Glory, glory

 If we move outside North Wales, the shifts of power in the post-Conquest period become more evident. This was all about power, of course.

In the south and west, Edward I had destroyed most of the princes or ‘tywysog’. The survivors, after 1283, were Rhys ap Maredudd and Llywelyn ab Owain. Rhys had done extremely well by supporting the king in previous wars, at the expense of everyone else. Llywelyn survived because he was underage, and not important enough to be done away with.

Rhys was a shrewd man, but in 1287 he miscalculated and went into revolt. If he hoped to drive out the English and set himself up as a new Princeps Wallie, then he was living in cloud-cuckoo land. Most of his followers abandoned him, or even joined the massive royal army sent to crush the revolt.

One of those who turned against Rhys was a certain Goronwy Goch (the Red). Goronwy was of distinguished ancestry, which meant everything in medieval Wales: in Welsh pedigrees he was known as Arglwydd Llangathen—lord (dominus) of Llangathen, where he had his residence. He had been a senior figure at Rhys’s court, where he served as constable of the great castle of Dryslwyn. 

When his master turned against the king, Goronwy promptly enlisted in the king’s army. We should not judge him: he had only copied the example of Rhys, a collaborator who profited from the downfall of his neighbours and kinsmen. The royal household accounts show Goronwy served as a sergeant, riding an armoured warhorse and receiving the high wage of 12d (pence) a day: the average infantryman got 1 or 2d. He was present at the siege of Dryslwyn, where the castle walls were battered down by royal artillery. Rhys escaped the debacle, but was eventually captured and hanged at York.

Goronwy continued to ride high. He was made steward of Cantref Mawr in Ystrad Tywi, served as a tax officer in Dryslwyn lordship and gobbled up the profits of local estates and mills. He was very much a member of the rising ‘ministerial elite’ in Wales, who formed the nucleus of the gentry class. These ruthless men would clamber over the wreckage of the medieval principality, booting aside the past and clawing their way to supremacy in Wales and England. They are a Welsh success story, if arguably not a very glorious one.

Glory, glory. What does it mean, anyway? To my cynical middle-aged eyes, it seems to be shorthand for lost wars and futile causes, usually ending on a bloodstained scaffold. The hells with that.