Owain Glyndŵr - more

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The "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 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, the Earl of Northumberland, would take the north of England.

Most historians have dismissed the Indenture as a flight of fantasy.

However, it must be remembered that in early 1404 things still looked positive for Owain. Local English communities in Shropshire, Herefordshire and Montgomeryshire had ceased active resistance and were making their own treaties with the rebels. It was rumoured that old allies of Richard II were sending money and arms to the Welsh and the Cistercians and Franciscans were funneling funds to support the rebellion.

Furthermore, the Percy rebellion was still viable; even after the defeat of the Percy Archbishop Scope in May. In fact the Percy rebellion was not to end until 1408 when the Sheriff of Yorkshire defeated Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland at Bramham Moor. Thus, far from a flight of fantasy, Owain was capitalising on the political situation to make the best deal he possibly could.

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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 Yonge and his brother-in-law, John Hanmer, to France to negotiate a treaty 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.

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1405 was the "Year of the French" in Wales. 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 had left Brest in July with more than twenty-eight hundred knights and men-at-arms led by Jean de Rieux, the Marshall of France. Unfortunately, they had not been provided with sufficient fresh water and many horses had died. They also brought modern siege equipment. Joined by Owain's forces they marched inland and took the town of Haverfordwest but failed to take the castle. They then moved on and retook Carmarthen and laid siege to Tenby.

What happened next is something of a mystery. The Franco-Welsh force marched across South Wales (according to local tradition) and invaded England. They marched through Herefordshire and into the Midlands. They finally met the English outside Worcester at the ancient British hill fort of Woodbury Hill. The armies viewed each other without any action for eight days. Then, for reasons that have never been clear, both sides withdrew. The Welsh and French withdrew back through Wales into the West. More French were to arrive as the year went on but the high-point of French involvement had passed. The main theory why both sides withdrew from their positions and headed homewards is as follows. The English force outside Worcester, being on home ground, well inside England, were able to lay siege to their opponents by surrounding them, thereby preventing vital supplies of food and drink reaching the "invading" Franco-Welsh army. This, slowly but surely, weakened both the body and spiritual resolve of the Welshmen in continuing the struggle so deep into their enemy's territory.

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The Rebellion founders

Charles VI of France did not continue to support Glyndŵr's revolt.

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 the King 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 defeats at Grosmont and Usk (Pwll Melyn). Although it is very difficult to understand what happened at these two battles, it appears that Henry of Monmouth or possibly Sir John Talbot defeated substantial Welsh raiding parties led by Rhys Gethin (“Swarthy Rhys”) and Owain’s eldest son, Gruffudd. The exact date and order of these battles is subject to dispute. However, they may have resulted in the death of Rhys Gethin and Owain's brother, Tudur, and the capture of Gruffudd. Henry also showed that the English were engaged in more and more desperate tactics. Adam of Usk says that after the Battle of Pwll Melyn, Henry had three hundred prisoners beheaded in front of Usk Castle. John ap Hywel, abbot of the Llantarnam Cistercian monastery, was killed during the Battle of Usk as he ministered to the dying and wounded on both sides. More serious for the rebellion, English forces landed in Anglesey from Ireland. Over the next year they 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 Henry IV, 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. In March, 1,000 men from all over Flintshire appeared before the Chief Justice of the county and agreed to pay a communal fine for their adherence to Glyndŵr. Gradually the same pattern was repeated throughout the country. In July the Earl of Arundel’s north-east lordship submitted. One by one the lordships began to surrender. By midsummer, Owain’s castle at Aberystwyth was under siege. That autumn the castle surrendered. In 1409 it was the turn of Harlech. Last minute desperate envoys were sent to the French for help. There was no response. Gruffudd Yonge was sent to Scotland to attempt to coordinate action but nothing was to come. The castle fell. 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.

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Owain remained at large but now he was a hunted guerilla leader. The revolt continued to splutter on. In 1409 or 1410, Owain readied his supporters for a last raid deep into Shropshire. Many of his most loyal commanders were present. It may have been a last desperate suicide raid. Whatever was intended, the raid went terribly wrong and many of the leading figures still at large were captured. Rhys Ddu ("Black Rhys") of Cardigan, one of Owain’s most faithful commanders, was captured and taken to London for execution. A chronicle of the time states that Rhys Ddu was: "…laid on a hurdle and so drawn forth to Tyburn through the city and was there hanged and let down again. His head was smitten off and his body quartered and sent to four towns and his head set on London Bridge." Philip Scudamore and Rhys ap Tudur were also beheaded and their heads displayed at Shrewsbury and Chester (no doubt to discourage any further thoughts of rebellion).

In 1412, Owain captured and later ransomed a leading Welsh supporter of 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. As late at 1414, there were rumours that the Lollard leader, Sir John Oldcastle, was communicating with Owain and reinforcements were sent to the major castles in the north and south. Outlaws and bandits left over from the rebellion were still active in Snowdonia.

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But by then things were changing. Henry IV died in 1413 and his son began to adopt a conciliatory attitude to the Welsh. Pardons were offered to the major leaders of the revolt and other opponents of his father's regime. In a symbolic gesture, the body of Richard II was interred in Westminster Abbey. In 1415 Henry offered a pardon to Owain as he prepared for war with France. There is evidence that Henry was in negotiations with Owain's son, Maredudd ab Owain Glyndŵr, but nothing was to come of it. In 1416 Maredudd was offered a pardon but refused. Perhaps his father was still alive and he was unwilling to accept the pardon while he lived. He finally accepted a pardon in 1421, suggesting that Owain was dead.

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The Annals of Owain Glyndwr taken from the medieval manuscript Panton MS. 22 finish in the year 1422. The last entry regarding the prince reads;

1415 - Owain went into hiding on St Matthew's Day in Harvest (September 21), and thereafter his hiding place was unknown. Very many said that he died; the seers maintain he did not.

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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owain_Glynd%C5%B5r"

Categories: Monarchs of Powys | Welsh monarchs | Welsh rebels | Welsh soldiers | Welsh lawyers | Disappeared people | Historical figures portrayed by Shakespeare | 1359 births | 1416 deaths

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owain_Glynd%C5%B5r

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