Campaigns of King Henry II against Wales

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The campaigns of King Henry II against Wales were the attempts of King Henry II of England to restore Anglo-Norman supremacy over the Welsh principalities through several campaigns . During the Anarchy in England, Owain Gwynedd in North Wales and the Princes of Deheubarth in South Wales had become the leading Welsh princes and withdrew from Norman rule. After the Civil War ended in 1154, Henry II undertook several campaigns in Wales between 1157 and 1171.

Campaign of 1157

The first campaign of Henry II was directed against Gwynedd . Its king Owain Gwynedd had defeated the allied Madog ap Maredudd of Powys and Earl Ranulph de Gernon of Chester in a battle on Coleshill in 1150 and then conquered Iâl, Mold and Tegeingl in north-east Wales. He threatened Chester , whose earl was after the death of Ranulph in 1153 his underage son Hugh . As its liege lord, Henry II wanted to recapture north-east Wales and regain control of Gwynedd. In July 1157 he called a feudal army to Chester, which was reinforced by a contingent of archers from Shropshire . To this end, he made alliances with Cadwaladr , the exiled brother of the Prince of Gwynedd, with Madog ap Maredudd of Powys and his brother Iorwerth Goch, and with Hywel ap Ieuaf , the Prince of Arwystli . Owain Gwynedd, the prince of Gwynedd, was politically encircled by these alliances. In addition to the invasion of the royal army, Henry dispatched a fleet that was supposed to advance to Gwynedd from Milford Haven in southwest Wales. However, the campaign was not a complete success. While the main Anglo-Norman army marched northwest along the west bank of the River Dee , Owain Gwynedd and his troops opposed them in a fortified position. The king tried to circumvent this position with part of his army. In the thickly forested mountainous country he was ambushed by Owain's sons Dafydd and Cynan in a battle on Coleshill , in which he was almost killed. His standard bearer Henry d'Essex thought the king was dead, but the Anglo-Norman forces managed to bypass the Welsh, who then retreated west of the River Clwyd . The English fleet had undertaken a raid on the island of Anglesey on its own . But the Anglo-Normans were also ambushed and suffered heavy losses. Among the dead was Henry FitzHenry , an illegitimate son of King Henry I. The overwhelming power of the main Anglo-Norman army forced Owain Gwynedd to a peace treaty in which he had to pay homage to Henry II and give him Teleingl west of the River Dee. He also had to take his exiled brother Cadwaladr back to Gwynedd.

Also Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth had submitted in 1157 to the English king. Nevertheless, there was further fighting between him and the Marcher Lords , which is why Heinrich II invaded Deheubarth with an army in the summer of 1158. Rhys submitted to the king again. He had to hand over Carmarthen Castle back to the king and Ceredigion to Roger de Clare and the Cantref Bychan to Walter de Clifford.

Campaign against Deheubarth 1163

As early as 1159 there had been new fighting in South Wales. After Welsh attacks on Ceredigion and Carmarthen, Reginald of Cornwall, along with the Earls of Gloucester , Hertford, Pembroke and Salisbury, launched a campaign against Rhys ap Gruffydd, which led to a truce. Nevertheless, Rhys ap Gruffydd attacked again Anglo-Norman possessions in Ceredigon and in 1162 captured Llandovery Castle , a castle owned by Walter de Clifford. Then Heinrich II led an army to Deheubarth again in 1163. Without encountering great resistance, he advanced far into the principality. At Pencader, Rhys ap Gruffydd surrendered to him. Henry II took him to Woodstock , England, in honorable custody . There he had to pay homage to the king and his son on July 1, 1163 together with Owain Gwynedd and five other Welsh princes. To do this, the Welsh hostages had to be taken, including two sons of Owain, Cadwallon and Cynwrig, and Cynwrig and Maredudd Ddall, two sons of Rhys ap Gruffydd.

Campaign of 1165

Despite the homage by the Welsh princes in Worcester in 1163, fighting soon broke out again between Welsh and Anglo-Normans. In 1163 Owain Cyfeiliog and Owain Fychan von Powys conquered the English Carreghofa Castle on the Shropshire border . Einion ap Maredudd, a nephew of Rhys ap Gruffydd, was probably murdered at the instigation of Roger de Clare. In revenge, Rhys raided Aberystwyth Castle . In 1165 Dafydd attacked Owain, a son of Owain Gwynedd, Tegeingl in northeast Wales. To do this, Owain Gwynedd opposed the Archbishop of Canterbury and put through his own candidate as the new Bishop of Bangor .

After the attack on Tegeingl, the king traveled from Normandy to Flintshire in May 1165 and gathered an army in Shropshire in order to assert supremacy over Gwynedd through another campaign. Owain Gwynedd then called the Welsh princes to a meeting in Edeyrnion, where they formed an alliance against the Anglo-Normans and united their warriors at Corwen . The Anglo-Norman army consisted to a large extent of foot soldiers, who in the densely forested Wales could better be used as heavily armored horsemen against the lightly armed Welsh warriors. The army moved through the Ceiriog valley in August 1165 . Then the Anglo-Norman troops marched over the Berwyn Mountains to reach the valley of Edeyrnion. The up to 600 m high plateau was safer for the Anglo-Normans to cross than the densely wooded valleys, where they could be ambushed by the Welsh. That summer, however, the English troops had to pull through a continuous cold rain. The supply came to a standstill due to the sodden roads, so that the king had to break off the campaign. His army suffered heavy losses from disease, hunger and cold. The enraged king blinded his male hostages , and the female hostages had their noses and ears cut off. Among the blinded Welsh men were Owain Gwynedd's two sons and Rhys ap Gruffydd's two sons, whom he then sent back to their fathers. The king then withdrew from the Welsh border in September. In the spring of 1166 he was in Angers in France and did not return to England until four years later. The campaign of the mighty Angevin king was already closely watched by his contemporaries. The fact that it failed despite careful preparation and great effort not only weakened the position of the Normans in Wales, but also the reputation of the king.

Campaign of 1171

The failed campaign in 1165 led to a fundamental change in the king's policy towards the Welsh princes and the Anglo-Norman Marcher Lords. Rhys ap Gruffydd was able to recapture Ceredigion from Roger de Clare after the failed campaign of the English king. Following the defeat of the king and the conquests of Rhys ap Gruffydd, a number of Anglo- and Cambron-Norman nobles left Wales and began the conquest of Ireland under the leadership of Robert FitzStephen and Richard Strongbow . However, Henry II feared that his vassals in Ireland would establish independent territories from him and decided to assert his rule with a campaign in Ireland. To do this, he led his army through South Wales to embark from Pembroke for Ireland. He met on the way with Rhys ap Gruffydd in the Forest of Dean , where Rhys promised him the position of hostages and a tribute from cattle. Owain Gwynedd died in 1170, after his death his empire fell apart due to the wars of succession between his sons. Rhys ap Gruffydd had thus become the most powerful of the Welsh princes. He met the king again in Pembroke, where the two reached an agreement in which the English king recognized the rule of Rhys over Ceredigion, Cantref Bychan, Emlyn and parts of Carmarthen. In return, Rhys ap Gruffydd promised to keep the South Welsh from attacking Anglo-Norman territories. The agreement culminated in the appointment of Rhys as royal justiciar for South Wales. Rhys received so the supremacy over the Anglo-Norman territories Gwynllŵg , Usk , Caerleon , Glamorgan , Elfael and Maelienydd. On his way back from Ireland, Henry II met Rhys again at Laugharne Castle . Until the king's death in 1189, Rhys was able to keep the peace between Anglo-Norman and Welsh in south Wales, but with the succession of Henry II's son Richard , war flared up again.

The laborious and costly campaigns of the king had not improved the position of the Anglo-Normans in the long term. After the agreement between Henry I and Lord Rhys there were still numerous conflicts between Welsh and Anglo-Normans, but no more significant territorial shifts. It was not until Edward I's wars of conquest, which took place over 100 years later, that the Anglo-Normans were able to conquer Wales.

literature

  • Rees R. Davies: The Age of Conquest. Wales 1063-1415 . Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford 1991, ISBN 0-19-820198-2 .
  • Paul Latimer: Henry II's Campaign Against the Welsh in 1165 . In: Welsh History Review Year 14 (1989), pp. 523-552 (available online) .
  • David Walker: Medieval Wales . Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 1990, ISBN 0-521-32317-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David J. Cathcart King: Henry II. And the fight at Coleshill . In: Welsh History Review, 2 (1965), pp. 367-373.
  2. ↑ Huw Pryce: Rhys ap Gruffydd. In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online) .
  3. ^ Paul Latimer: Henry II's Campaign Against the Welsh in 1165 In: Welsh History Review, 14 (1989), p. 552.
  4. ^ David Walker: Medieval Wales . Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 1990. ISBN 0-521-32317-7 , p. 50.
  5. ^ Rees R. Davies: The Age of Conquest. Wales 1063-1415 . Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford 1991. ISBN 0-19-820198-2 , p. 54.