9: Owen Gwynedd and the Lord Rees
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The men who opposed the Normans left able successors—Owen Gwynedd
followed his father, Griffith ap Conan; the Lord Rees followed his
father Griffith ap Rees; and in Powys the sons of Bleddyn were
followed by the castle builder Howel, and by the poet Owen Cyveiliog.
Owen Gwynedd ruled from 1137 to 1169; the Lord Rees from 1137 to
1197. The age was, in many respects, a great one.
It was, of course, an age of war. Up to 1154, during the reign of
Stephen, the English barons were fighting against each other, and the
king had very little power over them. The most important Norman
barons in Wales were the Earls of Chester in the valley of the Dee,
the Mortimers on the upper Wye, the Braoses on the upper Usk, and the
Clares in the south. Their castles were a continual menace to the
country they had so far failed to conquer, and the Lord Rees was glad
to get Kidwelly, and Owen Gwynedd to get Mold and Rhuddlan.
It was, on the whole, an age of unity. It was the chief aim of Owen
Gwynedd to be the ally of the Lord Rees; and in this he succeeded,
though his brother Cadwaladr, in his desire for Ceredigion, had
killed Rees' brother, to Owen's infinite sorrow. The princes of
Powys, Madoc and Owen Cyveiliog, were in the same alliance also, and
they were helped in their struggle with the Normans. Unity was never
more necessary. Henry II. brought great armies into Wales. Once he
came along the north coast to Rhuddlan. At another time he tried to
cross the Berwyn, but was beaten back by great storms. Had he
reached the upper Dee, he would have found the united forces of the
Lord Rees, Owen Cyveiliog, and Owen Gwynedd at Corwen. There are
many stirring episodes in these wars: the fight at Consilt, when
Henry II. nearly lost his life; the scattering of his tents on the
Berwyn by a storm that seemed to be the fury of fiends; the reckless
exposure of life in storming a wall or in the shock of battle. But
the Norman brought new cruelty into war: Henry II. took out the eyes
of young children because their fathers had revolted against him; and
William de Braose invited a great number of Welsh chiefs to a feast
in his castle at Abergavenny, and there murdered them all.
It is a relief to turn to another feature of the age: it was an age
of great men. Owen Gwynedd was probably the greatest. He disliked
war, but he was an able general; he made Henry II. retire without
great loss of life to his own army. He was a thoughtful prince, of a
loving nature and high ideals, and his court was the home of piety
and culture. He is more like our own ideal of a prince than any of
the other princes of the Middle Ages. The Lord Rees was not less
wise, and his life is less sorrowful and more brilliant. He also was
as great as a statesman as he was as a general; and he made his peace
with the English king in order to make his country quiet and rich.
Owen Cyveiliog was placed in a more difficult position than either of
his allies; he was nearer to very ambitious Norman barons. He was
great as a warrior; often had his white steed been seen leading the
rush of battle. He was greater as a statesman: friend and foe said
that Owen was wise; and he was greater still as a poet.
The age was an age of poetry. A generation of great Welsh poets
found an equal welcome in the courts of Gwynedd, Powys, and
Deheubarth; and even the Norman barons of Morgannwg began to feel the
charm of Welsh legend and song; Robert of Gloucester was a great
patron of learning. One of the chief events of the period was Lord
Rees' great Eisteddvod at Cardigan in 1176.
It was an age of new ideals. The Crusades were preached in Wales;
the grave of Christ was held by a cruel unbeliever, and it was the
duty of a soldier to rescue it. It appealed to an inborn love of
war, and many Welshmen were willing to go. It did good by teaching
them that, in fighting, they were not to fight for themselves. It
was in Powys that feuds were most bitter. A young warrior told a
preacher, who was trying to persuade him to take the cross: "I will
not go until, with this lance, I shall have avenged my lord's death."
The lance immediately became shivered in his hand. The lance once
used for blind feuds was gradually consecrated to the service of
ideals—of patriotism or of religion.
The age of Owen Gwynedd and the Lord Rees and Owen Cyveiliog brought
a higher ideal still. If the Crusader made war sacred, the monk made
labour noble. The chief aim of the monk, it is true, was to save his
soul. He thought the world was very bad, as indeed it was; and he
thought he could best save his own soul by retiring to some remote
spot, to live a life of prayer. But he also lived a life of labour;
he became the best gardener, the best farmer, and the best shepherd
of the Middle Ages. Great monasteries were built for him, and great
tracts of land were given him, by those who were anxious that he
should pray for their souls. The monk who came to Wales was the
Cistercian. The monasteries of Tintern, Margam, and Neath were built
by Norman barons; and Strata Florida, Valle Crucis, and Basingwerk
showed that the Welsh princes also welcomed the monks.
Better, then, than the brilliant wars were the poets and the great
Eisteddvod. Better still, perhaps, were the orchards and the flocks
of the peaceful monks.
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