Wales and its History

  This small vignette from the St. Alban’s Chronicle (MS 6, f. 167v) purports to show the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, last native Prince of Wales, on 11 December 1282.  Although the image shows a formal execution scene with a priest in attendance, the text of the Chronicle relates that Llywelyn was killed in an ambush or scuffle:  And when  Ƿ e prince Lewellin his bro Ƿ er  Ƿ at wist he was sore abashed for he had no power to may[n]teyn werre  And  Ƿ en he fled & wend wele to haue scapid but Thomas mortymer in a morning w t  v. knightes met hym alone & hym clipped round about & toke hym and smote of his hed and it presented to  Ƿ e king. And  Ƿ us was Lewellyn hedid & he & his heires disherit for eu[er]more be rightfull Jugement. (f.169).

Abergavenny massacre Sometime in the 1160s Henry Fitzmiles, the Norman Lord of Abergavenny, was killed fighting against the forces of Sytsylt ap Dyferwald, a native Welsh ruler of the area, in 1172 The same Welshman besieged and captured the Norman castle at Abergavenny but was soon returned to the Normans. With Henry dead there was no male heir to take over the de Balun lands so these passed to the evil Norman lord William de Braose, a court favourite of King John of England, a man who was said to be the most vicious of all the Marcher lords. At Christmas 1175 de Braose invited Sytsylt, his son Geoffrey and all of the leading chieftains from Powys and Gwent to a feast at Abergavenny Castle. The intention, he declared, was to meet and spend the Christmas period in each other's company, They would feast and celebrate and make a lasting reconciliation following the death of Henry Fitzmiles. Unsuspecting, Sytsylt accepted the invitation, happy to bring peace to the land, but Willi...