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The Golden Falcon |
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Chapter V/1 - Crecy |
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WINTERS BLOOM
The
yew tree, the finest of the wood. It
is called king without opposition. May
that splendid shaft drive on yon crowd into their wounds of death.
The elm stood firm in the centre of battle and would not yield a
foot; Heaven and earth trembled before the advance of the oak tree, that
stout doorkeeper against an enemy. ("The
Battle of Ochren or the Trees"
- Taliesin) The
Celtic legend of the "Battle of
the Trees" tells how Gwydion, messenger of the gods and father of
the sun god Lugh (with the help of his brother Amatheon, god of
agriculture and his son Lleu) fought the gods of the underworld, Arawn and
Bran, to win the dog, the deer and the lapwing from the nether world. The
verse is a good description of medieval weaponry.
The long bow was used since the Neolithic Age in Wales and other
parts of the world and cave paintings show victims with 7 arrows piercing
their bodies - probably human sacrifices.
Early Christian martyrs like St. Sebastian (after whom the military
guild of archers at Bruges was named) were killed in this fashion and
pagan bowmen in Christian times, aimed at the centre of crucifixes during
target practice. There
are still inns at places like Coleshill, Warwickshire (formerly covered by
ancient forests) called the "Green
Man", symbol of archers and Robin Hood's men wore Lincoln green
as camouflage. Most of
England was covered by great forests (many no longer exist), one stretched
into the counties of Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and
Lincoln where the wych elm grew, used for the longbow. Yeomen,
who were men ranking between a sergeant and a groom, serving in a royal or
noble household and in the army as foot soldiers, used bows made of yew
(usually grown in churchyards especially for this purpose) and later those
made of wych elm ("ulmus glabra")
belonging to a group of trees known as witch hazel (including the rowan,
the mountain ash and the hornbeam) called "Winter's
Bloom" found mainly in South Wales and the forests of
Worcestershire and Warwickshire. William
I used archers and crossbowmen at Senlac, depicted on the Bayeux tapestry
which shows Eustace, count of Boulogne and members of the Flemish families
of Senlis, St. Pol, Hesdin and Alost being led by an archer probably a
crossbowman of Lens. The
square red brick tower of the guildhall of the crossbowmen of St. George
and St. Denis in the Ecole Normale and that of the archers of St. Sebastian in the rue
des Carmes in Bruges, Belgium still stand.
The surname Crossbowman or Balistarius appears in many parts of
Britain - in Surrey (East Molesey), Norfolk (Barningham Winter), the
Midlands, Cumbria and Devon. The
Breton contingent at Hastings was led by Alain Fergant, son of Duke Hoel V
of Brittany, relative of count Alain le Roux (the Red), earl of Richmond,
Yorkshire (son of Eudes, Count of Penthievre, Fergant's great uncle).
Alain married William the Conqueror's daughter Constance.
"Le
Conqeror cum dient les escriz De
Malde engendra quatre fiz, Robert
Curthose fu le aizne, Richard
li utre fu apele William
le Rus le tierce noma Ki
apres lui primes regna Henri
out a nun le puisne Ki
de clergie fu funde. Cinke
filles Deu li dona De
Malde sa femme, ke mult ama L'aisnée
Cecile apela Ke
abesse de Cam estoit ja. La
secunde Custanz estoit Ke
Alain de Sergant a femme avoit, Ki
quens esteit de Bretaigne Ke
mult est bone tere e saine. Aude
la tierce vient apres Ki
Esteven, quens de Bleis Od
grant honor espusa E
de lui dous fiz engendra Li
un out nun Thebaud, deo croi Lu
autre Esteven, ti puis fu rei. (Brut
par un anonyme) (It
is written that the Conqueror had 4 sons by Matilda, Robert Curthose was
the eldest, another was named Richard, the third was called William the
Red who was the first to reign, Henry was the youngest was destined for
the clergy. God gave him 5
daughters by Matilda whom he loved dearly, the eldest was named Cecily who
was abbess of Cam, the second Constance who became wife of Alain Fergant
of Brittany, was good and saintly, the third married Stephen of Blois with
great honour and had two sons one named Theobald and the other Stephen who
became king afterwards). William
I retained the right to levy the Danegeld to pay his mercenaries and must
have come into contact with the Welsh longbow during his incursions into
Wales in 1081. Ever
since the Conquest, land had been held for military or other services. Property was held for a certain number of knight's fees and
the landowner had to provide that number of knights, archers or
crossbowmen for the royal army when called to do so - fines and scutages
were levied on those who did not go on the king's service. Some
held land for the service of "balistarium"
or crossbowmen. East
Molesham or Molesey, Surrey was held by Simon Balistarius and West Molesey
by Richard fitzGilbert de Clare known as
"Strongbow" (Bew
Kadarn) for his skill with
that weapon. Barningham
Winter was granted by Henry I to Walter Tusard who held it by grand
sergeantry for the service of finding certain crossbowmen.
He also held Erpingham "per
servitum balistariae" and his wife Avisia "tenet
per arbalistariam". Stephen de Turham held land in Southampton
and Ralph Purcell "per
sergentarium custodiendi hostium Regis." In
1270 Walter Wyther or Winter held Briavel (where a castle was built which
manufactured crossbow bolts), Caldwell, Hywelfield and. Lydney in the
Forest of Dean for serjeanty as a crossbowman or alternatively for being
sergeant of a palisade [“ballium”
(low Latin) or “vallium”(L)]. His property was contested after his death by his son-in-law
William Buter (Butler). One
of the coats of arms borne by the Wythers or Winters was "ermine, 3 bulls passant sable." 54
Henry III - No. 20: Walterus Wyther Inq. p.m.
Dicunt (juratores) quod praedictus Walterus obiit die martis
videlicit in crastino Sancti Michaelis proxime praeterito, et quod die
Dominis proximo procendente venitad cum Willielmus Buter qui postnatum
filiam ejusdem Walteri et unam haeredum suorum duxit in uxorem, et cepit
ad ipso Waltero feoffamentum de
balliva serjant iae praedictae sed postquam praedictus Walterus
fecerat praedictum feoffamentum non mutavit se a lecto agraetudinis suae
per quam obit, nec die ante. Dicunt
etiam quod praedicta die Dominica praedictu Walterus in lecto aegritudinis
suae praedictae et cum esset in statu praedicto fecit quoddam foeffamentum
Willielmo postnato filio praedicti Willielmi Buter de praedictis terris et
tenementis suis in Lydeneye et
Caldewell. Post mortem
suam amici ejusdem Willielmi, qui puer est et minoris aetatis, posuerunt
se in seisinam earundum terrarum nomine ejudem pueri et adhuc utuntur
eadem seisina. Et sic de praedicta serjantia et de praedictis terris in Caldewelle
et Lydeneye est contentio inter haeredes praedicti Walteri et
praedictos Willielmum Buter et Willielmum filium suum.
Et sunt propinquiores haeredes praefati Walteri, Sibilla uxor
Roberti de Brumetzhope, primogenita filia ejusdem Walteri, et Elizabetha
uxor Willielmi Buter filia postnata ejusdem Walteri; et est utraque earum
de aetate viginti sex annorum et amplius.
Iniquisition capta fuit die Dominica ante festum aspostolorum
Simonis et Judae. [Calendarium
Genealogicum]. Prior
to 1383, the Hall of Newent was held by William Winter in exchange for
military service. Another
form of military service was the money fief or annual pension given as a
retainer for future military aid when it was required by the king.
Henry III made as thorough investigation into knight service during
his reign and Edward I decreed that the obligations of knighthood need not
be assumed for those with under 100 librates of land because knights' fees
became split up, even into halves. Giraldus
Cambrensis, archdeacon of Brecon, writing in 1188 described the Welsh
longbowmen in South Wales and the spearmen of the North said the Welsh
used light weapons which did not prevent quick movement and carried
handfuls of arrows, long spears and round shields.
They wore small leather corselets, helmets and sometimes iron
greaves. Their chiefs rode
into battle on swift, locally-bred horses.
Most commoners preferred to fight on foot because of the marshy,
uneven ground. The horsemen
would often dismount, ready for flight or fight.
They went barefoot or wore boots made from untanned leather sewn
roughly together roughly. Young Welshmen trained to keep themselves on the move day and
night by practice marching through thick forests and climbing mountain
peaks in peacetime. The
English king, Henry II wrote to Manuel Comnenus, Emperor of Constantinople
that in one part of the British Isles, there was a race called the Welsh
who were so brave and wild that, though unarmed, did do not hesitate to go
into battle with fully armed opponents.
They were so ready to shed their blood for their country and
sacrifice their lives for fame. This
is all the more surprising because the island's wild animals were are not
particularly fierce but the Welsh showed no sign of becoming less
ferocious. Welshmen
from Gwent, more experienced in warfare and famous for their warlike
deeds, were more skilful with the bow and arrow that those from other
parts of Wales. When
capturing Abergavenny Castle, two men-at-arms rushed across a bridge to
shelter in the tower, been built on a great earth mound.
The Welsh shot at them from behind and with their arrows actually
penetrated the tower's oak doorway, which was almost as thick as a man's
hand. As a permanent memento of the event, the arrows were left
sticking to the door where their iron heads struck. William de Braiose
also told Cambrensis that in the Welsh war, one of his men-at-arms was
struck by a Welshman's arrow which went right through the upper part of
his thigh, protected outside and inside the leg by iron cuishes and then
through the skirt of his leather tunic.
It penetrated that part of the saddle called the alva or seat and
finally struck his horse, driven in so deep that the animal was killed.
An arrow pinned the thigh of another soldier to his saddle despite
the protective tassets of his leather tunic, outside and inside the leg.
He pulled the reins and turned his horse round in a half-circle,
then another arrow, shot by the same bowman, hit him in exactly the same
place in the other thigh, skewering him to his horse on both sides. The
Welsh bows were not made of horn, sapwood or yew but were carved from the
dwarf elm-tree in the forests. They
were not very elegant, not even rubbed smooth, but left rough and
unpolished. These southern
bowmen, especially those of Gwent, used the bow very skilfully. The
bow was the main weapon in South Wales but the men of Gwynedd preferred
the spear. A chain-mail
cuirass was no protection against these lances when thrown a short
distance like javelins. South
Wales was invaded by the Normans and later conquered by Edward I
(1272-1307), when Welsh bowmen from the south were used to subdue North
Wales and took part in the battles of Falkirk and Carlaverock (Lark
Castle); the first levies from North Wales were sent abroad in 1294. Henry
II (1154-89) mustered his troops, consisting of 500 knights and
3,000-4,000 archers, for the invasion of Ireland at Newent in the Forest
of Dean where Strongbow met him - they probably sailed down the Severn to
Bristol, landing at Crook near Waterford.
Welsh mercenaries were used by King John (1199-1216). The
custom of growing yews in churchyards for bows led to a misunderstanding
in Ireland during the reign of Henry II for Giraldus Cambrensis in "Conquest
of Ireland" relates how a troop of archers cut and burned
branches of ash, yew and other trees which the archbishop of Dublin had
planted with his own hands around the cemetery of a church in Fingal. It was believed God punished them for the desecration of His
sanctuary for a sudden plague struck the land in which most of them died a
miserable death within a few days. Those
who remained tried to flee in a ship, which was wrecked, and they drowned. During
the reign of Edward II there were three kinds of bow: the longbow which
measured 2 ells (7 ft 6") which fired "clothyards"
arrows a yard long; the Turkish bow of 1 and half ells, made of Spanish or
English yew, firing a barbed "wolf-arrow"
and the elm bow which fired barbed Scottish arrows 1 yard long - they
had a range of 200- 400 yard and a rate of fire of 10 flights a minute. The
bows used at Crecy and Poitiers were made of various woods but yew ("taxus
baccata"), which yields an elastic wood, was considered best and
the wood taken from the main trunk or thick boughs. The layer of white sapwood under the scaly bark withstood
tension well and the red heart wood was resistant to compression.
When the bows were made, the bowyer followed the grain of wood,
leaving a layer of sapwood 1/8th of an inch thick on the
outside of the heartwood. The
two limbs were tapered for a smooth curve when the bow was drawn.
The tips were made of horn with notches or nocks for the bowstrings
or grooves. The length of the
bow was 5 ft 8" to 6 ft 4" and the arrows about 30" long,
the bodkin head was the deadliest, with a 4 sided case-hardened steel
spike and fletched with grey goose or swan feathers.
The bowstring was hemp, with a spliced loop at one end and a timber
hitch at the other. The
centre had a wrapping of thread to protect it.
When not being used, the strings were wrapped under the bowmens'
hats to protect them from damp or inclement weather. At
Crecy and Poitiers Edward III's troops used the longbow (and even some
guns) whilst the French used the Genoese crossbow, a more unwieldy weapon
as a windlass or faucon was needed to pull it.
The long bow was more effective than the crossbow as it had a
greater range, being drawn to the ear and not the chest like the shortbow.
It was also used in conjunction with cavalry (a method dating from
the Crusades). Archers
interlaced with cavalry were used for the first time in Britain when
fighting against Llywelyn ap Griffith. The
Norman knight or "miles"
was a mounted soldier who wore a conical iron helmet, a hauberk or mail
shirt and rode an unprotected horse. In
Richard I's time, knights wore a "lorica"
or coat of mail over a padded "gambeson",
mail hose and mittens and a heavy pot-helmet and his horse wore armour
under its trapper of linen or silk. A
hundred years later knights wore plate armour and their great warhorses or
"dextriers" had more elaborate mail housing or quilted
textiles and body plate. The
English knights of Edward III's time wore chainmail shirt, padded tunics,
conical helmets (either open-faced or with visors), steel breast and arm
plates, elbow pieces, articulated footguards and mail stockings with a
short linen surcoat over it all. Knight
bannerets (who earned 4s a day, knight bachelors 2s and esquires 1s) wore
similar coats of armour but some had the cheaper brigandine or leather
jackets sewn with thin overlapping metal plates. The
archers who fought at in Edward I's and Edward II's battles in Scotland,
wore deerskin jackets and carried bows of yew ("taxus"),
ash ("fraxinus") or
elm ("ulmus"), strung
with hemp, flax or silk. Their
clothyard arrows of oak ("quercus")
were tipped with burnished steel and winged with geese or swan feathers.
The bows were 6 feet long and when unstrung, the strings were
wrapped around the archers' heads under their hats to protect them from
the rain. Edward
I was the first king of England to pay his troops as the feudal levy was
no longer effective and Magna Carta forbade the use of foreign
mercenaries. The usual system by which troops were found was the distraint
of knighthood which was a writ imposing military obligation by which the
king's tenants-in-chief were knighted and had to provide troops or pay
fines but the infantry was formed of volunteers who were bowmen - long
bowmen of Gwent, Morganwg (Glamorgan) and Brecheiniog (Brecon) amongst
whom the Flemings had settled. The
bowmen were of the yeomen or middle class and helped to win many battles
but Edward II did not use them effectively at Bannockburn and Berwick.
Wealthy Elizabethan yeomen or franklins (freemen, knights, servants
and retainers) boasted they were descendants of archers who had fought at
Crecy and Poitiers, making all France tremble. Jean
Froissart in his "Chroniques"
describing the scene at Crecy said the longbowmen shot their arrows so
hard and so quickly it looked as if it were snowing.
The sky was dark with a shower of arrows.
The Genoese crossbowmen did a lot of harm to the English but the
English archers shot their arrows so steadily and compactly it was
marvellously to see them. Their
archers were formed into the shape of a harrow with men-at-arms behind
them. The arrows fell as thickly on the Genoese as a snowstorm and
they turned tail. The speed
of the English archers' fire strengthened their side and many people said
the victory was won by them. The
English archers had a great effect on the battle. Jean
Froissart (b. Valenciennes c. 1337) came to England in 1361 and joined the
entourage of Edward III's Flemish queen, Philippa of Hainault. Jean went to Scotland and the Welsh Marches, revisiting the
Continent several times. In
1368 he went to Italy in the wedding retinue of Lionel, duke of Clarence
with the poet Geoffrey Chaucer. By
the time he returned, Philippa had died so he remained in the Netherlands
under the patronage of Wenceslas of Bohemia, Robert of Namur and Guy de
Chatillon. He became a
priest, visited the court of Gaston Phœbus, Count of Foix (1388 &
1395) and returned to England where he was welcomed by Richard II.
Froissart died in 1410, a few years before Agincourt. Welsh
archers mustered for Agincourt at Tretower Court, Brecon belonging to the
family of Vaughan or Vychan. David
Gam, famous for the part he played at Agincourt, was a Brecon man (Walter
Wynter of Brecon married a daughter of Walter Gam, probably of the same
family). During
the battle of Agincourt, after bowmen used their last arrows, they removed
others from the bodies of fallen enemies.
The range of the longbow was accurate up to 150 yards and the rate
of fire quicker than the and cavalry was helpless against it. According
to Shakespeare, the Welsh bowmen wore leeks in their hats: "Fluellen1:
"If your majestie is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service
in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps,
which your majestie know, to the hour is an honourable badge of the
service, and I do believe your majesty taken no scorn to wear the leek
upon St. Tavy's Day2."
(Henry
V, iv.7). 1
Llywelyn 2
St. David's Day When
Edward III's son, the Black Prince fell, a Welshman covered him with the
banner of Wales (a red dragon on a green field). In
1282 infantry was raised in the Forest of Dean, Brecon and Pembroke for
the de Clares to subdue the Welsh at Carmarthen and to bring the English
settlers to Llanbadarn near Aberystwyth.
The de Clares, earls of Pembroke, Hertford and Gloucester, were
constables of St. Briavels Castle and guardians of the Forests of Essex,
Dean and one between Stamford and Oxford.
Richard fitzGilbert de Clare, earl of Pembroke and Gloucester (who
led the Normans into Ireland) earned his sobriquet of "Strongbow"
or "Bew Kadarn"
because of his skill with the longbow and Crickadarn was named "Carreg Kadarn" (Kaddarn's Fort) after him. For
centuries quarrels or crossbow bolts were manufactured at St. Briavels
Castle in the Forest of Dean where an effigy of a bowmen (who may been a
Forester of the Fee) can be seen in the church of Newent. Edward
III passed laws making archery practice compulsory and places like
Newington Butts derived their name because they were used for archery
practice and "Fleet Street of late yeares was inhabited for the most
part by bowyers, fletchers, bowstring makers and suchlike." ("Survey
of London"
- John Stow). The
English considered the Welsh barbarians in spite of intermarriages between
relatives of the Welsh princes and the Marcher lords and there was
constant friction between the Flemish settlers and the Welsh.
In 1297 during Edward's campaign in France, a Fleming described a
Welsh camp in the village of St. Pierre near Ghent, where the troops were
led by three Welsh lords, deprived of their lands for taking part in the
Welsh rising of 1282: "There
you saw the peculiar habits of the Welsh.
In the very depth of winter they were running about bare-legged.
They wore a robe. They could not have been warm.
The money they received from the king was spent on milk and butter.
They would eat and drink anywhere.
I never saw them wearing armour.
I studied them very closely and walked among them to find out what
defensive armour they carried when going into battle.
Their weapons were bows, arrows and swords.
They had also javelins. They
wore linen clothing. They were great drinkers.
They endamaged the Flemings very much.
Their pay was too small and so it came about that they took what
did not belong to them." The events which led up to the Welsh becoming subject to conscription in English wars spread over several centuries. Most
of the incursions made during the reign of William had been in central and
north Wales, the Marches were colonised and border castles built before
1087. The
Norman and Flemish conquerors of Wales eventually became Marcher lords,
some of whom had fallen out of the king's favour.
They were Robert of Rhuddlan (cousin of Hugh Lupus, earl of
Chester) who held the royal rights in North Wales and pushed into Diganwy,
the Bellême earls of Shropshire who built the town and castle of
Montgomery in Powis, the fitzOsberns and de Lacys, earls of Hereford who
raided Cardigan. In 1081
William I brought an army to help them and marched to St. Davids, released
some English prisoners and was promised tribute by Rhys of Deheubarth. In
the early reign of Rufus, the southern marches and South Wales fell to the
Normans lords without royal help. In
1093 Rhys ap Tewdwr, the last king of South Wales, fell in battle in a
field near Brecon. In about
1088, Breconshire was conquered by Bernard Newmarch, Radnor by Philip de
Braiose, Glamorgan by Robert fitzHamon, Arnulf Montgomery de Belleme had
built Pembroke, Robert of Rhuddlan had extended his territory up to the
river Conway where he built the castle of Deganwy and died in 1088
defending the boundary against the men of Gwynedd and Hugh the Fat of
Avranches, earl of Chester, invaded Anglesey, about one or two years
afterwards, and built the castle of Aberlleiniog. The
Welsh under Cadwgan, taking advantage of the Normandy campaign in 1094,
sacked Chester, Shrewsbury and Hereford and stormed Montgomery during
Mowbray's rebellion in 1095 and again in 1096 when Rufus had to take
possession of Normandy, when all the Normans castles in South Wales,
except Pembroke and Rhyd-y-gors, fell to the Welsh.
This led to Rufus twice leading forces into Snowdonia and once into
Gwynedd but he had little success with the unsuitable Norman cavalry in
the hills and forests so had to withdraw. The
Marcher lords however kept extending their territories into South Wales up
to 1100 but were not so successful in the north where in 1098, the earls
of Shrewsbury and Chester, entered Anglesey and while rebuilding
Aberlleiniog, were attacked by a Welsh force, helped by Magnus Barefoot of
Norway. Hugh, earl of
Shrewsbury, was wounded in the eye by an arrow shot by Magnus and died,
whereupon the Normans withdrew, signing a treaty afterwards with Gruffyd
of Gwynedd and Cadwgan, which gave the Welsh Princes Anglesey, Powis and
Cardigan. Rufus sold
Shrewsbury to Hugh Montgomery's brother Robert (who had inherited Bellême
from his mother Mabel Talvas) and granted him Blyth and Montgomery built
castles at Bridgnorth, Tickhill and Carreghoffa on Offa' s dike. He lived up to the terrible reputation he had earned in
Normandy - he was a sadist who terrorised his neighbours by inventing new
tortures, delighting in their suffering, laughing and joking while his
victims were roasted over slow fires and personally blinded his own godson
because the child's father had broken an agreement. On
2.8.1100 William II "Rufus"
was killed by an arrow whilst hunting in the New Forest.
Walter Tyrell, who fled to France, was suspected of assassinating
the king but was never punished. Giraldus
Cambrensis maintained Ralph de Aquis was the culprit but Tyrell was
brother-in-law of Gilbert de Clare who was Rufus's enemy.
The Norman poet Geoffrey Gaimar wrote of him: "Wautier
Tirel, avoit meme Wautier
estoit un riches hom De
France ert per del region Piez
estoit so en un fort chastel". In
1211-12 Walter Tyrell (probably a descendant) held the Honour of Brecon. Henry
I only invaded Wales once (in 1114), allowing the Marchers to continue
their raids and conquests. The
Sees of Bangor, Llandaff and St. Davids were made subject to Canterbury. Henry set up the de Clares in Cardigan and married his
illegitimate son Robert the Consul to Mabel, heiress of Gloucester and the
Honour of Glamorgan. He
planted Flemings from the north of England in Pembroke and Cardigan who
carried on sheep farming. Stephen
preferred his Flemish mercenaries, led by William de Ypres, to the
Anglo-Norman troops, which made him unpopular.
The Welsh princes in South Wales again took advantage of trouble in
England to raid the Marches. Henry
II led his troops into North Wales, the castles along the river Conway
were repaired and Owain, prince of North Wales forced to pay homage. When
Stephen was defeated, Henry II either dismissed the Flemish mercenaries or
allowed them to settle in Pembroke. The
Flemings were settled in Pembrokeshire in 1105, 1107 and 1111 mainly in
Haverfordwest and Rhos where they were given immunity from tithes on wool
and cheese. Thomas
a'Becket had a hand in deporting them from England for John Stow in his "Survey of London" says: "In
the year 1155 Thomas Becket, being chancellor to Henry II, caused the
Flemings to be banished out of England, their castles lately built to be
pulled down, and the Tower of London to be repaired." At
least one of Becket's murders, Hugh Morville (d. 1162), later Constable of
Scotland, and a landholder in Rutland in the Honour of Huntingdon,
Northampton and Huntingdonshire, was a Norman in the Flemish bodyguard of
Judith, Countess of Northumberland and her daughters Alice and Maud Senlis,
Countess of Northampton and Huntingdon (later wife of King David I) with
whom he went to Scotland. Morville built Dryburgh Abbey and granted the lands of
Thirlstane, sometime before 1162, to Elsi, son of Winter [Caledonia I
p.504]. Morville's ancestors came from Morville near Valognes, Normandy where the St. Clairs were their vassals at St. Clair-sur-Elle near St. Lo, Normandy near the Morville lands. The Sinclairs held Hamerton, Huntingdonshire, Lauder, Berwickshire and Cunningham, Ayrshire. Hugh
Morville held Knaresborough, Yorkshire where Becket's murderers lay low.
He was witness to a grant by Reginald fitzUrse (another of Becket's
murderers) of a moiety of Williton and its house to his brother Robert and
the other moiety to the Templars as alms for his soul.
Morville's sword is at Brayton, between Whitchurch and Carlisle and
he left 2 daughters as heiresses when he died.
FitzUrse also left only daughters, one of whom was wife of a
fitzBaldwin of Rhyd-y-gors, Pembrokshire to whose family she brought
Montgomery Castle. According
to Welsh genealogies, William fitzBaldwin's daughter married the son of
Walter or William de Lacy who became lord of Rhyd-y-gors and Menorgain and
took his surname of Gwyntwr or Winter from Castell Gwyn. King
John's troops in Normandy (particularly after 1205), consisted mainly of
foreign mercenaries. In 1209
the king made peace with the princes of south and central Wales who came
to Woodstock to pay him homage and the king married his illegitimate
daughter Joan to Llywelyn ap Iorwerth.
In 1210 he intervened to prevent Powis falling to Llywelyn,
marching twice into Gwynedd, almost up to Snowdonia and built castles on
the border. He signed a
treaty with Llywelyn for homage, an annual tribute, reparation for damage
caused in wars and renunciation of his claim to Powis. In
May 1212 a rebellion broke out in Wales (probably fomented by the French)
in which all the Welsh princes, including Llywelyn took part, together
attacking all the English castles in Wales which made John postpone his
invasion of France. Whilst
hanging his Welsh hostages, he received a letter from his daughter Joan
warning of a conspiracy by the English barons which made John abandon his
Welsh campaign and dismissing his English troops, he sent for Flemish
mercenaries. Llywelyn
united Gwynedd and the principalities of south and central Wales.
He was an ally of Ranulf, earl of Chester, the Mortimers and the de
Braioses, even to the extent of marrying his daughters into the last two
families. In 1220 the Welsh
princes began raiding Pembrokeshire.
William Marshall, earl of Pembroke, seized the castles of Cardigan
and Carmarthen from Llywelyn and Henry III led an expedition into the
county. Llywelyn's English
allies lost their possessions; Ranulf, earl of Chester had to surrender
the castles of Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Lancaster, the Honour of Lancaster
and the sheriffdoms of Shropshire, Lancashire and Stafford.
Even the Gascon Fawkes de Breaute, captain of King John's
mercenaries, lost Oxford and Hertford castles and the sheriffdoms of
Oxford, Bedford, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdon (which led
to his revolt in 1224) and William Cantilupe, his brother-in-arms,
Kenilworth castle and the sheriffdoms of Leicester and Warwick. Disregarding
Welsh law and custom, Iorwerth made his son David (by Joan Plantagenet),
his sole heir, disinheriting his illegitimate son Gruffyd and marrying
David to Isabella, daughter of William de Braiose of Abergavenny. In
May 1231 Llywelyn ap Iorwerth attacked Montgomery, Radnor, Brecon,
Caerleon and Cardigan, resulting in Henry III's Elfael campaign which
ended in a truce in November. When
Llywelyn ap Iorwerth died in 1240, his son David ap Llywelyn paid homage
to Henry III at Gloucester for North Wales and was knighted.
Under the provisions of a peace treaty made in Gloucester on
15.5.1240 the Welsh princes were forced to pay homage to the English king
and his heirs without question and by another made at St. Asaph's in
August 1241, Henry made David release his brother Gruffyd ap Llywelyn whom
he had imprisoned. In October
1241 by another treaty made in London, Henry was accepted as David's heir
if he should die without lawful issue.
Gruffyd was kept as a prisoner in the Tower of London, from where,
in 1244, he tried to escape but the rope broke and he was killed.
John Stow related: "In the year 1244 Griffith, the eldest son of Leoline, Prince of Wales, being kept prisoner in the Tower, devised means of escape and having in the night made of the hangings, sheets etc, a long line, he put himself down from the top of the Tower, but in the sliding, the weight of his body, being a very big and a fat man, brake the rope and he fell and brake his neck withall." David
ap Llywelyn repudiated the treaty, appealing to the pope and rebelled,
assuming the title of prince of Wales which led to Henry III's campaign of
Gannoc or Degannwy when Welshmen's heads were brought back as trophies.
The rebellion ended with David ap Llywelyn's death in February 1246
without heirs but his brother Gruffydd's second son Llywelyn ap Gruffydd
carried on hostilities with the help of his elder brother Owain ap
Gruffydd who fled from Henry's protection. By
the peace of Woodstock in April 1247, the princes surrendered the four
cantrefs of Perfeddwlad between Chester and the Conway valley to the king
and agreed to hold North Wales by military service, paying homage to Henry
and his heirs forever. The
boundaries of the principalities of Aberffraw and Snowdonia were
restricted and its men made liable to royal service in Wales and
elsewhere. Henry was to hold
a strip of land beyond the palatinate of Chester, along the coast to the
Conway valley, with the two new castles of Diserth near Rhuddlan and
Degannwy. In
1254-7 there were new disturbances in Wales under Llywelyn ap Gruffyd who
quarrelled with his brother Owain in 1255, supporter of the claims of a
younger brother David ap Grufydd. Owain
and David were defeated and imprisoned whilst Llywelyn ruled alone and
attacked the four cantrefs of Perfeddwlad, Cardigan and Carmarthen. Prince
Edward (later Edward I) had been given Bristol castle, the castle and
palatinate of Chester, the four cantrefs, the castle and honour of
Montgomery, the castle and district of Builth, the castles of Upper Gwent
and the castles and shires of Cardigan and Carmarthen. In
1257 Llywelyn ap Gruffyd attacked the four cantrefs, destroyed the castle
of Diserth, recovered Degannwy, asserted his dominion over Powis and
captured Builth, pushing into the territories of William de Braiose and
Roger Mortimer. A
truce was called in June 1258 at Oxford (which Llywelyn ap Gruffydd broke
twice), renewed at Montgomery, which lasted till August 1260 after which
Llywelyn ap Gruffyd began attacking but the truce was renewed again till
June 1262 for another two years. In
November 1262 he started hostilities and overran Brecon but the civil war
in England prevented Henry from organising another Welsh campaign.
The Marchers' tenants rebelled and went over to Llywelyn ap
Gruffydd who captured all Edward's castles in north Wales and Gruffydd ap
Gwenwynwyn of Powis (husband of Hawise le Strange) joined Llywelyn,
capturing land west of the Severn. Simon
de Montfort sought Llywelyn ap Gruffyd's assistance in 1264-5 but his
brother David deserted him in 1263. During
the reign of Henry III a civil war broke out in 1264 between the king and
the barons led by Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester. The links between the earl and England began in the reign of Henry II when the earl's grandfather Simon, lord of Montfort l'Amaury (between Chartres and Paris) and Evreux married Amicia de Beaumont, sister and co-heiress of Robert, earl of Leicester (d. 1204). The earldom of Leicester passed to Amicia's second son Simon (d. 1218) who took part in the Albigensian Crusade against Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse who was King John's brother-in-law, having married his sister Joan Plantagenet. |