Vassal states

Attached is a fairly important document relating to the history of medieval Wales. It is a response from Pope Innocent IV to Prince Dafydd ap Llywelyn, dated 8 April 1245, to the latter’s plea that Wales should be held from Rome as a papal fiefdom. This would sever feudal ties to the English crown, and make Wales a vassal state of the papacy.

Most of this story comes from Matthew Paris, who cannot be trusted. Fortunately this response from the pope survives, which confirms the essence of it. The letter of the papal court references Dafydd’s argument that his parents had given him to the church of Rome as a child - an alumnus or ward - and on this account he sought absolution from the pledges forced upon him by Henry III via the treaties of Rhuddlan and London.

Dafydd claimed that these pledges had been extracted from him by ‘force and fear’. If so this rendered them null and void, for medieval jurisprudence discounted any oath exacted under duress. The document of the treaty of London states that Dafydd had surrendered Gwynedd to King Henry of his own free will - his ‘liberality’ - which is a classic example of medieval legalism. No prince in command of his faculties ever surrendered his patrimony unless he was forced: in crude terms, we may imagine Dafydd putting his seal to the London treaty while a man stood behind him with a big stick.

Coincidentally - or not - Dafydd’s request was the exact same deal later offered by Edward I to Pope Boniface VIII over the duchy of Gascony. If Boniface agreed to take Gascony as a papal fief, that would have severed feudal ties with France and meant future kings of England did not have to swear homage and fealty to the Capetian kings in Paris. It would also remove any legal pretext for French invasions of Gascony. Equally, Dafydd sought to cut Wales loose from the English crown and remove any cause for English military aggression against his country. Whether or not Edward was influenced by Prince Dafydd, a Welsh prince who died when he was just seven years old, is unknowable. That said, the strategy in both cases is the same. Neither ploy worked.

Within a year of Dafydd’s request, Pope Innocent responded that every Christian knew that the prince of Wales was no more than a minor vassal of the king of England. Innocent’s view may have been influenced by a hefty English bribe. As Lloyd put it, the response of His Divine Brilliance revealed “not obscurely the influence of the weightier purse”.