Power and control (3)

In early 1256 Prince Llywelyn invaded Meirionydd and drove the local lord, Llywelyn ap Maredudd, into exile. The latter was the grandson of Llywelyn Fawr, who had sworn homage for his land to Henry III in 1241. This was a form of insurance, to protect the lords of Meirionydd from the ambition of the rulers of Gwynedd.

Fifteen years later, Prince Llywelyn chose to retake the land by force. After conquering Lord Edward's territory in Perfeddwlad, he turned south to Meirionudd and expelled Llywelyn ap Maredudd and his family. They fled into exile in England.

Shortly afterwards Llywelyn wrote to Henry III, commending himself to the king as one who preferred fidelity to unfaithfulness and pleading for financial aid. In response Henry granted the exiles an annual pension from the royal exchequer.

Llywelyn had four sons. The eldest was Madog, who would one day revolt against Edward I and proclaim himself Prince of Wales. In 1256 that was a long way off, however, and Madog spent the first two-thirds of his life as a crown loyalist. The lords of Gwynedd created this situation, just as they incurred the enmity of the lords of Powys Wenwynwyn, Morgan ap Maredudd, Gruffudd Llwyd and the Welshmen of the Middle Marches. One might argue you cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs – which is fine, so long as the eggs don't turn round and break you.

In 1263, after seven years in exile, Llywelyn was killed in a battle at the Clun. The Annales Cambriae reports his death:

“On 25 May at Clun there were killed nearly a hundred men, among whom was Llywelyn ap Maredudd, the flower of the juveniles of all Wales. He indeed was strenuous and strong in arms, lavish in gifts and in advice prophetic and he was loved by all”.

The Clun, near the border of SW Shropshire, is a long way from Meirionydd. Further light is shed by an enquiry of 1308, which discovered that Prince Llywelyn drove Llywelyn's four sons from their patrimony shortly after their father's death. Afterwards he compensated the two eldest, Madog and Dafydd, with lands on Anglesey, but their younger brothers got nothing.

The death of Llywelyn at the Clun on 25 May coincides with the timing of Lord Edward's expedition into North Wales in spring 1263. While Edward campaigned in Gwynedd, his allies Hamo Lestrange and Roger Mortimer fought Prince Llywelyn's men in the middle Marches. They weren't very successful: Edward's French mercenaries could not bring the Welsh to battle, while Lestrange was defeated at Abermule and Mortimer was gravely wounded by an arrow in a skirmish. The latter incident occurred three days before the battle at the Clun, though the location is uncertain.

Since Llywelyn ap Maredudd had been a royal pensioner for the past seven years, and his sons were afterwards driven back into exile, the most likely scenario is that he was part of Edward's expedition. His motive was obvious, and a repeat of the strategy of his father and grandfather: exploit an English alliance to get his lands back. On this occasion it failed and he died in arms, fighting other Welshmen. 
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