A Welsh prince and a young king, utterly unlike, but both doomed

I couldn’t find anything of interest in medieval history today—well, maybe a book being published about the Kingdom of Jerusalem? It is a great relief that it has finally seen the light of day, and in just two more days, it will be published in the UK, on what is also Henry II’s birthday. Henry never appears in the new book, but they talk about him a lot since he was King Amalric’s nephew and he was also sending large sums of money to Outremer as part of his penance for Thomas Becket’s murder.
Meanwhile, going back a few days, here are some thoughts on March 1st.
On March 1, 1244, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, eldest son of Llywelyn Fawr, died in an escape attempt from the Tower of London. He was being held prisoner by the English king, Henry III, and although he was kept in comfortable confinement, it was still confinement, and, always a bold, impulsive man, he tried to climb down from the upper story of the White Tower on knotted sheets. An English chronicler laconically noted that he was a big man and had grown heavy in captivity and the sheets broke, hurling him to a gruesome death; I will spare you all the gory details in case some of you are reading this while having breakfast. Ironically, he died on the feast day of the patron saint of Wales, St Dayvdd