Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/210

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all surrendered to Llewelyn, provision being made for him elsewhere, though he still continued the liegeman of his brother (Fœdera, i. 545). The reward of his ‘honesty and faithfulness’ (Rishanger, p. 91) was indeed sufficiently liberal. Edward had already made him a knight, ‘contrary to the Welsh custom.’ He now gave him lands of the value of 1,000l. a year, among which were the cantreds of Duffryn Clwyd and Rhuvoniog (Ayloffe, Cal. of Ancient Charters, p. 62; Rotulus Walliæ, 6 Ed. I), granted on 28 Nov. with the keepership of Denbigh and Hope castles (Rishanger, Rolls Ser. p. 91; Trivet, Eng. Hist. Soc. p. 298; Annales Monastici, ii. 124–5, iii. 275; iv. 287), a territory which must have given him a strong position in the northern marches. This liberality shows Edward's implicit trust in his ‘friend and councillor.’ Edward also married him to Elizabeth, daughter of his old adversary the Earl of Derby, and widow of John Marshall, whose lands at Norton and elsewhere in Cheshire now came into Davydd's hands (Calendarium Genealogicum i. 271). His Cheshire estates included the honour of Frodsham (Langtoft, ii. 172).

For a few years there was quiet upon the marches, but the restless Davydd could not long play the part of a peaceful ruler, and the grasping legalism of Edward's lawyers afforded him a good pretext for new hostilities. He particularly resented the demand of the justice of Chester that he should attend the county court of that palatinate to answer the suit of one William Venables, who claimed lands at Hope, between Mold and Wrexham. Davydd presented himself at the court, but ‘with a loud voice placed God's peace and the king's upon the impleaded land, made obeisance and retired’ (Royal Letter in Record Office, No. 1340, quoted by Mr. Martin in Preface to Peckham's Register, ii. l). He besought Edward in vain to stay the suit and respect the Welsh laws. But fresh differences quickly arose which made matters still worse. Edward took away from him three townships in Duffryn Clwyd. The justice of Chester cut down the woods (but see Rotulus Walliæ, 8 Ed. I for Edward's view) that he claimed to possess; hanged his followers for what to Welshmen was no hanging matter; and accused him of harbouring thieves and outlaws (Peckham, Register, ii. 445–7). But though there was mischief in the air there was no outward sign of the reconciliation which had silently taken place between Davydd and Llewelyn, until on the night before Palm Sunday, 22 March 1282, Davydd made a sudden and successful attack on Hawarden Castle, slew the garrison, and seized in his bed Roger de Clifford, the royal justiciar in those parts (Brut y Tywysogion, s. a. 1281; Annales de Wigornia in An. Mon. iv. 481; Rishanger, p. 97; several chroniclers, however, say that Clifford was captured at Flint). Llewelyn at once came to his brother's aid. The marches were devastated and the royal castles of Flint and Rhuddlan were captured. At the same time one Welsh authority connects Davydd with the capture of the royal castle of Aberystwith and the castles of Llandovery and Carreg Cennen in South Wales (Annales Cambriæ, s. a. 1282); but this if true must have been later in the spring. But by August the great host was assembled at Rhuddlan, with which Edward soon put an end to Welsh resistance, though in the course of it Davydd on one occasion pressed the king hard in a fight in a wood (Trokelowe, p. 40). Davydd fled with his brother to Snowdon. Early in November he was present at the useless conferences at which Archbishop Peckham endeavoured to mediate between Edward and the Welsh. Peckham proposed to Davydd to go on crusade, in pursuance of some old vow, and promised him an honourable provision so long as he did not return home without the royal license, and held out hopes that the king would do something for his children. But these terms Davydd indignantly rejected. He would not go on crusade, for compulsory services displeased God. He was not the aggressor, and was justified in defending his inheritance when wantonly attacked. Peckham withdrew to the royal camp, and Davydd, like his brother, was put under excommunication.

Soon after Llewelyn sallied from Snowdon on his luckless expedition to the south. His death in December left Davydd the last champion of the Welsh cause. But though often loosely spoken of as prince of Wales, Davydd can never be said to have really been generally accepted as sovereign even by his own people, though he certainly called himself by that name (Cont. Flor. Wig. ii. 229; Oxenedes, p. 262; cf. Chronicon de Melsa, ii. 179, which speaks of his summoning a Welsh parliament); while the consent of Edward, which was undoubtedly necessary to his legal assumption of the title, was of course withheld. He was soon hard pressed by the royal troops surrounding Snowdon and penetrating into its innermost fastnesses. His followers fell away from him; the inaccessible castle of Bere was taken from him by the Earl of Pembroke; he was reduced to the life of a wandering fugitive through the hills and bogs of Snowdon; and at last, in June 1283, his hiding-place was discovered to the English by the treachery of his own