King's Welshmen

In summer 1283 a Welsh officer, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd ap Grogan, was sent into Penllyn in North Wales to hunt down 'malefactors'. He was paid fourpence halfpenny a day for 13 days to complete this task. The verb used – 'insidiare' – implies he was not simply searching for men, but actively trapping or ambushing them. 

The 'malefactors' in question were the last followers of Prince Llywelyn and Prince Dafydd, who maintained resistance in the hills and forests of Penllyn after the death or capture of the princes. Llywelyn – who ironically had the same name as the slaughtered prince – was engaged on a grim and bloody task. We know from surviving tax records for the next year, 1284, that only ten of the forty bondsmen of Penllyn were still alive. All the tenants of the commote of Penllaen, meanwhile, were dead and their lands laid waste – 'terra vasta'. 

Penllyn was hit especially hard because it was the site of four of Prince Llywelyn's vaccaries or cattle farms, holding 250 cows to provide meat and milk for the prince's troops. In the usual style of medieval warfare, Edward I's troops targeted this region to destroy enemy supplies. 

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd ap Grogan was a man of Anglesey, evidently a crown loyalist who benefited from the destruction of Prince Llywelyn and his followers. In 1300, as a reward for good service, he was granted the forfeit lands on Anglesey of Cynan ap Llywelyn, who had died fighting for the prince.

Anglesey was bitterly divided between supporters of king and prince. In 1277 another landholder on the isle, Iorwerth Foel, joined the royal army against Prince Llywelyn, who burnt Iorwerth's lands in reprisal. Iorwerth later fought as a mounted officer at the battle of Falkirk. Another landholder on the isle, Tudur ap Gruffudd, fought for the king against Prince Llywelyn and Madog ap Llywelyn, as well as doing military service in Ireland. Tudur was also in receipt of 20 shillings per annum for five years for his work on the new castles in North Wales, called the 'Iron Ring'. 

All this presents a very complicated picture, and shows deep fractures and fault-lines in the principality at a crucial time. Why so many Welshmen chose to fight for the King of England against the Prince of Wales is an endless source of discussion – or should be, looking forward, because it is undeniable. One could also point at Dafydd Fychan of Newcastle Emlyn, who captured one of Prince Dafydd's sons on the Bera mountain, or Bleddyn Fychan, who served as the Earl of Lincoln's land agent in the aftermath of conquest. Then there were the great gentry figures such as Morgan ap Maredudd, Gruffudd Llwyd, Gruffudd Fychan de la Pole and Madog ap Llywelyn of Bromfield. Etcetera. 

It isn't a simple question of patriotism; there were all kinds of issues of lordship, homage, patronage and other contemporary concerns at stake. 

(Thanks to David Stephenson for correcting my translation of the original Latin)