No easy options

It's random record Monday. Below is a payment from April 1283 for soldiers going from Castell y Bere to Harlech:

Otto de Grandison
Item, payment to lord Otto de Grandison for the sustenance of 560 foot-soldiers going with him from the castle of Bere to Harlech, £20 by tally.
Sum - £35 11s 8d.

Otto or Othon Grandison was one of the many Savoyards in the service of Edward I. What he found at Harlech is a hot potato – or lukewarm by this stage, since recent research appears to have fizzled out. It seems there was a Welsh castle on the site, and the Edwardian stronghold was built on top of it.

While Othon went off to Harlech, the siege of Bere continued. The royal army was led by Roger Lestrange, William de Valence, Rhys ap Maredudd and the sons of Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn. Most of the soldiers were Welsh, as in:

Cardigan

Item, payment to Eynon ap David, for 39 foot-soldiers from Cardigan for the aforesaid days of Friday and Saturday, 13s.
Emlyn [and] Coedrath
Item, payment to David Vachan, for 200 foot-soldiers from Emlyn and Coedrath, for the aforesaid 5 days, £8 6s 8d.

And so on. So far as Rhys and Gruffudd, this war was the last act in the ancient grudge-match between the rival dynasties of Dinefwr, Mathrafal and Aberffraw. When the castle of Bere fell, bribed into surrender, the lions of Gwynedd were torn down and replaced with the lion rampant of Powys Wenwynwyn. The defenders, as per the normal custom of medieval warfare, were allowed to walk away.

Among them was the poet, Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Goch. He had much to chew on: in 1277 he had taken a fee of £20 to desert Prince Llywelyn and join the royal army. Five years later, he composed Llywelyn's magnificent elegy. There were no easy options.