The Welsh Rebellion of Owain Glyndwr

A Country Gentleman Who Became the Medieval Prince of Wales

Jun 24, 2009

When his private quarrel turned into a national revolt, Owain Glyndwr became, for all time, the most important symbol of Welsh resistance to English occupation.

Since ancient times, the people of Wales - the large peninsula on the west coast of Great Britain - have been fiercely independent. So it was no surprise when, little more than a century after England began to occupy the land, the proud Welsh rose up to restore self-rule. Though the revolution ultimately failed, its leader, Owain Glyndwr, still is acclaimed a true champion of his people. So great was his effect on the national identity, in fact, that he's been called "the Welshness in all Welshman."

Owain Sparks A War

Descended from native royalty, Owain studied law and served in the court of England's King Richard II in the 1380s. He became a prominent landowner who entertained friends and visitors generously in his home at Sycharth in Powys, and his ambition apparently extended no further than that.

However, he fell into a territorial dispute with Reginald de Grey, Lord of Ruthin, in September 1400, and many countrymen leapt to his defense. This local fight grew into a national movement, and the charismatic Owain inspired the common people toward political unity as none had done before.

Glyndwr took de Grey prisoner in 1402 and held him for a year until the new king, Henry IV, paid his ransom. Ruthin's repayment of that debt ruined him financially.

In the spring of 1404, Owain and his family moved into the captured castle of Harlech, the finest of the fortresses built on Welsh soil in the late 1200s by English King Edward the First. That June, Owain Glyndwr was crowned Prince of Wales, a title he had claimed four years earlier. But, unlike the traditional territorial rulers, Owain assumed the throne of a Welsh state rather than of a dynastic sovereign.

From Harlech, Owain led a government of 150,000 citizens but conducted it as if Wales had equal standing with the major European powers. A cabinet was assembled, national parliaments convened, and ambassadors sent to the courts of Scotland, Ireland, Spain and France, the last of which signed a formal declaration of alliance with "the mighty and magnificent Owen, Prince of Wales." There even developed a conspiracy with two English noblemen to conquer and divide England. Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, who had become disenchanted with the king, would get Northern England. Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March and spouse of Owain's daughter Catrin, would rule the south.

Almost two centuries later, this same consortium was immortalized by no less than William Shakespeare, but the portrait of Owain was not flattering. In Henry IV, Part One, "Owen Glendower" is depicted as a posturing, pretentious fanatic. When he was born, he states, "the front of heaven was full of fiery shapes" and "the frame and huge foundation of the earth shak'd." He's so mystically gifted, in fact, that he can "command the devil" and "call spirits from the vasty deep."

Silly as these statements sound, the Bard of Avon didn't pull the concept from nowhere. Owain was seen as such a visionary in his lifetime that mystics, poets, prophets and folklorists hailed him as the savior foreseen by antiquity. Songs and poems celebrated his magic powers. Owain Glyndwr became a legend in his own time.

The Glyndwr Rising Is Crushed

Before the first decade of the 15th century ended, however, Celtic fairy tale gave way to geopolitical reality. In 1409, Harlech was retaken by Henry of Monmouth (the future King Henry V), and Owain's wife, Margaret Hanmer, along with two daughters and three grandchildren, was carted off to London.

Owain was killed in a final skirmish in Dinmore woods. Or he died at Monnington Straddell, the home of his daughter Alys and her English spouse John Scudamore. Or he passed his last days in the round tower of Kentchurch Court.

Actually, no one knows what happened to the last native Prince of Wales. By 1417, he'd disappeared from history and entered mythology. What is known is that he left behind a Wales forever changed. England imposed heavy fines on the Welsh people, barred them from holding public office or owning urban lands, and forbid them to marry English nationals. Towns were devastated, commerce was damaged, areas were depopulated for generations.

A Legend Is Born

600 years later, the Welsh still hail that disastrous insurrection as their one moment of glory and Owain Glyndwr as their hero. They've sung no elegies to him because they don't believe he really died. According to one legend, the prince and his finest warriors sleep in an underground chamber of a hill above a Glamorgan farm. Dressed in full armor with swords at their sides, they wait to be awakened on the day Wales needs them again.

The copyright of the article The Welsh Rebellion of Owain Glyndwr in Welsh History is owned by P. Ryan Anthony. Permission to republish The Welsh Rebellion of Owain Glyndwr in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.