A mix of kings

A foot in both camps (3)

In December 1279 Goronwy ap Heilyn took an inquisition concerning the manor of Prestatyn in the Four Cantreds, northeast Wales. He presided alongside the Justice of Chester, Guncelin de Badlesmere, Cynrwig ap Gronw, bailiff of Rhuddlan, and the Archdeacon of St Asaph.

It was presented that Richard, once king of England, had possessed the manor by right of conquest and bequeathed it to Henry III, who in turn bequeathed it to Edward I. The ‘right of conquest’ was perfectly valid in law, which makes one wonder why anyone bothered to dress it up with claims of legitimacy and birth etc. This applied to William the Conqueror all the way down to Henry Tudor.

Owain Gwynedd

Sir Robert Banastre challenged the king’s right to Prestatyn on the basis that the aforesaid King Richard - presumably Richard the Lionheart - had granted the same manor to Robert’s grandfather, another Robert. Owain Gwynedd, then Prince of Wales, then violently ejected the grandfather and destroyed the town he built on the manor.

Several points of interest. One, Robert didn’t know his history, or pretended not to. His ancestors first came to Wales during the time of William the Conqueror, and his grandfather was granted Prestatyn by Henry II, not Richard I. Second, Owain Gwynedd died in 1170, nineteen years before Richard became king. In 1167 he destroyed the tower at Prestatyn built by Robert’s grandfather. Afterwards the Banastres fled into Lancashire, where they were granted lands by the Earl of Chester.

Despite getting his kings mixed up, it seems Robert’s plea was succesful. His granddaughter Anghard married Sir Henry Conwy of Richmond, Yorkshire, after which Prestatyn remained in the Conwy family for centuries. They became Welsh gentry and eventually married into Welsh royalty: Jenkyn Conwy, Robert’s descendent, married the daughter of Maredudd ap Hywel ap Dafydd, who was lineally descended from…Owain Gwynedd.

History is irony.