Ten Minute English and British History #12 - The Conquest of Wales and the Birth of Parliament

So Wales has been sort of glossed over in this series and there are two main reasons. The first is that Welsh politics is extremely complicated and difficult to explain. The second reason is that Welsh words are nigh on impossible to pronounce. So prior to 1231, England and its rulers had always had an interest in its western neighbour. After the Norman conquest, several lords, the lords of Chester, Hereford and Shrewsbury, collectively known as the Marcher Lords, were given a free hand to conquer as much as they could. Importantly, these lordships were essentially mini kingdoms, whereby the lords were fairly free from royal interference. At first, these Marcher Lords made good progress, but the terrain, being mostly mountainous in the north, made complete conquest costly and so progress stopped. If there were any instability in England, such as that of the Anarchy or the Barons' War, the Welsh would often rise up and retake the lands that they had earlier been deprived of. As you can imagine, this slowed down conquest by quite a bit. And by quite a bit, I mean over 200 years. So, by 1231, the English controlled these lands, and the numerous Welsh princes and lords controlled this. Wales, throughout its history, had always been fragmented to varying degrees, and so the idea of Welshness was based upon things like language, and importantly, not being English. The three major realms in Wales were Gwynedd, Powys and Dohoibarth, all of whom had their puppets and alliance systems in place. The balance of power between and the size of these realms varied hugely over the decades, and Wales was often in flux. The greatest of the Welsh princes in 1231 was Llywelyn the Great, who was both a capable general and a skilled negotiator. Llywelyn and his domain of Gwynedd had been the dominant power in Wales for over 30 years. At this point, he was mostly concerned with the succession and keeping Gwynedd together with all its vassals intact. The culture of Wales was also very distinctive from that of its Anglo-French neighbours. It was a culture which honoured the martial, that is, the military, and the heroic. Princes and rulers were praised for their warrior virtues, and Welsh law stated that princes were entitled to a set percentage of the loot they took from those they defeated. These Welsh princes and domains should not be seen as undeveloped societies, since they had very complex systems of government. Much like the English, the Welsh could and did build castles, which indicates a strong ability to command resources and men. Of course, in comparison to England, the amount of resources and manpower the Welsh could command was significantly smaller. So in 1240, Llywelyn died. He left his two sons, the half-brothers Griffith and Dafydd, as heirs. Llywelyn had previously appealed to the English king, Henry III, to have his second son Dafydd accepted as heir. Henry said yes, so Dafydd inherited the kingdom, and immediately afterwards threw his half-brother in prison, along with his nephew, who was also called Llywelyn. One of the conditions of his accession was that he wasn't allowed to keep his father's vassals, which Dafydd refused, and so... war. England, having much more in terms of resources, won very quickly. Dafydd submitted, gave up his vassals, and handed his half-brother over to Henry, who quickly locked him in the Tower of London. This meant that if Dafydd played up, Henry could simply install his brother as the Prince of Gwynedd. Griffith did not enjoy being King Henry's pawn, This was unfortunate for Henry, but also presumably Griffith, due to the whole being-dead thing. Dafydd used Henry's bad luck to forge an alliance with the Welsh principalities, and raided English-held lands. It was also about this time that Dafydd began to use the title, the Prince of Wales. So, raiding English-held lands was upsetting to the English king, and so... war. Again. Henry invaded Gwynedd, and the fighting didn't lead to much, until Dafydd died in 1246. Dafydd had no heirs, and so his two nephews, Both approached King Henry for peace and recognition of their domain, which he granted in return for them ceding all of this territory, which they did. Very little happened in Wales over the next decade, barring the usual raiding by both sides. So in 1255, another brother came of age, and King Henry decided to give him some of the land in Gwynedd to further weaken it. Llywelyn said no, and so civil war broke out between the three brothers. Llywelyn was victorious, and became the sole ruler of Gwynedd. The next year, King Henry had his son, Edward, placed in control of these lands. Shockingly, the English weren't very kind to the conquered Welsh, and so some of the native Welsh lords appealed to Llywelyn to invade. Llywelyn successfully retook most of the lost land, and also began to style himself as the Prince of Wales, which King Henry did not like one bit. The English didn't meaningfully respond to this invasion, though. That said, after Henry had secured peace with France in 1259, he was able to turn his full attention to his neighbours. Well, at least he would have, were it not for the issues between him and his barons, which culminated in the Second Barons' War breaking out in 1263. During the Second Barons' War, the rebel leader, Simon de Montfort, cut a deal with Llywelyn, which saw de Montfort recognise Llywelyn's place as the Prince of Wales in return for a sack of cash. This meant that as long as de Montfort was alive and in charge, Wales would be secure. So the next year, de Montfort was killed at the Battle of Evesham, and so Llywelyn invaded the English-held lands with his vassals to gain as much as possible before Henry III could consolidate his position. Llywelyn wasn't rebelling to make Wales an independent domain like Scotland. He had always accepted the King of England as his lord and understood the fact that he held Wales as a vassal. Over the next two years, he gained all of this territory before asking King Henry III to negotiate. These negotiations culminated in the 1267 Treaty of Montgomery. These allowed Llywelyn to keep his territories, and Henry III acknowledged his title as the Prince of Wales. In return for all of this, Llywelyn was to pay a sack of cash. Many of the lesser Princes of Wales had an issue with this, since none of them were too happy to swear loyalty to someone they didn't see as their superior. In 1272, King Henry died and was succeeded by his son, Edward. Edward didn't return to England until 1274 since he was on a crusade. Upon his return, he was crowned King Edward I due to the fact that there had been no King Edwards before this. None whatsoever. The reason for this, in case you're wondering, is that Edward traced his lineage back to William the Conqueror, i.e. the victor, and not the Anglo-Saxons, i.e. the losers. In 1275, Edward demanded that Llywelyn come and pay him homage, which he refused. Edward wasn't going to put up with the resistant vassal, and so, war. In 1277, Edward's army crossed into Wales. Interestingly, the majority of the soldiers in Edward's army were actually Welsh. Llywelyn surrendered before any major blood spilling occurred, and the English annexed all of this territory. The remaining territory was split between Llywelyn, who kept a much smaller Gwynedd, and his brother, Dafydd, who was given these lands. Dafydd wasn't happy with the lands he had been given by the King, so naturally, revolt was the only answer. Llywelyn joined his brother with many other prominent Welsh nobles in trying to remove the English. This occurred in 1282, and Edward's response was not one of pacification, but total conquest and subjugation. The combined forces of the English Crown in the north, and the Marcher Lords in the south, meant that the Welsh could do little to resist. Llywelyn was killed in later 1282, and his brother succeeded him, but ultimately, Edward had crushed the revolt by mid-1283. So in the end, Dafydd was taken prisoner, and soon after executed, ending definitively the native rule of Wales. The fate of Wales was finalised in the Statute of Rhythlen, which gave these areas to Edward's Lords, and these areas to Edward personally. This statute marks the end of an independent Wales, and barring a few rebellions over the coming centuries, English rule there was fairly secure. It changed Wales in several other ways as well. It carved Gwynedd up into counties in the same way that England was. Furthermore, the statute also proclaimed that the laws of England were now the laws of Wales. Soon after the conquest had been finished, the English immediately began to displace the native Welsh by booting them out of towns and off of the best farmland. Of course, remaining in Wales was expensive, due to the armies of occupation, and the building of many castles, which collectively were known as the Iron Ring. The greatest of these castles was at the new northern Welsh capital of Caernarfon. As a result, Edward had to come up with inventive ways of raising money, such as taxing the sale of wool, and of course, taxing the Jews. So, according to English law, all Jews were the property of the monarch, and so he could do with them whatever he saw fit. This normally came in the form of taxing them heavily, but Edward was desperate for money, so in 1290, he issued the Edict of Expulsion. This banned all Jews from living in England and Wales. In practice, this meant that the King could seize all of the Jewish property in England for himself, and importantly, all money owed to the Jews was now owed to the Crown. Another means of raising money was via taxes. In order to raise the taxes necessary, Edward had to regularly appeal to his lords. The King and his lords would talk in French parlais at a place called a parlement, or in English, a parliament. Thus, it can be said that the English parliament found much of its roots in the subjugation of the Welsh. Monarchs had called assemblies of their nobles for many centuries, sometimes for advice, but mostly to raise money and mend for wars. Edward's parliament was an extension of the earlier gatherings called by Simon de Montfort, but importantly, Edward was expected to call upon his lords regularly. This new parliament was an intricate part of the government of the realm. Every year, Edward was expected to call his lords to attend and settle the most pressing affairs of state. In 1295, the people invited to these parliaments were broadened beyond the lords to include knights and other representatives, otherwise known as the commons. Edward also reissued Magna Carta again in 1297, although he had done this a few times before. In many respects, Magna Carta was changing from something that monarchs would issue as a compromise to simply being the accepted law of the land. In 1301, Edward made another change to the ruling of Wales when he made his son, Edward, the Prince of Wales. It was from then that the title of Prince of Wales became synonymous with the heir to the throne. Six years after this, Edward I died and his son was crowned Edward II. Edward II had a troubled relationship with his barons, mostly because of his close relationship with a man called Piers Gaveston, whom Edward made the Earl of Cornwall upon his accession to the throne. Edward married the daughter of the King of France, Isabella, and whilst he was away negotiating the terms of the marriage, he left Gaveston in charge. This upset the other nobles, who felt that they were being shut out by Edward's favourites. In the end, as a compromise, Gaveston was exiled, in fact, several times, and after a disagreement with his barons, Edward recalled him. Gaveston returned to England, but was captured soon after and executed by Edward's barons. To make matters worse for the King, his armies were being pushed out of Scotland, the most famous event being the 1314 Battle of Bannockburn. Things got much better for Edward after this, and by much better, I mean there was a major famine in 1315. Back in Wales, another revolt was started by a man called Llywelyn Brennan, 1316, who was rebelling against harsh rules. Instead of heeding the King's summons, Llywelyn revolted and captured the castle at Caerphilly. Ultimately, the revolt ended in no change. Llywelyn was executed and Wales would thereafter remain firmly under English rule. So what did the conquest mean for England? It secured the western border, gave England a slightly larger taxable population, and also access to Welshmen for armies. Importantly, Welsh bowmen, whose role in the wars to come, would be vitally important. I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching. There is a list of books in the description if you'd like to know more.