Welsh Journals

THE HAGNABY CHRONICLE AND THE BATTLE OF MAES MOYDOG ONE of the by-products of Dr. Michael Prestwich's recent book on Edward I's operations1 has been of particular interest to students of the Welsh wars. From the hitherto little-known Hagnaby Chronicle from Lincolnshire, Dr. Prestwich has produced several interesting pieces of new information about the campaign of 1294-95 in north Wales, and, most notably, a Norman-French newsletter concerning the movements of the earl of Warwick's army and its victory at Maes Moydog.2 When I attempted to write a revised account of the Welsh War of 1294-95, incorporating the evidence of the Book of Prests, I had to admit that the story was still incomplete, as well as one-sided. I ventured to hope that when fresh evidence was found it might come from the Welsh side.3 Once again, however, it has been an English source which has provided new information. At some points the Hagnaby Chronicle confirms what was already known and at others it gives details which are completely new; but at times it appears to be inaccurate or to give evidence which is difficult to fit into the probable course of events. It may help to solve out- standing problems, but it also seems to create some new ones. Some difficulties undoubtedly arise from the nature of the text.4 One has to deal with a scribe whose hand is often almost illegible, who made sad havoc with place and personal names, and who, it may be strongly suspected, did not really understand what he was writing into the chronicle. While it is my main intention to discuss the Hagnaby Chronicle's account of the operations in Powys which culminated in the battle of Maes Moydog, some comments on its narrative of events in north Wales may be prefaced in order to illustrate its merits and failings. We are told that four castles were taken by the Welsh in the early stages of Madoc's rising, but the chronicler names only three of them-Ruthin, Hawarden and Denbigh-omitting, presum- ably, Caernarvon. His report of the loss of Hawarden and Ruthin confirms that the rising in the north-east indeed extended to the 1 Michael Prestwich, War, Politics and Finance under Edward I (1972), reviewed ante, VII, 357-65. Michael Prestwich, 'A new account of the Welsh campaign of 1294-95', ante, VI, 89-94. » E. B. Fryde (ed.), Book of Prests, 1294-95 (1962), p. xxvii. 4 B.M., Cotton MS., Vespasian B XI, ff. 36v-37. Dr. Prestwich very courteously lent me photo-copies of those parts of the chronicle which cover Edward I's last Welsh War, and it must be acknowledged immediately that it had been no mean palaeographical feat on his part to produce a transcript which made sense.