Glyndwr or Glendower. Owen was a descendant of one of the
last native Princes, Llewelyn-ap-Jorwerth, and the lord of considerable
estates in Merioneth. He had been squire of the body to Richard the
Second, and had clung to him till he was seized at Flint. It was probably
his known aversion from the revolution which had deposed his master that
brought on him the hostility of Lord Grey of Ruthin, the stay of the
Lancastrian cause in North Wales; and the same political ground may have
existed for the refusal of the Parliament to listen to his prayer for
redress and for the restoration of the lands which Grey had seized. But
the refusal was embittered by words of insult; when the Bishop of St.
Asaph warned them of Owen's power the lords retorted that "they cared not
for barefoot knaves." They were soon to be made to care. At the close of
1400 Owen rose in revolt, burned the town of Ruthin, and took the title of
Prince of Wales.

[Sidenote: Owen Glyndwr]

His action at once changed the disaffection into a national revolt. His
raids on the Marches and his capture of Radnor marked its importance, and
Henry marched against him in the summer of 1401. But Glyndwr's post at
Corwen defied attack, and the pressure in the north forced the king to
march away into Scotland. Henry Percy, who held the castles of North Wales
as Constable, was left to suppress the rebellion, but Owen met Percy's
arrival by the capture of Conway, and the king was forced to hurry fresh
forces under his son Henry to the west. The boy was too young as yet to
show the military and political ability which was to find its first field
in these Welsh campaigns, and his presence did little to stay the growth
of revolt. While Owen's lands were being harried Owen was stirring the
people of Caermarthen into rebellion and pressing the siege of
Abergavenny; nor could the presence of English troops save Shropshire from
pillage. Everywhere the Welshmen rose for their "Prince"; the Bards
declared his victories to have been foretold by Merlin; even the Welsh
scholars at Oxford left the University in a body and joined his standard.
The castles of Ruthin, Hawarden, and Flint fell into his hands, and with
his capture of Conway gave him command of North Wales. The arrival of help
from Scotland and the hope of help from France gave fresh vigour to Owen's
action, and though Percy held his ground stubbornly on the coast and even
recovered Conway he at last threw up his command i