Events after the conquest of Wales by Edward Longshanks

Upon the death of Llywelyn, longshanks did all he could to get rid of any sign of  A Welsh nation.

Firstly, he dismantled most of llywelyn's halls and took over his castles. 

He then tried to kill off the lineage by ensuring Llywelyn's only child  Gwenllian along with the daughters of her uncle Dafydd ap Gruffudd, were all confined for life in remote priories in Lincolnshire and never allowed freedom. 

Dafydd ap Gruffudd  was dragged through the streets of Shrewsbury by a horse, hanged, revived and then disembowelled, He was the first recoded noble to be hung drawn and quartered. 

Edward also took from the Welsh Llywelyn’s coronet, the matrix of his seal, the crown of Arthur and the most sacred a cross that contained a  piece of the true Cross known as Y Groes Naid. 

 It is recorded that  ''Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales and Lord of Aberffraw had deposited this crown (Welsh: Talaith) and other items (such as the Cross of Neith) with the monks at Cymer Abbey for safekeeping at the start of his final campaign in 1282''

The Alms Roll of 1283 records that a cleric named Huw ab Ithel presented this "part of the most holy wood of the True Cross" to King Edward I at Aberconwy. It then accompanied the king as he finished his campaign in north Wales before being brought to London and carried through the streets at the head of a procession in May 1285 which included the King, the Queen, their children, magnates of the realm and fourteen bishops.

The relic  was taken to  Westminster Abbey by King Edward I and  presented to the shrine of Edward the Confessor as a token of the complete annihilation of the independent Welsh state  . King Edward I regarded the relic as his own personal property, taking it with him on triumphal progress through England, Wales and Scotland. During the reign of his son, King Edward II, it was lodged for safety in the Tower of London, where it remained until 1352, when it was given by King Edward III to his newly founded College at Windsor. This was soon after the foundation of the Order of the Garter in 1348. It was to prove an excellent source of income for the Dean and Canons, who benefited both from its prestige (it was accounted the ‘chief treasure’ of St George’s Chapel) and from offerings from the constant stream of pilgrims who came to Windsor to pray before the famous relic, and it remained the focus for pilgrimage and devotion for over two centuries.

 

The coronet, alongside the English Crown Jewels, was kept in Westminster Abbey until 1303 before they were all re-housed in the Tower of London after it and the English Crown Jewels were all temporarily stolen. It is widely thought that Llywelyn's Coronet was destroyed alongside most of the original English crown jewels in 1649 by order of Oliver Cromwell; however, an inventory taken by the new Republican administration prior to the destruction of the crown jewels makes no mention of this coronet.

Lands retained under direct royal control were organized under the Statute of Rhuddlan of 1284, which declared that they were "annexed and united" to the English crown,  although they did not become part of the Kingdom of England. They were the King's personal fief and in 1301, they were bestowed on Edward's son, Edward of Caernarfon (the future Edward II), with the title "Prince of Wales" and thereafter the lands and title became the customary endowment of the heir to the throne

The Statute also enforced the adoption of English common law in Wales, albeit with some local variation.

The rest of Wales continued to be constituted as the March of Wales under the rule of Marcher Lords, as before, from the 1290s Edward began intervening in the affairs of the March to a much greater extent.

Also From 1277, and particularly after 1283, Edward embarked on a policy of English colonization and settlement of Wales, creating new towns like Flint, Aberystwyth and Rhuddlan.  Outside the towns, Welsh peasants were evicted from key areas and their land resettled by English peasants: for example, in the Lordship of Denbigh 10,000 acres were occupied by English settlers by 1334.

Edward's main concern following his victory was to ensure the military security of his new territories, and the stone castle was to be the primary means for achieving this.  Under the supervision of James of Saint George, Edward's master-builder, a series of imposing castles was built, using a distinctive design and the most advanced defensive features of the day, to form a "ring of stone" around north Wales. Among the major buildings were the castles of Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Conwy and Harlech.

Rebellions continued to occur in Wales sporadically. These included revolts in 1287–88, and more seriously, in 1294 under Madog ap Llywelyn, a distant relative of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd  and in 1316–1318 by Llywelyn Bren, Lord of Senghenydd.

Llywelyns head

As for Llywelyn himself. This last bit is quoted from Wiki.

Llywelyn was surrounded and struck down. As he lay dying, he asked for a priest and gave away his identity. He was then killed and his head hewn from his body. His person was searched and various items recovered, including a list of "conspirators", which may well have been faked, and his privy seal.

The Llywelyn Monument at Cilmeri near Builth Wells

If the king wishes to have the copy [of the list] found in the breeches of Llywelyn, he can have it from Edmund Mortimer, who has custody of it and also of Llywelyn’s privy seal and certain other things found in the same place.

— Archbishop Peckham, in his first letter to Robert Bishop of Bath and Wells, 17 December 1282 (Lambeth Palace Archives)^[31]

The privy seal of Llywelyn the Last, his wife Eleanor and his brother Dafydd are thought to have been melted down by the English after finding them upon their bodies to make a chalice in 1284.^[32]

There are legends surrounding the fate of Llywelyn's severed head. It is known that it was sent to Edward at Rhuddlan and after being shown to the English troops based in Anglesey, Edward sent the head on to London. In London, it was set up in the city pillory for a day, and crowned with ivy (i.e. to show he was a "king" of Outlaws and in mockery of the ancient Welsh prophecy, which said that a Welshman would be crowned in London as king of the whole of Britain). Then it was carried by a horseman on the point of his lance to the Tower of London and set up over the gate. It was still on the Tower of London 15 years later.^[31]

The last resting place of Llywelyn's body is not known for certain; however, it has always been tradition that it was interred at the Cistercian Abbey at Abbeycwmhir. On 28 December 1282, Archbishop Peckham wrote a letter to the Archdeacon of Brecon at Brecon Priory, in order to

... inquire and clarify if the body of Llywelyn has been buried in the church of Cwmhir, and he was bound to clarify the latter before the feast of Epiphany, because he had another mandate on this matter, and ought to have certified the lord Archbishop before Christmas, and has not done so.^[31]

There is further supporting evidence for this hypothesis in the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester:

Aerial view of the ruined abbey of Cwm Hir

As for the body of the Prince, his mangled trunk, it was interred in the Abbey of Cwm Hir, belonging to the Cistercian Order.^[31]

Another theory is that his body was transferred to Llanrumney Hall in Cardiff.^[33]

The poet Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch wrote in an elegy on Llywelyn:

Do you not see the path of the wind and the rain?
Do you not see the oak trees in turmoil?

Cold my heart in a fearful breast
For the king, the oaken door of Aberffraw

There is an enigmatic reference in the Welsh annals Brut y Tywysogion, "… and then Llywelyn was betrayed in the belfry at Bangor by his own men". No further explanation is given.

The image below is a depiction of the head of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd being paraded around London.