Prince(s) of Wales

 

#OTD in 1301 Prince Edward of Caernarfon was granted the royal lands in Wales and the lordship of Chester at the Lincoln parliament.

It is generally supposed that he was granted the title of Prince of Wales. However, no title was attached at this stage. Nor was he presented to the Welsh as a newborn infant who ‘could speak no Welsh’. In reality Edward was sixteen years old.

Although there was no recorded investiture ceremony, Edward began to be referred to as Prince of Wales from spring 1301. This seems to have been related to the Scottish campaign of that year, in which he was placed in command of 7000 Welsh and Irish troops at Carlisle.

Those Welshmen who swore homage to the prince were mostly drawn from the ‘uchelwyr’ or gentry class. Many of these, such as Morgan ap Maredudd and Gruffudd Fychan, had stepped forward to fill the power vacuum in Wales after Edward I destroyed most of the princes.

As such they were despised as upstarts by the remaining princely families and their heirs. A later poet, Gruffudd Llwyd, composed the following savage ‘cywydd’ to his patron, Owain Glyn Dwr:

“Aml iawn gan y mileiniad
Ariana ac aur, no rent ged,
A golud, byd gogaled;…
A fu isaf ei foesau
Uchaf yw, mawr yw’r och fau:
A’r uchaf cyn awr echwydd
Isaf ac ufuddaf fydd,
Hyn a wna, hen a newydd,
Y drygfyd. Pa raw fed fydd?”

(The villeins often have silver and gold - they bear no gifts - and riches, a niggardly world; he whose manner of living was lowest is now the highest, loudly do I bewail it, and the highest before midday will be the lowest and the most obedient. This is what makes, old and new, an evil world. What is this world coming to?)

Glyn Dwr was also a member of the Welsh gentry or squirearchy, but claimed descent from the ancient royal houses of Powys Fadog, Gwynedd and Deheubarth. This in turn justified his claim to the title of Prince of Wales. He was also descended of the Lestranges of Knockin, a Marcher dynasty who played a key role in the Edwardian conquest of Wales, but didn’t make much of that.

Sources:

The Merioneth Lay Subsidy Roll 1292-3 edited with introduction by Keith Williams-Jones

Edward I by Michael Prestwich

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