Dafydd ap Gruffydd

Posted on August 28, 2013 by JuliaH

Dafydd was the grandson of Llywelyn the Great. He was also the first nobleman in Britain to be executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered for treason.

The story is a complicated one and begins with Llywelyn the Great. Llywelyn married Joan, the natural daughter of King John. They had one son who inherited his father’s kingdom. He died without heirs so the kingdom was inherited by the heirs of Llywelyn’s other son Gruffydd who had been excluded from a share in the power because of his illegitimacy. This had followed the English way of excluding all but the legitimate heirs. Now though Gruffydd’s four sons all had an opportunity to make a bid for power.

In 1256 Llywelyn ap Gruffydd managed to wrest power from his brothers. The early years of his reign were helped by the fact of the Baron’s War in England and the role of Simon de Montfort. Dafydd formed an alliance with King Henry in 1263 and continued to fight against his brother alongside Edward I from 1274.

The alliance with King Edward served Dafydd well. He married Lady Elizabeth Ferrers, the daughter of the Earl of Derby and widow of William Marshall (2nd Baron Marshall). He gained land and prestige in England. But then Dafydd thought better of his links with the English and returned to fight alongside his brother. He attacked Hawarden Castle during Easter 1282. Edward was unamused.

That same year Llywelyn was killed and Dafydd became the next Prince of Wales. It probably wasn’t a very comfortable position as Edward was hot on Dafydd’s heels. In fact he was captured once but managed to escape into the Snowdonian Mountains. Finally he was cornered along with his younger brother Owain. Also imprisoned were Dafydd’s wife, their seven daughters, two sons and one niece.

The Lanercost Chronicle takes up the story:

The King sent him forward to the Tower of London with wife and children….David’s children were condemned to perpetual imprisonment, but David himself was first drawn as a traitor, then hanged as a thief; thirdly, he was beheaded alive, and his entrails burnt as an incendiary and a homicide; fourthly his limbs were cut into four parts as the penalty of a rebel.

This all took place in Shrewsbury. As for his wife and children. Their fates are not completely known. His wife is thought to be buried in the church at Caerwys. One daughter, Gwladys, a child, was sent to the Gilbertine convent in Sixhills Lincolnshire where she spent the rest of her life along with her cousin. Her brothers Llywelyn and Dafydd were imprisoned for the rest of their lives. Llywelyn died in suspicious circumstances in 1287 in Bristol Castle.

The Lanercost Chronicle

Posted on August 3, 2013 by JuliaH

Lanercost Priory was founded in 1169 by Robert de Vaux, son of the Lord of Gilsland, for Augustinian Canons. As it turned out the priory wasn’t in the best location for quiet contemplation and production of religious texts sitting as it did in the shadow of Hadrian’s Wall on the border between England and Scotland.

The chronicle cover the years 1201 to 1346 and gives graphic accounts of some of the difficulties faced by a population living on the frontline of the first war of Scottish Independence. Unsurprisingly it presents information from an English viewpoint. The monks of Lanercost do not seem to have had a soft spot for any marauding Scots who passed their way.

The chronicle reference local events including a siege at Berwick and an eyewitness account of one of Carlisle’s sieges certainly give it a local flavour as does an account of the visitation by the Bishop of Carlisle in 1281 and also one of Carlisle’s periodic fires. It also covers events such as the Battle of Bannockburn and the execution of Sir Andrew de Harcla. The chronicler agrees that Sir Andrew was a traitor to Edward III but follows up with the comment that the local population would have been grateful for the peace that de Harcla had worked towards at the cost of his life.

It seems probable that some of the chronicle was compiled in Carlisle while other entries were written in Berwick – there are first person eyewitness accounts to events located in these places. This has given rise to a question about the authorship of the chronicles as has the manner in which the Franciscans are heralded at every opportunity as men of great spiritual worth. As the preface of the chronicle explains it seems unlikely that Augustinian Canons would extol the virtues of Mendicant Franciscans. It is a puzzle exacerbated not simply by time and border warfare but also by the Dissolution of the Monasteries which saw the destruction of a tradition of monastic chronicles that dated from before the conquest.

The only thing that readers can be absolutely certain of was that the text translated from Latin into English by Sir Herbert Maxwell in 1913 used a manuscript that was known to be in the possession of Sir Henry Savile in 1596.

Andrew de Harcla

Posted on May 8, 2013 by JuliaH

Andrew de Harcla or Harclay was knighted in 1303 by Thomas of Lancaster. As the fourth of six sons he would have to make his own way in the world and by 1312 he was on his journey to success. He was sent to Parliament as a knight for Cumberland. It wasn’t long before he became the ‘custos’ for Carlisle and the castle. He started to hold other castles for the king, including Pendragon Castle. Following the death of Robert de Clifford in 1314 at the Battle of Bannockburn he also found himself responsible for Appleby and Brougham Castle while Roger de Clifford was deemed too young to hold the castles in his own name.

De Harcla found himself responsible for the security of the north at a difficult time. Robert Bruce seeing the difficulties that Edward II managed to get himself into with his assorted favourites and bolshy barons (the Lord Ordainers) decided to snaffle some territory. The lifestyle of raiding and warfare was on its way to being endemic by the end of the period. Prior to Bannockburn in the year 1313 Edward Bruce raided the land around Carlisle and following Bannockburn de Harcla found himself besieged for some ten or elven days in 1315 by the Scots with siege engines. Only the rumour that the Earl of Pembroke was on his way with a relieving army and that Edward Bruce had been killed in Ireland sent the Scots on their merry way once more. This initial letter from the Carlisle Charter shows Sir Andrew defending the castle.

King Edward II initially recognised the importance of de Harcla as a stabilising force in the north of the country. In 1320 he gave de Harcla the right to help conserve a recently made truce with the Scots. This meant that there was a degree of interchange between the two sides to ensure that justice was met according to the treaty. This was reinforced in 1322 when Edward gave Sir Andrew power to treat with the Scots – again, initially this seemed to be of benefit to the King. Letters from Thomas of Lancaster to the Scots revealed that the king’s cousin was fermenting rebellion.

In 1322 de Harcla found himself taking the field against Thomas of Lancaster at the Battle of Boroughbridge. Thomas knew that he had to cross the river but when he arrived at the bridge it was held by the king’s men. After a ferocious battle the two leaders made terms. Lancaster tried to remind de Harcla that he owed his knighthood to him and that if he joined the rebellion against Edward II he would be further rewarded. Andrew said no and the two armies settled down for a sleepless night – although unusually it was de Harcla who spent the night out in the cold guarding the bridge while Lancaster and his men were billeted in Boroughbridge. Lancaster is said to have cursed de Harcla saying he would die a traitor’s death within the year.

At first this seemed unlikely, Edward loaded Sir Andrew with rewards for his service including making him the first Earl of Carlisle. Unfortunately de Harcla was not left in peace to enjoy his new title. Before long the Scots were on the march. They laid siege to Norham Castle in the East and pushed south to Byland where an English army were soundly beaten. Edward II did what he did best – he ran away. The Scots plundered Ripon and did nasty things to Beverley.

It was the final straw for de Harcla, despite the fact that his permission to make treaties with the Scots had probably expired by that point he had a cosy little chat in Lochmaben Castle about the possibility of recognising King Robert Bruce and bringing the war to an end. The Lanercost Chronicle roundly denounces de Harcla as a traitor- as indeed did the king- but at least the Chronicle makes the point that the ordinary people would have been very grateful for a bit of law and order and the chance to grow things without the Scots coming along and causing chaos.

Edward had de Harcla arrested in the great hall of Carlisle Castle by Sir Anthony de Lucy. De Lucy was probably quite gleeful about this as he’d had a bit of a land dispute with de Harcla and now got all the property that he wanted…think Monopoly but a bit more dangerous. Sir Andrew was stripped of his earldom and his knighthood and then he was taken out to the gallows at Harraby Hill where he was hung, drawn and quartered and all without the benefit of a trial beforehand. His decapitated head was, apparently, taken to Knaresborough Castle for Edward to inspect before it was placed on a spike with a nice view over London Bridge.

Eventually de Harcla’s sister was allowed to collect up the scattered body parts from their various locations – Carlisle, Newcastle and London to name but three and his remains were interred in the church at Kirkby Stephen.

Ironically Edward was eventually forced to recognise King Robert of Scotland – in part because he’d had his best commander in the north executed for trying to protect Edward’s subjects.