gh Llywelyn reserved
his right to appeal to the law against this article. Further, the
Prince of Gwynedd received the hereditary title of Prince of Wales,
and was recognised as overlord of all the Welsh barons in Wales,
except Meredydd ap Rhys, who remained immediate vassal of the King of
England: his territories therefore in the Vale of Towy were withdrawn
from the power of Llywelyn. The Prince of Wales in return did homage
and agreed to pay him 25,000 marks by instalments. The treaty is less
favourable to Llywelyn than that of 1265. His rights in Deheubarth
were curtailed, and he gave up his claims to Ellesmere and Montgomery,
and possession of Maelienydd.

The papal legate who arranged the treaty is not to be congratulated on
his draftsmanship. Many things were left undecided, and a series of
disputes arose. Thus Llywelyn seems to have claimed suzerainty over
the Lord of Senghenydd as one of the "Welsh barons," though that term
was surely only meant to include the Welsh barons who held directly of
the king, not the vassals of the Lord of Glamorgan. But it is evident
that Llywelyn did not try to abide by the treaty. He continued to
intrigue with the English barons, posing as the successor of Simon de
Montfort, and failing to see that Edward I. was the political heir of
the great earl. He tried to throw off the suzerainty of England, with
the result that he lost the independence of his country. He lived in
an atmosphere of enthusiasm and flattery, and failed to realise the
limits of his power. The bards by whom he was surrounded exercised a
"highly pernicious influence in practical concerns," and ill-repaid
his generosity by urging him to attempt the impossible.

"His bards are comely about his tables,
I have seen him generously distributing his wealth,
And his meadhorns filled with generous liquors.
I never returned empty-handed from the North.
The bards prophesy that he shall have the government and
sovereign power;
Every prediction is at last to be fulfilled."

But if Llywelyn lacked the hard head of the practical statesman, if
he did not, like his grandfather, merit the title of "the Great," he
will always remain an attractive and striking figure in history; he
possessed qualities which made him an ideal representative of the
Cymric race in the Middle Ages:--

"A bold and bounteous lion--the most reckless of givers,
Man whose anger was destructive; most courteous prince