Owain Glyndŵr
He was a Welsh squire trained in law who ended up proclaimed Prince of Wales, and then he simply vanished. Nobody knows where Owain Glyndŵr died.
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Quick Facts
- Who he was
- The last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales
- Born
- Around 1359 or 1354, in north-east Wales (the exact year is debated)
- Revolt began
- 16 September 1400, with his proclamation as Prince of Wales at Glyndyfrdwy; Ruthin was attacked a few days later
- Proclaimed prince
- 1400, by his supporters; he held parliaments at Machynlleth in 1404
- Trained as
- A lawyer, reportedly at the Inns of Court in London
- Allies
- The Percys of Northumberland and Edmund Mortimer, in the Tripartite Indenture of 1405
- Last recorded action
- 1412, when he captured Dafydd Gam; his death place, date and burial are unknown
- Legacy
- Welsh national hero, with a national day of remembrance on 16 September
The lawyer who lit a national rebellion
Owain Glyndŵr was no mountain outlaw. He came from a well-connected landowning family with roots in both north and mid Wales, and he is believed to have trained in law in London. He had even served in the armies of Richard II. He was a gentleman of comfortable means, with a fine house at Sycharth and another at Glyndyfrdwy, the valley that gave him the name by which we know him. That makes his revolt all the more startling. He had plenty to lose.
A boundary dispute and a missing letter
The spark was a quarrel with a neighbour, Reginald Grey, Lord of Ruthin. Grey was accused of seizing common land that Owain claimed. Owain took the matter to parliament and was brushed aside. Then came the summons to join Henry IV's campaign in Scotland in 1400. Grey was meant to deliver it, but it reached Owain too late, allegedly through Grey's deliberate delay, and Owain was branded a traitor. On 16 September 1400, Owain's supporters proclaimed him Prince of Wales at Glyndyfrdwy. Within days they attacked Ruthin and then towns across north-east Wales.
The year Wales had its own parliament
At its height, the revolt was far more than a raid. Owain's forces took Harlech and Aberystwyth, two of Edward I's great castles, and he held court at Harlech. In 1404 he summoned assemblies at Machynlleth, where he was crowned Prince of Wales in front of envoys from France and Scotland. Machynlleth is still known in Wales as the site of his parliament. He also looked for a Welsh church independent of Canterbury and for two universities, one in the north and one in the south. These were radical ideas for the age.
The plan to carve up England
In 1405 Owain signed the Tripartite Indenture with Edmund Mortimer and Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland. It imagined dividing England and Wales three ways. Owain was to have an enlarged Wales stretching well into the English border counties. Mortimer and Percy would share the rest of the country between them. It never happened. A French landing in support of Owain in 1405 fell short, and Henry IV's son, the future Henry V, steadily pushed back with a campaign of attrition. Harlech and Aberystwyth fell after long sieges, and Owain's family was captured. His wife and daughters ended up in London, and some of them died there.
The man who disappeared
Owain was never captured. His last recorded military action came in 1412, when he captured Dafydd Gam. Henry V offered pardons in 1415, but there is no sign that Owain accepted. After that, the trail goes cold. Legends sprang up quickly. Some say he died at the home of one of his daughters in Herefordshire, others that he lived out his days in hiding. No grave has been found. That absence helped build the myth. Like a Welsh King Arthur, he became a leader who might return.
Where his mark still shows
Shakespeare gave him a cameo in Henry IV, Part 1 as the magician Glendower, who boasts of calling spirits from the deep. It is a long way from the legal-minded rebel of history. In the 19th and 20th centuries, he became a symbol for Welsh nationalists. A statue of him stands in Cardiff City Hall, and the Owain Glyndŵr Society promotes his memory. Machynlleth still has the Parliament House, a building linked to his 1404 assembly, and Glyndŵr's Way is a long-distance trail across mid Wales. His banner, with its four lions, is flown at Welsh protests and sporting events. The revolt failed, but he remains the closest Wales came to winning back its own crown.
Notable people
- Owain Glyndŵr
- Henry IV
- Henry V
- Reginald Grey
- Edmund Mortimer
- Henry Percy
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