CAERNARVON CASTLE. 261 And hence we frequently find on the Great Roll of the Pipe the expenses of maintaining his hapless prisoners. There is an allowance of Id. per day for the support of eight of these unfortunate individuals in the Castle of Conway for a term of 1177 days. Robert le Poer and Peter his brother were allowed 2d. a day for the 1627 of their restraint ; and Howel ap Rees was granted a similar sum for his sustenance during his long confinement of 2034 days, or more than five years and a-half The time seems even to oiu'selves long to read of, and the punishment disproportionately heavy ; but when contrasted with that endured by the last direct descendants of Prince David, the suff"erings of the prisoners at Conway appear light and supportable by drawing the comparison.^ Prince David, it Avill be recollected, left behind him a family of sons and daughters. The latter ended their days in the cloistered seclusion of the monastery of Sempringham ; whilst his two male descendants were given into the custody of Reginald de Grey, Justice of Chester. In a recent memoir that has been written on the Councils and Parliaments of Shrewsbury, wherein the author endeavoured to trace the decay and fall of the ancient Welsh sovereignty, it was inti- mated that these last scions of the royal race of Gwynedd disappeared under circumstances of suspicion, and not honourable to the reputation of the English monarch. But later researches have enabled me to shield the memory of Edward I. from the imputation of an act so unworthy of liis general character. By entries on a contemporaneous official document,^ it appears that the Chief Justice of Chester was allowed 8/. 2^. for the expenses of Prince David and eight esquires keeping him safely in Chester Castle, from Friday the Feast of St. Giles, Sept. 1st, to Thursday the morrow of St. Michael, in the lltli year, and 21. for the expenses of 120 footmen conducting him from Chester to Shrewsbury for two days, "in our Parliament of St. Michael at Acton Burncll." The captive prince, therefore, must have taken his farewell of the princess and his guiltless children at the Castle of Rhuddlan ; and after his barbarous execution, his unoffending sons, Llewellyn and Owen, were transferred from the custody of the Justiciary to the care of Peter de la Mare, Constable " Magn. Rot. Tip., '21 Edw. I. ■' Liberate Roll, 13 Eihv. L
