OWEN GLYNDWR.*
THE birth of Owen Glyndwr, if we may believe Shakespeare, was heralded by strange portents. At his coming- • Urea Glyncitor, and the Last Struggle for Welsh Independence. By A. 0. Bradley. London : U. P. Putnam's Sous. L5s.)
4. The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes; The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields," By liuCh signs, according to Shakespeare, was Glyndwr
excluded from "the roll of common men," and the poet's fancy is amply supported by tradition. Rumour has it that
on the night of his marvellous birth his father's horses were found standing in their stables up to their fetlocks in blood, a miracle which turned to reality many years afterwards. But whether these portents be inventions or not, it is certain that long before the time of Shakespeare Owen Glyndwr had become a hall-mythical hero. He who so long eluded the armies of . England escaped also the faithful chronicler. Thas.he is pictured by those who 'knew little of him as a sort of wild man of the mountains, unkempt, uncultured, and un- civilised. Thus he is represented half bandit, half wizard; and his victories, gained by skill and bravery, are too often ascribed to the spirits which he was supposed to call from "the vasty deep."
Such is the Glyndwr of fancy; the Glyndwr of history is another personage, yet no less remarkable. Nor has the real .man ever been .so fairly and clearly set forth as in Mr. Bradley's monograph, which is not only well written, but is a monument of unpretentious research. If the author has disturbed our superstitions, he has disturbed them in the cause of truth; and the Welsh hero has never appeared more heroic than in these accurate pages. Owen Glyndwr, then, so far from being .a wild man of the woods, was born a scion of the noble house of Powys. Although his early life is obscure, it is possible that be was educated at Oxford, where the fire of rebellion was kept alight by patriotic Welshmen; but it is certain that —like many of the Boer leaders—he studied at one of the Inns of Court, so that he was far better educated than the moat part of his contemporaries. At the beginning of his career he was loyal to the English Crown, and loyal he might have remained had not Richard been deposed. Strangely enough, he first took service withy Bolingbroke, afterwards Henry 1V., to whom he acted as scutiger, and who was afterwards his inveterate enemy. But his duties at Court did not exile him from Wales, where at his two estates, Glyndyfrdwy and Sycherth, he lived the life of a grand seigneur, hospitable to all comers, and a fine con- trast to his Norman neighbours. The famous bard Job, quoted by Mr. Bradley, has celebrated the wealth and splendour of Owen's life. . His mansion of Sycherth boasted parks, warrens, pigeon-houses, mills, orchards, and vineyards. The skill of his cook is celebrated in immortal verse, and in these terms does the bard applaud the virtues of Owen's wife "The best of wives, Happy am I in her wine and metheglyn ; ' Eminent woman of a knightly family, Honourable, beneficent, noble ; Her children come forward two by two, A beautiful nest of chieftains."
Such was Glyndwr's life, and such it might have remained had it not been for the interference of Lord Grey of Ruthin.
Between this Lord Marcher and Glyndwr there was a feud of ancient standing. Now, Lord Grey had seized 'oy force the common of Crcesau, which had originally belonged to Owen's estate. On Owen's protest to King Richard, the land was restored to him, but no sooner was Henry upon the throne Lhan Lord Grey retook it, and defied the owner. Even this affront might have been passed over, but Lord Grey was not content with his advantage. When in 1400 Glyndwr with other nobles was summoned to the King's standard, the summons was sent through Lord Grey, who suppressed it until Glyndwr found it too late to join the army, or to
explain his absence. Hence Owen was put down a• rebel, and a rebel he showed himself to some purpose. Had it not been for this insolence of Grey of Ruthin, England and Wales
might have been spared fifteen years of bloodshed. But Lord Grey having made up his mind that Glyndwr was a
content, determined to strike the first blow. He made a sudden attack upon Glyndwr, who only just escaped from his house; and henceforward Henry's policy of conciliation was applied in vain, since the Welsh had found a leader whom they
could trust. '
In truth, no sooner did Glyndwr declare himself and raise his standard—the red dragon of Wales upon a white ground— than bards and people both acclaimed him. He became on a 'sadden such a national hero as Wales never knew before or
. . . . .
since. He possessed all the necessary qualities,—courage, presence, policy. He encouraged the superstitions which gathered about his name, and he made the wisest possible use of the bards and their enthusiasm ; he attracted. to his standard the bravest men of his country, and not a few scholars left Oxford to fight for his cause. His ambition widened with his progress ; it began in a hatred of Henry IV., it ended in the dream of a Cambrian Kingdom. More- over, he proved his generalship by years of successful war- fare. No doubt his power of eluding the enemy was greater than his strength in the field; but he merely took advantage of the ground and the elements, and more than one English army left the borders of Wales with Glyndwr hot on its heels. His political wisdom was clearly displayed in the famous Tripartite Indenture, which bound himself, Northumberland, and Mortimer in firm alliance, and whose intention was to divide England and Wales among the three rebels. He even went so far as to make a treaty with the French King, and thus for fifteen years a single Welsh noble threatened the existenee of England.
But reverses came upon him, his lands were harried, his houses burnt to the ground. Worse still, his army suffered a, series of small defeats which the English, released from foreign complication, were enabled to inflict; until at last there was nothing left. for Owen but to give up all hope of conquest, and to degenerate into a guerilla leader. His last years were spent, it is said, at Kentchurch, in Herefordshire, the seat of his son-in-law ; and it is to the eternal glory of Henry V., his most magnanimous opponent, that a free pardon was granted to the rebel who all but established him- self on the throne of Wales. Mr. Bradley's book is a model of concise biography. The historian has mastered his materials, which he never allows to interfere with a simple and lucid narrative ; and if he compels us now and again to revise our impression of Owen Glyndwr, be has at any rate shown him a brave man, and not a romantic spectre.
Previous page
