The Welsh History Review_ Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru 1980-06_ -- Volume 10, Issue 1, 1980-06 -- University of Wales Press -- c9678e90fd58501c69daa8da55290ef2 -- Annas Archive

Prévia do material em texto

The Welsh History Review Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru VOLUME 10 JUNE 1980 NUMBER 1CONTENTS Page THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360. By Richard Morgan 1 CYNRYCHOLIAETHA CHYNNEN: AGWEDDAUAR HANES SENEDDOL A CHYMDEITHASOL SIR FON YN NGHANOL YR UNFED GANRIF AR BYMTHEG (THE PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY OF ANGLESEY IN THE MID-SIXTEENTH CENTURY). By Philip S. Edwards 42 CAPITAL FORMATION IN THE SOUTH WALES COAL INDUSTRY, 1840-1914. By Rhodri Walters 68 Short Note: CASTLES AND THE ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS OF WALES: A STUDY OF NAMES. By D. J. Cathcart King 92 OBITUARY: KEITH WILLIAMS-JONES (1926-1979) 96 REVIEWS Moody (ed.), Nationality and the Pursuit of National Independence: by Glanmor Williams Sawyer, From Roman Britain to Norman England: by David R. Bates Davies (ed.), An Early Welsh Microcosm: Studies in the Llandaff Charters: by David Walker Barber, Edward, Prince of Wales and Aquitaine: by Michael Jones Brown (ed.), Scottish Society in the Fifteenth Century: by Ranald Nicholson Butlin (ed.), The Development of the Irish Town: by A. C. Reeves Williamson, The Mystery of the Princes: by A. J. Pollard Williams, Religion, Language and Nationality in Wales: by G. R. Elton Beckingsale, Thomas Cromwell, Tudor Minister: by P. R. Roberts Mamatey, Rise of the Habsburg Empire, 1526-1815: by John Stoye Kenyon, Stuart England: by Penry Williams Jones and Tydeman (eds.), A Pedestrian Tour of North Wales: by Prys Morgan Rees, Historic Industrial Scenes in Wales: by David Smith Sack, The Grenvillites, 1801-1829: by Leslie Mitchell Jones, Radicaliaeth a'r Werin Gymreig yn y Bedwaredd Ganrif ar gan E. D. Evans Robbins, John Bright: by John Vincent Harrison, Greenhill School, Tenby, 1896-1964: by Gareth E. Jones Bogdanor, Devolution: by P. J. Madgwick Thompson, The Voice of the Past: Oral History: by J. R. Alban Jones and Ward (eds.), New History, Old Problems: Studies in History Teaching: by William H. John Short NoticesTHE WELSH HISTORY REVIEW CYLCHGRAWN HANES CYMRU Editor KENNETH O. MORGAN The Queen's College, Oxford Assistant Editor RALPH A. GRIFFITHS University College, Swansea Published on behalf of The History and Law Committee of the Board of Celtic Studies Price £1.50 PRIFYSGOL MCMXXU UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS UNIVERSITY REGISTRY . CARDIFFPOWYS 1290 MAP 1 MOCHNANT- UWCH-RHAEADR Territory allotted to: (Llywelyn) H Hawys the elder I leuan MECHAIN DEUDDWR L Llywelyn MAWDDWY [see Map 2] H D Dafydd (Gwilym) Boundary of the 1 YSTRAD H Barony of Powys MARCHELL MI. CAEREINION H (Owain) H H W. L LLANNERCH- D HUDOL (Owain) T. Rhiw-Helygi M. CYFEILIOG (Owain) Montgomery Cydewain P. Geneu'r TI. Glyn ARWYSTLI Ceri (Owain) W. Welshpool LI. MI. Mathrafal T. Tafolwern M. P. Penprys Talgarth LI. LlanidloesTHE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360* THE marcher lordship of Powys was, as Professor R. R. Davies recognises, unique in that it moved from the status of an 'inde- pendent Welsh principality' to that of a barony held directly of the crown of England without need of military conquest of its The history of the barony in its formative years-its foundation (if formal creation can be sought), the failure of the direct male line and the long dispute over the succession to the barony between John Charlton I and Gruffydd de la Pole-is largely untold. The work begun by Bridgeman and M. C. Jones over a hundred years ago, and continued later by Robert Owen, has been left incomplete, though much new material is now in print or listed. At the local level, it has been observed, marcher-indeed Welsh-studies are notoriously patchy but our task is not aided by the almost complete absence of records relating to the internal economy and government of Powys Wenwynwyn during this period. Fortunately, the surviving records of English central administration are full enough for us to sketch the history of the barony. The ancient kingdom of Powys, one of the three traditional divisions of Wales, occupied a far greater expanse of territory than that of the barony, but by the thirteenth century it was much divided. There were two important subdivisions: Powys Wenwynwyn and Powys Fadog, separated by the river Rhaeadr flowing down from Y Berwyn to the Shropshire plain and by a group of intervening lordships stretching from Mechain to Ellesmere. Each subdivision acquired its adjective from its respective lord of the earlier part of that century: Gwenwynwyn (died c. 1218 in exile) and Madog ap Gruffydd (died 1236). Powys Wenwynwyn was also occasionally described as Powys Ruffydd after Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn (c. 1216- 86). The northern subdivision, divided into several lesser lordships by Edward I during the war of 1282-83, gradually lost the appellation Powys during the succeeding couple of decades; at the same time, Powys survives as the title of the southern barony. 3 For list of abbreviations in footnotes, see Appendix 1. R. R. Davies, Lordship and Society in the March of Wales, 1282-1400 (Oxford, 1978), pp. 4-7, 31. I gratefully acknowledge the helpful criticism of early drafts of this paper by Professor Davies and by Major E. H. C. Davies; views expressed here are however entirely my own. Ibid., p. 7. For the work of M. C. Jones and G. T. O. Bridgeman, see MC, I (1868); R. Owen, 'Welsh Pool and Powys-land', ibid., XXIX (1929). E.g., 'in all the land of Powys, to wit in the land of Griffin son of Wenonwen': Calendar of Chancery Rolls, Various, p. 208 (1281); Powys Gwenunwyn: CPR, 1292-1301, p. 250 (1297); Powys Griffyuth: ibid., p. 294 (1297); Powys Griffin: ibid., p. 470 (1299); Powys 12 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 Of the beginning of the barony little can be definitely said, though this seems to be not unusual in the case of Apparently, it grew out of a Welsh barony held of the king of England or later of the prince of Wales by Welsh custom. When Gruffydd ap Gwenwyn- wyn recovered his portion of Powys in 1241 he witnessed the oath of service and fealty of Llywelyn the elder, son of Maredudd ap Cynan, of Meirionydd to Henry III secundum usus et consuetudines Walensium baronum prout alios barones Walenses.5 Welsh barons were said to hold their lands by the law of Hywel Dda, 'the common law between the Prince of Wales and Welsh barons of Wales and the Welsh barons of Wales and their peers and their inferiors'. 6 In reality, no doubt, matters were much less clear, English barony was also im- precise, resting heavily upon precedent, the usual test being to search the various crown records for proof of past payment of baronial relief, usually £100.7 There is in fact no evidence that Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn or his ancestors ever paid such relief; in 1324 it was considered doubtful that he had paid it and the escheator of Shrop- shire and Staffordshire was ordered to enquire into the matter, though his reply is not known.8 We are, therefore, unlikely to be able accurately to define the tenurial and legal status of Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn. Neither Gruffydd nor Gwenwynwyn was able to emulate his neighbours in Gwynedd. Neither lord of Powys was able to escape the lordship of prince or king, which is why we should hesitate to describe Powys Wenwynwyn as an 'independent Welsh principality' (after Professor Davies); after 1208, when Llywelyn ab Iorwerth invaded Powys Wenwynwyn, the latter could not be considered either as a principal- ity like Gwynedd-Wales nor as independent. Gwenwynwyn himself was tried in his absence as a traitor by Llywelyn. Gruffydd was even weaker: experiencing twenty-five years in exile in England before his Gonewenion: CCR, 1341-1417, p. 5 (1343). La Pole is completely replaced by Powys after 1320 but the latter term could still be applied to the province in 1293 (CWR, pp. 355, 360), and of course it remained a term current amongst Welsh speakers in modern times. Tradition, at latest from the sixteenth century, asserts that the old caput of Powys was Mathrafal; Humfrey Llwyd in The Breuiary of Britayne lately Englished by Thomas Twyne, Gentleman (1573), pp. 69-72, says Mathrafal replaced Shrewsbury (tradition places Pengwern here): 'The cheif towne, and kynges seate of Powys, called Matrafal: retayneth the auncient name, how- beit the buildynges be defaced, and worne'. See Nichols, Collectanea et Gene- alogica, VII (1843), 183; R. Williams, MC, IV (1871), 192-94; and J. C. Davies, and Manors MC, XLIX, pt. 1 (1945), pp. 99-101. I. J. Sanders, English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent, 1086-1327 (Oxford 1960), pp. v-viii. LW, p. 14. CWR, pp. 192-93, 200, 208. See n. 4. P.R.O., E 368/96/m. 13d; WMR, no. 487. Payment of relief was not a certain test, however, of marcher barony; Thomas Corbet (died 1274), lord of Caus, claimed that he and his five ancestors since the Norman Conquest had never paid it: R. R. Davies, op. cit., p. 250.THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 3 restoration in 1241, then two further periods in flight from Llywelyn ap Gruffydd and a decade, 1263-74, in submission to him. From 1274 Gruffydd remained immovably in the English There is a natural temptation to present the period as a progression: the once 'independent' kings and princes of Powys, unable to resist the rising power of Gwynedd, transformed into model baronial tenants-in-chief, Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn magically converted into Griffin de la Pole. The progression is too neat, of course, nor is it as inevitable as we may believe. The Frenchified de la Pole occasionally suffixed to Gruffydd's name and frequently attached to those of his sons is unreliable evidence of their sympathies; Owain de la Pole, for example, occasionally appears as Owain ap Gruffydd, even in English records, while his younger brother, Gruffydd de la Pole, appears on his own seal as Griffinus filius Griffini de Powys, a legend written round the lion rampant of Powys. 10 At the same time we must not overdraw their Welshness in the political sense (if Gwynedd can be seen as the champion of the Welsh political struggle against England); Powys had been 'marcher' since the seventh century. Geography too dictated that the lords of Powys would not copy the princes of Gwynedd within their mountain fortress of Eryri. As Humfrey Llwyd sum- marised it, 'bycause ye lande was plain, and neare to England, and much vexed with continuall Warre by Englishmen, and afterwards by the Normans: this parte of Wales did first experience the yoke of English 11 While it is true that their policy of intermarrying with Anglo-Norman marcher families and of establishing boroughs on the English pattern was a policy followed also by the lords of Gwynedd, the result was more emphatic in Powys. In short, their status was medial and shifting, differing little save in origin from that of long-established marcher lordships such as Clun or Caus. Even prominent officials in Powys could be English: witness Robert de Say, bailiff of Welshpool, in 1271. What we have been describing as the lordship of Powys Wenwynwyn or barony of Powys was more usually described as 'of the Pool' (de la Pole) during the thirteenth century. The name Pole referred to Gruffydd's chief castle-borough, Welshpool, founded See n. 2 above. 10 CACCW, p. 103; Eyton, VI, 56. 11 H. Llwyd, op. cit., pp. 69-70: 'which brooding stoute men, and such, whose nature could not abide to be at rest, but given to Murther, and excursions: not only procured infinite trouble unto the kynges of England: but wrought also greate unto theyr neighbours the Welshmen. But afterward, beynge parted between twoo brothers, as was the custome of ye Britaynes: it began to wax weake. And ye part, which lieth on ye North side of Tanat, Murnia, and Severn: befel unto Madoc, whereof it was called Powys Fadoc. The other parte came bothe in name, and possession of Gwenwynwyn.' 12 LW, p. 132. See Table 1 below; R. Morgan, Foundation of the Borough of Welsh- pool', MC, LXV (1977).4 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 about 1241-45. 13 For Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn to have described himself either as lord or baron of Powys before the defeat of the lords of Powys Fadog during the war of 1282-83 would have insulted their equivalent right to such a title. Before about 1274 Gruffydd is gener- ally known as dominus-which probably translates as arglwydd or lord-of Cyfeiliog, his westernmost cantref; his wife, Hawys the elder, appears on her own seal as domina or lady of Cyfeiliog (domine de Keveolog). Both gradually give way to de la Pole, a sign of the increasing importance of Welshpool, a borough with 106 burgesses in We have mentioned that Gruffydd probably recovered Powys Wenwynwyn in 1241 as a Welsh baron but by 1260 he is included in a list of barones de Welsh barony seems to have gained the meaning of a barony held of the prince of Wales by Welsh custom; however imprecise it may have once been, it seems to have been deliberately transformed into a device for justifying Gwynedd's hegemony over the lesser Welsh lords. 16 It may well be that Gruffydd, after his break with Llywelyn in 1274, equally deliberately revived his claim to be a marcher baron to resist the prince's pretensions. In 1279 Gruffydd claimed to be Baro domini regis de Marchia and to hold the cantref of Arwystli by barony. Similarly, his son Owain resisted a claim by Roger Mortimer to part of that cantref in 1280 by alleging to hold it as a marcher baron. Whether they were recognised as such is perhaps another matter but the claims were made before royal justices, both defendants won their causes and their defences may even have been drawn up by royal 17 Marcher status virtually amounted to possession of jura regalia, the march an area where the king's writ did not normally run. Lords of Powys came to this position quite easily; to Gruffydd and Owain de la Pole 'dependence' on the king in this capacity must have seemed much more preferable than a humiliating dependence on an interfering prince. There were disadvantages, of course; in 1286, for example, Owain protested to Edward I that he and his free men were not accustomed to pay tallage to the crown 'during the times that the lands of Powys were in the hands of his ancestors of England'. The king spared him the burden of the ninth unless the escheator, Henry 13 Ibid., p. 7. 14 For a discussion of Welsh titles, see D. Jenkins, 'Kings, Lords and Princes BBCS, XXVI (1974-76), 453. Lords of Powys occur as tywysogion in 1198, 1211 and 1241 (BYT, RBH) but Gruffydd is arglwydd Powys in 1216 (ibid.) and dominus of Cyfeiliog 1241/5 and 1271: M. C. Jones, loc. cit., p. 303; LW, p. 132. Welshpool's burgesses are listed in P.R.O., E 179/242/54/ms. 17-8. In 1309 it had 173: see n. 119 below. 15 R, 1259-61, pp. 23-24. CWR, p. 208; WAR, pp. 130-46. 17 Ibid., pp. 137-38, 265-66.THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 5 Bray, could show otherwise 'by reason of the rolls of exchequer or by inquisition made or other The medial status of the barony is neatly displayed too by Gruffydd's apportionment of his lands between his wife, Hawys the elder, and his six sons about 1277 or soon after. The arrangement embodied both the principles of primogeniture and gavelkind, a compromise between English and Welsh hereditary practice. The five younger sons were to hold their lands of the eldest, Owain, but by essentially Welsh services, viz. to aid him in castle-building and repair, to accompany him to war and in assembly, and to pay tallage to the king when Owain was so required. Owain too was empowered to hear and determine in his court any causes of litigation or discord which might arise between his brothers. Equally important, the lands of the younger brothers were to revert, should they die without heirs, to Owain. 19 The younger brothers seem to have resented their lesser role or to have quarrelled over the newly-acquired cantref of Mechain, a block of territory stretching south and west from the river Tanad to the northern Efyrnwy.20 It bordered the barony on three sides. Most of Mechain fell into Gruffydd's hands during the war of 1277-78 and he subsequently established his right there, granting Uwchcoed (except for the mill of Greenhall-Garogenou-on the Cain, and detached portions of Dinas) to his son, Gruffydd de la Pole. After the death of his mother, Hawys the elder, Gruffydd de la Pole was to be given also the land of Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn himself died in the spring or summer of and the quarrels between his sons occurred soon after; a second reapportionment took place in 1291. Summarized, the result was as follows, excepting the lands of Hawys the elder:23 1. Owain: Mathrafal (Caereinion), Swydd Llannerch-hudol, Welsh- pool, Tafolwern and Machynlleth (Cyfeiliog), Penprys, Talgarth and Llangurig (Arwystli). 2. Gwilym: Mawddwy, except for Llandubo held by fee, freely and 18 P.R.O., E 368/60, m. 2; WMR, no. 24. 19 CWR, pp. 171-73, 179; GTB, pp. 124-28. See Appendix. 21 CCR, 1279-88, p. 413; GTB, pp. 124-28; C. Davies, loc. cit., pp. 95-96. 22 Between 27 February (CCR, 1279-88, p. 413) and Trinity 1286: P.R.O., E. 368/59 m. 11; WMR, no. 22: when Onus de la Pole, Fulk Fitzwarin and Robert le Dus stood surety for the debts of the late Griffinus filius Wenon Wine. 23 There is mention of injuries done by Owain and Llywelyn (Lewis) to Hawys in the county of Meirionydd (CPR, 1281-92, pp. 298 (1288), 329 (1289)), though there is no record that she held lands there. The officers of that shire, however, occasionally exercised jurisdiction over parts of Powys, notably Mawddwy where Hawys held Llandubo: GTB, pp. 134-36; CWR, pp. 328-29; and J. C. Davies, loc. cit., pp. 96-97.6 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 hereditarily, for homage and service, with the addition of Llandubo on Hawys's death. 3. Ieuan: five vills: Bryngwaeddan, Llystyn-wynan, Llangadfan, Blowty and Coed-talog (all in Caereinion) and a moiety of Mechain-Iscoed on Hawys's death since Ieuan was a cleric. 4. Dafydd: the vills of Peniarth and Rhiwhiriarth (Caereinion) and a moiety of Mechain-Iscoed on Hawys's death; to be held for life since he was a cleric. 5. Llywelyn: Mochnant-uwch-Rhaeadr, Mechain-uwchcoed (with Greenhall) and four vills: Nant-y-meichiaid, Llanerfyl, Llysun and Cyniwyll (last three in Caereinion) with the pasture and chase of Cefn Drum; to be held 6. Gruffydd: Mechain-Iscoed during the life of Hawys the elder and Deuddwr on her death, hereditarily. The details may seem unimportant but this arrangement has been interpreted as a result of Owain to consolidate a group of territories or lordships in his direct possession, centred on the castle of [Welsh] Far from it: Gwilym, Dafydd, Ieuan and Gruffydd, as well as Hawys, thus gained much more compact territories than Owain, though none had as much in terms of area or wealth. Owain was strongest in Cyfeiliog and Arwystli though he also possessed the important swydd of Llannerch-hudol adjoining Welsh- pool. Three of his brothers had also loosened their ties with Owain, largely undoing their father's arrangements. Ultimately, their lands were bound to revert, on failure of heirs, to Owain's line but in the meantime Gwilym, Llywelyn and Gruffydd held their lands as freely as Owain. Mawddwy, except for Llandubo, never in fact reverted to the leading line and became increasingly associated with the princi- pality (and in 1536 a part of the county of Merioneth). The younger Gruffydd managed in addition to obtain a portion of Mechain-later known as the manor of Dinas or Plas Dinas-some time about 1295-98. This was the sole part of Mechain that had not fallen to the house of Powys but which had been granted to Roger Springhose (died 1304) in 1283. Dinas partly touched upon Mechain-Iscoed and The eldest son of Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, Owain, played an important part in the affairs of Powys as early as 1274, when he was Llywelyn served as custodian of Dolforwyn castle and Cydewain, 1279 (CFR, 1272-1307, pp. 80-81) and later as a messenger with his uncle Roger l'Estrange to the papal court: CPR, 1281-92, p. 447. If he was named after Llywelyn ap Gruffydd of Gwynedd (Llywelyn was not a common Powysian name) he may have been born about 1264 after Gruffydd's alliance with the prince. J. C. Davies, loc. cit., p. 98. See Appendix below.THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 7 implicated in the plot against Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. 27 He must have been about thirty-two years old at that time. With Gruffydd's decline he played an increasingly important role. On 15 June 1282, for example, he was empowered to receive the surrenders of the Welsh of Cynllaith in Powys Fadog 'unless Reginald de Grey shall have previously received them'. 28 During the Rhys ap Maredudd rising he was ordered on several occasions to clear woods in his lands between Montgomery and Aberystwyth and in the direction of Cyfeiliog in preparation for the advance of royal armies. 29 He seems never to have wavered in his loyalty to the crown and, as we have already seen, he settled easily into the marcher role. About 1287 or 1288 he even voiced what seems to have been the archetypal marcher complaint about the interference of sheriffs. The sheriff of Shropshire, Roger Springhose, and Ralph, abbot of Lilleshall, in attempting to recover a debt of the late Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, had by purchase of the seal of Caernarfon caused the sheriff of Merioneth to exercise office in Powys neither Owain nor any of his ancestors were ever responsible to any sheriff'. Owain complained that they had never made appearance before anyone except the king and his council or justices assigned by royal writ. 30 Owain, however, died in 1293 plunging the barony into a long minority; his widow, Joan, was given the usual widow's third in dower, in Tafolwern (Cyfeiliog) and Mathrafal (Caereinion) in Their young heir, Gruffydd-henceforth distinguished in this article as Gruffydd ab Owain-was only two years old on 22 March 1293 and was placed in Joan's care, for which she was to take twenty marks from her late husband's lands for his support. 32 The bulk of Owain's lands was put in the custody of Roger l'Estrange, who was installed in Welshpool castle on 28 September 1294; on 22 June following Edward I personally granted custody to Roger's sister, Hawys the elder. 33 Powys must have given Edward many anxious moments during the 1290s. One other son of Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, Llywelyn, died HW, II, 748-49. CWR, p. 226. Ibid., pp. 188, 255, 266, 274, 306, 313, 316, 318-19; The Parliamentary Writs and Writs of Military Summons, ed. F. Palgrave (London, 1827), I, 251-55. 30 CACCW, p. 103. CIPM, III, 62-63, printed in GTB, pp. 142-48; CFR, 1272-1307, pp. 328, 335. Owain left unpaid relief, still unpaid in 1303 and 1324: WMR, nos. 41, 208 and 487. Between 1300 and 1305 Joan paid Edward of Caernarfon £120 for her remarriage (to Trumwyn ?): Ninth Report of the Deputy Keeper, p. 249. CCR, 1288-96, p. 336; CFR, 1272-1307, p. 351. CPR, 1292-1301, p. 88; CFR, 1272-1307, p. 354, printed in GBT, p. 149. The lands did not include Machynlleth (Makenthlech), granted to Eleanor Ferrars, countess of Derby (d. 1313-14), during the heir's nonage: CPR, 1292-1301, p. 60 (1294). On 10 November 1318 Joan was made quit of rent for the township of Machynlleth (Makenthech): WMR, no. 381.8 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 in 1294 and on 6 October of that year his widow Sibyl complained to the king that his escheator south of Trent had dispossessed her of the manor of Greenhall (Gorgenneu) and the land of Mechain-uwchcoed which, she claimed, her late husband had given her in dower. Her complaint was upheld by and in 1295 the king gave her the other two-thirds of Llywelyn's lands with custody of their child until his full age; the latter seems to have died within a short period since he occurs no further. The escheator was also ordered to assign reasonable dower to Sibyl, viz. a chamber in the hall of Greenhall (Gorgenneu), a kitchen, a bakehouse, etc., making up a third. 35 The delay between the inquisition and the grant of custody of the barony and of the lands of Llywelyn was perhaps lengthier than usual because of the violent rebellions that broke out in Wales in the autumn of 1294. These rebellions, probably occasioned by Edward's recruitment of troops for campaign in Gascony and by heavy taxation on movables in 1292-93, set the whole of north Wales in uproar. Early in 1295 Madog ap Llywelyn, one of the ringleaders, descended from Meirionydd into Cydewain, presumably looking for support amongst Mortimer's tenants there and in Powys proper. The local royal commander, the earl of Warwick, with about 14,000 men was originally based at Montgomery, a suitable location to meet the assault, but in March 1295 he was actually at Oswestry with some at least of his troops. He returned quickly to Montgomery and from there marched at night to rout the rebels at Maes Moedog, about three miles west of Welshpool, on the eastern edge of Disturbances seem, however, to have lingered on into July 1295 since the sixteenth-century antiquarian, David Powel of Rhiwabon, recorded depredations by Madog in the Cnwcyn (Knockin) district (a little east of Mechain) and his final defeat 'upon the hils of Cefn Digolh [Long Mountain] not farre from Caurs Castell' 37 How reli- CIPM, III, 138, printed in GTB, p. 150. Ibid., pp. 138-39; CFR, 1272-1307, p. 358, printed in GTB, p. 150; CPR, 1292-1301, p. 140; CCR, 1288-96, p. 424, printed in GTB, pp. 150-51. Greenhall appears when Gardgenou, etc. disappears from the records, but the identification cannot yet be regarded as conclusive. F. Nicholai Triveti: De Ordine Frat. Praedicatorum, Annales (London, 1845), pp. 335-36; Annales Monastici, IV, 519; and the extract from the Hagnaby annals in M. Prestwich, 'A New Account of the Welsh Campaign of 1294-5', ante, VI (1972-73), 934; R. F. Walker, 'The Hagnaby Chronicle and the Battle of Maes Moydog', ibid., VIII (1976-77), 125-38. Older secondary sources are J. E. Morris, The Welsh Wars of Edward I (Oxford, 1901), pp. 240-70; J. G. Edwards, 'The Battle of "Maesmeidoc", 1295 (note)', EHR, XLVI (1931), 262-65. D. Powel, Historie of Cambria (1584), p. 381; R. F. Walker, loc. cit., pp. 137-38; NLW, Schedule of Aston Hall Deeds and Documents, I, no. 2776 (ii), 4 December 1295, records the restoration of the goods of numerous Welshmen of Llwyntidmon, Llynclys, Blodwel, Bryn and Treprenal relinquished the time of the late war between Edward, king of England, and Madoc ap Llewelin The tradition associating Madog with Long Mountain (Cefn Digoll) may have been inspired by the place-name Llety Fadog in the township of Hope which occurs as Lletty Vadog in 1618: from Deeds relating to Property in Leighton', MC, XXVI (1893), 299-300; and as lletty vaddocke in a map of 'The Mannor of Leighton With other Lands & Tenemts in Welch Poole Hope & Forden 1663: NLW, PB 3065.THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 9 able this information is is very hard to say but we have already noted the king's passage through Welshpool in June 1295 and he returned to the vicinity, to Oswestry, on 17 July. 38 Details are scarce of events in the barony: Warwick was busy in the Carno area in Arwystli in April 1295 but had returned to Montgomery by the end of the month. 39 The pay-roll of John Sandale records forty infantrymen serving under Gwilym de la Pole in the army of Montgomery in the second week of November 1294. In January 1295 there were 400 from the barony of Powys and 100 from Cydewain in the army, and in May Gwilym still had 400 in his charge. 40 The rebellions appear to have made little impression upon the dynasty of Powys. As soon as they had died down certain of Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn's sons turned on Joan, Owain's widow; on 18 August 1295 she complained that Ieuan, Dafydd and Gwilym, to- gether with Madog ap Meilyr and Owain le Say, had taken her dower in certain vills in Mawddwy, Caereinion and elsewhere, that intruders from the commote of Geneu'r-glyn (Ceredigion) had seized her pastures between the rivers Einion and Llyfnant belonging to her town of Machynlleth, and that her beasts had been stolen in Caereinion and Cyfeiliog. The matter was serious enough for Edward I to direct his chief commanders in Wales, John Havering, Bogo de Knovill and William Mortimer, to hear and determine her complaints before jurors drawn from Ceri and Cydewain, Clun and Bishop's Castle. Joan seems to have remarried about this time to Roger Trumwyn of Cannock so that when the next record of disturbances in Powys occurs on 22 November 1298 it mentions trespasses against them both, this time by Hawys the elder and her sons Gruffydd, Gwilym and Ieuan. The Trumwyns amplified their complaints on 10 August 1299: Gwilym, Ieuan, Gruffydd and Hawys had entered their manor of Mathrafal, broken their houses, stolen goods, and imprisoned their servant Robert de la More. 43 Hawys had in the R. F. Walker notes Edward's appearance at Oswestry: Book of Prests of the King's Wardrobe for 1294-5, ed. E. B. Fryde (Oxford, 1962), Appendix C, p. 224. Ibid., p. xli; CWR, pp. 355, 360. 40 Book of Prests pp. xxxi, xxxvi-ii, xli. CPR, 1292-1301, p. 163; viz. her dower in Maerdy-cerist (Mawddwy), Bryn-gwaeddan, Llystyn-wynan, Llangadfan, Blowty, Coed-talog, Penarth and Rhiwhiriarth (Caereinion), and Ystrad-elfedan and Trehelig (Swydd Llannerch-hudol). Some of these vills belonged to Ieuan and Dafydd in 1291: see above and CAP, pp. 160-61. Madog ap Meilyr appears as a juror in 1293 (n. 31 above) and in 1309 (n. 56 below) as a freeman of Llannerch-hudol. A man of this name held lands in the commotes of Ystum-anner and Tal-y-bont in the county of Meirionydd (The Merioneth Lay Subsidy Roll 1292-3, ed. K. Williams-Jones (Cardiff, 1976), pp. 24-26, 28, 39, 41) and as a principal taxor paid £20 tax on movables in Powys in Natfforch, Bryn-gwaeddan, Mawddwy and Llangurig that year. Owain le Say, a burgess of Welshpool, paid 4s. P.R.O., E. 179/242/54 ms. 2, 4, 5, 13 and 18. The Powys roll is incomplete. CPR, 1292-1301, p. 468, Gwilym was commissioner of array for troops from Powys in 1297-98: CCR, 1296-1302, pp. 79, 108, 112, 202, 209. CPR, 1292-1301, pp. 470, 473. Joan had to pay 300 marks maritagium: Ministers Accounts', FHS (1912-13), pp. 13-14, 31-32, 59-60.10 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 meantime countercharged the Trumwyns with having, under colour of the custody of the lands late of Llywelyn de la Pole, subtracted certain services, customs and day-works due to the custodian of Welshpool castle, i.e. Hawys, and had prevented their tenants from rendering their obligations. 44 Nothing further is known of these quarrels but they are important precursors of the more serious disturbances between Gruffydd de la Pole and John Charlton I. It might be supposed that as the barony was in the custody of a woman, Hawys the elder, these troubles stemmed from the premature deaths of Owain and Llywelyn de la Pole, but Hawys was a resourceful woman and well capable of trying to eject Joan herself. Later antiquarians and historians have confused Hawys with her grand-daughter, Hawys the younger, daughter of Owain. If either of the Hawyses should have borne the adjective Gadarn, 'the hardy', bestowed on one of them by the antiquarians (it was not apparently a contemporary name), then it was surely Hawys the elder; her grand-daughter is shadowy by comparison. 45 Hawys the elder married Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn before 24 February 124246 that she must have been about seventy or more years old by 1300 and was presumably the mother of all six of the known sons of Gruffydd, outliving all but one of them. To Owain and Llywelyn we can add Gwilym, who seems to have died shortly before 3 March 1305, Dafydd and Ieuan, rector of Welshpool, who were both dead by about 1305-6. In Trinity (June-July) 1306 the lands of Ieuan and Dafydd were placed in the custody of their mother, who held them for a year until Hugh Audley, justice of north Wales, recovered them for the king pending an inquisition that was held on 23 April 1308. These were returned to her soon afterwards. 47 CPR, 1292-1301, p. 464. In her own right Hawys held dower in Powys and also Stretton in Shropshire: U. Rees, The Cartulary of Shrewsbury Abbey (Aberystwyth, 1975), II, 247. That she had continuous custody of Powys is shown by (1) CCR, 1296-1302, p. 286 (1299), when she was entrusted with 46 hostages taken in 1294-95; (2) P.R.O., E. 368/94 m. 157; WMR, no. 461; and (3) Ministers Accounts', cited in n. 43 above. Most historians follow David Powel, op. cit., p. 157, himself translating and expanding on Humfrey Llwyd, who says 'Owen ap Griffyuth had issue one onelie daughter his heire, named Hawys Gadarn, that is, Hawys the hardie, against whom her vncles, Lhewelyn, Iohn, Gruffyuth Vachan, and Dauid arose affirming that a woman was not capable of lands in that countrie'. Powel's statement seems to derive ultimately from a source of which five manuscripts survive; these describe Hawys Gadarn as wife of John Charlton and how Llywelyn, Ieuan and Dafydd made war on her and were imprisoned in Harlech castle for doing so: see P. C. Bartrum, Powys', NLWJ, XVIII (1973-74), 13-14. These accounts seem to conflate the troubles of 1288-90 and 1295-98 with those of 1312-22, combining the two Hawyses in one. For Hawys the elder's seal, see ACamb (1853), p. 72: Hawys holds the shields of Powys and l'Estrange. CChR, 1226-57, p. 266. Dafydd does not appear in Joan's charges of 22 November 1298; Ieuan is the 'John de la Pole' described as the late occupant of the canonical house of Hampton, presented on 24 February 1304; neither, however, seems to have died long before 1305-6: CIM, II, 4. For Gwilym, see CCR, 1302-7, p. 318; he left an heir, also called Gruffydd, to his lands in Mawddwy, Shropshire and Staffordshire, in the wardship of his widow Gwladys. GwilymTHE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 11 Nevertheless, Hawys the elder, lady of Cyfeiliog, appears to have been feeling the strain; between 1302 and 1306 she paid the farm of £120 for the lands of Owain at the exchequer at Chester rather than at Westminster at her own request 'for her 48 With the death of all but one of her sons, Gruffydd de la Pole, and with her own advancing age, the burden of responsibility gradually shifted from Hawys to Gruffydd. As we have seen, he acquired tenancy-in- chief about 1295-98 by his purchase of Dinas in Mechain from Roger Springhose. The latter experienced financial difficulties and was clearly a close acquaintance of Gruffydd since in 1300 he granted him the reversion of the manor of Longnor, a few miles south of Shrewsbury. Longnor was apparently held of Edmund Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, and included the district around Condover, Lidley and Leie (pro- bably Leebotwood). When Springhose died 1304 (certainly before 1310) Gruffydd acquired the manor and six of his deeds of title survive for 1310-21, four bearing his seals. Gruffydd sold Longnor, however, on 11 March 1312, just before his quarrel with Charlton exploded in violence. For a few years, though, the manor was not only a useful supplement to his income but an additional power- base. 50 In Powys Gruffydd de la Pole seems to have been vested with some official position as early as 1294, as bailiff of Powys. 51 In 1308 he succeeded his mother as custodian of the barony, 52 and although, in theory, it subtracted nothing from the rightful heir of Owain de la Pole it was a useful position to hold should Gruffydd ab Owain die a minor without an heir. Before very long, however, Gruffydd ab Owain was petitioning the king for seisin of the barony.53 On or shortly before 26 June 1308, Edward II granted him seisin of his seems to have shouldered many of the military burdens of Powys and may have held some official position there as penteulu, which was apparently often assigned to the second son in line of inheritance. Ministers Account', cited in n. 43 above. Court of Common Pleas, feet of fines: P.R.O., CP 25(1)/194/7/34; VCH, Salop, VIII (1968), 169. Eyton, III, 61-63. CPR, 1292-1301, p. 88. CFR, 1307-19, p. 15 (16 February 1308): the keeping of the castle of Welshpool and all of Owain's lands. Payment of baronial relief was to be made under the first order at the exchequer at Chester but CFR, p. 25, transferred the payment to Westminster. P.R.O., E 368/94 m. 157; WMR, no. 461, records that Gruffydd de la Pole was to render the extent of the castle of la Pole et aliarum terrarum que fuerunt Audoeni de la Pole nuper in manu Regis nunc ratione minoris heredis dicti Audoeni existencium. CACCW, p. 104. J. G. Edwards dates it 1307-8', but it cannot date long before 26 June 1308. The undated petition of Gruffydd son of William de la Pole (CAP, pp. 472-73) must actually be of Gruffydd son of Owain de la Pole since the former had no right in the barony; because the petitioner mentions that Gruffydd de la Pole, his uncle, then held Powys the petition must in any case date to 1308. Nothing that we know of Gruffydd ap Gwilym suggests that he would lay claim to the barony; see below.12 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 father's lands54 adding those late of Ieuan and Dafydd. 55 Unfortun- ately, the young heir-still only seventeen-did not enjoy his elevation for very long for he died in June 1309 and his lands were taken into the king's hands by Roger Mortimer of Chirk, justice of Wales. 56 Mortimer also seized the dower lands of Joan Trumwyn and had to return them in July.57 Gruffydd ab Owain's premature death threw secure succession to the winds. The dangers must now have been apparent to everyone concerned. Gruffydd left a sister, Hawys the younger, not a twin but very close in age to him, and on 10 August 1309 Edward II ordered that after the inquisition post mortem Hawys should be granted custody 'as hastily as possible according to the law and usage of the realm'. 58 The choice of the latter phrase may have been deliberate. By 26 August Hawys had been married to John Charlton of Charlton in Shropshire and seisin of the barony passed to them, allowing for dower for the widow Ela. 59 These latter pro- perties are specified in a grant of 3 March 1310 when Ela had married James de Perrers. 60 Before the year had ended, in November Hawys the elder also died, releasing her lands, most of which were concen- trated round Welshpool, to her grand-daughter and namesake. 61 These were formally granted to the latter and Charlton on 18 August 1311. 62 Charlton had already, on 8 August, done homage to Edward II at Nottingham for the barony. 63 Charlton's origins are very obscure. Charltons occur on occasion during the thirteenth century holding land in the vill of Charlton near Wellington and in the neighbourhood, but none of them seems to CFR, 1307-19, p. 25, describes him clearly as Gruffydd son of Owain and mentions that Edward I had granted Hawys the elder the right to regrant it to her son, Gruffydd de la Pole, who now gave it up to Gruffydd ab Owain. The lands included those of Llywelyn, excluding Ela's dower. Ibid., p. 28, printed in GTB, p. 151; P.R.O., E. 368/94 m. 157; WMR, no. 461 (1323-24), orders Gruffydd ab Owain to render to the king the value of the custody of the lands and tenements late of Ieuan and Dafydd from 14 July 1308 up to his lawful age. Gruffydd, of course, was dead long before 1323. CFR, 1307-19, p. CIPM, V, 70, 114-15 (both items printed in GTB, pp. 152-66). CCR, 1307-13, p. 165. 1244-1346, p. 295; BO, pp. 216-17. CFR, 1307-19, p. 48; CPR, 1307-13, p. 179 (licence to marry off Ela was granted to Otto Ferre on 6 August 1309). CFR, 1307-19, pp. 53-54, implies that Ela had remarried before 12 December 1309; CCR, 1307-13, pp. 199-200, 217 (Perrers was ordered to pay 100 marks for marrying her without royal licence; he was pardoned in 1314 as he had been captured by the Scots: ibid., 1313-19, p. 114). CFR, 1307-19, p. 75; CIPM, III, 145-46, printed in GTB, pp. 166-8. In Powys she held Argyngrog, Cegidfa, Burgedin, Trefedrid, Broniarth, Llanerfyl, Cyniwyll, Llysun (all in Caereinion and Swydd Ystrad-marchell), Nant-y-meichiaid (Mechain), and Buttington, Trewern and Hope held of the lord of Caus, and Stretton. The latter she acquired on 11 January 1278 (CWR, p. 162) and it passed on her death to Edmund Fitzalan, earl of Arundel: CPR, 1307-13, pp. 190, 196. CCR, 1307-13, p. 372. Ibid., p. 434; CChW, 1244-1326, p. 378.THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 13 have risen to any great office. 64 Eyton supposed John Charlton's father to have been one Robert Charlton, 65 whom Tout estimated to have died about 1300. It was perhaps about then that John succeeded to his father's modest estates which he held in 1309. 66 His holding at Charlton amounted to a mere carucate of poor land and a messuage, worth nothing beyond expenses, held of the abbot of Of John Charlton we know next to nothing before 1307; even his birthdate is uncertain. 68 But his family was blessed with either great fortune or great talent: his brothers, Alan Charlton (died 1360) of Apley, near Wellington, and Thomas Charlton (died 1344), bishop of Hereford in 1327-44, rose to important offices that confounded their mean origins. 69 John Charlton served in the Scottish campaign of 1301 as constable of fifty-nine archers from the county of Stafford, 70 and he entered Edward of Caernarfon's household shortly before he became king. 71 His service brought him due reward: a grant of free warren in Charlton and Pontesbury in 1307 in which grant he is described as dilectus valettus a grant of the manor of Pontesbury in March 1309 and numerous gifts while lord of Powys. 73 As a valet he would have been responsible to Edward both as a body servant and as an admini- strator in his household. 74 His importance grew steadily; soon after the grant in 1307 he is described as a knight-perhaps a knight of the e.g., a reference to Master John de Cherleton, parson of Ness l'Estrange: CPR, 1281-92, p. 31 (1282); U. Rees, op. cit., I, 110-11; II, 252. Eyton, IX, 32-33. T. F. T(out), 'Charlton or Cherleton, John de', DNB, s.n. Eyton, IX, 32-33; II, 324; VII, 134. H. Owen and J. Blakeway, A History of Shrewsbury (London, 1825), II, pp. 18-19, distinguished between a John de Cherleton who held the vill of Charlton in 1295 and the John de Cherleton who became baron of Powis now only an infant of seven years', but they give no source for the information. A Master John de Cherleton held the vill of Charlton in 1284-85 of the churches of SS. Mary and Julian, Shrewsbury, for 16s. yearly: Feudal Aids, 1284-1431, p. 222. This could be our Charlton since he appears to be a young man not of legal age. Certain MSS. in P. C. Bartrum, loc. cit., state that 'John or Jarltwn, gwreang i Edwart Kaerynarvon, brenin Lloegr, yr hwnn a ennessid yn Apley garllaw Welynton yn swydd Ymwithic, ar duw Gwenner y Kroglith, oed yr Arglwydd yna mil cclxviij' (misprinted cclxciij). This would make him 41 when he married Hawys the younger and 85 when he died, which seems much too old. No doubt Charlton was a young man when he served in Scotland in 1301 (see n. 70 below) but surely not Owen and Blakeway's 13-year old. A date about 1278-80 seems the likeliest. Thomas was also keeper of the privy seal and controller of the wardrobe in 1316-20, and custos and acting governor of Ireland in 1338-40. Even the editor of his register knew little of his early life: Registrum Thome de Charlton, Episcopi Herefordensis, 1327-1344, ed. W. W. Capes (Canterbury and York Society, London, 1913), pp. i-vii. J. Bain, 'Original Documents', Archaeological Journal, XXXIV (1877), 447. 'Willelmo Griffyn', constable of 88 archers, must be Gwilym de la Pole, who held the manor of Great Saredon in that county. 71 BL, Additional MS. 22,923; BO, pp. 53-54; Place, p. 73. CChR, 1300-26, p. 107; CIM, 187; Eyton, IX, 32-33; BO, pp. 215-16. CChR, 1300-26, p. 127; CCR, 1307-13, p. 488; CIM, III, 187; Eyton, VII, 134; 1244-1326, p. 330 (1310): mandate to Sir Hugh Despenser, justice of the forest south of Trent, 'to enquire whether the wood of ynton [Huntington?] in the forest of Mont Gilbert [the Wrekin] whether the King can grant it to Sir John Cherleton'. Grant of Isombridge, 1312: CPR, 1307-13, p. 497. BO, pp. 70-71.14 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 chamber-and in January 1308 he accompanied Edward to France for the king's marriage to Isabella. 75 In June that year Charlton again left England on royal possibly bound for Ireland, where he was to be found holding some minor office during the first half of 1309.77 Between then and 1311 he was employed in a variety of tasks, receiving the wages of a banneret of the household, and it is likely that in 1311 or a little earlier he became the king's chamberlain; certainly he is listed among those royal officers whom the Lords Ordainer wished to be removed from office in November 1311.78 In any case, he was definitely chamberlain by 16 April 1313 and held the post at least as late as 19 April 1318.79 Charlton must have returned from Ireland about the middle of 1309, perhaps in June in the company of the king's favourite, Gaveston, to marry Hawys the younger some time between 6 and 26 August. 80 She was a great prize as the heiress of one of the largest marcher lordships. According to Eyton, 81 Charlton's right to the barony of Powys was recognised on 18 September, though he gives no source for this information. When writs were sent out in June 1310 ordering tenants-in-chief to muster their troops at Berwick in September for a campaign against the Scots, both Charlton and Gruffydd de la Pole were appointed commissioners of array in Wales and asked to raise 400 soldiers de terra sua de Powys. 82 So far Gruffydd de la Pole appears to have raised no objection to Charlton's elevation to the barony. It would be natural to suppose that their subsequent quarrel centred on the succession to the barony, but it is possible that one particularly knotty problem provided the initial spark. Under the partition enrolled in 1291, one portion of Hawys the elder's dower lands, Swydd Deuddwr, was intended on her CPR, 1307-13, pp. 44, 57, 84, 197, 388, 497; P.R.O., E. 159/186 m. 15d; BO, pp. 215-16. Possibly Charlton was a knight of the shire for Shropshire; see the summons to the Carlisle parliament on 20 January 1307: Parliamentary Writs I, 186. 76 CPR, 1307-13, p. 80. Eyton, IX, 33: February 1309 we find John de Cherleton, though resident at Dublin, purchasing land at Haughton near entailing it to Alan Charlton; T. F. T(out), DNB, s.n. 78 BO, p. 216 n. 4. The doubt hinges upon a statement in P.R.O., Issue Roll, 150: domino Johanne de Cherleton milite (either camere or camerario) Regis. See also Annales Londoniensis in Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II, ed. W. Stubbs, I, 200; Gesta Edwardi de Carnarvan auctore canonico Bridlingtoniensis in ibid., II, 40. The Gesta describes him as dominus de Charletone and the Annales also mention John de Knockin and his brother Roger as royal officers; these are surely John l'Estrange VII (1296-1323) and Roger (1300-49). See also Place, pp. 80-81 n. 1, 352-54. BL, Cotton MS, Nero C. VIII, ff. 91d; CPR, 1317-21, p. 133 (19 April 1318), granting Charlton a messuage and tenements without Newgate in the suburb of London; BO, pp. 214-15. See ns. 58-59 above. Charlton is not mentioned in the order of 6 August, as Tout in DNB says. Eyton, IX, 33. On 15 September Charlton was resident at Shrewsbury and presumably did homage and fealty at Michaelmas as requested: CFR, 1307-19, p. 48. Parliamentary Writs II, ii, 395-97.THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 15 death to revert to her son, Gruffydd de la Pole. At the same time, he was supposed to give up Gruffydd actually obtained seisin of Deuddwr in 1308 with the barony. 84 When Hawys the elder died in 1310 he was supposed to surrender Mechain-Iscoed as appurtenant to the barony,85 but the implication of later events is that either Gruffydd refused to do or that Charlton tried to seize the entire commote, including both Mechain-Iscoed proper and Gruffydd's manor of Dinas. 86 In more settled times the issue of Mechain-Iscoed and Dinas would probably have remained a petty dispute; instead it grew into a contest for the barony of Powys itself and became increasingly bound up with the struggle between the baronial opponents of the king, the Lords Ordainer, and the king himself, since Charlton was an important royal On 8 August 1311 Charlton did homage and fealty for the and in the following October his opponent, Gruffydd de la Pole, sued the king's council for a decision from the chancery as to whether the lands of Powys were held in Welshry or of the crown of England. Edward felt insulted and forbade his chancellor from ordering any such decision without a special royal command since it touched the dignity of the crown. He simply ordered a search of the chancery rolls to find in what years Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn and his son Owain did homage for the barony of Powys to Henry III or Edward I.89 No wonder the king felt offended: Gruffydd was deliberately reviving the issue of the status of Powys. His father had apparently argued that Powys was a marcher barony held of the king in order to free himself from Llywelyn ap Gruffydd's interference; now Gruffydd de la Pole appeared to be arguing that Powys was a Welsh barony. Certainly he claimed the benefits of Welsh law, the implication of which becomes clearer when we appreciate that ac- cording to Welsh law inheritance passed through the male line; to use Powel's phrase, 'that a woman was not capable of lands in that See above and Appendix below. See ns. 21 and 33 above. Gruffydd held Deuddwr on 8 July 1309 when Edward II granted him permission to hold a weekly market and two annual fairs at his vill of Llandrinio in Deuddwr: GTB, pp. 151-52. See above. See below and Appendix. Lancaster, pp. 102-59; Valence, pp. 38-99; R. R. Davies, op. cit., pp. 286-87. CCR, 1307-13, p. 434. as CChW, 1244-1326, pp. 380-81; BO, p. 571, prints Gruffydd's plea as Appendix no. 56; see also ibid., pp. 135, 216; Place, p. 138, incorrectly describes Charlton's opponent as Owain ap Gruffydd; Lancaster, p. 140. Certain authorities rely heavily upon the writ summoning Charlton to parliament in 1313 as Johanni de Cherleton, taking the view that as a peer he was more correctly baron of Charlton, which is absurd: Courthope, Historic Peerage, p. 101; G. E. C(okayne), Complete Peerage (1889), II, 217-21; Tout, DNB, Others are J. G. Nichols, Herald and Genealogist (1863-74), VI, 97-124; and M. C. Jones, loc. cit., who took the view that Charlton was third baron of Powys. He may have been the fourth.16 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 countrie'. 90 In fact, the position in the march was not quite so definite since there is evidence that marcher lords occasionally upheld the exclusion of female heirs and that Welsh customary practice was tending to accept female 91 In other words, Gruffydd de la Pole claimed the barony but Charlton too was no mean litigant; he countered with a claim to Gruffydd's lordship of Mechain-Iscoed. The claim first appears on 30 December 1312 and the king ordered that Gruffydd should answer it on 3 February 1313. It was then recalled that by the agreement of 1291 Gruffydd was entitled to hold that land only as long as Hawys the elder lived. Gruffydd, it was found, had obtained Deuddwr but refused to relinquish Mechain-Iscoed. 92 We may reasonably suspect that Charlton had deliberately glossed over the tenurial differences between Mechain-Iscoed, appurtenant to the barony, and the ad- joining manor of Dinas, held of the crown in chief, in an effort to dislodge Gruffydd de la Pole. 93 Who started the dispute is perhaps rather academic, but it is possible that Hawys and Charlton had attempted to recover Mechain-Iscoed. Early in 1312, before the truce between Edward II and the Lords Ordainer had broken down, the king was informed that Gruffydd de la Pole complained of 'the things that have been done to him'. 94 Behind his complaint lay a desire to possess the barony, we need not doubt. Even his seal as lord of Longnor changes sharply; of his four surviving seals three are of the same, dating from the period 1310-21 and bearing the lion rampant of Powys on an escutcheon with S[IGILLUM] GRIFFINI FIL[II] GRI FFI NI DE POWYS written round the lion. Above the escutcheon is a small ring which Eyton supposed to be a mark of cadency. That is very likely, but there is one seal that drops the ring and adopts an escutcheon with a scalloped border on its inner edge. Significantly, this seal is affixed to a deed (selling Longnor to Fulk l'Estrange) dated 11 March 1312. 95 Soon afterwards Gruffydd laid siege to Welshpool castle, 'spurning the remedy of the king's court', for on 23 March 1312 Edward, acting D. Powel, op. cit., p. 157. R. R. Davies, op. cit., pp. 286-87, 449-50. Gruffydd may have known of the failure of Adam of Montgomery's claim to Arwystli against Owain de la Pole. Adam was descended through the female line from Hywel ab Ieuaf, lord of Arwystli: WAR, pp. 127-88, 150-57, 233, 242, 274-75. There may also be a family connection between Adam (died 1290) and Gruffydd de la Pole: see n. 99 below. CCR, 1307-13, p. 501. See Appendix. CACCW, p. 181, has an undated letter of Gruffydd de la Pole to the king complaining that Charlton had led a 'great force of men-at-arms' to attack him. Edwards preferred a date of 1331 as Gruffydd was the complainant; that is very likely but it is possible that it refers to events in late-1311 or early-1312. Ibid., pp. 216-17. The writers may be Pembroke, Hereford and Botetourt: Valence, p. 32. Eyton, III, 61-63.THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 17 on the information of Roger Northburgh, keeper of the privy seal, instructed Robert Holland, justice of Chester, and Roger Mortimer of Chirk, justice of Wales, to raise the siege. 96 On 12 and 13 April he ordered Mortimer to perform the task, drawing if he wished on the aid of Holland and Hugh Audley, sheriff of Shropshire. The king had heard that Gruffydd claimed a right in the castle and had besieged Charlton and Hawys there. 97 Gruffydd's men were lying in wait for Charlton's garrison at the castle and committing widespread distur- bances in Powys. 98 In June or July the king sent John Chesterton to make it known throughout his bailiwick that no one should aid Gruffydd de la Pole, Owain of Montgomery, Dafydd ab Einion (David Avaynon') and Roger de la Chambre in their siege of the castle. 99 Edward's mandates were extraordinarily ineffective; he was, of course, struggling with a kingdom that threatened to degenerate into civil war. On 13 August he sent Mortimer and the sheriff of Shrop- shire to arrest Gruffydd, who was still besieging Welshpool castle, 100 and on 28 August to take custody of it along with the barony that had recently been 'restored' to Charlton and his After a siege of several months the castle was relieved about September but the quarrel continued. Gruffydd had shifted to the Lancastrian camp and had become one of the great earl's retainers, witnessing a grant to him on 3 December. 103 Clearly the earl of Lancaster had taken up Gruffydd's cause, together with that of Fulk l'Estrange, CCR, 1307-13, p. 456. Ibid., p. 417, printed in GTB, pp. 169-70; CCR, 1307-13, p. 419; CACCW, pp. 182-83 (probably soon after 12 April), in which Mortimer mentions invasions of the king's lordship, and certain disorders and riots of malfactors in Mortimer's bailiwick of Wales, which are in part restrained and will shortly be more restrained'. CCR, 1307-13, pp. 424, 459. Placitorum (1811), p. 314: Trinity 1312: sub forisfactura vite et mem- brorum et omnium bonorum suorum que Regi forisfacere poterit. An Owain of Montgomery occurs in 1290-1335, almost certainly a son of Sir Adam of Montgomery, lord of Lydham, Fitz, Eaton Constantine, Burwarton, etc. (see Eyton, XI, 171, 279-83; VIII, 3-5), by whom Owain was presented as subdeacon to Burwarton church in 1290. Adam presented Hugh of Montgomery as deacon to Lydham in 1283: Registrum Ricardi de Swinfield, Episcopi Here- fordensis, 1283-1317, pp. 524, 528. Owain was also presented to Dudmarton, dioc. Worcester, in 1291: CPR, 1281-92, p. 433. In 1310 he resigned Burwarton: ibid., 1307-13, p. 269. He possessed land at Oldbury, near Bridgnorth, and in 1310 and 1313 is said to have com- mitted trespasses of vert and venison in the king's forest in Shropshire: CCR, 1307-13, p. ibid., 1313-18, p. 6; CPR, 1307-13, 293; CFR, 1307-19, p. 146; CChR, 1300-26, p. 46. Owain reappears in 1335 as an inquisitor at Llanbadarn: CIM, 1307-49, p. 353; also Registrum Thome de Charlton pp. 59-60. Whether Hugh of Montgomery, probably brother of Owain, can be identified with the person of that name said to have married a daughter of Gruffydd de la Pole is doubtful; nevertheless, a family, or at least a close social, connection between the houses of Montgomery and Powys is very likely. 100 CCR, 1307-13, p. 544. Ibid., p. 478. 102 Ibid., p. 479 (4 October 1312); Petitiones in Parliamento, 8 Edw. II, no. 70, in Rotuli Parliamentorum, I, p. 305, printed in GTB, p. 170; 103 P.R.O., Duchy of Lancaster MS. 42 (Miscellaneous Books); Foedera, Conventiones, Litterae ed. T. Rymer (1816-30), II, 230; Lancaster, p. 240 n. 6.18 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 Gruffydd's cousin, in order deliberately to embarrass the king. 104 The Welsh march, as ever reflecting in exaggerated form the political divisions of the realm, began to divide into two armed camps: Gruffydd and Fulk l'Estrange, and others from the Oswestry district including Edmund Fitzalan, earl of Arundel and lord of Oswestry and Clun, made common cause. 105 On Charlton's side, Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, lord of Ceri and Cydewain, was rewarded for his aid with a grant of land in Powys and the betrothal of Charlton's eldest son John to his daughter Matilda. 106 Some concept of the seriousness of events in Powys in 1312 is revealed in Edward's commission on 26 December to John Grey, John Wogan and Alan la Zouche to hear and determine the com- plaints of Charlton and Hawys: that Griffin de la Pole, John Waghhan [Fychan], parson of the church of Whitington, Roger de Caumbray, David ap Eynoun, John le Fiz, Mestre John ap Adam, and Owen de Monte Gomery, together with horses, arms, and banners displayed, approached their castle of La Pole, besieged it, burned the doors of the castle and their houses, broke their park and hunted therein, cut the grass and corn growing there and at Butyngton, Talgarth and Penpres, fished their stews, took away their horses and colts of the prices of and carried away his game, fish, grass and corn. 107 After the raising of his siege Gruffydd and his close allies may have fallen back on the lands of Fulk l'Estrange near Oswestry, continuing to cause Charlton trouble. On 21 October Edward wrote from Windsor to Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, and others of his council, asking them how he might most constrain and damage Gruffydd for his disobedience. 108 Among Gruffydd's followers, Dafydd ab Einion had been arrested by John Hinckley, the queen's bailiff of Ellesmere, and imprisoned there for his part in the Welsh- pool siege.109 Throughout that autumn, beginning with the mediation of Arnaud, cardinal of St. Prisca, Arnald d'Aux, bishop of Poitiers (the pope's chamberlain), and Louis of Evreux, brother of Philip IV Valence, pp. 49-50; Lancaster, p. 140. CCR, 1307-13, pp. 555, 512-13. 100 W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. J. Caley, H. Ellis and B. Bandinel (London 1849), VI, i, 351-52. According to this extract from the Wigmore chronicle, Mortimer was given terras Powysie, cum foresta de Ucheldre inter rivos de Ryw et Elegy situata, dominio suo de Kedewyn adjacentes, but I can find no evidence that Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn or his successors ever recovered the land between Rhiw and Helygi after it was seized by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd in 1274. It seems likely that Charlton and Hawys were actually giving up any further claim to this district. 107 CPR, 1307-13, pp. 546-47. The three were also to investigate depredations committed against the Trumwyns at Mathrafal and Tafolwern; at the latter the prison had been broken and inmates released. P.R.O., SC. 1/145/170; Valence, pp. 51, 53-54. 109 CCR, 1307-13, p. 501. Hinkley was to deliver him to Charlton. Fulk l'Estrange was pardoned in November 1313: CPR, 1313-17, pp. 21-24. A Dafydd ab Einion, bailiff of Hawys the elder, at Buttington, occurs in 1292: P.R.O., E. 179/242/48; F. Jones, 'The subsidy of 1292', BBCS, XIII (1948-50), 221-23.THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 19 of France, a series of truces and negotiations was arranged, culmina- ting in a peace treaty in December 1312. Within a month there were signs of its failure. 110 The baronial opponents of the king failed to attend a meeting fixed for 13 January 1313 at St. Albans, and the earl of Lancaster sent his chaplain with a list of objections and demands. Two of the justices appointed to examine the complaints of Gruffydd and Fulk l'Estrange were, he alleged, not impartial: Wogan had taken part in the seizure of Gruffydd's lands and Zouche had been retained by Charlton. Gruffydd too should have recovery of his lands, Lancaster argued, because he had been deprived of them since the truce of September 1312. 111 His complaints were discussed before the papal envoys by representatives of the barons and the king on 8 February in London, but the Powys dispute remained unresolved, though many lesser matters were settled. Instead the envoys referred the problem to others. 112 Apparently in response to an inquisition held at Shrewsbury, Edward on 12 March instructed Roger Mortimer, sheriff of Shrop- shire, to release Gruffydd's men adhering to Lancaster who had been arrested 'on account of the siege of la Pole castle', and to restore all tenements, issues and lands to them and to Gruffydd. 113 The equally important matter of the latter's claim of dispossession had to wait an entire year. 114 Even so, it indicates much willingness on the king's part to conciliate, though a cynic might argue that he had little alternative. He had accepted the earl's criticisms and appointed Henry l'Escrope and John Cromwell to undertake the inquiries, and on 23 September 1313, before the Westminster parliament which Charlton attended, the king ordered that Fulk l'Estrange, Gruffydd and their accomplices 'should not be appealed, arrested, or on account of the siege. With Charlton they were fully pardoned in November 1313.115 110 R. A. Roberts, II, the Lords Ordainers and Piers Gaveston's Jewels and Horses Camden Miscellany, 3rd S., XLI (1929); Valence, p. 67. 111 CPR, 1307-13, p. 546; and n. 110 above. 112 R. A. Roberts, loc. cit., pp. 12-13; Valence, pp. 57-58. 113 CCR, 1307-13, p. 569. Their release accorded with the safe-conduct. 114 The undated petition in CAP, pp. 25-26, probably dates to the period between 28 August and 4 October 1312. Gruffydd asked that the suit between him and Charlton should be judged to the laws and usages of Powys and by good and lawful Welshmen'. The phrase is reminiscent of Gruffydd's petition of October 1311, but it is endorsed that the lands in question were in the king's hands 'by reason of the trespass of John de Cherleton'. Mortimer held Powys for the king in that period and in April 1312 (see ns. 96-99, 102-3 above), but Gruffydd's plea is clearly that embodied in Lancaster's arguments and apparently that mentioned in CPR, 1307-13, p. 546 (1 January 1313); ibid., pp. 142-43 (20 March 1314): commission of oyer and terminer touching Gruffydd's complaint 'of the King's seizure of divers goods and lands of which he was so seised in the time of the safe- conduct'. CPR, 1313-17, pp. 21-24 (including Dafydd Ddu ab Einion, Gruffydd ab Owain ap Dafydd, Roger del Oaks, Madog of Kerwarton, John of Montgomery, Roger de Cambrai (de la Chambre), Philip de Smethcote, Robert l'Estrange, Master John ab Adam (clerk), Owain of Montgomery (clerk; see n. 99 above), Madog Fychan, Robert de Say, and Madog ap Meilyr (see n. 41 above)).20 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 Gruffydd de la Pole had gained very little from his adherence to the earl of Lancaster and had patently failed to establish his claim to the barony of Powys. He even lost control of Deuddwr and Dinas, and only his submission to the king in the presence of the two cardinals and the pardon secured their return. 116 Charlton, by contrast, had lost little and felt sufficiently secure to accompany Edward and Isabella to France for the knighting of the queen's three brothers, returning with them, presumably, in July 1313. Later he went on the king's service to Scotland. 117 The king in return rewarded him further: on 26 October he gave Charlton wardship of the minor heir (yet another Gruffydd) and the lands of the late Gwilym de la Pole (who died before 3 March 1305) to hold until the heir's majority at the rent paid by his widow, Gwladys. 118 In May 1314 Charlton confirmed the charter given by Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn to his borough of Welshpool-perhaps a very necessary grant in view of recent distur- bances-and permitted his burgesses there that 'they may apprehend all felons and fugitives sheltering in the said borough, or within one league around the said borough, and bring them to their prison, there to imprison and judge them according to their 119 Powys now enjoyed relative peace; the only serious outbreak in the neighbourhood before the spring of 1316 was not the work of Gruffydd de la Pole but of the king's constable of Montgomery, Philip Middleton, in a long, unhealthy tradition of rivalry between Montgomery and Welshpool; Middleton, according to Charlton, had stolen his horse worth £10 at Chirbury, stolen goods, and assault- ed his servants and tenants of Welshpool and Powys. 120 This probably occurred while Charlton was in Scotland. The more important struggle with Gruffydd de la Pole, however, was merely in abeyance and revived either in late-1315 or, more probably, in the spring of 1316, when he petitioned the king for an enquiry into the events of 1312, claiming that he was then seised de la tere de Pouwys come de son droit et de son heritage. L'Escrope and Cromwell, the two justices assigned to investigate this matter in 1313, were now in Scotland, presumably believing that they had completed their task: Gruffydd See n. 113 above. 117 CPR, 1307-13, p. 582: protection for going overseas to Charlton, William de Bremesgrave and John Swynnerton. The latter married Anna or Agnes, daughter of a certain Philip of Montgomery (died 1295), keeper of the forest of Cannock, and his wife Felicia: CChR, 1257-1300, p. 257; CIPM, III, 156-57, 209. 118 CFR, 1307-19, pp. 181-82, 241. 119 'Welsh Pool. Materials MC, VII (1874), 333-34. 110 CPR, 1313-17, pp. 150-51; ibid., 1307-13, p. 544 (1312), mentions assaults and im- prisonment by Philip Middleton, the acting constable of Montgomery castle, and his son Alexander and others on Thomas de Winsbury. The information was given by Charlton and it is hardly coincidental that Alexander was later killed (1325) and his slayer protected by Alan Charlton, then constable of Montgomery: CIM, 1307-49, pp. 323-24 (1332).THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 21 had recovered Deuddwr and Dinas, so Edward felt little pressed and put off a decision on the petition until the next parliament. 121 No decision seems to have been reached. Charlton, however, again received further honours: on 25 January 1314 the king appointed him keeper of the royal castle of Builth, 122 a post which he held until September 1317, when he was succeeded by Humphrey Bohun, earl of Hereford and lord of A number of enrolments testify to repairs and revictualling at the castle of Builth, 124 but the most interesting reference is that mentioning the complaint of the king's tenants of the lordship on 7 May 1315 that Charlton had compelled them to carry timber three times a week or more to provide victuals and to winter animals, and other exactions including the unjust accusation of various individuals of felony and then ransoming them for upwards of £400. They complained, too, of Charlton's avarice and intolerable extortions. 125 Their complaints seem to be echoed by those of the abbot of and are in keeping with Charlton's arrogant boast in 1333 that he was pope, king, bishop and abbot in his own land. 127 Yet still Charlton did not fall from grace; Edward gave him 100 marks for his work in Scotland and more grants of land while he was chamberlain of the royal household. 128 With hindsight we can perceive how dangerous a man like Charlton could be in Wales and the march. He was a man seemingly cursed with conceit and insensitivity. The country came very near to national revolt in 1316. The breakdown of the fragile peace began, however, not in Powys or Buellt but in Glamorgan, with the revolt of Llywelyn Bren, a man who felt that he had been deprived of the perquisites of 'good lordship' which he had once enjoyed. 129 On 26 February Charlton was instructed to be prepared to proceed against the Petitiones in Parliamento, 8 Edw. II, no. 71, in Rot. Parl., I, 305, printed in GTB, pp. 170-71. Edward replied that those at the parliament-either that at York (September- October 1314) or Westminster (January-March 1315)-were unwilling to judge the petition without the assent of the many magnates, prelates and others who were absent from the parliament. On 9 March 1315 parliament dispersed until 13 April so that petitions could be received and other business transacted: P.R.O., Duchy of Lancaster MS. 10/217; Lancaster, p. 168; Parliamentary Writs II, i, 149-50; II, ii, 88-89. 122 CFR, 1307-19, p. 188, replacing Philip ap Hywel, for whom see R. R. Davies, op. cit., pp. 205, 291. 123 CChR, 1300-26, p. 367. Edward resumed direct control in 1320: CFR, 1319-27, p. 50. Sir Gruffydd Llwyd was constable in 1322: CCR, 1318-23, pp. 9, 422. 124 CCR, 1313-18, pp. 153, 248, 258. 125 CPR, 1313-17, pp. 322-23. CAP, pp. 56-57, relating to lands in Arwystli granted to Cwm-hir by Gwenwynwyn until John de Charlton, now Lord of Powys, voluntarily and of his great power, disturbs them, in no wise suffering them to have their profits or commodities Rees suggested a date between 1309, when Charlton acquired Powys, and 1318, when Cwm-hir's charters were confirmed. 127 CAP, pp. 411-12. 128 P.R.O., Issue Roll, 167 m. 9. See BO, p. 216 n. 8; WMR, no. 304; CFR, 1307-19, pp. 205, 241, 317; CPR, 1317-21, p. 133. 129 Glamorgan County History, III, 72-86; R. R. Davies, op. cit., pp. 44, 207, 290-91, 417.22 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 southern rebels, 130 to follow up, if necessary, the earl of Hereford. Soon afterwards, Edward II was informed that 'the people of Powys have commenced riots and besieged and assailed the castle of la Pole and committed arsons, homicides, depredations and other evil deeds'. The king sent John Cromwell to pacify them. Edward had been told ominously 'that if this be not hastily quenched much greater evil may come in other parts of 131 The writer evidently suffered much from the medieval Englishman's fear of the levitas, the 'light-headedness', of the Welsh, but he was also well-informed. As Maddicott has suggested, a general Welsh rising seems to have been feared. 132 On 10 March 1316 Edward sent a writ of aid to Cromwell to enforce the keeping of the peace between Charlton and Gruffydd de la Pole 'between whom dissension has arisen concerning the castle and lands of la Pole', and to instruct the disputants to remove any armed force and to appear before the king and his council at Westminster on 25 April Gruffydd re- peated his allegation of dispossession of Powys on 14 The general Welsh rising did not occur, of course, though Edward Bruce, then active in Ireland, threatened to invade Wales to lead a Celtic alliance against the common enemy. 135 Edward II evidently rated the Glamorgan troubles as more serious than those in Powys, instructing John Grey on 12 March not to collect horse and foot for a campaign in Scotland because of the rebellion in Wales but to prepare instead to set out with the sheriff of Shropshire, Hugh Audley (justice of Chester), Arundel, Mortimer of Wigmore, John Somery and all the magnates of the march in the company of John Charlton towards Glamorgan. 136 The latter was also involved in suppressing the serious rioting at Bristol in July On 25 April 1316 Charlton duly appeared in person before the king, while Hawys sent two attorneys, Hugh Gregory and Robert de Laak; but Gruffydd failed to attend, though the king had asked the sheriff of Shropshire to make the previous decision known to him. Cromwell 1313-17, p. 443. 131 CChW, 1244-1326, pp. 436-37. Lancaster, p. 184. 133 CPR, 1313-17, p. 444; CCR, 1313-18, p. 292; Rot, Parl., I, 355-56, printed in GTB, pp. 171-72. 134 Annales Londoniensis in Chronicles I, 245. A. J. Otway-Ruthven, A History of Medieval Ireland (London, 1968), pp. 224-38; J. B. Smith, 'Gruffydd Llwyd and the Alliance, 1315-18', BBCS, XXVI (1976), 463-78. The 'loyalist' Liwyd, one of the lynchpins of the Welsh community, was in communication with Edward Bruce and was imprisoned from December 1316 until autumn 1318. The Vita Edwardi Secundi, ed. and trans. N. Denholm-Young (London, 1957), p. 61, mentions a rumour that if Bruce succeeded in Ireland he planned an invasion of Wales. On 29 March 1317 Pope John XXII warned Robert Bruce and his abettors 'to desist from invading and occupying land in England, Wales and Ireland': CPapR, 1305-42, p. 138. CCR, 1313-18, p. 376, 401. 137 Vita Edwardi Secundi, p. 222; Lancaster, pp. 184-85.THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 23 explained that he had tried to enter Powys but was unable to do so; instead he had passed the king's instructions on to Philip Smethcote- of the Pole-l'Estrange party-and others to inform Gruffydd de la Pole. Charlton and Hawys added that as Gruffydd was their tenant they had the right to judge his transgressions. Gruffydd had seized the commote of Mawddwy (which had been placed in Charlton's care during the minority of Gruffydd ap Gwilym), had carried off corn, animals and goods, wounded and killed certain men, and took homage, fealty and other services. They claimed too that Gruffydd de la Pole had seized Mechain-Iscoed 'which the late Hawys de la Pole [the elder] held for the term of her life, and on the death of the same it was taken into the hands of the lord king by Roger de Mortimer, then Justice of Wales after which Gruffydd had intervened there. 138 Because of the disturbances in Powys many had fled with their possessions into neighbouring Meirionydd. 139 Shortly after these proceedings, Edward demanded that Gruffydd cease his actions against Charlton and Hawys, ordering both parties to attend his council at Westminster three weeks from midsummer. In the meantime, the castle of Welshpool and the barony were put in the charge of John Walwyn, the escheator south of the Walwyn too was unable to find Gruffydd de la Pole and so the sheriff of Shropshire had to summon the parties to the next parliament. 141 Edward seems to have been entirely convinced of Gruffydd's guilt but granted custody of his lands to Robert Holland, an adherent of Lancaster, in August.142 Yet the king's rough treatment of Gruffydd before his pardon in October 1316 still poisoned relations between the earl and the king and may have contributed to the break between them in November of that year. 143 The surviving records reveal little of the Powys dispute for nearly five years; in the nature of so many disputes during the reign of Edward II, it did not, however, fizzle out but rather festered quietly. The king recognised Gruffydd's right in Dinas in October 1318144 but the Welshman was unlikely to gain anything substantial. He seems to Rot. Parl., I, 355-6, printed in GTB, pp. 171-72; both Charlton and Cromwell were bannerets in curia in 1314-15: P.R.O., King's Remembrancer, Exchequer Account (ref. in BO, pp. 220-21). CCR, 1313-18, p. 351. 140 Ibid., p. 345: CPR, 1313-17, p. 472. 141 CCR, 1313-18, p. 352: presumably the assembly of knights at Lincoln in July-August 1316. 142 CPR, 1313-17, p. 541; CCR, 1313-18, p. 363. 143 Ibid., pp. 369-70; CPR, 1313-17, p. 548; Lancaster, pp. 184; Valence, pp. 104-6. 144 CCR, 1313-18, p. 18; CIPM, XIV, 19-23, mentions a fine levied at the quinzaine (22 April) of Easter 1319 by which Charlton and Hawys enfeoffed Thomas, one of their sons, with the castle and manor of la Pole; in this fine Deudour and Meghein Iscoid (which I take to mean Dinas) were said to be in the hands of Gruffydd de la Pole. The fine is nearly identical with that of 26 April 1317: CPR, 1313-17, p. 643.24 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 have been still in the Lancastrian camp in April but the earl's increasing isolation cannot have assisted his cause. Charlton was still the king's chamberlain on 19 April and was summoned in July 1317 to raise troops for a projected Scottish campaign. 147 Compared with his enemy, he had lost little and was busy enfeoffing members of his family with various portions of his barony. 148 Terri- torially, Charlton had given up only Mawddwy to the rightful heir, Gruffydd ap Yet Charlton's lofty position was not invulnerable. The period 1319-21 witnessed his gradual conversion from loyalist to rebel, a process ascribed by Tout variously to a dispute between Charlton and the king over the right of presentation to Welshpool church and, more plausibly, to the rising power of the Despensers. 150 Charlton's term as chamberlain ended in 1318, perhaps at the York parliament in October when, according to the monk of Bridlington, the chamber- lain and other officers were removed. 151 Builth too had been taken from him in 1317, as we have seen, but Charlton continued to serve the king in a personal capacity long after October 1318. 152 His change of heart is most uncharacteristic and surely came about as a result of the avarice of the younger Despenser in the southern march. Charlton was not directly affected but as a marcher lord closely associated with, and in some cases related by marriage to, those who were directly affected (i.e., Grimbald Pauncefot and Mortimer of Wigmore), he cannot have remained unmoved.153 Other former royalists, such as Hugh Audley and Roger Amory, were likewise driven into Lancaster's company. 154 The first proof of Charlton's disenchantment with the king occurs on 27 March 1321, when he was summoned to appear with Hereford, Amory and Mortimer of Wigmore at Gloucester before the king on 145 Ibid., 1317-21, p. 225, witnessing an inspeximus and confirmation of Lancaster to the abbey of ibid., p. 227 (1 November 1318), a pardon of Lancaster's adherents, John of Montgomery, Roger de Longnor, Dafydd ab Einion, Gruffydd de la Pole, Philip de Smethcote, and Roger del Oaks. See n. 79 above. CCR, 1313-18, p. 563: commissions of array for 200 foot in Buellt (Bluet) and 300 in Powys prorogued until 11 August: Lancaster, p. 191. 148 CPR, 1313-17, pp. 574, 643; CAP, p. 403: Manerium de Pempris et de la [illegible: Llangurig ?]; CPR, 1317-21, p. 327. 149 CIPM, VI, 116-17; CCR, 1318-23, p. 86; Gruffydd ap Gwilym was said to be 29 on 25 March 1318, making his year of birth 1289. 150 T. F. T(out), DNB, s.n.; Place, pp. 141-42. Auctore Bridlingtoniensis in Chronicles p. 56; Lancaster, pp. 229-30; Valence, p. 177. 162 Ibid., p. 164; Place, pp. 116-17; BO, pp. 473-82. 153 Ibid., pp. 473-82; J. C. Davies, 'The Despenser War in Glamorgan', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 3rd S., IX (1915), 21-64; Lancaster, pp. 234-37, 260-62. Lancaster himself had territorial ambitions in the march: R. R. Davies, op. cit., pp. 279-81. CCR, 1318-23, pp. 363, 366.THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 25 5 April to treat with him, 155 perhaps in an effort to win them over. On 13 April Charlton, Amory, Hugh Despenser and Mortimer were ordered to keep the peace, and Charlton too is included in a general mandate of 21 April to settle disturbances and avoid illegal con- federacies or assemblies. 156 Matters instead quickly deteriorated. When Edward resumed control of Montgomery castle from Audley on 18 April 1321 the sergeants sent to take custody had to employ guides quia terra erat de In May the marchers wasted the lands of the Despensers and of the earl of Arundel, 158 and in August the king reluctantly agreed to the banishment of the Despensers. The marchers were still far from victorious, however; Charlton was probably among the australes who met with Lancaster and other northern English magnates at Sherburn in Elmet on 28 June 1321. 159 The marchers were not mere allies of the earl but partners in adversity, dominating the opposition to the king and acting as a group to protect their own interests. Prominent among them were the earl of Hereford and Mortimer of Wigmore. 160 Charlton himself seems to have attended the assembly summoned by the earl of Lancaster to meet at Doncaster on 29 November, though the meeting actually seems to have taken place at Pontefract for greater safety. 161 The king chose this moment to strike: while Sir Gruffydd Llwyd, now restored to royal favour, moved south from the north of Wales, capturing the castles of Chirk, Welshpool and Clun,162 the king advanced up the lower Severn valley to catch the marchers in a pincer grip and drive a wedge between them and the Lancastrians. Edward reached Shrewsbury on 14 January 1322 where on the 22nd Mortimer and twenty of his companions surrendered under a Charlton appears to have been captured at his own castle since Edward on 18 January asked John Sapy, Llwyd and Thomas de Winsbury to bring him with his accomplices to Shrewsbury. 164 In the meantime, Robert Sapy took custody of Powys, including the 165 Ibid., pp. 314, 363; BO, p. 475. 156 Parliamentary Writs II, ii, 159-60; CCR, 1318-23, p. 366. CPR, 1317-21, p. 575; BL, Additional MS. 9951, f. 8v, quoted in Lancaster, p. 265. 158 Bodley MS., Laud Miscellany, 529, f. 106; Lancaster, p. 267. 159 Ibid., pp. 268-73; Place, pp. 128-29; BO, pp. 478-79. 160 Valence, p. 208; B. Wilkinson, 'The Negotiations Preceding the "Treaty" of Leake, August 1318', in Studies in Medieval History Presented to F. M. Powicke, eds. R. W. Hunt, W. A. Pantin and R. W. Southern (Oxford, 1948). G. L. Haskins, 'The Doncaster Petition of 1321', EHR, LIII (1938), 483; Valence, pp. 217-18; Parliamentary Writs II, ii, 170. 162 J. G. Edwards, 'Sir Gruffydd Llwyd', EHR, XXX (1915), 592, identified the castles captured by Llwyd as Mold, Chirk and Holt (Olono), drawing upon Holinshed, Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (London, 1807-8), III, 565; but J. B. Smith, II and the Allegiance of Wales', ante, VIII (1976-77), 59, n. 107, notes that the text of the MS. on which Holinshed drew has castra de Pola, Chirk et Clono. P.R.O., E. 368/92 m. 49d; BO, appendix, p. 561; WMR, no. 426; Calendar of Letter Books of the City of London (1901-3), Letter Book E, p. 150; Valence, pp. 221-22. 164 CPR, 1321-24, p. 48.26 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 Trumwyn and Pauncefot lands there, and commissions of array were addressed to him in February 1322. 165 The other half of the marcher-Lancaster coalition was not broken till Lancaster was finally defeated and killed at the battle of Borough- bridge on 22 March 1322. Curiously, there is no mention at this time of Gruffydd de la Pole. Powys was, as we have seen, in the temporary charge of Robert Sapy, with Madog ap Dafydd, lord of Hendwr in Edeirnion, as his penteulu. 166 The latter seems to have married a niece of Gruffydd de la Pole, 167 but there is no positive evidence that Gruffydd profited from Charlton's disgrace or his kinsman's elevation. If Gruffydd was still in Lancaster's company in the weeks leading up to Boroughbridge, his absence might be explained; his name is conspicuously absent from those 'divers disturbers of the peace' who had refused to permit the Trumwyns to recover their lands in Caereinion and Cyfeiliog in the spring of 1322. By 6 April the Trumwyns had found surety for their oaths of fealty to Edward II, but these disturbers of the peace had assaulted and killed some of their servants, abducted Joan herself and, with the entire commonalty of those cantrefi, come to Llanerfyl and refused to attorn to the Trumwyns. On 20 May the king was obliged to ask Sapy to raise the posse of Powys to reinstate them. 168 Both Mortimer and Charlton were listed (after Boroughbridge) among those who had been contre le Roy, but whereas the first was imprisoned in the Tower of London (till he escaped in August 1323) the second was serving the king against the Scots only one week after the battle. 169 Tout has well described Charlton's restoration as 'even more mysterious than his former disloyalty'; .170 though we can now plausibly explain the latter, the former is more difficult. Possibly his Ibid., p. 73: to Robert Sapy, Madog of Hendwr, Gruffydd ab Owain and Madog Llwyd for 1500 foot from the land of Powys. On 6 March Sapy was instructed to return the lands of Sibyl Pauncefot to her seized in error: Close Rolls, 15 Edw. II, m. 16, printed in GTB, p. 178; CCR, 1318-23, p. 427. Parliamentary Writs II, ii, appendix, p. 201, no. 191, lists Charlton and Mortimer as those who were contre le Roy; CFR, 1319-27, p. 96. Cyfeiliog (Keuylauk) is mentioned in the audit of Robert, chamberlain of south Wales, as having been seized for the king by Rhys ap Gruffydd, deputy-justice of Wales, in 1322. Tendour is probably Cwmwd Deuddwr between Elan and Wye rather than Swydd Deuddwr in Powys: P.R.O., E 368/94/m. 177, listed in WMR, no. 467. See also N. M. Fryde, Troops in the Scottish Campaign of BBCS, XXVI (1974-76), 82. P. C. Bartrum, Welsh Genealogies, AD 300-1400, I, sub Bleddyn ap Cynfyn. The lords of Hendwr were descended from Gruffydd, son of Owain Brogyntyn (fl. late-twelfth century) of the house of Powys. See also CAP, pp. 73, 514. Ibid., pp. 387-90; CPR, 1321-24, pp. 157-58, lists the dissidents. T. F. T(out), DNB CFR, 1319-27, pp. 170-72, 234; A. M. Peel, 'Charltons of Apley Castle TSAS, LIII (1949-50); CChW, 1244-1326, p. 548; E. L. G. Stones, Date of Roger Mortimer's Escape from the Tower', EHR, LXI (1951); Valence, pp. 221, 232; CMR, 1326-27, p. 304, records expenditure on the wages of the Welsh foot of Roger Mortimer, Cromwell and Charlton in Scotland. Alan Charlton was keeper of Mortimer's lands in 1322 (WMR, no. 445) and constable of Montgomery from 1326: CFR, 1319-27, p. 375. 170 T. F. T(out), DNB, s.n.THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 27 long service to the king both in a personal capacity and against the Scots saved him from prison; at the very least it is a remarkable tribute to his capability or his powers of persuasion or the king's gullibility. On 11 September he was pardoned and his possessions eventually returned to him. 171 By March 1323 he was sufficiently reinstated for commissions of array to be addressed to him as lord of Powys. 172 It took more than a writ to restore Charlton; both his tenants and those of Trumwyn refused to let Sapy and Carles reinstate them that on 30 June 1323 the king asked Edmund Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, justice of Wales, to restore Trumwyn; on 2 July the king ordered Charlton's knights and tenants to permit the lord of Powys to return and to restore all lost issues to him. Edward, however, reprimanded him 'to bear himself towards the tenants of the lands that no further dissension may arise between him and them'. 173 Still the royal commands had no effect for on 26 September Edward had to authorise a writ de intendendo commanding Charlton's and Trumwyn's tenants to be The disturbances continued: on 20 May 1324 Arundel was instructed to examine the complaints of certain of Charlton's tenants. Robert and John de Say of Welshpool had petitioned the king for restoration of their lands there and in other parts of Powys, together with the lands of their brother Philip; Charlton, they claimed, had seized their lands for non-payment of an extortionate toll (very reminiscent of the complaints of the men of Builth in 1315) despite a royal pardon to those involved in the disturbances of 1322-23. Charlton, however, alleged that the Says were adherents of Gruffydd de la Pole convicted at the suit of Adam le Hoper-a burgess of Welshpool and a former servant of Gwilym de la Pole-of divers felonies, arsons and plunderings committed against le Hoper 'in time of peace and not in time of the late dis- turbance', and thus had their lands been forfeit. John and Robert de Say denied any such conviction and a jury composed of men from Montgomery, Oswestry, Cnwcyn and Caus was summoned to adjudge their petition.175 Their verdict is, unfortunately, not known. Shortly CPR, 1321-24, p. 202; P.R.O., E 368/93 m. 76d; WMR, no. 445, records that Robert Sapy was still in charge of Powys at michaelmas 1322. CPR, 1321-24, p. 275. 173 Ibid., p. 307; CCR, 1318-23, p. 665. 174 CPR, 1321-24, p. 340. 175 CAP, p. 234. To Rees's note we may add that Robert de Say held a tenement in Trallwng- gollen in 1293 while William de Say and his unnamed brother held the vill of Hudan: see ns. 31 and 41 above. Le Hoper appears as a juror in 1309 and 1319 (ns. 56 and 149 above) and is listed as a merchant of Welshpool (La Pole) in 1318 and a merchant for life: C. H. Drinkwater, TSAS, 3rd S., II (1902), 99, 799. Isolda le Hopere appears in Shrewsbury as mortua sine herede in 1384 (ibid., p. 79) and Hankyn le Hopere was a burgess of Welshpool in 1292-93: P.R.O., E. 179/242/54 m.17.28 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 after Easter (15 April) that year Charlton, perhaps to mollify his burgesses of Welshpool, confirmed a grant of Owain de la Pole of common of pasture in Trallwng-Llywelyn-the 'Burgess Lands'-to the borough. 176 Charlton played a remarkable game of duplicity between 1323 and 1326. Tout has shown that he was in communication with his old ally, Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, who escaped from the Tower in 1323 yet Charlton, apparently faithfully, was serving the king in Scotland. 178 Early in 1325 an unnamed commissioner of array com- plained to Edward that he had summoned his men in accordance with the writ to assemble one man-at-arms and eighty foot at Portsmouth, probably about mid-Lent (17 March) 1325, but that Gruffydd de la Pole had refused to comply. The correspondent asked the king to remedy this and hinted ominously that he thought too little care was paid to Wales, doubting if Edward would find the Welsh obedient on a future occasion. The main threat to Edward was, of course, to come from elsewhere. In any case, the king seems to have been little impressed; that spring or summer of 1325 he intended going to Gascony to do homage to the French king, taking Charlton and his troops with him. 179 Edward's queen, Isabella, however, abandoned him soon after she left for France at the head of an embassy in March. Not surprisingly, when Isabella and her lover, Mortimer, invaded England in 1326 Charlton joined them, hunting down royal officers and favourites, including Arundel who had succeeded Mortimer as justice of Wales in 1322. Charlton captured Arundel at Shrewsbury on 13 April and soon afterwards he was executed and buried at Hereford. 180 176 Pool. Materials MC, VII (1874), 334-45. 177 Parliamentary Writs II, ii, 239; T. F. T(out), DNB, s.n.: CPR, 1321-24, p. 350 (14 November 1323): general prohibition of assisting Mortimer of Wigmore addressed inter alia to Charlton. 178 Parliamentary Writs II, ii, 605, 612, 614, 621-22, 627, 629, and 631. 179 CAP, pp. 385-86: undated, but Rees suggested that it refers to the array ordered on 23 December 1324 to be at Portsmouth at mid-Lent 1325 and including Welsh levies: CPR, 1324-27, pp. 78, 97-98. The writer mentions that the king's writ was received on 11 March 1325 (5 weeks from Easter). Rees dates it to 1324-25. There are a number of confusing references to John de Cherletons about this time; he who was mentioned as going overseas with the king (CPR, 1324-27, p. 98) must be the lord of Powys since he nominated Roger Pryde of Shrewsbury as one of his attorneys (see also ibid., pp. 166-67). On 14 September 1325 Charlton of Powys had licence to crenellate his house (Charlton Hall) in Shrewsbury: ibid., p. 178; Eyton, IX, 33. The house destroyed by the Riffleres in London in 1326 must be that of John Charlton, mayor of the city (Annales Paulini in Chronicles I, 321) since the lord of Powys sympathised with Mortimer and Isabella, though he did have a house in Newgate. For a contrary view, see A. M. Peel, loc. cit., pp. 252-66, 366. 180 Gesta Edwardi de Carnarvan in Chronicles pp. 87-8; H. Owen and J. Blakeway, op. cit., I, 160, state that Arundel intended capturing Shrewsbury with the aid of his Welsh tenants of Oswestry. He was reburied at Haughmond abbey. Perhaps to ease his conscience, Charlton later founded a chantry for Arundel's soul in the abbey church and even intended granting Lydham church to support it: Shrewsbury Library MS. (Shropshire Record Office),THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 29 With Arundel safely and disgracefully disposed of, Charlton must have returned to Powys more determined than ever to finish his quarrel with Gruffydd de la Pole. On 11 November 1327 Charlton ejected him from his lands 'that he held of our lord the king in chief, of which lands he was seised thirty years and more', or Gruffydd claimed in a petition to Edward III in 1328. The latter responded by sending Sir Philip de Say (who had reason to dislike Charlton), Robert de Shirebourne and Robert de Horle to examine Gruffydd's complaints. 181 Nothing further of this inquiry is heard but he was evidently reseised. Once again Charlton threw him out and this time the king appointed William le Botiller of Wem, John de Leyburn and Roger Carles to make inquisition; they discovered that Charlton had caused damage to the enormously high value of £4,000. 182 In late- November 1330 it was stated in parliament that Gruffydd and Charlton were assembling men-at-arms in breach of the peace. This they were forbidden to do and were told that they should put their cases by 183 In response to Gruffydd's complaint, an enquiry was ordered on 18 May 1331 to be heard before John Wysham, justice of north Wales, Botiller, Roger de Peuelesdon and Carles, with the task of examining the preceding inquisition which had been returned to the Chancery. This second inquisition, held at Oswestry on 3 July 1331, noted that Gruffydd had been ejected, that Charlton had taken away goods worth £320 and caused damage worth £4,000. Peuelesdon, the king's bailiff of Mochnant-is-Rhaeadr, and the bailiffs of Richard, earl of Arundel and of Gruffydd ap Madog of Cynllaith had reseised Gruffydd de la Pole. 184 Hardly had the inquisition closed when Gruffydd was again pro- testing 'that John, immediately after delivery of the seisin sur- prised him with armed force and ejected him wholly from the said lands [Dinas and Deuddwr] and assaulted and wounded his men and servants, whereby Griffin lost their services for a great time On 24 November 1331 Edward III responded by sending Edward Bohun, justice of north Wales, to reinstate and protect Gruffydd and to distrain damages from Charlton. The latter was instructed on the same day to abide by the king's decision and to put his case before Haughmond Cartulary, f. 84v; Rotuli Parliamentorum, II, 4 Edw. III, no. 22, p. 60, records a quarrel between Richard, son of Edmund earl of Arundel, in 1330. See also VCH, Salop, II (1973), 68; CPR, 1343-45, pp. 16, 56. 181 Petitiones in Parliamento, 2 Edw. III, no. 22, in Rot. Parl., II, pp. 20-21; CAP, pp. 439, 502. CCR, 1330-33, p. 379. 183 See n. 181 above. 184 CPR, 1330-34, p. 142; T. F. T(out), DNB, s.n., is wrong in supposing this to be the last reference to Gruffydd de la Pole; see CCR, 1330-33, pp. 379-80, 435 (10 February 1332).30 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 the king and his council by 20 January 1332. 185 Edward later rescinded the order to distrain Charlton's goods for the damage to Gruffydd pending the latter's appearance before him by 9 May 1332. 186 Whether Gruffydd was able to attend is not known. He seems to have died some time after 18 March 1332 leaving no son. By his last known grant he conveyed the remainder of Deuddwr, 'said to be held in to Richard, earl of His portion of Mechain, Dinas, passed to Thomas ap Rhodri, nephew of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, prince of Wales. Thomas's relationship with Gruffydd de la Pole appears to have been overlooked by historians, but illustra- tion of it is found in an enrolment of a royal licence, dated 27 February 1321, permitting Gruffydd to enfeoff John, chaplain of Llandysilio, in his lands and tenements in Mechain-Iscoed, with a regrant to Gruffydd and Katherine, his wife, and their heirs. If they died without heirs-and they seem to have left no son-then the lands were to revert to Thomas, brother of Thomas ap Rhodri acquired not only Dinas but also Gruffydd's quarrel with Charlton, but no trouble appears to have occurred between them before 1337, though there were certain disturbances in the neighbourhood of Powys in the period 1332-33 that may be associated with them. Early in 1332 Madog Llwyd and 600 others, probably from Ceri and Cydewain, invaded the Montgomery area, giving 'evil counsel' to the men of Powys, Maelienydd and Gwerth- rynion. 189 The following year, while Edward III and many marcher lords, including Charlton and Arundel, were campaigning in Scotland, the king had to send instructions to certain of his sheriffs in the march and others to put down disturbances by threatening forfeiture and imprisonment. 190 In 1337 the old rivalry between Charlton and the earls of Arundel appears to have revived. On 14 June, Edward III, then at Berwick- upon-Tweed, wrote to Roger l'Estrange, steward of Richard, earl of Arundel, following news reaching the king that l'Estrange had 183 Ibid., pp. 379-80. Ibid., p. 435. 187 CPR, 1330-34, p. 267 (18 March 1332), enfeoffing Richard de la Chambre of Oswestry and Robert de Guldeford with the commote of Deuder, with a regrant to Gruffydd and remainder to Richard, earl of Arundel. loid., 1317-21, p. 572; E. Owen, Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (1899-1900), esp. pp. 34-36, 41-42. Owen was very critical of Montgomeryshire historians' failure to establish Charlton's connections with Cheshire and the Sutton family but himself failed to discover the link between Thomas ap Rhodri and Gruffydd de la Pole. He explained Thomas's possession of Dinas as a result of an exchange of lands between them. Charlton died holding Malpas of the Black Prince: Register of Edward the Black Prince, III (1351-65), pp. 149-50, 156. 189 CIM, II, 324-25, forcing the constable to flee his castle, and causing destruction at Brompton, Rhiston, Churchstoke and Aspley; see also ibid., pp. 323-24, for the complaints of the bailiffs and commonalty of Montgomery over the killing of Alexander Middleton. 190 CCR, 1333-37, pp. 120, 26.THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 31 invaded Powys with both English and Welsh while Charlton was at Stamford attending a meeting of the king's council. Roger had perpetrated divers evils and crimes, demanded hostages from Hawys the younger 'to the injury of the king's peace, chiefly because the Welsh, from lightness of head, may rise in war The steward involved is clearly the fourth Lord l'Estrange (1300-49) of Cnwcyn, a fairly close relative of Hawys the elder and that Fulk l'Estrange, first Lord l'Estrange (c. 1267-1324) of Blackmere, who was involved in earlier quarrels with the royalist party. 191 It was an echo, too, of the contention between Charlton and Gruffydd de la Pole. Perhaps Edward detected in this a revival of old battles since, on 29 June 1337, he appointed Charlton justiciar of Ireland, though he did not leave until October, taking with him his wife, children and 200 Welsh foot. With him also went his brother Thomas, bishop of Hereford, the new treasurer of It was a doubly suitable chance to escape trouble, though the king was careful to emphasise that it was not his intention 'that persons making such disseisins and making journey to Scotland or Ireland that plaints against them may be deferred, shall profit by the present ordinance'. 193 Shortly before his departure, Charlton had had an assize of novel disseisin brought against him by Thomas ap Rhodri over certain vills in, and allegedly belonging to, Dinas. Nevertheless, Charlton's absence delayed the issue thrice. 194 John Charlton returned from Ireland some time between 15 May 1338, when he surrendered the justiciarship to his brother Thomas Charlton, and 28 July 1339. 195 Thomas ap Rhodri then petitioned the king for the recovery of the vills, complaining that Charlton had enfeoffed his son John in them and that the son had gone overseas, thus further delaying a decision. 196 John II, however, countered with his own petition, complaining of Thomas's attempts to gain an assize of novel disseisin. 197 Once again the curtain falls on this interesting and complex dispute. Thomas ap Rhodri evidently recovered Dinas, for he held it 191 Ibid., 1337-39, p. 136. CPR, 1334-38, pp. 476, 478, 544, 506; CCR, 1337-39, pp. 140, 93, 155, 171-72, 243, 314, 423, 464; ibid., 1339-41, p. 166. Charlton arrived on 14 October 1337: Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, ed. J. T. Gilbert (London, 1884), II, 380. For Thomas Charlton, see n. 69 above. 193 CCR, 1337-39, pp. 246, 281. 194 Patent Rolls, II Edw. II, m. 8d, printed in E. Owen, loc. cit., p. 43; CPR, 1334-38, pp. 476-78, 486, 522, 544; CCR, 1337-39, pp. 281, 283, 389. See Appendix. CPR, 1334-38, pp. 80, 356. According to Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, he returned on the last day of July. P.R.O., Ancient Petitions (SC. 8), no. 10320, printed in E. Owen, loc. cit., p. 43, and in translation in CAP, pp. 351-52. Owen dates it to 1337-38. 197 CAP, pp. 399-400.32 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 on his death in 1363. Indeed, Dinas was the only manor that he held in chief at that time; most of his other possessions in Cheshire and Surrey he had given up, keeping only Althurst (Cheshire), which was held of the prince of Wales, and Bidfield (Gloucestershire), which was held of the earl of Hereford. 198 Curiously, his inquisition post mortem at Shrewsbury, heard before Welsh jurors, records no heir though Thomas did have a son, the famed Owain Llawgoch, who seems to have been abroad at this time. On his return, he petitioned for the recovery of his Welsh manor and managed to repossess it before his defection to the French in 1369. 199 After the death of Gruffydd de la Pole, Charlton's possession of the barony of Powys was never seriously challenged, the issue shrinking into the comparatively petty dispute over Dinas. Charlton himself was said in 1347 to be 'old and sick, and unable to take the field' on any more military campaigns and he died six years later.200 His wife, the last of the ancient senior line of Powys Wenwynwyn, predeceased him and both are commemorated in the Jesse Window at St. Mary's church in Shrewsbury. 201 Their eldest son, John Charlton II, who was said to be thirty-seven in 1353, died in 1360202 that the much disputed manor of Dinas eventually reverted to his son and namesake, John Charlton III (1337-74). 203 As for Owain Llawgoch, despite mounting several expeditions to invade his native Wales from France, he never succeeded in returning. 204 Aberystwyth RICHARD MORGAN P.R.O., Inquisition post mortem, 37 Edw. III, no. 59, printed in GTB, pp. 47-48. Placita de Cancellaria, no. 67, printed in E. Owen, loc. cit., pp. 49-51; also CAP, pp. 372-73. 200 W. G. D. Fletcher, 'Shropshire Men at the French Wars of 1346-7', TSAS, V (1905), 147; but he sent three sons and 300 Welshmen at his own cost as far as the southern English coast; CIPM, X, 111 (P.R.O., C 135/124/9). 201 A. M. Peel, loc. cit., pp. 260-61; H. Owen and J. Blakeway, op. cit., pp. 317-18. 202 CIPM, X, 498-99 (P.R.O., C 135/151). CIM, II, 269-70: a copy of a fine of 12 May 1342 between Thomas Rotherik, knight, and Cecily, his wife, settling Dynas on Cecily and Richard Russel, her attorney, in fee tail with remainder to John Charlton I and Hawys; see also p. 237. John Charlton II settled the keeping of Dinas on John Shery, an executor of his will, in 1369 but he in turn gave it up in 1382: CFR, 1377-83, p. 117; CCR, 1381-85, p. 260 (the latter volume indexes it as Dínas Powys, Glam.!). E. Owen, loc. cit., passim.MECHAIN 1291 1339 MOCHNANT-IS- RHAEADR Llannerch-emrys ABERTANAD Bodynfoel MOCHNANT-UWCH-RHAEADR Carreg- Bodyddon Llanfechain hofa Llanfyllin MECHAIN-ISCOED Melyniog-fawr Greenhall DINAS Garth- Rhiwlas MECHAIN-UWCHCOED PLAS DINAS Cefn-ilyfnog Nantymeichiaid DEUDDWR Gwynfa ? Ystrad- efyrnwy Cadwnfa Peniarth Ffynnon Arthur Dolwar Clas-meifod SWYDD YSTRAD- MARCHELL CAEREINION N.B. PLACES UNDERLINED ARE VILLS DISPUTED 1337 - 1339 33 MAP 2Table 1: The Dynasty of Powys Wenwynwyn. Gruffydd ap Hawys Gwenwynwyn = l'Estrange (c. 1216-86) (d.1310) 2 1 2 1 Roger = Joan = Owain Gwilym = Gwladys Gruffydd = Katherine leuan, Dafydd, Llywelyn Sibyl = Grimbald ?Mabli = Fulk Trumwyn (d.1293) (d. pre alive (d.1332) (7d. pre Rector cleric (d.1294) Pauncefot FitzWarin of March 1344 1332) (7d. pre (7d. pre (d. pre Cannock 1305) See 1308) Nov. 22 1330) Table 2 1298) THE Madog = Efa Catrin = Gilbert Grimbald Pauncefot Gruffydd = Matilda Thomas ap of Pool of Blaenllyfni (1290- Llywelyn of Hendwr (alive 1356) post 1352) Iscoed and Gwinionydd Roger de la Hugh de OF William = Margaret = Chambre Montgomery 2 1 James de = Ela = Gruffydd ab Hawys = John Charlton I Perrers Owain (c. 1291- (c. 1280-1353) (1291-1309) c. 1350) See Roger Mortimer Table 3 of Wigmore, earl of March (exec. 1330) Matilda = John II Owain, lord Edward William, Magister Humphrey Thomas Nicholas Lewis, John = Isabella (1311/16 of Lydham cleric Gruffydd Doctor of Bishop of Sutton -1360) (d. .1368) (alive Theology, Hereford II of penteulu 1345-72) regent at 1361-9. Malpas Oxford (d.1369) (alive Joan = John III 1359-72) Richard Sir Roger = Elizabeth Corbet (1337-74) penteulu JohnTHE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 35 Table 2: Gwynedd and Malpas Gruffydd (d. 1244) 1 2 Llywelyn William = Beatrice Rhodri = Katherine Owain Dafydd Catrin Gwladus killed lord of a (d.1290) b (d.c. 1315) Goch exec. 1282 Malpas alive 1283 1246-77 Gwenllian Isabella = Richard Cecily = Thomas Katherine = Gruffydd de Sutton (c. 1295- (?d. pre la Pole 1363) 1332) (d.1332) See Table 1 Margaret = John I Owain Lawgoch (d. 1378) John Sutton II, = Isabella lord of Malpas See Table 1 Table 3: Robert Charlton (d.c. 1300) Hawys the John Charlton I Alan = Ellen Thomas, younger of (c. 1280-1353) of Bishop of Powys Apley Hereford (d. 1360) (d.1344) See Table 1 Alan John (d. pre Oct. 1354) Geoffrey de Alan John Langley Joan = Sir John Charlton of Apley36 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 APPENDIX 1: ABBREVIATIONS IN FOOTNOTES AC Annales Cambriae, ed. J. Williams ab Ithel, 1860. ACamb Archaeologia Cambrensis. BBCS Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies. BL The British Library. BO J. C. Davies, The Baronial Opposition to Edward II, London, 1918. BYT Brut y Tywysogyon, Peniarth 20 Version, trans. T. Jones, Cardiff, 1952. BTY RBH Brut y Tywysogyon, Red Book of Hergest Version, ed. and trans. T. Jones, Cardiff, 1955. CACCW Calendar of Ancient Correspondence Concerning Wales, ed. J. G. Edwards, Cardiff, 1935. CAP Calendar of Ancient Petitions Relating to Wales, ed. W. Rees, Cardiff, 1975. CChR Calendar of Charter Rolls. CChW Calendar of Chancery Warrants. CCR Calendar of Close Rolls. CFR Calendar of Fine Rolls. CIPM Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem. CIM Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous. CLR Calendar of Liberate Rolls. Close Rolls: Henry III. CMR Calendar of Memoranda Rolls, 1326-7. CP PRO, Common Pleas. CPapR Calendar of Papal Registers. CPR Calendar of Patent Rolls. CWR 'Calendar of Welsh Rolls in Calendar of Chancery Rolls, Various. DNB Dictionary of National Biography. E. PRO, Exchequer 159 (King's Remembrancer), Memoranda Rolls. 179 Lay Subsidy Rolls. 368 (Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer), Memoranda Rolls. EHR English Historical Review. Eyton R. W. Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, London 12 volumes, 1853-60. FHS Flintshire Historical Society Publications. GTB G. T. O. Bridgeman, 'The Princes of Upper Powys', MC I(1868), 1-194. HW J. E. Lloyd, A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest, 2 volumes, London, 1911. Lancaster J. R. Maddicott, Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322, Oxford, 1970. LW Littere Wallie, ed. J. G. Edwards, Cardiff, 1940. MC The Montgomeryshire Collections. NLW The National Library of Wales. NLWJ The National Library of Wales Journal.THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 37 Place T. F. Tout, The Place of Edward II in English History, Manchester, 1914. PRO The Public Record Office. SC PRO, Special Collections. TSAS Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society. WAR The Welsh Assize Roll, 1277-84, ed. J. C. Davies, Cardiff, 1940. WHR Welsh History Review. WMR List of Welsh Entries in the Memoranda Rolls, 1282-1343, ed. N. M. Fryde, Cardiff, 1974. Valence J. R. S. Phillips, Aymer de Valence: Earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324, Oxford, 1972. VCH The Victoria County History of England.38 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 APPENDIX 2: MECHAIN Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn's claim to the cantref of Mechain seems to have rested partly upon right of conquest in the war of 1276-77 and partly upon brief periods of possession of the cantref by his father, Gwenwynwyn, and grandfather, Owain Cyfeiliog. In 1167 Mechain was seized from the latter by Owain Fychan ap Madog, his cousin, together with neighbouring Cynllaith and Owain Fychan, or Owain de la Tour as some sources describe him, was himself slain in 1187 near Carreg- hofa, but between those dates Henry II had recognised his possession of Mechain, five vills adjoining it, and the fossatum de Carekouen totam preter Castellum et villam castelli. 2 Mechain fell to his slayers, Gwenwynwyn and Cadwallon, the sons of Owain Cyfeiliog, but Owain Fychan's sons, Llywelyn and Owain (likewise 'Fychan'), recovered the cantref, perhaps in 1208 or 1216 when Llywelyn Fawr, prince of Gwynedd, invaded Powys, since a jury later recalled that Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn's ancestors had defeated the sons of Owain Fychan and that at that time they were adher- ents of Llywelyn On balance, 1208 seems the likeliest date because The Legend of Fulk Fitz-Warin mentions 'grant descord' between Llywelyn Fawr and Gwenwynwyn; the prince of Gwynedd destroys the castle of Mechain (Metheyn) and seizes Mochnant, Llannerch-hudol (Lannerth) and other lands belonging to Gwenwynwyn, then places them in the hands of Fulk Fitz-Warin, the hero of the tale. The latter refuses to attack Gwenwynwyn and instead manages to reconcile the princes. The three of them then set an ambush for King John at the ford of Gymele (?Cwm Lliw) near Bala, where Gwenwynwyn is wounded in the head.4 The Legend seems to contain a core of truth, though it does not mention that the sons of Owain Fychan I, Llywelyn and Owain Fychan II, re- covered Mechain. They appear to have held their lands of the prince since, when the two quarrelled over their respective portions, the matter was settled before the prince's justiciar, Ednyfed Fychan. The princes of Mechain evidently hesitated in their loyalty to Gwynedd when Llywelyn Fawr's declining health led to his replacement by his brother Dafydd in 1238. Henry III wrote to several Welsh minor princes, including Oein Bochan et Lewelin, fratro suo, warning them not to do homage to 6 The brothers in any case joined with Henry in 1240 despite Dafydd's Llywelyn of Mechain died before 1241 and Henry awarded his sons possession of Mochnant-uwch-Rhaeadr, for which they paid a fine of £60,8 but Dafydd prevented them from enjoying the 9 Owain Fychan II soon disappears from the records, but the sons of Llywelyn of Mechain recovered their lands in that cantref when Dafydd BYT, sub anno 1167. WAR, p. 237. Henry II recognised his seisin de Turry Mechen (Domen Gastell?), Blodwel, Llynclys, Bryn, Sycharth and Trefonnen. For the description 'Oweyn de la Tour', see p. 87. WAR, p. 237; HW, II, 621, 649. 'The Legend of Fulk Fitz-Warin' in Radulphi de Coggeshall Chronicon Anglicanum, ed. J. Stevenson (London, 1875), p. 351. WAR, p. 37; CIM, I, 322-23. 1237-42, p. 124. The others were Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, Gruffydd ap Madog and Maredudd ap Rhotpert of Cydewain. Ibid., pp. 359-60. WAR, p. 37; CLR, 1226-40, p. 477. R, 1237-42, pp. 359-60.THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 39 was defeated by Henry's alliance. Gwynedd's pretensions, of course, re- vived with Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, and the princelings of Mechain seem to have submitted to him when in 1257 he swept through Powys, destroying a castle of Bodydon or Bydydon, probably Domen yr Allt near Llanfyllin in Mechain-Uwchcoed. 10 The princelings then recovered their lands under his The dynasty of Mechain eventually fell victim to the worsening relations between Edward I and Llywelyn ap Gruffydd during the early-1270s. Mechain, with its pro-Gwynedd rulers, fell to Edward's allies in February or March 1277, among them Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn. The latter chose to revive his claim to the cantref, complaining in July of that year that Owain and Maredudd, the sons of Llywelyn of Mechain, had withdrawn their homage from him in favour of the king. Gruffydd may have conspired with Roger l'Estrange, his brother-in-law, to gain Mechain since Edward had to order them both to restore the lands and goods of Owain and Some time in 1277 Owain and Maredudd protested against Gruffydd's molestation, 'taking tribute and other exactions from them as from his own men 13 No doubt in answer to their pleas the king ordered l'Estrange on 3 December 1277-when he had custody of Oswestry and Dinas Brân -to permit Owain and Maredudd and their parceners to hold Mechain until otherwise ordered and that they were to hold that land of the king. 14 The mention of parceners emphasises the complexity of territorial rights and claims in the cantref; on 28 November 1277 Owain and Maredudd actually claimed only a half of Mechain-Iscoed as their inheritance. Maredudd then produced a letter written to him during the recent war by the earl of Lincoln, then constable of Chester, admitting him to recover certain lands. Significantly, they acknowledged also that Gruffydd, the son of the late Llywelyn Fychan, their brother, possessed rights in Mechain too. 15 Though the other parceners in Mechain are not actually mentioned, it is tolerably clear that certain members of the dynasty of Powys Fadog were involved. Some time before the death of Gruffydd ap Madog in 1269 -possibly in latter laid claim to Mochnant-uwch-Rhaeadr, Mechain and Deuddwr as against Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn. The matter was heard coram rege at Windsor and settled before the king's justices at Shrewsbury, 17 but the details are not known. Powys Fadog's claim, how- ever, took a back seat to Powys Wenwynwyn's. Before an inquisition held at Oswestry on 9 February 1278, Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn again com- plained that Owain and Maredudd had withdrawn their homage from 10 AC, sub anno 1257; HW, II 720 n. 22; C. J. Spurgeon, 'The Castles of Montgomeryshire', MC, LIX (1965-66), no. 3, pp. 7-8. 11 LW, pp. 184-86. CI.R, 1272-79, p. 399. Expenses for the conquest of Mecheyn were granted to Roger between 2 July and 20 July 1277. J. E. Morris, The Welsh Wars of Edward I (Oxford, 1901), p. 123, regarded his role as a royal officer supervising Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn. 13 CACCW, p. 98: they asked that his officers, either the justice of Chester or Roger Mortimer or the king's bailiffs of Y Berfeddwlad, should stop Gruffydd. 14 R, 1272-79, pp. 43-44. WAR, pp. 200, 244. P.R.O., Rot. Pat., 30 Hen. III, m. 10 (copy in GTB, p. 114); CPR, 1232-47, p. 469 (8 November 1245): Henry III requested Fulf Fitzwarin (lord of Whittington), John l'Estrange (lord of Cnwcyn) and Hugh Audley (lord of Kinnerley) to arbitrate. WAR, p. 265.40 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 him in favour of the king. The brothers produced Henry II's charter to their grandfather, Owain Fychan de la Tour, but it was ignored on the grounds that Gruffydd's ancestors had conquered Mechain when its rulers were adherents of Llywelyn, prince of Wales. 18 Gruffydd's claim to their lands was thus secured and he was ordered to take their homage; they, by a mandate of 10 November 1281, were required to be intendant and respondent to him. 19 Madog ap Maredudd Owain Brogyntyn Owain Fychan Elise de la Tour (slain 1187) Llywelyn Owain Fychan II (d. pre 1241) (d. c. 1241/5) Llywlyn Fychan Owain Maredudd ? two sons (d. pre 1277) alive 1277/8 alive 1277/8 Gruffydd Madog Maredudd Llywelyn alive 1277 alive 1286 alive 1286 What of the rest of Mechain? At another Oswestry inquisition on 28 November 1277, it was recalled that when Gruffydd ap Madog of Powys Fadog died his lands had been partitioned between his four sons. 20 Mechain is not mentioned amongst these lands, but when dispute arose between the sons, certain grandsons and widows, the lands had to be reallocated on 9 February 1278. This time Mechain is mentioned. Two sons, Gruffydd Fychan and Llywelyn Fychan, then held part of the cantref and so their father had presumably been partly successful in his claim to it or the sons had intruded themselves during the overlordship of Llywelyn of Gwynedd. Their grip was, however, broken when the two sons took part in the plundering of Oswestry on Palm Sunday 1282 during Dafydd's outbreak 22 On 20 May 1282 Edward I granted power to Roger Mortimer the elder to receive the surrenders of the followers of Llywelyn Fychan in Mechain- Iscoed and other lands. 23 Soon afterwards the king granted Llywelyn's lands to Mortimer the younger, now of Llywelyn Fychan had held Ibid., p. 237. 19 CWR, pp. 211, 399. 20 Unless Mechnant represents Mechain rather than Mochnant-uwch-Rhaeadr, which seems unlikely: WAR, p. 246. CWR, pp. 170-71: Margaret, widow of Madog Fychan, complained that Llywelyn Fychan had disseised her sons, Llywelyn and Gruffydd, of the land of Megheyn and other lands and that Gruffydd Fychan had taken their lands in Edeirnion: WAR, p. 247. Ibid., pp. 352, 201-2. CWR, p. 221. Ibid., p. 233; WAR, p. 209.THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 41 not only part of Mechain-Iscoed but also Cynllaith, Nanheudwy, Carreg- hofa and Mortimer the elder died that year and it may be that he was unable to carry out fully the king's instructions. Whatever the case, Edward seems to have excepted Llywelyn Fychan's lands in Mechain since an order (not dated precisely) to Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn in that year instructed Gruffydd to receive the surrenders of the men of Llywelyn Fychan there. 25 It may imply some recognition of Gruffydd's claims; by spring 1283 Gruffydd had secured the whole of Mechain-Iscoed with the exception of the lands of Gruffydd Fychan. These were instead granted to Roger Springhose, sheriff of Shropshire, on 9 February 1283 'by service of a fourth part of a knight's fee'. Springhose had already briefly held Mortimer the elder's and served the king during the war of 1282-83 as his officer at Oswestry. Clearly the grant neither included the whole commote of Mechain-Iscoed nor was strictly confined to that commote; it almost certainly coincided with what was later described as the manor of Dinas or Plas Dinas. When Springhose fell into debt, he sold it to Gruffydd de la Pole, probably between 1295 and 1298. 28 We have now accounted for the whole commote of Mechain-Iscoed and certain portions of Mechain-Uwchcoed that belonged to the manors of Mechain-Iscoed and Dinas. It is unclear how the rest of Uwchcoed fell into the hands of the dynasty of Powys Wenwynwyn. Presumably it belonged to the parceners mentioned in 1277-possibly sons of Llywelyn Fychan of Mechain. Little further is heard of the native dynasty of the cantref save that about 1286 or 1293-94 Madog and Maredudd, the sons of Llywelyn Fychan, and their cousin Llywelyn ab Owain petitioned the king for the return of two parts of Mechain. The cantref was then said to be in the hands of the king and the petition was fobbed off with the excuse that the lands in question were awaiting a decision. 29 As for Dinas, the definition of its composition was hotly disputed in the period 1337-39 between Charlton and Thomas ap Rhodri. Certain vills were named: Lledrod (Thledreth, Thledroth), Melyniog-fawr (Great Meleneok, Magan Meleneok), Cefn-llyfnog (Kithleveno, Kythlemene), CACCW, p. 131. J. G. Edwards dated it tentatively before the order to Mortimer, but it makes better sense after. CWR, p. 265; WAR, p. 209; CPR, 1334-38, p. 307 (exemplification of a charter). CPR, 1281-92, p. 39; CWR, p. 265; CFR, 1272-1307, pp. 174, 178; CACCW, p. 130; J. E. Morris, op. cit., p. 136. See n. 26 above. CACCW, p. 122 (March-April 1286): Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn described Springhose as his 'special friend'. The latter witnessed the charter given by Gruffydd to his son, Gruffydd de la Pole, on 27 or 28 April 1286: CCR, 1279-88, p. 413; GTB, p. 131. There is no need to suppose a family connection (as in Eyton, III, 56) since Springhose had been in the elder Gruffydd's following in 1251 and conveyed Longnor c. 1300 as well as Dinas to the younger Gruffydd (Eyton, VI, 61-62). Dinas was still held by Springhose in 1292 (P.R.O., E. 179/242/48; F. Jones, Subsidy of 1292', BBCS, XIII (1948-50), 223) and he witnessed an inquisition relating to the late Llywelyn de la Pole's lands in Greenhall (Gerzgenneu) and Mechain-uwchcoed in 1295: CIPM, III, 138. In 1328 Gruffydd de la Pole claimed to have held his lands in the commote of Mechain-iscoed for 'thirty years and more': Petitiones in Parliamento in Rotuli Parliamentorum, II, no. 22, p. 20. CAP, p. 87. Rees's attempt to date it is ludicrous. The petitioners refer to a grant by 'King Henry' to their great-grandfather Owain de la Tour, describing the king as grandfather of the present king. Taken alone that would indicate the reign of Henry III for the date of the petition, but as the father and uncle of two of the petitioners made claims to Mechain in the period 1277-78 it seems much more likely to date it to the reign of Edward I. The barony was in the king's hands at the dates suggested; a date soon after the war of 1282-83 seems preferable.42 THE BARONY OF POWYS, 1275-1360 Ystrad-efyrnwy(Stradenernoy), Llannerch-emrys (Thlanershemereys, Thlan- neghemeris), Bodynfoel (Bodenwal), Llanfechain (Thlannegheyn, Thalan- negheyins), Dolwar (Doluaur, Dolvaur), Cadwnfa (Codwynnayn, Cad- wynnagnis), Rhiwlas (Roulas), Garth-bwlch (Garthloulgh, Garthbolch), and Peniarth (Pymyrth, Only Dolwar, Cadwnfa and Bodynfoel are actually listed by one authority under Dinas, 31 but it is certain that Garthbwlch, now in the parish of Llanwddyn, and parts of Llys-fechain were once part of it also. 32 In short, the boundaries of Dinas, Mechain- Iscoed and Mechain-Uwchcoed were very intricate and I have been unable to map them. 33 CCR, 1337-39, p. 389; CAP, pp. 399-400. J. C. Davies, loc. cit., pp. 125, 128. Garth-bwlch was before 1850 a township of Llansanffraid-yn-Mechain: T. G. Jones, 'A History of the Parish of MC, IV (1871), 76-77; T. H. Evans, 'History of the Parish of Llanwddyn', MC, VII (1874), 73. If tithes are any guide, Llansanffraid took two-thirds of those of Abertanad (a township now of Llanyblodwel, but then a detached part of the principality), half of those of (or Llaeth-bwll) in the parish of Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa, a portion of those of Llys-fechain in Llanfechain and the whole of those of Garth-bwlch. Dolwar was an outlying township of Llanfechain: slight Historical and Topographical Sketch of the Parish of Llanfechain MC, V (1872), 242-43. 33 J. C. Davies as in n. 31 above.CYNRYCHIOLAETH A CHYNNEN: AGWEDDAU AR HANES SENEDDOL A CHYMDEITHASOL SIR FON YNG NGHANOL YR UNFED GANRIF AR BYMTHEG YM mlynyddoedd canol yr unfed ganrif ar bymtheg yr oedd yn Sir Fôn ddwy blaid ymhlith ysgwieriaid yr ynys yn cystadlu'n ffyrnig gilydd am gynrychiolaeth y sir yn Nhy'r Cyffredin. Buddugoliaeth mewn etholiad seneddol oedd yn anhepgorol yn y 'rhyfel' rhwng y ddau grwp am uchafiaeth gymdeithasol. Y ddau grwp o ysgwieriaid oedd, ar y naill law, yr hen foneddigion Cymreig a'u cynghreiriaid gydag ystadau yn bennaf yng ngorllewin a de-orllewin y sir, ac, ar y llaw arall, y newydd-ddyfodiaid, a Seisnig gan mwyaf, o ddwyrain a de-ddwyrain o dan bennaeth teulu Bwclei o Fiwmares. Y mae'r dewis o Aelodau Seneddol dros y sir a dros y bwrdeistrefi yn y cyfnod hwn yn tystiolaethu'n bendant i'w hymdrech i gael grym yn yr ardal ac i'r rhwyg dwfn ym mywyd cymdeithasol yr ynys. Yn yr erthygl hon fe hoffwn i ddangos sut y gall astudiaeth o'r etholiadau seneddol daflu golau ar hanes cymdeithasol Sir Fôn yng nghanol y cyfnod Yn yr ymrafael rhwng y boneddigion ym Mon aelodaeth o'r Senedd oedd yn eithriadol o bwysig: achlysurau digyffelyb oedd etholiadau seneddol i ddangos ble yn union y gorweddai pwer yn y sir. Dwy sedd seneddol yn unig oedd ar gael: un dros y sir ac un arall dros y ddwy fwrdeistref o Niwbwrch a Biwmares. Wrth gwrs, y prinder hwn o seddau a gynyddai'r chwerwder a deimlid rhwng y ddwy blaid. Pa beth oedd sail y chwerwder hwn? Ni ddylid cymryd yn ganiataol fod yr ymryson etholiadol a chymdeithasol yn hannu'n syml o wreiddiau 'cenedlaethol' yr ymgeiswyr. Pe buasai'r ymdrech am rym yn un yn ei gwreiddiau dylid fod wedi disgwyl i'r teuluoedd Seisnig ar yr ynys-sef, y Woods, yr Hollands a'r Bwcleiod-uno yn gadarn yn erbyn yr ysgwieriaid Cymreig. Ond nid oedd y sefyllfa mor glir a syml â hynny. Yn Sir Fôn yn y cyfnod hwn y mae'n bosibl canfod tri dosbarth o Yn gyntaf daeth yr ysgwieriaid brodorol o hen linach, y buasai eu teuluoedd yn trigo ar yr ynys ers canrifoedd; enghreifftiau o'r rhain oedd teulu Owen o Edrychir yn yr erthygl hon ar yr etholiadau rhwng 1542, y Senedd gyntaf yr ymddangosodd Aelodau Cymreig ynddi, a 1559: sef y deg Senedd o 1542(-44), 1545(-47), 1547(-52), 1553 (Mawrth), 1553 (Hydref i Dachwedd), 1554 (Ebrill i Fai), 1554 (Tachwedd-Ionawr 1555), 1555 (Hydref i Dachwedd), 1558 a 1559. Gw. E. G. Jones, 'Some Notes on the Principal County Families of Anglesey in the 16th and early 17th Centuries', Trafodion Hynafiaethwyr a Naturiaethwyr Mon (1939), tt. 61-75; (1940), tt. 46-61. 4344 CYNRYCHIOLAETH A CHYNNEN Fodeon, ger Niwbwrch, a theulu Lewys o Brysaddfed, yng ngogledd yr ynys. Yn ail, cawn y teuluoedd Cymreig a oedd wedi ymsefydlu ym ar ôl gadael Sir Gaernarfon rywbryd yn yr oesau canol; un o'r rheiny oedd teulu Gruffudd o Borthaml, is-gangen o deulu enwog Gruffudd o Benrhyn. Yn drydydd, daeth y teuluoedd gwlady- chol o Loegr, fel y Woods o Rosmor, yr Hamptons o Henllys, yr Hollands o Ferw, ac yn bennaf y Bwcleiod o Hen Blas, Biwmares. Nawr tra mae'n gywir a chymwys disgrifio'r fath deulu â'r Bwcleiod fel 'Seisnig' ni ddylid meddwl eu bod hwy wedi cael eu hystyried fel dieithriaid mewn amgylchfyd Cymreig na chwaith eu bod hwy'n wrth-Gymreig mewn unrhyw ffordd. Yr oedd y Bwcleiod yn ddigon 'Cymreig' i Syr Rhisiart Bwclei II fod yn gymwys i gael ei benodi'n gomisiynwr i'r eisteddfod frenhinol enwog yng Nghaerwys, Sir y Fflint, yn 1568. Yr oeddynt i gyd yn medru'r Gymraeg a'i defnyddio'n feunyddiol. Gan hynny, cefnogai'n ffyrnig y boneddigion Seisnig a feddiannai dir yng ngorllewin Sir Fôn eu cymdogion Cymreig, ac yr oedd llawer iawn o briodi rhyngddynt. Yn nwyrain y sir fe welir yr un teyrngarwch yn egino rhwng y boneddigion Seisnig a Chymreig yno. Felly, nid rhwyg 'cenedlaethol' (yn yr ystyr fodern) ond rhwyg daearyddol a chymdeithasol a oedd yn bodoli yn Sir ysgwieriaid gweddol dlawd o'r gorllewin yn erbyn ysgwieriaid mwy cefnog y dwyrain, a ddigwyddai fod yn Seisnig gan mwyaf. Ar ddechrau'r cyfnod hwn, cyn i Niwbwrch gael ei hamddifadu o'i safle fel y dref sirol o dan ddeddf seneddol yn fe ddaliai boneddigion y gorllewin fantais amlwg yn eu hymladd yn erbyn ysgwieriaid y dwyrain. Canys eu tref hwy, Niwbwrch, ar lan orllewinol yr ynys oedd prif dref y sir; yno arferai'r siryf gadw ei lys misol, yno ymgynullid y llysoedd brenhinol (y Sasiwn Fawr) a sasiynau chwarter- ol yr ynadon heddwch, ac yno cynhelid etholiadau seneddol. Yr ail o'r ddwy fwrdeistref a sefydlwyd yn nheyrnasiad Edward I, safai Niwbwrch yn arglwyddiaeth Rhosfair ar ochr ddwyreiniol traethau Malldraeth. Pan sefydlwyd Biwmares gan yr un brenin fel tref Seisnig i gyflenwi anghenion y gwarchodlu Seisnig yn y castell, fe fu raid i fwrdeisiaid Cymreig hen dref Llanfaes symud i ffwrdd i faenor Rhosfair (neu Rhosyr fel y'i gelwid yn gywirach o'r blaen), ymhle y seiliasant dref newydd, Niwbwrch. Felly, tref hollol Gymreig oedd hi o'r cychwyn (ac yn tueddu i fod yn Ond yng nghanol y 14eg ganrif, pan dderbyniodd bwrdeisiaid Niwbwrch gan Commons Journal, I. 9-10; 2 & 3 Edw. VI, pen. 54. Ym Miwmares yng nghanol yr 16eg ganrif yr oedd y bwrdeisiaid yn dwyn enwau Seisnig gan mwyaf, megis Hampton, Thickens, Broadhead, Sparrow a Robinson. Yn Niwbwrch, ar y llaw arall, yr oedd gan y trigolion i gyd y tadenw Cymreig. Am enwau trigolion y ddwy dref gweler y rhestrau o drethdalwyr. Public Record Office (o hyn ymlaen PRO) E179/219.CYNRYCHIOLAETH A CHYNNEN 45 y Tywysog Duy fraint i ethol un ohonynt eu hunain yn faer gosodwyd arnynt amod fod rhaid i'r maer hwn a'i olynwyr fod yn Sais; ac yr oedd ef i gymryd ei lw o flaen siamberlen Gwynedd. Ei chyfnod mwyaf oedd yn y 14eg ganrif, pan dderbyniai ardreth o amgylch £30-36 y flwyddyn. Ond cwympodd y ffigurau hyn yn y 15ed ganrif i lawr at £20-27 y flwyddyn; ac erbyn 1543 ei derbyniadau oedd cyn lleied £11.3s.4c., swm arferol am weddill y ganrif honno. Y rheswm mwyaf am ddadfeiliad Niwbwrch yn ystod y ddwy ganrif flaenorol fuasai'r ystormydd tywod a oedd wedi gorchuddio rhan fawr o arglwyddiaeth Rhosfair lluwchfeydd tywod, gan wneud y tir yn ddiwerth i'w amaethu. Plannwyd mor-hesg i geisio dal y tywod yn ond nid yn hollol lwyddiannus ydoedd 5 Er bod Niwbwrch yn dref dlawd iawn ac yn ail i Fiwmares trwy gydol ei hanes bron, yn 1507 fe benderfynasai'r brenin Harri VII drosglwyddo holl lysoedd Mon o Fiwmares i Niwbwrch a'i chreu y dref sirol newydd. Paham y gwnaeth ef hynny nid yw'n glir. Yn un darn o dystiolaeth fe gyfryngodd y llysgennad Sbaeneg ar ran Ond y mae'n bur anodd credu fod yr haeriad hwnnw'n wir. Y mae'n haws o lawer esbonio'r newid fel tueddiad y brenin Cymreig i ffafrio achosion ei gyd-wladwyr. Ond ni all neb egluro'n foddhaol paham y gwnaeth y brenin y newid hwn; y mae'n dal yn Nid yw'n hawdd dweud pa mor gryf oedd bywyd bwrdeistrefol Niwbwrch yn ystod hanner cyntaf yr 16eg ganrif. Fe gadarnhasid ei breinlen yn weddol ddiweddar yn 1524,8 ond awgryma'r holl dystiolaeth sydd ar gael mai ychydig mwy na phentref oedd hi erbyn y dyddiad hwn. Er hynny, anhepgorol i fone- ddigion y gorllewin oedd statws Niwbwrch fel canolfan swyddogol yr ynys i faentumio eu safle cymdeithasol yn y sir, ac yn enwedig eu siawns o ennill y sedd fwrdeistrefol yn Nhy'r Cyffredin. o lai pwys oedd statws cyfreithiol Niwbwrch mewn etholiad Marchog y Sir (h.y. yr Aelod dros y Sir), oherwydd yn 1545 a 1547-y ddau achlysur ar record pan gynhaliwyd etholiad sirol yn Niwbwrch fel y dref sirol-enillwyd y ddau etholiad gan Wiliam Bwclei o Langefni, E. A. Lewis, The Medieval Boroughs of Snowdonia (London, 1912), pp. 42, 52-3, 157-59, 161, 207-9; H. Owen, Hanes Plwyf Niwbwrch ym (Caernarfon, 1952), tt. 1, 7, 10, 17; M. Weinbaum, British Borough Charters (Cambridge, 1943), p. 137. PRO C89/4/10: 'abowte xlv yeres last past, that one Mancus then being ambassador from the King of Spayne by his sinister wrongfull and untrew informacion given to your highnes saide grawndefather King Henry the Seventhe obtayned his bill assigned for the alteracion and removinge of the said assises sessyons countie dayes or shire days from the saide towne of Beawmarres unto a lytle vyllage called Rhan o ddeiseb tref Biwmares yn 1549. Ni ellais ddarganfod unrhyw ffeithiau am y hwn. Owen, op. cit., p. 25. Weinbaum, loc. cit.46 CYNRYCHIOLAETH A CHYNNEN aelod blaenllaw o deulu enwog Biwmares. Ar y tro cyntaf, yn 1545, Rhisiart ap Rhydderch o Fyfyrian, ger Niwbwrch, fu'r siryf; a thyciodd etholiad Bwclei er gwaethaf y lle a pherson y siryf. o ddim pwys o gwbl oedd y fangre yn 1547, oherwydd mai gan ei nai ifanc, Syr Rhisiart Bwclei II o Fiwmares, a fu'r siryf y flwyddyn hon, y dychwelwyd Wiliam Bwclei i'r Senedd. Er gwaethaf eu llwyddiant mewn dau etholiad sirol (o fe gwynai'r Bwcleiod fod Biwmares, canolfan grym eu teulu hwy, heb gynrychiolaeth a llais o gwbl yn y Senedd oblegid bod Niwbwrch, yn groes i'r ddeddf, yn hawlio'r fraint i ethol yr Aelod ar ei phen ei hun. Fe allai'r Bwcleiod brofi fod Biwmares yn fwy goludog na Niwbwrch, gyda marchnad ffyniannus a phorthladd prysur a chyda poblogaeth pum waith yn fwy nag eiddo Niwbwrch; ond cyhyd ag y byddai Niwbwrch yn aros yn dref sirol llwyddai boneddigion y gorllewin i ddylanwadu ar yr ynys i raddau helaethach nag yr haeddent. Yn ôl y gyfraith, yr oedd pob etholaeth fwrdeistrefol yng Nghymru yn etholaeth o fwrdeistrefi cyfrannol, ymhle gallai pob 'hen fwrdei- stref' ymarfer y fraint o gyfrannu i etholiad a chyflogau yr un Aelod a oedd i'w cynrychioli hwy i gyd yn y Senedd. 10 Ond y mae'n glir y gwrthododd Niwbwrch rannu ei phleidlais â Biwmares. Yn y ddau etholiad o 1542 a 1545, y goroesa'r yndeinturiaid amdanynt, etholwyr o Niwbwrch yn unig a gymerodd ran. Ni wyddys pwy oedd yr Aelod cyntaf, yn 1542, oblegid mai dryll o'r ddogfen yn unig sydd ar gael heddiw. Efallai bod Browne Willis yn gywir wrth roi enw Rhisiart ap Rhydderch fel yr Aelod, oherwydd hwn oedd enw gwr pwysig iawn ym mywyd Niwbwrch a oedd piau'r plas gerllaw ym Myfyrian. 12 Y mae'n debyg iawn mai ef oedd yr Aelod cyntaf dros y dref, ond ni allwn ni ddim fod yn sicr. Os yw hynny'n wir, yr oedd yr Aelod cyntaf yn gâr i'r Aelod nesaf, yn 1545, sef Owen ap Huw o Fodeon. 13 Y dyn hwn oedd yr aer ifanc i hen deulu grymus a dylan- wadol yr ardal a oedd piau ystadau mawrion yng nghymdogaeth Gweler isod, tt. 12-13. 27 Hen. VIII, pen. 26; 35 Hen. VIII, p. 11. 11 PRO C219/18B/18. Dyry The Return of Members to Parliament, 1273-1702 (Parliamentary Papers, 1878), I. 374, yr enw 'Richard ap fel yr Aelod, ond ni chadarnheir yr haeriad hwn gan yr yndeintur ei hun. Dywed W. R. Williams, The Parliamentary History of the Principality of Wales (Brecon, 1895), t. 8, mai gwr o'r enw Rhisiart ap Dafydd ap Huw ap Siefri oedd yr Aelod. Ond yn wir nid enw un dyn yw hyn ond enwau dau etholwr! Lleolwyd ill dau mewn rhestr trethdalwyr Niwbwrch. 12 Am ei achau gweler Lewys Dwnn, Heraldic Visitations of Wales, gol. gan S. R. Meyrick (Llandovery, 1846), II, 137. Browne Willis, Notitia Parliamentaria (London, 1715-50), III (2), 9. 13 Owen ap Huw o Fodeon (c. 1520-ar 1600). Mab hynaf Huw ab Owain ap Meurug o Fodeon gan Gwen, merch Morris ap ap Maredudd o Glenennau, Sir Gaernarfon. Priododd (1) Elisabeth, merch Roland Gruffudd o Borthamel, Sir Fôn, 1 mab 2 ferch; (2) Sibyl (neu Isabel), merch Syr Wiliam Gruffudd o Benrhyn, Sir Gaern., 9 mab 3 merch. Comisiynwr am y cymorthdal, Sir Fôn 1546-47, 1563, 1572; siryf, Sir Fôn 1562-63, 1578-79; siedwr, 1571-72; ustus heddwch, 1559-84. Yn oes Elisabeth ef oedd y dyn mwyaf goludog