Llewelyn

Llewelyn, the name of two Welsh princes.

Llewelyn I., Ab Iorwerth (d. 1240), prince of North Wales, was born after the expulsion of his father, Iorwerth, from the principality. In 1194, while still a youth, Llewelyn recovered the paternal inheritance. In 1201 he was the greatest prince in Wales. At first he was a friend of King John, whose illegitimate daughter, Joanna, he took to wife (1201); but the alliance soon fell through, and in 1211 John reduced Llewelyn to submission. In the next year Llewelyn recovered all his losses in North Wales. In 1215 he took Shrewsbury. His rising had been encouraged by the pope, by France, and by the English barons. His rights were secured by special clauses in Magna Carta. But he never desisted from his wars with the Marchers of South Wales, and in the early years of Henry III. he was several times attacked by English armies. In 1239 he was struck with paralysis and retired from the active work of government in favour of his son David. He retired into a Cistercian monastery.

See the lists of English chronicles for the reigns of John and Henry III.; also the Welsh chronicle Brut y Tywysogion (ed. Rolls Series); O. M. Edwards, History of Wales (1901); T. F. Tout in the Political History of England, iii. (1905).

Llewelyn II., Ab Gruffydd (d. 1282), prince of North Wales, succeeded his uncle David in 1246, but was compelled by Henry III. to confine himself to Snowdon and Anglesey. In 1254 Henry granted Prince Edward the royal lands in Wales. The steady encroachment of royal officers on Llewelyn’s land began immediately, and in 1256 Llewelyn declared war. The Barons’ War engaged all the forces of England, and he was able to make himself lord of south and north Wales. Llewelyn also assisted the barons. By the treaty of Shrewsbury (1265) he was recognized as overlord of Wales; and in return Simon de Montfort was supplied with Welsh troops for his last campaign. Llewelyn refused to do homage to Edward I., who therefore attacked him in 1276. He was besieged in the Snowdon mountains till hunger made him surrender, and conclude the humiliating treaty of Conway (1277). He was released, but in 1282 he revolted again, and was killed in a skirmish with the Mortimers, near Builth in central Wales.

See C. Bémont, Simon de Montfort (Paris, 1884); T. F. Tout in the Political History of England, iii. (1905); J. E. Morris in The Welsh Wars of Edward I. (1901).