General Notes

Prince of Gwynedd, or North Wales, 1195-1240. He came t o power in the classic way of Welsh princes bedeviled by th e dividing rule of Welsh inheritance--he seized it from his uncle, Dafydd ap Owain. He proved to be the greatest and most constructive Welsh statesman of the Middle Ages. In his long career he succeeded, by constant warfare, by tactful yielding under pressure and by masterly resilience the moment that pressure was relieved, in bringing under his control most of Pura Wallia. When he died in 1240, full of honor and glory, he left a principality which had the possibility of expanding into a truly national state of Wales. There was a moment when an independent Wales seemed about to become a reality, but looming over it was the king of England.

Llywelyn deliberately set out on a policy of reconstructing the whole basis of Welsh political life, and not every Welshman was happy about it. Llywelyn lived in an age which saw the emergence of the centralized feudal state. Both France and England presented the spectacle of societies elaborating their administrative machinery, putting their taxation on a new and sounder footing and systematizing their codes of justice, but Llywelyn's principality was small and lacking resources. Hostile English observers could wax satirical about its pretensions to international status . Gwynedd had always been the core of the power of the pri nces, and the expansion of Llywelyn's territory gave him th e ability to do many things beyond the power of previous Welsh rulers. He developed castle building on a considerable scale. The remains of Castell y Bere or of Ewloe, Dolbad arn, and Dolwyddelan even show distinctive Welsh style. He gave charters to the small, growing towns, and supported the abbeys and the friaries. But there was the vexing ye t vital question of the exact terms of Llywelyn's homage to the king. The king was always acknowledged as being at th e head of the pyramid, and by the 13th century Welsh rulers also accepted the principle that homage should be paid t o the king of England. Hywel Dda had done so, far back i n the tenth century, and both Owain Gwynedd and the Lord Rh ys had done homage to Henry II. The problem was that Llywe lyn claimed that the status in relation to the king of Engl and was the same enjoyed by the king of Scotland--that baro ns were to pay their homage directly to him. King John to ok a different view. He felt that the barons should also d o their homage to him. This gave him the right of continua l interference in Welsh affairs. At times the relationshi p between Llywelyn and John were mutually supportive, in pa rt because Llywelyn managed to marry Joan, the illegitimat e daughter of King John, in 1205. But even this family ti e soon broke down over the question of homage and dispute d territories.

When the Welsh princes were strong they could enforce a gru dging acknowledgement of their position from the king. Whe n they were weak, the king granted treaties firmly maintain ing his view of homage. Llywelyn the Great had sought to s olve the problem before his death. He had two sons, Gruffy dd by a Welsh woman, and the younger, David, by his wife Jo an. Welsh law at the time said that both sons should inher it--a law which had been the cause of so many of those disp uted successions which had brought ruin to Wales in the pas t. Llywelyn made a bold and successful attempt to put thi s dangerous Welsh law aside in favor of the English system , and finally got the consent of King Henry III Ôs advisor s to agree to the succession of David as his sole heir. Th en, shortly before his death, he called all the princes o f Wales together at Strata Florida Abbey in 1238 and made t hem swear allegiance to David. Henry III allowed him to su cceed, but refused David the direct homage of the barons, e ventually leading to war between the king and the new Wels h prince. David and his forces had no change against Henry 's large army and withdrew. David died childless shortly t hereafter, and it would be up to Llywelyn's grandson, Llywe lyn ap Gruffydd, to assert Wales' independence once again. (from Michael Holler at Ancestry.com)