In 1066, the history of the British Isles was forever changed.
Under its new Norman-French overlords, the Kingdom of England would seek to accomplish
what the Anglo-Saxon Kings never had: the total conquest of the Celtic Britons.
However, while it took William the Conqueror only a few years to consolidate his rule over
all England, his successors would need over 200 years to bring the princes of Cymru to
heel.
In this third episode on the history of medieval Wales, we will discuss the first wave of Norman
invasions into the land of Cadwaladr’s Dragon, and explore how the Cymri contended with their
most fearsome foreign invader to date.
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In the year 1039, twenty-seven years before the coming of the Normans, a man named Gruffydd
ap Llywelyn assumed the Kingship of Gwynedd.
In the first five years of his reign, he managed to crush the Earl Leofric of Mercia’s armies
at Welshpool, subjugated the Kingdom of Deheubarth, and defeated a fleet of Viking marauders at
the bay of Pwlldyfach.
Gruffydd’s relationship with the various Gaelicized Vikings on the Irish Sea was fluid,
for in 1052, he allied with a large Hiberno-Norse fleet and raided the English border county
of Herefordshire.
Gruffydd of Gwynedd was able to get away with his brazen aggressions on English territory
by playing the powerful lord of England off one another, raiding some, but forging important
alliances with others, such as with Ælfgar, the Lord of Mercia.
With the help of Ælfgar, he brutally subdued rebellions in Deheubarth and conquered Morgannwg.
In doing so, the King of Gwynedd united all of Wales, the first monarch to ever do so.
However, this grand unification would prove ephemeral.
When Gruffydd’s ally, the Lord of Mercia, died in 1062, Gruffydd was left in a vulnerable
position.
That same year, a certain Harold Godwinson, Earl of East Anglia and Hereford, launched
a huge offensive into Wales, overrunning the country.
A year later, Gruffydd’s household, likely bribed by Harold, turned on their King, killing
him.
Had Gruffydd ap Llywelyn reigned for longer, then perhaps Wales would have crystallized
into a more permanent state of unification, much like England and Scotland had in the
previous century.
However, this was not to be, and his death instead heralded a return to form, with Wales
splitting along its traditional boundaries once more.
Cruising on the glories of his successes in Wales, Harold Godwinson was chosen by the
Saxon Witenagemot to be King of England after the death of his half-brother, Edward the
Confessor.
This reign would not last out the year, for in October of 1066, the Saxon warrior-ruler
was slain in battle by a rival claimant to the throne, William, Duke of Normandy.
Thus, centuries of Anglo-Saxon rule in England was brought to an end.
Thereafter, the most powerful Kingdom in the British Isles would be dominated by the Normans:
a French-speaking aristocracy.
Shortly after his ascension, William of Conqueror, now William I of England, established new
earldoms in Hereford, Shrewsbury and Chester, and appointed them to hardened Norman Knights
who he entrusted with guarding the Welsh border.
At the time, Wales was divided principally between Gwynedd, Powys, Deheubarth and Morgannwg.
During William’s reign, the border was relatively stable, and several Welsh kings, like Rhys
ap Tewdwr of Deheubarth, entered into tributary re lationships with the Anglo-Norman King.
This, however, did not stop some ambitious Norman adventurers from thundering into Wales
anyways.
In 1072, the intrepid knight-errant Robert of Rhuddlan seized the easternmost portion
of Gwynedd and erected a castle there, establishing himself as a local overlord.
In general, Norman knights were a notoriously bellicose lot, and Wales represented a fresh
new frontier of land and wealth.
From 1088 onwards, the Lord of Herefordshire, Bernard de Neufmarché, began ingressing into
the territory of Brycheiniog.
This provoked a fierce retaliation from King Rhys ap Tewdwr, but he was slain by Neufmarché’s
mounted knights in a battle at Aberhonddu in 1093.
Rhys’ death meant that Deheubarth was now vulnerable, and sure enough, the Lord of Shrewsbury
soon overran it.
Meanwhile, Robert of Rhuddlan had long since seized control of all of Gwynedd.
In just a few years of ingress, the marcher lords seemed poised to conquer all of Wales.
The Cymri, however, would soon make the Normans pay bitterly for their trespasses.
Back in 1055, a child of Princely stock was born.
Gruffudd ap Cynan was a descendant of Rhodri Mawr, but he was also an exile, having been
born across the sea from his ancestral homeland, in the Norse-Gaelic town of Dublin.
After an initial failed attempt in 1075, Gruffydd managed to seize the throne of Gwynedd in
1081.
However, he would not enjoy his crown for long, for soon after, Robert of Rhuddlan conspired
with several other Norman marcher lords to lure the new King of Gwynedd into a diplomatic
meeting, only to treacherously imprison him.
Thereafter, Robert of Rhuddlan became the foreign overlord of all Gwynedd, building
Norman-style Motte and Bailey castles throughout the region, all while the rest of Wales was
being overrun by other Norman marcher lords.
If the traditional account is to be believed, then in 1093, after a decade of captivity,
Cynan escaped his Norman captors, and on July 3rd of that year, killed Robert of Rhuddlan
in a Skirmish on the limestone shores of the Great Orme.
After this, Hugh ‘le Gros’ d’Avranches, Earl of Chester, became Gwynedd’s new foreign
overlord.
That same year, the fire of rebellion erupted across all of the land of the Cymri.
In southern Wales, King Cadwgan ap Bleddyn of Powys spearheaded a lightning campaign
that saw his warband tear through Deheubarth unopposed.
Simultaneously, the Britons of Gwynedd erupted into open revolt, allowing Gruffydd ap Cynan
to throw Hugh of Chester out on his rump, and for the third time, reclaim his rightful
throne.
From there, he joined forces with Cadwgan, and together with the King of Powys, became
a leading figure in the Welsh insurrection.
To help his Marcher Lords subdue this rebellion, the King of England led two major expeditions
into Wales in 1095 and 1097, but the Kings of Powys and Gwynedd wisely avoided direct
battle with this royal army.
Unable to feed and pay his men indefinitely, William was forced to depart both times, having
accomplished little to nothing.
Meanwhile, two other Norman armies were ambushed and annihilated by the Celtic Britons in two
battles at Gelli Tarfawg, in Gwent, and Aberllech, in Brycheiniog.
The tides began to turn in 1098, when the forces of Cadwgan and Cynan failed to take
Castle Pembroke.
From this fortress, the Norman marcher lords found a second wind when Earl Hugh of Chester
and Earl Hugh of Shrewsbury joined their forces and pushed the Kings of Powys and Gwynedd
all the way up to the isle of Anglesey.
In this, the Normans were aided by an influential Welsh noble, Owain ab Edwin.
The rebel Kings hired a fleet of Irish Vikings to push back against the two Hughs, however,
the Normans simply bribed these Vikings to switch sides, and in doing so, forced Cynan
to go into exile again after losing Gwynedd for the third time.
However, in one of medieval history’s more notable deus ex machinas, Magnus Bareleg,
King of Norway, happened to be sailing through the Irish Sea with his fleet at the time.
For whatever reason, he clashed with the Normans off Anglesey, defeating them in a battle where
Hugh of Shrewsbury was slain.
Due to this, the Kings of Powys and Gwynedd were able to return from exile and drive the
Normans out of Northern Wales.
By 1099 it was clear, as things stood, that neither side had quite the combination of
resources and strategy to completely subdue the other.
So both Cynan and Cadwgan sat down for peace talks with representatives of King William
II, son of William the Conqueror.
In the following proceedings, the crown of England and the Marcher Lords recognized Gruffydd
ap Cynan as the rightful King of Gwynedd and confirmed Cadwgan ap Bleddyn as the legitimate
ruler of Powys and Ceredigion.
However, much of southern Wales would remain under the rule of Norman Lordships.
For the next two hundred years, while Southern Wales remained under Norman domination, northern
Wales would remain a center of Briton independence, and the border between these two spheres would
become known as the Welsh Marches.
Let us now take a break from the march of history, and look at a broader picture of
what politics, warfare, and culture looked like in Wales during this time.
Contrary to the picture we have thus far painted, life in the Welsh Kingdoms during the high
middle ages was not just a raw struggle for survival.
Despite the perpetual threat of the Normans, the Briton Kingdoms were experiencing a literary
renaissance.
In the timeline of Welsh poetry, the years between 1100 and 1300 AD are known as Beirdd
y Tywysogion: the Poets of the Princes.
During this time, Bards commanded a position of extreme respect in Welsh society, and Briton
Kings would have a bardd teulu: a household poet.
Occupying a prestigious seat on the King’s royal court, it was the barrd teulu’s duty
to sing to the King’s troops before they headed off into battle, as well as to sing
privately for the Queen.
Perhaps the most famous bardd teulu was Meilyr Brydydd, court poet of none other than King
Gruffudd ap Cynan of Gwynedd.
Welsh Kings in this era were also known to sponsor bardic schools, where ancient lyrical
traditions were made accessible to more people than ever before.
These schools were run by pencerdd: chief musicians, who sat in an honoured position
next to the King’s heir in the royal court.
The incredibly dense corpus of Welsh-language literature and poetry from the 11th to 13th
century which survives to this day proves that, despite the constant threats to their
independence, the Kingdoms of the Celtic Britons were among the most educated and culturally
sophisticated peoples of the high middle ages.
Nevertheless, the shadow of the English Crown still loomed over them, and as such, they
were also highly militarized societies, whose foreign policy revolved around a volatile
relationship with the foreign commandants who occupied the southern half of their peoples’
homeland.
Over two centuries, the number of Norman lordships in Wales, the noble families which ruled over
them, and the total amount of Welsh territory they controlled would all fluctuate.
However, they all shared the same characteristics.
For one thing, the Norman Lords in southern Wales were practically independent rulers.
Although they owed nominal fealty to the crown of England, they were granted many privileges
that their counterparts in England did not have, such as exemption from royal taxation
and the right to pass their own laws.
Most importantly, Norman marcher lords had the right to build their own castles, a jealously
guarded privilege which the English Crown was incredibly hesitant to afford to its vassals
in England.
The reason for this was that castles were the Norman’s favoured method of establishing
dominance in the lands they conquered.
In England itself, the English Kings saw little need to allow his vassals to build too many
castles, for it would empower them and risk rebellion.
Moreover, since the Anglo-Saxon peoples had already been thoroughly tamed, there was little
need for them.
However, in the Welsh frontier, where the local Celtic Britons were still wild and defiant,
the English Crown allowed their frontier lords to have a freer hand.
To this day, modern Wales still has the highest concentration of castles of anywhere in Europe,
a testament to how many fortifications the Normans had to erect to fully subdue the native
Britons.
It should also be noted that, in the parts of Wales ruled by Norman lords, the linguistic
and ethnic makeup was still composed of a predominantly rural, Welsh speaking peasantry.
Granted, King Henry I did encourage the migration of Breton, Flemish and English settlers into
Southern Wales, who tended to cluster around Norman castles.
To this day, many of Wales’ largest cities, such as Cardiff and Swansea, were originally
settlements built up around the site of a Norman marcher lord’s fortress.
The relationship between the Norman Lordships and the Native Kingdoms in Wales was, at best,
capricious.
Often, there were long periods of peace and stability, usually secured with political
marriages between Norman nobles and Welsh royalty.
As a result, many prominent Norman marcher families, like the Mortimers, de Lacys and
Talbots, acquired a heavy quantum of Briton blood, and after a few generations, the conflict
the Kings of Wales fought against the Norman occupiers was less a struggle against an alien
entity, but moreso a dynastic struggle against their own extended families.
For indeed, despite frequent alliances forged from politically advantageous marriages, war
was still a fact of life on the Welsh frontier.
In this, the Normans were among the deadliest foe the Britons ever faced.
Possessed of arguably the best shock cavalry in the world, the Normans in the 11th century
had smashed the armies of Saxon Kings, Italian Lords, Arab Emirs, and even the mighty Eastern
Roman Emperor.
Thus, it is all the more impressive that the Welsh, a small, rural people on the very fringe
of Europe, were able to resist the Norman juggernaut for over 200 years.
In the early years of the march, the Welsh were unable to go toe to toe with the better
equipped Normans in the open field.
To compensate for this, the Britons tended to avoid open battle with the conquerors.
Instead, they hid in the rugged hills, using avoision to lure Norman armies deep into their
territory before harassing them with guerrilla tactics and annihilating them via ambush.
Norman castles proved another significant challenge, but Welsh warriors were deadly
lightning raiders, who could plunder and pillage the hinterlands around such fortifications
with remarkable efficiency, and retreat back into the hills before the Norman force within
could be mustered to confront them.
After all, what use was having a castle to sit in if you were helpless to defend the
lands around it?
After a few decades of on-and-off fighting, some Welsh kings began to adopt Norman style
warfare, managing to field Norman-style cavalry and build Norman-style castles in their domains.
This cultural transaction went both ways, as the Welsh were highly renowned archers,
and it is often argued that the Welsh Bow inspired the creation of the English Longbow,
which in later centuries would decide the fate of some of Medieval Europes’ most famous
battles, like Agincourt and Crecy.
In the year 1136, while campaigning in Normandy, King Henry I died without any male heirs.
As a succession crisis threatened to grip the Kingdom of England, the Marcher Lords
turned the majority of their troops eastwards.
With the Norman presence in Wales suddenly reduced, fierce rebellions quickly erupted
across nearly all of the southern occupied territories.
By now, King Gruffudd ap Cynan, nearly 80 years old, was well past his prime.
However, his sons, Owain and Cadwaladr, had since matured into fearsome and capable warriors.
Riding south, the two Princes of Gwynedd linked up with King Gruffydd ap Rhys of Deheubarth.
At a place called Crug Mawr, near the Castle of Cardigan, the Welsh army, now some 6,000
strong, met an equally large force of Flemish and Norman soldiers led by Robert Fitzmartin,
Lord of Cemais.
In the following battle, the Britons utterly annihilated the occupiers, reportedly slaying
over 3,000 men, an astronomical killcount for the era.
Following this stunning victory, the region of Ceredigion, occupied at some point in the
early 12th century, was liberated from Norman rule, and annexed into the territory of Gwynedd.
Ultimately, great Welsh victories like that at Crug Mawr, in hindsight, represented a
delaying of the inevitable, as the interminable advance of the Anglo-Normans would ultimately
continue until all of Wales was under English rule.
Despite this, it would take another 150 years to fully accomplish this, and for every inch
of Welsh land taken, the Celtic Britons would make the invaders pay with a quart of blood.
In our next episode on the history of Medieval Wales, we will cover the final generations
of independent Briton Kings, as great warriors like Owain Gwynedd, Llywelyn the Great, and
Llywelyn the Last will ensure that the flame of Welsh independence burns hot and bright,
before being snuffed out for good.
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