History of Llangollen and Its Vicinity: Including a Circuit of About Seven Miles — John Shaqi
History of Llangollen and Its Vicinity: Including a Circuit of About Seven MilesSimpson, W. T. (Wilfrid Tord)
History
History of Llangollen and Its Vicinity: Including a Circuit of About Seven Miles
Simpson, W. T. (Wilfrid Tord)
Llangollen (Wales)
Owen was bold, wary, and revengeful: he set no bounds to his resentment.
He made a smoking ruin of the dwelling of his countryman, Sir David Gam,
and thereby made him an implacable enemy. He was the cause of the loss
of one hundred thousand lives, {89} and of the destruction of immense
property. Many houses and other buildings were burnt and destroyed by
him; among which I find enumerated the Castle of Ruthin, the Cathedral of
St. Asaph, the Cathedral of Bangor, the Bishop’s Palace, &c. at Llantaff,
the towns of Leominster and Old Radnor, besides the house of Sir David
Gam, &c.
It will be right to notice that Mr. Pennant gives the following account
of the death of Owen Glyndwr; but as he states there is nothing
confirmatory of Owen’s interment at Monnington, I have thought it right
to adhere to the older authorities:—“He matched his daughters,” says Mr.
Pennant, “into considerable families: his eldest, Isabel, to Adam Ap
Iorwerth Ddu; his second, Elizabeth, or as some say, Alicia, to Sir John
Scudamore, of Ewyas, and Home Lacy, in Herefordshire; Jane he forced upon
Lord Grey De Ruthin; and his youngest daughter, Margaret, to Roger
Monnington, of Monnington, in Herefordshire, at whose house some accounts
say he died, and was buried in the church-yard there.” {90}
The prison where Owen confined his captives, and of which some remains
may still be seen, was near the church at Llansantffraid Glyndyfrdwy; and
the place is still called Carchardy Owen Glyndwr. He is said to have
died in the sixty-first year of his age.
I trust it will be deemed a pardonable digression, if I now give the
sequel of the military career of that loyal and truly brave Welchman, Sir
David Gam. I have before recounted that Glyndwr forced him to fly for
protection to the court of England, where he continued in favour with
King Henry IV. until the death of that monarch. I then find him
accompanying his son, King Henry V. on his expedition into France, in the
year of our Lord 1415, at the head and in the command of a numerous body
of stout and valiant Welchmen, who on all occasions distinguished
themselves by their courage and conduct. {91}
To Sir David Gam was assigned the important office of reconnoitring the
French army, on the approach of the famous battle of Agincourt. Finding
the French nearly ten times more numerous than the English army, he
replied to the King’s question as to the enemy’s strength—“An’t please
you, my Liege, they are enough to be killed, enough to run away, and
enough to be taken prisoners.” The King was well pleased with such an
answer from a man of Sir David’s valour.
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