Mediaeval Wales Part 3

The Welsh princes felt the need of providing for the safety of their souls just as the Norman barons did, and the souls of both parties needed a great deal of saving. Further, the Welsh were not cut off from the great movements of the world; they felt like every other country in Europe the waves of religious enthusiasm, which resulted in the twelfth century in the spread of the Cistercians, in the thirteenth century in the spread of the friars. In the twelfth century the acts most pleasing to G.o.d were generally thought to be taking the Cross and endowing a Cistercian monastery. Again, though many of the Welsh chiefs were mere creatures of impulse, there were others who looked to the future. The Lord Rhys was an acute man of the world, who was not averse to improving his property. He possessed great tracts of mountain land, which was practically worthless; he saw Cistercian monks elsewhere, not exactly making such tracts blossom like the rose, but, at any rate, utilising them for pasture land, keeping flocks of sheep, becoming the great wool-growers for all Europe; why should he not hand over his worthless property to Cistercians, and by so doing lay up for himself treasure in heaven and on earth? Mr. Willis Bund says, "How unnatural for any Welsh prince to found a Cistercian abbey!" Surely it was the most natural thing in the world.

The Cistercians had far greater influence in Wales than any other monastic order. The Cistercian abbeys were Aberconway, Basingwerk, Valle Crucis, Strata Marcella, Cymer, Strata Florida, Cwm Hir, Whitland, Neath, Margam, Llantarnam, Tintern, Grace Dieu, Dore. We have in Gerald a very unfavourable and prejudiced witness on the Cistercians. He tells with pious horror and human satisfaction the story of the abbot of Strata Marcella, who was a great founder of nunneries, and at length eloped with a nun (he soon repented and came back to his abbey, preferring the bread and water of affliction to the nun). Gerald had a personal grudge against the Cistercians; wanting to raise money he had p.a.w.ned his library to the monks of Strata Florida, and when he tried to redeem the books they declared they had bought them, and would not give them up.

The Cistercians certainly drove hard bargains, and insisted on their rights to the uttermost farthing. In reading the history of any of these Cistercian houses--the history, say, of Margam by Mr. Trice Martin--one's first feeling is one of disappointment: it is nearly all about property. When one looks through to find evidences of spiritual influence one finds instead prosecutions for poaching. Did they have schools and teach the youth of the country round? I have found no evidence of it. Why should they? Monks never professed to be learned men or to be teachers. Many were both, but it was a disputed question whether they were not in this contravening their rule. At any rate, it was going outside their duty. Their business was to serve G.o.d--to perform divine services--and in the intervals to keep out of mischief by manual labour, and to perform works of charity. Margam was specially famous for this last.

Margam Abbey was founded by Robert of Gloucester, in 1147, and the brother of St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, the most important man in Europe in his time, came over to arrange about the establishment of the house. It was endowed with lands by both English and Welsh, such as the Earl of Gloucester and the Lord of Senghenydd. William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, granted the monks freedom from toll in all his boroughs in Wales and Ireland. The Braoses gave them the privilege of "buying and selling freely all manner of merchandise without toll"

in Gower, and they had the right to all wrecks along the coast near Kenfig. We find the abbot a.s.serting his fis.h.i.+ng rights sometimes by excommunicating poachers, sometimes by the more effective method of haling them before the s.h.i.+re Court at Cardiff and getting them fined 3d. a head. The monks of Margam obtained also a footing in Bristol through the Earls of Gloucester, a great commercial advantage to them for the sale of their wool both in England and abroad.

Their lands and privileges were not always, of course, free gifts.

Thus in the twelfth century Gilbert Burdin grants land to Margam, and in return the abbot gives 20s. to the grantor, a gold coin to his wife, and red shoes to each of his children. In 1325 John Nichol, of Kenfig, gave his property to the abbey in return for a life annuity.

He was to receive daily one loaf, two cakes, and a gallon of beer; also 6s. 8d. for wages, four pairs of shoes (price 12d.), a quarter of oats, and pasture for two beasts.

The annual revenue of Margam was returned as 500 marks in 1383, but before that time the abbey had suffered severely from inundations, sea and sand covering whole villages and much of the best property of the house; and the finances were in a bad way. These were improved by grants of the t.i.thes of parish churches--a favourite form of gift to a monastery, but a great scandal. The rectorial t.i.thes were paid to a monastery, while the monks at best put in some under-paid vicar to look after the parish. Generally, wherever there is a vicar instead of a rector in England or Wales the explanation is the appropriation of the t.i.thes by a monastery.

What did Margam do with its income? The first charge was the support of about forty monks and forty lay brethren. Next there were the construction and keeping in repair of the church and other monastic buildings; and, thirdly, the expense of charity and hospitality. The monasteries were the hotels of the Middle Ages, except that they made no charges, and Margam was celebrated for its hospitality for centuries. Gerald, the enemy of monks, says: "This n.o.ble abbey was more celebrated for its charitable deeds than any other of that order in Wales. And as a reward for that abundant charity which the monastery had always, in times of need, exercised towards strangers and the poor, in a season of approaching famine their corn and provisions were divinely increased, like the widow's cruse of oil."

Two centuries later we find the Pope bearing witness to the well-known and universal hospitality of the Abbey of Margam. It was placed on the main road between Bristol and Ireland, at a distance from other places of refuge, and so was continually overrun by rich and poor strangers, the poor evidently preponderating. In this connection I will give one instance of wise charity on the part of these monks from the end of the twelfth century. Hugh, son of Robert of Llancarven, gives the abbey some land in return for "four marks of silver and a young ox, given to him in his great need by the Abbot." The monastery performed some of the services of the modern bank.

Strata Florida presents some different characteristics. Like most Cistercian houses, it lay off the beaten track. It was founded in 1164 by the Lord Rhys, near the site of an older monastery. It was endowed with large expanse of lands, mostly mountain pastures, and the monks soon began building their church and refectory and cloister. The monastery was completed in 1201, when "the monks came to the new church, which had been erected of splendid workmans.h.i.+p." The architectural details of this church are peculiar and almost unique.

Mr. S. W. Williams notices especially the large amount of interlacing work in the carving, which one sees in the old Celtic crosses, and which is so characteristic of Celtic art. The convent seems to have become very soon essentially Welsh. Nearly all the abbots have Welsh names. It was the burial-place of the princes of South Wales; but as they were, after the Lord Rhys, quite unimportant, its political interest is connected with the princes of Gwynedd. When in the thirteenth century the princes of North Wales were attracting the allegiance of the South Welsh also they found Strata Florida a convenient place for important political a.s.semblies. It was here that Llywelyn ap Iorwerth summoned all the Welsh chiefs to do homage to his son David. The monastery suffered damage during the wars of Edward I., who in 1284 granted it 78 for repairs. But it suffered the worst injuries during the rebellion of Owen Glyndwr, when the English troops used it as a barracks, and stabled their horses in church and choir.

The patriotic tone of Strata Florida is expressed in the Welsh chronicles written there. The later part of the _Annales Cambriae_ was written there, and the Brut y Tywysogion. At Margam also a chronicle was composed which has been preserved. When an abbey decided to begin a chronicle, the first step was to borrow a chronicle from some other house; thus Margam, founded by Robert of Gloucester, copied out the Chronicle of William of Malmesbury, which was dedicated to Robert of Gloucester. The monks of Strata Florida copied out the earlier portion of the _Annales Cambriae_. These chronicles of course only became of historical value when they become independent and contemporary. They do not confine themselves to the monastery or local history, but relate events of general interest--to the whole of Britain and to all Europe--intermixed with notices of the burning of a monastic barn or the death of the local abbot. Knowledge of the great world came to an abbey through the travellers who stayed there; through political or ecclesiastical a.s.semblies held there; and through public doc.u.ments sent to the monks for safekeeping or to be copied. We generally do not know who wrote these chronicles; they were rather the work of the community than of the individual monks. "Every year (so runs a regulation on the subject) the volume is placed in the _scriptorium_, with loose sheets of paper or parchment attached to it, in which any monk may enter notes of events which seem to him important. At the end of the year, not any one who likes, but he to whom it is commanded, shall write in the volume as briefly as he can what he thinks of all these loose notes is truest and best to be handed down to posterity."

"Thus it was that a monastic chronicle grew, like a monastic house, by the labour of different hands and at different times; but of the heads that planned it, of the hands that executed it, no satisfactory record was preserved. The individual is lost in the community."

Coming now to the Friaries in Wales, we find ourselves in a different atmosphere. The friars were not troubled with questions of property: they had none; they depended for their livelihood on the alms of the faithful. Again, speaking generally, one may say that while the Benedictine priory is found under the shadow of a castle, and the Cistercian abbey in the heart of the country, the friaries were built in the slums of the towns. As there were few towns in Wales, the houses of the Mendicant Orders were not numerous or important. The Dominicans (or Black Friars) had houses at Bangor, Rhuddlan, Brecon, Haverfordwest, and Cardiff; the Franciscans (or Grey Friars) at Cardiff, Carmarthen, and Llanfaes; the Carmelites (or White Friars) at Denbigh; and the Austin Friars at Newport in Monmouths.h.i.+re. It is remarkable that the Dominicans had more houses in Wales than the Franciscans; though the Franciscans--the mystic apostles of love--were more in sympathy with the Celtic spirit than the Dominicans, the stern champions of orthodoxy. Francis of a.s.sisi strove to reproduce again on earth the life of Christ--in the letter and in the spirit; and the religious poetry of Wales in the thirteenth century is saturated with Franciscan feeling--full of intense realisation of the childhood and suffering of Christ, the humanity of G.o.d. This may be ill.u.s.trated by the following poem by a Welsh friar of the thirteenth century, Madawc ap Gwallter:--

"A Son is given us, A kind Son is born ...

A Son to save us, The best of Sons.

A G.o.d, a man, And the G.o.d a man With the same faculties.

A great little giant, A strong puny potentate Of pale cheeks.

Richly poor Our father and brother, Exalted, lowly, Honey of minds; With the ox and a.s.s, The Lord of life Lies in a manger; And a heap of straw As a chair, Clothed in tatters;

Velvet He wants not, Nor white ermine-- To cover Him; Around His couch Rags were seen Instead of fine linen."

I do not know the dates of the foundations of the Welsh Franciscan houses; the dates given in Mr. Newell's scholarly "History of the Church in Wales" are impossible. Llanfaes is said to have been established by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, and Franciscan influence would come to Wales through Thomas the Welshman, Bishop of St. David's (1247), who had been lecturer to the Franciscans at Oxford, and was famous for his piety and learning. Another Franciscan I wish to mention is Friar John the Welshman, who in his old age was employed to negotiate with the Welsh in 1282. He had studied and taught at Oxford and Paris, and made a creditable show beside such intellectual giants as Thomas Aquinas and Roger Bacon, his contemporaries. The widespread and lasting popularity of his works is shown by the large number of ma.n.u.scripts and early printed editions which have come down to us. But his chief interest and life-work was the popularisation of knowledge in the service of morality. He devoted his energies to training up lecturers who should go to the Franciscan friaries in the chief towns in England and Wales and teach friars and clergy the art of popular preaching. Friar John of Wales was one of the chief inspirers of the "University Extension" movement of the Middle Ages. These popular preachers or lecturers did not do much for the advancement of sound learning, because they did not study any science for its own sake, but only for the moral lessons they could find in it. But, to rouse some intellectual interest in the people at large, and stimulate their moral sense, was a work not unworthy of the universities; and this aim was to some degree attained. One of the favourite ways of spending a holiday in the Middle Ages was to go and hear a friar preach. Here is a summary of a friar's sermon constructed after the method of Friar John of Wales, on the relative merits of the a.s.s and the Pig.

"The pig and the a.s.s live not the same life: for the pig during his life does no good, but eats and swills and sleeps; but when he is dead, then do men make much of him. The a.s.s is hard at work all his days and does good service to many; but when he dies, there is no profit. And that is the way of the world. Some do no good thing while they live, but eat and drink and wax fat, and then they are dragged off to the larder of h.e.l.l, and others enrich themselves with their goods. Whereby I know that those, who for G.o.d's sake live the life of holy poverty, shall never lack substance, because their heavenly Father has pigs to kill. For as the good man before the season will kill a pig or two to give puddings to his children, so will our Lord kill those hardened sinners before their time, and give their goods to the children of G.o.d. So the psalmist says: 'The bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days,' because they do no work to keep their bodies healthy. Nothing is so healthful for body and soul as honest work. Work is the life of man, the guardian of health; work drives away sin, and makes people sleep well at night.

Work is the strength of feebleness, the health of sickness, the salvation of men,--quickener of the senses, foe of sloth, nurse of happiness, a duty in the young and in the old a merit. Therefore it is better to be an a.s.s than a pig."

One of the most able of these "extension lecturers" was another Welshman--probably a native of Cardiff--Friar John David, whose lectures at Hereford were so successful that after a year both the friars and the clergy of the city declared he was indispensable, and pet.i.tioned for his reappointment. He became the head of the Franciscan province of England, and lies buried among the ruins of the church of the Grey Friars in Cardiff.

VI

LLYWELYN AP GRUFFYDD AND THE BARONS' WAR

Throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the history of England and the history of Wales are so closely bound up together that it is impossible to study either apart from the other. In ill.u.s.tration of this general statement I will ask you to consider briefly the history of twelve years, from 1255 to 1267--a period of special interest to us, because these are the years in which Llywelyn's power was founded and built up.

In 1255 occurred three events of great importance to Wales: (1) Llywelyn overthrew his brothers in battle; (2) Edward Longshanks took possession of his Chester estates; (3) Edmund Crouchback was formally proclaimed king of Sicily.

1. David, younger son of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, died in 1246, leaving no descendants, and the Princ.i.p.ality was seized by the three sons of his elder brother Gruffydd--Owain the Red, Llywelyn, and David. For some years they held together, because Henry III. opposed the accession of any of them, claiming the Princ.i.p.ality as a lapsed fief under a treaty made with the last prince, David ap Llywelyn. But after a time the king accepted the homage and recognised the rights of the sons of Gruffydd. Being thus freed from direct hostility of the English king, the joint rulers soon quarrelled, and came to open war in 1255. "By the instigation of the devil," says the Brut y Tywysogion, "a great dissension arose between the sons of Gruffydd--namely, Owain the Red and David on the one side, and Llywelyn on the other. And thereupon Llywelyn and his men awaited without fear, trusting in G.o.d, at Bryn Derwin the cruel coming of his brother accompanied by a vast army, and before the end of one hour Owain was taken and David fled, after many of the army were killed and others captured, and the rest had taken to flight. And then Owain the Red was imprisoned; and Llywelyn took possession of the territory of Owain and David without any opposition." Thus Gwynedd was united under one ruler.

2. It was the policy of Henry III. to collect the earldoms into the hands of his relations. Thus the great palatine earldom of Chester, having lapsed to the Crown through failure of heirs, was granted in 1254 to the king's eldest son, Edward. Besides Chester and its dependencies Edward received Montgomery and the royal lands in South Wales (Cardigan and Carmarthen), Ireland and Gascony--in fact all the territory outside England over which the king had rights. These possessions were calculated to give the heir to the throne a varied experience and splendid training in the art of government. Edward was in need of such training, as the story of his early years shows. He was only sixteen years of age in 1255, but in the Middle Ages men lived short lives and matured very early. Edward was married in 1254, and had much experience in war and statesmans.h.i.+p before he was twenty. It was a wild time, and young Edward was among the wildest spirits; as he rode through the country, accompanied by his two hundred followers--mostly rollicking and arrogant foreign adventurers--who robbed and devastated the land, and thrashed and even mutilated pa.s.sers-by for fun, people looked forward with great fear to the accession of such a ruffian. A few years of responsibility, and failure, soon changed him into the n.o.blest and most law-abiding of the Plantagenets. It was Wales which gave him his first lesson. He first tried his hand at the reorganisation of the "Middle Country," making it "s.h.i.+re-land," introducing the English law and administrative system; the same policy was put in force in Cardigan and Carmarthen, which formed one s.h.i.+re with a s.h.i.+remoot and the usual inst.i.tutions of an English county. Some Welshmen had already pet.i.tioned the king for the introduction of English law into Wales, complaining that by Welsh law the crime of the guilty is visited on the innocent relations. At best it was a task which required very careful management, and Edward and his advisers were as yet quite unfitted for it, p.r.o.ne as they were to violent methods, having an insolent contempt for all customs and habits which differed from those to which they were used, and all cla.s.ses except their own. The result is thus expressed by the Welsh chronicler: After Edward returned to England, "the n.o.bles of Wales came to Llywelyn, having been robbed of their liberties and made captives, and declared they would rather be killed in war for their liberty than suffer themselves to be trampled on by strangers. And Llywelyn was moved at their tears, and invaded the Middle Country and subdued it all before the end of the week." In this work Llywelyn was a.s.sisted by descendants of Rhys, the princes of South Wales, who in Cardigan suffered from Prince Edward's policy in the same way as the men of the Middle Country or Four Cantreds. This union of North and South Wales is one of the special characteristics of the struggle under Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. That the Welsh of the North should join those of the South was, notes Matthew Paris, "a circ.u.mstance never known before." And Llywelyn was statesman enough to see the importance of this union and take steps to strengthen it. After recovering the Middle Country, he marched south, took possession of Cardigan and Builth--then a possession of the Crown, though in the custody of Mortimer--and gave these districts to Meredydd, grandson of the Lord Rhys, to hold as va.s.sal--a wise measure, intended to bind the South to him by common interests. Matthew Paris, who holds up the Welsh resistance to tyranny as an example to the English, puts in Llywelyn's mouth a striking speech in favour of unity: "Let us then stand firm together; for if we remain inseparable we shall be insuperable"--the very words of Gerald of Barry, whose advice had borne some fruit. But Meredydd soon proved a traitor, and the failure of Henry III.'s campaign in 1257 was less due to the union of the Welsh than to the disunion of the English.

3. This brings us to the third event referred to above--the proclamation of Edmund as King of Sicily. The Pope was trying to conquer Sicily, but wanted some one else to pay the war budget. After trying various people he induced Henry III. to accept the crown of Sicily for Edmund and promise enormous sums for the payment of the papal armies, and pledge his whole kingdom as security for the payment. This, coming on the top of many years of misgovernment and a long series of extortions, led directly to the crisis of the reign--the revolution known as the Provisions of Oxford in 1258, by which the powers of government were taken away from the Crown and given to committees of barons.

The disaffection against Henry III. at once made itself felt in the Welsh war. "Those who had promised the king a.s.sistance did not come;"

and when the whole knighthood of England were called out to meet at Chester, only "manifold complaints and murmurs were heard." We might have expected the Marcher Lords at any rate to rally round the king; but they were not disposed to a.s.sist in building up a royal power in Wales which would endanger their independence, and were glad enough to stand by and see the scheme thwarted. Some of them even went so far as to send secret information to the Welsh prince. The king had to retreat ingloriously, pursued by Llywelyn, and followed by the derisive sneers of the enemy. It may interest some of us to note that in this war the English army fought, as often, under the Dragon standard; probably the Dragon made in 1244 by Edward Fitz Odo, the King's goldsmith, who was commanded to make it "in the manner of a standard or ensign, of red samit, to be embroidered with gold, and his tongue to appear as though continually moving, and his eyes of sapphire or other stones agreeable to him." This was in 1257; the king was still less able to attack Llywelyn in 1258 and the following years, and had to agree to an ignominious truce.

Almost the whole English baronage under the leaders.h.i.+p of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, and Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, combined against the king, who was only supported by the royal family and those of his foreign relations to whom he had given earldoms and baronies and bishoprics in England or Wales. If Llywelyn had contented himself with occupying the royal lands in Wales--the territories granted to Edward--and with seizing Powys, which held to the English king, he would have had nothing to fear at this time from the English baronage, and the Crown was powerless to resist. It is clear from the English chroniclers that there was a genuine admiration for the Welsh resistance on the part of the English people. "Their cause," says Matthew Paris, "seemed a just one even to their enemies." But Llywelyn attacked the great Marcher Lords; it was difficult for a champion of Welsh patriotism to avoid doing so--it may be also that Llywelyn failed to grasp thoroughly the political situation in England, as he certainly failed to grasp it after the accession of Edward I. The first to suffer severely from him was Roger Mortimer, lord of the Middle March; thus Llywelyn drove him out of Gwerthrynion and Maelienydd, and added these territories to his own. Successes like these roused great enthusiasm among the Welsh gentry, though they excited the alarm and jealousy of some of the princes (such as Meredydd, and Llywelyn's brother David, who "by the instigation of the devil" deserted the cause and went over to the English). But the good men of Brecon revolted from their lord, the Earl of Hereford, and adhered to Llywelyn, who came down and received their homage in 1262.

The general situation was altered by these events. It became clear to the Lords Marchers that their power was endangered by Llywelyn's success, and that they must make common cause with Prince Edward. The Lords Marchers began to form the royalist party. Thus Mortimer, who in 1258 was among the leaders of the baronial opposition to the Crown, was in 1260 acting with the king against the barons. The Mortimers were the most directly affected of all the Marchers by the successes of Llywelyn, not only because their territories lay near Gwynedd, but because nearly all their lands lay in or close to the Marches; they had all their eggs in the same basket, while the other leading Lords Marchers had large possessions elsewhere, from which they drew the bulk of their revenues, using their March lands as a recruiting-ground for their troops. Thus to the De Clares their estates in Kent were probably worth more as a source of income than the whole of Glamorgan; and they also had estates in Hertford and Suffolk and Hamps.h.i.+re, and elsewhere; the Fitzalans were great landowners in Suss.e.x; the Bohuns of Hereford had broad acres in Huntingdon, Ess.e.x, and Hertford. To these men the limitation of the royal powers--especially of the power of taxing, and the king's right to employ foreigners in places of trust--was more important than the checking of Llywelyn's advance, which certainly weakened the king and made it easier to enforce const.i.tutional rights against him.

Still we have here one of the causes which broke the unity of the baronage, which created a royalist party, and led to open war. This has hardly been enough emphasised. It is generally said that the question on which the barons split was the question of the recognition of popular representation in the government of the country--the question, in a word, of a House of Commons--Simon de Montfort being the leader of the popular cause, Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester (till his death in July, 1262), the leader of the oligarchic party, which aimed merely at transferring the royal power to a committee of barons. This was undoubtedly the most important cause of the quarrel, because it was a question of principle big with results for the future, affecting the whole course of English history, while the att.i.tude which the barons ought to take towards Llywelyn was merely for the barons a matter of political tactics. But it is probable that the latter loomed larger in the eyes of contemporaries--certainly in the eyes of most of the Lords Marchers.

Hence it came about that, when war actually broke out in the spring of 1263, the elder of the Lords Marchers fought on the side of the king--such as Roger Mortimer and Humphrey de Bohun--though the younger men--young Gilbert of Gloucester and Humphrey de Bohun, the son of Hereford--remained under the spell of Simon de Montfort's fascination and high-minded enthusiasm. The war began in the Welsh Marches, Simon attacking the forces of Edward of Chester and Roger Mortimer--the princ.i.p.al royalists. As these were also the most formidable enemies of the Welsh, Llywelyn at the same time attacked them from the other side, the baronial party and Welsh co-operating, though without any formal alliance or friendly feelings. Thus in 1263 the baronial army besieged Shrewsbury, which defended itself till "a countless host" of Welshmen, came up and began to attack it from the other side; the town then surrendered to the barons lest it should fall into the hands of the Welsh.

This campaign led to a very great defection from the baronial side: the Lord Marchers generally--such as Clifford and Fitzalan--deserted Simon, who appeared as a traitor to the country. How great the defection is shown by Simon's words: "Though all should leave me, yet with my four sons I will stand true to the just cause, which I have sworn to uphold for the honour of the Church and the good of the kingdom; I have been in many lands, pagan and Christian, but in none have I found such faithlessness as in England."

The royalists were now the strongest party in the Marches, and in 1264 Edward and Mortimer gained a number of successes over the troops of Simon and Llywelyn (who seem to have been acting together) and captured Brecon. But they were called off to the main seat of war in the Midlands, and Simon inflicted a crus.h.i.+ng defeat on the royalists at Lewes, in Suss.e.x, 1264. It appears that Welsh archers fought in Simon's army, but these would be South Welsh, not North Welsh, the troops of Gilbert de Clare, not those of Llywelyn. The Marchers who escaped from Lewes were followed up by Simon, and being encircled by his forces and those of Llywelyn, submitted in December, 1264.

But Simon in the hour of triumph was now near his fall, which was made inevitable by the defection of Gilbert de Clare and whole of the Gloucester interest. The causes of the quarrel as given in the chronicles are mainly personal. Simon, with all his greatness, was quick-tempered and overbearing, inclined to seize power for himself, and perhaps even avaricious; one may infer this from the statement of a friendly chronicler, William Rishanger: "his habitual prayer to G.o.d was that he would save him from avarice and covetousness of worldly goods." But, apart from merely personal questions, it is to be noticed that the closer the relations between Simon and Llywelyn became, the less cordial became his relations to Gilbert de Clare. Thus when Simon co-operated with Llywelyn in bringing Mortimer and the Marchers to submission in December, 1264, Gilbert began to intrigue with them; and soon after the famous parliament of 1265 had transferred to Simon the earldom of Chester--thus relieving Llywelyn of his most dangerous neighbour, Prince Edward--Gilbert definitely joined Mortimer and Edward. The meeting between the three at Ludlow is very important; for Prince Edward now, at the instance of Gloucester, definitely pledged himself to the cause of reform and good government. It may be said for the Red Earl of Gloucester that in deserting Simon he did not desert his cause. To ensure the future of English liberties it was no longer necessary to support De Montfort: "henceforth it was not Simon but Edward who best represents the cause of orderly national progress."

A few days after the desertion of Gloucester Simon made his first formal treaty with Llywelyn, ceding to him Hawarden, Ellesmere, Montgomery, Maud's Castle, a line of fortresses along the eastern border, recognising his right to the t.i.tle of Prince of Wales, and to the homage of all the Welsh barons, while Llywelyn engaged to supply Simon with five thousand spearmen and raid the estates of Mortimer and De Clare. The first part of the campaign of Evesham was carried out in Gwent. Prince Edward held the line of the Severn, separating Simon at Hereford from his English partisans. Simon, while waiting for his English supporters to concentrate, entered Monmouths.h.i.+re, where Llywelyn's spearmen joined him and ravaged the Gloucester estates, trying to entice the royalists into Wales. Edward followed; but--his pupil in war as in politics--the young prince outgeneralled him at every point, and Simon only escaped at Newport by hurried flight across the river, burning the bridge behind him. He kept the Usk between him and his enemy, but this involved a long march north, through mountains and barren country, and he got back to Hereford with a half-starved army, only to find the line of the Severn held more strongly than ever. We cannot follow out the rest of the campaign, marked as it was by brilliant strategy on the part of the young Edward, which proved him a born master of the art of war. In the final battle all the advantages were on his side, and one cannot blame the spearmen of Gwynedd for trying to save themselves by flight at the "murder of Evesham." The body of the great Earl of Leicester was shamefully mutilated by the conquerors, and his head sent as a fitting present to Matilda de Braose, wife of Roger Mortimer.

The struggle continued for two years both in England and Wales. In England Simon's adherents held out owing to the severity of the terms which the victorious party insisted on. They are known as "The Disinherited," and their cause was championed by the two enemies--Llywelyn and Gilbert de Clare. The "Brut" states that in 1267, "Llywelyn confederated with Earl Clare; and then the earl marched with an immense army to London; and through the treachery of the citizens he got possession of the Tower. And when King Henry and his son Edward heard of this they collected an immense army and marched to London and attacked it, and upon conditions they compelled the earl and citizens to submit." "The Annals of Winchester," a contemporary English chronicle, relate the same event, but omit any mention of Llywelyn: "Earl Gilbert took London, and the Disinherited flocked to him as to their saviour; peace was settled in June, and many of the Disinherited were pacified at the instance of the Earl of Gloucester." It is clear that each of these rivals posed as champion of the Disinherited, but for opposite reasons. Llywelyn's object was to encourage their resistance and keep England divided by civil war; Gilbert's to insist on better terms in order to induce them to yield.

Gilbert was successful in bringing about peace and reform. The Disinherited were allowed to pay a fine instead of losing all their property, and many of the legal reforms demanded by the baronial party at the beginning of the struggle were embodied in the Statute of Marlborough. And now the Earl of Gloucester employed his resources in strengthening his Glamorgan lords.h.i.+p to resist the threatened invasion of Llywelyn by building Castell Coch and Caerphilly.

Llywelyn continued his victorious career as long as war lasted. In 1266 he inflicted a crus.h.i.+ng defeat on Mortimer at Brecon. In the autumn of next year, when peace had been established in England, he came to terms, through the mediation of the papal legate, in the Treaty of Montgomery. Llywelyn kept the four cantreds of the Middle Country; also Cydewain, Ceri, Gwerthrynion, Builth, and Brecon. But Maelienydd was restored to Roger Mortimer, though Llywelyn reserved his right to appeal to the law against this article. Further, the Prince of Gwynedd received the hereditary t.i.tle of Prince of Wales, and was recognised as overlord of all the Welsh barons in Wales, except Meredydd ap Rhys, who remained immediate va.s.sal of the King of England: his territories therefore in the Vale of Towy were withdrawn from the power of Llywelyn. The Prince of Wales in return did homage and agreed to pay him 25,000 marks by instalments. The treaty is less favourable to Llywelyn than that of 1265. His rights in Deheubarth were curtailed, and he gave up his claims to Ellesmere and Montgomery, and possession of Maelienydd.

The papal legate who arranged the treaty is not to be congratulated on his draftsmans.h.i.+p. Many things were left undecided, and a series of disputes arose. Thus Llywelyn seems to have claimed suzerainty over the Lord of Senghenydd as one of the "Welsh barons," though that term was surely only meant to include the Welsh barons who held directly of the king, not the va.s.sals of the Lord of Glamorgan. But it is evident that Llywelyn did not try to abide by the treaty. He continued to intrigue with the English barons, posing as the successor of Simon de Montfort, and failing to see that Edward I. was the political heir of the great earl. He tried to throw off the suzerainty of England, with the result that he lost the independence of his country. He lived in an atmosphere of enthusiasm and flattery, and failed to realise the limits of his power. The bards by whom he was surrounded exercised a "highly pernicious influence in practical concerns," and ill-repaid his generosity by urging him to attempt the impossible.

"His bards are comely about his tables, I have seen him generously distributing his wealth, And his meadhorns filled with generous liquors.

I never returned empty-handed from the North.

The bards prophesy that he shall have the government and sovereign power; Every prediction is at last to be fulfilled."

But if Llywelyn lacked the hard head of the practical statesman, if he did not, like his grandfather, merit the t.i.tle of "the Great," he will always remain an attractive and striking figure in history; he possessed qualities which made him an ideal representative of the Cymric race in the Middle Ages:--

"A bold and bounteous lion--the most reckless of givers, Man whose anger was destructive; most courteous prince; A man sincere in grief, true in loving, Perfect in knowledge."