Anglo-Welsh War (1231-1234)

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The Anglo-Welsh War from 1231 to 1234 was a military conflict between the Kingdom of England and the Welsh principalities led by Llywelyn ab Iorwerth , Prince of Gwynedd .

Starting position

Hubert de Burgh , the justiciar of King Henry III. , had acquired several dominions in the Welsh Marches during his tenure , including Montgomery Castle and the three Castles Skenfrith , White Castle and Grosmont . After a failed campaign by the king in Mid Wales , an armistice was signed in 1228, but raids and border battles continued in the Welsh Marches.

The campaign of Henry III. of 1231 and the Welsh counterattacks

Prince Llywelyn ap Iorwerth tried to resign after the deaths of the mighty Marcher Lords William de Braose , Lord of Abergavenny, William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke and Gilbert de Clare, 1st Earl of Gloucester , all three of whom died before April 1231 in the Welsh Marches. In May 1231 the garrison of Montgomery Castle was able to beat a Welsh force in an ambush, the Welsh captured in the battle were executed. Thereupon Lord Llywelyn lured part of the garrison into an ambush and had them put down. In response to these attacks, Henry III offered. raised an English feudal army and moved to Elfael in southern Powys . There he remained inactive, however, and only began to rebuild Painscastle , which should strengthen the English position in Mid Wales. The Welsh repeatedly attacked the English army from ambush, for this purpose Llywelyn undertook a large-scale raid through the Welsh Marches from Iorwerth in the summer of 1231. The Welsh destroyed the settlement at Montgomery Castle as well as Brecon , Hay , Radnor and Caerleon Castle in June , then Neath and Kidwelly Castle were also destroyed. Also Cardigan Castle in Ceredigion could be conquered. In view of these Welsh successes, the King had to negotiate with Lord Llywelyn at Shrewsbury . Although an armistice was agreed in December 1232, these negotiations ultimately failed. One of the main reasons for this was the attack by Richard of Cornwall , the king's younger brother, and Richard Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, on the Welsh Radnor in March 1233. In this attack, which was probably carried out without the king's knowledge or permission, the two magnates drove out the Welsh lord of rule.

Llywelyn ab Iorwerth supports the Earl of Pembroke's rebellion

The unsuccessfulness of Hubert de Burgh in Wales led to the fall of the powerful justiciar in July 1232. As a result, Peter des Roches received dominant influence over the government. With the fall of de Burgh, the so-called Three Castles fell back to the king, who was able to expand his position in south-east Wales. However, the politics of Peter des Roches led to the rebellion of Richard Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke in 1233. After an armistice concluded on September 6, 1233 between Marshal and the king was not permanent, Marshal, who owned extensive possessions in south Wales, allied himself with Lord Llywelyn. This alliance completely contradicted the previous policy of the Marshal family towards the Lord of Gwynedd and certainly cost Marshal the support of other Marcher Lords. Also for Heinrich III. This alliance certainly came as a surprise, since in September he had conducted promising peace negotiations with the Welsh prince. When it came to new open fighting in October 1233, Marshal attacked together with Llywelyn Abergavenny , Blaenllyfni and Breconshire . They were able to capture and destroy Abergavenny Castle before they had to retreat again. The month-long siege of Brecon Castle by Lord Llywelyn, however, failed. The counterattack by Heinrich III. ended in a shameful defeat at Grosmont Castle in November, when the allied rebels and Welshmen managed to flee the king and his troops in an attack on the royal army camp on the night of 11-12 November. The rebels and the Welsh captured the equipment and allegedly 500 horses of the English army. A Welsh attack on Monmouth Castle led to a bloody battle on November 25th, after which they were able to capture the castle. In January 1234, the Welsh together with the rebels led a destructive raid as far as Shrewsbury. From the end of 1233, a Welsh force led by Rhys Gryg , Maelgwn Fychan and Owain ap Gruffydd besieged Carmarthen Castle in South Wales for three months before an English relief army coming from Bristol via the Bristol Channel , led by Henry de Trubleville, defeated the besiegers and into the Could escape. In these battles Rhys Gryg, one of the leading Welsh Lords of Deheubarth, was fatally wounded.

Wales 1234: green the Welsh principalities, orange the areas of the Marcher Lords

Failure of the rebellion and conclusion of the Treaty of Myddle

Marshal's rebellion was not supported by any other English magnate and was therefore hopeless. However, the king's finances were exhausted, so that he had little opportunity to put down the rebellion militarily. Therefore, envoys from Marshal and Lord Llywelyn agreed a truce in Brockton in Salop in April at Brockton in Salop with an embassy from the King, through the mediation of Bishop Alexander Stavensby of Coventry and Lichfield and Bishop Henry of Sandford , which was limited to July 25th. Marshal did not get this news, he was badly wounded on April 1st in Ireland while fighting against supporters of the king and eventually succumbed to his injuries. Gilbert Marshal , brother and heir of Richard Marshal, was reconciled with the English king, whereupon Prince Llywelyn made the peace of Myddle with the king in Shropshire on June 22nd . This peace treaty, initially limited to two years, essentially confirmed the respective acquis in Wales.

literature

  • Rees R. Davies: The Age of Conquest. Wales 1063-1415. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1991, ISBN 0-19-820198-2

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rees R. Davies: The Age of Conquest. Wales 1063-1415. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1991, ISBN 0-19-820198-2 , p. 248
  2. ^ Rees R. Davies: The Age of Conquest. Wales 1063-1415. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1991, ISBN 0-19-820198-2 , p. 298
  3. ^ David Walker: Medieval Wales . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1990, ISBN 0-521-32317-7 , p. 96
  4. ↑ Castles of Wales: Cardigan Castle Timeline. Retrieved June 28, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Nicholas Vincent: Peter des Roches. An alien in English politics, 1205 - 1238 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002. ISBN 0-521-52215-3 , p. 372
  6. ↑ RF Walker: The supporters of Richard Marshal, earl of Pembroke, in the rebellion of 1233-1234 in: Welsh History Review / Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru , 17 (1994-95), p. 62
  7. ↑ RF Walker: The supporters of Richard Marshal, earl of Pembroke, in the rebellion of 1233-1234 in: Welsh History Review / Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru , 17 (1994-95), p. 43
  8. ^ John Edward Lloyd: History of Wales from the earliest times to the edwardian conquest , Part 2, Longmans, Green, London 1912. p. 679
  9. ^ DJ Power: Marshal, Richard, sixth earl of Pembroke (d. 1234). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
  10. ↑ Coflein: CARMARTHEN CASTLE. Retrieved June 29, 2016 .
  11. ↑ RF Walker: The supporters of Richard Marshal, earl of Pembroke, in the rebellion of 1233-1234 in: Welsh History Review / Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru , 17 (1994-95), p. 63