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of Aber Connewy, and Master Madoc, son of Philip, his plenipotentiaries, of a truce from Monday before Midsummer, 1258, to St. Peter ad Vincula, August 1st, 1259, so that each party have seisin of the lands, castles, and other things, as they have now. Further it shall be lawful for the King and his men, to visit his Castles of Dissard and Gannock, and throughout the said time to munition them with victuals and other necessaries, by two boats, of twelve oars each, or less, or by land if there be tempest or other impediments of the sea and Imbert Pugey has sworn in the King's name to keep this, and the said Abbot and Madoc in the name of Llywelyn.

This letter was handed over to John de Sancto Dionisio, Clerk of John Mansell, to be delivered to the Welsh by the counsel of Edward the King's son. The Welsh letters of this truce, were handed over to Peter de Wintonia, Clerk of the Wardrobe, to be kept, on Thursday after midsummer.

The truce was extended, however, for some years, though there was little gain to Llywelyn, since the Castles of Gannoc and Dyserth commanded a large piece of territory. The Barons' war proceeded with varied success. Their friendliness with Llywelyn, the latter's alliance with the Earl of Leicester and the Scotch nobles, together with the tyrannical, yet weak government of Henry, brought matters to a crisis. War broke out again in 1263, with greater severity, in both the Marches and Perfeddwlad. Henry issued a Mandate from Westminster on March 23rd.

3

"To Knights, freemen, and others, of the Counties

1 Rymer's Foedera.

2 Chronica Will. Rishanger, 13. Rolls Series.

3 Rymer's Foedera, i, 370. Bain's Scotch Documents, i, 421.

4 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 47 Hen. III.

of Salop, Stafford and Hereford, to be of counsel and aid to Edward, the King's first-born son, whom the King is sending to the March of Wales to resist Llywelyn, son of Griffin, and his accomplices, who have invaded the lands of the King,' and his, in the said March, against his homage and fealty and the form of the Truce."

A Mandate was also issued from Westminster two days afterwards, to Richard de Tillebiry, Constable of the Tower of London, to let Edward, the King's son, have from the treasure in the Tower, for his expedition to the parts of Wales, 900 marks in part payment of £1000, which the King has ordered to be delivered to him.

Llywelyn, aided by Gruffydd, son of Madoc, laid siege to Dyserth Castle' at the end of June. A formidable struggle took place, and the previously successful garrison was overpowered after a five-weeks' resistance, on the day before the Feast of S. Oswald, August 4th, 1263. The Castle was utterly destroyed, stone over stone being thrown down the rock, which had been their strength.7

1 Chronica Will. Rishanger, 12. Rolls Series.

2 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 47 Hen. III.

3 Ann. Cest. states that the siege was undertaken "de mandato baronum," and Tout, Owens College Essays, 99, note 73.

4 Chaer Faelan. Ann. Camb.; Brut Tywys.

5 Et dominus Lewelinus cum magno exercitu et apparatu accessit ad castrum de Disserth circa Kalendas Augusti, et illud bello cepit et statim solo tenus destruxit, ita ut non ibi lapis super lapidem in brevi inveniretur."

6 Ann. Cest., 1263.

7 An erroneous story, many times copied, and noted by Pennant as being a reference from one of the Hengwrt MSS., is to the effect that "Einion, the son of Ririd Flaidd, was slain during the siege. A cross was erected on the spot, called Croes Einion, the shaft of which, ornamented with strange sculpture, now is supposed to form the stile into the churchyard." The stile has been done away with,

War was continued by Llywelyn until the end of 1265. In September of that year, Llywelyn made an inroad into Chester, and also formed an alliance with Gilbert de Clare,1 Earl of Gloucester. The latter made peace with the King, and Ottobon, the Papal legate, arranged terms between Llywelyn and Edward. By

but it is probable that it forms a part of the existing wall by the western gateway.

Gruffydd Hiraethog, a local bard and antiquary, states that it bore the following inscription :

"Oc si petatur lapis iste Kausa notatur

Einion Oxi Ririd Flaidd filius hoc memoratur."

Another rendering of the same in the Peniarth MS. 134, obviously corrupt, is as follows:

"Hoc sy petatur lapis ysti cavassa notatur

Einion Oxi Riddid Vlaidd filius hoc memoratur."

Translated thus:

"If the meaning be asked of this inscription

Einion, the son of Ririd Flaidd, is here commemorated."

Rhirid Flaidd, Rhirid the Wolf, so called from the ancestral crest he bore, was lord of Penllyn.

The bard Cynddelw describes him as :—

"Nid blaidd coed williadd allael

Translated:

Ond Blaidd Maes, moesawg a hael.'

"Not a wolf of the forest, fierce and savage,

But a wolf of the field, courteous and liberal."

He took his surname of Blaidd, or Wolf, from his ancestor, Y Blaidd Rhud, The Red Wolf, of Y Gest, in Carnarvonshire. On his shield he bore a wolf passant.

The story that Einion was slain at the siege of Dyserth Castle cannot possibly be correct. His father lived in the eleventh century; it is therefore impossible that the son could be fighting in A.D. 1263. That the cross was raised to Einion, son of Rhirid Flaidd, is clearly indicated by the inscription quoted above. It is therefore probable that he met his death at Dyserth in conflict with Robert of Rhuddlan, or Earl Hugh of Chester. The cross is of earlier date than 1263, and can now perhaps be ascribed to the end of the eleventh century. (For a drawing, see Westwood's Lapidarium Wallia.) The day schools now occupy the site.

1 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 50 Hen. III.

the Treaty of Montgomery the King granted Llywelyn and his heirs the Principality; but he was to pay 24,000 marks by way of indemnity. David's lands were also restored, and the treaty was ratified by Papal authority.1

From a letter in 1267 addressed by Llywelyn to Edward, King of the Romans (brother of King Henry), it would appear that Llywelyn was unable to pay the indemnity, and in lieu thereof "offered a sum of money to my lord the King, and also the comot in which is Gannoc, and also the Castle of Dissard, in the coniot of Prestaclune."4

1 Rymer, 843, says 25,000 marks, and Matthew of Westminster, 32,000.

2 Letters of Hen. III, ii, 312-313. Rymer, i, 473.

3 It was now destroyed; the site, of course, is meant. 4 Prestatyn.

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THE

WELSH MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, ARTS AND ANTIQUITIES, CARDIFF.

BY JOHN WARD, F.S.A.

In view of the approaching visit of the Cambrian Archæological Association to Cardiff, the Editor requests me to write about the Welsh Museum of Natural History, Arts and Antiquities-a long title, which is usually clipped to Welsh Museum,' but which well expresses its aims and the nature of its contents. To write now is in one sense inopportune, for museum matters in Cardiff are in a state of flux, but perhaps for this very reason a short description will be of peculiar future interest. The collections, under my charge as keeper, are still the property of the City Corporation, but steps are now being taken for their early transfer to the authorities of the National Museum of Wales. The site originally intended for a new municipal museum, and the fund accumulated towards defraying the cost of its erection, have already been transferred. On that site, the basement of the National Museum is making rapid progress, and in one of the quadrangles of the City Hall a small hall, which will serve as a temporary museum pending the completion of that building, is almost finished.

in

Until 1893, when the Corporation adopted the Museums and Gymnasiums Act of 1891, the Museum was a department of the Public Library. Both were the outcome of a correspondence in the local press 1858; but it was not until 1861 that the movement took definite shape, when a subscription list opened and a temporary room was rented in the Royal Arcade as a news and reading room. This

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