In 1399 Richard II. was prisoner at Rhuddlan on his way to Flint. In 1646 it was captured by General Mytton from the Royalists, and was dismantled by order of the Parliament, and has remained a ruin since. [Illustration: RUTHIN CASTLE] CHAPTER X DENBIGH The colonisation of Denbigh from the north--Denbigh Castle--Sir John o’ the two thumbs--Henry de Lacy--Projected transfer of cathedral to Denbigh--The Goblin Tower--Thomas Plantagenet--Robert Dudley--The bowling green--The Duke of Sussex and his breeches--Sir Hugh Myddelton--Sir Thomas Myddelton--Mrs. Jordan--Her last song--Llanrhaiadr--Anne Parry’s body--“The Three Sisters”--Ruthin--Contest with Owen Glyndwr--Reginald de Grey--Oppressive laws--Dean Gabriel Goodman--The Huail stone--The church--Moel Fenlli--Story of Benlli--Llandegla--Oblations of cocks and hens. THE county of Denbigh, together with that of Flint, was at one time all but permanently lost to the Celtic race. The Angles of Mercia had advanced steadily and irresistibly along the broad level land from Chester, planting their stockaded forts where later would arise the stone-walled castles of the Normans, following the banks of the great estuary of the Dee, and supported by their fleets. They reached the mouth of the Clwyd, and began to spread up its fertile basin, driving back the Welsh before them. They had planted a large colony at Conway, and Deganwy, the old palace of the kings of Gwynedd, was in their hands. Anarawd, son of Rhodri the Great, was king in North Wales, paying to the king of Wessex a reluctant tribute of gold and silver, and the fleetest of Welsh hounds; but he could not roll back the tide of Teutonic invasion, and he was forced to lurk in Snowdon and Anglesey, and look down from the rocky heights and heather-flushed mountains on the smoke of English farms that rose above the ruins of many a burned _hendre_ of his people. Then an appeal came to him from the Britons of Strathclyde, in North Lancashire and Cumberland, exhausted by the ravages of Danes and Saxons, asking for help. Anarawd could not assist them with armed hand, but he pointed to Flint and the vale of the Clwyd, and invited them to turn out the English there settling themselves, and “not yet warm in their seats.” They rose to the order, migrated in a mass, and dislodged the Angle colonists. But sorely misdoubting their ability to make good their hold, they entreated Anarawd to stand by them. He did so, mustering all the strength of Gwynedd; he joined forces with the Strathclyde immigrants, met the Mercian forces near Conway, and in a pitched battle (878) drove them back to the Dee, with immense slaughter, never to return. And thenceforth Flint and Denbighshire have remained Welsh.