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

where his coat of mail and his castle were not seen.



CHAPTER IX--OWEN GWYNEDD AND THE LORD REES



The men who opposed the Normans left able successors--Owen Gwynedd
followed his father, Griffith ap Conan; the Lord Rees followed his
father Griffith ap Rees; and in Powys the sons of Bleddyn were
followed by the castle builder Howel, and by the poet Owen Cyveiliog.

Owen Gwynedd ruled from 1137 to 1169; the Lord Rees from 1137 to
1197. The age was, in many respects, a great one.

It was, of course, an age of war. Up to 1154, during the reign of
Stephen, the English barons were fighting against each other, and the
king had very little power over them. The most important Norman
barons in Wales were the Earls of Chester in the valley of the Dee,
the Mortimers on the upper Wye, the Braoses on the upper Usk, and the
Clares in the south. Their castles were a continual menace to the
country they had so far failed to conquer, and the Lord Rees was glad
to get Kidwelly, and Owen Gwynedd to get Mold and Rhuddlan.

It was, on the whole, an age of unity. It was the chief aim of Owen
Gwynedd to be the ally of the Lord Rees; and in this he succeeded,
though his brother Cadwaladr, in his desire for Ceredigion, had
killed Rees' brother, to Owen's infinite sorrow. The princes of
Powys, Madoc and Owen Cyveiliog, were in the same alliance also, and
they were helped in their struggle with the Normans. Unity was never
more necessary. Henry II. brought great armies into Wales. Once he
came along the north coast to Rhuddlan. At another time he tried to
cross the Berwyn, but was beaten back by great storms. Had he
reached the upper Dee, he would have found the united forces of the
Lord Rees, Owen Cyveiliog, and Owen Gwynedd at Corwen. There are
many stirring episodes in these wars: the fight at Consilt, when
Henry II. nearly lost his life; the scattering of his tents on the
Berwyn by a storm that seemed to be the fury of fiends; the reckless
exposure of life in storming a wall or in the shock of battle. But
the Norman brought new cruelty into war: Henry II. took out the eyes
of young children because their fathers had revolted against him; and
William de Braose invited a great number of Welsh chiefs to a feast
in his castle at Abergavenny, and there murdered them all.

It is a relief to turn to another feature of the age: it was an age
of great men. Owen Gwynedd was probably the greatest. He disliked
war, but he was an able general; he made Henry II. retire without
great loss of life to his own army. He was a thoughtful prince, of a
loving nature and high ideals, and his court was the home of piety