The Ogre and Cadwallon

The Welsh at Mirabeau. The Battle of Mirabeau, fought in Normandy on 1 August 1202, was King John’s only major victory over his enemies in France. He quickly threw away his political gains - quite literally, in the case of his nephew Arthur of Brittany - but the victory was still notable. Like his predecessors and successors, John made good use of Welsh troops.

One of John’s captains at Mirabeau was William Braose, lord of Brecon and Radnor, who would be remembered as the Ogre of Abergavenny. He probably brought Welshmen with him, raised from his lands on the March. Another was Cadwallon ab Ifor Bach of Senghennydd, who served on this campaign at the head of 200 Welsh infantry. Another 540 Welsh foot and twenty horse sergeants are known to have been present. 

Cadwallon had served in royal armies in France since 1187, when he survived Henry II’s final defeat at Le Mans. Afterwards he fought for Richard I against Philip Augustus, and then for John. Between these stints of royal service in France, he went home and fought the English in his native Powys. The contradiction doesn’t seem to have bothered him very much. In 1204 he was back in Normandy with one Lleision ap Morgan and 200 Welsh foot, possibly the veterans of Mirabeau. A few years later he was fighting for Llywelyn ap Iorwerth against John, and the king’s accounts for 1212 record a bounty of six shillings for the heads of the men of Cadwallon ab Ifor.

As an aside, Cadwallon was a kinsman of Gerald of Wales, who records meeting his cousin in Rouen in 1204. Attached are the Braose arms, or at least those attributed to the Ogre by Matthew Paris.