Gerald and Wales

Gerald of Wales provides a blueprint on how to conquer Wales, followed almost to the letter by Edward I a few decades later.

“How the Welsh can be conquered.

Any prince who is really determined to conquer the Welsh and to govern them in peace must proceed as follows. He should first of all understand that for a whole year at least he must devote his every effort and give his undivided attention to the task which he has undertaken. He can never hope to conquer in one single battle a people which will never draw up its forces to engage an enemy army in the field, and will never allow itself to be besieged inside fortified strong-points. He can beat them only be patient and unremitting pressure applied over a strong period. Knowing the spirit of hatred and jealousy which prevails among them, he must sow dissension in their ranks and do all he can by promises and bribes to stir them up against each other. In autumn not only the marches but certain carefully chosen localities in the interior must be fortified with castles, and these he must supply with ample provisions and garrison with families favourable to his cause. In the meantime he must make every effort to stop the Welsh buying the stocks of cloth, salt and corn which they usually import from England. Ships manned with picked troops must patrol the coast, to make sure that these goods are not brought by water across the Irish Sea or the Severn Sea, to ward off enemy attacks and to secure his own supply-lines. Later on, when wintry conditions have really set in, or perhaps towards the end of winter, in February and March, by which time the trees have lost their leaves, and there is no more pasturage to be had in the mountains, a strong force of infantry must have the courage to invade their secret strongholds, which lie deep in the woods and are buried in the forests. They must be cut off from all opportunity of foraging, and harassed, both individual families and larger assemblies of troops, by frequent attacks from those encamped around. The assault troops must be lightly armed and not weighed down with a lot of equipment. They must be strengthened with frequent reinforcements, who have been following close behind to give them support and to provide a base. Fresh troops must keep on replacing those who are tired out, and maybe those have been killed in battle. If he constantly moves up new men, there need be no break in the assault. Without them this belligerent people will never be conquered, and even so the danger will be great and many casualties must be expected.”

All of this has a remarkable similarity to Edward’s strategy in Wales, with one key difference. The policy of the Llywelyns, after Gerald’s day, was to try and ‘modernise’ the Welsh state. This involved building castles. The Welsh could now be bottled up inside conventional strong-points, which was the kind of warfare the Anglo-Normans understood. The sieges of Dolforwyn (1277) and Castell y Bere (1283) fatally undermined Welsh resistance.