A storm on the March

From volume V of the Chronica Majora by Matthew Paris, under the year 1257:

“Then indeed at this time, from among the nobles who had recently come from Germany was James Audley. He was strong and rich, but had his lands, possessions and castles situated in the Marches of Wales. While he was absent the Welsh had hostilely invaded, burnt and expelled the people from his lands, and so he assisted the greatest number of them to the infernal regions, as the blood of his own kindred on the hands of the enemy required. But, while going round his marshy lands, he found many unsuspected Welsh hiding in their dens like foxes, where they could repel their enemies and then disembowelled the expensive horses in order to repulse their attack. In this manner James forced the enemy back and homes and castle fortified with men were reduced to burning ashes on both sides.”

This is typical Paris, lurid and overblown, but some useful details can be picked out. His description of Welsh guerilla warfare, springing from ambush to disembowel horses and bring the riders to ground, tallies with other accounts. For instance, chronicle accounts of the battle of Crug Mawr in 1136 explicitly describe Welsh soldiers cutting the hamstrings of Norman horses to disrupt their charge. This was apparently how the battle was won, even though modern internet sources (the source of all knowledge, naturally) describe the Welsh using longbows at the battle.

The account itself describes the ravaging of the lands of James Audley, whose main fortress was at Weston under Redcastle in Shropshire. It generally pays to look beyond the surface of chronicle accounts. Surviving court rolls show that Audley came to the Curia Regis (king's court) in November 1260 to complain of the following outrage:

He alleged that on 29 June Fulk Fitzwarin, John Lestrange and Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn had sent certain Welshmen, led by Gruffudd Sais and Gruffudd ab Owain, to attack Audley's vill at Forde. They burnt the vill and two others, killed eight men, fatally wounded ten more, and led away ten prisoners. The raiders also lifted a prey of 260 oxen and cows, 80 sheep and 57 horses. Fitz Warin and his allies were summoned to court, but (as was typical) failed to appear.

This was a fairly standard episode of March warfare. Audley's enemies took advantage of his absence in Germany to plunder his lands, and were apparently driven off when he came back. A few years later Audley allied with Prince Dafydd ap Gruffudd and Hamo Lestrange to invade Chester, but were driven out by Earl Robert de Ferrers. Afterwards Audley was packed off by the king to take charge of Ireland, a bit like being sent to the Eastern Front in World War Two, or Afghanistan in the 19th century. Off you go, son: do great things, perhaps, and make sure you don't come back.

Nor did he. While fighting in a skirmish against the Irish, Audley fell off his horse and broke his neck. Swings and roundabouts.