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WILLIAM DE VALENCE AND THE ARMY OF WEST WALES, 1282-1283 NEITHER Welsh nor English chroniclers recorded much of events in west Wales during Edward I's second Welsh war. The Welsh chronicles record the early Welsh successes: the capture of Aberystwyth, with the help of Dafydd ap Gruffydd, by Rhys ap Rhys ap Maelgwn and Gruffydd and Cynan ap Maredudd on 24 March 1282;2 the capture of Llandovery and Carreg Cennen by Gruffydd and Llywelyn, the younger sons of Rhys Ieuanc (d. 1271); and the defeat of part of the earl of Gloucester's army near Uandeilo Fawr on 16 June. Of west Wales thereafter, they say nothing. It is highly unlikely that Dafydd should have come south so soon after his capture of Hawarden on 22 March. It is probable that he was fully occupied with dismantling Hope and attacking Flint and Rhuddlan. That risings in Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi followed so soon after the capture of Hawarden suggests strongly that Dafydd had given the signal for southern risings planned beforehand. Among English chroniclers, Nicholas Trivet3 and William Rishanger4 note the loss of Aberystwyth and other castles and give some details of the battle near Llandeilo, as do the annals of Dunstable and Oseney.5 But it is events in north Wales that then claim their almost undivided attention. Understandably, modern historians have focused principally on Edward I's campaign in Gwynedd and the resistance of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. 1 J. Williams ab Ithel (ed.), Annales Cambriae (Rolls Ser., 1860), 106; T. Jones (ed.), Brut y Tywysogyon (Peniarth MS. 30), (Cardiff, 1952), p. 120; T. Jones (ed.), Bruty Tywysogyon (Red Book) (Cardiff, 1955), pp. 170-1. 2 J. G. Edwards (ed.), Calendar of Ancient Correspondence relating to Wales (cited hereafter as ACW) (Cardiff, 1935), p. 44. 3 Nicholas Trivet, Annales, ed.T. Hog (English Hist. Soc., 1845), 303-4. 4 William Rishanger, Chronica et Annales, ed. H.T. Riley (Rolls Ser., 1865), pp. 98, 100. 5 H. R. Luard (ed.), Annales Monastici, III (Rolls Ser., 1866), p. 292; ibid., IV (Rolls Ser., 1869), pp. 288-9.