Kevin Patrick Mostyn Family - Person Sheet
Kevin Patrick Mostyn Family - Person Sheet
NameLlywelyn 'the Last' AP GRUFFYDD Prince Of Wales, 22G Grandfather
FatherGruffydd AP LLYWELYN FAWR (~1203-1244)
MotherSenena VCH CARADOC
Web Notes notes for Llywelyn 'the Last' AP GRUFFYDD Prince Of Wales
From "The Matter of Wales" by Jan Morris, ISBN 0-19-504221-2, 1984, p. 67-68: It is the killing of Llywelyn Olaf, Llywelyn the Last, near the hamlet of Cilmeri in Powys, that has remained in Welsh minds the fatal fact. A big stone of rough-hewn granite beside the road marks the place where he is said to have died, on a bitter snowy day in the winter of 1282. When Henry III was on the throne of England Llywelyn was recognized even in London as Prince of Wales, and in return he acknowledged the suzxerainty of the English Crown.
Under Edward I matters changed. First Llywelyn refused to pay tribute, then he insisted on building a new castle and town, Dolforwyn in Powys, which the king forbade. Edward declared the prince a rebel and invaded his territories with a powerful army, and by the winter of 1282, after several years of shifting fortunes, the Welsh resistance was cracked. In the north the armies of Gwynedd were dispersed; in mid-Wales the Welsh were shatteringly defeated in a battle near Builth, Llanfair-ym-Muallt, in Powys. On 11 Dec Llywelyn himself, traveling away from that battlefield with a small group of followers, was ambushed and mortally wounded.
Time has blurred the truth about his death. Some accounts say he was betrayed by the townspeople of Builth, who turned him away from their gates. Others have him hiding in a cave at Aberedw, 5 miles away, and riding through the snow that morning with his horses' shoes reversed to baffle pursuers. Somewhere near Cilmeri, anyway, it is thought on a bridge over the Irfon river, the English caught him. When they discovered that they had killed the Prince of Wales, they cut his head off, washed it in the well of a nearby cottage, and sent it to Conwy in Gwynedd, where King Edward was, together with a message from the English commander in Powys. The head of the prince was then conveyed to London, paraded through the streets with a crown of ivy on it, and finally stuck up on the Tower of London.
The anguish of the Welsh was terrible. This was conquest. Llywelyn's dynasty was obliterated. His only child, his daughter, Gwenllian, was condemned to live the rest of her life in English nunneries. [This disagrees with other sources that say he had a daughter, Catherine, from whom we are descended.] His nephew Owain was imprisoned in Bristol Castle, and 20 years later we hear of Edward ordering its Constable to make a wooden cage bound with iron, in which Owain may be enclosed at night. His brother Dafydd was dragged by horses through the streets of Shrewsbury, before being hanged, drawn and quartered; the several parts of his corpse were distributed throughout England, the cities of York and Winchester disputing possession of the right shoulder.
From "The Matter of Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country" by Jan Morris, ISBN 0-19-504221-2, page 59:
In the early years of Wales, there were as many as 18 separate princedoms within the 8,000 square miles of Wales, largely because the Welsh law of portion, gavelkind, divided inheritances equally among all a man's sons, and so fragmented kingdoms as well as farms. They often fought against each other, besides being engaged in interminable warfare with their enemies. Between 949 and 1045, according to the 13th century Brut y Tywysogyn, the Chronicle of Princes, 35 of their rulers died by violence and 4 more were forcibly blinded.
page 60:
Gradually the multitudinous little princedoms were consolidated into greater wholes, and four major Welsh kingdoms emerged: Gwynedd in the north, Powys in the east, Deheubarth and Morgannwg in the south. They generally came into being peacefully, by policy and marriage, and though they were often at odds with each other, they seldom went to war. Several great rulers, Rhodri Mawr of Powys, Hywel Dda of Deheubarth and the two Llywelyns of Gwynedd, each briefly succeeded in uniting almost all Wales under one aegis.
From "The Matter of Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country" by Jan Morris, ISBN 0-19-504221-2, page 67:
Out of the Welsh heartland leader after leader sprang to defy the English power, culminating in the two Llywelyns of Gwynedd, the Great and the Last, who made a virtual federation of independent Wales, and were to personify forever the spirit of the resistance. A running war that had lasted on and off through 8 English reigns, from William the Conqueror to King John, had never achieved serenity for the English in Wales; it was only in the reign of King Edward I of England that a soldier in the royal service killed Llywelyn ap Gruffydd of Gwynedd, and so symbolically ended the Independence of the Welsh.
Actually resistance continued even after the death of this charismatic prince, but it is the killing of Llywelyn Olaf, the Last, near the hamlet of Cilmeri in Powys, that has remained in Welsh minds the fatal fact. A big stone of rough-hewn granite beside the road marks the place where he is said to have died, on a bitter snowy day in the winter of 1282. When Henry III was on the throne of England, Llywelyn was recognized even in London as Prince of Wales, and in return, he acknowledged the suzerainty of the English Crown. Under Edward I matters changed. First Llywelyn refused to pay tribute, then he insisted on building a new castle and town, Dolforwyn in Powys, which the king forbade. Edward declared the prince a rebel and invaded his teritories with a powerful army, and by the winter of 1282, after several years of shifting fortuens, the Welsh resistance was cracked. In the north the armies of Gwynedd were dispersed; in mid-Wales the Welsh were shatteringly defeated in a battle near Builth, Llanfair-ym-Muallt, in Powtys. On 11 Dec Llywelyn himself, travelling away from that battlefield with a small group of followers, was ambushed and mortally wounded.
page 68:
When they discovered they had killed the Prince of Wales, they cut his head off, washed it in the well of a nearby cottage, and sent it to Conwy in Gwynedd where King Edward was, together with a message from the English commander in Powys: "Know, sire, that the force that you placed under my command fought with Llywelyn ap Gruffydd in the land of Builth on Friday after the feast of St Nicholas, and that Llywelyn ap Gruffydd is dead, his army broken and all the flower of his men killed. . ."
The anguish of the Welsh was terrible, and was expressed in one of the most tremendous of all Welsh laments, by Gruffydd ab yr Ynad Coch, Gruffydd Son of the Red Judge:
Och hyd atat-ti, Dduw, na ddaw-môr dros dir!
Pa beth y'n gedir i ohiriaw?
O God, why does not the sea cover the land?
Why are we left to linger?
page 369:
King Henry III of England ran away in his night-shirt from Grosmont Castle when Llywelyn Fawr attacked it.
Married by proxy in 1275.
Llywelyn ap Gruffydd
The years that followed the death of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth saw a major reversal in the fortunes of Gwynedd, culminating in the Treaty of Woodstock, concluded with King Henry III in 1247, a year after the death of Llywelyn's son Dafydd. Under the terms of the treaty, Gwynedd lost all its lands to the east of the River Conwy.
In 1255, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd defeated his brothers Owain (d.1282) and Dafydd (d.1283), in battle at Bryn Derwin. Owain was imprisoned, and Llywelyn set about reasserting the authority of Gwynedd and thereafter extending it into a supremacy over much of the rest of Wales. In 1267 his position as overlord was recognized by Henry III in the Treaty of Montgomery when the English king accepted Llywelyn's homage as prince of Wales.
Ten years after his recognition as the prince of Wales by Henry III, Llywelyn was to suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of the new King Edward I. From the outset, Llywelyn seemed almost to go out of his way to court Edward's anger. In particular, he refused to yield the homage and money payments owing to the king under the terms of the Treaty of Montgomery. He tempted fate further by arranging to marry Eleanor, daughter of rebel baron Simon de Montfort, an act destined to strain Edward's patience to the limit.
Llywelyn began his own castle campaign by strengthening his grandfather's castles at Criccieth, Ewloe, and Dolwyddelan. Moreover, in 1273 he started to build a new castle at Dolforwyn, high above the Severn valley, posing a challenge to the royal frontier post at Montgomery. The prince's refusal to abandon this project was just one incident in an eventual catalogue of disagreements with the new king.
Enough was enough, and in 1276-77 Edward had decided to settle accounts with the recalcitrant Welsh prince. Edward himself took the field at Chester in July 1277, and by August he had some 15,600 troops in his pay. Against these odds, Llywelyn had no choice but to sue for peace. The ensuing Treaty of Aberconwy represented a comprehensive humiliation for the prince of Wales. Stripped of his overlordship he had won ten years earlier, Gwynedd was again reduced to its traditional heartland to the west of the River Conwy.
On 21 March 1282, Llywelyn's brother, Dafydd, attacked Hawarden Castle and sparked off the war of 1282-83. Llywelyn was faced with an almost impossible dilemma. Torn between his fealty to the king and his loyalty to his brother Dafydd and his people, Llywelyn was to side with his brother and led the Welsh resistance to the inevitable invasion by Edward I. By the end of the year Llywelyn was dead, having been killed on 11 December in a brief engagement with English forces at Irfon Bridge near Builth Wells. A memorial stone was placed near Llywelyn's final battleground.
Under Edward I matters changed. First Llywelyn refused to pay tribute, then he insisted on building a new castle and town, Dolforwyn in Powys, which the king forbade. Edward declared the prince a rebel and invaded his territories with a powerful army, and by the winter of 1282, after several years of shifting fortunes, the Welsh resistance was cracked. In the north the armies of Gwynedd were dispersed; in mid-Wales the Welsh were shatteringly defeated in a battle near Builth, Llanfair-ym-Muallt, in Powys. On 11 Dec Llywelyn himself, traveling away from that battlefield with a small group of followers, was ambushed and mortally wounded.
Time has blurred the truth about his death. Some accounts say he was betrayed by the townspeople of Builth, who turned him away from their gates. Others have him hiding in a cave at Aberedw, 5 miles away, and riding through the snow that morning with his horses' shoes reversed to baffle pursuers. Somewhere near Cilmeri, anyway, it is thought on a bridge over the Irfon river, the English caught him. When they discovered that they had killed the Prince of Wales, they cut his head off, washed it in the well of a nearby cottage, and sent it to Conwy in Gwynedd, where King Edward was, together with a message from the English commander in Powys. The head of the prince was then conveyed to London, paraded through the streets with a crown of ivy on it, and finally stuck up on the Tower of London.
The anguish of the Welsh was terrible. This was conquest. Llywelyn's dynasty was obliterated. His only child, his daughter, Gwenllian, was condemned to live the rest of her life in English nunneries. [This disagrees with other sources that say he had a daughter, Catherine, from whom we are descended.] His nephew Owain was imprisoned in Bristol Castle, and 20 years later we hear of Edward ordering its Constable to make a wooden cage bound with iron, in which Owain may be enclosed at night. His brother Dafydd was dragged by horses through the streets of Shrewsbury, before being hanged, drawn and quartered; the several parts of his corpse were distributed throughout England, the cities of York and Winchester disputing possession of the right shoulder.
From "The Matter of Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country" by Jan Morris, ISBN 0-19-504221-2, page 59:
In the early years of Wales, there were as many as 18 separate princedoms within the 8,000 square miles of Wales, largely because the Welsh law of portion, gavelkind, divided inheritances equally among all a man's sons, and so fragmented kingdoms as well as farms. They often fought against each other, besides being engaged in interminable warfare with their enemies. Between 949 and 1045, according to the 13th century Brut y Tywysogyn, the Chronicle of Princes, 35 of their rulers died by violence and 4 more were forcibly blinded.
page 60:
Gradually the multitudinous little princedoms were consolidated into greater wholes, and four major Welsh kingdoms emerged: Gwynedd in the north, Powys in the east, Deheubarth and Morgannwg in the south. They generally came into being peacefully, by policy and marriage, and though they were often at odds with each other, they seldom went to war. Several great rulers, Rhodri Mawr of Powys, Hywel Dda of Deheubarth and the two Llywelyns of Gwynedd, each briefly succeeded in uniting almost all Wales under one aegis.
From "The Matter of Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country" by Jan Morris, ISBN 0-19-504221-2, page 67:
Out of the Welsh heartland leader after leader sprang to defy the English power, culminating in the two Llywelyns of Gwynedd, the Great and the Last, who made a virtual federation of independent Wales, and were to personify forever the spirit of the resistance. A running war that had lasted on and off through 8 English reigns, from William the Conqueror to King John, had never achieved serenity for the English in Wales; it was only in the reign of King Edward I of England that a soldier in the royal service killed Llywelyn ap Gruffydd of Gwynedd, and so symbolically ended the Independence of the Welsh.
Actually resistance continued even after the death of this charismatic prince, but it is the killing of Llywelyn Olaf, the Last, near the hamlet of Cilmeri in Powys, that has remained in Welsh minds the fatal fact. A big stone of rough-hewn granite beside the road marks the place where he is said to have died, on a bitter snowy day in the winter of 1282. When Henry III was on the throne of England, Llywelyn was recognized even in London as Prince of Wales, and in return, he acknowledged the suzerainty of the English Crown. Under Edward I matters changed. First Llywelyn refused to pay tribute, then he insisted on building a new castle and town, Dolforwyn in Powys, which the king forbade. Edward declared the prince a rebel and invaded his teritories with a powerful army, and by the winter of 1282, after several years of shifting fortuens, the Welsh resistance was cracked. In the north the armies of Gwynedd were dispersed; in mid-Wales the Welsh were shatteringly defeated in a battle near Builth, Llanfair-ym-Muallt, in Powtys. On 11 Dec Llywelyn himself, travelling away from that battlefield with a small group of followers, was ambushed and mortally wounded.
page 68:
When they discovered they had killed the Prince of Wales, they cut his head off, washed it in the well of a nearby cottage, and sent it to Conwy in Gwynedd where King Edward was, together with a message from the English commander in Powys: "Know, sire, that the force that you placed under my command fought with Llywelyn ap Gruffydd in the land of Builth on Friday after the feast of St Nicholas, and that Llywelyn ap Gruffydd is dead, his army broken and all the flower of his men killed. . ."
The anguish of the Welsh was terrible, and was expressed in one of the most tremendous of all Welsh laments, by Gruffydd ab yr Ynad Coch, Gruffydd Son of the Red Judge:
Och hyd atat-ti, Dduw, na ddaw-môr dros dir!
Pa beth y'n gedir i ohiriaw?
O God, why does not the sea cover the land?
Why are we left to linger?
page 369:
King Henry III of England ran away in his night-shirt from Grosmont Castle when Llywelyn Fawr attacked it.
Married by proxy in 1275.
Llywelyn ap Gruffydd
The years that followed the death of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth saw a major reversal in the fortunes of Gwynedd, culminating in the Treaty of Woodstock, concluded with King Henry III in 1247, a year after the death of Llywelyn's son Dafydd. Under the terms of the treaty, Gwynedd lost all its lands to the east of the River Conwy.
In 1255, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd defeated his brothers Owain (d.1282) and Dafydd (d.1283), in battle at Bryn Derwin. Owain was imprisoned, and Llywelyn set about reasserting the authority of Gwynedd and thereafter extending it into a supremacy over much of the rest of Wales. In 1267 his position as overlord was recognized by Henry III in the Treaty of Montgomery when the English king accepted Llywelyn's homage as prince of Wales.
Ten years after his recognition as the prince of Wales by Henry III, Llywelyn was to suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of the new King Edward I. From the outset, Llywelyn seemed almost to go out of his way to court Edward's anger. In particular, he refused to yield the homage and money payments owing to the king under the terms of the Treaty of Montgomery. He tempted fate further by arranging to marry Eleanor, daughter of rebel baron Simon de Montfort, an act destined to strain Edward's patience to the limit.
Llywelyn began his own castle campaign by strengthening his grandfather's castles at Criccieth, Ewloe, and Dolwyddelan. Moreover, in 1273 he started to build a new castle at Dolforwyn, high above the Severn valley, posing a challenge to the royal frontier post at Montgomery. The prince's refusal to abandon this project was just one incident in an eventual catalogue of disagreements with the new king.
Enough was enough, and in 1276-77 Edward had decided to settle accounts with the recalcitrant Welsh prince. Edward himself took the field at Chester in July 1277, and by August he had some 15,600 troops in his pay. Against these odds, Llywelyn had no choice but to sue for peace. The ensuing Treaty of Aberconwy represented a comprehensive humiliation for the prince of Wales. Stripped of his overlordship he had won ten years earlier, Gwynedd was again reduced to its traditional heartland to the west of the River Conwy.
On 21 March 1282, Llywelyn's brother, Dafydd, attacked Hawarden Castle and sparked off the war of 1282-83. Llywelyn was faced with an almost impossible dilemma. Torn between his fealty to the king and his loyalty to his brother Dafydd and his people, Llywelyn was to side with his brother and led the Welsh resistance to the inevitable invasion by Edward I. By the end of the year Llywelyn was dead, having been killed on 11 December in a brief engagement with English forces at Irfon Bridge near Builth Wells. A memorial stone was placed near Llywelyn's final battleground.