Powys and FitzEmpress (1)

In 1157, after the conclusion of Henry II’s campaign in North Wales, his Powysian allies continued to fight against Owain Gwynedd. After Henry and Owain had made peace, the Brut records that Iorwerth Goch destroyed the castle Owain had constructed in Iâl:

Then Iorwerth the Red, son of Maredudd, returned to the castle of Yale, and burned it.

Iorwerth was the brother of Madog ap Maredudd, lord of Powys, who had fought with Henry against Owain. The attack on Iâl, after the king had gone home, shows the Powysians had their own interests to pursue and were not mere royal auxiliaries.

Even so, Henry was happy to subsidise their war against Owain. Some interesting evidence is provided in a poem composed by Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr, perhaps the greatest Welsh bard of the era, who served all the major princely houses of Gwynedd, Powys and Deheubarth. In about 1187 he composed a work praising the deeds of Owain Cyfeiliog, a prince of southern Powys. The crucial lines are:

Gwaed ar wallt rhag
Allt Cadwallawn
Yn Llanerch, yn lleudir Merfyniawn
Yn llew glew, yn llyw rhag Lleisiawn

(Hair stained with blood before Allt Cadwallon In Llanerch, in the open land of the Merfynion [the descendants of Merfyn, the dynasty of Gwynedd]
 A valiant lion, a leader before the Lleision [descendants of Lles, the dynasty of Powys]

Cynddelw refers to a battle in Gwynedd, and Llanerch has been plausibly identified as the commote of that name in Dyffryn Clwyd. Cynddelw provides no date, but the Pipe Roll for 4 Henry II (1158) records two payments to Owain Cyfeiliog and Madog ap Maredudd. Owain was paid five marks or £3 3s 8d, while Madog received the much smaller sum of 40 shillings.

Thus it appears Owain had done some great service for Henry, and both he and Madog continued to receive English royal subsidies in 1157-8. A successful raid into Gwynedd, coming at the tail-end of the royal campaign, would make sense. While Owain Cyfeiliog kept the Venedotians busy in their homeland, Madog and Iorwerth Goch drove Owain’s men from Powys. Thus the chronicle, poetry and account evidence are in persuasive symmetry.