Edward, in Wales, taking control of his first Celtic target!

‘As time passes, so turns the tide!

For the ap-Gruffydd brothers, there is nowhere now to hide’!

Edward I

Edward’s offensive in Wales had been halted, and a confident Llewelyn had rejected the king’s offers of negotiations. However, the tide now turned in Edward’s favour. Llewelyn had descended from Snowdonia, had travelled to Powys and this, through pure chance, proved to be his undoing. The facts are not entirely clear, but he was travelling with his entourage when he was surprised by a contingent of royal forces at Orewin Bridge in the Brecknockshire hills on December 11th. He was slain by a knight who failed to recognise him. This Welsh prince would be known thereafter as Llewelyn the last. When the body was identified, the corpse was decapitated and sent to London and put on public display. It was the end of an era.

‘So farewell, sweet prince, you noble warrior, Llewelyn the last!

With your slaying at the river Irfon, the age of Welsh freedom is now consigned to the past.

Not quite, if brother Dafydd had anything to do with it. Edward was consumed with a burning hatred for Dafydd. The king really hated him because he blamed the younger brother for the second rebellion and all of the accompanying trouble that it had brought. Hatred? When Edward hated, he did so with a passion and zeal which both mesmerised and terrified all of those who witnessed it.

It was now operation ‘Get Dafydd’ and with this in view Edward led his forces into the mountains of Snowdonia in pursuit of the elusive Welsh prince.

It was now January 1283 and Edward deployed the total military might at his disposal to quash resistance to his will. The Welsh under Dafydd were totally overwhelmed by the sheer numbers, as well as the advanced weaponry of the royal forces. The objective was reached swiftly as the Welsh, demoralised, slipped away back to their homes like hounds with their tails between their legs. Dafydd, deserted by his followers was reduced to hiding in a bog with his family, and perhaps a few faithful retainers. Alas, there are informers at every moment in time and in every corner of the earth, and the Snowdonia of 1283 was no exception.

The location of Dafydd’s bog bolt hole, where he was keeping his head down was revealed to Crown forces and so they sought him out. Spying the ominous sight of the armed men approaching, Dafydd’s people would have alerted him crying:

‘Duck, Daffy, duck, run and remember to duck Daffy, duck!

Run with speed and grace like a wild, noble mountain buck!’

There was to be no escape, and Dafydd, bound with chains was brought forth to Edward at Rhuddlan. For Edward it was a most joyous moment to be grimly and quietly savoured as he contemplated Dafydd’s eventual fate. The unfortunate Welsh leader was then to be taken from his homeland, to which he would never return, for trial at Shrewsbury in September 1283. True, Dafydd knew that the sentence would be death, but was he really aware of the precise nature of his inevitable execution?

The king certainly was; he had been indignant beyond belief at the manner in which Dafydd had taken Hawarden. He and his men had gained entrance to the castle on the holy day of Palm Sunday holding palm leaves as a sign of peace. Once inside they had put the entire garrison to the sword, sparing no one. To Edward, his conduct was unpardonable and the penalty would have to reflect the enormous gravity of his crime. He had rewarded Dafydd admirably for his service in Wales in 1277, now this. When Dafydd had appeared before Edward at Rhuddlun, the king did not mince his words:

‘I, in friendship clasped you, Dafydd to my bosom so close and firm!

Then I discovered you were nothing more than a wretched, disloyal little worm!’

But what to do? Was there a punishment that could possibly fit this terrible crime? Happily for Edward, someone whose identity has been lost in the mists of time, came up with the perfect solution. There was a new initiative regarding capital punishment, hanging, drawing and quartering. The intricacies were explained to Edward and he enthusiastically endorsed it as part of England’s penal code.

‘The felon is drawn to the place of execution lying low on a sledge. This signals to all that he is not fit to partake of the common air.

He is then suspended on a rope by the neck between the earth and heaven to show that he is worthy of neither!

His private parts are then to be hacked off to illustrate that he is totally unfit to beget any issue to live after him! The parts are to be presented to the felon so he may contemplate them, lying bloody in the palm of the executioner’s hand!

His abdomen is to be sliced open, and the entrails to be removed slowly and then burnt before his eyes. This is because his heart and other organs have harboured such terrible mischief, and therefore must be consumed by fire!

Finally, he is to be beheaded and the head to be placed on some high place. This is so the fowls of the air may peck and chew at it at their ease!’

This is what happened to Dafyyd at Shrewsbury, he was the first noble to be executed in such a fashion. Indeed he was the first, but he would not be the last. You might comment that such a horrible penalty could not possibly become a permanent feature of English law. On the contrary, the practice would continue in precisely the same form for another five centuries.