Caernarvon, were the next victims who fell into the hands of the enraged insurgents: and this hazardous and unfortunate experiment had well nigh effected a complete restitution of liberty to Wales. A resolute spirit of resistance and patriotism seemed once more diffused throughout the Principality; and such of the Welsh, as had not already embraced the cause of their country, flocked readily to the standard of the rebel chieftains, and, by their numbers and success, became so formidable, that Edward, then on the point of embarking with his army for France, thought it expedient to recal his forces, and march at their head directly into Wales. After encountering many difficulties, he succeeded in stationing the greater part of his troops at Conway Castle, in Caernarvonshire, where he was closely besieged by the enemy. Deficiency of provisions was the principal evil which befel the English garrison; indeed, the distress of the English soldiers was so great in this respect, that Edward, in common with them all, was obliged to eat the coarse viands which were found in the castle, and to use for his drink water sweetened with honey. It is said, on this occasion, that a single flagon of wine only remained in the fortress, which was reserved for the King's own use. But he could not be prevailed upon to taste it, till it was mixed with water and distributed among the garrison, declaring, with a manly spirit, that he would share every extremity with the meanest of his soldiers*. The consequences of this misfortune might have proved fatal to Edward's ambition, had not a reinforcement of troops, bringing with them a plentiful supply, remedied the evil, and enabled him to hold out the siege with bravery and spirit. After a short time the insurgents were driven to the mountains, and the royal army merrily spent its christmas in the Castle of Conway. The Earl of Warwick now received orders to explore the recesses of the Snowdon Hills, and secure the stability of the conquest by putting to death every person found in arms. He obeyed the injunctions of his sovereign but too well. In a pass on the mountain ("the Thermopyla of Cambria") he attacked a numerous body of the Welsh; and, after a sanguinary conflict, by a superiority in numbers and tactics, he vanquished the gallant patriots, who, struggling for the expiring liberties of their fathers, when they failed to conquer, chose to fallt. An account of this action is given as follows, in the words of a quaint but generally faithful historian. "Whilst the King remained in Conway, the Earl of Warwick, being informed that a great number of Welsh were assembled, and had lodged themselves in a certaine valley betwixt two woodes, chose out a troop of horse, together with some crossbow men and archers, and set upon them in the night time. The Welsh, being thus surprised, and unexpectedly encompassed about by their enemies, made the best haste they could to oppose them; *Henry de Knyghton, apud Warrington, and so pitching their speares in the ground, and directing the points towards the enemy, endeavoured, by such means, to keep off the horse. But the Earl of Warwick, having ordered his battle so as that between every two horses there stood a cross-bowman, did so gaul the Welsh with the shot of the quarrels, that the spearemen fell apace, and then the horse, breaking in easily upon the rest, bare them down with so great a slaughter as the Welsh had never received before. After this, King Edward, to prevent any more rebellious attempt of the Welsh, cut down all the woodes in Wales, wherein, in any time of danger, they were wont to hide and save themselves. And, for a farther security, he repaired and fortified all the castles and places of strength in Wales; and built the Castle of Beaumaris, in Anglesey. And so, having put all things in a settled posture, and punished those that had been the occasion of the death of Roger de Pulesdone, he returned with his army to England*." This victory proved almost decisive; but there was yet another act to perform before Edward could ensure to himself the undisputed possession of the Principality: this was the destruction of the Bards. The heroic sentiments of freedom and of glory, which animated the Welsh, and prompted them so frequently and enthusiastically to attempt the recovery of their liberties, were, in a great measure, excited by the inspiration of their poets, an order of men of unlimited influence, and held in the highest estimation by our forefathers. While they existed to rouse, by their wild and soulstirring poesy, the dormant energies of their countrymen, no permanent submission to the will of the conqueror could be reasonably expected. Their extinction, therefore, became necessary for the security of the conquest, and the stern Edward is said to have ordered their extermination for having stirred up the people to disobedience and rebellion. A measure so disgraceful and sanguinary needs no comment. By its execution Edward sullied his character as a man and a conqueror; but it was consistent with his severe system of policy, and the peculiar circumstances of the times might have required a sacrifice so horriblet. Powel's History of Cambria, p. 308. Notwithstanding the assent given by historians in general to the massacre of the Bards by Edward, it is possible that such an event never occurred. This is the more probable, when we take into consideration the authority upon which such an assertion is made; for, it appears, that a casual expression in the " History of the Gwedir Family" is the source whence the probability of this fact is deduced. The passage is as follows. Speaking of a poem he had just transcribed, Sir John Wynne remarks, "This is the most ancient song I can find extant which is addressed to any of mine ancestors since the raigne of Edward the First, who caused all our Bards to be hanged by martial law, as stirrers of the people to sedition." Upon this somewhat slender testimony, then, is founded the occurrence of an event of no small interest and importance in an historical point of view; and it is not unreasonable to suppose, that the story chiefly owes its origin to the hatred which the Welsh for a long time entertained towards the conqueror of their country. Another writer on the subject, the Rev. Evan Evans, adopts the general opinion in his learned "Dissertatio de Bardis," which he supports by asking if it be at all wonderful that such a deed should be perpetrated by one who had persecuted, with so much rigour, the Princes Llywelyn and The subjugation of Wales appeared now to be founded on a firm and secure basis: all opposition to the will and power of the English monarch seemed, at length, to be removed, and the mainsprings of rebellion were thought to be destroyed. Edward, therefore, issued a proclamation, promising to take under his protection all his new subjects; at the same time, assuring them that they should still enjoy their liberties and property, and hold their estates by the same tenures as those by which they had hitherto holden them under their native princes. This promise was scrupulously performed by the King, who reserved to himself only the same rents, services, and duties, as had always been claimed and enjoyed by the Princes of Wales. And that he might receive no more than what was justly due to him, he appointed officers to inquire into the particular nature of the tenures, and their value was estimated and decided by committees composed entirely of Welshmen. The rents which had been hitherto paid by the natives of Anglesey suffered a considerable diminution in consequence of this scrutiny; for instead of yielding the sum of 1000 marks, which Llywelyn had annually received, they yielded to Edward only 450 pounds. In addition to this, the King introduced into the conquered country the laws of England, and appointed English officers to carry them into execution. To these he entrusted an authority almost absolute; and, entertaining, in common with the rest of their countrymen, an unbounded antipathy to the Welsh, they executed that authority with unsparing and remorseless vigilance. If they thought that rigourous and oppressive measures were adapted to crush the ardour of the Cambro-Britons, they calculated Davydd? "Cum Cambriam" (he writes) "in suam potestatem redegerat Edwardus, in Bardos sæviit tyrannum instar, et multos suspendi fecit. Quid mirum" (he continues) "cum ipsum Leolinum principem et Davidem fratrem tam inhumaniter tractaverit?" Our author, as he wrote his "Dissertatio" subsequently to the publication of the Gwedir Family, most likely relied on the authority of that work, (which he quotes, indeed, in his Specimens of the Welsh Bards, prefixed to his Dissertation,) and chronicled the event accordingly. If Edward, however, did not actually destroy the Bards, he prevented them from exercising their office, and the detestation occasioned by this circumstance might have materially contributed to the origin of an opinion so generally entertained. [The writer of the Essay is perfectly warranted in the scepticism with which he regards this popular tradition; and of the fallacy of which there can be no stronger proof than that the Welsh poets, since the time of Edward, who would have been the first to notice such a deed of atrocity if it had been actually commit. ted, furnish no authentic testimony respecting it. It is more than probable, therefore, that this idle tradition may be indebted for its currency to Gray's celebrated poem, among the other causes noticed by Mr. Richards. That the Bards were interdicted by Edward from exerting their influence over their countrymen, under severe penalties, may reasonably be presumed; but the wholesale murder, ascribed to the English monarch, is at variance with the general character which history has assigned to him.-ED. TR.] * Stat. Wallæ. 12 Ed. I. This statute, which is in form of a charter, contains a most complete code of laws for the government of Wales, and is "datum apud Rothelanum, (hodiè Rhuddlan) die Dominica in medio quadragesimo anno regni nostri xirmo." It is worthy of remark that of the counties in Wales the following only were made by this statute, Anglesey, Caernarvon, Merioneth, Flint, Caermarthen, Cardigan, Pembroke, and Glamorgan, the others being added by the 27th Hen. VIII. wrongly. They served but the more effectually to rouse and irritate their fiery spirit; and, after an interval of thirty years from the conquest of their country, they once more appeared in arms under Sir Grufydd Llwyd. This chieftain, says the historian, was a stout and valiant gentleman, though not very fortunate; for, as Florus says of Sertorius, he was magnæ quidem sed calamitosæ virtutis. He received the honour of knighthood from Edward I. as a reward for having brought the earliest intelligence of his queen's safe accouchement, at Caernarvon Castle; and, being a person of considerable influence in North Wales, his friendship was cultivated by that politic mo narch, and he became a distinguished favourite at the English court. After the death of his patron, however, he returned to his estates in Wales, and the oppression exercised by the English justices in the reign of Edward II. and more particularly by Sir Roger Mortimer, Lord of Chirke, and Chief Justice of North Wales, induced Sir Grufydd to rebel; and, to strengthen his cause, he endeavoured to procure the alliance of Sir Edward Bruce, brother to the Scottish king, then engaged in the conquest of Ireland. In this he failed, and was, therefore, obliged to commence hostilities alone, which he accordingly did, and with considerable success. The strong arm of England, however, finally prevailed, and, after having taken possession of every important fortress in North Wales, the knight was taken prisoner, confined in Rhuddlan Castle, and afterwards executed as a traitor. His followers were dispersed, and the deliverance for which he so gallantly contended remained unaccomplished. The failure of this attempt effectually damped, for the time, the courage and perseverance of our countrymen; and they silently and sullenly submitted to the yoke of England, now rendered doubly galling by the severity with which the English officers attempted to revenge the late rebellion. Many years elapsed before any further opposition was manifested towards the domination of England, during which the Welsh were exposed to the full rigour of revengeful power. In the first year, however, of the fifteenth century, a champion stood forth in the cause of freedom, whose valour had well-nigh dissevered the chain which bound his country so strongly, and whose name will never be breathed by his countrymen except with sentiments of pride and admiration it is scarcely necessary to add that this heroic champion was Owain Glyndwr. The limits of this Essay will not permit me to enter into any detail of the actions of this celebrated chieftain; and, as it would be impossible to do justice to his memory in a mere abstract of his life and exploits, I willingly refrain from marring a subject so powerfully interesting to my countrymen. I will mention, however, three remarkable circumstances connected with the patriot, as they tend to evince the extent of his power, and the importance of his success in the cause which he espoused. He was the only Welsh insurgent who was formally crowned, and acknowledged Prince of Wales. He did not, like the insurgents in the reign of Edward, perish ignominiously on the scaffold; and he is the only chieftain of them all who is introduced into the chronicles of the English historians. But his death was fatal to the interests of the Principality. With him all the patriotic energy of the Welsh seems to have perished, and we find our countrymen once more exposed to the power of the English, without any means of sheltering themselves from the full force of their vengeance. The laws, indeed, which passed in the English parliament, in consequence of this memorable insurrection, subjected the Welsh to a state of bondage the most severe. While they were yet in arms, the provisions of these statutes could not be enforced to any great extent; but no sooner was the rebellion quelled, than they were put into execution with the most relentless vigilance. And it must be confessed, that, rigorous as they were, the peculiar circumstances of the times fully justified the severity of the English government. a In 1400, (2d Henry IV.) an act passed, by which all wholeborn Welshmen were incapacitated from purchasing property in England, or from being made burgesses in any of the English towns; and they were not allowed to hold any civil offices whatever. In consequence, also, of the complaints which were daily made of the daring incursions of the Welsh borderers, (in which they frequently plundered the English lordships to a very large amount,) it was enacted, that, if restitution was not made within seven days after request had been made, under the seal of the sheriff, mayor, or bailiff, of the place where the injured party dwelt, it was lawful for the person aggrieved to arrest any Welshman, coming from the district where the plunderer resided, with goods or cattle for sale, and he was to be detained till ample satisfaction had been rendered for the robbery. In the following year, the tumults in Wales seem to have engrossed a considerable portion of the attention of the Legislature, as several important enactments were formed for the purpose of limiting the extension of the revolt. In the first place, it was ordained, that an Englishman, marrying a Welshwoman, should lose his privileges, and be rendered incapable of holding any office in the Principality. No Englishman, by the same statute (4th Henry IV.), could be convicted in Wales at the suit of a Welshman, unless by English justices, and on the evidence of English burgesses. It was also enacted that there should be no "westours*, rymours, ministralx, ou autres vacabondes, pur faire kymorthast, ou coillage;" no * A player at wasters, Mr. Barrington informs us, signifies a cudgeller; but an ingenious correspondent supposes rather to imply a wrestler, from the wast, (hodie, waist,) or loins.-Obs. on Anc. Stat. 360, Note. Mr. Pennant, however, offers another signification. He supposes it corrupted from gwestwr, which, in Welsh, means a person who keeps a place of public entertainment; and such a place, he observes, was very convenient for a rendezvous of this nature.-) -Tours in Wales, vol. iii. p. 389. + The word kymortha is misspelt from the Welsh cymmorth, (plural, cymmorthau ;) an assembly of people to assist each other in their work. They are frequently in use |