Owain Glyndŵr

Owain ap Gruffudd Fychan or Owain Glyndŵr (c. 1416) was a Welsh nobleman and military commander in the late Middle Ages who led a revolt with the aim of establishing an independent Wales free from English rule. Owain was acclaimed Prince of Wales by his supporters on 16 September 1400, and following initial successes, the rebellion was able to take control of the entirety of the country between 1404 and 1405. However, an increase of English military pressure and the lack of foreign aid resulted in the loss of all rebel territory by 1409, after which Owain continued sporadic resistance until his disappearance from the historical record in 1412. He was never captured, and died in hiding around 1416.

During the year 1400, Owain, a Welsh soldier and Lord of Glyndyfrdwy, had a dispute with his English neighbour Reginald de Grey, a symptom of larger animosity between the Welsh and English in Wales which ultimately led to a national revolt that pitted common Welsh countrymen and nobles against the English military. In response to the rebellion, discriminatory penal laws were implemented against the Welsh people; this deepened civil unrest and significantly increased support for Owain across Wales. Then, in 1404, after a series of successful castle sieges and several battlefield victories for the Welsh, Owain gained control of most of Wales and held a parliament in Machynlleth in the presence of envoys from France, Scotland, the Spanish kingdoms of Castille and Leon, and representatives from every region of Wales. Military aid was given to the rebellion from France, Brittany, and Scotland. Owain wrote in the Pennal Letter of 1406 that he had plans to build two universities, one in North Wales and one in South Wales, and reinstate the traditional Welsh laws of Hywel Dda, and to expand Wales' borders into England, which would have affected the structure of the Church.

The war continued, and over the next several years, the English gradually gained control of large parts of Wales. By 1409 the rebellion’s last remaining castles of Harlech and Aberystwyth had been captured by English forces. Owain refused two royal pardons and retreated to the Welsh hills and mountains with his remaining forces, where he continued to resist English rule by using guerrilla warfare tactics, until his disappearance from the historical record in 1412.

Owain was never captured or killed, and the circumstances surrounding his death are unknown. In Welsh culture he acquired a mythical status alongside Cadwaladr, Cynon ap Clydno and King Arthur as a folk hero, and was seen as the 'Son of Destiny', just as was Owain Lawgoch a few decades earlier. He also appears in William Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 1 as the character Owen Glendower.

Life before the revolt, c. 1359 – 1400 A map of the cantrefi and commotes of Northern Powys in the thirteenth century. Cynllaith is in the middle of the map, Llansantfraid Glyndyfrdwy is to the north. Background and family Owain ap Gruffudd Fychan was born in or before 1359, the son of Gruffudd Fychan and Elen ferch Tomas. Owain's father's family descended from another, earlier Gruffudd Fychan, younger brother of Llywelyn Fychan, the last lord of Northern Powys, killed alongside Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in the last stage of the Edwardian Conquest of Wales, and ultimately from Madog ap Maredudd, last ruler of a united Powys. Following the Conquest, the earlier Gruffudd Fychan swore fealty to King Edward and was permitted on 12 February 1283 to hold his land of the king by 'Welsh barony', a tenure largely confined to members of the former royal dynasties of Wales under which Gruffudd and his descendants owed the Crown only military service and retained the right to hold court on their lands. Owain's father, the later Gruffudd Fychan, held two lordships at opposite ends of the Berwyn range: that of the vill of Glyndyfrdwy in Meirioneth within the Principality of Wales, and half of Cynllaith in the Marcher lordship of Chirk. Little of Gruffudd's career is recorded, though from 1346 to 1348 he held the stewardship of the Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel's lordship of Oswestry. Gruffudd's own father, Gruffudd Llwyd, was steward of the Crown lordship of Maelor Saesneg in 1331, and married a daughter of John V Lestrange of Knockin, an English nobleman of the Shropshire border. Gruffudd Llwyd abandoned the partible succession customary in native Welsh law in favour of primogeniture in tail on the English model, keeping his estates undivided and his descendants wealthy.

Owain's mother Elen descended from Gruffudd, eldest son of the Lord Rhys of Deheubarth, and on the deaths of her uncle and brother, the last males of their dynasty, inherited half the commote of in Ceredigion. She descended also in the female line from the dynasty of Gwynedd, and even from King John through his daughter Joan, wife of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth of Gwynedd. Elen and her ancestors likewise held their land by 'Welsh barony'. Owain's direct descent from the three principal Welsh dynasties of the pre-Conquest era made him a singular figure in fourteenth-century Wales. During the rebellion itself, however, Owain invoked only his supposed descent from Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon, a seventh-century king of Gwynedd recorded as the last King of the Britons in Geoffrey of Monmouth's immensely popular pseudo-history De gestis Britonum, and the subject of much medieval Welsh literature prophesying him as a future deliverer of the Welsh people. Inheritance and education Temple Church. Constructed in the twelfth century, it is the only surviving medieval building in the Inns of Court, serving the Inner and Middle Temples. Gruffudd Fychan died shortly before 1370, leaving to Owain his estates in Cynllaith and Glyndyfrdwy, after which Owain would be known as 'Owain Glyndŵr'. Owain may have spent his youth after his father's death as a page or esquire in the court of the Fitzalan earls of Arundel; Richard Fitzalan, whom Gruffudd Fychan had served as steward, was sufficiently close with the family to loan £20 to Elen ferch Tomas in 1370. Gruffudd Fychan's estates may also have been taken into the custody of Hanmer until Owain's majority, with the young Owain having been his ward. Perhaps under the direction of his guardian, Owain may himself have trained in the legal profession for as many as seven years at the Inns of Court towards the end of the reign of Edward III, who died in 1377. However, in the fourteenth century the Inns of Court were, according to J. E. Lloyd, paraphrasing the fifteenth-century judge John Fortescue, "a kind of upper-class university, too expensive for any but the well-to-do and providing an education which was more social than professional." Early career Owain continued in the service of the Fitzalan earls of Arundel following the end of his education. The earl whom his father had served died in 1377, and was succeeded by his son, also named Richard. Owain's service to the younger Richard Fitzalan is one of the most well-attested periods of his career prior to his rebellion. Before the first records of his service to Arundel, however, Owain appears to have been married to Margaret Hanmer, daughter of David Hanmer. The date of this marriage is disputed. The unreliable nineteenth-century antiquarian William Owen dated Owain's marriage to 1383, but R. R. Davies suggested a date in the 1370s whilst Owain was the ward of her father, drawing a parallel with the marriage of Owain's grandfather Gruffudd Llwyd whilst underage with the daughter of his guardian in 1304. Gregory Sais was, according to A. D. Carr, "perhaps the greatest of the Welsh captains of this period" and a close confidant of the Black Prince in the Edwardian phase of the Hundred Years' War. Owain also likely became acquainted during his assignment in Berwick with Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland and his son Hotspur, who both would feature prominently in his future. In August 1385, King Richard II launched an inconclusive campaign against Scotland which nevertheless razed and plundered its way to Edinburgh. Owain's participation in this campaign is not recorded in contemporary records, but his participation in it is confirmed by his own testimony in the following year. At the age of twenty-seven, Owain was called to give evidence for the High Court of Chivalry on 3 September 1386 in Chester as part of the proceedings of the Scrope v Grosvenor trial. Richard Scrope brought a suit seeking to determine who could bear a coat of arms blazoned Azure, a bend Or against Robert Grosvenor after he saw Grosvenor displaying arms identical to his own on the Scottish campaign; the case lasted for six years. Owain testified that he had seen Grosvenor bear these arms on the expedition in Scotland and that the arms were generally known to be his in Cheshire and Flintshire, as did his brother Tudur, who was then twenty-four. Owain's brothers-in-law John Hanmer and Robert Puleston, the latter married to Owain's sister Lowri, also testified in this trial and were earlier involved in the same Scottish campaign. These men may have served in this campaign in the retinue of the earl of Arundel, or perhaps been mustered directly by Richard II as part of the sizeable contingent from the county palatine of Chester. In Arundel's retinue, 1387 Owain and his brother Tudur were mustered in Sandwich on 13 March 1387 as part of the retinue of his old acquaintance, Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel. Since 1385, England had been threatened annually by a French naval invasion from Flanders. On 10 December 1386, Richard II had been given a commission to lead 2500 men in a campaign to pre-emptively strike the Franco-Flemish navy commencing March 1387. Arundel commanded his men in a fleet as admiral, and routed a predominantly Flemish wine fleet sailing home from La Rochelle in the Battle of Margate on 24 March, England's first notable success at sea since the resumption of war with France. The opposing fleet attempted to break through the English navy to Sluis, but was intercepted and forced to fight or beach at Cadzand shore; the battle's spoils included more than 8000 tuns of Poitevin and Saintongeais wine, flooding the English market. Owain was not knighted by Arundel following the battle, though many of his other squires were; this led R. R. Davies to note that though Owain was "by far the greatest of 'the barons of Wales', he could not even make it to the rank of a knight in England". An early retirement? 1387 – 1400 Charles VI and Richard II making peace at Leulinghem in 1389. Owain's father-in-law David Hanmer died in early summer 1387, and by July, Owain had returned to settle the family affairs, just as Arundel began to take action against Robert de Vere, the earl of Oxford and Richard II's favourite. He does not appear to have taken part in any further campaigns under Arundel, as though Owain was enrolled in the earl's retinue at the head of his esquires with the aim of serving in France in 1388, his name was crossed out in the lists, meaning he did not serve. For the next decade, Owain is not mentioned in any surviving records save on 28 June 1397, when the Roman pope Boniface IX granted an indult to Owain and Margaret Hanmer allowing a confessor to grant them plenary remission in the hour of death. J. E. Lloyd, repeated by R. R. Davies, imagined Owain in these years "at ease, wealthy, generous, respected, [and] happy in the life of his home." Ultimately, Owain's hopes for advancement in a military career may have been dashed by the signing of a peace treaty with France in 1389 following Richard II's return to power at Arundel's expense; his other obvious patron, Gregory Sais, died in 1390. No record survives of Owain serving Arundel in an administrative capacity as Gruffudd Fychan served the earl's father, and so the relationship between the two may have at some point cooled. and Iolo Goch, a successor to Dafydd ap Gwilym and the leading of his day. Iolo sang three poems to Owain before 1400: one praising his ancestry, one praising him, sung around 1385, and one to his court in Sycharth, sung around 1390. Despite his cognomen deriving from Glyndwfrdwy, Owain's main residence and main source of income appears to have been Sycharth, a moated house in his half of Cynllaith. Owain himself ordered the construction of the house which hosted Iolo. Iolo's poem praising Owain's ancestry notes his descent from the pre-Conquest princes Rhys ap Gruffudd of Deheubarth, Bleddyn ap Cynfyn of Powys, and Gruffudd ap Cynan of Gwynedd, urging Owain to press his claim to all Powys as his rightful inheritance, while his poem praising Owain himself mentions his service with Gregory Sais in Scotland.

According to Dafydd Johnston, the "most satisfying poem" to Owain by Iolo is Iolo's poem celebrating Sycharth, known by the title "Owain Glyndŵr's Court". The poem describes Sycharth as a moated site ringed by water and approached by a bridge and a single gate, its timber halls raised on four great pillars atop a green hill. Iolo dwells on the symmetry and joinery of the building, likening its coupled roof-timbers and cruciform plan to St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin and the new cloister of Westminster Abbey, and enumerating nine matching halls, nine wardrobes, a tiled roof and a smoking chimney, and glazed chapels flanking the hall. The surrounding estate is catalogued with equal precision: a watermill, a stone dovecot, a fishpond stocked with pike and sewin, an orchard and vineyard, land producing Owain's food worked by the his serfs, peacocks and herons, a rabbit warren and a deer park, with imported Shrewsbury ale, bragget, wine and white bread on the table. The poem then turns to Owain's family, praising his wife Margaret as the finest of women, generous with wine and mead and noble by birth and disposition, and their children, who come in pairs as a "fine nestful of chieftains", before closing on the openness of the household itself:

Sycharth was the centre of the fertile lands of the eastern half of Cynllaith in the lordship of Chirk, only a mile from the border with England, yet at the time still thoroughly Welsh in character. Owain's share of Cynllaith looked eastward to England: Sycharth lay a mere ten miles from the Arundel castle of Chirk, the market town of Oswestry, and the castles of Whittington and Knockin, the residences of two other Marcher baronial families, the Fitzwarins and the Lestranges, with Chester and Shrewsbury beyond. The fine quality of Owain's home was noted in a letter by none other than Prince Hal to his father Henry IV following its destruction during the rebellion in 1402; the prince described Sycharth as "a well-built house... [with] a fine lodge in his park".

Prelude to rebellion In the late 1390s, a series of events occurred which cornered Owain, and forced his ambitions towards a rebellion. The events would later be called the "Welsh Revolt", "the Glyndŵr Rising" (within Wales), or the "Last War of Independence". His neighbour, Baron Grey of Ruthin, had seized control of some land, for which Owain appealed to the English Parliament; however, Owain's petition for redress was ignored. Later, in 1400, Lord Grey did not inform Owain in time about a royal command to levy feudal troops for Scottish border service, thus enabling him to call Owain a traitor in London court circles. Lord Grey had stature in the royal court of Henry IV. The law courts refused to hear the case, or it was delayed because Lord Grey prevented Owain's letter from reaching the King, which would have repercussions. Sources state that Owain was under threat because he had written an angry letter to Lord Grey, boasting that lands had come into his possession, and he had stolen some of Lord Grey's horses; and believing Lord Grey had threatened to "burn and slay" within his lands, he threatened retaliation in the same manner. Lord Grey then denied making the initial threat to burn and slay, and replied that he would take the incriminating letter to Henry IV's council and that Owain would hang for the admission of theft and treason contained within the letter. The deposed king, Richard II, had support in Wales, and in January 1400 serious civil disorder broke out in the English border city of Chester after the public execution of an officer of Richard II.

Early rebellion, 1400 – 1404

At Sycharth on 16 September 1400, in front of his immediate family, his in-laws, Welsh people from Berwyn, friends from North-East Wales, the Dean of St Asaph totalling 300 men, Owain Glyndŵr prophecised that he was the person to save his people from the English invasions, and proclaimed himself the Prince of Wales. The following day, he instigated a 15-year rebellion against the rule of Henry IV. Then came a number of initial confrontations between Henry IV and Owain's followers in September and October 1400, as the revolt began to spread around North Wales. Owain was immediately proclaimed Prince of Wales by his followers and subsequently launched an assault on Lord Grey's territories, burning Ruthin. They continued to Denbigh, Rhuddlan, Flint, Holt, Oswestry and Welshpool, all of which were seen as English towns in Wales. The initial revolt got the attention of the King of England after letters were sent asking for military assistance to combat the Welsh rebels. Much of northern and central Wales went over to Owain, and from then on, he would only make an appearance to attack his enemy, his army using effective guerrilla warfare tactics against the English occupying territories. In 1415 and 1416, Owain's old enemy Henry V attempted to entreat Owain and the few remaining rebels to surrender and be pardoned, to which Owain never responded; Owain is presumed to have died around this time.

Accounts from Herefordshire

The uncertain circumstances surrounding Owain's final days gave rise to many legends surrounding his death. According to J. E. Lloyd and Gruffydd Aled Williams, the most credible sources associate Owain's death and burial with Herefordshire. The seventeenth-century History of Owen Glendower written by the antiquarians Robert Vaughan and Thomas Ellis notes that by their time "some say he dyed at his daughter Scudamores, others, at his daughter Monington's house". An early sixteenth-century translation of Tito Livio Frulovisi's Life of Henry the Fifth inserts into the text an assertion that Owain died "vppon the topp of Lawton's hope Hill in Herefordshire". Lawton's Hope farm near Canon Pyon was inherited by the Monnington family around the turn of the fourteenth century, and its owner around the time of Owain's death would have been Sir Richard Monnington, husband of Owain's daughter Sioned.

Other traditions associate the site of Owain's death with Kentchurch Court, owned by another one of Owain's sons-in-law, John Skydmore, though the better-attested hall of the family at this time was Bodenham at La Verne. In the early fifteenth century, the area around Kentchurch would have been majority Welsh-speaking, and Skydmore was the employed by the state as the Welsh interpreter for and Elfed in Carmarthenshire from the years 1411-1431. Another hall associated with this family is Monnington Straddle, which possessed a medieval chapel and was endorsed as Owain's place of rest by J. E. Lloyd. The final likely possibility for Owain's burial ground is at St James the Great, Kimbolton, which was formerly the chapelry of Leominster Priory and also owned by the Skydmores; this tradition is attributed to is attributed to the sixteenth-century scholar Edmund Prys, a Welshman who was vicar of nearby Ludlow from 1576 to 1579.

A second burial?

Owain may have been buried a second time, as according to Adam Usk, "After four years in hiding from the king and kingdom, Owen Glendower died, and was buried by his followers in the darkness of night. His grave was discovered by his enemies, however, so he had to be re-buried, though it is impossible to discover where he was laid." While Owain may have been reburied at some other location in Herefordshire, another possibility is outside of the county, even in Wales. The fifteenth-century poet Robin Ddu of Anglesey, writing in the tumultuous reign of Richard III, prophesied that "There is an old man in Maelienydd / whose hair is like blossom on trees... I have heard, captivating muse, / much poetry about an old white-haired man, / and if this one who will claim his right / is the prophesied white-haired one, / battle-axe and sword without delay / will extend the boundary of our land..." and in one line names this man as "Owain". In the fifteenth century, Lewys Glyn Cothi called the husband of Owain's daughter Gwenllïan who lived in the parish of St Harmon on the border between Gwrtheyrnion and Maelienydd "son-in-law to the Old White-haired One"; Lewys Glyn Cothi also associates Owain with Maelienydd in another poem. Thus, Gruffydd Aled Williams suggested the final resting place of Owain Glyndŵr may have been Cwmhir Abbey, which was located in Maelienydd and was also the final resting place of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the native Prince of Wales killed in the final stages of the Edwardian Conquest.

Issue and descendants A sketch of Owain Glyndŵr as he appeared to William Blake in a late-night vision. This is one of a number of such sketches known collectively as the Visionary Heads. Owain married Margaret Hanmer, also known by her Welsh name Marred ferch Dafydd, and together they had five or six sons and four or five daughters. Also, Owain had some illegitimate children out of wedlock. Owain has been featured in a number of works of modern fiction, including most notably John Cowper Powys's novel Owen Glendower (1941), and Edith Pargeter's 1972 publication A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury. A highly fictionalised Owain is featured in the popular YA book series The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater as Owen Glendower. In the series, which takes place in the Shenandoah Valley, characters believe that Owain's body was brought from Wales to Virginia after his death, and that whoever can "wake" him will be granted a favour. In 2026, a new play by Gary Owen called Owain & Henry, about Owain's rebellion against the rule of Henry IV of England in the 15th century, will be performed at the Welsh National Theatre with Michael Sheen playing Owain.

Namesakes

The Owain Glyndwr Hotel in Corwen is a historic 18th century coaching inn. The Owain Glyndŵr pub in Cardiff, briefly named Owen Glendower was named in his honour. This would create arms identical to those of Gwynedd and of Owain Lawgoch, the last pretender to the title of Prince of Wales. However, Owain Glyndŵr was of the northern branch of the dynasty of Powys which bore different arms than that of the southern branch and so he may have simply adopted Owain Lawgoch's arms in order to claim continuation with his pretension. These arms differ from those of the last pre-Conquest princes of Gwynedd, who bore arms with lions passant or passant gardant rather than rampant as here. year_adopted = Attested on seals of 10 May 1404 and 22 January 1405. crest = A winged two-legged dragon [Or ?]. supporters = Dexter: A similar dragon;Sinister: A lion rampant gardant, crowned. boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc; boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9; boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc; boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc; boxstyle_5=background-color: #1ff 1= 1. Owain Glyndŵr 2= 2. Gruffudd Fychan ap Gruffudd Llwyd 3= 3. Elen ferch Thomas 4= 4. Gruffudd Llwyd of Rhuddallt 5= 5. Elizabeth Lestrange 6= 6. Tomas ap Llywelyn 7= 7. Elinor ferch Maredudd 8= 8. Madog Fychan ap Madog Crupl 9= 9. Gwenllian ferch Ithel Fychan 10= 10. John V Lestrange of Knockin 11= 11. Eleanor de Mont 12= 12. Llywelyn ab Owain 14= 14. Maredudd ab Owain 15= 15. Lleucu ferch Llywelyn 16= 16. Madog Crupl ap Gruffudd Fychan 17= 17. Marged ferch Rhys Ieuanc 18= 18. Ithel Fychan ap Ithel Llwyd of Helygain 19= 19. Margaret Brickill 20= 20. John IV Lestrange 21= 21. Joan de Somery 22= 22. Ebal II de Mont 23= 23. Elizabeth de Clinton 24= 24. Owain ap Maredudd 25= 25. Angharad ferch Owain 28= 24. Owain ap Maredudd 30= 12. Llywelyn ab Owain