“And then all Wales was thrown to the ground…”
On a bleak winter’s day in December 1282 the Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, was lured into an ambush and killed. His army was scattered and his severed head sent to Edward I, who had it displayed at the Tower of London. Llywelyn’s lifelong struggle to unify his country had come to a violent and tragic end.
The death of Llywelyn, and the execution of his brother Dafydd in October 1283, resulted in the conquest of Gwynedd and the effective destruction of their dynasty. It also marked the end of over two hundred years of conflict, in which the native lords of Gwynedd had successfully resisted the power of the English crown. King Edward’s victory in 1283 was a landmark in Welsh history, and left a bitter legacy that endures to this day.
This is the story of the conflict between Edward and Llywelyn, a long and convoluted struggle played out over several decades. Both men were ambitious, proud, stubborn and highly competent, neither prepared to give ground to the other. Theirs was as much a personal rivalry as a war between two competing states, but it need not have ended in blood. As this account will show, the king and the prince were not always enemies, and there was nothing inevitable about Llywelyn’s downfall.
This is the first of two volumes on the history of Edward I and Wales by David Pilling, author of The Wars of Edward I 1255-74 (I) The Leopard. He is also the author of fictional works such as the Longsword series, Reiver, Caesar’s Sword, The White Hawk, The Half-Hanged Man and many others.
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