Welsh uprising from 1294 to 1295

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The Welsh uprising from 1294 to 1295 was an unsuccessful uprising by the Welsh against the English conquest under King Edward I.

prehistory

Edward I had conquered Wales in 1283 with the conquest of Gwynedd and the execution of the last free prince of Wales , Dafydd ap Gruffydd . In the following years, however, there were uprisings among the population against the English rule, which was perceived as foreign rule. During the rebellion of Rhys ap Maredudd , the Welsh lord of Dryslwyn Castle1287 was mainly driven by his personal motives, followed a few years later by a major revolt, which had greater support from the Welsh population. Incited by the British-style administrative system, unfamiliar to the inhabitants, the English jurisdiction, the forced recruitment of soldiers and high taxes for the king's war in Gascony , the Welsh rose up in several regions of the country. The rebellion was led by descendants of the old Welsh royal houses, especially Madog ap Llywelyn , a descendant of the Princes of Gwynedd , Maelgwn ap Rhys , a descendant of the Princes of Deheubarth and Morgan ap Maredudd , a descendant of the Lords of Caerleon .

Initial successes of the Welsh and English reaction

The uprising began in September 1294 with targeted attacks against English castles across Wales. In North Wales, the castle of Caernarfon , which was under construction, was captured and the constable Roger de Pulesdon was cruelly murdered in revenge for the execution of Dafydd ap Gruffydd. However, the already completed new castles of the king like Flint , Rhuddlan , Conwy and Harlech Castle withstood the attacks, while several castles of the local barons like Denbigh , Ruthin , Mold and Hawarden were captured. In October 1294 the revolt began in the southeast Welsh Glamorgan, where Morgan ap Maredudd led the revolt against the hated Gilbert de Clare, Lord of Glamorgan . The rebels captured several castles, including Morlais . Gilbert de Clare only barely escaped from Glamorgan. King Edward I, who had planned a campaign for the urgently needed relief of Gascony because of the Franco-English War , was surprised by the uprising. However, he sent the troops that were to leave Portsmouth for France to Wales. The Earl of Lincoln , who was also Lord of Denbigh , was attacked on November 11th near Denbigh by his own followers and had to flee. A relief from Castell y Bere failed, so that the castle was conquered by the Welsh, but John Giffard , the English Lord of Builth and Iscennen Builth Castle . However, since the king had already gathered troops for a campaign in Gascony, he could now quickly strike back and summoned his nobles to Worcester for November 21 . In December the King marched in two pillars from Chester with over 21,000 men to North Wales, while the Earl of Warwick gathered nearly 11,000 men at Monmouth in South East Wales. A third army under William de Valence and the Earl of Norfolk gathered at Carmarthen in south Wales and comprised about 4,000 men.

Suppression of the rebellion in North Wales

Before Christmas the king reached Conwy and in mid-January he advanced through Bangor to the Llŷn peninsula before returning to Conwy. However, Madog ap Llywelyn was able to persuade numerous Welsh men who had already surrendered to the king to resume fighting. They attacked the train of the English army and since the Afon Conwy was in high water, no English reinforcements could be brought in. The king himself was briefly locked in with supplies at Conwy Castle. After the arrival of more English troops, however, the insurgents had to lift the siege. In March the English troops defeated the rebels at Conwy, crossed over to Anglesey in April , pacified it, and crossed back to Bangor on May 6th . The king then marched with his army south along the coast towards Aberystwyth and Cardigan .

Collapse and end of the uprising

The English superiority was able to assert itself in the other regions as well. After his escape from Glamorgan, Gilbert de Clare returned with an army, supported by several barons such as John Wake and John Lovel . By May 1295 de Clare was again in possession of Cardiff Castle , but then the further advance stalled. The Earl of Warwick, on the other hand, was able to decisively defeat Madog ap Llywelyn, who wanted to invade Powys , on March 5, 1295 in the Battle of Maes Madog in the Swodonia region. The Earl of Hereford was finally able to beat the insurgents in south Wales and the marcher Lord Reginald Gray combed the woods of Rhuddlan Castle and advanced to the west coast of Wales. The Welsh uprising finally collapsed, given the military superiority of the British. Morgan ap Maredudd also surrendered in Glamorgan in June 1295. But he claimed that he did not rebel against the king and only fought against Gilbert de Clare. Thereupon was pardoned and later served as a military for the English crown. Madog ap Llywelyn was captured and taken to London. However, he was not tried there for high treason, but instead was imprisoned in the Tower; his further fate is unknown. Cynan ap Maredudd , who led the rebellion in central Wales with Maelgwn ap Rhys, was pardoned while two other leaders were cruelly executed in Hereford . Maelgwn ap Rhys fell in one of the final battles of the Carmarthen revolt. After the rebellion was put down, Edward I made a triumphant tour of Wales to demonstrate his victory. The Abbot of Strata Florida promised him that he would bring the leading Welsh people from Cardiganshire to the abbey, where they would ask the king for peace. Unfortunately the Welsh refused to come, so the enraged king caused the abbey to burn down.

literature

  • John Griffiths: The Revolt of Madog ap Llywelyn, 1294-5 . In: Transactions of the Caernarfonshire Historical Society Vol. 16 (1955), pp. 12–24 [1] (pdf; 5.42 MB)
  • Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California Press, Berkeley 1988. ISBN 978-0-520-06266-5

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Michael Altschul: A baronial family in medieval England. The Clares . The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1965, p. 154.
  2. ↑ RF Walker: Madog ap Llywelyn (fl. 1277-1295). 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