The last prince

On 28 September 1284 Rhys ap Maredudd, lord of Ystrad Tywi in south Wales, forced seventeen local gentry to put their seals to an indenture. Via this agreement, they swore allegiance to Rhys on penalty of loss of lands and goods if they ever broke faith.

The first name on the document is Madog ab Aradwr. This implies Rhys was particularly anxious to secure his allegiance. The explanation probably lies in Madog's previous career. He was an active partisan of the crown: in May 1277 he acted as surety for Rhys Wyndod when the latter borrowed 20 marks from Pain Chaworth, lord of Kidwelly, and served as a royal tax collector in the new Welshry being organised at Dinefwr.

Rhys was using the same methods of control as his rival, Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. The princes of Wales in this era struggled to retain the allegiance of the rising 'gentry' class in Wales, otherwise called freemen or uchelwyr. These men were becoming increasingly rich and influential, and sought to break free of traditional constraints.
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Similar patterns can be detected all over Western Europe. In Gascony, for instance, the gentry had to be constantly appeased by the English crown, otherwise they would defect to the French. To that end Edward I deliberately sold off two-thirds of royal demesne (crown estate) in the duchy, retaining direct control of Bordeaux and the wine staple.

It was much the same in Wales. Men such as Madog, Gruffudd Llwyd, Morgan ap Maredudd, Hywel ap Meurig and his sons, Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn and his sons, the various lineages of Powys Fadog, the gentry of Mon/Anglesey – etc etc – could all make a choice of lords. To them, much like the Gascons, it made far more sense to have a distant lord in Westminster than a much closer one, who could exert greater control. That might cause some offence, given the current unpopularity of Westminster, but it was what it was. Nothing will be gained from pretending otherwise.

Rhys ap Maredudd tried to deal with the problem before it happened. No dice: the day of the princes was passing, and nothing they did could halt the slide. When Rhys finally revolted against Edward I in 1287, the men he had sought to bind turned against him. Madog ab Arawdwr joined the royal army and fought at the siege of Newcastle Emlyn with three Welsh sergeants on barded horses serving at a high wage of a shilling per day for ninety-one days.

Madog's sons – Madog Fychan, Treharne Howel, Rhys Cethryn - continued their father's policy. After the failure of Rhys's rebellion, he was reduced to a hunted fugitive. In 1292 Madog's sons caught him in the woods of Mallaen – ironically, the same place where he had forced their father to seal the indenture of 1284. Their prisoner was delivered up to the king and hanged on the common gallows at York. Thus died the last prince of the ancient house of Dinewr, destroyed by his own and executed like a common thief.

As a reward, the brothers were granted the township of Cil-san, valued at 40 shillings a year, for which they owed suit to the commote court of Catheiniog and a yearly rent of fourpence. They held it for almost 50 years until the township was bought up in 1339 by Rhys ap Gruffudd, a cousin of Gruffudd Llwyd and another crown partisan.