The terror of Gwynedd

Leaping back to Wales, because I have just received a new journal and want to chatter on about it. Dr David Stephenson’s excellent new book, Heirs to the Princes, contains a handy breakdown of those Welshmen who held office after the Edwardian Conquest: the new aristocracy or ‘Welsh ministerial elite’, as Stephenson calls them. 

To an extent the ‘conquest of Wales’ is an illusion: what Edward I actually did was conquer Gwynedd and its dependencies, not the entire country. Even then, after a major revolt in 1294-5, he was obliged to compromise with the Welsh gentry i.e. the people who mattered. To understand the course of events in Wales, we have to dig deep into the source materials and study individuals. Two of those who caught my eye were Madog ap Eynon and Madog ap Meilyr. 

The two Madogs were gentry of the Powysian March: Madog ap Eynon and his brothers held tenements and land in Llanerchudol and Castle Caerenion, while Madog ap Meilyr held tenements near Welshpool. They were both closely associated with Owain ap Gruffudd, a powerful lord of southern Powys, hailed by his court bards as ‘the terror of London’. 

He also might be described as the terror of Gwynedd. Owain and his family, the royal house of Mathrafal, were bitterly opposed to the rulers of Gwynedd, who wished to impose their power on the whole of Wales. This dynastic feud went back several centuries. Madog ap Meilyr first appears in a witness list dated December 1276 (third pic). Here, Madog is one of some twenty Welshmen listed as sureties for the fidelity to Prince Llywelyn the Last of a named individual. This is a man with the interesting name of ‘Gruffudd ap Budyr ihossan’, which translates as ‘Gruffudd son of Budyr of the dirty hose’. In other words, Budyr was known for having dirty trousers. 

The document may sound dull, but it is crucial to our understanding. It is one of at least sixty examples, in which Llywelyn the Last forced his subjects to act as surety for Welshmen whom he suspected of disloyalty. These strongly imply that Llywelyn was struggling to control many of the Welsh outside Gwynedd, who had no desire to submit to a prince they regarded as an outsider. Moreover, a very oppressive one. 

To be continued…