The Marshal hereupon busied himself with the repair of Caermarthen castle[880] till at the end of May a royal letter patent bade him, “forasmuch as it is determined by our Council that the castles of Caermarthen and Cardigan, which you have taken, should be retained in our own hand,” deliver both places to Robert de Vaux to hold during the King’s pleasure.[881] Llywelyn had certainly proved himself utterly undeserving of the confidence in his loyalty which had induced the regent Earl Marshal to entrust him with the custody of these two important strongholds; and if the regent’s son was not actually commissioned by the Council to recover them by force, it could at any rate have no scruples in approving his action and reaping its fruit for the benefit of the Crown. A day in July was next appointed for Llywelyn and the Marshal to lay their mutual complaints before the King and Council. The meeting took place at Ludlow, seemingly between 6th and 10th July,[882] but the parties “could not be reconciled.”[883] The Council had apparently not expected a reconciliation, and had come prepared for war. On the 11th the sheriffs of Devon and Herefordshire were bidden to take care that no men of their respective shires should send (by sea in the case of Devon), any supplies to, or hold any communication with, Llywelyn and his Welsh adherents, but that all merchants and markets should follow the King’s army to South Wales, “that is, to our lands of Caermarthen and Cardigan, and to the lands of our faithful Earl William the Marshal.”[884] An effort was made to detach the Welsh of Deheubarth and Powys from obedience to their North-Welsh lord; the Earls of Pembroke and Salisbury were empowered to receive into the King’s grace “all the Welsh of South Wales who would return to the King’s fealty and service”;[885] the sons of Gwenwynwyn of Powys, who since Gwenwynwyn’s death in 1216 had been living in England as wards or prisoners of the Crown, and were now in Bridgenorth castle under the care or in the custody of Earl Ranulf of Chester, were brought to the King’s court at Gloucester, and all men of the lands which had belonged to their father were invited to “come to the sons of Gwenwynwyn and to the King’s fealty and peace”;[886] a host of English barons and knights marched into Wales under the command of the Marshal and his friend Longsword.[887]