Broken promises

In the summer of 1241, a year after the death of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, the Welsh lords of the middle March were at war with Ralf Mortimer of Wigmore. They were assisted by the seneschals of Dafydd ap Llywelyn, lord of Gwynedd and self-proclaimed Prince of Wales.

Mortimer sought to protect himself by sowing dissension in Gwynedd. On 12 August he stood surety for a fine promised to Henry III by Senana, wife of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, for which the king undertook to free Gruffydd and his son Owain from Dafydd’s prison. Gruffydd and Dafydd were half-brothers and the royal policy was to dangle Gruffydd as a potential threat to Dafydd’s hegemony in North Wales.

At about the same time Mortimer came to an agreement with his wife’s nephew, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Two copies of a deed exist, in which Llywelyn quit all his rights in the lands of Gwrtherynion and Maelienydd to Ralf Mortimer and his heirs. One of the copies of the deed contains a saving clause in which Llywelyn swore to support the Mortimers against all men, saving the King of England. In the deed Llywelyn styles himself ‘filius Griffith filii Leulini quondam principis Norwallie’. This reflects English chancery practice with respect to his uncle Prince Dafydd, who was designated ‘filius Lewelini quondam principies Norwallie’. In King Henry’s agreement of 12 August with Senana, he stipulated that two of her sons, Dafydd and Rhodri, should handed over as hostages. Her husband Gruffydd and the eldest son, Owain Goch, were also taken into royal custody. Llywelyn was exempt.

Among the witnesses to the Mortimer deed is Einion ap Caradog, who had recently fled Prince Dafydd’s court after informing Dafydd to his face that he was “too weak to be a prince”. Another member of Llywelyn’s entourage at this time was Richard, Bishop of Bangor, who abandoned Dafydd and publicly declared his fealty to Henry III.

At this time, therefore, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd appears to have been a royal partisan against his uncle Dafydd, and in alliance with the Mortimers. His attitude changed when his father, Gruffydd, died attempting to escape from the Tower in 1244. After this Llywelyn became a supporter of Prince Dafydd, possibly in the hope that Dafydd would make him his successor. In the event he and his brother Owain seized power after Dafydd’s death in 1246.

Even so, Llywelyn could not escape his oath to the Mortimers. In 1257, sixteen years after he quit all his rights in Maelienydd and Gwrtherynion, Llywellyn broke the agreement and invaded those lands. This possibly sowed the seeds of his eventual destruction at Mortimer hands in 1282.