True lord of the land

The late summer of 1238 witnessed all kinds of maneuvering and power play in Wales. Unfortunately not all the documents have survived, but some reasonable assumptions can be made. On 9 August Henry III wrote to Llywelyn the Great, informing the prince that he would be at Shrewsbury on 22 September to discuss royal power in Wales. The language is blunt: this was all about power - potestatem - and nobody was pretending otherwise.

Criccieth

Within the month, on 19 October, all the princes of Wales swore homage to Dafydd son of Prince Llywelyn at Strata Florida. Earlier in the year Henry had protested that this was an abuse of his majesty, but this second oath-taking provoked no hostile response from the king. Many of the rolls are lost for this period, but it appears the homage must have been taken with Henry’s consent. This in turn implies that Henry and Llywelyn had come to a mutually amicable arrangement.

The disabled Llywelyn had done all he could. Two years later, on 11 April 1240, he was laid to rest at Aberconwy after taking the habit of a monk. Soon after his death, Einion Wan composed an elegy for Llywelyn (translated by Sir John Lloyd):

“True lord of the land - how strange that today
He rules not o’er Gwynedd;
Lord of nought but the piled up stones of his tomb,
Of the seven-foot grave in which he lies.”

Prince Dafydd, Llywelyn’s heir, had already taken steps to deal with his elder brother Gruffydd. The Bruts record that a few months before their father died:

“Dafydd ap Llywelyn seized Gruffydd, his brother, breaking faith with him and imprisoned him and his son at Criccieth.”

Once again Gruffydd was the fall guy (no pun intended).