When 3000 Welshmen beat an English army of 30,000

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King Henry (who ascended to the throne in 1154) decided to invade Gwynedd to halt the recent expansion of Owain Gwynedd into the lands of Powys, and to expand his empire into northern Wales. 
Henry led a large army of 30,000 men into northern Wales and sent a fleet (led by Henry FitzRoy) to capture Anglesey to cut off Owain's supplies. Owain responded by raising a Welsh army of around 3000 men.
Owain's army made camp at Basingwerk to block the route to Twthill at Rhuddlan. Henry split from his main army with a smaller force that would march through the nearby Ewloe woods to outflank Owain's army. Sensing this, Owain sent a large army led by his sons Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd and Cynan ab Owain Gwynedd into the woods to guard Owain's main force from Henry's outflanking army. Owain split his army and decided to personally lead an extra 200 men into the Ewloe woods to reinforce his sons' armies. When Henry's outflanking force advanced into the wood, they were ambushed by Owain's forces and cut down. The remainder of Henry's force retreated, with Henry narrowly avoiding being killed himself (having been rescued by Roger, Earl of Hertford).

 Henry managed to escape back to his main army alive. Not wishing to engage the Angevin army directly, Owain repositioned himself first at St. Asaph, then further west, clearing the road for Henry II to enter into Rhuddlan "ingloriously". Once in Rhuddlan, Henry II received word that his naval expedition had failed. Instead of meeting Henry II at Deganwy or Rhuddlan as the king had commanded, the English fleet had gone to plunder Môn and the Norman troops on board had been defeated by the local Welsh soldiers (Henry FitzRoy himself had also been killed). 

Comments

  1. Gareth Baker11 September 2017 at 00:48

    Well that was a disappointing end, considering the title of the piece.

    ReplyDelete
  2. worldwidemac2 March 2019 at 01:51

    I agree with Gareth: it leaves me feeling 'and then....?'

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown2 March 2019 at 03:34

    One Welshman can beat ten Englishmen, came the voice from the wood!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown16 February 2021 at 00:49

      "Go back! It's a trap! There are two of them." I remember my Dad telling that one around the table when I was a boy. It was fog, then. :-)

      Delete

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