Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

OWAIN GLYN DWR AND GWENT A REAPPRAISAL OF HIS CAMPAIGNS IN, THE LEVEL OF SUPPORT HE OBTAINED FROM AND THE EFFECTS OF HIS REBELLION UPON THE REGION HISTORICALLY KNOWN AS GWENT by Adrian Howells Preface The last time that this One of the most neglected episodes in our county's history" -had a thorough treatment in a Monmouthshire journal was in 1933, in an article by Griffith Davies. Davies's starting point, as he trenchantly observed at the time, was that, 'Popular histories of Wales almost entirely ignore the part that Monmouthshire played in the struggle'2 though why this should be so he did not address in the rest of his article. To a certain extent this continues to be the case even though the interest in and the number of publications about Owain Glyn Dwr have grown considerably since Davies's day. Gwent is still noted as the site of some early battles, but not a lot more besides,3 and I shall return to this particular issue, briefly, later on. Griffith Davies succeeded in his project to the extent that he placed Owain's forays into Gwent, and those of his captains, into the overall framework and chronology of the revolt. Equally, though he only devoted one and a half pages to it out of eleven, he did touch upon one of the most important measures of the effects of the rebellion: the economic consequences of it all. The economic and financial depredations experienced both during and after the revolt are not only a very important indicator of the savagery of Owain's war but are highly significant in trying to gauge the likely level of support he enjoyed throughout it in Gwent. For, as Griffith Davies tells us, 'the only lordship which escaped the depredations of the marching armies was Chepstow.'4 A technical problem with Griffith Davies, however, is that, for the most part, he does not record, as with the observation about Chepstow above, from whence he got his information [though the absence of any significant recorded events there does seems to bear this statement out]. Occasionally, in the text he does refer, for example, to this or that letter sent to the King, which even without the conventions of standard referencing can at least be corroborated from other sources. And when he quotes from contemporary, but unreferenced sources reproduced in smaller print these, too, have the merit of being in the Public Record Office or some other public repository, but the lack of conventional referencing is somewhat disconcerting, nevertheless. However, even more significant than the above, there are some important