‘Because he was a traitor to the lord king, for whom he had done military service, he was drawn slowly by a horse to the place of his hanging. Because he had murdered Fulk Trigald and other English noblemen, he was disembowelled and his viscera burned. Because he had plotted the death of the king in several places in England, his body was divided and sent to the corners of England, to the terror of those inclined to doing evil. His head, however, is at the Tower of London, affixed to the highest stake, facing the sea.’
In the eyes of the king and his justices, Dafydd had committed crimes against God and man and deserved to suffer four or five different deaths. He was also excommunicate, which rendered him effectively soulless. To destroy his body, as was done at Shrewsbury, was to exterminate him utterly. In addition, an excommunicate could be killed in any way, without fear of censure.
Dafydd spent much of his career in the service of Edward I, who granted him lands and a rich marriage. The king also funded the construction of Dafydd’s castle of Caergwrle (see pic) in the lordship of Hopedale. In return the Welshman served in Edward’s armies in England and Wales.
He seems to have been driven by hatred and envy of his eldest brother, Llywelyn the Last. It is difficult to know where the guilt lay, since Llywelyn had equally difficult relationships with his three other siblings. Like most men of power, he was overbearing, and insisted upon absolute obedience.
Whatever Dafydd’s motives, he could not command the same loyalty as Llywelyn. When he became prince, in early 1283, his countrymen quickly fell away from him. By June he was being hunted by teams of Welshmen in Edward’s service, including some of his own former retainers. He was finally cornered by Iorwerth Penwyn (white-head), a landholder of Gwynedd, while his eldest son was taken prisoner by Dafydd Fychan, a man of West Wales. Dafydd was handed over to the king, his former paymaster, who insisted on a judgement of blood.
