Thanks to Kathryn Pritchard Gibson for this. In 1282, Edward Longshanks, king of England, (the man portrayed in the movie Braveheart) moved a massive army into Wales. In November, with the royal home on the promontory of Garth Celyn overlooking the Menai Strait surrounded, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the Prince of Wales, and his Ministers wrote a series of letters to John Pecham, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Those letters, dated from Garth Kelyn have been described as the most sublime compositions of the Welsh Nation. Prince Llywelyn rejected a bribe of £1000 a year and a substantial estate in England if he would surrender Welsh Wales into the hands of the King.The leading men of Snowdonia, writing on behalf of the Walenses (the Welsh) a letter which, according to historian Dr John Davies is a foretaste of the noble declaration of the Scots at Arbroath almost half a century later. The Prince should not, it stated, throw aside his inheritance and that of his ancestors in Wales and accept land in England, a country with whose language, way of life, laws and customs he is unfamiliar....Let this be clearly understood: his Council will not permit him so to yield.... and even if the Prince wishes to transfer [his people] into the hands of the king, they will not do homage to any stranger as they are wholly unacquainted with his language, his way of life and his laws. ... On the night of 10th December 1282, the Prince of Wales was murdered, and early the next morning, a substantial part of his army, with their arms laid down under truce, were massacred. In June 1283, Llywelyns brother Prince Dafydd ap Gruffudd and his family were captured at Bera, in the uplands above Aber Garth Celyn. Prince Dafydd seriously wounded in the struggle, was taken to King Edward who was waiting at Rhuddlan castle. In October 1283 he was dragged through the streets of Shrewsbury at the tail of a horse, and hanged, drawn and quartered. With thousands of men, women and children killed, Welsh resistance to the invasion virtually came to an end. In March 1284 King Edward issued a Statute from his base at Rhuddlan castle. The ancient kingdom of Gwynedd, now annexed to England and in effect its first colony, was carved into the new counties of Anglesey, Caernarfonshire and Meirionethshire, to be overseen by a Justiciar of North Wales with a provisional exchequer based at Caernarfon, run by the office of the Chamberlain of North Wales who accounted for the revenues collected direcly to Westminster. The English officials, sheriffs, coroners and bailiffs, appointed by the Crown collected taxes and administered justice. That justice was administered though the medium of English, a language the majority of people could not speak or undertand. On 1st February 1301, in Lincoln, King Edward Longshanks created his son Edward, Prince of Wales. In 1283, the Welsh royal home on Garth Celyn was seized by King Edward Longshanks. The king and his entourage stayed in the palace twice for brief periods in 1283 and 1284. The Palace remained in Crown of England ownership from that time until 1553. In 1303 and again in 1306 extensive repair works were carried out to the royal building complex. A total of 12,640 gallons of lime and 37,920 gallons of sand were used to make mortar and plaster; the walls and windows were repaired; doors were rehung; new wooden chests made for the solar and garderobe; the garden was cleared. A priest was paid to say masses in the Court chapel. The documentary evidence shows that repairs to the buildings continued until the reign of Henry VI but then they gradually fell into disrepair. In 1537, John Leland, Henry VIIIs Antiquary noted the Palace on the hille still in part stondeth. In 1553 Rhys Thomas of Aberglasney, and his wife Jane acquired the property. They transformed the buildings, turning them into an Elizabethan manor. From 1553 to date those buildings, standing in a site that has been reused for at least 4000 years have undergone many transformations. In 1314 on the road to Stirling castle, in the vicinity of the Bannock and Pelstream burns, King Robert Bruce defeated the army of King Edward II, and Scotland remained free.........
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:36:15 +0000
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