"OwenMEdwards-AShortHistoryOfWales" - читать интересную книгу автора (Edwards Owen M)

Roger behind him. William had his father's wisdom. Roger had his
father's recklessness in action; he rebelled against his own king,
and found himself in prison. The king sent him, on the day of
Christ's Passion, a robe of silk and rarest ermine. The caged baron
made a roaring fire, and cast the robe into it. "By the light of
God," said William the Conqueror, for that was his wicked oath, "he
shall never leave his prison."

But another Norman, Bernard of Neufmarche, came to take his place.
He built his castle at Brecon, and defeated and killed Rees, the King
of Deheubarth; and, with great energy, he took possession of the
upper valleys of the Wye and the Usk.

Further south William the Conqueror himself came to Cardiff, and
possibly built a castle. The Norman conquest of the south coast of
Wales was exceedingly rapid, and castle after castle rose to mark the
new victorious advances--Coety, Cenfig, Neath, Kidwelly, Pembroke,
Newport, Cilgeran.

So far, the Norman advance has been a most quick one. In less than
twenty-five years from the appearance of the Conqueror at Chester,
the whole country had been overrun except the mountains of Gwynedd
and the forests of the Deheubarth. This success is easily explained.

For one thing, the Normans had trained, professional soldiers, who
were well horsed and well armed. In a pitched battle the hastily
collected Welsh levies, unused to regular battle and very lightly
armed, had no chance.

Again, the Norman never receded. He was willing to stop
occasionally, in order to bide his time; but he clung tenaciously to
every mile he had won. His skill as a castle builder was as striking
as his prowess in battle or his cautious wisdom in council. He took
possession of an old fortified post, or hastily constructed one of
turf and timber; but he soon turned it into a castle of stone. At
that time the Welsh had no knowledge of sieges; and their impetuous
valour was of no use against the new castles.

Again, the Welsh opposition was not only not organised, but weakened
by internal strife. While the Norman was winning valley after
valley, the Welsh princes were trying to decide by the issue of
battle who was to be chief. Bleddyn was slain in 1075; and his
nephews and cousins tried to rule the country. Among these,
Trahaiarn was a soldier of ability and energy, and a ruler of real
genius. But he was the rival of the exiled princes of the House of
Cunedda, and he found it difficult to bend Snowdon and the Vale of
Towy to his will. Two of the exiles met him, probably near some of
the cairns in the valley of the Teivy; and there, in the battle of
Mynydd Carn, fiercely fought through the dusk into a moonlight night
in 1079, Trahaiarn fell. It looked as if no leader could rise in