Owain Glyndŵr
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The Banner of the Arms of Owain Glyndŵr showing his parentage |
Owain Glyndŵr, sometimes
anglicised as
Owen Glendower (
1359–c.
1416) and crowned as
Owain IV of Wales, was the last
Welshman to hold the title
Prince of Wales. He instigated an ultimately unsuccessful revolt against
English rule of
Wales.
Glyndŵr was a descendant of the princes of
Powys from his father
Gruffydd Fychan II, Hereditary
Tywysog of
Powys Fadog and Lord of
Glyndyfrdwy, and of those of
Deheubarth through his mother Elen ferch Tomas ap Llywelyn. On
September 16,
1400, Glyndŵr instigated the Welsh Revolt against the rule of
Henry IV of England. Although initially successful, the uprising was eventually put down — Glyndŵr was last seen in 1412 and was never captured.
Glyndŵr has remained a notable figure in the popular culture of both Wales and England, portrayed in
Shakespeare's play Henry IV as a wild and exotic man ruled by magic and emotion. In the late
19th century the "Young Wales" movement recreated him as the father of Welsh nationalism, revising the historical image of him as a purely local leader and joining him in popular memory as a national hero on a par with
King Arthur.
In
2000 celebrations were held all over Wales to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the rising.
Glyndŵr was born to a prosperous landed family, part of the Anglo-Welsh gentry of the
Marches (the border between England and Wales) in northeast Wales. This group moved easily between Welsh and English societies occupying important offices for the Marcher lords while maintaining their position as
uchelwyr â€" nobles descended from the pre-conquest royal dynasties â€" in traditional Welsh society. His father,
Gruffydd Fychan II, Hereditary
Tywysog of
Powys Fadog and Lord of
Glyndyfrdwy, died some time before
1370 leaving Glyndŵr's mother Elen ferch Tomas ap Llywelyn of
Deheubarth a widow. Owain probably had an elder brother called Madog but he may have died young.
The young Owain
ap Gruffydd was fostered at the home of Sir
David Hanmer. Owain is thought to have been sent to London to study law at the
Inns of Court. He probably studied as a legal apprentice for seven years; enough to get a good grasp of the
law but not enough to be known as a "Man of Law". He was probably in
London during the
Peasants' Revolt of
1381. By
1383 he had returned to Wales, where he married Sir David's daughter, Margaret, and established himself as the Squire of
Sycharth and
Glyndyfrdwy.
In 1385 Glyndŵr enlisted under the
Earl of Arundel in
Richard II's Scottish War. In
1387, Owain was in the South East and saw action on the high-seas at the
Battle of Cadzand. Upon the death of Sir David, Glyndŵr returned to Wales as executor of the estate. Richard II regained power and Arundel was executed in 1388. Glyndŵr's opportunities were further limited by the death of Sir
Gregory Sais three years later, and faced with these disappointments he returned to his estates in North Wales, living there quietly for ten years. The
bard Iolo Goch ("Red Iolo") visited him throughout the
1390s and wrote a number of odes to Owain, praising Owain's liberality, and writing of Sycharth "Rare was it there/to see a latch or a lock."
The fall of Richard II
In the late
1390s, a series of events arrived that began to push Owain towards
rebellion. In the last decade of the
14th Century, Richard II had launched a bold plan to consolidate his hold on his kingdom and break the power of the magnates who constantly threatened his authority. As part of this plan, Richard began to shift his power base from the southeast toward the West. He established a new principality around the County of
Cheshire and systematically built up his power in Wales. Wales was ruled through a patchwork of semi-autonomous feudal states, bishoprics, shires, and territory under direct Royal rule. Richard eliminated his rivals and took their land or gave it to his favourites. As he did so, he raised an entire class of Welshmen to fill the new posts created in his new
fiefdoms. For these men, the final days of the reign of Richard II were full of opportunities. In contrast, to the English magnates, it was a sign that Richard was dangerously out of control.
In
1399, the exiled
Henry Bolingbroke, heir to the Dukedom of Lancaster, returned to reclaim his lands. Henry raised an army and marched to meet the King. Richard hurried back from Ireland to deal with Henry. They met in Wales at
Conwy Castle to discuss the restitution of Henry's lands. Whatever was intended, the meeting ended when Richard was arrested, deposed and imprisoned, first at
Chester, then at
Pontefract Castle in West
Yorkshire. Parliament quickly made Henry regent and then King. Richard died under mysterious circumstances in Pontefract, but his death was not generally known for some time. In Wales, men like Owain were asked for the first time in their life to decide their loyalties. The Welsh were traditionally supporters of Richard, who had succeeded his father as
Prince of Wales. With Richard removed the opportunities for advancement for Welshmen were suddenly severely limited. Many Welshmen seem to have been uncertain where this left them.
The dispute with De Grey
The revolt began as an argument with Owain's neighbour. The De Greys of Dyffryn Clwyd were Norman landowners with a reputation for being anti-Welsh. Owain was locked in a long-running land dispute with them. In 1399, he appealed to Parliament to resolve the issues. Reynold de Grey — a good friend of the new King Henry — used his influence to have Owain's appeal rejected. Furthermore, he deliberately withheld a summons for Owain to join the King's Scottish campaign. Technically, as a tennant-in-chief to the King, Owain was obliged to provide troops. By not responding to the summons Owain had committed
treason.
On
September 16,
1400, Owain acted, and was proclaimed Prince of Wales by a small band of followers. This was a revolutionary statement in itself. Owain's men quickly spread through North-East Wales. By
September 19, the de Grey stronghold of
Ruthin was attacked and almost destroyed.
Denbigh,
Rhuddlan,
Flint,
Hawarden, and Holt followed quickly afterward. On
September 22 the town of
Oswestry was so badly damaged by Owain's raid that it had to be rechartered. By the 24th, Owain was moving south and sacked
Welshpool. Simultaneously, the Tudor brothers from
Anglesey launched a
guerrilla war against the English. The Tudors were a prominent Anglesey family who were closely associated with Richard. Gwilym and Rhys ap Tudor had been captains of archers in Richard's campaigns in Ireland. They quickly switched allegiance to their cousin, Owain Glyndŵr.
Henry IV, on his way north to invade Scotland, turned his army around and by
September 26 he was in
Shrewsbury ready to invade Wales. In a lightning campaign, Henry led his army around North Wales. He was harassed constantly by bad weather and the attacks of Welsh guerrillas. By
October 15, he was back in Shrewsbury with little to show for his efforts.
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Memorial to the slain of the Battle of Mynydd Hyddgen |
In
1401, the revolt began to spread. The whole of northern and central Wales went over to Owain. Multiple attacks were recorded on English towns, castles, and manors throughout the North. Even in the South in
Brecon and Gwent reports began to come in of banditry and lawlessness by groups calling themselves the
Plant Owain — the Children of Owain. In May Gwilym and Rhys ap Tudor easily took
Conwy castle while the garrison was at church. They were to hold out for more than six months until they negotiated its return for a sizable payment and free passage. Owain also scored his first major victory in the field. In June, at
Mynydd Hyddgen in West Wales, Owain and his army of four hundred were camped at the bottom of the Hyddgen valley when fifteen hundred English and Flemish settlers from Pembrokeshire charged down on them. Owain rallied his army and fought back, killing 200 and making prisoners of the rest.
The situation was sufficiently serious for the King to assemble another punitive expedition. This time he attacked through central Wales. From Shrewsbury and
Hereford, Henry IV's forces drove through
Powys toward the Abbey of Strata Florida. The
Cistercian house was known to be sympathetic towards Owain and Henry intended to remind them of their loyalties and prevent the revolt from spreading any further south. After terrible weather and constant harassment by the Plant Owain he reached
Strata Florida. Henry was in no mode to be merciful. After a two-day drinking session, he partially destroyed the Abbey and executed monks suspected of pro-Owain loyalties. However, he failed to engage Owain's forces in any large numbers.
Plant Owain harassed him and engaged in hit-and-run tactics on his supply chain but refused to fight in the open. Henry was forced to retreat. As he did so the weather turned. The army was nearly washed away in floods and Henry almost died when his tent was blown down. Wet, starving, and dejected, they returned to Hereford with nothing to claim for their efforts.
The English saw that if the revolt prospered it would inevitably attract disaffected supporters of the deposed King. They were concerned about the potential for disaffection in Cheshire and were increasingly worried about the complaints of the military governor of North Wales,
Henry "Hotspur" Percy. The legendary warrior â€" son of the powerful
Earl of Northumberland â€" complained that he was not receiving sufficient support from the King and that the repressive policy of Henry was only encouraging revolt. He argued that negotiation and compromise could persuade Owain to end his revolt. In fact, as early as 1401, Hotspur may have been in secret negotiations with Owain and other leaders of the revolt to attempt to negotiate a settlement. The core Lancastrian supporters would have none of this. They struck back with anti-Welsh legislation designed to establish English dominance in Wales. The laws actually codified common practices that had been at work in Wales and along the Marches for many years. However, they sent a message to many of those who were wavering that the English viewed all the Welsh with equal suspicion. Many Welshmen who had tried to further their careers in English service now felt pushed into the rebellion as the middle ground between Owain and Henry disappeared.
In the same year, Owain captured his arch enemy, Reynald de Grey in an ambush at Ruthin. He was to hold him for a year until he received a substantial ransom from Henry. In June Owain's forces encountered an army led by Sir
Edmund Mortimer, the uncle of the Lord of the March, at
Bryn Glas in central Wales. Mortimer's army was badly defeated and Mortimer was captured. It is reported that the Welsh women following Owain's army killed the wounded English and mutilated the bodies of the dead, supposedly in revenge for plundering and rape by the English the previous year. Glyndŵr offered to release Mortimer for a large ransom but, in sharp contrast to his attitude to de Grey, Henry IV refused to pay. In response, Sir Edmund negotiated an alliance with Owain and married one of Owain's daughters,
Catrin.
It is also in
1402 that mentions of the
French and
Bretons helping Owain were first heard. The French were certainly hoping to use Wales as they had used Scotland as a base from which to fight the English. French
privateers began to attack English ships in the
Irish Sea and provide weapons to the Welsh. French and Breton
freebooters were also active in Owain's attacks.
The Revolt spreads
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The ward of Caernarfon Castle, besieged by Glyndŵr in 1403, showing (from left to right) the Black Tower, the Chamberlain's Tower, and the Eagle Tower. |
1403 marks the year when the revolt became truly national. Owain struck out to the West and the South. Recreating
Llywelyn the Great's campaign in the West, Owain marched down the Tywi Valley. Village after village rose to join him. English manors and castles fell or their inhabitants surrendered. Finally,
Carmarthen, one of the main English power-bases in the West, fell and was occupied by Owain. Owain then turned around and attacked
Glamorgan and Gwent. The castle at
Abergavenny in Gwent was attacked and burnt. Owain pushed on down to the coast, burning
Usk and taking
Cardiff and
Newport. Royal officials report that Welsh students at Oxford were leaving their studies for Owain and Welsh labourers and craftsmen were abandoning their employers and returning to Wales in droves. Owain could also draw on the seasoned troops from the English campaigns in France. Hundreds of Welsh archers and men-at-arms left English service to join the rebellion.
In the North, Owain's supporters launched a second attack on
Caernarfon Castle (this time with French support) and almost captured it. In response,
Henry of Monmouth (the son of Henry IV and the future
King Henry V) attacked and burned Owain's homes at
Glyndyfrdwy and
Sycharth. The situation became much worse – Hotspur defected to Owain. Raising his standard of revolt in Cheshire â€" a bastion of support for Richard II â€" he challenged his cousin Henry's right to the throne. His young protégé, Henry of Monmouth, then only 16, turned to the North to meet Hotspur. On
July 21, Henry arrived in Shrewsbury just before Hotspur forcing the rebel army to camp outside the town. Henry forced the
battle before the Earl of Northumberland had managed to reach Shrewsbury. Thus, Henry was able to fight before the full strength of the rebels was present and on ground of his own choosing. The battle lasted all day. When the cry went out that Hotspur had fallen, the rebels' resistance began to falter and crumble. By the end of the day, Hotspur was dead and his rebellion was over. Over 300 knights had died and up to 20,000 men were killed or injured.
In
1404, Owain captured and garrisoned the great western castles of
Harlech and
Aberystwyth. Anxious to demonstrate his seriousness as a ruler, he held court at Harlech and appointed the devious and brilliant
Gruffydd Yonge as his chancellor. Soon afterwards he called his first Parliament (or more properly a "Cynulliad" or "gathering") of all Wales at
Machynlleth where he was crowned
Owain IV of Wales and announced his national programme. He declared his vision of an independent Welsh state with a parliament and separate Welsh church. There would be two national
universities (one in the South and one in the North) and return to the
traditional law of
Hywel Dda. Senior Churchmen and important members of society flowed to his banner. English resistance was reduced to a few isolated castles, walled towns, and fortified manors.
Tripartite indenture and The Year of the French
Owain demonstrated his new status by negotiating the "Tripartite Indenture" with Edmund Mortimer and the Earl of Northumberland. The Indenture agreed to divide England and Wales between them. Wales would extend as far as the rivers
Severn and
Mersey including most of Cheshire,
Shropshire, and
Herefordshire. The Mortimer Lords of March would take all of southern and western England and Thomas Percy, the Earl of Northumberland, would take the north of England. Most historians have dismissed the Indenture as a flight of fantasy. However, it must be remembered that in early 1404 things still looked positive for Owain. Local English communities in
Shropshire,
Herefordshire and
Montgomeryshire had ceased active resistance and were making their own treaties with the rebels. It was rumoured that old allies of Richard II were sending money and arms to the Welsh and the
Cistercians and
Franciscans were funneling funds to support the rebellion. Furthermore, the Percy rebellion was still viable; even after the defeat of the Percy Archbishop Scope in May. In fact the Percy rebellion was not to end until 1408 when the Sheriff of Yorkshire defeated Henry Percy Earl of Northumberland at Bramham Moor. Thus, far from a flight of fantasy, Owain was capitalizing on the political situation to make the best deal he possibly could.
Things were improving on the international front too. Although negotiations with the
Scots and the Lords of
Ireland were unsuccessful, Owain had reasons to hope that the French and Bretons might be more welcoming. Quickly Owain dispatched Yonge and his brother-in-law, John Hanmer, to France to negotiate a treaty with the French. The result was a formal treaty that promised French aid to Owain and the Welsh. The immediate effect seems to have been that joint Welsh and Franco-Breton forces attacked and laid siege to
Kidwelly Castle. The Welsh could also count on semi-official fraternal aid from their fellow Celts in the then independent Brittany and Scotland. Scots and French privateers were operating around Wales throughout Owain's war. Scots ships had raided English settlements on the
Llyn Peninsula in 1400 and 1401. In 1403 a Breton squadron defeated the English in the Channel and devastated
Jersey,
Guernsey and
Plymouth while the French made a landing on the
Isle of Wight. By 1404 they were raiding the coast of England, with Welsh troops on board, setting fire to
Dartmouth and devastating the coasts of
Devonshire.
1405 was the "Year of the French" in Wales. On the continent the French pressed the English as the French army invaded English
Aquitaine. Simultaneously, the French landed in force at
Milford Haven in West Wales. They had left
Brest in July with more than twenty-eight hundred knights and men-at-arms led by
Jean de Rieux, the Marshall of France. Unfortunately, they had not been provided with sufficient fresh water and many horses had died. They also brought modern
siege equipment. Joined by Owain's forces they marched inland and took the town of
Haverfordwest but failed to take the castle. They then moved on and retook Carmarthen and laid siege to
Tenby. What happened next is something of a mystery. The Franco-Welsh force marched across South Wales (according to local tradition) and invaded England. They marched through Herefordshire and into the Midlands. They finally met the English outside
Worcester at the ancient British hill fort of Woodbury Hill. The armies viewed each other without any action for eight days. Then, for reasons that have never been clear, both sides withdrew. The Welsh and French withdrew back through Wales into the West. More French were to arrive as the year went on but the high-point of French involvement had passed.
Rebellion founders
By
1406, most French forces had withdrawn after politics shifted in Paris toward the peace party. Even Owain's so-called "
Pennal Letter", in which he promised the
King Charles VI of France and
Avignon Pope Benedict XIII to shift the allegiance of the Welsh Church from
Rome to
Avignon, produced no effect.
There were other signs the revolt was encountering problems. Early in the year Owain's forces suffered defeats at Grosmont and Usk (Pwll Melyn). Although it is very difficult to understand what happened at these two battles, it appears that Henry of Monmouth or possibly Sir John Talbot defeated substantial Welsh raiding parties led by Rhys Gethin ("Swarthy Rhys") and Owain's eldest son, Gruffudd. The exact date and order of these battles is subject to dispute. However, they may have resulted in the death of Rhys Gethin and Owain's brother, Tudur, and the capture of Gruffudd. Henry also showed that the English were engaged in more and more desperate tactics. Adam of Usk says that after the battle of Pwll Melyn, Henry had three hundred prisoners beheaded in front of
Usk Castle. John ap Hywel, abbot of the
Llantarnam Cistercian monastery, was killed during the battle of Usk as he ministered to the dying and wounded on both sides. More serious for the rebellion, English forces landed in Anglesey from Ireland. Over the next year they would gradually push the Welsh back until the resistance in Anglesey formally ended toward the end of 1406.
At the same time, the English were adopting a different strategy. Rather than focusing on punitive expeditions favoured by Henry IV, the young Henry of Monmouth adopted a strategy of economic blockade. Using the castles that remained in English control he gradually began to retake Wales while cutting off trade and the supply of weapons. By 1407 this strategy was beginning to bear fruit. In March, 1,000 men from all over
Flintshire appeared before the Chief Justice of the county and agreed to pay a communal fine for their adherence to Glyndŵr. Gradually the same pattern was repeated throughout the country. In July the Earl of Arundel's north-east lordship submitted. One by one the lordships began to surrender. By midsummer, Owain's castle at
Aberystwyth was under siege. That autumn the castle surrendered. In
1409 it was the turn of
Harlech. Last minute desperate envoys were sent to the French for help. There was no response. Gruffudd Yonge was sent to Scotland to attempt to coordinate action but nothing was to come. The castle fell. Edmund Mortimer died in the final battle and Owain's wife Margaret along with two of his daughters (including Catrin) and three of his Mortimer granddaughters were taken prisoner and incarcerated in the
Tower of London. They were all to die in the Tower of London before
1415.
Owain remained at large but now he was a hunted guerilla leader. The revolt continued to splutter on. In 1409 or
1410, Owain readied his supporters for a last raid deep into Shropshire. Many of his most loyal commanders were present. It may have been a last desperate
suicide raid. Whatever was intended, the raid went terribly wrong and many of the leading figures still at large were captured.
Rhys Ddu ("Black Rhys") of
Cardigan, one of Owain's most faithful commanders, was captured and taken to London for execution. A chronicle of the time states that Rhys Ddu was:
"…laid on a hurdle and so drawn forth to Tyburn through the city and was there hanged and let down again. His head was smitten off and his body quartered and sent to four towns and his head set on London Bridge." Philip Scudamore and
Rhys ap Tudur were also beheaded and their heads displayed at
Shrewsbury and
Chester (no doubt to discourage any further thoughts of rebellion).
In
1412, Owain captured and later ransomed a leading Welsh supporter of Henry's,
Dafydd Gam ("Crooked David"), in an ambush in Brecon. These were the last flashes of the revolt. This was the last time that Owain was seen alive. As late at
1414, there were rumors that the Lollard leader, Sir
John Oldcastle, was communicating with Owain and reinforcements were sent to the major castles in the North and South. Outlaws and bandits left over from the rebellion were still active in Snowdonia.
But by then things were changing. Henry IV died in
1413 and his son began to adopt a conciliatory attitude to the Welsh. Pardons were offered to the major leaders of the revolt and other opponents of his father's regime. In a symbolic gesture, the body of
Richard II was interred in
Westminster Abbey. In 1415 Henry offered a pardon to Owain as he prepared for war with France. There is evidence that Henry was in negotiations with Owain's son,
Maredudd ab Owain Glyndŵr, but nothing was to come of it. In
1416 Maredudd was offered a pardon but refused. Perhaps his father was still alive and he was unwilling to accept the pardon while he lived. He finally accepted a pardon in
1421, suggesting that Owain was dead.
The
Annals of Owain Glyndwr taken from the medieval manuscript
Panton MS. 22 finish in the year
1422. The last entry regarding the prince reads;
1415 - Owain went into hiding on St. Matthew's Day in Harvest (September 21), and thereafter his hiding place was unknown. Very many said that he died; the seers maintain he did not.Nothing is known of Owain after 1412. Despite enormous rewards offered he was never captured. Tradition has that he either died and was buried at his estate in
Sycharth or on the estates of his daughters' husbands —
Kentchurch in
Herefordshire or
Monnington. Owain's daughter, Alys, had married
Sir Henry Scudamore, the Sheriff of Herefordshire. Somehow he had weathered the war and remained in office. It was rumoured that Owain finally retreated to their home at Kentchurch. In his book "The Mystery of Jack of Kent and the Fate of Owain Glyndŵr", Alex Gibon argues that the folk hero Jack of Kent – the family chaplain of the Scudamore family – was Owain Glyndŵr. Gibbon points out a number of similarities between Kent and Glyndŵr (including physical appearance) and claims that Owain spent his last years living with Alys passing himself off as an aging Franciscan friar.
In 2006 The
Owain Glyndwr Society's president Adrien Jones said: "Four years ago we visited a direct descendant of Glyndwr, a John Skidmore, at Kentchurch Court, near Abergavenny. "He took us to Monnington Straddle, in Herefordshire, where one of Glyndwr's daughters, Alice, lived. Mr Skidmore told us that he (Glyndŵr) spent his last days there and eventually died there. It was a family secret for 600 years and even Mr Skidmore's mother, who died shortly before we visited, refused to reveal the secret. There's even a mound where he is believed to be buried at Monnington Straddle."
1Owain Glyndŵr is reputed to have had the following children:
*
Gruffudd ab Owain Glyndŵr*
Madog ab Owain Glyndŵr*
Maredudd ab Owain Glyndŵr*
Tomas ab Owain Glyndŵr*
John ab Owain Glyndŵr*
Dafydd ab Owain Glyndŵr*
Alys ferch Owain Glyndŵr*
Margaret ferch Owain Glyndŵr*
Isabel ferch Owain Glyndŵr*
Jonet ferch Owain Glyndŵr*
Catrin ferch Owain Glyndŵr*
Elizabeth ferch Owain Glyndŵr*
Jane ferch Owain GlyndŵrOwain Glyndwr is also reputed to have had the following brothers:
*
Gruffudd ap Gruffudd Fychan*
Tudur ap Gruffudd FychanThe aftermath in Wales
By 1415, peace could be said to have returned to Wales. The leading rebels were dead, imprisoned, or impoverished through massive fines. Scarcely a parish or family in Wales, English or Welsh, had not been affected in some way. The cost in loss of life, physical destruction, and ruined lives was enormous. Wales, already a poor country, was further impoverished by pillage, economic blockade and communal fines. Reports by travellers talk of ruined castles and abbeys. Grass grew in the market squares of many towns and commerce had almost ground to a halt. Land that had previously been productive was now empty wasteland with no tenants to work the land. As late as
1492, a Royal Official in lowland
Glamorgan was still citing the devastation caused by the revolt as the reason why he was unable to deliver promised revenues to the King.
Many prominent families were ruined. In
1411, John Hanmer pleaded poverty as a reason why he could not pay the fines imposed on him. The Tudors no longer lorded it over
Anglesey and northwest Wales as they had done throughout the late
14th century. The family seemed finished until the third Tudor brother, Maredudd, went to
London and established a new destiny for the family. Others eventually surrendered and made peace with the new order. The redoubtable
Henry Dwn who with the French and Bretons had laid siege to
Kidwelly Castle in
1403 and
1404 made his peace and accepted a fine. Somehow he avoided paying a
penny. For many years after his surrender and despite official proscriptions, he sheltered rebels on the run, levied fines on 200 individuals that had not supported him, rode around the county with his retinue, and even plotted the murder of the King's justice. Nevertheless, his grandson fought with Henry V in
1415 at the
Battle of Agincourt. Others could not fit into the new order. An unknown number of Owain's supporters went into exile.
Henry Gwyn ("White Henry") â€" heir to the substantial Lordship of
Llansteffan â€" left Wales forever and was to die in the service of the King of France facing his old comrades at Agincourt. Gruffydd Yonge was another permanent exile. By 1415 he was in Paris. He was to live another 20 years being first Bishop of
Ross in
Scotland and later of
Hippo in
North Africa.
Modern legacy
After Owain's death, there was little resistance to English rule until, in the
16th century, the
Tudor dynasty, whilst allowing Welshmen to become more prominent in English society, saw Owain's revolt as a catastrophe for Wales. In "Henry IV"
Shakespeare portrays him as wild and exotic; a man ruled by magic and emotion in sharp contrast to the logical and reasonable Hotspur. It was not until the late
19th century that Owain's reputation was to be revived. The "Young Wales" movement recreated him as the father of Welsh nationalism. The discovery of Owain's Great Seal and his letters to the French in the
Bibliotheque Nationale helped revise historical images of him as a purely local leader. In the
First World War, the Welsh
Prime Minister,
David Lloyd George, unveiled a statue to him in
Cardiff town hall and a postcard showing Owain at the
Battle of Mynydd Hyddgen was sold to raise money for wounded Welsh soldiers. Folk memory in Wales had always held him in high regard. Almost every parish has some landmark or story about Owain. He joined the long list of failed resistance to English rule and was remembered as a national hero on a par with
King Arthur. Welsh legend states that when Wales is threatned again then he will rise from the his unknown resting place in Wales in order to lead the defence of Wales. Quite like the legend of King Arthur. During the
1980s, a group calling themselves "
Meibion Glyndwr" claimed responsibility for the burning of holiday homes in Wales. The creation of the
National Assembly for Wales brought him back into the spotlight. In
2000 celebrations were held all over Wales to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the rising. Stamps were issued with his likeness and streets, parks, and public squares were named after him throughout Wales. Owain's personal standard â€" the quartered arms of Powys and Deheubarth rampant â€" began to be seen all over Wales, especially at
rugby matches against the English. An energetic campaign exists to make
September 16th, the date Owain raised his standard, a
national holiday in Wales.
Glyndŵr is the subject of several historical novels, including:
*
John Cowper Powys:
Owen Glendower*
Martha Rofheart:
Cry 'God for Glendower' (
1973)
*
Edith Pargeter:
A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury*
Malcolm Pryce:
A Dragon to Agincourt. Y Lolfa. ISBN 0862436842.
He is also a character in
Shakespeare's
Henry IV, part 1.
*J.E. Lloyd,
Owen Glendower. Although written in
1931, this book is still considered a classic.
*
R. Rees Davies,
The Revolt of Owain Glyn Dwr. Oxford: University Press,
1995. ISBN 0192853368
*Geoffrey Hodge,
Owain Glyn Dwr: The War of Independence in the Welsh Borders, Logaston Press, 1995. ISBN 1873827245
* Family of Owain Glyndŵr. http://www.gbnf.com/genealog3/maytree/html/d0140/I08621.HTM
*
Glyndwr and the War of Welsh Liberation 1400-1415*
The Owain Glyndwr Society*
Two letters of Owain Glyndwr, from Adam of Usk*
"Glyndwr flag flies at city castle" – BBC News 12 September 2005*
"Glyndwr's burial mystery 'solved'" – BBC News
