The year is 1154, the English Civil War is over, and Henry II is king.
For almost the past 20 years, the kingdoms of Wales have benefitted from their neighbour being completely distracted by their own internal affairs [2].
The apex of Welsh power had occurred a century ago, when Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, king of the Britons [28], conquered all of Wales.
However, repeated attacks from the English had restricted his realm to the north of the country [1].
This new distraction would provide ample opportunity for many of the Welsh leaders to regain their power, including the focus of this video:
Owain ap Gruffydd, more commonly known as “Owain Gwynedd”.
Today we’re going to find out, how a tiny, rural, peripheral Welsh state defeated the most powerful army in Great Britain,
and almost killed the king of England.
This English Civil War, known to history as “The Anarchy”, asked 2 important questions:
1. How would the succession of the throne be decided when your only legitimate heir dies in a freak boat accident?
and 2. How can you secure the succession, when all the powerful nobles of your country prefer this other French guy to your daughter?
The answer was by violence, and compromise. Henry of Anjou would succeed Stephen of Blois,
continuing the unusual tradition of the kings of England, not just being from France,
but from this one specific area of France.
There was a third question that had emerged now that the war had come to an end:
3. Why are there Welsh people outside my house?
Great question Ranulf, Earl of Chester…..’s son, Hugh!
Owain Gwynedd had spent the past 30 years consolidating his hold over his kingdom,
and now two of his biggest rivals, the Earldom of Chester, and the Kingdom of Powys, were preoccupied with their own affairs in the east.
Ranulf, like most people before they die, was still alive and involved in the civil war,
and Madog ap Maredudd, prince of Powys, had invaded and captured the town of Oswestry in Shropshire [3].
Owain seized on this opportunity and constructed a castle on the border of Powys, near the commote of Iâl,
and soon after he and Madog would come to blows.
Powys allied with Ranulf, who was concerned about the rising power of Gwynedd [8], and together they met Owain in battle at Coleshill.
The scale of this battle is unfortunately unknown [13], but Owain was likely not facing the combined strengths of two leaders,
as Ranulf was still heavily distracted by the events occurring in England [8].
Despite this, Brut y Tywysogion (a 14th century Welsh chronicle) seems to imply that the armies of Chester did most of the fighting (or were at least the first ones to be defeated),
but this could also have been propaganda against Powys, describing Madog ap Maredudd as cowardly and unable to fight his own battles [21][24].
Following this crushing victory, Owain would take control of the commote of Iâl and the cantref of Tegeingl,
moving his lands right to the border of the city of Chester.
Henry II was unequipped to deal with this emerging power, he had far more pressing domestic matters to attend to [14],
and despite Owain Gwynedd’s stunning display of military prowess, it was obvious to him that he did not pose an existential threat.
Furthermore, Henry II knew the Welsh tactics in warfare:
pitched battles did not happen, instead the armies of Wales would harass those of the English and retreat into the difficult terrain of their country [6].
By 1157, Henry had secured his own state,
and at the Council of Northampton a royal expedition was finally formalised to deal with these Welsh excursions [15].
What Henry II did not know however, is that Owain Gwynedd’s tactics had changed.
He would not simply flee and harass the forces of the king; he was going to stand and fight [6].
Owain had some experience in this, only a year prior he had led an army (a “llu”) into Ceredigion to battle Rhys ap Gruffydd,
however this invasion was repulsed by Rhys’s defences [7].
This strategy was new, and uncertain [6][12], but the historian Sean Davies offers some insight:
he states that the prince of Gwynedd wanted to do this because he was confident in his ability to maintain his defences,
that he wanted to protect his newly conquered Tegeingl and not just simply allow the forces of England to enter and besiege him [12].
Henry II positioned his army near Chester, and in response, Owain Gwynedd would march his army to Basingwerk [9].
Speaking of armies, I think now is a good time to mention that, unfortunately, we do not know the number of combatants.
Wikipedia cites an old BBC article where a “local historian from Deeside”
states that 3000 Welsh fought 30,000 English…
this is extremely unlikely.
Historian John Davies says that Edward I’s army that conquered Wales was the largest in Great Britain since 1066,
and that that army consisted of 800 knights and 15,000 infantry [26].
Henry’s forces were certainly greater than Owain’s [9][22], one version of Brut y Tywysogion states that the English army outnumbered the men of Gwynedd 10 to 1 [25],
but it is hard to trust a source that could easily be trying to exaggerate the prowess of Owain.
However, Henry II was operating with a smaller than usual levy,
he had reduced the number of soldiers so that he could retain them for longer [16].
For example he levied one third of the knights in England for an extended period of fourth months,
rather than the usual 40 days [27],
which again demonstrates that he likely did not expect a pitched battle anytime soon,
and that he was instead preparing for months of skirmishes.
For the sake of this video, I am going to illustrate Henry II’s army like this:
and Owain Gwynedd’s like this:
This is just for the sake of demonstration, because again we do not know the numbers.
Regardless, the two forces were now encamped close to one another,
and soon Henry II would join with Madog ap Maredudd of Powys [2],
and they would begin their march along the coastal road to the castle of Rhuddlan.
As I said before, Owain’s forces were positioned at Basingwerk,
probably at the ancient stronghold of Dinas Basing, which formed the northern border of Watt’s Dyke and overlooked the road to Rhuddlan [16].
Under the earl of Chester, this site had previously been a monastery.
Owain wanted Henry to make a frontal assault on the stronghold,
and he had prepared this position by constructing ditches (ffos) on the road and laying out pointed stakes to deter the English cavalry,
like the ones that would later be used at Agincourt [22][9][11].
Additionally, his flanks were protected, to the right by the ocean and a ravine [11],
and to the left by dense woodland (called either Ewloe Wood [16][25] or the woods of Hawarden [9]).
Upon seeing what I imagine was the medieval equivalent of Passchendaele, Henry II decided not to charge his army forwards [9].
Instead he sent the majority of his forces along the road, and then proceeded to attempt to outflank Owain
through the dense and allegedly ‘trackless’ woods to his left [22][16][9].
This was to be a terrible mistake;
it was unknown to Henry, but Owain had fully expected this to happen [11].
Either through arrogance [6], or recklessness [16], Henry II had just walked himself right into an ambush.
Owain had given command of some of his forces to his three sons, Hywel, Cynan, and Dafydd [4],
the latter two of which were lying in wait in the woods.
The Welsh infantry immediately attacked Henry’s detachment.
They were likely fighting on foot, armed with spears [10] which were perfect for attacking and manoeuvring around the mounted English.
In a flash two of Henry’s commanding barons were killed,
and the king himself came dangerously close to losing his own life.
Before the Welsh infantry could get to him, the Earl of Hertford pushed forward and saved the king,
but confusion amongst the knights led some to believe that Henry II was dead,
causing many (including the royal standard bearer) to turn and flee [17][9][10][11].
]. Brut y Tywysogion tells us that the Dafydd and Cynan inflicted massive causalities on the Plantagenet force [25],
but that king Henry did barely manage to escape with his life [22].
This now-mangled contingent was either forced to retreat back to the coast, re-joining with the bulk of Henry’s army [17],
or they possibly did manage to break through the ambush and into the fields behind Owain Gwynedd [22][9].
Regardless of this great victory, Owain could see that he could not withstand this English levie,
as J.E. Lloyd puts it: “the day had been inglorious and disastrous for the English, but it had not been a day of rout” [17].
The prince of Gwynedd was forced to abandon his position at Dinas Basing,
instead opting for the time-honoured Welsh tradition of harassing the English to physical and mental exhaustion [22][6][9].
Henry II was left battered and exhausted, but alive.
He had failed to defeat the Welsh armies, but they had also failed to fully defeat him.
Luckily for Henry, he had a plan:
1. Lose (I don’t think that was part of it)
2. Send a fleet around Wales to outflank Owain Gwynedd [9].
Good idea, but unfortunately for Henry II his backup army had stopped off against his orders on the isle of Anglesey [9].
According to the contemporary poet Gwalchmai, who wrote about the coming battle:
the English force landed at the port of Moelfre on the east coast of Anglesey and plundered the churches
of Llanbedr, Llanfair and Llandyfrydog [18].
This could have served as a good diversion, but this army was poorly organised,
likely not at full strength [9], and commanded by rash and incompetent leaders [10][22].
And even more unfortunately for them, Owain had left his third son, Hywel, in the command of the defence of Anglesey [5].
Hywel was a highly experienced, highly competent commander [5].
Brut y Tywysogion emphasises his apparently wide-reaching talents,
in 1146 he was summoned by the leaders of Deheubarth to assist in the siege of Gwys castle,
after they determined they could not take it by themselves.
Hywel was apparently “the readiest in conflicts, and the wisest in council”, and under his leadership, the castle was destroyed [20][23].
Hywel knew that if he didn’t stop the invaders, Anglesey could have been completely destroyed by the time Owain’s army returned,
and if the English army did leave, they would have been able to outflank the retreating forces of Gwynedd [9].
But the army was on the mainland, fighting with Henry II, how would Hywel defeat this new invasion force?
During the night, he summoned what has been described as a “scratch force” [10] or an “irregular levie” [5] by the historian Sean Davies.
Hywel himself described the soldiers as “beardless men”,
possibly referring to either their inexperience or their age [5],
but nevertheless resolved to defeat the English army, at the battle of Tal-y-Moelfre [5][10][18].
The two forces clashed. Henry fitz Henry, son of Henry I (father of Henry), was commanding the forces from the front [10],
he apparently was too rash and moved forwards without the rest of the army.
He was killed by the first line of Welsh infantry [10].
Hywel’s irregular forces managed to hold the line against the English knights [10],
and Brut y Tywysogion records that almost all the officers in the Plantagenet army were killed,
and that the English soldiers retreated “according to their accustomed manner”,
with many of them drowning while attempting to escape to the ships [22].
The authors of Brut y Tywysogion would later write that this destruction was brought on by God as vengeance for the burning of the Welsh churches [22].
According to the poet Gwalchmai, the Menai straight was so filled with blood that the tide would not go out [18].
And Hywel ab Owain, in his victory, wrote his own poem, describing how his “beardless warriors” caused a thousand soldiers to flee into the water [5].
Henry II probably received news of this failed invasion soon after the battle at Basingwerk.
We can’t know what he was thinking when he received this news,
but the defeat of his landing party, combined with the death of many of his barons (and his own near-death experience)
likely all contributed to his decision to make peace with Owain [5][9].
The prince of Gwynedd would cede Tegeingl to England, the cantref he fought so hard to protect [12],
and with it went the castle of Rhuddlan, which now became a direct possession of the English crown [19].
And Henry, apparently as thanks to God for saving his life at Ewloe,
restored the former monks at Basingwerk to their monastery-turned-fortress [19].
And as a final blow, Iorwerth Goch, son of king Madog,
led an army to Iâl and destroyed the castle that Owain had built there in 1149,
once again restoring this commote to Powys [19][22][25].
Owain ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd, put forwards a bold strategy to defend his country.
His cunning tactics set an ambush that almost killed the king of England,
and the brilliant actions of his son Hywel defeated Henry’s only chance at encircling the Welsh leader.
In the end he was forced to give up this hard-fought land, but it was not a loss, and it would not be in vain.
Owain lost Tegeingl but succeeded in keeping his independence,
and in the next few years he would once again face Henry II in battle, and have a new opportunity for victory.
Thank you for watching.