Why Did the Welsh Fight for Independence from England in the Glyndŵr Rising?

It was a military occupation from start to finish. Imposing English customs and law on a nation which neither understood it, nor wished to receive it. Weighted trials were held in the English language, which few but the Welsh aristocracy spoke. 

Those leaders were largely dispossessed, killed or languished in the Tower of London. Or else they accepted their submission to the English monarch, and helped to keep their own people from rebelling.

Some, like Owain Lawgoch, did lead risings of their own. The whole of the 14th century was punctuated with one after another, though none were quite as successful as that led by Owain Glyndŵr from 1400.

A new breed of powerful families entered the Welsh hierarchy, but they too were English. Families like the Greys, who had the money to buy from the Crown land taken from the Welsh. They sought to carve out autocratic realms, subjugating a peasantry which could not hope for redress from their overlords, just like the Marcher Lords of the past.

It wasn't just a field that Lord Grey of Ruthin took from Owain Glyndŵr. It was a massive swathe of upland bordering the English lord's own property.

This was Croesau, now called Bwlch-y-Groes, Bryneglwys, near Corwen. Though technically owned by Glyndŵr, he wasn't actually using it himself.  Croesau had long been allocated as common land for the local Welsh people to use as grazing for their livestock.

Nor did Glyndŵr automatically rush to take up arms, when Lord Grey appropriated the common for himself. He took his complaint to the first Parliament of Henry IV, a man who had just murdered his cousin Richard II and usurped his throne.

So no, Henry IV didn't like the Welsh. More than usual for an English monarch, he really detested the Welsh. Especially here, at his first Parliament, where those who'd helped him secure his throne were all looking expectantly towards their rewards, and the nobility were anticipating something to ensure their ongoing loyalty.

The second strike against Owain Glyndŵr was that - as he argued his case with all the eloquence of a lawyer and life-long courtier - the counselor standing alongside Henry IV, advising him on his judgment, was Lord Grey of Ruthin.

Henry IV sneered out his verdict, "What care we for these barefoot Welsh doggis!"

Even then, Glyndŵr did not rise. The royal blood of Wales met in his veins - two ancient ruling families enjoined by the marriage of his parents rendering him the true Prince of Wales by birthright - but he grasped reality only too well. He knew the might that could crush him at the barest excuse. Thus he returned home and let it go.

He still had property, land and tenants aplenty, and for that reason, he was legally obliged to raise a militia force when King Henry gave the word. Weeks later, when a Scottish army invaded the north of England, such a decree went out. All over England and Wales, soldiers were raised for the king's cause, but not on Glyndŵr's estates.

He hadn't been given the message. Lord Grey made sure it was never passed on to him, in the full knowledge that his neighbor's no show would be viewed as treason, and his land and property would be forfeit. Grey himself had designs upon that.

When Owain Glyndŵr discovered what had been done to him, he knew that his life was already over. On a very personal level, he'd just lost all.  As soon as Henry returned from the north, the order would be given and that would be the end of everything.

In short, Lord Grey left the true Prince of Wales with nothing left to lose. That's why Owain Glyndŵr rose up, not at first for Welsh independence, though that's what his Rising became.

On September 16th 1400, he was crowned Owain IV, Prince of Wales, in a quiet ceremony at Glyndyfrdwy. Then rode into Corwen to publicly announce his fact, and to spread the word that all Welshmen who would rise with him should muster there.

Two days later, on September 18th, nearly three hundred people swarmed into Ruthin, looted its rich stores, then burned the town to the ground. The Glyndŵr Rising had begun.

During the autumn of 1400, the Glyndŵr Rising had seen several English plantations attacked, looted and burned to the ground.

The Parliament at Westminster didn't react well.

Henry IV duly passed anti-Welsh Penal Laws, which applied to EVERYONE with Welsh blood, regardless of their personal loyalties. Plus anyone - male or female - who married a Welsh person.

At this point, there were probably only a few hundred people fighting with Owain Glyndŵr. The Penal Laws ensured that number turned into the tens of thousands.  I'll recount them, not verbatim, as the 15th century language is a bit long-winded, even by modern political standards.

1. It is forbidden for any English person to marry a Welsh person. If they do, then they become Welsh by default and these laws apply to them too.
2. If there is any breach of the peace, then all inhabitants of that district are held responsible, regardless of each individual's actual involvement.  This included all felonies, trespasses and robberies.
3. No English person may be tried for a crime in a Welsh court, nor be heard by a Welsh judge, nor have a Welsh person in their jury.
4. No 'rhymer or minstrel' (plus wasters, vagabonds etc) may be 'sustained' by the Welsh. In other words, stop giving gifts, board and lodgings to bards.
5. The Welsh are prohibited from gathering together, at any place, to hear speeches, 'take counsel' etc. Unless their English overlord has given his license. (That got churches out of the frame.)
6. No Welsh person may hold office. There was a whole list of these, but the summary is that they can't hold any position of authority (justice, chancellor, lieutenant, forester etc.), including keeping records on anything. A later amendment stated that any Welsh person already holding this office must train up their English replacement, at their own expense before they leave.
7. No Welsh person may bear arms of any kind.
8. No 'victual or armor' may be carried into Wales, unless it's for the castles or English towns in Wales, and the carrier has permission to do so.
9. No Welsh person may live in a castle, fortress or any other kind of defended home. All keeps must be leveled. Nor can they live inside the walls of a fortified town.
10. The Welsh are responsible for funding the maintenance and repairs on all English castles, gates and walls in their district, plus any refurbishment inside said constructions.
11. Welsh children may not be educated, unless it's by an English person given permission from the overlord.

Proposed but not in the final draft:

1. The banning of the Welsh language in Wales.  (This at a time when the majority were monoglot Welsh speakers.)  In reality Welsh only ended up banned in official places, like trials.
2. The expulsion of all Welsh people living in England. (Parliament suddenly remembered all of the Welsh soldiers in the English army, plus they realized this would only swell Glyndŵr's ranks with disaffected returnees.)

Special city ordinances were added in 1403 for Chester:

1. No-one may trade anything with the Welsh.  (This instantly caused a lucrative Black Market with goods swam across the River Dee.)
2. No Welsh person may enter the City of Chester with any knife larger than that needed to cut meat during their meal.
3. No Welsh person may be in Chester between sunset and sun-rise.

Needless to say everything listed here was on pain of death, with all property and possessions forfeit to the Crown. None of it left the Statute Books until the Stuart period, in 1624, though a few items remained.

Henry VII - the first Tudor king, who made soooo much of his Welsh ancestry and had won the Battle of Bosworth with an army mostly made up of Welsh people - made a huge profit by selling charters to individuals or neighborhoods, which made them exempt from the Penal Laws. And his son, Henry VIII, actually did attempt to enforce a nation-wide ban on the Welsh language.

Cymru am byth.

As soon as Henry's vast army marched across the Welsh border, it started raining. It rained incessantly for the entire two weeks that they were there. Then stopped the second they trudged back into Shrewsbury again.

Which was a bit of a problem, when so many of them were wearing armor.

We can note with wry amusement that this became a theme of Henry IV's attempts to subdue Wales. Every time he went there, the Heavens opened. There was even a blasted tornado on September 7th 1402, during a second expedition. It ripped straight through the king's tent, toppling the thick, main wooden support and sending that crashing onto the bed where Henry IV lay. It was only the fact that he was paranoid enough to sleep in full armor that saved his life.

All of this earned Owain Glyndŵr a reputation for being a wizard, in possession of a magic raven's stone, which could control the weather. It terrified the English soldiers subjected to those elements. Moreover, this is the origin of the oft-quoted English conviction that it always rains in Wales.

However, I've been side-tracked. Back to the question of why so many Welsh people rose with Owain Glyndŵr during the early 15th century. That regal rampage, starting September 18th 1401, had much to do with it.

The frustrated Henry IV wasn't taking any more Welsh protestations at face value. If he decided that someone, anyone, was probably a rebel, he ordered their homes burned to the ground and all of their children taken.

Over one thousand Welsh peasant children were escorted by the English army back to Shrewsbury. There they were distributed amongst the English ruling families, as 'surety' for the loyalty of their parents. None of the children would have been able to speak English. They were made useful as unpaid servants, or, as we like to call it today, slaves.

Also in the path of Henry's wrath were the holy houses of Wales.

At the time, the biggest and best Welsh abbey was Abaty Ystrad Fflur, or Strata Florida Abbey in English. Henry somehow got it into his head that the Cistercian Order were assisting Glyndŵr. In fairness, they probably were, or would be as soon as the news about Strata Florida got out.

The abbey's monks were rounded up and slaughtered, left lying in the flower fields which gave the place its name. The English army looted every bit of wealth from the abbey's precincts, smashing up what remained. Their horses were stabled at the High Altar. When Henry was ready to leave, he left the abbey ablaze.

In later years, after he'd calmed down and considered his immortal soul a little more, he used the royal coffers to rebuild Strata Florida, as a kind of 'Oops! Sorry!'  But the Cistercian monks remained antagonistic to the Lancastrian throne thereon.

The onlooking Welsh were horrified. Even those who hadn't lost their own homes and possessions, nor had their off-spring dragged away into slavery, were distressed about this vandalism. In highly Catholic Medieval Wales, attacking monasteries really wasn't the done thing.

Yet more joined the Glyndŵr Rising.

And throughout Wales, people who had hitherto kept out of Glyndŵr's Rising suddenly saw it as a battle against a usurper. Particularly since Owain Glyndŵr quickly let it be known that his quarrel was with Henry IV, not the English Crown per se. If Richard II was to suddenly turn up, then Glyndŵr would instantly desist.

Glyndŵr must have whispered a quiet 'Tapadh leibh' into a north blowing breeze every time the Duke of Albany added more intrigue and details. Maybe even quite a loud Gaelic thank you, when letters penned by Richard II in exile appeared south of the border.

Because every time Scotland released such things, Glyndŵr's ranks swelled further still. Even if they enigmatically refused point blank to show King Richard, nor to hand him over to the English, though Henry IV kept on demanding that they did so.

It's unknown quite how many people joined the Glyndŵr Rising because of rumors that Richard II was alive. But enough for this final reason to be noted, as another major flashpoint for Welsh people to decide to fight for independence from England.

Owain's wife Marred, their daughter Catrin and Catrin's four children were captured in 1409. They were held in the Tower of London until 1413, when it became clear that Owain Glyndŵr had lost his dominance over the Welsh nation.

Catrin and her three daughters mysteriously died at the same time. Her son, Lionel, disappeared from the record and was never seen again. (A persistent rumor says that he was still in the Tower of London - now an old man - when the Tudors came to the throne in 1485. Then he was quietly killed.) Marred's death wasn't recorded, other than she was alive in the Tower in 1413, and dead in it by 1420.

After 1409, a war of attrition pretty much played out until about 1412. Welsh towns and cities had to decide whom they feared more - Henry or Owain. In the end, it was superior funding and the ability to pay for more soldiers full-time, that saw the English forces toppling regions bit by bit.

By 1412, Owain Glyndŵr had disappeared into the mountains and the dream of Welsh independence was over.

Though a bounty was placed on his head - large enough that the lowest in society would have been instantly elevated to the life-style of a lord - he was never found. No Welsh person ever gave so much as a clue to where he might have been hiding. Even today, you can enter remote parts of Wales and hear the local folklore of how Owain was smuggled over this pass, or hidden in such-and-such a farmhouse, or sneaked through a forest in the dead of night. But none of that was told to the English at the time.

Then in 1415, a friend announced that Glyndŵr was dead. His final years and grave were kept secret right up until 2002.

For all practical purposes, the Welsh may have been outwardly cowed. But they never betrayed the Prince of Wales, and the spirit of Glyndŵr lives on.