Machynlleth

We leave Cilmeri for our next destination, Bangor, in Gwynedd, on the shores of the Menai. Yet again, however, we must detour, for our way north takes us through the delightful little town with the name that English visitors find impossible to pronounce--Machynlleth--a town that is most sacred to those who wish Wales to be independent of England so that it can govern itself and fulfil the ancient dreams of Llewelyn ap Gruffudd and Owain Glyndwr.

It was at Machynlleth in l404 that Glyndwr, the great Welsh patriot and visionary, created his first Parliament (others were planned for Dolgellau, Harlech and Pennal). It was here that he concluded his alliance with the French king, and it was here that he revived the ancient dreams of his people, those of the Arthurian tradition first written about by Geoffrey of Monmouth that the Welsh people had nurtured in their hearts ever since.

Geoffrey's imaginative compilation, Historia Regum Britanniae (The History of the Kings of Britain) completed around ll36, claims to be the history of Britain up to the coming of the Saxons: its theme is British rule of the whole island. Its impact upon the Welsh was to remind them of past glories and to inspire them with hopes for the renewal of their heritage, despite their fate being seen by Geoffrey, following Bede, as a punishment for "the multiplicity of their sins." When the long awaited revolt finally materialized, Owain Glyndwr took advantage of the mythical traditions of his people: his banner was that of the Red Dragon, the old symbol of victory of Briton over the Saxon. He seized his opportunity in l400 after being crowned Prince of Wales by a small group of supporters.

At first, it seemed that Owain was attempting more than he could handle. His raids upon the English boroughs were easily repulsed and his supporters scattered. Repressive measures undertaken by the new king Henry, however, and the penal legislation of l40l that further restricted Welsh civil rights at the expense of English settlers gave Owain the support he had previously lacked. The ancient words of Geraldus Cambrensis could have served to inspire his followers:

The English fight for power; the Welsh for liberty; the one to procure gain, the other to avoid loss. The English hirelings for money; the Welsh patriots for their country.

In addition, Owain, a direct descendant of the princes of Powys, was linked to the old prophesies by the Welsh bards, including Iolo Goch Iolo, while praising the civility and order found at Owain's court at Sycharth , also expressed his patron's deep resentment at his disinheritance by the English.

The London Parliament condemned the rebellion of the Welsh as a peasant's revolt, yet it also recognized the importance of the prophetic element, influenced by divinations and magic. It was true that Owain received a great deal of his support from the peasantry, but the comet that appeared in l402 was seen by the Welsh as a sign of their forthcoming deliverance from bondage as well as one that proclaimed the appearance of Owain. His magnetic personality electrified and galvanized the people of Wales, strengthening their armies and inspiring their confidence. Even the weather was favorable to his ambitions. An entry in Annales Henrici Quarti of l402 reads as follows:

&[Glyndwr] almost destroyed the King and his armies, by magic as it was thought, for from the time they entered Wales to the time they left, never did a gentle air breathe on them, but throughout whole days and nights, rain mixed with snow and hail afflicted them with cold beyond endurance.

By l404, all had gone well with the Welsh rebellion: it seemed as if the long-awaited dream of independence was fast becoming a reality: three royal expeditions against Glyndwr had failed: he held Harlech and Aberystwyth, had extended his influence as far as Glamorgan and Gwent, was receiving support from Ireland and Scotland; had formed an alliance with France: he had been recognized by the leading Welsh bishops, and had summoned a parliament at Machynlleth, where he was crowned as Prince of Wales.

It didn't seem too ambitious for Owain to believe that with suitable allies, he could help bring about the dethronement of the English king; thus he entered into a tripartite alliance with the Earl of Northumberland and Henry Mortimer (who married Owain's daughter Caitrin) to divide up England and Wales between them. After all, Henry IV's crown was seen by many Englishmen as having been falsely obtained, and they welcomed armed rebellion against their ruler. Hoping that the Welsh Church be made completely independent from Canterbury, and that appointments to benefices in Wales be given only to those who could speak Welsh, Glyndwr was ready to implement his wish to set up two universities in Wales to train native civil servants and clergymen.

Then the dream died. Owain's parliament was the very last to meet on Welsh soil; the last occasion that the Welsh people had the power of acting independently of English rule. From such a promising beginning to a national revolt came a disappointing conclusion, even more upsetting because of the speed at which Welsh hopes crumbled with the failure of the Tripartite Indenture.

Henry Percy, (Hotspur) was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury, and the increasing boldness and military skills of Henry's son, the English prince of Wales and later Henry V, began to turn the tide against Glyndwr. Owain's friend and supporter, Louis of Orleans, was assassinated, and because of subsequent anarchy in that country, his French allies could not sustain their support and withdrew their forces from Wales. Owain's other main ally, the Scottish king, was taken prisoner by the English. Saddest of all, like so many of his predecessors, Glyndwr was betrayed at home. It is not too comforting for Welsh people of today to read that one of the staunchest allies of the English king and enemy of Glyndwr was a man of Brecon, Dafydd Gam (later killed at Agincourt, fighting for the English).

A sixth expedition into Wales undertaken by Prince Henry retook much of the land captured by Owain, including many strategic castles. The boroughs with their large populations of "settlers," remained English in any case, and by the end of l409, the Welsh rebellion had dwindled down to a series of guerilla raids led by the mysterious figure of Owain, whose wife and two daughters had been captured at Harlech and taken to London as prisoners. Owain himself went into the mountains, becoming an outlaw. He may have suffered an early death, for from that time on, nothing is known of him either by the Welsh or the English. He simply vanished from sight. According to an anonymous writer in l4l5," Very many say that he [Owain Glyndwr] died; the seers say that he did not." (Annals of Owain Glyndwr) There has been much speculation as to his fate and much guessing as to where he ended his final days and was laid to rest.

The failure of Owain's dream of an independent Wales was a crushing disappointment: for the first time since the Anglo-Saxon conquests, the old prophecies, for a period of about ten years, seemed to have a chance of being fulfilled. Yet, because of the hopes raised by Owain Glyndwr, the spirit lived on with the people of Wales -- the rebellion had been no mere peasant uprising, but a general uniting of feeling and action that has been described by 20th century Welsh leader and author Gwynfor Evans as a genuine War of Independence "the first in a series of extraordinary events to which the nation, which was to be incorporated in imperial England in the next century, owes her almost miraculous survival through the next six hundred years." And it is that spirit that is still alive today and that has fostered a renewed interest in Welsh language, culture, social institutions and politics. All true Welsh men and women should pay homage to what Owain Glyndwr tried to achieve at Machynlleth.