by Richard de Clare. The Welsh now finally decided to combine and drive the Norman from Ceredigion. Owain and Cadwalader, sons of Gruff ydd ap Cynan, and Howel ap Maredudd and Madog ap Idnerth seem to have allied themselves for the campaign, which took place in the early part of 1136. Toward the end of the year they were joined by Gruffydd ap Rhys. The monk who wrote the Brut y Tywysogion gets quite hysterical with joy when describing the advance of the men of Gwynedd. Owain and Cadwalader are proclaimed to be " the ornament of all the Britons, their safety, their liberty, and their strength ; the men who were two noble and two generous kings ; two dauntless ones ; two brave lions ; two blessed ones ; two eloquent ones ; two wise ones ; protectors of the churches and their champions ; the defenders of the poor ; the slayers of the foes . . . the safest refuge to all who should flee to them ; the men who were pre-eminent in energies of souls and bodies ; and jointly upholding in unity the whole kingdom of the Britons." Writing at Llanbadarn.he was near the scene of the exploits of his heroes, and seems to have viewed with unalloyed delight the ridding of the land of the Normans. The first success gained was the burning of the castle of Walter de Bee at Llanfihangel. Thence the Gwyneddians marched to Aberystwyth, where they attacked and destroyed the castle of the Clares. It was now that the men of Gwynedd were joined by Howel and Madog. The castles of Richard de la Mere, of Dineirth, and of Caerwedros at lylwyn Dafydd were swept away. ; Destruction of Cardigan Town For the moment there was a breathing-space. The Welsh returned to their homes laden with booty. But the respite was a short one. Toward the close of the year the allies, whose forces, as we have seen, were now augmented by those of Gruffydd ap Rhys, prepared to complete the work so well 261 HISTORY OF WALES begun. They now had at their disposal an army which, according to the Brut y Tywysogion, was composed of 6000 fine infantry and 2100 cavalry fully armed. The allies seem to have decided to strike at the Normans of South Wales in the stronghold of their power — Cardigan. We find the two armies meeting at Crug Mawr, near the mouth of the Teifi. The Normans, led by Stephen, constable of the castle, were supported by Robert fitz Martin, lord of Cemais, the sons of Gerald the Steward, William fitz Ore, and the Flemings and marcher settlers and the French from Aber Nedd to Aberteifi. The battle which followed resulted in a glorious victory for the Welsh. The Normans broke and fled. Many were killed in the panic which followed, others were taken captive, and more than a thousand were drowned in the river Teifi owing to a bridge breaking as they were attempting to cross. The town of Cardigan was fired, and many a refugee who had fled from the battle was burnt in the town in which he had sought refuge. The castle, however, still stood. The Welsh contented themselves for the present with carrying away the costly spoil which was theirs as the fruit of their victory. The unhappy refugees in Cardigan Castle were now in a parlous state. Stephen, unlike Henry I, was not the man to bring the Welsh to their knees. Yet something had to be done, and so we find him persuading Miles of Gloucester to undertake the relief of Cardigan Castle. Miles was successful in rescuing the widow of Richard fitz Gilbert and her people, but little else was done to avenge the destruction of the town of Cardigan. A punitive expedition was, it is true, fitted out shortly afterward, but it came to nothing. Renewed Welsh Attack Successful In the following year (1137) the Welsh attack was renewed. Gruffydd ap Rhys raided the Flemish settlement in Dyfed and Rhos. The further progress of Gruffydd was stopped by his untimely death. How he died we do not know. At about the same time his namesake in the north also departed to the shades. He, however, had long been in retirement, and his 262 PivATE XL,. Basingwerk Abbey Photo Lettsome &> Sons, Llangollen 262 OWAIN GWYNEDD death did not stay for a moment the operations of Owain and his brothers. These energetic leaders of the men of Gwynedd again made Ceredigion the scene of their operations. Castles were burned at Ystrad Meurig and lylanstephen, Castle Humphry was also destroyed and Caermarthen was captured. The capture of this last fortress was, of course, an immense gain. A royal stronghold, its fall placed the whole of south-western Wales in the power of the captors and prevented the sending of any help to the recaptured provinces from England. Though it was invested in 1137, and although attacks were made on it by sea as well as by land, it did not fall for several years, but in the meantime Ceredigion was at the mercy of the attackers, who parcelled it out among the princes of Gwynedd or their natural children. The Welsh now seem to have rested on their laurels. The Norman having been overcome, the Welsh princes are soon found fighting among themselves. We read that Cynvrig, son of Owain, was killed by the family of Madog ap Maredudd. Maredudd ap Howel was slain by the sons of Bleddyn in the year following. The two succeeding years saw the death of several more Welsh princes, and finally, in 1143, Anarawd, Gruffydd ap Rhys' eldest son, a youth of bright promise, " the hope and strength and glory of the men of South Wales," was killed by Cadwalader or his family. This most impolitic act of folly brought down upon Cadwalader his brother Owain's anger. We can well under- stand Owain's distress. The house of Deheubarth had been his allies in the patriotic revolt of the preceding years. Anarawd was about to marry Owain's daughter. The whole success of the Welsh movement of independence depended upon the united action of the leaders of the Welsh royal houses. Owain seems to have taken the strongest view of Cadwalader's folly. The younger brother was, in fact, driven out of Ceredigion and had his castle at Aberystwyth burnt. Owain's anger even went further, and Cadwalader had to fly to Ireland to obtain the aid of mercenaries in order to prevent 263 HISTORY OF WALES himself being driven into permanent exile. Owain now seems to have felt that enough had been done to avenge the death of Anarawd, and a reconciliation was effected with his brother. Position in North Wales and Powysland What exactly had been happening in parts of Wales other than those we have been considering we do not know. England was, of course, by now in the throes of the conflict which raged between Matilda and Stephen ; a conflict in which the marcher lords were mainly on the side of Matilda (in this connexion it is interesting to note that the Welsh chronicler refers to Stephen in complimentary terms ; he evidently hated the marchers more than the king). The result can but have been a weakening of the marcher grip on North and Central as well as Southern Wales. Again, Owain was certainly not a prince to let such a chance slip by. As to any actual victories or gains, we must, however, admit that the sources are almost silent on the point. ^ The years 1143 and 1144 saw the Welsh forward movement checked in some measure. In 1144, the year which saw the drowning of some Welsh Crusaders in " the sea of Greece," the Normans gained a little of the ground which they had lost in the years immediately preceding. Thus Hugh fitz Raulf (Ranulf of Chester) repaired the castles of Gemacon and Colwyn, and reconquered Maelienydd and Elvael. In the year following Hugh Mortimer of Wigmore imprisoned Rhys ap Howel, one of the Welsh leaders, and captured many of his followers. In the south, on the other hand, the Welsh, under the leader- ship of Owain's sons, were still pursuing their victorious way. Aberteifi was ravaged and much booty taken. A pitched battle seems to have been fought and won. A severe check to the Welsh successes was given, however, by Gilbert fitz Gilbert, who appears in 1145 to have reconquered Dyfed and to have rebuilt the castle of Caermarthen and another castle ^ For some notes on minor engagements, such as the capture of Bromfield Castle, near Wrexham, see Lloyd, History of Wales, vol. ii, p. 477. 264 OWAIN GWYNEDD which is described in the Brut as belonging to the son of Uchtryd. Meanwhile the men of Gwynedd had been pressing forward in the north. In 1146 Ranulf, now Earl of Chester, is found appealing to his king for support. The royal advisers appear to have regarded this very reasonable request as a traitorous trap laid by Ranulf against the safety of Stephen, and as a consequence the earl was seized and cast into prison. The result was that the Welsh were enabled to capture yet another Norman stronghold. At the close of the year Mold fell into their hands. This success (the chroniclers tell us that it had been frequently attacked without success) brought Owain out of the fit of deep melancholy into which he had been cast by the death of his son Rhun, who is described in the Brut as " the most praiseworthy young man of the British nation . . . fair of form and aspect, kind in conversation and affable to all, fair of complexion, with curly yellow hair, eyes somewhat blue, full and playful." It also made up for the defeat which the men of Gwynedd had sustained earlier in the year at the hands of Robert of Mold at Wich. Some time before the Welsh had gained further successes in the south Cadell ap Gruffydd had reduced the castle of Dinweileir, and later in the same year (1146) he and Howel ap Owain overcame the castle of Caermarthen and placed Maredudd ap Gruffydd in charge of it as defender. He appears to have beaten back successfully an attempt at re- capture made by the Normans and Flemings under the leadership of William fitz Aed and the sons of Gerald the Steward. In the year following (1147) we find Cadell and Howel again combining. This time the reduction of Castell Gwys (Wiston) was their objective. The attack was suc- cessful and Howel returned victorious. Conflicts between the Welsh Cadwalader now appears on the scene again. This time he was in conflict with his nephews, Howel and Conan, sons of ; Owain. He seems to have regained some of his lost power in 265 HISTORY OF WALES Meirionydd and to have built a castle at Cynf ael in the southern part of the cantref during the years of peace which had elapsed since his quarrel with Owain. What the cause of the dispute was between himself and his nephews we do not know, but in 1 147 Howel and Conan advanced into Meirionydd, called out the men of the district, and proceeded to attack Cynfael Castle, now entrusted by Cadwalader to the charge of Morvan, abbot of Whitland {y ty gwyn, which, however, Professor Lloyd has suggested should read y tywyn and refers to Towyn) . Howel and Conan, finding Morvan impervious to bribes, had to resort to force in order to obtain the castle, but at last were successful, and we read about this time of Cadwalader being driven out of Meirionydd. Cadwalader still, however, retained some power. In 1149 he is found building a castle at Llanrhystud and portioning out part of Ceredigion to his son Cadwgan. The other Welsh princes were also busy in that year, consolidating their power and building castles in Yale (lal) and at Oswestry. In the year following Cadell ap Gruffydd repaired the castle of Caermarthen and ravaged Cydweli. The remainder of that year was devoted to disputes between the various branches of the house of Gwynedd. Owain, meanwhile, was strengthening his grasp on the district around Mold. While the younger members of his family were disputing in the south and west he followed up the success gained by the capture of Mold Castle. A castle was built in the commote of Yale at Buddugre. Feeling him- self secure in the north, he seems to have turned his attention to Powys, where Madog ap Maredudd's castle of Oswestry had, as we have seen, recently been rebuilt. This prince, who had been the principal ruler of Powys since Maredudd's death in 1132, did not hesitate to call in the aid of the Normans in his dispute with Owain. A battle was fought at Consyllt (Coleshill ?), in which the ever-victorious Owain was again successful and the auxiliaries and troops of Madog were put to flight. This victory greatly strengthened Owain's position in Yale and Tegeingl, and his power was 266 OWAIN GWYNEDD still further increased by the death of Earl Ratiulf (poisoned as some thought, by Peverel of the Peak) in the following year, leaving as heir a child of tender years to guide the fortunes of Chester through those troublous times. Owain's Successes against Stephen The years which follow were filled with unimportant squabbles between the various Welsh princes. The royal house of Deheubarth seems, during the years 1151-1153, to have been at feud with the sons of Owain Gwynedd. In 115 1 they were successful in driving Howel ap Owain out of most of Ceredigion, though he still remained lord of a castle at Pen- gwern, in Llanlihangel. They also captured the castle of Ivlanrhystud, which was, however, regained by Howel shortly afterward. The sons of Gruff ydd ap Rhys then turned their attention to Gower, burnt the castle of Aberllychwer, and devastated the surrounding lands. In 1 153 the men of Deheubarth gained further successes against Howel ap Owain. The castle at Penwedig (Castle Howel ?) was demolished. Tenby was captured by a night attack and delivered over to the charge of the Norman William fitz Gerald ; the castle at Ystrad Cyngen was laid waste and the castle at Aberafan burnt, its garrison slain, and valuable booty seized. An unhappy year ended with the ravaging of Cyfeiliog. In 1156 Rhys of Deheubarth pushed on as far as Aberdovey, while on the eastern border Madog of Powys built the castle of Caereinion. We have mentioned these unimportant details in order to estimate justly the position of Owain Gwynedd at the close of Stephen's reign. In the south he appears to have delegated the command to his sons, of whom Howel and Conan seem to have been the most energetic. Their arms met with alternate successes and reverses, so that at the time we have now reached their position was not very different from that which was theirs at the commencement of the struggle. In the north Owain himself was in command. Here the position was very different. With one or two trifling exceptions his progress 267 HISTORY OF WALES had been uninterrupted, and the exceptions had occurred during the time when he was prostrated by the death of his son Rhun. Molesdale and the neighbouring districts had been brought under his sway ; his possessions had continually increased toward the east, so that by now the ancient Roman town of Chester was within sight of his outposts. Powys had been humbled and Earl Ranulf's power had been reduced. The condition of affairs was, indeed, becoming serious from the point of view of the English Government. Throughout the anarchy of Stephen's reign Wales had been practically abandoned by the English king and the marcher lords. These latter had been prominent participators in the struggle, and had paid but little attention to their home affairs, and it is not to be marvelled at that the Welsh princes had taken full advantage of the slackening of the grip which had almost strangled their national life in the time of Henry I. Conflict with Henry II No great credit would be due to Owain Gwynedd if the Hst of his achievements had stopped with the death of Stephen. We could but have regarded him as an opportunist who had taken advantage of the temporary weakness of the English monarchy to snatch a temporary gain. It is for his leadership and prudence in the struggle with Henry, a man of very different mould from Stephen and one of the most powerful kings of his day, that we must award to Owain the eminent position which is admittedly his in the history of his country. The death of Stephen in 1154 did not see immediately any attempt at the reconquest of Wales. England herself was in a state of complete disorder. Henry's title, based as it was largely on treaty rights, had to be established fully. His wide French possessions required his attention. It was necessary for him to bring into subjection many of the unruly barons whose adulterine castles and lawless behaviour had rendered the lives of the commoners of England well-nigh unbearable for years. Two of these barons, the marcher lords Roger Earl 268 OWAIN GWYNEDD of Hereford and Hugh Mortimer of Wigmore, had, in the first year of Henry's reign, broken out into rebelHon, but seem to have recognized that Henry was no Stephen, and early made their peace with the king, though Hugh did not surrender until the capture of his castle at Bridgnorth. It was not until 1 157 that, the preliminary work having been done, Henry was free at last to turn his attention to Wales. Henry seems to have decided to leave nothing undone which would aid him in the complete conquest of the Cymry. A special levy was raised, and, arrangements having been made whereby a long term of service was assured, a fleet was collected in order to enable a joint attack to be launched against Wales by land and sea. An alliance was contracted with Cadwalader of Gwynedd, who, as we have seen, had been constantly at war with his brother Owain, and had been driven out of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales in 1153. Cadwalader had other reasons for being partial to the English side. He had married into the famous Norman house of Clare, and he had been maintained by Henry since his banishment. Though from a patriot's point of view his conduct was, and always had been, atrocious, it was not simply perverse and foolish. Finally Henry strengthened his already considerable force with archers from Shropshire, who might be expected to understand the mode of fighting which would have to be adopted in the mountains and valleys of Wales. It seems to us to be evident, from a consideration of the campaign which followed, that Owain expected defeat and was only too ready to purchase peace with the sacrifices demanded of him, sacrifices which, though not great, were, we believe, greater than Henry's campaign warranted. The English king, though prepared for a lengthy struggle, seems to have determined, with the boldness of youth, to attempt a coup de main which would bring Owain at once to his knees. Sending his main army along the northern coast road from Chester and directing the fleet to make for Rhuddlan, the king himself plunged into the forest of Cennadlog,* * Coleshill, according to Giraldus Cambrensis. 269 HISTORY OF WALES accompanied only by a few lightly armed troops. The plan was a bold, even a reckless, one, and was like to have cost the king his life. Owain, who, following his father's tactics, had collected the whole of his available resources and had encamped at Basing- werk, fortified his camp with earthworks and prepared for a pitched battle. It was against this encampment of Owain's that the northern army had been sent, Henry at the same time attempting to reach the same place by taking the shorter route through the forests. Henry undoubtedly expected that this bold move would take Owain completely by surprise. It did not. On the other hand, Henry was caught unawares by David and Conan, sons of Owain, A furious fight took place in the " trackless wood." The Constable of Chester and Robert de Courcy were slain. Henry himself would have been killed but for the bravery of Roger of Hereford. Panic seized the English standard-bearer, Henry of Essex, Constable of England, who fled. At last, however, the king gathered his scattered forces together and escaped into the open fields again. It was in connexion with this fight in the wood of Coleshill that a pathetic incident occurred of which Giraldus speaks. According to the story he relates, it appears that a young Welshman was killed " while passing through the king's army." A greyhound which accompanied him, seeing its master fall, stayed by his side, and did not desert the corpse for eight days, though without food. Faithfully it guarded the lifeless body from the attacks of dogs, wolves, and birds of prey. When the English soldiery came up they found the dog, now almost starved to death, still keeping guard. Giraldus adds : " As a mark of favour to the dog . . . the English, although bitter enemies of the Welsh, ordered the body ... to be deposited in the ground with the accustomed offices." Owain, meanwhile, uncertain of the success or failure of his sons, and fearing to be outflanked, hesitated to accept the attacks in front and rear which threatened him. He retreated without giving battle. Henry, meanwhile, had rejoined his 270 OWAIN GWYNEDD main army and proceeded to Rhuddlan " in a rage," as the Welsh chronicler tells us. Henry's reverses were, however, by no means at an end. Owain, now encamped in front of Llwyn Pina (identified by Powel with Bryn-y-pin), continually harassed Henry by day and night. Owain, meanwhile, had obtained the aid of Madog of Powys,^ so that almost the whole of north-eastern Wales was encamped around Henry. Meanwhile the sea attack had been a failure, for the marines, after some few successes against churches in Mon, were forced by the men of Anglesey to fight. The battle resulted in complete victory for the Welsh, , Henry, a son of Henry I by Nest of Pembroke, was slain, Robert fitz Stephen was wounded, and many of the Norman leaders were killed. Henry, hearing of this ill news, seems to have decided to abandon the whole campaign. Peace upon terms was offered to Owain, and accepted. Henry had gained no single victory on land or sea, but Owain was wise enough to see that he was no match for the ruler of well-nigh all France and England and Scotland if it came to a real struggle for supremacy. He therefore agreed to give hostages for good behaviour, to relinquish Tegeingl and restore to Cadwalader his former possessions. About the same time lorwerth the Red, son of Maredudd of Powys, burned the castle of Buddugre, in Yale, but recently built, as we have seen, by Owain. It was now that Owain showed himself to be something more than the brave chieftain of a clan. Realizing that times had changed and that open resistance was useless, he aban- doned defiance and resisted the temptation to pick quarrels with the Norman marchers. Position in South Wales Meanwhile in the south the sons of Gruff ydd ap Rhys, of Deheubarth, had been indulging in a perfect orgy of fighting. These sons of Rhys were typical Welsh chieftains. Brave, daring, filled with a passionate hatred of the Normans, they * See as to this p. 273. 271 HISTORY OF WALES devoted their time to castle-razing. As time passed it became with them almost a hobby. The presence of a castle, Norman or Welsh, which did not belong to them seems to have filled them with a longing to destroy it. Mabudryd, Caermarthen, Gwys, Tenby, Aberafan, Llanrhystud, had been burnt or captured. The years had been full of danger, and two of the brave three, Cadell and Maredudd, early met with injuries, injuries which cost the one his life, the other his valour. Maredudd was but twenty-five when he died. He left his younger brother, Rhys, sole heir to Deheubarth (Maredudd had lost his nerve owing to his wounds and had turned pious). Young though Rhys was, he came of a brave race, and was destined to live for many years the champion of South Wales and its redoubtable protector against the might of England. While Henry was launching his army against Owain in the north Rhys was ravaging the south. The day of reckoning had, however, come. Young Rhys, lacking the older Owain's wisdom, failed to bow before the storm and prepared to resist. We believe that history has few finer examples of reckless bravery than this of young Rhys, a mere lad, entrenching himself and his clansmen in the forests of South Wales, pre- pared to meet alone and without allies the might of Henry, king or duke not only of England, but of almost all France and Scotland. At last, however, wiser counsels prevailed and Rhys made submission. As a result of the terms of peace the Clares and the CHffords came back to South Wales. Earl Roger of Hereford, son of Richard fitz Gilbert, crept back to Ceredigion to seize under the shadow of the king what for twenty-two years he had been unable to take for himself. Castles at Ystrad Meurig, Aberdovey, Dineirth, and lylan- rhystud and Castle Humphry reverted to the Normans. Cantref Bychan and lylandovery went once more to the CUffords. The Normans had thus won back in South Wales almost all that had been gained. The Welsh, however, soon renewed the attack. Castle Humphry was again destroyed, and a campaign commenced against the new Norman lords 272 OWAIN GWYNEDD and many castles were burnt. Henry, however, again inter- posed, Rhys submitted, and peace was made. PowYS In the meantime Madog of Powys had died in 1160. We find this Madog referred to as the ally of England in the recent campaign against Owain. The evidence for this is, however, doubtful. The Brut y Tywysogion, dealing with the events of 1 157, tells us that after Henry had reached Rhuddlan and Owain had encamped in front of lylwyn Pina, " Madog, son of Maredudd, lord of Powys, selected his position for encamping between the army of the king and the army of Owain, so as to enable him to meet the first attack made by the king." The Annates Camhriae is silent on the subject, save that in one text we have the words " Henricus . . . ad campestria Cestriae duxit . . . adjuvante Madauc . . . et venit ad Dynas Basic." We also find that a payment was made by the sheriff of Shropshire in that year to " Maddock, £S 10s." The Brut Saeson also gives Madog charge of the fleet. Again, Madog's brother, lorwerth the Red, did certainly attack Owain's castle in Yale. On the other hand, Madog lost Oswestry Castle, which he had built, and which was given by Henry to William fitz Alan. He gained nothing by the terms of peace, although Cadwalader, who, we know, was on Henry's side, was most carefully provided for by Henry when drafting the terms. Again, if Madog was a traitor to his country, a person who would sell his help for £8 ids., how are we to account for the entry in the Brut, where we have a glowing account of him, his bravery and his beauty ? Further, how can we account for the friendship which clearly subsisted between Powys and Gwynedd in 1160 if we are to regard Madog as having been opposed to Owain in 1157 ? These considerations leave us [doubtful as to Madog's attitude in 1157. For his sake we (trust he was found on the side of his countrymen, Welsh I historians have been less kind to him. He is portrayed as one iof Henry's allies. Ally or no ally, his death made little differ- lence to Owain's policy ; he still pursued his policy of peace, s 273 HISTORY OF WALES The death of Madog did, however, have one considerable result. Powys was no longer ruled by one man, but was split up into a number of small lordships. It was divided among Owain Cyfeiliog, lorwerth the Red, Gruffydd, Owain Vychan (' the I^ittle'), and Owain Brogyntyn. The result, for our purpose, was twofold — Powys was weakened and tlie doings of its chieftains became so petty as hardly to deserve attention. To show how little love the house of Powys had for Henry, despite the imagined alliance of 1157, the year 1 1 63 saw the destruction of the royal castle of Carreghofa. Henry's Third Expedition In 1 162 the old-time enmity between Powys and Gwynedd was renewed. One of Owain's castles was seized; but the turn soon came. Owain moved an army into Arwystli as far as lylandinam and inflicted a severe loss on the Powysians. Shortly afterward Owain's son, David, made an attack upon Tegeingl, which he ravaged and denuded of its population and cattle, taking the latter with him into the Vale of Clwyd. This, of course, was practically a tearing up of the peace of 1157. Henry instantly took steps to punish these troublesome princes. Henry had, indeed, good cause to complain. Not only in the north had his subjects been harassed. Rhys of Deheubarth had been a sore thorn in the side of the marchers of South Wales for years, and had constantly required Henry's attention. The English king seems, indeed, to have decided on a thorough and final conquest. As the Welsh chronicler tells us, he " collected a vast army of the choice warriors of England, Normandy, Flanders, Anjou, Gascony, and all Britain, and came to Oswestry, proposing to transport and destroy the whole of the Britons." This, of course, is exaggeration. Henry did, however, make considerable pre- parations. The sheriffs of I^ondon alone paid nearly £iyo for shields and clothing for the campaign, a very large sum for those days. Troops were requisitioned from many of Henry's Continental dominions, heavy cavalry was collected, large stores and all the armoury of war were assembled and 274 OWAIN GWYNEDD sent down to Shrewsbury. Danish mercenaries from Dublin were engaged to harass Gwynedd by sea. All was complete and the struggle had commenced by May of 1165. The Welsh Reply Whether or not there were traitors in the struggle of 11 57, now all Wales stood together facing the national peril. Owain, with his brother Cadwalader, led Gwynedd ; Rhys of Deheu- barth led the men of the south. Powys was captained by Owain Cyleiliog, lorwerth the Red, and all the sons of Madog. " Together, united and undaunted, they came into Edeyrnion, and encamped at Corwen," There is something very fine in all this. One's sympathy always goes out to the weaker side, and Wales, small in the number of its people, poor in the quality of its soil, had waged so plucky, so gallant a fight for so many years against its more powerful neighbour. The Saxons had come and had been beaten back ; the Normans had come and had been resolutely opposed for well-nigh a century. Meanwhile these fighting folk found time to slay each other. But now, in a time of grave national peril, Wales lost its name and became once more Cymru, the land of the Britons. Side by side these men who but a few short months ago had been fighting one another prepared to meet their common enemy. Owain Gwynedd, now the leader of Cymru, kept back his main host, and at the same time sent forward a few chosen warriors to attack and harass the onward march of the king. Henry, meanwhile, from his base at Oswestry, to which town he had journeyed from Shrewsbury, struck across the moun- tains into the woods of the Vale of Ceiriog. As before, once in the forests of Wales, Henry was as one lost. The skir- mishers whom Owain had sent out to harass him eagerly seized this opportunity to inflict heavy loss at little cost. Henry, indeed, found it necessary to have the woods cleared, so dangerous were they to his progress. At last, however, he emerged from the valley and commenced the passage of the Berwyn range. These mountains, as those who have travelled 275 HISTORY OF WALES in North Wales know, rise quickly from the plains to a con- siderable altitude. Their sides, bleak and barren, offer little or no cover to an advancing army ; the range is so con- tinuous that a general must look in vain for passes through which to lead his army in safety. Henry's progress was not unopposed, but he succeeded in encamping the advance posts of his forces in the mountains of Berwyn. It was while here that he was overtaken by storms of rain, which made the mountains impassable and prevented supplies of food from being brought from his base. Henry, realizing that his position was becoming one of danger, decided to retreat. We can imagine his ire. Of all the kings of England, no one is more noted for his furious temper, and we are told that he sometimes raged in anger like a maniac. This was one of those occasions. His wrath fell directly upon the hostages whom Owain had given after the earlier campaign ; these, to the number of twenty-two, he blinded. The unhappy men numbered among them many of Wales's noblest princes, including two sons of Owain and one son of Rhys ap Gruffydd (who must have been but a child at the time). Henry now abandoned the whole campaign. The Irish mercenaries were paid off and the king returned to. England. Welsh Success in South Wales The danger past, the Welsh chieftains parted, each return- ing to his own country. Rh^'S of Deheubarth was the first to take advantage of the Berwyn debacle. Cardigan Castle was attacked, and, after being betrayed by a Welsh cleric to Rhys, was burned and much booty taken. Rhys then seized the Carew castle of Cilgerran and imprisoned Robert fitz Stephen. He had by now regained almost all that he had lost during his earlier struggles with Henry. Several attempts were subsequently made by the Normans and Flemings to retake Cilgerran, but without success, and Rhys remained master of Ceredigion and south-western Wales. 276 OWAIN GWYNEDD Welsh Success in North Wales While these successes were being gained in the south Owain was not idle in the north, for we find him destroying Basing- werk Castle. Meanwhile there was trouble in the house of Powys, Owain Cyfeiliog and Owain Vychan drove out lorwerth the Red, and in the next year Owain Cyfeiliog was himself dispossessed of Caereinion by Owain Gwynedd, Cadwalader, and Rhys of Deheubarth. Caereinion was given to Owain Vychan, but Owain Cyfeiliog shortly afterward attacked it again and destroyed it. Owain, Cadwalader, and Rhys now turned their attention to Rhuddlan Castle. This stronghold had since Robert of Rhuddlan's time been the chief of the outlying posts of the Normans in North Wales. The garrison, after resisting for three months, during which time no aid arrived from England, capitulated, and the castle was burnt. The same fate befell Prestatyn, and the Welsh princes, well satisfied with their autumn campaign, returned to celebrate Christmas with rejoicings. Tegeingl was now again joined to Gwynedd, and Owain, by a rare mixture of strength, bravery, and caution, had extended his dominions from the Dovey to the Dee. His end was now approaching. Two years after the capture of Rhuddlan, after a time of general peace so rare in Wales, Owain Gwenydd, " a man of great celebrity, and of the most extraordinary sagacity, nobleness, fortitude, and bravery," died. The last year of his life was troubled by a dispute with the Church, but he was absolved upon his deathbed. 277 CHAPTER XVI THE LORD RHYS THE death of Owain Gwynedd in 1170 opened the way for the rise to pre-eminence of his energetic fellow- prince, Rhys of Deheubarth, or Rhys ap Gruff ydd (' the lyord Rhys ' — yr Arglwydd Rhys). We have already had occasion to mention examples of his bravery and his daring. Until now, however, the northern prince had held the central position on the stage of Welsh history. It may be that Owain was fortunate in having for the seat of his power the more rugged north, where, guarded by the mountains of Eryri, he could look out with comparative safety on the attempted aggressions of the English and upon the abortive punitive expeditions of Henry. Rhys, on the other hand, held sway in the comparatively flat lands of the south, and so, quite apart from questions of military competence, was exposed in greater measure than Owain to hostile attacks from England. Again, owing to the natural military strength of northern Wales, Owain had, so to speak, a handicap in the race for chieftaincy, an advantage which he was not slow to take, and one which, as we have seen, resulted in his being well-nigh supreme among the chieftains of Cymru. Rhys, however, even in his earlier years, had not been idle, nor had he taken a very secondary share in the movements which had almost freed Wales from the dominion of the marchers. Born about 1132, as early as 1146, when but a boy, he had assisted Cadell, his brother, in the capture of castles at Dinweileir, Caermarthen,and I^lanstephen. In the year following he joined in the attack on Wiston Castle. In 1 150 he was to the forefront in the movement which resulted 278 THE LORD RHYS in the expulsion of Owain's son, Howel, from South Ceredigion. Of the years which followed, which saw the conquest of North Ceredigion, the capture of Tenby, and the destruction of the castles of Aberafan and Ystrad Cyngen, we have already spoken. The year 1153, when Cadell was absent on a pilgrimage, leaving his possessions in the charge of his younger brothers, Maredudd and Rhys, marked an advancement in Rhys' fortunes. These were still further improved by the untimely death of Maredudd in 1155. Rhys was now ruler of Dyfed, Ceredigion, and Ystrad Tywi, though, of course, important parts of those districts were still held by marcher lords, chief of whom may be reckoned the Clares. Rhys attacks the Marchers The year 1158 saw Rhys' first serious conflict with the English king. As we have seen, he submitted on terms, having been persuaded by fair promises. These promises, as we know, were not kept, and the Cliffords and Clares came back once more into power in Ceredigion. The result was a campaign of castle-razing undertaken by Rhys against these lords. The castle of Llandovery, then in the hands of the Cliffords, was captured, and the Clares' castle in Ceredigion was burnt. In 1159 more castles were destroyed in Dyfed, and siege was laid to Caermarthen Castle itself. This siege was, however, un- successful. Rhys was compelled by the relieving force under Reginald, Earl of Cornwall, to abandon all present hope of taking this stronghold. This force, which was composed of French, Normans, Flemings, and English, combined with a Welsh contingent from the north in a counter-attack upon Rhys in the latter part of the same year, and Rhys was closely beset in his castle of Dinweileir. He was, however, strong enough to keep the castle, despite the fact that his enemies numbered among themselves, besides the Earl of Cornwall, the Earl of Bristol, and the Clares, the Welsh leaders Cadwalader and Howel and Conan of Gwynedd, who doubtless were seeking to revenge themselves for previous defeats. A truce was patched up, 279 HISTORY OF WALES and, in the words of the chronicler, the enemies of Rhys " returned home with unemployed hands." Rhys submits to Henry Rhys next comes into prominence in ii63,when Henry II led an army into South Wales to reduce him to obedience. The Welsh, conquered by superstition, offered no resistance to Henry's advance. A prophecy attributed to Merlin, to the effect that a freckled man who crossed the Ford of Pencarn would bring disaster to their land, had long been known to the men of Deheubarth. This ford at the time of Henry's coming had long been disused, but the king's horse, frightened by the blast of a trumpet, shied, refused the usual crossing, cantered along the bank of the stream, and plunged into the water at the ancient ford. With this dark omen before him, and doubtless also persuaded by his isolated position and Henry's might, Rhys submitted, and returned with the king to England, where, later in the year, he did homage to his overlord at the Council of Woodstock. The next year was to show, however, that his homage was but a form, his fealty mere lip-service. Hardly was he back in Wales when he commenced to burn and destroy more castles in Dyfed. In the year following, as we have seen, he was one of the band of patriots who gathered at Corwen among the mountains of the north to resist the attempted subjugation of their land by Henry. How that expedition failed, beaten by Wales's impregnable mountains and the fury of the elements, together with the bravery of Owain's advance posts, we have already stated. The Welsh princes were not slow to mark the weakness of the king ; all made renewed efforts to cast off the yoke which was threatening to bear them down, and in this movement Rhys was by no means the least energetic or the least successful. Cardigan Castle and Cilgerran were laid siege to and taken, as we have seen. Rhys was again master of Ceredigion. In 1167 he was again in league with Owain, this time first against Powys, and later in the successful attack upon Rhuddlan 280 THE LORD RHYS Castle. In 1168 he was busy building a castle at Aber Einion and invading Brecknock. Thus we see that in the years when Owain was the admitted leader of the Welsh Rhys in the south was doing many redoubtable things, and, when joint action was necessary, was to be found a trusty lieutenant in support of Owain. With the death of Owain in 1170 the lieutenant became the general. In the years which follow the Lord Rhys is the most powerful figure in Wales. There was another and more important event which happened in that year which greatly strengthened the hands of all Henry's enemies. The murder of Becket, resulting as it did in the virtual banishment of the king from the hearts and love of all good men, made England's ruler for years impotent to aid or harm. England's weakness was always, in those days, Wales's strength, and Rhys was ever ready to take advantage of the dipping of the balance. There was yet another cause which advanced the power of the Welsh, particularly the Welsh of the south. The years 1166-70 had seen the departure of several important marcher lords from South Wales to Ireland, where they had espoused the cause of Dermot, king of Leinster. One of these, Richard of Clare, had prospered so well that on the death of Dermot in 1171 Richard was nominated his successor. Henry II now determined to take a hand in the struggle. With the memories of Stephen's reign ever present, it is little wonder that he looked with no great favour on this quick advancement to kingly power of one of his barons. The king, having collected a large force with which to bring Richard to submission, prepared to cross over to Ireland from Milford Haven. Richard, however, made peace, and the movement is only of importance to us since it resulted in a compact being made between Henry and Rhys. The Welsh prince, though having to give hostages and pay a fine, was taken back into full favour. The possessions which Rhys had won were formally recognized as his, and he was soon after- ward made a justice of Deheubarth. His son Howel, who had been a hostage for many years, was also released. 281 HISTORY OF WALES Henry's Pilgrimage to St. David's It was after Henry's return from Ireland that the king made his famous pilgrimage to the shrine of St. David. According to Giraldus, he proceeded to the holy place in the guise of a pilgrim, on foot, and staff in hand. While the solemn pro- cession which had been formed was proceeding on its way we are told that a woman whose petition to the king had been ignored, in the passionate manner peculiar to the Celts of all times, shouted out, with a loud voice, the imprecation : " Avenge us this day, I^echlawar ! Avenge our race and nation on this man ! " The reference was to a prophecy of Merlin's (according to vulgar belief) to the effect that a king of England returning through Menevia after the conquest of Ireland should die on Lechlawar ('the Speaking-stone'), a block of marble forming a bridge over a stream on the way to St. David's. The king, having arrived at ' the Speaking- stone,' after a momentary hesitation boldly crossed over. Finding, doubtless to his intense relief — for he had his share of superstitious belief — that he was still alive, he said with some indignation : " Who now will have any faith in that liar Merlin ? " So saying, he entered the church, paid his devo- tions, and heard Mass solemnly celebrated. The Power of Rhys Established After the departure of Henry, Rhys, now his overlord's friend, was in a position of great strength in the south. This friendship was advanced shortly afterward by the aid which the lord of Deheubarth gave to Henry during the revolt against the king which took place in 1173. His son Howel Sais (' the Englishman '—in reference to his long sojourn in England as a hostage) was sent to aid the king in France, and later Rhys sent troops to support the king's cause both in England and on the Continent. Rhys' position is perhaps best shown by the events of 1175. Henry had now returned from France, the revolt headed by his sons had been subdued, Becket's death was beginning to fade, in some slight degree, 282 THE LORD RHYS from men's minds. The time had come to settle the affairs of the kingdom. At the comicil held at Gloucester, among other important matters the condition of Wales was fully considered. Rhys was summoned, and by the advice of the king (according to the Brut) he took with him all the princes of the south. The meeting seems to have been mutually satisfactory. The princes returned peaceably to their country. One of them, lorwerth ap Owain, who had been deprived of Caerleon by Henry some years before, had it returned to him, and Rhys was advanced yet farther into King Henry's favour. The chronicler, indeed, tells us that he was " the most beloved friend of the king at that time." His friendship was of value to his own country while still being of assistance to England. South Wales was, indeed, settling down into a state of amity with England. Under Rhys' guidance it prospered for many years. The feuds of the past could not, however, be forgotten in a moment. This very year which saw the peaceful return of the chieftains from Gloucester witnessed in Wales an act of unusual barbarity. In the early part of the year Henry, a brother of Earl Roger of Hereford who had succeeded to the lordships of Brecknock and Upper Gwent, was slain by Seisyll ap Dyfnwal, one of the princes in Rhys' train, and one who had married into Rhys' family, his wife Gwladus being that prince's sister. On Seisyll's return from Gloucester, Henry's nephew, William of Breose, now lord of Abergavenny, avenged his uncle's death by murdering Seisyll and his son Gruffydd, whom he had lured to his castle to hear a royal ordinance read. Not content with this act of treachery, William sent men to the court of Seisyll, where they seized Gwladus and her young child, Cadwalader, a seven-year-old boy, whom they slew in his mother's arms. We are not surprised to find our chronicler writing that as a result of this double act of infamy " none of the Welsh dared trust to the French." Meanwhile during this tragic year some terrible deeds had been committed around Caerleon. The times are too refined to permit us to relate the mutilations practised by Howel of 283 HISTORY OF WALES Caerleon on his uncle Owain Pencarwn. About the same time Gwynedd was also witnessing a bitter struggle between contending factions of the same house. Owain's sons were effecting what Rhys' sons were also destined to accomplish — the break-up of the ordered state which the wisdom of their father had brought about. At the moment David ap Owain had succeeded in fettering his brother Rhodri to some dungeon wall. Rhodri soon escaped, however, and the end of the year saw David expelled from Mon and Gwynedd and driven over the river Conway. Rhys a Patron of the Arts lycaving these petty doings of little tyrants, we must return to the Ivord Rhys. Like Gruffydd ap Cynan, now that he had reached a position of power he is found turning from the rude severities of war to the more gentle arts of peace. Like the great leader of Gwynedd, he seems to have been a patron of bardism and music. In 1176, after the return from Gloucester, he held a grand festival at his castle of Aberteifi, at which he appointed two competitions, one between bards and poets, and the other between the harpers, fiddlers [chrythoryon) , pipers, and various other performers of instrumental music. We are also told that he assigned two chairs for the victors in the contests, which he enriched " with vast gifts." It is interesting to note that the men of the south won the chair for music, the men of the north that for poetry — a division of talent which not improbably lives on to-day. Death of Henry II The next few years were quite uneventful in the south, though disputes in the north and in Powys were still raging. We gather that Rhys was continuing to consolidate his power, and in 1177 we hear of his erecting a castle at Rhaiadr Gwy. In 1 1 87 his son Maelgwn appears to have carried out a small raid which resulted in the ravaging and burning of Tenby. This seems to have been directed against the Flemings, and evidently caused great delight to the compiler of the Brut, 284 THE LORD RHYS v/ho refers to Maelgwn in most glowing terms, calling him " the shield and strength of all the south," and likening him to a lion.^ It is probable that the son was bidding to outshine the father. However that may be, in 1189 we find Rhys imprisoning Maelgwn, now referred to as " the light, and beauty, and courtesy, and shield, and strength, and liberty of all the south and the terror of the Saxons, the best knight, second to Gwalchmai." It was in this year (1189) that Henry of England died. The date was an important one for Wales, since it commenced a period of weak government for England. Richard the Cru- sader, fired by the preaching of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, was away. Never at home in England, he was an example of a brave and chivalrous man who came near to being one of our worst kings. Followed by the anarchy of John and the minority of Henry III, Richard's accession commenced an era when Wales ceased to bow before the strength of the English king. For many decades, indeed, Wales was virtually independent. These years we must now hastily consider. In the very year in which Henry died we find the Lord Rhys taking possession of the castles of St. Clear, Aber Corran, and lylanstephen. He also about this time ravaged Penfro Rhos and Gower, and three years later the castle of I,lann- hadein fell into his hands. To recount all the minor happen- ings of this time would be tedious, but it is desirable to point out the general trend of events, so that the era of the lylywelyns may be understood. Position of Wales after the Death of Henry At or about this time the three main divisions of Wales were controlled by the Lord Rhys, who governed Deheubarth, Gwenwynwyn of Powys, and Llywelyn ap lorwerth of Gwynedd. Of these Rhys was undoubtedly the predominant personaHty at the time of Henry's death. He was, however, growing old. He was not less than fifty-seven years of age — and men grew old quickly in those troublous times. There were signs, 1 There is every reason to believe that Maelgwn was worthy of this eulogy. 285 HISTORY OF WALES indeed, that the once strong hand was losing its jSrmness. His sons had for years been causing their father and their country much trouble and some loss. As we have seen, in 1189 Maelgwn had to be imprisoned. In 1193 we find Maelgwn (who had escaped from prison in 1192), together with his brother Howel Sais, demolishing the castle of Llannhadein, which their father had taken the year before. It began to appear as though Rhys' power in the south was breaking up. A feud was already beginning among his sons,^ It was not, however, until 1194 that the sons began to get the upper hand. In that year Rhys was imprisoned by them in Nevern Castle. In the intervening years, it is true, he had won some more victories against his foreign enemies, and in 11 89, when he journeyed to Oxford to pay homage to Richard I, he retained sufficient of his old courage and spirit to return to his country furious with rage and without having acknowledged his overlord, because Richard had failed to make a special journey to Oxford to meet him. The imprisonment of 1194 seems to have destroyed his prestige for the moment. Though liberated by his son Howel Sais, he found himself in the year following the object of a plot to depose him in favour of his sons Maredudd and Rhys. This he suppressed by the imprisonment of the pretenders, and in 1196 embarked once more on a short but victorious campaign of destruction. Caermarthen was destroyed, Colwyn Castle captured and burnt ; Radnor town was ravaged and destroyed by fire ; Roger Mortimer was defeated in a pitched battle ; and Pain's Castle, in Elfael, was taken. This was the last outburst of a brave and fiery spirit who for more than half a century had led the men of the south against the enemies of his country. He died in 1197, while still under sentence of excommunication for insults inflicted by his sons upon Peter de I^eia — an ill end for the bountiful benefactor ^ The Brut y Tywysogion under (corrected) date 1193 states that toward the end of that year a certain Anarawd ap Rhys seized Madog and Howel, his brothers, and bhnded them. This is quite a different family from that of the Lord Rhys. 286 Plate XIJ. The Gateway, vStrata Florida Abbey 2S6 Photo Citlliford, Aherystivyth THE LORD RHYS of Strata Florida, for the liberal donor of gifts to Wliitland and Talley Abbeys. At length, however, the last sacred words were said over his body, over that unheeding corpse which had been scourged to purge the soul of the offences of others. GWENWYNWYN AND I^LYWELYN We must now turn once more to a consideration of affairs in the north and east. In the north Llywelyn ap lorwerth, called in later time lylywelyn the Great, was a very young man slowly rising to power, laboriously engaged in uniting his disrupted country and in resisting the encroachments of the equally ambitious, but less able, Gwenwynwyn of Powys. This Gwenwynwyn, though destined never to attain real greatness, had in him many of the qualities which had dis- tinguished Rhys in his earlier years. Brave and passionate, he was an admirable leader of revolt, and on the death of Rhys the leadership of the Welsh seems to have passed to this chieftain of South Powys rather than to lylywelyn. In 1 195 Owain Cyfeiliog, of whom we have already spoken, weary of the burdens of government, had entered a monas- tery, as so many nobles did in those days. His retirement opened the way for his successor, Gwenwynwyn. Almost at once Owain's pacific policy was abandoned. Attacks were made on the border counties. So serious was the position that Hubert Walter, now Justiciar, thought it necessary to lead an army in person against the men of Powys. Gwen- wynwyn' s castle of Trallwng, or Pool, was attacked and undermined. The priestly soldier was, however, chivalrous He allowed the garrison to go freely, a clemency which was repaid in the following year, when Gwenwynwyn recovered possession of his own and was equally magnanimous to his foe. The Prince of South Powys now turned his attention to his own Welsh neighbours. At first Arwystli was the object of attack. This cantref, after an unimportant campaign, fell into his hands about 1197. Next Deheubarth claimed his attention. The Lord Rhys was now dead, and his sons 287 HISTORY OF WALES Gruffydd and Maelgwn (now an exile) were disputing as to the right of succession. Gwenwynw)^! took the side of the exiled claimant. Aberystwyth town and castle were attacked and seized. Ceredigion was taken, with all its castles, and Gruffydd himself was captured and flung into Corfe Castle. In the year following the tables were turned. After some pre- liminary reverses, in which Maelgwn captured the castles of Aberteifi and Ystrad Meurig, Gruifydd succeeded in completely shattering, for the time being, his brother's hopes of leadership. We have seen that Gruffydd had been imprisoned. The change of fortune came about as follows. After the debacle of 1197 Gwenwynwyn had apparently banished Gruffydd to England or imprisoned him in England. In the following year Gwenwynwyn, " endeavouring the restoration of their ancient rights to the Welsh, their original property and their boun- daries," collected a considerable force and attempted the reduction of Pain's Castle. Unequipped as he was with the necessary engines of war, he made little headway. This lack of success coming to the ears of Gruffydd prompted him to offer to lead his English gaolers to the relief of their fellow- countrymen. The offer was accepted. Gruffydd at the head of a considerable force of English soldiers attacked the besieg- ing army and defeated it with considerable loss. Having regained his liberty, and elated by this first success, Gruffydd lost little time in wresting from Maelgwn all the gains of the previous campaigns, except the castles of Aberteifi and Ystrad Meurig. As to the former important castle, the Brut tells us that " Maelgwn swore upon several relics, in the presence of monks, after taking hostages for peace from Gruffydd, that he would deliver up the castle and hostages together to Gruffydd on a fixed day. And that oath he disregarded, giving up neither the castle nor the hostages ; divine power, nevertheless, set the hostages free from the prison of Gwen- wynwyn." The climax came in 1200, two years afterward, when, as the chronicler tells us, " Maelgwn, son of Rhys, sold Aberteifi, the key of all Wales, for a trifling value, to the English, for fear of and out of hatred of his brother Gruffydd." 288 THE LORD RHYS In the next year death removed Gruffydd from the scene, On his death in 1201 his title to leadership passed to his sons (Rhys and Owain) , who, in consequence, are found in opposition to Maelgwn for many years. We must now leave this unhappy house of Deheubarth still embroiled in the squabble for power, Gwenwynwyn, too, is no longer a force worthy of detailed consideration. It is not until we come to speak of Llywelyn the Great that we can treat of a man and a movement that once again welded Wales into a nation and gave to its people once more their beloved liberty. 289 CHAPTER XVII GEOFFREY, WALTER, & GERALD IN this chapter we shall consider three men eminent in the realms of literature who, while being purely or partly of Welsh birth, made their influence felt through- out Europe, and who, brought up as they were in Wales, have left us a fairly complete picture of that country in the twelfth century. We shall thus not merely have to consider the men, but also the matter of which they wrote, and in so considering shall have something to say of the life and manners of mediaeval Wales. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Walter Map, and Giraldus Cam- brensis were all very remarkable men. Extremely learned for their age, they add a sprightliness and, especially in the case of the last two, a wit and wide knowledge of men which have made their writings live on right to the present day. The busy man to-day can pick up his Giraldus and laugh with him over the curious events recorded in the Itinerary, he can follow Geoffrey with pleasure through his pseudo-history of the Britons, he can enjoy Map, whether he be telling us of legends connected with the name of Arthur or of the prophecies of Merlin or his Goliardic stories or his opinions of the Cistercians. They were, indeed, singularly similar types. Though clerics and learned men, they never permitted their learning to make them dull. They had a ready ear for a story or a legend, and a quick wit. They were voluminous writers, and there is hardly a line they wrote that is not well worth reading. Geoffrey of Monmouth This son of Arthur, private priest to William, Earl of Gloucester, was the earliest of the triumvirate. Born about 290 GEOFFREY, WALTER, & GERALD 1 100, he was brought up in the Welsh manner as the foster-son of Uchtryd, his paternal uncle, then Archdeacon, and afterward Bishop, of Ivlandaff. Educated at Oxford, he early became a friend of Walter of Wallingford, Archdeacon of Oxford, who suggested to him the compilation of a history of the Britons. According to Geoffrey, this Walter had already become possessed of a " very ancient British book," ^ which he had brought over from Brittany, and it was this book which Geoffrey drew upon for material for his Historia Regum Britanniae. While yet engaged in the production of his history he found time to make a lyatin translation of the prophecies of Merlin from the Welsh — a work which was after- ward incorporated into his history. The great work was eventually completed not later than 1139, for in that year it was read by Henry of Huntingdon in the Abbey of Bee in Normandy, and it has been stated by a competent authority that it was finished by 1135. The Historia is an account of the British nation from the fall of Troy onward. Geoffrey seems never to have permitted his imagination to receive the slightest check, and from beginning to end, as a history, it is completely untrustworthy. Even in his own century it was perceived by the discerning that it was far from being a truthful story. William of Newbury was particularly scathing, for among other rude things we find him saying : " In that book of his which he calls his British History how childishly and impudently he lies throughout no one, unless ignorant of the ancient histories, is left in any doubt." Giraldus summed up its value in his own manner by a story concerned with evil spirits. It appears that, according to him, a certain man had the power of seeing evil spirits. These spirits loved lies and hated truth ; consequently, by observing from what books they fled he was able to judge the truth of the written word. " Once," we are told, " when he was much tormented by the evil spirits, he placed the Gospel of St. John in his bosom, when they immediately vanished from his sight like 1 Thomas Wright suggested that it could not have been more than two hundred years old at the time. 291 HISTORY OF WALES birds ; afterward lie laid the Gospel aside, and for the sake of experiment took the History of the Britons, by Galfridus Arthurus, in its place, when they returned and covered not only his body, but the book in his bosom, far more quickly and more troublesome than usual." Giraldus' judgment was right, even as his mode of expressing it was witty. But notwithstanding its complete un trust worthiness, Geof- frey's work instantly gained a wide popularity. The writer had succeeded in casting a glamour of romance over the early history of his country, and out of the storehouse of his imagination had created kings and courts, heroes and victories. It rapidly spread to the Continent. Copy after copy was made,^ and in time its contents were accepted as true by historians of repute. Geoffrey's statements are followed by Holinshed, and through him by Shakespeare, who got his account of King Lear from this authority. ^ In England many translations, adaptations, and modifica- tions of the historio-romance early appeared, those known as the Brut Tysilio, the Brut y Brenhinoedd , and the Brut Gruffydd ah Arthur being the most famous. Of its effect on mediaeval romantic literature through its creation, or at least development, of the character of Arthur we have already spoken in a previous chapter. It is perhaps because of the eager seizure upon his materials by the poets and troubadours that Geoffrey gained his place as the leader in a wonderful literary movement, but the work itself, had it not been called a history, would have ranked high as a product of the imagination. Apart from his writings, Geoffrey cut a respectable but not an imposing figure upon the stage of history. He was deemed learned by his contemporaries, and with the aid of his uncle was successful in obtaining preferment. According to H. R. Tedder, he was consecrated Bishop of St. Asaph in 1152, and 1 An interesting copy dedicated to King Stephen instead of to Robert, Earl of Gloucester, appeared in the catalogue of Berne Library, Switzerland, in 1770. For an account of this see ArchcBological Journal, vol. xv, p. 299. 2 His work was largely used by other Elizabethan dramatists. Such plays as The True Trojans, by Fisher, and The Mayor of Quinborough, by Middleton, are mainly based on Geoffrey's History. 292 Pi 1^ « ^ w to o o H ^ O .\ ^,^^^fc^ 17 ao PtATE LXII. Romano-British Coins 41S COINS time between 30-5 B.C. Tasciovanus was a prolific minter, but notwithstanding that very many coins similar to the one illustrated were known it was not until 1844 that it was quite determined whether the TASCio on the obverse referred to a king, a tax, or a people. In that year Mr. Birch discovered that some coins, instead of reading TASCE, as previously believed, read tasc . f, and were coins of Cunobelinus, the expanded reading of that and other coins being CvnobeIvINVS . TASCiovANNi . F, or ' Cunobeline, the son of Tasciovanus.' For the extent of Tasciovanus' dominions see the note to the next coin. No. 15. lyCgend : obverse, CA — mv ; reverse, cvno. This coin of King Cunobelinus, or CymbeHne, is one of many issued by that king. Out of the fifty-one British coins given in the Monumenta Historica Britannica, thirty-six are of Cunobeline, and Sir John Evans gives many more. This particular coin, which was one of the commonest of the many types issued by Cunobelinus, is particularly interesting, since it bears the name of the place where it was minted, viz. Camulodunum, the later Colchester. Cunobelinus was the son of Tascio- vanus, and ruled about the time of Christ over the greater part of south-eastern Britain, including Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Nottinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Bed- fordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Middlesex, and Kent, Plate 62 : Romano-British Coins No. 16. A sestertius of Hadrian. Minted A.D. 1 19-138. Britannia personified. No. 17. A medallion of Commodus, a.d. 185. Britannia personified. No. 18. A coin of Maximian, a.d. 296-305, struck at the Mint of IvOndon. No. 19. Aureus of Carausius, Emperor in Britain a.d. 286-293. No. 20. Aureus of Allectus, Emperor in Britain a.d. 293- 296. 419 HISTORY OF WALES A splendid find of over 5000 Roman bronze coins was made in 1873 on the Little Orme, in North Wales. Practically all the coins are of the period 305-310, and the extent of the output of the London mint (in which they were struck) is shown by the fact that hardly two of the coins are from the same die. It is believed that this hoard represents the military chest of the Roman station which commanded the pass at Penrhyn. The reader is referred for details to Archceologia Camhrensis, 6th Series, vol. ix, p. 381. Plate 63 : Welsh and Norman Coins Comparatively few Welsh coins have come down to us, most of those which we possess having been coined for Wales rather than minted by Welsh princes. In Plate 63 we give some examples of Saxon, Welsh, and Norman coins found in or near Wales. By far the most interesting coin shown is No. i, which bears on its obverse the inscription + HOf/EL REX '.HE and on its reverse GILLYZ. According to Mr. Carlyon-Britton this is a coin of Howel Dha, the -E being C with a mark of contraction through the upright stroke and intended for ' Cymriorum.' The moneyer was Gillyz, and we know that a minter Gillys coined for Eadgar at Chester and Hereford. Nos. 2 and 3 are coins of Eadmund, No. 2 being made by the moneyer Maeldomen at Chester, and No. 3 by Afra at Derby. Nos. 5 and 6 are other Gillyz coins. Nos. 6 and 7 are Norman coins minted at Rhuddlan. The rest are also examples of Norman coins. 420 ■^' f:^ mm'] ■ '-..v 0^ // ^. -'-''§ y- o Q ^ <; "S o ^ .2 NOTE C WELSH MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS THE ancient Welsh musical instruments were seven in number : the telyn, or harp ; the crwth, a crude type of violin ; the pib-corn, or horn-pipe ; the bagpipe ; the tabwrdd, or drum ; the corn-buelin, or bugle-horn ; and, lastly, that elementary instrument mentioned by Davydd ap Gwilym and now known as the Jew's harp, this being a corruption of the ancient name, ' jaw's harp.' The harp is, of course, a very ancient instrument. When the Welsh harp was first formed is unknown, but the harp in one form or another goes back beyond the days of the Psalmist. In Wales it was extremely popular, and every household possessed its harp and harper. According to Giraldus, it was customary for a guest to be entertained on his arrival " with the conversation of young women and with tunes on the harp." In the time of Davydd ap Gwilym it would appear that the harp was strung either with leather or hair strings. He shows a strong predilection for the hair-strung harp, speaking with contempt of the " din of this leathern harp." The hair used was not bleached, like the modern catgut, but was left in its natural colour. Strings of the requisite strength were obtained by plaiting. According to the Welsh laws bards were only required to use the hair-strung harp before taking their degree ; afterward they were allowed to play on the leathern harp. Edward Jones, who wrote a treatise on Welsh musical instruments which was published in an enlarged form in 1794, related that a friend of his, William Williams, had a leathern harp when a boy. The body of it was hollowed or scooped out of a piece of wood and covered over with an 421 HISTORY OF WALES ox's skin, which was sewed very tightly at the back. The pegs were made of bone or ivory. Another old Welsh harp seen by the same writer (it was then 200 years old) had one row of strings, thirty- three in number. It was 4 feet g inches high, and was made of sycamore wood, except the sound- board, which was of deal. Davydd Benwyn, writing in 1584, gives " twenty-nine strings or more " as the compass of the harp. It would seem that the old Welsh harp extended from G, the first line in the bass, to D in alt. The single harp was the earliest form, and in ancient times was probably small in size. In course of time the double harp was invented. Sion Eos, the bard, writing about 1450, mentions a triple-stringed harp. The double harp contained from fifty to sixty strings, the triple harp as many as seventy- five. Jones said that he had seen a painting showing a triple harp with only fifty-seven strings ; on the other hand, he had seen a modem triple harp with more than a hundred. In his day the triple harp had a compass of five octaves and one note. He adds : " The two outside rows are the diatonics, which are both tuned in unisons and in any key that the performer means to play in ; the treble row of them consists of twenty-seven strings ; that is, from A in alt down to C in the bass ; and the opposite row, or unisons (which are pla3'ed with the bass hand) , extends from A in alt as low as double G in the bass, which is thirty-seven strings ; and the middle row, being the flats and sharps, extends from alto G sharp down to double B natural in the bass, consisting of tliirty-four strings. All the three rows together amount to ninety-eight strings." The Welsh harp had, we believe, no pedal. When being played it was inclined against the left shoulder ; the treble was played with the right hand and the bass with the left. The crwth was the subject of a paper sent as long ago as 1770 to the Society of Antiquaries by the Hon. Dennis Barrington. He tells us that at that time there was but one man in the whole principality who could play on it. His name was John Morgan, of Newburgh, in Anglesey. The 422 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS crwtli is supposed to be an early form of violin, though in fact the two instruments are very different. As early as 1460 we find it placed in juxtaposition to the fiddle, for in Libeaus Disconus the following passage occurs : With sytole, sautrye yn same, Harpe, fydele and crouthe. The crwth possessed six strings, two being touched by the thumb. It had a flat bridge, so that all the strings must of The Crwth From Archcsologia, vol. iii necessity have been struck at once. One end of the bridge went through the hole in the belly of the instrument and acted as sound-post. According to Jones, the crwth was a pleasant- toned instrument, commonly used in olden times as a tenor accompaniment to the harp. The method of tuning was entirely different from that adopted in the case of the violin, which is tuned in fifths. The strings of the crwth and the method of tuning them, according to Jones, were as follows : 6th, jth, 4tb, 3rd, 2nd, ist Tuneist I Tune'sth I Tune 6th I Tune and I Tune 3rd | Tune 4th string I to ist | to 5th | to ist | to 5th | to 3rd J. Isil^ilii 423 HISTORY OF WALES It was, of course, played with a bow, which was short and very bowed. It seems to have been common in Wales and on the border, and Butler could deem it necessary to intro- duce a crowder into Hudibras (he had probably heard them while staying at Ivudlow Castle). Of famous performers on the instrument the name of Rhys Grythor, who lived about 1580, has been preserved to us. The instrument itself dates back at least as far as Giraldus. The pib-corn was still being played when Barrington and Jones were writing. Barrington says, however, that it was hardly used in any other part of Wales except Anglesey. In his time a Mr. Wynn of Penkescedd gave an annual prize liligmniBirMi The Pib-corn From ArchcBologia, vol. iii. to the best performer on the instrument, and Barrington himself had heard one of the prize-winners. He describes the tone as being very " tolerable." He also tells us that it " resembles an indifferent hautbois." It was probably called a horn-pipe because both its extremities were made of horn. It was a reed instrument. Jones tells us that it was played by the shepherds in Anglesey, " and tends greatly to enhance the innocent delight of pastoral life." The bagpipe was not, of course, by any means peculiar to Wales. It was probably developed from a more simple instru- ment blown directly from the mouth. lolo Goch, writing about the time of Gl^mdwr, mentions it. The drum and the jaw's or Jew's harp require no comment. The bugle-horn is an ancient instrument obtaining its name from the buffalo. The buffalo-horn was much prized in the time of Howel, but rather as a drinking-vessel than as a potential instrument of music. Giraldus has several things to say of Welsh music. Accord- 424 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ing to him (we quote from Sir Richard Colt Hoare's transla- tion), "Their musical instruments charm and deHght the ear with their sweetness. ... It is astonishing that in so complex and rapid a movement of the fingers the musical proportions can be preserved, and that throughout the difficult modulations on their various instruments the harmony is completed with such a sweet velocity, so unequal an equality, so discordant a concord, as if the chords sounded together fourths or fifths. They always begin from B flat and return to the same, that the whole may be completed under the sweetness of a pleasing sound. They enter into a movement and conclude it in so delicate a manner, and play the little notes so sportively under the blunter sounds of the bass strings, enlivening with wanton levity, or communicating a deeper internal sensa- tion of pleasure, so that the perfection of their art appears in the concealment of it : Art profits when concealed, Disgraces when revealed. From this cause, those very strains which afford deep and unspeakable mental delight to those who have skilfully penetrated into the mysteries of the art, fatigue rather than gratify the ears of others, who seeing, do not perceive, and hearing, do not understand ; and by whom the finest music is esteemed no better than a confused and disorderly noise, and will be heard with unwilHngness and disgust." In his time the chief instruments were the harp, pipe, and crwth, and it is very evident from other parts of his works that the harp was an ever-present joy in the ordinary Welsh house- hold, and that the crwth was a highly esteemed though secondary instrument. The pipe does not appear to have been equally popular. To-day, of course, the crwth has been completely superseded by the vioHn. The Welsh harp, how- ever, still lives on, though it is now similar in appearance to the English harp, but much smaller. It is differently tuned. The writer was once fortunate enough to hear a well-known Welsh harpist play on a Welsh harp made by HISTORY OF WALES himself. It was in the chief room of a small inn in a typical Welsh village. The company was composed mainly of Welsh farmers, and many could not speak Enghsh. In this very Welsh setting the harper struck the strings of his instrument. Player and instrument combined to produce a result not merely pleasing, but delightful. 426 WELSH SEALS THE following seals are preserved in tlie British Museum, and are described in Mr. W. de Gray Birch's Catalogue of Seals. The figures in brackets refer to the number in the Catalogue. The spellings have not been altered. [771] Oliver Cromwell's signet seal, showing five Welsh quarterings. (Illustration faces p. 402 ; description, p. xxxiv.) [820] John Tippetot, first Baron Tiptoft and Powys. [1407] Roland Merrick, Bishop of Bangor, 1559-66. [1859] Nicholas ap Gurgant, Bishop of Llandaff, 1148-83. [1865] [1870] Henry of Abergavenny, Bishop of Ivlandaff, 1193-1218. [2541] Henry, Abbot of Aberconway ; fifteenth century. [3669] Abbot's first seal of Neath Cistercian Abbey, Glamorgan. [3954] Chapter seal of College of St. Mary's, St. David's. [41 17], [41 1 8] Seal of Cistercian Abbey of Strata Marcella. [4193], [4194] Seal of Cistercian Abbey of Tintern. [5547] Llywelyn ap lorwerth. Prince of North Wales ('the Great '). (Illustration faces p. 318 ; description p. xxxi.) [5549] Edward, first (English) Prince of Wales. (Illustration faces p. 358 ; description p. xxxiii.) [5617] Madog ap Griffin of Strata Marcella ; twelfth century. [5803] Pain of Chaworth ; 1270. [5804] Ranulf, third Earl of Chester, 11 19-28. (There are other seals of the Earls of Chester.) [5833] One of the Clares' seals. [5944] Cadwallon ap Caradog ; c. 1200. [5946] Morgan ap Caradog (of Aberafan) ; twelfth or thir- teenth century, 427 HISTORY OF WALES [5957] Madog ap Gruffydd ; 1228 ; co. Montgomery. [5971] Conan f. Heliae ; late twelfth century, [5977] Howel ap Cadwallon of Dolgeneu ; late twelfth century [5980] Leisan ap Morgan. [6052] Morgan Gam of Aberafan. [6161] A Ivacy seal. [6235] Simon de Montfort's seal. [6567], [6670], [6682] March or Welsh lady's seals. Owain Gl5aidwr's Great and Privy Seals are now preserved in Paris. They are described in Archceologia , vol. xxv, and are illustrated a7ite, p. 378. 428 SELECTION OF IMPORTANT DATES 3600-1300 B.C. (c). Circles and avenues built. 2000 B.C. (c). Commencement of Bronze Age in Albion. 1000 B.C. (c). First Goidels (Gaels) arrive in Albion. 300 B.C. (c). Brythonic conquest of Albion. 100 B.C. (c). lyate Celtic art reaches its zenith. 55 B.C. Caesar's first landing. 50-1 B.C. British inscribed coins being struck. A.D. 43 Aulus Plautius commences the Roman conquest of Britain. 74-78. Julius Frontinus reduces the Silures and Ordovices of Wales. 286-293. Carausius Emperor in Britain. 383. Maximus (Maxen Wledig) leads the men of Britain against Gratian. 400 (c). Cunedda Wledig conquers Gwynedd. 409. Saxon and Angle invasion becomes of serious propor- tions. 429. Britons win the Hallelujah Battle. 441-449. Saxons establish themselves permanently in Britain. 450 (c). Vortigern rules. 504-516 (c). Battle of Mount Badon ; Gildas born; Arthur, the legendary king of the Britons, flourishes. 571. Battle of Deorham separates Welsh from the men of Cornwall (the West Welsh). 584. Battle of Fethan-lea ; Ceawlin beaten back from Cheshire. 613 (c). Battle of Chester separates Welsh from the Britons of Strathclyde. 617 (c.) . Cadwallawn, the devastator of Northumbria and ally of Penda, commences to rule over Gwynedd. 633. Cadwallawn wins victory of Hatfield Chase (Heathfield). 429 HISTORY OF WALES 664-683 (c.) (probably 664). Cadvvalader, last of the kings of Britain, dies of the plague. 844. Rhodri Mawr succeeds Merfyn Frych. 850 (c.) , Norse and Danes begin to ravage Wales. 928 (c). Howel Dha's laws compiled. 950. Howel Dha dies. 1039. Gruffydd ap I/lywelyn succeeds lago. 1063. Harold Godwinson plans Gruffydd's death. 1066. The Normans. 1070. Bleddyn sole Prince of Powys. 1075. Gruffydd ap Cynan ; reigned intermittently between 1075 and 1137 (lived 1054-1137). 1081. Battle of Mynydd Carn. iioo (c). Geoffrey of Monmouth born. 1137-70. Owain Gwynedd leader of the Welsh. 1140 (c). Walter Map born. 1147 (c). Giraldus Cambrensis born. 1170-97. The Lord Rhys leader of the Welsh (born 1132). 1 197-1200. lylywelyn and Gwenwynwyn. 1200-40 (c). I/lywelyn the Great becomes the chief prince in Wales, 1216. Welsh Parliament meets at Aberdovey. 1233. Ivlywelyn overruns South Wales. 1240-46. David, Gruffudd, and Henry III at feud. 1246-58. I/lywelyn's rise to power. 1258. Welsh chieftains take oath of fidelity to lylywelyn. 1282. Edwardian Conquest ; death of lylywelyn. 1283. David ap Gruffudd put to death. 1294. Madog's rebellion. 1322. First Welsh members returned to Parliament. 1349. ^lie Black Death. 1359. Owain Glyndwr born. 1400. Owain Glyndwr rebels. 1403. Battle of Shrewsbury. 1415 (c). Owain Glyndwr dies. 1485. Bosworth Field ; Henry Tudor ascends the English Throne. 430 IMPORTANT DATES 1534-43, Rowland I^ee president of the Council of Wales. 1535. Act of Union passed. 1536. Welsh Parliamentary representation becomes constant. 1639. Commencement of Nonconformist movement. 1642. Civil War commences. 1647. Harlech Castle falls. 1719. First Welsh book printed in Wales. 1760 -1845. Inclosure Acts mainly passed. 431 INDEX In using the Index the following points may usefully be borne in mind : ae and a (' Caer ' and ' Car ') ; Cy and Ki (' Cydweli ' and ' Kidwelly ') ; / and v (' Dyfed ' and ' Dyved ') ; g and c (' Madog ' and ' Madoc ') ; y and i, o, e (' Tywi,' ' Towi ' ; ' Dynefwr,' ' Dine- vor ' ; ' Meirionydd,' ' Merioneth ') ; dd and th ; o and w, are to some extent interchangeable in Welsh spelling, though a consistent spelling of the same word, unless for good reason, has been adopted in the present book. Contractions used : ap = son of ; vz = daughter of. Pronunciations : dd = soft th in English. LI = thl (soft), g in such words as Madog = ck or hard c ; e.g. Madog = ' Maddock.' c is always hard, f = v. ff = f. w = long o. The stress is on the penultimate ; e.g. Cadwgan = ' Cado'gan.' Aber, 56 Aberafan Castle, 267, 272, 279 Aberconway, or Conway, Treaty of, 345 Aber Corran (Laugharne) Castle, 285 Aberdovey (Aber Dyvi), 85, 86, 170, 262, 267, 319 Aber Dyvi — see Aberdovey Aber Einion Castle, 281 Aberffraw, 82, 96, 108, 151, 166 Abergavenny, 56, 376 Abergavenny Castle, 224, 238, 312, 324 Abergwaun, 151 Abergwyli, battle of, 165 Aberhonddu Castle, 191, 312, 324. See also Brecon Castle Aberlleiniog Castle, 184, 253 Aberllychwer Castle, 267 Abermenai, 246, 248, 252 Aber Nedd, 262 Aberriw, 200 Aberteifi (Aberteivi, Aber Castle, 199, 264, 272, 284, 2i 317. See also Cardigan Castle Aberteivi — see Aberteifi Aber Tywi — see Aberteifi Aberystwyth, 199, 261, 288 Aberystwyth Castle, 261, 263, 2i 306, 309, 319, 346, 384, 404 316, Tywi) 314. Acta Sanctorum, 223, 228 Act of Union (1535), 392, 393, 396- 397 Addedomaros, 418 Adonis, and the Arthur conception 202, 203 Aeddan ap Blegywryd, 164 Aedd Mawr, 418 Aelf gar Leof ricson, 172, 173, 174 Aelfric, 162 n. Aelle, 75 Aere, 251 Aesc, 72 Aethelbald, 143 Aethelflaed, the Lady, 156 Aethelfrith, 79, 80, 94, 96 Aethelred of Mercia, 154 Aethelred the Redeless, 166 Aethelstan, 158, 159 Aethelwulf, 149, 153 Aetius, 41 Afra, 420 Agency, 134 Agincourt, the Welsh at, 388, 391 Agricola, 54-55 Agriculture, 114, 115-116 Ailill, 206 Aillechwdd, 256 Airem, the story of, 205-206, 207, 208 Alaw, xsviii 2E 433 HISTORY OF WALES Albion, 67 Alexander I of Scotland, 256 Alexander III, 343 Alexander IV, Pope, 338 Alfred, King, 112, 148, 154, 155, 156, 159 Alhune, Bishop, 152 n. AUectus, 416, 419 Allen, J. Romilly, ^'2i-4'i Ambrosius Aurelianus, 76 Anarawd ap GrufEydd ap Rhys, 263 Anarawd ap Rhodri, 153, 154, 155, 156 Anarawd ap Rhys, 286 w. Anastasius III, Pope, 157 Anderida, 68 ; massacre at, 72 Angharad, mother of Giraldus Cam- brensis, 296 Angharad vz Maredudd, 164 Angharad vz Meurig, 149 Angles, 70, 71, 83 Anglesey, xxviii, 53, 54, 56 and n. 83, 107, 151, 152, 153, 155. 163' 166, 167, 184, 192, 247, 251, 252' 254, 255, 269, 271, 301, 345, 347' 351 «•. 373. 387. 404. 424 ; deriva-' lion of name, 151 ; ancient, importance of, 151 ; Normans in possession of, 255 ; Giraldus Cam- brensis on, 301 ; becomes a coimty, 351 n. See also Mon Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 71, 72 «., 76, 83, 140, 150, 158, 162 n., 189, 223 «. Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, 67-80 ; contrasted with the Nor- man Conquest, 75 Anian, Bishop of St. Asaph, 341 Annales Cambriae, 76, 82 «., 91, 97, 98, 99, 112, 140, 143, 152, 157, 168, 189, 257, 273, 327 Antedrigus, 418 Antoninus Pius, 64 Arawn, 208 Arberth — see Narberth Arbitration among the ancient Welsh, 131-132 Architecture, domestic, 11 8-1 19 ; castle, 225-236 Ardden vz Robert ap Seisyll, 168 Arderydd, 95 Ardudwy, 252, 256 Armitage, Mrs., 227 n. Armorica, 142, 143 Armour, 134 Arnold's Castle, 224 Arnulf, 192, 193 434 Art, Brythonic or I Irish influence upon, 211 ; connexion between, and the Continental stories of Lancelot and Parsifal, 214-218 ; historical value of, 218-219 ; influence upon the age of chivalry, 201, 219-220 ; Walter Map and, 294, 295 Artio, or Artius, 203, 207 Arundel, Earl of, 369, 371, 376 Arundel, Earl of. Justiciary of Wales, 397 Arvon, xxxiii, 95, 96, 107, 184, 187, 246, 252 ArwystU, 187, 249, 251, 274, 287, 322 Asquith, Right Hon. H. H., on Wales, 408 Asser, xxvii, 112, 153, 154 Astley, Lord, 403 Astronomy, the early Welsh and, 79 Atrebates, 39 Augustine, St., 78-79, 115 Aulus Plautius, 49, 50 Aureton, or Orleton, Castle (Richard's Castle), 226, 227 Avebury, megaliths at, 19 Avenger, tribal, 106 Avenues, megalithic, 16-17 Avranches, Hugh of — see Chester, Hugh of Avranches, Richard of, 181 ' Aylesford Pail,' the, xxiv Baai,, or Bel, xxii ; worship of, in early Britain, 5, 6, 13, 22, 26 Baalbek, megaliths at, 19 Badon, Mount, battle of, 76, 91 Bala Castle, 305 Baldwin, xxxii Baldwin, Archbishop, 298, 301 Ballinger, Mr. John, xxix Ballista, 240, 241 Bangor, 79, 95, 115, 184, 308 Bards, Welsh, 110-113, 114, 123, 141-142, 421 ; Henry IV's law against, 372 Bardsey Isle, 210 INDEX Barri, or Barry, Gerald de — see Giraldus Cambrensis Barri, William de, 296 Barrington, the Hon. Dcnuis, 422, 424 Barrows, 409-414 Basingwerk, 115, 270 Basingwerk Abbey, xxx Basingwerk Castle, 27-7 Bath, 77 Bath, the, in early Wales, 137 Bathan-Ceaster, 77 Bauzan, English officer, 335, 336 Bayeux Tapestry, xxix, 227 n. Beauchamp, Richard, 384 Beauchamp, WilUam, Earl of War- wick, 355 Beaufort, Margaret, 394 Beaumaris, 404 Beaumaris Castle, 355 Bee, Walter de, 261 Becket, Thomas a, 281 Bede, 68, 71, 90, 94 Bedford, 77 Bel — see Baal Belgae, 39 Bcli, 96 Belleme, Robert of, 192, 193 Eellot, Dr., 114 n. Beufras, Dafydd, 328 Benwyn, Davydd, 422 Berfeddwlad, Y, 107 Bernicia, 79, 94 Berwyn range, 275-276, 377, 389 Beuno, St., xxvii Bible, translated into Welsh, 392, 400 Billingsley, Truce of, 173 Birch, Mr. de Gray, xxxi, xxxiii, xxxiv, 419, 427 Bishopstree (Bistre), 176 Black Booh of Carmarthen, 47 Black Death, 352, 359-361,365, 366, 367 ' Black Normans,' 155 ' Black pagans,' 150, 155, 161, 163 Blaenllyvni (Blaen ilyfni) Castle, 312 Bleddyn ap Cynv3m, 182, 184-186, 188, 191, 246, 369 Bleddyn, Prince of Powys, 121, 123 Bledhericus, 213 Blegywryd, 112, 157 Bleheris (Bledhericus, Breris), 213 Blihis, Master, 213 Blood feud, 135 Bloody Acre, battle of the, 187 Blue Bard of the Chair, 112 Boadicea, or Boudicca, 52-53, 417 Bochas, 89 Bodmin, megaliths at, 19 Bodyddon, or Bydydon, Castle, 335 Bohun, Humplirey de (i), 338, 339 Bohun, Humplirey de (2), 358 Boneddigion, 109 Borron, Robert de, 212 Bors, 217 Bort, 217 Bosworth Field, 394, 395 Bowen, Ivor, 407 n. Bows and bowmen, 237, 238 Brabant, William of, 198 Bran, 215, 217 Brandegore, King, 217 Brandon Flint Mines, 8 Branodunum, 68 Brassempuoy, Figurine de, xxi Brattice, the, 234 Breaute, Faulkes de, 306, 309, 311 Brecknock, 281, 306, 397 Brecknock, Henry of, 283 Brecon, 344 Brecon Castle, 312 n., 324, 403 Brehon, 31 Breose, Giles de, 312 Breose, Isabella de, 313 Breose, John de, 313, 319, 323 Breose, Matilda de, 316 Breose, Matilda de, wife of GrufTydd ap Rhys, 313 Breose, Matilda de, wife of Rhys Mechyll, 313 Breose, Robert (or Reginald) de, 312, 316 Breose, the house of, 306, 313, 314, 316, 319 Breose, William de, 306, 322, 323 «. Breris, 213 Brescy, Roger, 382 Bretons, 39 Brewer, J. S., 297 Bridgnorth, 372 Bridgnorth Castle, 192, 269 Brigantes, 52 Bristol, Earl of, 279 Britain, ancient inhabitants of, 2-14 Brittani, 39 Brittany, 142-143 Brochmail, xxvi, 79 and n., 80 Broigar, megaliths at, 19 Bromfield, 344 Bromfield Castle, 264 n. Bronwen, xxviii-xxix, xxxiv, 204 n. Bronwen the Daughter of Llyr, 204 n. Bron yr Erw, battle of, 187 435 HISTORY OF WALES Bronze Age in Britain, 9-1 1 Bronze, introduction of, into Britain, 9, 38 ; prejudice against, 34 Brut Geoffrey ap Arthur, 47 Brut Gruffydd ab Arthur, 292 Brut, Roman de, 212 Brut Saeson, ■z'j'^ Brut Tyailio, 292 Brut y Brenhinoedd, 292 Brut y Tywysogion,'jo,ji,gi,i^g,i^^, 162 n., 168 «., 169, 174, 182, 193, 194, 252, 256, 257, 261, 262, 265, 273.283,284, 286n., 288, 293 and n., 307, 308, 311, 315, 316 M., 317, 322, 333, 335, 346 Brute, Walter, 367 Brycheiniog 145, 154, 155, 156, 190, 324 Bryn Derwin, 334 Bryn-glas, 375 Bryn-y-pin, 271 Brythons, 4, 8 n., 12, 36, 37, 38-47, 62, 67, 81, 82 and n., 83, 86 Buddugre Castle, 266 Buellt — see Builth Builth, or Buellt, 145, 316, 331, 335, 337 Builth Castle, 226, 312 «., 320, 322, 337. 348 Bulkeley, Bishop, 400 n. Bulkeley, family of, 401 Burgh, Hubert de, xxxii, 318, 320, 321, 322, 323, 324 Burh, 226-228 Burhred, 149, 152 «. Buttington, battle of, 154-155 Bychan, 272, 315 Bydydon, or Bodyddon, Castle, 335 CadafaeIv, 98 n. Cadell, king of Powys, xxvi Cadell ap Gruffydd ap Rhys, 265, 266, 272, 278, 279 Cadell ap Rhodri, 153, 155, 156 Cadvan, 96 Cadvvalader ap Gruffydd ap Cynan, 258, 261, 263, 265, 266, 269, 271, 273, 275, 277, 279 Cadwalader ap Seisyll, 283 Cadwaladr Veudigaid, 98-99, 139 and «., 142 Cadwallawn,or Caedwalla, 96-98, 139 Cadwallawn ap Icuaf, 161, 162 Cadwallon ap Gruffydd, 258 Cadwgan ap Bleddyn, 186, 191, 192, 193. 194. 195. 196, 197-200, 254, 255 Cadwgan ap Cadwalader, 266 Caedwalla — see Cadwallawn Caereinion, or Careinion, 199, 200, 277. 335 Caereinion Castle, 267 Caerfios, 56 Caergai, 56 Caerhun, 51, 55 Caerlegion, 79 Caerleon (Chester), 30S Caerleon-upon-Usk, 52, 53, 55, 61, 91, 162 «., 283 Caermarthen (later Carmarthen), xxxiii, 56, 286, 311, 346, 357, 359, 402, 403 Caermarthen Castle, 263, 264, 265, 266, 272, 278, 279, 314, 315, 317, 319, 320, 324, 354 Caernarvon (later Carnarvon), 56, 404 Caernarvon Castle, xxxii - xxxiii, xxxiv-xxxv, 184,353,354,382, 383 Caerphilly Castle, xxix, 233-236, 343, 354 Caersws, 56 Caerwedros Castle, 261 Caerwent, xxv, 40, 56, 63, 73 w. Caerwys, Eisteddfod of, 400 Caer-yn-Arvon, xxxiii Caethion, 109 Cain Lananihna, 134 Caio, 56 n. Calendar of Close Rolls, 357 Calleva, 39 Camhriae Epitome, The, 296 Cambrian Archaeological Association, xxxi Cambridge, lylywelyn the Great and King John at, 309 Camelot, 90, 11^ n. ; battle of, 209 Camlan (Camelot), 113 n., 209 Camulodunum. 50, 52, 53, 419 Canghellor, 108 Canovium, xxv Cantref, 107, 108, Canivyll y Cymry, 400 Capgrave, J., 369 Caracalla, 64-65 Caradigan, 215 Caradoc — see Caratacus Caradoc ap Gruffydd, 249, 250 Caradoc, Mount, 51 Caradoc Vreichfras, xxxiv Caradog ap Gruffydd, 180, 182, 187, 188, 189 Caradog, king of Gwynedd, 146 Caradog of lAancarvan, 145 436 INDEX Caratacus (Caractacus, Catadoc), 40, 50, 51-52, 204 n. Carausius, 416, 419 Carbery, Earl of, 401, 402 Cardiff, 56, 359, 376, 408 Cardiff Castle, 190 n., 229, 231, 324, 402 Cardiff Motte, 190 Cardigan, 83, 262, 323, 354, 403 Cardigan Castle, 262, 276, 280, 314, 320, 321, 323, 331, 388, 403 See also Aberteifi Cardiganshire, 351 n. Cardinham, 215 Careinion — see Caereinion Carew Castle, xxxiii, 402 Carew family, xxxi Carlyon-Britton, Mr., 420 Carmarthen — see Caermarthen Carmarthenshire, 351 n. Carn Mountain, battle of, 188 Carnarvon — see Caernarvon Carnarvonshire, 351 n. Carnwyllion Castle, 313, 315 Carreg Cennen Castle, 346 Carreghofa Castle, 274 Carrog, xxxiii Cassivellaunus, 49 Castel Coch, 242. See also Trallwng Castle and Pool Castle Castell Collen, 56 Castell Gwys, 265. See also Wiston Castell Hen, 313 Castell Howeil — see Howel Castle Castle architecture, 225-236 Castle Baldwin, 155 Castle Flemish, 56 n. Castle Humphry, 263, 272 Castle Loughor (Llychwr), 313 Castle Rhuddlan, 183, 186 Castles, the Norman, 221-244; de- struction of, in Gwynedd, under Gruffydd ap Cynan, and in Powys, 252-253. 254 ' Cat,' the, 238 Cat, the, in ancient Wales, 25, 126 Catapult, 240 Catgualart, 99 Catguollaun, 97, 99 Cathbad, the Druid, 29 Catherine vz Owain Glyndwr, 389 Cato, M. Porcius, on GaUic charac- teristics, 45 Cattwg, 115 Catuvellauni, xxv, 50 Caxton, William, on King Arthur, 89-90 Ceadwalla, 139 n. Ceawlin, 75, 76, 77, 78 Cebur, Bishop of St. Asaph, 157 Cecil, family of, 392 Cediver of Dyfed, 190 n. Cefn Digoll, battle of, 356 Cefnllys Castle, 338 Ceiriog, Vale of, 275 Celestine I, Pope, 75 Celtic art, I^ate, 42-44 Celts, 12, 37, 39 ; art of, 42-44 ; influence of the Roman occupation of Britain upon, 60-62 Celynwg, 95 Cemais, 108, 262, 313, 314, 315, 336 Cemais Castle, 356 Cenadoc ap Iest)m, 377 Cennadlog, forest of, 269 Ceolwulf, 75 Cerdic, 75 Ceredig, 83 Ceredigion, or Keredigion, 83, 145, 149, 161, 163, 183, 191, 192, 193, 194, 197, 198, 199, 215, 260, 261, 263, 266, 276, 279, 280, 288, 314, 315. 316, 335, 344 Charlemagne, 143 Charles I, 402, 403 Charles VI of France, allied with Owain Glyndwr, 385, 386 Charlton, Edward de, 387 Chattels, early Welsh, and values, 120-121 Chaucer, 129, 131, 364 Chepstow, 404 Chepstow Castle, 183 Cherlton, John de, 357, 358 Chester, xxviii, 50, 53, 55, 61, 156, 268, 376; battle of, 76, 79-80, 91, 96, 114 ; Welsh under-kings swear fealty to Edgar the Peaceful at, 161-162 ; in Norman hands, 181 ; William the Conqueror at, 182 ; Gruffydd ap Cynan a prisoner in, 251 ; John's gatherings against Llywelyn at, 308, 310 ; Gwen- wynwyn flees to, 315 ; Henry III at, 332, 336 ; retaken by English, 340 ; Edward I's base, 345 ; and the Statutum de anno secundo, 372 ; Welsh summoned to submit to Henry IV at, 374 ; in the Civil War, 404 ; mintage at, 420 Chester, Earl of, 307 Chester, Hugh of, xxviii, 183, 184, 248, 251 252, 254, 255, 256 437 HISTORY OF WALES Chester, Ranulf of, 264, 265, 319 Chester, Richard, Earl of, 256 Chief, tribal, 106 Chirbury, Lord Herbert of, 352 Chirk Castle, 402 Chivalry, the age of, and the Arthur stories, 201, 219-220 Chretien de Troyes, 207 «., 212, 213, 215, 216, 217, 294 Christianity, introduction of, into Britain, 61, 78, 113 ; established as the dominant religion, 98 n. Chi'onicles of the Princes, 98, 99, 139, 140, 144, 145, 146, 157, 164, 168, 185, 332 Church of England, and Wales, 401, 406, 407 n. Church Stretton, 51 Cilgerran Castle, xxxi, 276, 280, 314, 315 Cinglas, 93 Cinnamus, xxvi Circles, megahthic, 15-27 Cirencester, 77 Cissa, 75 Civil War, the, Wales and, 401-405 Clare, Earl of, 333 Clare, family of, 279 Clare, Gilbert de, 235 Clare, Richard de (Richard fitz Gilbert), 260 Clare, Richard of, 281 Clark, G. T., xxix, xxxi, xxxiii, xxxiv, 226, 229 «., 230, 231, 233 nn., 242 Claudius, Emperor, and the Druids, 113 Clement VI, Pope, 360 Cleopatra's Needle, 19 Clifford Castle, 181 Clifford, family of, 279 Cloten, 84 Clothing, in early Wales, 121 Clutorios, xxiv Clwyd, Vale of, 274 Clydog ap Cadel!, 156 Clynnog, 166 Cnut, 85, 150 Coch, Castel, 242. See also Trallwng Castle and Pool Castle Cockayne, T., xxvi Codex Diplomaticiis, 152 Coed Grono (Grwyne), 260 Coel Odebog, 84 Coelbren, 56 Coinmail, 77 Coins, 44, 50, 415-420 438 Coles, F. R., 21 Coleshill, 115, 269 n., 270, 388 Coligny Calendar, 17, 30 n. Collen Castle. 56 CoUwyn Ap-Tangno, xxxiv CoUwyn of Anglesey, 247 Columba, St., 119 n. Colunwy, 324 Colwyn Castle, 264, 286, 313 Commius, 49, 50, 416, 418 Commodus, 419 Commot, or cymwd, 107, 108 Conan, 164 Conan ap Owain, 265, 266, 267, 279 Conan ap Owain Gwynedd.. 270 Conan ap Rhodri Molwyuog, 144, 145, 146 Concenn, xxvi Condidan, 77 Constantine the Great, in Britain, 65 Constantius Chlorus, 65 Consyllt, battle of, 266 Contract, early Welsh law relating to, 128-130, 131 Conway, monastery of, xxxii, 140 ; battle of, 152, 154 ; Treaty of, 345 ; Edward I at, 355 Conway Castle, xxxii Corfe Castle, 344 Cornwall, Earl of, 353 Cornwall, the Cymry in, 67, 76, 77, 81 Corwen, 275, 280 Council of the Marches [or of Wales), 231. 353. 392, 395-396 ' Count of the Saxon Shore,' 68 Counties, division into, 351, 397 Courcy, Robert de, 270 Courts, early Welsh, 131 Coytmor, Howel, xxxii Cradock, W., 405 Crellan, or Gellan, 253 Cremation in early times, 411, 414 Crime, law relating to, 134-136 Crogen Castle, 305 Cromlechs, 412 CromweU, Oliver, xxxiv, 402, 405 Cromv/ell, Thomas, 392, 396 Crosses, Celtic, xxvii Crumbwell, John de, 358 Crwth, the, 421-424 Cumberland, the Cymry in, 67, 80, 81 Cumbria, 86 Cunedda, house of, xxvii, 148 Cunedda Wledig, 81-83, 85, 96 Cuneglasus, 93 Cunobehnus, 50, 418, 419 INDEX Cures and cunning, xxvi, 1 19-120 Cutba, 75, 76 Cuthwine, 77 Cwmbrwyn, 56 Cwm Hir, 348 ; abbey of, 374 Cydewain, 342 Cydweli, or Kidwelly, 145, 163, 193, 194. 266, 313, 320 Cydweli Castle, xxix, 260, 315, 367 Cyfeiliog, 156, 367 Cyfnerth, 160 Cymerau, battle of, 336 Cymmrodor, Y, 3cxvi, 77 nn., 79 n., 92 n. Cymru, 87, 88 Cymry, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 94; land- tenure under, 86-88, 1 01-105 ; tribal customs of, 101-104, 106- 107 ; marriage customs of, 103- 104 ; everyday life of, 11 5-1 18 ; united under Rhodri Mawr, 149 Cymwd, the, 107, 108 Cynan ap lago, 245 Cynfael Castle, 266 Cyngen, 149 Cynric, 75, 76, 92 Cynvrig, 263 Cynvyn, 185 Cynwreid, Isle of, 312 Cynwric ap Rhiwallon, 246 Cynwric the Tall, 251 Cystennin ab lago, 167 Cyvarwys, 102 Da, 102 Dafydd ab Edmund, 399 Danes, the, and Wales, 148, 149, 150-153. 154-156, 163, 166-167, 172, 246-250, 254 Danu, or Dana, 13 n. Daron, Dafydd, 377 David ap GrufEudd, 334, 339, 342, 343. 345' 346-348, 350 David ap Llywelyn, 313, 319, 323 n., 327, 329-333 David ap Owain, 121, 270, 274, 284 David le Pahner, 359 David, St., 94, 115; Henry II's pilgrimage to the shrine of, 282 Davies, Dr Richard, 400 Davies, Edward, 26 Davydd ap Gwilym, xxix, 362-363, 364, 421 Debt, law relating to, 131-134 De Casu Principum, 89 Deceangi, 51 Ddchelette, M., 20 and n., 23, 63 De Falsa Moneta, 357 Deganwy, or Dyganwy, 82, 96, 183, 308, 332, 333, 336, 339, 345 Deganwy Castle, xxvii-xxviii, 148, 183, 184, 307, 309, 310 Delieubarth, 107, 144, 145, 156, 162, 164, 168, 169, 170-172, 175, 185, 188, 189, 190, 252, 272, 275, 280, 285, 287, 304, 335 Deira, 97 Demetae, 40 Demetia, 50, 81, 145 Demetrius, 210 ' Denber's Pasture,' 19 Denbigh, 354, 355 ; battle of, 403 Denbigh Castle, 404 Denbighshire, 397 De Nugis, 293, 294, 295 Deorham, battle of, 77, 80, 86 Dermot, king of Leinster, 281 Description of Wales of Giraldus Cam- brensis, 299 Desi, 12, 70, 71, 77 n. Despenser, Constance, Lady, 384 Deuddwr, 200 Deugleddyv, 318 De Wallensibus ad Parliameniutn, 397 Diarmiad mac Mael-na-mbo, 248 Didius Gallus, 52 Dies amor is, 131 Dimetian Code, 103, 129, 157 Dinas Bran Castle, 341 Dineirth Castle, 261, 272, 306 Dinevor, or Dynevor, Castle. 305, 311, 335, 382 Dinweileir Castle, 265, 278, 279 Diodorus Stculus, on the Druids, 29, 31, 113 ; on GalUc bards, no Dion, on Boadicea, 53 Diserth Castle, 339 Diviciacos, 39 Divixtus, XXV Dolaucothy, 56 n. Dolmens, 412 Don, Children of, 13 «. Don Quixote, and the Arthurian legends, 202 Dooms, Saxon, Alfred's, and Aethel- stan's, 159 Dover, 68, 90 Dower, ancient Welsh law of, 125, 126 DragendorfE, Hans, 63 Druids, 13, 25, 26, 27-35, 36, 37, 40, 113-114 ; and the bards, no, in 439 HISTORY OF WALES Dryslwyn Castle, 354 Dubnovellaunus, 50, 418 Dubrae, 68 Dyfed, or Dyved, 12, 40, gz, 93, 145, 149, 156, 161, 162, 163, 166, 167, 171, 183, 190, 191, 193, 194. 198, 259, 262, 264, 279, 313, 315 Dyffryn Clwyd, 2.52, 309 n., 345 Dyfnwal Moelmud, 84 Dyganwy — see Deganwy Dynevor, 344. See also Dinevor EadberT of Northumbria, 143 Eadmund, 159, 160, 420 Eadric of Mercia, 182 Eadwine of Deira, 97, 151 Eadwine, son of Howel Dha, 160 Ealdgyth, 173 Eanfrith, 97 Eblieu, 215 Edeyrnyon, or Edeyrnion, 251, 275 Edgar the Peaceful, 161, 162, 420 Edis the Great, 163 Ednowaiu ap Bradwen, 385 Ednyfed ap Aaren, 385 Education in Wales in the period of the Renaissance, 399 Edward I, xxviii, xxxii, xxxiii, xxxiv, 233, 303, 304. 341. 352. 357 Edward II, xxxiii, 357, 358 Edward III, 359 Edward IV, 391, 395 Edward, Prince, 334, 335, 338-339. Edward, Prince of Wales, xxxiv Edward the Confessor, 169 Edward the Elder, 156 Edwardian Conquest, 341 et seq. Edwin ap Einion, 163, 164 Edwin ap Hywel Dda, 158 Edwin of Mercia, 182 Egbert of Wessex, 148, 149 Egypt, association of early Britons with, 5, 14, 17, 23-25, 31-32 Eifyonydd, 247, 252, 256 Einion of Arvon, 246 Einion ap Cediver, 190 Einion ap Owain, 162, 164 Einion, house of, 188, 190 Eisteddfod at Aberteifi, 284 ; of Caerwys, 400 Elaine, 216-217 Eleanor, Queen, xxxii Eleanor, wife of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, 343-344- 34^. 34^ Elen, 217 EUdge the Courteous, 95 EUse ap Madog, 305 Elise ap Tewdwr, 154 Elisedd ap Anarawd, 159 Eliseg, xxvi, 71, 84 ' Eliseg's Pillar,' xxvi, 71 Ellesmere, castle and manor of, 306 ElHs, Sir John, 384 Elucidation, 213 Elvael, 264, 313, 344 Elystan Glodrydd, 144 n. Emlyn, xxxi, 315 Emlyn Castle, 314 Enamelling, art of, in early Wales, xxiv, 121 England, Wales merged in, 304, 591- 408 Eochaid, 12 Eppilus, 50, 419 Erbury, W., 405 Eryri, 41, 187, 248, 256, 301, 308, 345, 377 Esp^randieu, M., xxv Essex, Henry of, 270 Essyllt, 206 Esyllht vz Conan, 146, 147, 148 Etain, 205, 206, 207 Ethandune, 154 Evan ap Dafydd ap Gruffydd, 377 Evans, Dr., 20, 21 Evans, H. T., 395, 398 Evans, Sir John, 415, 416, 418, 419 Evilieu, 215 Evrawc, 215 Ewias Harold Castle, 181 Eyton, R. W., 233 n. Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 402 Farnmail, 77 Fat Hugh of Chester — see Chester, Hugh of Fethan-lea, battle of, 76, 77, 78 Feudalism, beginnings of, 88 Fflur, XXX Ffrith, 56 n. Fire, ancient Welsh law relating to, 13^-137 Fishguard, 151 Fitz Aed, Wilham, 265 Fitz Alan, William, 273 Fitz Baldwin, Richard, 194 Fitz Count, Brian, 260 n. Fitz Gerald, William, 267 440 INDEX Fitz Gilbert, Gilbert, 264 Fitz Gilbert, Richard, 260 «., 262, 272 Fitz Hamon, Robert, 190 Fitz Herbert, Peter, 306 Fitz Hugh, Robert, 181 Fitz Martin, Robert, 262 Fitz Ore, William, 262 Fitz Osbern, Roger, 183 Fitz Osbern, WiUiam, 181, 182, 183 Fitz Raulf, Hugh, 264 Fitz Richard, Gilbert, 199 Fitz Stephen, Robert, 271, 276 Flegetanis, 213, 214 Flemings, 284, 317, 374 Flemish Castle, 56 n. Flint Castle, xxviii, 345, 346 Flintshire, 351 n. Flood, Mr. Solly, 384 n. Florence of Worcester, 162 n., 256 Foods, ancient Welsh, 11 7-1 18 Ford, 56 n. Fosterage, Welsh custom of, 105 n. France, Owain Glyndwr obtains allies from, 383-384, 385, 386 Frankton, Stephen, slayer of I ^ '/ > \ ^ > ^' K -0^ oS 'f. ,0 o^ '^^^ ,0 J 1 ■*" .\ '•^. .-^^ -S-. ^>. v^ if " .^^ "<^- .-^^ X^'-'x. ■^r ,0- ^ A^^' 6^^ * ,, -^ "<>c,-- 'T . ' » x ^s^y^- vO^ * '-^^ .# ^ vOO. .^^ '''^.. W' *>. * ., s 'r^<^^ ,0^ '=?,. * 9 1 -Vv aV ->nr- ^ -^^^ "^' -0' S° _-, , ■ 7 '^ c"^ \ / A. .. A^^ v^ '^z, '"' -.,* A-^ -^. oo A^' ^..^- •t o. .x'?-' V' .Ai' .\ .'\^ -y "^^ ^"^^ SN^\.-, ^^ oK ^J-* 'c^ ^.^' '^^^ a^^ S^ -> --P,^ V^