Sir Adam Gurdun: the sequel

Adam Gurdun: the sequel. In the summer of 1277, eleven years after he crossed swords with the Lord Edward in Alton Wood, Adam was summoned to fight in Wales. He was ordered to join the muster at Worcester on 1 July to serve once again under Roger Mortimer, captain of the army of the Middle March (Adam had served with Mortimer in the same theatre back in 1257).

The campaign of 1276-77 against Prince Llywelyn was a far more efficient undertaking than the dismal effort of twenty years earlier. This time the king’s armies were properly supplied and the Marchers and royal captains behaved with greater unity of purpose. Along with Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, Mortimer led a series of determined drives into the marchlands of Bausley and Y Gorddwr (the ‘upper water’ ). Adam, now well into his 50s, joined the army just after Lacy and Mortimer had driven Llywelyn’s men from this region ‘by the strong hand’.

The land-hungry Marchers now turned on each other: unity of purpose only lasted until these boys got their sweaty mailed mittens on some lovely green acres. Fulk Fitzwarin, lord of Whittingdon, claimed he should have Bausley. His father had held the manor until Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn seized it, and then Fulk recovered it by marrying Gruffudd’s daughter. Llywelyn had then seized the manor from Gruffudd, until the king’s army ejected Llywelyn and the land was taken by Peter Corbet, another Marcher. Simple.

Adam had no landed interests in the March, and it was probably a relief when King Edward ordered his service to be transferred to Edmund of Lancaster, the king’s brother. As a result Adam left the middle March and went to serve the standard forty days in Edmund’s army in West Wales.