10: Llywelyn the Great
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On the death of the Lord Rees, one of the grandsons of Owen Gwynedd
becomes the central figure in Welsh history. Llywelyn the Great rose
into power in 1194, and reigned until 1240—a long reign, and in many
ways the most important of all the reigns of the Welsh princes.
Llywelyn's first task was to become sole ruler in Gwynedd. The sons
of Owen Gwynedd had divided the strong Gwynedd left them by their
father, and their nobles and priests could not decide which of the
sons was to be supreme. Iorwerth, the poet Howel, David, Maelgwn,
Rhodri, tried to get Gwynedd, or portions of it. Eventually, David
I. became king; but soon a strong opposition placed Llywelyn, the
able son of Iorwerth, on the throne. Uncles and cousins showed some
jealousy; but the growing power of Llywelyn soon made them obey him
with gradually diminishing envy.
His next task was to attach the other princes of Wales to him, now
that the Lord Rees and Owen Cyveiliog were dead. To begin with, he
had to deal with the astute Gwenwynwyn, the son of Owen Cyveiliog;
and he had to be forced to submit. He then turned to the many sons
and grandsons of the Lord Rees—Maelgwn and Rees the Hoarse
especially. They called John, King of England, into Wales; but they
soon found that Llywelyn was a better master than John and his
barons. Gradually Llywelyn established a council of chiefs—partly a
board of conciliation, and partly an executive body. It was nothing
new; but it was a striking picture of the way in which Llywelyn meant
to join the princes into one organised political body.
His third task was to begin to unite Norman barons and Welsh chiefs
under his own rule. He had to begin in the old way, by using force;
and Ranulph of Chester and the Clares trembled for the safety of
their castles. He then offered political alliance; and some of the
Norman families of the greatest importance in the reign of John—the
Earl of Chester, the family of Braose, and the Marshalls of Pembroke-
-became his allies. His other step was to unite Welsh and Norman
families by marriage. He himself married a daughter of King John,
and he gave his own daughters in marriage to a Braose and a Mortimer.
It is through the dark-haired Gladys, who married Ralph Mortimer,
that the kings of England can trace their descent from the House of
Cunedda.
Llywelyn's last great task was to make relations between England and
Wales relations of peace and amity. During his long reign, he saw
three kings on the throne of England—the crusader Richard, the able
John, and the worthless and mean Henry III. It was with John that he
had most to do, the king whose originality and vices have puzzled and
shocked so many historians. John helped him to crush Gwenwynwyn,
then helped the jealous Welsh princes to check the growth of his
power. Llywelyn saw that it was his policy, as long as John was
alive, to join the English barons. They were then trying to force
Magna Carta upon the King, that great document which prevented John
from interfering with the privileges of his barons. In that document
John promises, in three clauses, that he will observe the rights of
Welshmen and the law of Wales.
When John died in 1216, and his young son Henry succeeded him, the
policy of England was guided by William Marshall Earl of Pembroke.
William Marshall was one of the ministers of Henry II., and by his
marriage with the daughter of Strongbow, the conqueror of Ireland, he
had become Earl of Pembroke. It was with him that Llywelyn had now
to deal. He was too strong in Pembroke to be attacked, but his very
presence made it easier for Llywelyn to retain the allegiance of the
chiefs who would have been in danger from the Norman barons if
Llywelyn's protection were taken away. In 1219 the great William
Marshall died; and changes in English politics forced his sons into
an alliance with Llywelyn.
Llywelyn's title of Great is given him by his Norman and English
contemporaries. He was great as a general; his detection of trouble
before the storm broke, his instant determination and rapidity of
movements, his ever-ready munitions for battle and siege, made his
later campaigns always successful. He felt that he was carrying on
war in his own country; so his wars were not wars of devastation, but
the crushing of armies and the razing of castles.
He took an interest in the three great agents in the civilisation of
the time—the bard, the monk, and the friar. The bard was as welcome
as ever at his court; the monk, welcomed by Owen Gwynedd before, was
given another home at Aber Conway. Llywelyn extended his welcome to
the friar, and he was given a home at Llan Vaes in Anglesey, on the
shores of the Menai. The friar brought a higher ideal than that of
the monk; his aim was salvation, not by prayer in the solitude of a
mountain glen, but by service where men were thickest together—even
in streets made foul by vice, and haunted by leprosy. Of the
Mendicant Orders, the Franciscans were the best known in Wales; and,
of all Orders of that day, it was they who sympathised most deeply
with the sorrows of men. And it was this which, a little later on,
brought them so much into politics.
Great and successful in war and policy, in touch with the noblest
influences in the life of the time, Llywelyn applied himself to one
last task. His companions and allies had nearly all died before him;
but he wished that the peace and unity, which they had established,
should live after them. He had two sons—Griffith, who was the
champion of independence; and David, who wished for peace with
England. Llywelyn laid more stress on strong government at home than
on the repudiation of feudal allegiance to the King of England. So
he persuaded the council of princes at Strata Florida to accept David
as his successor.
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