What became of Elen after the death of Maximus can only be inferred.
Probably she escaped from Trèves and came back to her native Wales. She
has been credited by the Welsh with the great paved roads that traverse
the Principality in all directions, and they bear her name as Sarnau
Helen.
The noble castle of Carnarvon was begun by Edward I., and is
picturesque, but not equal to Conway. In it Edward “of Carnarvon,”
who succeeded to the throne, was born. He was invested with the
Principality of Wales after the extinction of the race of Cunedda in
blood.
Visitors are shown a room in the Eagle Tower as that in which Edward
first saw the light; but this tower was not erected till later, though
the castle itself was begun in 1284. It was not completed till 1322.
There had, however, been a fortress here before, erected by Hugh the
Wolf, or the Fat, Earl of Chester. This Hugh and his namesake, the
Earl of Shrewsbury, were unsparing in their cruelties to the Welsh. If
Hugh of Chester was a wolf in his ferocity, he was a fox in guile. He
inveigled the king of Gwynedd into a conference, then treacherously
imprisoned him, and the king languished in a dungeon for twelve years,
to 1098. Hugh was sister’s son to William the Conqueror, who delivered
over Wales to him to rifle at an annual rental of £40.
Gruffydd, king of Gwynedd, escaped in 1098, and at once threw himself
into Anglesey. The two Hughs marched against him from Carnarvon as
their base, and entered Mona. What had happened before, and was to
happen again and yet again, occurred now. At the supreme moment
Gruffydd flew to Ireland, and Anglesey was at the mercy of the two
Hughs. They set to work to destroy the crops, burn the houses, and
slaughter the inhabitants in cold blood, after all resistance had come
to an end. When weary of killing, they tore out the tongues, scooped
out the eyes, and hacked off the feet and hands of the peasantry, out
of mere lust of torture.
It so chanced that at this juncture a Viking fleet appeared off the
coast, under Magnus Barefeet of Norway, and Hugh the Fat of Chester
and Hugh the Proud of Shrewsbury advanced to the coast to oppose the
landing of the Northmen. On board the king’s ship was Magnus of Orkney,
a pious, feeble youth. The Norse king bade him arm for the fight.
“No,” replied the young man, “I will not hurt those who have not hurt
me.”
“Then go down, coward, into the hold,” said Magnus Barefeet wrathfully.
The young prig took his psalter and obeyed. And as the battle raged
above him, his voice could be heard above the din of arms repeating the
psalms.
The two earls were on the coast near Beaumaris, where it shelves into
the sea, riding up and down urging on their men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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