III. CHAP. the enemy could dislodge him from his seat. In temper he was warm and irascible, impatient of injury, and reckless of danger: but his anger might be disarmed by submission, and his temerity seemed to be justified by success. During the late contest with the barons, he had proved the solidity of his judgment, and the resolution of his mind: and his reputation had been established among the admirers of chivalry by his prowess in battles, in tournaments, and in his expedition to Palestine. 12 In ambition he did not yield to any of his predecessors: but his ambition aimed at a very different object. They had exhausted their strength in attempting conquests on the continent, which might be wrested from them at any time by a fortunate neighbour: he aspired to unite in himself the sovereignty of the whole island of Great Britain. Nor was he entirely disappointed. Wales was incorporated with England: and the independence of Scotland sought an asylum in the midst of morasses, forests, and mountains. 1. The subjugation of the former, 2. and the attempt to subjugate the latter, will comprise the most interesting occurrences of his reign. Edward subdues 1. After the death of Henry, Llewellyn, like the Welsh, the other vassals of the English throne, had been required to swear fealty to the new monarch. During Edward's absence the refusal of the 12 Heming. 1, 2. Trivet, 238. III. Welshman had been overlooked: after his coro- CHAP. nation the summons was thrice repeated, and as often eluded. It was not that Llewellyn denied the right of the king, or his own obligation: but a clause in the last treaty, which prohibited. either party from harbouring the enemies of the. other, furnished him with a plausible subject of complaint, and a claim of redress. When this pretext had been removed, he endeavoured to shelter himself under the probability of danger to his life from the malice of his enemies in England. Edward advanced to the borders of Wales and offered him a safe conduct: but he rose in his demands, and required conditions, the extravagance of which proved that they were asked only that they might be rejected. The truth was, that the prince aspired to the honour of asserting the independence of his country, and had resolved not to acknowledge a superior, unless he were compelled by the fortune of arms. At first the English prelates and barons interceded in his favour: his excuses and delays exhausted their patience: they pronounced him a rebel, and granted a fifteenth towards the expenses of the war. 13 The winter was employed by the king in tempting the fidelity of the Welsh. David, whom, though a brother, Llewellyn had deprived of his patrimony, invited his countrymen to the standard 1277. III. CHAP. of Edward: and Rees ap Meredith, the representative of the ancient princes of South Wales, gladly fought against the chief of a rival family. Edward's military tenants assembled in the counties of Shropshire and Cheshire: at Midsummer he crossed the Dee, advanced along the coast, took and fortified the two castles of Flint and Rhuddlan obtained possession of Anglesey, and with his fleet cut off the communication between Snowdun and the sea. Llewellyn, confined to barren mountains and forests, soon felt the privations of famine: and Nov. 9. in a few weeks was compelled to throw himself without reserve on the mercy of his adversary. The conditions granted him were, that he should pay a fine of fifty thousand pounds, that he should cede to Edward the full possession of the four cantreds between Chester and the river Conway, should hold Anglesey in fee of the English crown by a yearly rent of one thousand marks, should do homage to the king at Rhuddlan and in London, and should deliver ten hostages for his subsequent fidelity. But these terms were prescribed only to shew the superiority of the conqueror: and Edward soon Nov. 11. yielded to the suggestions of his own generosity. He first remitted the fine of fifty thousand pounds, next the yearly rent for the isle of Anglesey, then gratuitously returned the ten hostages, and lastly, consented to the marriage of Llewellyn with Eleanor de Montfort, daugh 1278 Sep. 19. Oct. 13. III. 259 ter to the late earl of Leicester, who the last CHAP. year, on her passage to Wales, had been taken near Bristol, and conducted a prisoner to the king.14 content. In the opinion of Edward the subjugation of Their disWales was now accomplished. He flattered himself that what he had begun by force, he had completed by kindness. The brothers Llewellyn and David were reconciled. To Llewellyn he had behaved rather with the affection of a friend than the severity of an enemy, and his letters to that prince breathed a spirit of moderation, which did honour to his heart. To David he had been a bounteous protector. He had granted him the honour of knighthood, extensive estates in both countries, and the hand of Eleanor, daughter to the earl Ferrers. But he had formed a false estimate of the Welsh character at that period. Hatred of the English had been bequeathed to the natives as a sacred legacy by their fathers through many generations: nor was there an individual, from the prince to the peasant, who was not ready at any time to draw the sword for the independence of his country. The inhabitants of the districts which had recently been ceded to England, were the first to manifest their discontent. They beheld with grief the gradual extinction of their national usages, 14 Rym. ii. 88-92. 97. 116. 119. 125. Hem. i. 5. Triv. 147, 148. 251. CHAP. the distribution of the cantreds into hundreds III. and shires, and the introduction of English laws, and English judicatures. David, with all his obligations to Edward, appeared dissatisfied. His timber had been felled by the king's orders, to open a road through one of his forests: and some of his vassals had been executed by the justiciary for murder, though they had offered the ransom for their lives allowed by the Welsh laws. Even Llewellyn had, or pretended to have, causes of complaint against the encroachments of the royal officers. Though Edward had promised him justice, his mind was exasperated, and he lent a willing ear to the inflammatory suggestions of David. Men of irritable passions seldom weigh the consequences against the pleasure of revenge; but on the present occasion their hopes were invigorated by a foolish confidence in an ancient prediction attributed to Merlin, that when the English money should become circular, the prince of Wales should be crowned in London. Edward had lately issued a new coinage of round half-pennies and farthings, and had forbidden the penny to be any longer divided into halves and quarters. Hence it was wisely concluded that the prediction of the prophet was on the point of being accomplished.15 They rebel. 1282. March 22. On Palm Sunday, in the darkness of the night, and amid the howling of a storm, the faithless "Duns. 471. Wikes, 108. Waverley, 235. Triv, 273. |