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Owain Glyndwr
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Owain Glyndwr (pronounced ), or Owain Glyn Dwr, anglicised by William Shakespeare into Owen Glendower and also sometimes styled Owain IV of Wales (c. 1354 or 1359 – c. 1416) by modern historians, was a Welsh ruler and the last native Welsh person to hold the title Prince of Wales. He instigated an ultimately unsuccessful but long-running revolt against English rule of Wales.
Glyndwr was a descendant of the Princes of Powys from his father Gruffydd Fychan II, hereditary Tywysog of Powys Fadog and Lord of Glyndyfrdwy, and of those of Deheubarth through his mother Elen ferch Tomas ap Llywelyn.
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Owain Glyndwr (pronounced ), or Owain Glyn Dwr, anglicised by William Shakespeare into Owen Glendower and also sometimes styled Owain IV of Wales (c. 1354 or 1359 – c. 1416) by modern historians, was a Welsh ruler and the last native Welsh person to hold the title Prince of Wales. He instigated an ultimately unsuccessful but long-running revolt against English rule of Wales.
Glyndwr was a descendant of the Princes of Powys from his father Gruffydd Fychan II, hereditary Tywysog of Powys Fadog and Lord of Glyndyfrdwy, and of those of Deheubarth through his mother Elen ferch Tomas ap Llywelyn. On September 16 1400, Glyndwr instigated the Welsh Revolt against the rule of Henry IV of England. Although initially successful, the uprising was eventually put down — Glyndwr was last seen in 1412 and was never captured, nor tempted by Royal Pardons and never betrayed. His final years are a mystery.
Glyndwr has remained a notable figure in the popular culture of both Wales and England, portrayed in Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 1 (as Owen Glendower) as a wild and exotic man ruled by magic and emotion ("at my nativity, The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes, Of burning cressets, and at my birth The frame and huge foundation of the earth Shaked like a coward." — Henry IV, Part 1, Act 3, scene 1). In the late 19th century the "Young Wales" movement recreated him as the father of Welsh nationalism, revising the historical image of him and joining him in popular memory as a national hero on par with King Arthur.
In 2000, celebrations were held all over Wales to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the Glyndwr rising. Owain has since been voted in at 23rd in a poll of 100 Greatest Britons in 2002.
Early life
Glyndwr was born in c.1354 (possibly 1359) to a prosperous landed family, part of the Anglo-Welsh gentry of the Welsh Marches (the border between England and Wales) in northeast Wales. This group moved easily between Welsh and English societies and language, occupying important offices for the Marcher Lords while maintaining their position as uchelwyr — nobles descended from the pre-conquest Welsh Royal dynasties — in traditional Welsh society. His father, Gruffydd Fychan II, Hereditary Tywysog of Powys Fadog and Lord of Glyndyfrdwy, died some time before 1370 leaving Glyndwr's mother Elen ferch Tomas ap Llywelyn of Deheubarth a widow and Owain a young man of maybe 16 years at most. Owain probably had an elder brother called Madog but he may have died young.
The young Owain ap Gruffydd was fostered at the home of David Hanmer, a rising lawyer shortly to be a Justice of the Kings Bench. Owain is then thought to have been sent to London to study law at the Inns of Court. He probably studied as a legal apprentice for seven years; enough to get a good grasp of the law as a landowner but not enough to be known as a "Man of Law". He was probably in London during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. By 1383 he had returned to Wales, where he married David Hanmer's daughter, Margaret, started his large family and established himself as the Squire of Sycharth and Glyndyfrdwy with all the responsibilities that entailed.
Glyndwr entered the English king's military service in 1384 when he undertook garrison duty under the renowned 'Welshman' Sir Gregory Sais, or Sir Degory Sais, on the English–Scottish border at Berwick-on-Tweed. In 1385 he saw action under Richard II in his French wars as his scutifer (shield bearer) and later that year served King Richard under the command of John of Gaunt again in Scotland. In 1386 he was called to give evidence in the Scrope v. Grosvenor trial at Chester. In 1387, Owain was in southeast England under Richard Fitzalan, 11th Earl of Arundel in the Channel at the defeat of a Franco-Spanish-Flemish fleet off the coast of Kent. Upon the death of his father-in-law Sir David Hanmer in late 1387, knighted earlier that very year by Richard II, Glyndwr returned to Wales as executor of his estate. He then served as a squire to Henry Bolingbroke (later Henry IV of England), son of John of Gaunt, at the short, sharp Battle of Radcot Bridge in December 1387. He had gained three years concentrated military experience in different theatres and seen at first hand some key events and people.
King Richard was distracted in growing conflict with the Lords Appellant from this time on. Glyndwr's opportunities were further limited by the death of Sir Gregory Sais in 1390 and the sidelining of Richard Fitzalan, 11th Earl of Arundel and he gladly returned to his stable Welsh estates, living there quietly for ten years during his forties. The bard Iolo Goch ("Red Iolo"), himself a Welsh Lord, visited him throughout the 1390s and wrote a number of odes to Owain, praising Owain's liberality, and writing of Sycharth "Rare was it there / to see a latch or a lock."
The Welsh revolt, 1400–15
In the late 1390s, a series of events occurred that began to push Owain towards rebellion, in what was later to be called the Welsh Revolt, the Glyndwr Rising or the Last War of Independence.
A series of events lead Owain to be proclaimed Prince of Wales on September 16, 1400, by a small band of followers which included his eldest son, his brothers-in-law, and the Dean of St. Asaph.
After a number of initial confrontations between King Henry IV and Owain's followers in September and October 1400, the revolt began to spread in 1401. The whole of northern and central Wales went over to Owain. King Henry appointed Henry Percy – the famous ‘Hotspur’ – to bring the country to order. Hotspur issued an amnesty in March which applied to all rebels with the exception of Owain and his cousins, Rhys and Gwilym, sons of Tudur ap Gronw, (forefather of King Henry VII of England). Both the Tudors were pardoned after their capture of Edward I’s great castle at Conwy.
In June, Owain scored his first major victory in the field at Mynydd Hyddgen on Pumlumon. Retaliation by King Henry IV on the Strata Florida Abbey followed, but eventually lead to Henry's retreat.
In 1402, the English parliament issued the Penal Laws against Wales, anti-Welsh legislation designed to establish English dominance in Wales but actually pushing many Welshmen into the rebellion.
In the same year, Owain captured his arch enemy, Reginald Grey, 3rd Baron Grey de Ruthyn. He was to hold him for a year until he received a substantial ransom from King Henry. Paying back this debt effectively ruined de Grey financially.
In June 1402 Sir Edmund Mortimer, the uncle of the Earl of March, was captured. Glyndwr offered to release Mortimer for a large ransom but, in sharp contrast to his attitude to de Grey, Henry IV refused to pay. Mortimer could be said to have had a greater claim to the English throne than himself so his speedy release was not an option. In response, Sir Edmund negotiated an alliance with Owain and married one of Owain's daughters.
It is also in 1402 that mention of the French and Bretons helping Owain were first heard. The French were certainly hoping to use Wales as they had used Scotland as a base from which to fight the English.
1403 marks the year when the revolt became truly national in Wales. Royal officials reported that Welsh students at Oxford University were leaving their studies for Owain and Welsh labourers and craftsmen were abandoning their employers in England and returning to Wales. Owain could also draw on the seasoned troops from the English campaigns in France and Scotland. Hundreds of Welsh archers and experienced men-at-arms left English service to join the rebellion.
In 1404, to demonstrate his seriousness as a ruler, Owain held Court at Harlech and appointed the devious and brilliant Gruffydd Young as his Chancellor. Soon afterwards he called his first Parliament (or more properly a or "gathering") of all Wales at Machynlleth where he was crowned Prince of Wales and announced his national programme. He declared his vision of an independent Welsh state with a parliament and separate Welsh church. There would be two national universities (one in the south and one in the north) and return to the traditional law of Hywel Dda. Senior churchmen and important members of society flowed to his banner. English resistance was reduced to a few isolated castles, walled towns, and fortified manor houses.
Tripartite indenture and the year of the French
Owain demonstrated his new status by negotiating the "Tripartite Indenture" with Edmund Mortimer and the Earl of Northumberland. The Indenture agreed to divide England and Wales between the three of them. Wales would extend as far as the rivers Severn and Mersey including most of Cheshire, Shropshire, and Herefordshire. The Mortimer Lords of March would take all of southern and western England and Thomas Percy, 1st Earl of Worcester, would take the north of England. Most historians have dismissed the Indenture as a flight of fantasy.
Things were improving on the international front too. Although negotiations with the Scots and the Lords of Ireland were unsuccessful, Owain had reasons to hope that the French and Bretons might be more welcoming. Quickly Owain dispatched Gruffydd Young and his brother-in-law, John Hanmer, to negotiate with the French. The result was a formal treaty that promised French aid to Owain and the Welsh. The immediate effect seems to have been that joint Welsh and Franco-Breton forces attacked and laid siege to Kidwelly Castle. The Welsh could also count on semi-official fraternal aid from their fellow Celts in the then independent Brittany and Scotland. Scots and French privateers were operating around Wales throughout Owain’s war. Scots ships had raided English settlements on the Llyn Peninsula in 1400 and 1401. In 1403 a Breton squadron defeated the English in the Channel and devastated Jersey, Guernsey and Plymouth while the French made a landing on the Isle of Wight. By 1404 they were raiding the coast of England, with Welsh troops on board, setting fire to Dartmouth and devastating the coasts of Devon.
1405 was the "Year of the French" in Wales. A formal treaty between Wales and France was negotiated. On the continent the French pressed the English as the French army invaded English Aquitaine. Simultaneously, the French landed in force at Milford Haven in west Wales. They marched through Herefordshire and on into Worcestershire. They met the English army just ten miles from Worcester. The armies took up battle positions daily and viewed each other from a mile without any major action for eight days. Then, for reasons that have never been clear, both sides withdrew.
The rebellion founders
By 1406, most French forces had withdrawn after politics shifted in Paris toward the peace party. Even Owain's so-called "Pennal Letter", in which he promised Charles VI of France and Avignon Pope Benedict XIII to shift the allegiance of the Welsh Church from Rome to Avignon, produced no effect.
There were other signs the revolt was encountering problems. Early in the year Owain’s forces suffered several defeats. King Henry also showed that the English were engaged in more and more ruthless tactics. More serious for the rebellion, English forces landed in Anglesey from Ireland and would gradually push the Welsh back until the resistance in Anglesey formally ended toward the end of 1406.
At the same time, the English were adopting a different strategy. Rather than focusing on punitive expeditions favoured by his father, the young Henry of Monmouth adopted a strategy of economic blockade. Using the castles that remained in English control he gradually began to retake Wales while cutting off trade and the supply of weapons. By 1407 this strategy was beginning to bear fruit. One by one the Lordships began to surrender. In the autumn, Owain’s Aberystwyth Castle surrendered. In 1409 it was the turn of Harlech Castle. Edmund Mortimer died in the final battle and Owain’s wife Margaret along with two of his daughters (including Catrin) and three of his Mortimer granddaughters were taken prisoner and incarcerated in the Tower of London. They were all to die in the Tower before 1415.
Owain remained free but now was a hunted guerrilla leader. The revolt continued to splutter on. In 1410, after a suicide raid into Shropshire, many of the leading rebellion figures were captured.
In 1412, Owain captured, and later ransomed, a leading Welsh supporter of King Henry's, Dafydd Gam ("Crooked David"), in an ambush in Brecon. These were the last flashes of the revolt. This was the last time that Owain was seen alive by his enemies. As late as 1414, there were rumours that the Herefordshire based Lollard leader, Sir John Oldcastle, was communicating with Owain and reinforcements were sent to the major castles in the north and south.
But by then things were changing. King Henry IV died in 1413 and his son King Henry V began to adopt a more conciliatory attitude to the Welsh. Royal Pardons were offered to the major leaders of the revolt and other opponents of his father's regime.
Disappearance and legacy
Nothing certain is now known of Owain after 1412. Despite enormous rewards being offered, he was never captured nor betrayed. He ignored Royal Pardons. Tradition has it that he either died and was buried at his estate in Sycharth or on the estates of his daughters' husbands — Kentchurch in south Herefordshire or Monnington in west Herefordshire, ironically both in England. Owain's daughter, Alys, had married, secretly, Sir John Scudamore, the King's appointed Sheriff of Herefordshire. Somehow he had weathered the rebellion and remained in office. It was rumoured that Owain finally retreated to their home at Kentchurch. In his book The Mystery of Jack of Kent and the Fate of Owain Glyndwr, Alex Gibbon argues that the folk hero Jack of Kent, also known as Siôn Cent – the family chaplain of the Scudamore family – was in fact Owain Glyndwr himself. Gibbon points out a number of similarities between Siôn Cent and Glyndwr (including physical appearance, age, education, character) and claims that Owain spent his last years living with Alys passing himself off as an aging Franciscan friar and family tutor. There are many folktales of Glyndwr donning disguises to gain advantage over opponents during the rebellion.
A grandchild of the Scudamore's was Sir John Donne of Kidwelly, a successful Yorkist courtier, diplomat and soldier, who after 1485 made an accommodation with his fellow-Welshman Henry VII. Through the Donne family many prominent English families are then descended from Owain, including the De Vere family, successive holders of the title Earl of Oxford and the Cavendish family as Duke of Devonshire.
In 2006 The Owain Glyndwr Society's president Adrien Jones said: "Four years ago we visited a direct descendant of Glyndwr, [Sir John Scudamore], at Kentchurch Court, near Abergavenny. "He took us to Monnington Straddel, in Herefordshire, where one of Glyndwr's daughters, Alice [Alys], had lived. [He] told us that he (Glyndwr) spent his last days there and eventually died there. It was a family secret for 600 years and even [Sir John]'s mother, who died shortly before we visited, refused to reveal the secret. There's even a mound where he is believed to be buried at Monnington Straddel."
Issue
Owain Glyndwr is reported to have sired the following children:
Owain Glyndwr is also reported to have had the following siblings:
- Gruffudd ap Gruffudd Fychan, probably pre-deceased Owain
- Tudur ap Gruffudd Fychan, Lord of Gwyddelwern
- Isabel ferch Gruffudd Fychan
- Margaret ferch Gruffudd Fychan
- Lowri ferch Gruffudd Fychan
Modern legacy
Owain is perhaps best remembered outside Wales as the caricatured Welshman of 'Owen Glendower' in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part One who claims to be able to "call spirits from the vasty deep". In common with the myth of Merlin this places Owain as a druidic mystic and — bluntly — a windbag.
After Owain's death, there was little resistance to English rule until, in the 16th century, the Tudor dynasty, whilst allowing Welshmen to become more prominent in English society, saw Owain's revolt as a catastrophe for Wales. In Henry IV Shakespeare portrays him as wild and exotic; a man ruled by magic and emotion in sharp contrast to the logical and reasonable Hotspur. It was not until the late 19th century that Owain's reputation was to be revived. The "Young Wales" movement recreated him as the father of Welsh nationalism. The discovery of Owain's Great Seal and his letters to the French in the Bibliothèque Nationale helped revise historical images of him as a purely local leader. In the First World War, the Welsh Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, unveiled a statue to him in Cardiff town hall and a postcard showing Owain at the Battle of Mynydd Hyddgen was sold to raise money for wounded Welsh soldiers. Folk memory in Wales had always held him in high regard and almost every parish has some landmark or story about Owain.
He joined the long list of failed resistance to English rule in the British Isles, was remembered as a national hero on a par with King Arthur and numerous small groups have adopted his symbolism to advocate independence or nationalism for Wales. For example, during the 1980s, a group calling themselves "Meibion Glyndwr" claimed responsibility for the burning of English holiday homes in Wales. However, perhaps ironically, Glyndwr was part English himself. Welsh legend states that when Wales is threatened again then he will rise from the his unknown resting place in order to lead the defence of Wales, quite like the legend of King Arthur. The creation of the National Assembly for Wales brought him back into the spotlight and in 2000 celebrations were held all over Wales to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the rising. Stamps were issued with his likeness and streets, parks, and public squares were named after him throughout Wales. Owain’s personal standard — the quartered arms of Powys and Deheubarth rampant — began to be seen all over Wales, especially at rugby union matches against the English. An energetic campaign exists to make September 16, the date Owain raised his standard, a national holiday in Wales. An annual award for achievement in the arts and literature, the Glyndwr Award, is named after him. In 2007, popular Welsh musicians the Manic Street Preachers wrote a song entitled '1404' based on Owain Glyndwr. The song can be found on the CD single for 'Autumnsong'. A statue of Owain Glyndwr on horseback was installed in 2007 in The Square in Corwen, Denbighshire to commemorate his life and his lasting influence on Wales. The waymarked long distance footpath Glyndwr's Way runs through Mid Wales near to his homelands.
In 2008, Glyndwr University was established in Wrexham, Wales. Originally established as the Wrexham School of Science and Art in 1887, it was until the name change known as the North East Wales Institute or "NEWI"). Glyndwr was born and lived much of his live around Wrexham and the Welsh Marches.
Fiction
As well as in Shakespeare, Glyndwr, has been featured in a number of works of literature and is the subject of several historical novels, including:
He is also a character in Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 1 and was the hero of James Hill's UK TV movie Owain, Prince of Wales, broadcast in 1983 in the early days of Channel 4/S4C.
He also has a small role as a past Knight of the Word and a ghost who serves the Lady in Terry Brooks' Word/Void trilogy. In the books, he is John Ross' ancestor.
For a study of the various ways Glyndwr has been portrayed in Welsh-language literature of the modern period, see E. Wyn James, Glyndwr a Gobaith y Genedl: Agweddau ar y Portread o Owain Glyndwr yn Llenyddiaeth y Cyfnod Modern (Aberystwyth: Cymdeithas Lyfrau Ceredigion, 2007).
Bibliography
Owen Glendower. Although written in 1931 this book is still considered a classic.R. Rees Davies, The Revolt of Owain Glyn Dwr (1995) Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-285336-8Geoffrey Hodge, Owain Glyn Dwr: The War of Independence in the Welsh Borders (1995) Logaston Press ISBN 1-873827-24-5Family of Owain Glyndwr. http://www.gbnf.com/genealog3/maytree/html/d0140/I08621.HTMBurke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charles Mosley Editor-in-Chief, 1999. pp.714, 1295Jon Latimer, Deception in War, (2001), John Murray, pp.12-13.
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