Owen Glyndwr, smarting with resentment, and impelled by his ambition, suffered himself to be persuaded to undertake the emancipation of the principality; and in the mean time kept Reginald Lord Grey a close prisoner; demanding ten thousand marks for his ransom; six thousand to be paid on the feast of St. Martin, in the fourth year of the King’s reign, and Reginald to deliver up his eldest son, with other persons of quality, as hostages for the due performance. {79b} The King, at the humble suit of Lord Grey (he finding no other means for his enlargement,) appointed a council to treat with Glyndwr, who stoutly refusing to recede from his terms, they agreed to give him the sum demanded. It is also said that Owen obliged Reginald to marry one of his daughters. {80a} Owen, being thus amply provided with money, and joined by numbers of his countrymen, now flew at higher game, and boldly attacked the Earl of March, who met him with a numerous body of Herefordshire men. They came to close action, when the Welchmen under Owen proved victorious, and the Earl of March was taken prisoner, some accounts say by Owen himself in single combat. {80b} With his freedom he lost above 1,000 men, who were most savagely abused after they were dead. Edmund, Earl of March, whom Owen Glyndwr now held in thraldom, was next in blood to Richard II. and therefore it was not displeasing to King Henry that he should be thus kept out of the way: nay, Camden says—“He (Edmund) stood greatly suspected to Henrie the Fourth, who had usurped the kingdome; and by him was first exposed unto danger, insomuch as he was taken by Owen Glyndwr, a rebell.” {80c} King Henry, therefore, as might be supposed, turned a deaf ear to every solicitation made on the Earl’s behalf. Now it was that Glyndwr, flushed with success, resolved to assume the title of Prince of Wales; and treating the King as a usurper of the crown, and simply as Duke of Lancaster, he caused himself to be proclaimed throughout the Principality. The better to grace the matter, he feigned himself descended in the female line from Llewellyn Ap Gruffyth, the last Prince. His ambition now knew no bounds; and, by virtue of his new title, he summoned a parliament at Machynlleth, in Montgomeryshire, whither all the nobility and gentry of Wales resorted. He kept his court at Sychnant, about seven miles from Llangollen, on the road to Corwen. It is now distinguished by a grove of firs, situated in a beautyfully fertile country, and overlooking the Dee. A few scattered stones are all that remain to mark the side where the palace of Owen Glyndwr once stood, which his bard, Iolo Goch, sung was as large as Westminster Abbey. {81}