Adam Gurdun: He Just Will Not Stop

In 1287, ten years after his last Welsh adventure, Adam Gurdun was once again summoned to fight in Wales. This time the enemy was Rhys ap Maredudd, lord of Dryslwyn and once a staunch ally of the English. Rhys had fallen out with King Edward's administrators in West Wales and gone into revolt, slaughtering the garrisons at Carreg Cennen and Llandovery and ravaging up to the gates of Carmarthen.

Adam, now in his sixth decade, once again strapped on that damned dirty armour and clambered aboard his war-horse. The king was in Gascony, so the Welsh campaign was organised by the regent, Edmund of Cornwall. Cornwall summoned Adam to appear 'with horses and arms' at the great military council held at Gloucester on 15 July. The council at Gloucester resolved to raise a single 'great army' to converge on Carmarthen before marching on Rhys's fortress of Dryslwyn in the Tywi valley. It was assembled in four divisions, at Llanbadarn Fawr under John Havering, at Monmouth under Earl Edmund, Brecon under Gilbert de Clare and local forces under the justiciar, Robert Tibetot.

Adam was presumably at Monmouth with Edmund, who raised 11,000 men: two-thirds of these came from the counties of Carmarthen and Cardigan and the Marches, the rest were English. Had he known of it, the king might have been alarmed at the excessive scale of the regent's preparations. The army at Llanbadarn consisted of 4640 men, half Welsh and half English; these included 1000 men of Powys under Owain de le Pole, and 2000 men from North Wales raised by the Sheriff of Meirionydd. More men came from Cheshire and North Wales, swelling the army to 6660. Not to be outdone, the Earl of Gloucester raised a staggering 12,500 men from his lordship of Brecon.

In all, the regent's army was well in excess of 22,000 men. This was the largest host seen in the British Isles since 1066, largely composed of Welsh infantry, and all to lay siege to a single castle. To put these baffling numbers into context, the last royal army to campaign in West Wales in 1283 never exceeded 3000 men. If nothing else, Cornwall's panic attack does at least show the sheer number of fighting men that could be raised in Wales at this time.