CHAP. X. Welsh people had been as eager as their King to carry killed by his own people. Aug. 5, 1063. The Welsh kingdom granted to Bleddyn and Rhiwallon. outlawry was not a doom hard enough for the fallen prince; death alone was the fitting punishment for his crimes. In the month of August in this year, Gruffydd the son of Llywelyn, the last victorious hero of the old Cymrian stock, the last British chief whose name was really terrible in Saxon ears, was put to death by men of his own race, and his head was sent to the conqueror.1 Harold had thus been merciless as long as resistance lasted, but as soon as the foe submitted, he displayed the same politic and generous lenity which he always displayed towards both foreign and domestic enemies. The head of Gruffydd and the beak of his ship2 were brought as trophies to King Eadward. His kingdom was granted to his two brothers or kinsmen, Bleddyn and Rhiwallon,3 who received 1 The Peterborough Chronicler is almost startling in his terse brevity; "And þæt folc heom gislodon and to bugon, and foron syððan to, and ofslogon heora cyng Griffin and brohton Harolde his heafod." The words in Italics might mean that they went and slew Gruffydd by Harold's order, in short that his death, in conformity with the vote of the Christmas Gemót (see above, p. 465), was required by Harold as part of the conditions of peace. Such a demand, severe as it may seem, would doubtless have been legal. But this does not seem a necessary meaning of the words, and the expressions of the Worcester writer, of Florence, and of the Welsh Chronicle read as if the deed was distinctly the work of the Welsh themselves. By John of Salisbury's time it was forgotten that Gruffydd was killed by his own people; with him Harold " Reges cepit et capita eorum Regi qui eum miserat præsentavit” (iv. 18). 2 Chron. Wig. "And Harold hit [Gruffydd's head] þam kynge brohte, and his scipes heafod and pa bone bermid." I do not know what the "bone" means. The Biographer (426) says nothing about the death of Gruffydd, but is eloquent about the spoil, especially the "Proram cum puppi, pondus grave scilicet auri, Artificum studio fusile multiplici." 3 The Worcester Chronicle (1063) says expressly that the two princes were Gruffydd's brothers; "And se kyng Eadward betahte þæt land his twam gebropran Blepgente and Rigwatlan." In the two Welsh Chronicles no notice is taken of this investiture of Gruffydd's successors, but in 1068 we find Bleddyn and Rhiwallon reigning; they are however called sons of Cynfyn, and are described as waging war with the sons of Gruffydd. Of SETTLEMENT OF WALES. 473 the land as Under-kings of the English Emperor. But, CHAP. X. according to the precedent set on the earlier submission of 1056. Gruffydd,1 a considerable part of the Welsh territory was now incorporated with the English Kingdom. In the North the vale of Clwyd, containing Gruffydd's palace at Rhuddlan, was added to the English shire of Chester, and in the South, the land of Gwent, or so much of it as lies between the Wye and the Usk, was added to the shire of Gloucester. The former dismemberment became an addition to the Earldom of Eadwine and the latter to that of Harold. Radnor too, on the central march of Wales, also became an English possession. For the remainder of the land the new princes went through the accustomed rites of homage. They swore oaths and gave hostages to King Eadward, and also to Earl Harold, seemingly as his destined successor.3 They engaged also to pay the tribute which had been accustomed in past times, but which, we may be sure, had been very irregularly paid in the days of Gruffydd.1 about Wales. Two pieces of legislation are said to have followed the Legislation conquest of Wales. Harold is said to have ordained that any Welshman found in arms on the English side of Offa's Dyke should lose his right hand. If this was Bleddyn we have heard before in the invasion of Herefordshire. See above, 2 On the evidence for these cessions, see Appendix SS. + Chron. Wig. "And hig [Bleddyn and Rhiwallon] abas sworon and gislas saldan þæm Cynge and þam Eorle, þæt heo him on allum þingum unswicende beon woldon, and eighwar him gearwe, on wætere and on lande, and swyle of þain lande gelæstan swyle man dyde toforan ær oþrum kynge." 5 Joan. Sarisb. iv. 18. 66 Legem statuit ut quicumque Britonum exinde citra terminum, quem eis præscripsit, fossam scilicet Offæ, cum telo inveniretur, ei ab officialibus regni manus dextra præcideretur." A not very different order was put out in John of Salisbury's own day. Henry the Second ordered in 1175 ne aliquis arma gestaret per Angliam citra Sabrinam, scilicet arcum et sagittas, et cultella cum punctis ; et si quis hujusmodi arma gestaret caperetur." Ben. Petrib. i. 93. This however 66 CHAP. X. anything more than a temporary military regulation, Harold's ordaining it can only mean that it was he who proposed the enactment to the Witan. The other decree is attributed to the special indulgence of Eadward himself. The slaughter of the male population of Wales had been so great that there was no chance of the widows and daughters of the slain finding husbands among their own people. Lest the whole race should die out, the King allowed them to marry Englishmen, which we must infer had hitherto been unlawful.1 Stories like these must be taken at what they are worth. Though coming from the same source, they do not bear about them the same stamp of truth as the accounts which are given us of the military details of the campaign.2 Wales was thus, to all appearance, thoroughly conquered. North Wales, the original Kingdom of Gruffydd, seems to have remained fairly quiet; but elements of disturbance still lingered in the South. Part of the land of Gwent had, as we have seen, been formally incorporated with the English Kingdom and with the West-Saxon Earldom.3 Harold. accordingly hastened to take possession on behalf of himself and of his sovereign. King Eadward was growing old, but he still retained his love of hunting, and a new field seemed to be opened for the royal sport in the wild lands which had been lately brought into fuller subjection to the royal authority. In the low lands of Gwent, near one of the does not seem to have been specially aimed at the Welsh. The historian adds, "sed hæc præcepta parvo tempore custodita sunt." 1 Joan. Sarisb. iv. 18. " Adeoque virtute Ducis tunc Britones confecti sunt ut fere gens tota deficere videretur, et ex indulgentiâ jam dicti Regis mulieres eorum nupserunt Anglis." 2 I leave out a paragraph which stood here in the first edition touching the marriage of Harold with Ealdgyth the sister of Eadwine and Morkere, which I then thought happened at this time. I now feel almost certain that it did not happen till after Harold's coronation. See vol. iii. p. 625. 3 See Appendix SS. HAROLD'S HOUSE AT PORTSKEWET. builds a seat at skewet. 475 usual places of crossing the mouth of the Severn from CHAP. x. England into Wales, the Earl chose out a place called Harold Porth-iscoed or Portskewet as well suited for his sove- huntingreign's diversions. One of the great Gemóts of each Portyear was now so regularly held at Gloucester that a place August 1, at no very great distance from that city might well seem 1065. convenient for the purpose. But besides this, it was an obvious policy thus to take seizin, as it were, of the conquered lands, and to show to their inhabitants that their new sovereign was to be really a present master. At Portskewet then Earl Harold began to build a house, and he had gathered together a large number of workmen and an abundant store of provisions and other good things. We do not read that Eadward ordered the building of the house; it seems rather like a voluntary act of Harold's own, springing from his personal consideration for his royal brother-in-law's pleasure. Of any discontent on the part of the newly appointed princes of the country we hear nothing. But there was one to whom a Saxon settlement on the soil of Gwent was far more irksome than it could be to any prince of Powys or Gwynedd. A disinherited and Caradoc dispossessed chieftain still looked on the land as his own, Gruffydd and probably deemed Harold and Bleddyn to be equally Wales intruders. This was Caradoc ap Gruffydd, the son of that kills the Gruffydd of South Wales who had been slain, and his August 24, kingdom seized, by the more famous Gruffydd whose career had so lately come to an end." According to one account, he had been himself outlawed by order of Harold.3 1 Chron. Ab. 1065. "Harold Eorl . . . bone Kinge Eadward par to habbene for huntnopes pingon." So Flor. Wig. "Ut Dominus suus Rex Eadwardus illic aliquamdiu venationis caussâ degere possit." 2 See above, p. 386. Florence expressly distinguishes him as "filius Regis Suth-Walanorum Griffini, quem ante paucos annos Griffinus Rex North-Walanorum occiderat, ejusque regnum invaserat." 3 R. Wend. i. 507. "Craddoc, Griffini filius, quem anno præterito exsulaverat Haroldus." This may however be some confusion with the outlawry of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. son of of South workmen. 1065. CHAP. X. At any rate, the sight of the palace of the English King, rising in a district which had once been his father's, rankled in his soul. He gathered as large a band as he could, he came suddenly on the unfinished building, he slew nearly all the workmen, and carried off all the good things which had been provided for them and for the King. Such is the account in our own Chronicles, but an incidental notice in the Norman Survey might lead us to think that Caradoc was not satisfied with destroying the newly built house of the King, but that a considerable extent of the newly conquered country was harried by its banished prince.2 A raid even on this greater scale was common enough in the desolating border-warfare which was ever going on between the English and Welsh, but it is clear that a special political importance attached to this act of Caradoc. One of the Chroniclers adds significantly, "We know not who this ill counsel first devised."3 These words, taken with a fact which we shall have presently to speak of, may perhaps suggest the idea that this lesser disturbance in South Wales was not without connexion with the more important events in England which presently followed it. § 3. The Revolt of Northumberland. 1065. If Eadward or Harold made any preparations to avenge the insult offered by Caradoc to the Imperial authority, their attention was soon called off from that corner of the Empire to a far greater movement in the Earldom of Northumberland. However righteous may have been the 1 Chronn. Ab. and Wig. 1065. "pa for Cradoc Griffines sunu to, mid eallum þam þe he begytan mihte, and þæt folc mæst eall ofsloh þe þar timbrode, and þæt god genam þe þar gegaderod was." 2 Domesday, 162. "Sub iisdem præpositis sunt iiii villa wastatæ per Regem Caraduech." These lie in the part of Gwent with which we are now concerned. 3 Chron. Wig. "Ne wiston we hwa pone unræd ærest gerædde." |