In 1066, the history of the British Isles
was forever changed. Under its new Norman-French overlords, the
Kingdom of England would seek to accomplish what the Anglo-Saxon Kings never had: the
total conquest of the Celtic Britons. However, while it took William the Conqueror
only a few years to consolidate his rule over all England, his successors would need over
200 years to bring the princes of Cymru to heel. In this third episode on the history of medieval
Wales, we will discuss the first wave of Norman invasions into the land of Cadwaladr’s Dragon,
and explore how the Cymri contended with their most fearsome foreign invader to date. You too were invaded long ago by bundles of
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liberation of your pocket space. In the year 1039, twenty-seven years before
the coming of the Normans, a man named Gruffydd ap Llywelyn assumed the Kingship of Gwynedd. In the first five years of his reign, he managed
to crush the Earl Leofric of Mercia’s armies at Welshpool, subjugated the Kingdom of Deheubarth,
and defeated a fleet of Viking marauders at the bay of Pwlldyfach. Gruffydd’s relationship with the various
Gaelicized Vikings on the Irish Sea was fluid, for in 1052, he allied with a large Hiberno-Norse
fleet and raided the English border county of Herefordshire. Gruffydd of Gwynedd was able to get away with
his brazen aggressions on English territory by playing the powerful lord of England off
one another, raiding some, but forging important alliances with others, such as with Ælfgar,
the Lord of Mercia. With the help of Ælfgar, he brutally subdued
rebellions in Deheubarth and conquered Morgannwg. In doing so, the King of Gwynedd united all
of Wales, the first monarch to ever do so. However, this grand unification would prove
ephemeral. When Gruffydd’s ally, the Lord of Mercia,
died in 1062, Gruffydd was left in a vulnerable position. That same year, a certain Harold Godwinson,
Earl of East Anglia and Hereford, launched a huge offensive into Wales, overrunning the
country. A year later, Gruffydd’s household, likely
bribed by Harold, turned on their King, killing him. Had Gruffydd ap Llywelyn reigned for longer,
then perhaps Wales would have crystallized into a more permanent state of unification,
much like England and Scotland had in the previous century. However, this was not to be, and his death
instead heralded a return to form, with Wales splitting along its traditional boundaries
once more. Cruising on the glories of his successes in
Wales, Harold Godwinson was chosen by the Saxon Witenagemot to be King of England after
the death of his half-brother, Edward the Confessor. This reign would not last out the year, for
in October of 1066, the Saxon warrior-ruler was slain in battle by a rival claimant to
the throne, William, Duke of Normandy. Thus, centuries of Anglo-Saxon rule in England
was brought to an end. Thereafter, the most powerful Kingdom in the
British Isles would be dominated by the Normans: a French-speaking aristocracy. Shortly after his ascension, William of Conqueror,
now William I of England, established new earldoms in Hereford, Shrewsbury and Chester,
and appointed them to hardened Norman Knights who he entrusted with guarding the Welsh border. At the time, Wales was divided principally
between Gwynedd, Powys, Deheubarth and Morgannwg. During William’s reign, the border was relatively
stable, and several Welsh kings, like Rhys ap Tewdwr of Deheubarth, entered into tributary
re lationships with the Anglo-Norman King. This, however, did not stop some ambitious
Norman adventurers from thundering into Wales anyways. In 1072, the intrepid knight-errant Robert
of Rhuddlan seized the easternmost portion of Gwynedd and erected a castle there, establishing
himself as a local overlord. In general, Norman knights were a notoriously
bellicose lot, and Wales represented a fresh new frontier of land and wealth. From 1088 onwards, the Lord of Herefordshire,
Bernard de Neufmarché, began ingressing into the territory of Brycheiniog. This provoked a fierce retaliation from King
Rhys ap Tewdwr, but he was slain by Neufmarché’s mounted knights in a battle at Aberhonddu
in 1093. Rhys’ death meant that Deheubarth was now
vulnerable, and sure enough, the Lord of Shrewsbury soon overran it. Meanwhile, Robert of Rhuddlan had long since
seized control of all of Gwynedd. In just a few years of ingress, the marcher
lords seemed poised to conquer all of Wales. The Cymri, however, would soon make the Normans
pay bitterly for their trespasses. Back in 1055, a child of Princely stock was
born. Gruffudd ap Cynan was a descendant of Rhodri
Mawr, but he was also an exile, having been born across the sea from his ancestral homeland,
in the Norse-Gaelic town of Dublin. After an initial failed attempt in 1075, Gruffydd
managed to seize the throne of Gwynedd in 1081. However, he would not enjoy his crown for
long, for soon after, Robert of Rhuddlan conspired with several other Norman marcher lords to
lure the new King of Gwynedd into a diplomatic meeting, only to treacherously imprison him. Thereafter, Robert of Rhuddlan became the
foreign overlord of all Gwynedd, building Norman-style Motte and Bailey castles throughout
the region, all while the rest of Wales was being overrun by other Norman marcher lords. If the traditional account is to be believed,
then in 1093, after a decade of captivity, Cynan escaped his Norman captors, and on July
3rd of that year, killed Robert of Rhuddlan in a Skirmish on the limestone shores of the
Great Orme. After this, Hugh ‘le Gros’ d’Avranches,
Earl of Chester, became Gwynedd’s new foreign overlord. That same year, the fire of rebellion erupted
across all of the land of the Cymri. In southern Wales, King Cadwgan ap Bleddyn
of Powys spearheaded a lightning campaign that saw his warband tear through Deheubarth
unopposed. Simultaneously, the Britons of Gwynedd erupted
into open revolt, allowing Gruffydd ap Cynan to throw Hugh of Chester out on his rump,
and for the third time, reclaim his rightful throne. From there, he joined forces with Cadwgan,
and together with the King of Powys, became a leading figure in the Welsh insurrection. To help his Marcher Lords subdue this rebellion,
the King of England led two major expeditions into Wales in 1095 and 1097, but the Kings
of Powys and Gwynedd wisely avoided direct battle with this royal army. Unable to feed and pay his men indefinitely,
William was forced to depart both times, having accomplished little to nothing. Meanwhile, two other Norman armies were ambushed
and annihilated by the Celtic Britons in two battles at Gelli Tarfawg, in Gwent, and Aberllech,
in Brycheiniog. The tides began to turn in 1098, when the
forces of Cadwgan and Cynan failed to take Castle Pembroke. From this fortress, the Norman marcher lords
found a second wind when Earl Hugh of Chester and Earl Hugh of Shrewsbury joined their forces
and pushed the Kings of Powys and Gwynedd all the way up to the isle of Anglesey. In this, the Normans were aided by an influential
Welsh noble, Owain ab Edwin. The rebel Kings hired a fleet of Irish Vikings
to push back against the two Hughs, however, the Normans simply bribed these Vikings to
switch sides, and in doing so, forced Cynan to go into exile again after losing Gwynedd
for the third time. However, in one of medieval history’s more
notable deus ex machinas, Magnus Bareleg, King of Norway, happened to be sailing through
the Irish Sea with his fleet at the time. For whatever reason, he clashed with the Normans
off Anglesey, defeating them in a battle where Hugh of Shrewsbury was slain. Due to this, the Kings of Powys and Gwynedd
were able to return from exile and drive the Normans out of Northern Wales. By 1099 it was clear, as things stood, that
neither side had quite the combination of resources and strategy to completely subdue
the other. So both Cynan and Cadwgan sat down for peace
talks with representatives of King William II, son of William the Conqueror. In the following proceedings, the crown of
England and the Marcher Lords recognized Gruffydd ap Cynan as the rightful King of Gwynedd and
confirmed Cadwgan ap Bleddyn as the legitimate ruler of Powys and Ceredigion. However, much of southern Wales would remain
under the rule of Norman Lordships. For the next two hundred years, while Southern
Wales remained under Norman domination, northern Wales would remain a center of Briton independence,
and the border between these two spheres would become known as the Welsh Marches. Let us now take a break from the march of
history, and look at a broader picture of what politics, warfare, and culture looked
like in Wales during this time. Contrary to the picture we have thus far painted,
life in the Welsh Kingdoms during the high middle ages was not just a raw struggle for
survival. Despite the perpetual threat of the Normans,
the Briton Kingdoms were experiencing a literary renaissance. In the timeline of Welsh poetry, the years
between 1100 and 1300 AD are known as Beirdd y Tywysogion: the Poets of the Princes. During this time, Bards commanded a position
of extreme respect in Welsh society, and Briton Kings would have a bardd teulu: a household
poet. Occupying a prestigious seat on the King’s
royal court, it was the barrd teulu’s duty to sing to the King’s troops before they
headed off into battle, as well as to sing privately for the Queen. Perhaps the most famous bardd teulu was Meilyr
Brydydd, court poet of none other than King Gruffudd ap Cynan of Gwynedd. Welsh Kings in this era were also known to
sponsor bardic schools, where ancient lyrical traditions were made accessible to more people
than ever before. These schools were run by pencerdd: chief
musicians, who sat in an honoured position next to the King’s heir in the royal court. The incredibly dense corpus of Welsh-language
literature and poetry from the 11th to 13th century which survives to this day proves
that, despite the constant threats to their independence, the Kingdoms of the Celtic Britons
were among the most educated and culturally sophisticated peoples of the high middle ages. Nevertheless, the shadow of the English Crown
still loomed over them, and as such, they were also highly militarized societies, whose
foreign policy revolved around a volatile relationship with the foreign commandants
who occupied the southern half of their peoples’ homeland. Over two centuries, the number of Norman lordships
in Wales, the noble families which ruled over them, and the total amount of Welsh territory
they controlled would all fluctuate. However, they all shared the same characteristics. For one thing, the Norman Lords in southern
Wales were practically independent rulers. Although they owed nominal fealty to the crown
of England, they were granted many privileges that their counterparts in England did not
have, such as exemption from royal taxation and the right to pass their own laws. Most importantly, Norman marcher lords had
the right to build their own castles, a jealously guarded privilege which the English Crown
was incredibly hesitant to afford to its vassals in England. The reason for this was that castles were
the Norman’s favoured method of establishing dominance in the lands they conquered. In England itself, the English Kings saw little
need to allow his vassals to build too many castles, for it would empower them and risk
rebellion. Moreover, since the Anglo-Saxon peoples had
already been thoroughly tamed, there was little need for them. However, in the Welsh frontier, where the
local Celtic Britons were still wild and defiant, the English Crown allowed their frontier lords
to have a freer hand. To this day, modern Wales still has the highest
concentration of castles of anywhere in Europe, a testament to how many fortifications the
Normans had to erect to fully subdue the native Britons. It should also be noted that, in the parts
of Wales ruled by Norman lords, the linguistic and ethnic makeup was still composed of a
predominantly rural, Welsh speaking peasantry. Granted, King Henry I did encourage the migration
of Breton, Flemish and English settlers into Southern Wales, who tended to cluster around
Norman castles. To this day, many of Wales’ largest cities,
such as Cardiff and Swansea, were originally settlements built up around the site of a
Norman marcher lord’s fortress. The relationship between the Norman Lordships
and the Native Kingdoms in Wales was, at best, capricious. Often, there were long periods of peace and
stability, usually secured with political marriages between Norman nobles and Welsh
royalty. As a result, many prominent Norman marcher
families, like the Mortimers, de Lacys and Talbots, acquired a heavy quantum of Briton
blood, and after a few generations, the conflict the Kings of Wales fought against the Norman
occupiers was less a struggle against an alien entity, but moreso a dynastic struggle against
their own extended families. For indeed, despite frequent alliances forged
from politically advantageous marriages, war was still a fact of life on the Welsh frontier. In this, the Normans were among the deadliest
foe the Britons ever faced. Possessed of arguably the best shock cavalry
in the world, the Normans in the 11th century had smashed the armies of Saxon Kings, Italian
Lords, Arab Emirs, and even the mighty Eastern Roman Emperor. Thus, it is all the more impressive that the
Welsh, a small, rural people on the very fringe of Europe, were able to resist the Norman
juggernaut for over 200 years. In the early years of the march, the Welsh
were unable to go toe to toe with the better equipped Normans in the open field. To compensate for this, the Britons tended
to avoid open battle with the conquerors. Instead, they hid in the rugged hills, using
avoision to lure Norman armies deep into their territory before harassing them with guerrilla
tactics and annihilating them via ambush. Norman castles proved another significant
challenge, but Welsh warriors were deadly lightning raiders, who could plunder and pillage
the hinterlands around such fortifications with remarkable efficiency, and retreat back
into the hills before the Norman force within could be mustered to confront them. After all, what use was having a castle to
sit in if you were helpless to defend the lands around it? After a few decades of on-and-off fighting,
some Welsh kings began to adopt Norman style warfare, managing to field Norman-style cavalry
and build Norman-style castles in their domains. This cultural transaction went both ways,
as the Welsh were highly renowned archers, and it is often argued that the Welsh Bow
inspired the creation of the English Longbow, which in later centuries would decide the
fate of some of Medieval Europes’ most famous battles, like Agincourt and Crecy. In the year 1136, while campaigning in Normandy,
King Henry I died without any male heirs. As a succession crisis threatened to grip
the Kingdom of England, the Marcher Lords turned the majority of their troops eastwards. With the Norman presence in Wales suddenly
reduced, fierce rebellions quickly erupted across nearly all of the southern occupied
territories. By now, King Gruffudd ap Cynan, nearly 80
years old, was well past his prime. However, his sons, Owain and Cadwaladr, had
since matured into fearsome and capable warriors. Riding south, the two Princes of Gwynedd linked
up with King Gruffydd ap Rhys of Deheubarth. At a place called Crug Mawr, near the Castle
of Cardigan, the Welsh army, now some 6,000 strong, met an equally large force of Flemish
and Norman soldiers led by Robert Fitzmartin, Lord of Cemais. In the following battle, the Britons utterly
annihilated the occupiers, reportedly slaying over 3,000 men, an astronomical killcount
for the era. Following this stunning victory, the region
of Ceredigion, occupied at some point in the early 12th century, was liberated from Norman
rule, and annexed into the territory of Gwynedd. Ultimately, great Welsh victories like that
at Crug Mawr, in hindsight, represented a delaying of the inevitable, as the interminable
advance of the Anglo-Normans would ultimately continue until all of Wales was under English
rule. Despite this, it would take another 150 years
to fully accomplish this, and for every inch of Welsh land taken, the Celtic Britons would
make the invaders pay with a quart of blood. In our next episode on the history of Medieval
Wales, we will cover the final generations of independent Briton Kings, as great warriors
like Owain Gwynedd, Llywelyn the Great, and Llywelyn the Last will ensure that the flame
of Welsh independence burns hot and bright, before being snuffed out for good. If you don’t want to miss that episode or
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