Owain Glyndŵr

Owain ap Gruffudd Fychan or Owain Glyndŵr ('Owain of Glyndyfrdwy', , c. 1416) was a Welsh nobleman and military commander in the late Middle Ages who led a sixteen-year-long Welsh revolt establishing an independent Wales free from English rule. Owain was acclaimed Prince of Wales by his supporters on 16 September 1400 because of his descent from the rulers of pre-Conquest Wales. Following initial successes, the rebellion was able to take control of the entirety of the country between 1404 and 1405. However, an increase of English military pressure and the lack of foreign aid resulted in the loss of all rebel territory by 1409, after which Owain continued sporadic resistance until his disappearance from the historical record in 1412.

During the year 1400, Owain, a Welsh soldier and Lord of Glyndyfrdwy, had a dispute with a his English neighbour Reginald de Grey, a symptom of larger animosity between the Welsh and English in Wales which ultimately led to a national revolt that pitted common Welsh countrymen and nobles against the English military. In response to the rebellion, discriminatory penal laws were implemented against the Welsh people; this deepened civil unrest and significantly increased support for Owain across Wales. Then, in 1404, after a series of successful castle sieges and several battlefield victories for the Welsh, Owain gained control of most of Wales and held a parliament in Machynlleth in the presence of envoys from France, Scotland, the Spanish kingdoms of Castille and Leon, and representatives from every region of Wales. Military aid was given to the rebellion from France, Brittany, and Scotland. Owain wrote in the Pennal Letter of 1406 that he had plans to build two universities, one in North Wales and one in South Wales, and reinstate the traditional Welsh laws of Hywel Dda, and to expand Wales' borders into England, which would have affected the structure of the Church.

The war continued, and over the next several years, the English gradually gained control of large parts of Wales. By 1409 the rebellion’s last remaining castles of Harlech and Aberystwyth had been captured by English forces. Owain refused two royal pardons and retreated to the Welsh hills and mountains with his remaining forces, where he continued to resist English rule by using guerrilla warfare tactics, until his disappearance from the historical record in 1412.

Owain was never captured or killed, and the circumstances surrounding his death are unknown. In Welsh culture he acquired a mythical status alongside Cadwaladr, Cynon ap Clydno and King Arthur as a folk hero, and was seen as the 'Son of Destiny', just as was Owain Lawgoch a few decades earlier. He also appears in William Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 1 he appears as the character Owen Glendower.

Background, early life and career

Background

Owain Glyndŵr was the son of Gruffudd Fychan and Elen ferch Tomas ap Llywelyn. Little is known of his father, though he held the important post of steward in the earl of Arundel's lordship of Oswestry from 1346 to 1348 and was lord of Glyndyfrdwy and Cynllaith, two non-contiguous lordships at opposite ends of the Berwyn range. Through his father, Owain could boast senior, if remote, ancestry from Madog ap Maredudd, the last ruler of a united Powys. However, his mother's lineage granted him descent not only from her own Dynasty of Deheubarth but also from the Second Dynasty of Gwynedd in three discrete instances and even from King John through John's daughter Joan. However, the only reference Owain himself would make towards his ancestry during his rebellion was to his supposed descent from Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon, a seventh-century king of Gwynedd who was seen as a legendary deliverer of the Welsh people and was recorded as the last King of the Britons in Geoffrey of Monmouth's immensely popular pseudo-history entitled De gestis Britonum.

thumb|upright=1.1|The site of Owain Glyndŵr's court at [[Sycharth. Only a mound remains after the building was burnt to the ground.]]

Early life

Owain was born in or before 1359. A typical man of his era, Glyndŵr was trained as a soldier engaging in war in the 1380s for the English Kingdom, and becoming an esquire for Richard Fitzalan, 4th Earl of Arundel, dated 13 March 1387 and enrolling to overseas service in May 1388. Gruffudd Fychan was baron of Glyndyfrdwy (or Glyndŵr) and Cynllaith in his own right. Owain's father was dead by 1370, which left his mother Elen ferch Tomas a widow whilst he was still a boy. Owain's mother was from Iscoed, Ceredigion, and was a descendant of Gruffudd, eldest son of the Lord Rhys, Prince of Deheubarth. After Glyndwr's father died when he was young he was likely fostered in the home of David Hanmer, who shared responsibilities of raising him with his mother as well as the Arundell family, specifically the FitzAlans, who were expected to offer support and patronage to encourage his military career.

Early career

The young Owain ap Gruffudd Fychan under the teutalage of David Hanmer became a rising lawyer shortly to be a justice of the King's Bench, or at the home of Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel. Owain is then thought to have been sent to London to study law at the Inns of Court, as a student in Westminster, London, In March 1387, Owain fought as a squire to Richard Fitzalan, 4th Earl of Arundel, In 1415 and 1416, Owain's old enemy Henry V attempted to entreat Owain and the few remaining rebels to surrender and be pardoned, to which Owain never responded; Owain is presumed to have died around this time.

Accounts from Herefordshire

The uncertain circumstances surrounding Owain's final days gave rise to many legends surrounding his death. According to J. E. Lloyd and Gruffydd Aled Williams, the most credible sources associate Owain's death and burial with Herefordshire. The seventeenth-century History of Owen Glendower written by the antiquarians Robert Vaughan and Thomas Ellis notes that by their time "some say he dyed at his daughter Scudamores, others, at his daughter Monington's house". An early sixteenth-century translation of Tito Livio Frulovisi's Life of Henry the Fifth inserts into the text an assertion that Owain died "vppon the topp of Lawton's hope Hill in Herefordshire". Lawton's Hope farm near Canon Pyon was inherited by the Monnington family around the turn of the fourteenth century, and its owner around the time of Owain's death would have been Sir Richard Monnington, husband of Owain's daughter Sioned.

Other traditions associate the site of Owain's death with Kentchurch Court, owned by another one of Owain's sons-in-law, John Skydmore, though the better-attested hall of the family at this time was Bodenham at La Verne. In the early fifteenth century, the area around Kentchurch would have been majority Welsh-speaking, and Skydmore was the employed by the state as the Welsh interpreter for and Elfed in Carmarthenshire from the years 1411-1431. Another hall associated with this family is Monnington Straddle, which possessed a medieval chapel and was endorsed as Owain's place of rest by J. E. Lloyd. The final likely possibility for Owain's burial ground is at St James the Great, Kimbolton, which was formerly the chapelry of Leominster Priory and also owned by the Skydmores; this tradition is attributed to is attributed to the sixteenth-century scholar Edmund Prys, a Welshman who was vicar of nearby Ludlow from 1576 to 1579.

A second burial?

Owain may nave been buried a second time, as according to Adam Usk, "After four years in hiding from the king and kingdom, Owen Glendower died, and was buried by his followers in the darkness of night. His grave was discovered by his enemies, however, so he had to be re-buried, though it is impossible to discover where he was laid." While Owain may have been reburied at some other location in Herefordshire, another possibility is outside of the county, even in Wales. The fifteenth-century poet Robin Ddu of Anglesey, writing in the tumultuous reign of Richard III, prophesied that "There is an old man in Maelienydd / whose hair is like blossom on trees... I have heard, captivating muse, / much poetry about an old white-haired man, / and if this one who will claim his right / is the prophesied white-haired one, / battle-axe and sword without delay / will extend the boundary of our land..." and in one line names this man as "Owain". In the fifteenth century, Lewys Glyn Cothi called the husband of Owain's daughter Gwenllïan who lived in the parish of St Harmon on the border between Gwrtheyrnion and Maelienydd "son-in-law to the Old White-haired One"; Lewys Glyn Cothi also associates Owain with Maelienydd in another poem. Thus, Gruffydd Aled Williams suggested the final resting place of Owain Glyndŵr may have been Cwmhir Abbey, which was located in Maelienydd and was also the final resting place of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the native Prince of Wales killed by the forces of Edward I of England in 1282.

Issue and descendants

thumb|upright|A sketch of Owain Glyndŵr as he appeared to [[William Blake in a late-night vision. This is one of a number of such sketches known collectively as the Visionary Heads.]]

Owain married Margaret Hanmer, also known by her Welsh name Marred ferch Dafydd, and together they had five or six sons and four or five daughters. Also, Owain had some illegitimate children out of wedlock.

Owain has been featured in a number of works of modern fiction, including most notably John Cowper Powys's novel Owen Glendower (1941), and Edith Pargeter's 1972 publication A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury.
A highly fictionalised Owain is featured in the popular YA book series The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater as Owen Glendower. In the series, which takes place in the Shenandoah Valley, characters believe that Owain's body was brought from Wales to Virginia after his death, and that whoever can "wake" him will be granted a favour.
In 2026, a new play by Gary Owen called Owain & Henry, about Owain's rebellion against the rule of Henry IV of England in the 15th century, will be performed at the Welsh National Theatre with Michael Sheen playing Owain.

Namesakes

The Owain Glyndwr Hotel in Corwen is a historic 18th century coaching inn.
The Owain Glyndŵr pub in Cardiff, briefly named Owen Glendower was named in his honour. This would create arms identical to those of Gwynedd and of Owain Lawgoch, the last pretender to the title of Prince of Wales. However, Owain Glyndŵr was of the northern branch of the dynasty of Powys which bore different arms than that of the southern branch and so he may have simply adopted Owain Lawgoch's arms in order to claim continuation with his pretension. These arms differ from those of the last pre-Conquest princes of Gwynedd, who bore arms with lions passant or passant gardant rather than rampant as here.

| year_adopted = Attested on seals of 10 May 1404 and 22 January 1405.

| crest = A winged two-legged dragon [Or ?].

| supporters = Dexter: A similar dragon;<br/>Sinister: A lion rampant gardant, crowned.

|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;

|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;

|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;

|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;

|boxstyle_5=background-color: #1ff

|1= 1. Owain Glyndŵr

|2= 2. Gruffudd Fychan ap Gruffudd Llwyd

|3= 3. Elen ferch Thomas

|4= 4. Gruffudd Llwyd of Rhuddallt

|5= 5. Elizabeth Lestrange

|6= 6. Tomas ap Llywelyn

|7= 7. Elinor ferch Maredudd

|8= 8. Madog Fychan ap Madog Cripl

|9= 9. Gwenllian ferch Ithel Fychan

|10= 10. John Lestrange, 1st Baron Strange

|11= 11. Eleanor de Mont

|12= 12. Llywelyn ab Owain

|14= 14. Maredudd ab Owain

|15= 15. Lleucu ferch Llywelyn

|16= 16. Madog Cripl ap Gruffudd Fychan

|17= 17. Marged ferch Rhys Ieuanc

|18= 18. Ithel Fychan ap Ithel Llwyd of Helygain

|19= 19. Margaret Brickill

|20= 20. John IV Lestrange

|21= 21. Joan de Somery

|22= 22. Ebal II de Mont

|23= 23. Elizabeth de Clinton

|24= 24. Owain ap Maredudd

|25= 25. Angharad ferch Owain

|28= 24. Owain ap Maredudd

|30= 12. Llywelyn ab Owain

References

Notes

Bibliography