The rising of Owain Glyndŵr
Owain Glyndŵr is proclaimed Prince of Wales and leads a national revolt that for a few years frees most of Wales from English rule, before it is crushed.
- The Revolt of Owain Glyn Dŵr — R. R. Davies, Oxford University Press (1995)
- A History of Wales — John Davies, Penguin (2007)
- When Was Wales? A History of the Welsh — Gwyn A. Williams, Penguin (1985)
On 16 September 1400 Owain Glyndŵr, a landowner descended from the princes of Powys and Deheubarth, was proclaimed Prince of Wales by his followers. His revolt against Henry IV spread across the country, and by 1404 he controlled most of Wales, holding a parliament at Machynlleth and capturing the castles of Harlech and Aberystwyth.
- The Revolt of Owain Glyn Dŵr — R. R. Davies, Oxford University Press (1995)
The rising began with a quarrel with an English neighbour, Lord Grey of Ruthin, but it tapped deep resentment of a century of colonial rule. Glyndŵr allied with France and with English rebels, the Percys and Edmund Mortimer. In his “Pennal letter” of 1406 to the King of France he set out a vision of an independent Welsh church and two Welsh universities. Parliament in London responded with penal laws barring Welsh people from holding office, bearing arms, or buying land in England or in the English boroughs of Wales.
- The Revolt of Owain Glyn Dŵr — R. R. Davies, Oxford University Press (1995)
- A History of Wales — John Davies, Penguin (2007)
From 1405 the tide turned. Harlech fell in 1409, and Glyndŵr’s family were captured. He himself disappeared around 1415, never captured and never betrayed despite offers of pardon, and passed into legend as the hero who sleeps, waiting to return.
- The Revolt of Owain Glyn Dŵr — R. R. Davies, Oxford University Press (1995)
- When Was Wales? A History of the Welsh — Gwyn A. Williams, Penguin (1985)
Glyndŵr is the founder-figure of Welsh independence, a leader who imagined a Welsh state with its own parliament, church and universities, and who was never captured or betrayed.
- The Revolt of Owain Glyn Dŵr — R. R. Davies, Oxford University Press (1995)
- When Was Wales? A History of the Welsh — Gwyn A. Williams, Penguin (1985)
To Henry IV and his Parliament Glyndŵr was a traitor allied with France and English rebels, and Shakespeare later made him a boastful mystic in Henry IV, Part 1; the penal laws against the Welsh were the Crown's answer.
- The Revolt of Owain Glyn Dŵr — R. R. Davies, Oxford University Press (1995)
Why it matters today
Glyndŵr is the great hero of Welsh nationhood, the man who imagined an independent Wales with its own parliament, church and universities. His day, 16 September, is marked across Wales, and his name was taken by everything from pubs to the 1980s arsonists who burned holiday homes. To many he is proof that the Welsh did not accept conquest quietly.