Welsh Journals

A NEW ACCOUNT OF THE WELSH CAMPAIGN OF 1294-95 THE Welsh revolt of 1294-95 was the last major attempt to resist Edward I's conquest. The pioneer account by J. E. Morris has been modified by J. G. Edwards and others, largely by the use of royal administrative documents to amplify and correct the inadequate chronicle accounts of the complex events of a remarkably widespread rising. There is, however, a chronicle narrative of the revolt, including a newsletter about the battle of Maes Moydog, which has remained unnoticed. The annals of the Lincolnshire Premonstra- tensian house of Hagnaby are brief and comparatively uninformative on the eleventh and twelfth centuries, but become much fuller until they end in 1307.2 Although the account of the reign of King John is based on the Waverley annals, the later sections are not derived from any of the better known chroniclers. The author's account of the war of 1294-95 is not without minor mistakes, but does provide new evidence on the course of the struggle. The revolt was well timed, coinciding with Edward I's preparations to send an army to defend his Gascon possessions against Philip IV of France. The attempt to enlist Welsh soldiers for the army was the immediate cause of the rising, as the Hagnaby annals make clear. There were several leaders in different parts of Wales, but Madog ap Llywelyn, singled out in this account, was clearly pre-eminent. The first task facing the Welsh was that of dealing with the English castles and their garrisons. Ruthin, Hawarden and Denbigh are specified as being the initial targets, with the scribe leaving a blank for a fourth castle. In fact, after ravaging Anglesey, Madog and his men sacked Caernarvon, while further south Bere was besieged. The English response was swift, for the troops assembled at Portsmouth could be diverted to Wales. The chronicler's statement that the king summoned the magnates to meet him at Hereford on 20 November 1294 is not accurate: the request was in fact for a gathering at Worcester on 21 November. Nor was Warenne sent to south Wales: he was sent to Chester, which served as the base for the king's advance into north Wales. The overall picture, however, of the main army 1 J. E. Morris, The Welsh Wars of Edward I (1901), pp. 240-65; J. G. Edwards, 'The Battle of Maes Madog and the Welsh Campaign of 1294-95', Eng. Hist. Rev., XXXIX (1924), 1-12; J. Griffiths, 'The Revolt of Madog ap Llywelyn, 1294-95', Trans. Caernarvonshire Hist. Soc. (1955), 12-24; Book of Prests of the King's Wardrobe for 1294-95, ed. E. B. Fryde (1962), pp. xxvi-xlvi. 2 Brit. Mus., Cotton. MS., Vesp. B.xi, ff. 36v.-37, printed infra, pp. 93-94. 3 Pari. Writs, I, 264-65.