Another of my Welsh heroes!

 

 

 

Owain ab Gruffydd, Lord of Glydyvrdwy in Merioneth

 

No name is so frequently invoked on Wales as that of Owain Glyndwr (c.1349-1416), a potent figurehead of Welsh nationalism ever since he rose up against the occupying English in the first few years of the fifteenth century. There seems little doubt that the charismatic Owain fulfilled many of the mystical mediaeval prophecies about the rising up of the red dragon. He was of aristocratic stock and had a conventional upbringing, part of it in England of all places. his blue blood furthered his claim as Prince of Wales, being directly descended from the princes of Powys and Cyfeiliog, and as a result of his status, he learned English, studied in London and became a loyal, and distinguished soldier of the English king, before returning to Wales and marrying.

The Glyndwr family fought for Llewellyn ap Gruffydd in the last war and regained large areas of land in north-east Wales. Glyndwr was comfortably placed. He held the lordships of Glyn Dyfrywy and Cynllaith Owain near the river Dee (yes, there is a river called Dee in Wales lol)

He was one of the living representatives of the old royal houses of Wales, an heir to Cadwaladr ( woohooo!)

Wales in the late 14th century was a turbulent place.

In 1399-1400 Glyn Dwr ran up against his powerful neighbour, Reginald de Grey, Lord of Ruthin, an intimate of the new king, Henry 1V. The quarrel was over common land Grey had stolen. Glyndwr could get no justice. This proud man, over forty and grey-haired, was visited with insult and malice.

Glyndwr raised his standard outside Ruthin on 16th September 1400, and his followers immediately proclaimed him Prince of Wales.

The response was startling. There was immediate response from Oxford, where Welsh scholars at once dropped their books and flocked home. Welsh labourers in England downed their tools and headed home. The English Parliament at once rushed ferociously anti-Welsh legislation on to the books. Henry 1V marched a big army right across north Wales burning and looting without mercy. Glyndwr's ranks swelled, and by the end of 1403, after fighting Henry back across the Marches, Glyndwr controlled most of Wales.

A twelve year war ensued, with many an English expedition beaten bootlessly back. The sheer tenacity of the rebellion is startling. Few revolts in contemporary Europe lasted more than some months, no previous Welsh war had lasted much longer. This one raged for nearly fifteen years!

In 1404 Glyndwr assembled a parliament at Machynlleth. Here he was also crowned king of a free Wales. A second parliament in Harlech took place a year later.

The English army, however, concentrated with increasing vigor on destroying the Welsh uprising.........

Disaster struck in 1408 when the castles of Aberystwyth and Harlech fell, and Glyndwr's family was taken prisoner. No-one knows what happened to Glyndwr, but, like Arthur, he could not die; he would come again. Henry V, the new king, twice offered the rebel leader a pardon, but the old man was apparently too proud to accept. What is more remarkable than the civil war the revolt inevitably became, is the passion, loyalty and vision which came to sustain it. From ordinary people by the thousands came a loyalty through times often unspeakably harsh which enabled this old man to lead a divided people one-twelth the size of the English against two kings and a dozen armies. Owain Glyndwr was one Welsh prince who was never betrayed by his own people, not even in the darkest days when many of them could have saved their skins by doing so. There is no parallel in the history of Wales.

Since 1410 most Welsh people most of the time have abandoned any idea of independence as unthinkable. But since 1410 most Welsh people, at some time or another, if only in some secret corner of the mind, have been "out with Owain and his barefoot scrubs." For the Welsh mind is still haunted by it's lightening-flash vision of a people that were free!