Royal Children of English HistoryNesbit, E. (Edith)
History
Royal Children of English History
Nesbit, E. (Edith)
Princes -- Great Britain -- Biography; Princesses -- Great Britain -- Biography
But at last the Welsh Prince Llewellyn was killed. He had gone to the
south of Wales to cheer up his subjects there, and he had crossed the
river Wye into England, when a small band of English knights came up. A
young knight named Adam Frankton met with a Welsh chief as he came out
of a barn to join the Welsh army. Frankton at once attacked him, and
after a struggle, wounded the Welsh chief to death. Then he rode on to
battle, and when he came back he tried to find out what had become of
the Welshman. He heard that he was already dead, and then they found
that the dead man was the great Welsh Prince Llewellyn. His head was
taken off and sent to London, where it was placed on the battlements of
the Tower and crowned, in scorn, with ivy. This was because an old Welsh
magician, years before, had said that when English money became round,
the Welsh princes should be crowned in London. And money had become
round in this way:--
Before this there were silver pennies, and when anyone wanted a
half-penny, he chopped the silver penny in two, and if he wanted a
farthing he chopped the silver penny in four, so that money was all
sorts of queer shapes. But Edward the First had caused round copper
half-pennies and farthings to be made, and when the Welsh prince had
heard of this he had believed that the old magician's words were coming
true, and that he should defeat Edward and become king of England
himself. Instead of this, the poor man's head was cut off, and, in
mockery of his hopes and dreams, they crowned the poor dead head with
the wreath of ivy.
Now the Welsh wanted another prince, and King Edward said: "If you will
submit to me and not fight any more, you shall have a prince who was
born in Wales, can speak never a word of English, and never did wrong to
man, woman, or child." The Welsh people agreed that if they could have
such a prince as that, they would be contented and quiet, and give up
fighting. And so one day the leaders of the Welsh met King Edward at his
castle in Caernarvon and asked for the Prince he had promised them, and
he came out of his castle with his little son, who had only been born a
week before, in his arms.
"Here is your Prince," he said, holding up the little baby. "He was born
in Wales, he cannot speak a word of English, and he has never done harm
to man, woman or child."
Instead of being angry at the trick the king had played them, the Welsh
people were very pleased. Welsh nurses took care of the baby, so that he
really did learn to speak in Welsh before he could speak in English. And
the Welsh were so pleased with their baby king that from that time
Edward the First had no more trouble with them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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