L ing no longer their animofities, and uniting in a generous confederacy, gave to their fovereign the most folemn afsurances of perpetual allegiance.' But their offers of aid, or their vows of fidelity, had no power of affording relief to David; the miseries of his country, and the prospect which was opening before him, had broken his fpirit; and, a few months after, finking under the weight of forrow, lamented by his fubjects, and rifing in their esteem, he died at Aber, a palace in which he ufually refided, upon the fea coaft in Caernarvonshire. This prince left no iffue, and was buried in the abbey of Conway.' 2 We have now seen the Welsh nation fubject to the most distant extremes of fortune. Their annals, in rapid fuccession, are marked with striking viciffitudes. Influenced by fudden, and often by hidden fprings, we have feen them, by uniting their ftrength, and exerting its force, rifing up to the height of profperity; and then, from causes which were equally capricious, falling, in a moment, into disunion and vassalage. Wynne's Hift. Wales, p. 268. 2 Matth. Paris, p. 608, 610. HISTORY OF WALES. BOOK VIII. FROM THE ACCESSION OF OWEN AND LLEWELYN THE 1246. On the death of the late prince, the Welsh nobility elected A. D. Owen and Llewelyn joint fovereigns of North Wales. These young princes were the fons of Gryffydh ap Llewelyn, who some years before had been killed by attempting to escape out of the tower of London.' OWEN had shared in the captivity of his father, but was afterwards taken into Henry's favour, and appears to have been highly careffed in the English court. Receiving intelligence of the late events, he fuddenly withdrew out of England, and fortunately effected his escape into Wales. The young prince Welsh Chron. p. 314. 2 2 Matth. Paris, p. 608. Llewelyn, Llewelyn, before his acceffion to the throne, had refided at Maefmynan near Caerwys in Flintshire; and poffeffed, as the patrimony which he had received from his father, the cantrevs of Englefield, Dyffryn-Clwyd, Rhos, and Rhyvonioc; all of which he had held, during the late reign, in oppofition to his uncle David, and the English monarch.' OPPRESSED by the hated laws of England, the Welsh, at this period, had neither opportunity nor fpirit, to carry on commerce, nor to cultivate their land, and in confequence were perishing by famine: they were likewife deprived of the ufual pasturage for their cattle: and, to recite the words of an old writer, expreffive of their bondage, "the harp of the churchmen is changed into forrow and lamentations: the glory of their proud and ancient nobility is faded away.” 46 2 In this state of their country, the Welsh princes thought it prudent, upon their acceffion, to conclude a peace with the English king, on the following fevere conditions; of yielding up for ever the cantrevs of Rhos, Rhyvonioc, Dyffryn-Clwyd, and Englefield, being all the country from the frontier of Cheshire to the water of Conway.' They were likewise obliged Hift. Gwedir Family, p. 28. The bishop of St. David, is faid, at this time, to have died of grief, and the bishop of Llandaff to have been ftricken blind: the bishops of Bangor and St. Afaph, likewife, on their bifhopricks being entirely ruined, were under the neceffity of fupplicating alms, as a means of fubfiftence. Vide Matth. Paris, p. 642. 3 Cynwy or Chief Water. to to ferve in Wales, or in the marches, with one thousand foot and twenty-four horfe, armed and well appointed at their own expence, whenever they were called upon; but with five hundred infantry only, when the fervice fhould require that duty to be performed in any other place: The homage and fervices. of all the barons in Wales were to remain with the kings of England for ever: If there fhould be any infringement of the peace on the part of the Welsh princes, an entire forfeiture of their territories was to be the confequence. For these conceffions, after the two princes had performed their homage, Henry granted them a full pardon, and the enjoyment of the refidue of North Wales, to be held under the crown of England for ever.1 2 THE Country from Chester to the river Conway, which had been given by Henry as an appennage to his fon prince Edward, was, at this time, let out to farm to Alan de Zouch, an English baron, for eleven hundred marks. He fuperfeded John de Grey, who was to have held it for the leffer fum of five hundred.' The Welsh, likewife, early tafted another bitter fruit of their subjection; a talliage having been laid upon all that territory which had been lately ceded in Wales, to defray the expence of Henry's intended expedition into the Holy Land.* ■ Rymer, p. 443. About this time, the abbots of Strata-Florida and Conway procured from the English king the body of the late Gryffydh ap Llewelyn, which they fafely conveyed to the abbey of Conway, where the remains of that prince were honourably interred. Welsh Chr. p. 319. 4 Carte's Hift. Eng. Inter. Communia. Trin. Term. 36 Hen. III. A. D. 1247. Henry III A. D. 1251. 35th of Henry III. FOR |