January 1405 saw the formal ratification of the treaty with France, signed by Glyndŵr in Llanbadarn (Aberystwyth). It was sent to France with Morris Kerry and Hugh Eddouyer, where Charles VI also endorsed it.
THE PLOT TO RESCUE THE HEIRS TO THE CROWN
Over the winter a plan was hatched for Constance Despenser, Countess of Oxford, to bring the legitimate heirs to the crown into Wales. From Glamorgan, the young Mortimers could be taken to Glyndŵr and serve as a focal point for rebellion across England. The nation was sick of heavy taxation to pay for Henry IV’s continual warring. Lady Despenser’s husband, the Earl of Gloucester, had been beheaded by Bristol in 1400 after the Epiphany Rising, so although a kinswoman, she hated Henry IV. In February, Lady Despenser asked the court locksmith for a duplicate set of keys, and abducted the thirteen-year-old claimant to the throne, Edmund Mortimer, and his brother Roger, from Windsor Castle. They left at midnight, and at Abingdon the Countess sent her Welsh squire, Morgan, to tell the French King of the successful plot to restore the real King of England. However, she was arrested at Cheltenham near the Welsh border on 15 February, just a few miles from safety. The infant Mortimers were to be included in the negotiations held later that month by Glyndŵr, with the object of supporting their bid for the kingship.
Called before the Privy Council on 17 February, the Countess implicated her brother, the Duke of York (a cousin of Richard II), as the instigator of the plot. The Duke denied the charge, and Lady Despenser called for a champion to do battle in her name. Her squire volunteered to fight the Duke, and Lady Despenser said that she would burn in flames for treason if the Duke of York defeated him. Too fat to fight, the Duke was taken to the Tower of London and a few days later confessed that he knew of the plot but had helped foil it. His estates were temporarily confiscated, as were those of the Countess, but soon both were restored. The locksmith responsible for the doors to the brothers’ quarters had his hands cut off before execution. Henry seemed grateful that he still held the Mortimers – it is difficult otherwise to understand his extreme leniency in the affair. Lady Despenser’s son Richard, the last in the line of Despensers, was taken from her into royal wardship and then placed into the wardship of the Duke of York. Richard Despenser died suddenly (possibly murdered) in 1413, and the Duke illegally kept his immense property rights, but York died at Agincourt in 1415, falling off his horse and being suffocated in the crush.
THE TRIPARTITE INDENTURE 28 FEBRUARY 1405
Henry Percy, the Earl of Northumberland, had not been punished for the revolt of his son Henry (Hotspur), and his brother Thomas Percy, the Earl of Worcester, although he had raised an Anglo-Scottish force to try to join them at Shrewsbury. Henry had been lenient as he needed the Percies to safeguard the Scottish border, but Henry Percy wanted vengeance for the death of his son and brother. After discreet negotiations, probably led by the Welsh bishops Trefor and Byford, the Tripartite Indenture was signed in Bangor. It was said to have been signed in the house of David of Aberdaron, a Dean of Bangor, who had come over to Glyndŵr’s cause. (In 1406 the Privy Council discovered his defection, and outlawed ‘David Daron’.) The agreement was between Owain Glyndŵr, Henry Percy the Earl of Northumberland and Edmund Mortimer, who undertook to divide Britain into three parts. Glyndŵr would take Wales and the West of England as far as the rivers Severn and Mersey, including most of Cheshire, Herefordshire, and Shropshire. The Mortimers would take all of Southern and Western England. Thomas Percy, the Earl of Northumberland, would take the North of England and as far south as Leicester, Northampton, Warwick and Norfolk. Lord Thomas Bardolf, 5th Baron Bardolf, signed the document on behalf of Henry Percy. The young Earl of March, Edmund Mortimer, and his brother Roger, were still held by the King, and the signatories had no reason to believe that Henry would allow them to gain the throne. If the young Mortimers were killed by Henry, Edmund Mortimer, Glyndŵr’s son-in-law and Henry Percy’s kinsman, was the true heir to the throne. Another claimant would be the son of the dead Hotspur by his marriage to a Mortimer. Thus all the three parties had a share of a legitimate claim to the throne of England.
THE BATTLE OF GROSMONT CASTLE 11 MARCH 1405
Rhys Gethin was in charge of Glyndŵr’s southern forces, and was responsible for the real first hammer-blow against Owain’s cause. On 11 March 1405 Prince Henry wrote from Hereford that the rebels had burned Grosmont Castle in Monmouthshire, so he had sent Lord Talbot against them, who had defeated the Welsh with heavy loss, but he does not seem to have been present in person. Some accounts combine this with the battle at Campstone Hill, and others say that there were engagements at Campstone Hill in 1404 and 1405:
On the 11th March 1405 an attack was made on Grosmont by 8000 of Owen Glyndŵr’s men, who burnt part of the town. Assistance was sent for from Hereford, and Prince Henry (after Henry V), who was there with a small army, immediately sent Lord Talbot, and with him Sir William Newport and Sir John Grendour, to the assistance of the garrison at Grosmont. The English were victorious, and slew 800 to 1000 of the Welsh, victory being, as Prince Henry said in a letter to his father reporting this event, ‘not in a multitude of people, but in the power of God, and this was well proved here’.
(J.A. Bradney ‘A History of Monmouthshire’ 1907.)
Glyndŵr was in South Wales, and had sent Rhys Gethin, with the main army, towards Abergavenny, to harry Herefordshire again. In Grosmont Castle an unexpectedly strong English forces was waiting. After the battle, Prince Henry excitedly wrote to his father of this first major English victory in the war:
On Wednesday, the 11th of the present month of March, your rebels of Overwent to the number of 8,000 burnt your town of Grosmont. Presently went out from the Castle my well-beloved cousin the Lord Talbot, and the small body of my household, and by the aid of the blessed Trinity vanquished all the said rebels, and slew of them some say 800, others 1,000. Of prisoners none were taken except one, a great chief among them, whom I would have sent to you, but he cannot yet ride at ease. Written at Hereford the said Wednesday at night.
Because the Prince and the Earl of Warwick and their retinues were present, the royal force must have been large, despite the Prince writing that he had ‘but a small force’. Lord Talbot, Sir William Newport and Sir John Greyndour were also present with their men. Greyndour had been in charge of Radnor from 1402 to 1404, seeing constant action, before he was sent to try and halt the capture of Aberystwyth by Glyndŵr in 1404. Greyndour may himself have been captured and ransomed at this time. Prince Henry claimed that the Welsh were made up ‘from the districts of Glamorgan, Morgannwg, Usk, lower and upper Gwent assembled to the number of 8000 men, by their own account.’ However, it seems to have been a minor skirmish with a few hundred in a Welsh warband, who expected to find Grosmont not as heavily defended. Whatever happened here, there is no real record on either side, and it may have been propaganda to try and finally start a record of success in the record of English armies in Wales since 1400. Thus the Battle of Grosmont may have been confused with that of Campstone Hill, or there were two skirmishes around Grosmont in 1404 and 1405. It certainly does not seem to be a great battle, unlike the one which followed.
THE BATTLE OF PWLL MELYN, OR USK, 16 MARCH 1405
(12 March, 15 March and 5 May are also given as dates)
Grosmont had probably been the first serious defeat which Glyndŵr’s forces had received, and sources state that it was followed within a week by another defeat at Usk, in which 1,500 Welshmen were killed or taken. We are still unsure of the date, but this was the key battle of the war, the defeat of the Welsh devastating and disheartening the men of Glamorgan and Gwent, who suffered the most casualties. 5 May is given in one source, but others say 12 March (which seems too soon after Grosmont) and others say five days after Grosmont and a week after Grosmont.
Following the defeat at Grosmont it seems that the Welsh wished to quickly obliterate the memory. At the time of battle, Prince Henry was probably still based in Hereford. The battle began with an assault by Welsh forces, led by Owain’s eldest son, Gruffydd, against Usk Castle. The Welsh retreated pursued by unexpected numbers of garrison troops inside the castle. These forces were led by Sir John Oldcastle of Herefordshire, Sir John Greyndour, Dafydd Gam and Richard Grey, 1st Baron Grey of Codnor. It seems that Gruffydd had no idea of the strength of the forces he faced inside Usk castle – there were four major warriors and their forces, when he might have expected only 100 or so defenders. Only two years earlier in 1403, Glyndŵr had burnt the town of Usk, with loss of life and property, so local people may not have favoured his cause. John Leland wrote that the ‘praty townlet upon Usk’ was ‘deflored by Glindore’.
The Welsh retreated across the fordable River Usk and into the forest of Monkswood towards ‘Mynydd Pwll Melynthe’ – ‘Hill of the Yellow Pool’. Adam of Usk recounted ‘they slew with fire and the edge of the sword many of them, and above all the Abbot of Llanthony (this should be Llantarnam), and they crushed them without ceasing, driving them through the monk’s wood, where the said Griffin (Owain’s son) was taken.’ Hopcyn ap Tomos, one of Glyndŵr’s greatest warriors, was killed. Checking the bodies of the slain and gathering weapons, there was great excitement as the English thought that Glyndŵr had been killed. However, it was his almost identical brother Tudur, who did not have Glyndŵr’s wart above the eyebrow. Perhaps the traitor Dafydd Gam made the correct identification. According to the Scottish chronicler Walter Bower, Dafydd Gam of Brecon, who held land at Llantilio Crosenni in Monmouthshire, played a major part in the victory with his local knowledge and reputation. He possibly won over local Welshmen to fight against Glyndŵr, or may have gained warning of the attack in advance. According to Adam of Usk, Usk Castle ‘had been put into some condition for defence’ prior to the attack.
1405 Battle of Pwll Melyn. On the feast of Saint Gregory (March 12th), Griffith, eldest son of Owen, with a great following made assault, in an evil hour for himself, on the castle of Usk, which had been put into some condition for defence, and wherein at the that time were the lord Grey of Codnor, Sir John Greyndour, and many other soldiers of the king. For those same lords, sallying forth manfully, took him captive, and pursuing his men even to the hill-country of Higher Gwent, through the river Usk, there slew with fire and the edge of the sword many of them, and above all the abbot of Llanthony, and they crushed them without ceasing, driving them through the monk’s wood (1.5 miles north-west of Usk), where the said Griffin was taken. And their captives, to the number of three hundred, they beheaded in front of the same castle near Ponfald; and certain prisoners of more noble birth they brought, along with the same Griffith, prisoners to the king. The which Griffith, being held in captivity for six years, at last in Tower of London was cut off by a pestilence (Griffith died c.1411.) And from that time forth in those parts the fortunes of Owen waned.
(Adam of Usk.)
The 300 prisoners beheaded in front of Usk Castle might have been the actual death toll – no mass graves are recorded in the area. Gruffydd ab Owain Glyndŵr was imprisoned in Nottingham Castle, to die later in the Tower of London, probably starved to death. Another major blow was the death of John ap Hywel, Abbot of the Cistercian Llantarnam Abbey north of Newport (not Llantony as Adam of Usk states). The abbot was killed during the battle, as he ministered to the dying and wounded of both sides. He may have been killed in a stand on the riverbank to cover the retreat of the main body of the Welsh, and was recorded as promising he would join them ‘that very evening, to supper at Christ’s table in your company, where the toast will be to you men.’
The Welsh Annals (Peniarth MS 135) state that:
1405 – A slaughter of the Welsh on Pwll Melyn Mountain, near Usk, where Gruffydd ab Owain was taken prisoner. It was now the tide began to turn against Owain and his men. At this time Glamorgan made its submission to the English, except a few who went to Gwynedd to their master.
It seems the battle saw more or less the end of the rebellion in south-east Wales. One historian says that the defeat ‘suggest that the rashness of local initiatives was endangering the revolt as a whole,’ as fixed battles like Grosmont and Pwll Melyn were not suited to the guerrilla way of fighting. Defeat in the battle and the loss of many men and commanders undermined the support offered by the French troops, which arrived later that year to support Glyndŵr. In March 1405, either at Grosmont or Usk, John Hanmer was captured, along with Glyndŵr’s secretary Owain ap Gruffydd ap Rhisiart. They were imprisoned in the Tower of London, but Hanmer survived. (Another source claims Hanmer was captured 3 months later).
Of the English participants, Richard, Lord Grey of Codnor, was admiral of the King’s fleet, and in 1403-1404 made justice of South Wales. Sir John Greyndour was Lord of Abenhall in the Forest of Dean, Sheriff of Gloucestershire 1405 and 1411, and was present at both Grosmont and Usk. Ponfald, where 300 men were beheaded, was probably a bridge over the Usk – were their bodies tipped into the river? Pont-ffald means the bridge of the enclosure, or sheepfold. The battles at last gave the English hope across Wales that Prince Henry’s men could turn the tide. On 29 March, Greyndour was rewarded by being appointed Steward of Usk and ‘Caerlleon’ during the minority of the Earl of March.
THE THREAT OF ANOTHER INVASION
The King, in April, raised 3,500 men, and sent another 2,000 to reinforce the remaining garrisons across Wales and the borders. He wanted to finish off Glyndŵr’s defeated forces. Henry IV had a personal retinue of 144 permanent men-at-arms and 720 archers, to which he indented an additional 400 lances and 120 archers from 26 April to 22 June, preparing for another Welsh invasion. He appointed the following lords to accompany him into Wales: the Duke of York, to head for Newport with 50 indentured lances and 260 archers; the Earl of Warwick (20 and 100); Mowbray, Earl Marshall (20 and 120); the Earl of Dunbar (14 and 28) and Lord Lovell (30 and 60). Thus the King’s personal army was to be 678 lances, 1,408 archers, and probably at least another 1500 armed men to support his lances, to make up an army of at least 3,500 men. Upon 27 April, his 3,500 men were reinforced by other royalist forces from along the borders, and moved to Usk, waiting to begin the 6th Royal Expedition from Hereford into South Wales. Brecon and Radnor (Lord Grey of Codnor) had garrisons of 40 lances and 200 archers, and 30 and 200 archers respectively. In Hay (the young Earl of Arundel) there were sixteen lances and eighty archers, and other garrison were Abergafenni (Lord Abergavenny) eighty and 400; and Aberystwyth (Prince Henry) forty and 200. Sir Thomas Beaufort commanded Carmarthen, Newcastle Emlyn and Cardigan, where the defenders were 120 and 600, 10 and 50 and 60 and 300 respectively. As well as these 2,376 men there would have been at least another 1,000 armed men supporting the lances (men-at-arms). These large garrisons could now be used as flying columns by Prince Henry rather than as purely defensively, as had been seen in the case of the attacks on Grosmont and Usk in March 1405.
On 13 April 1405, there was a skirmish in Flintshire, where Llywelyn’s wife’s uncle, Maredudd ap Llywelyn Ddu of Maelor Saesneg, was killed. In Chester, Prince Henry tried to stop the incessant smuggling between Wales and England. Markets and fairs were being held across Wales with English goods, horses and cattle being sold. Lawlessness was not confined to the Welsh along the March. Caus Castle in Shropshire guarded an important trading route to Shrewsbury, and was garrisoned for the King by its seneschal, Gruffydd ap Ieuan ap Madoc ap Gwenwys, during the Glyndŵr War. Following calls from students at Oxford, Gruffydd changed sides in 1404, and his lands and castle taken from him. In 1405, 100 men from Baschurch and surrounding districts raided the town around Caus Castle, killing Gruffydd ap Gruffydd (not Gruffydd Fychan) and Iorwerth ap Gwyn, and taking women and children as captives. The new Keeper of the castle, William Bromshall, wrote that ‘they imprisoned them at ransom and wrongfully and violently chased out of the said lordship 100 other tenants.’ Caus Castle is on one of the best defensive sites in the Marches, near Westbury in Shropshire, and guarded an important trade route between the English settlements around Shrewsbury and Mortgomery castles. The Medieval borough around the castle has vanished.
Caus Castle’s keeping, and his full estates, were returned to Gruffydd ap Ieuan in 1419 after his sons Ieuan ap Gruffydd and Sir Gruffydd Fychan captured John Oldcastle for Lord Charleton. He and his sons deserted the Glyndŵr side in 1406 and served Edward Charleton for the remainder of the war. As an interesting aside on the nature of the Grey family, which triggered the Glyndŵr War, Sir Gruffydd Fychan probably fought at Agincourt in 1415, being traditionally credited with saving Henry IV’s life, and fought valiantly at the Battle of Bauge in 1421. Lord John Grey fell next to him, and Gruffydd retrieved Grey’s body and brought it back for burial. In 1443, Gruffydd Fychan pierced with a lance Sir Christopher Talbot at Caus Castle, possibly by accident in a joust. Talbot was the son of the Earl of Shrewsbury and the ‘champion tilter’ of England. Gruffydd’s lands were confiscated and he was outlawed with a massive reward for his capture of 500 marks (worth c. £79,000 according to the Retail Price Index and £780,000 using Average Earnings). In 1447 Henry Grey, Lord Powys, summoned Sir Gruffydd to Powys Castle, but Gruffydd Fychan was suspicious, until Grey issued a safe conduct for him. On 9 July, upon entering the courtyard, he was taken and ‘beheaded on the spot without judge or jury’, in the presence of Lord Grey, whose father’s body Gruffydd had brought back from France. The Greys had not changed in their treachery over a period of 50 years.
THE SCROPE REBELLION & THE ‘BATTLE’ OF SKIPTON MOOR 29 MAY 1405
Upon 14 May 1405, Henry IV arrived to join his forces at Hereford for yet another invasion, hoping to build on the battle at Usk and finally subdue Wales. However, he had to abandon his plans on 28 May, and headed north as the Scrope Rebellion broke out in the North of England. It seems that Archbishop Scrope of York had thought that Glyndŵr would invade England at the same time as his rising, or that he wanted to rebel when Henry was invading Wales. Lewis Byford, Bishop Trefor and Dean David of Aberdaron had wanted immediate action, however. Scrope promised in pamphlets that the Welsh would stop warring with the English, as the Welsh bishops wished it to be so. He promised peace at last for England. The Welsh bishops possibly knew of the recent defeats of the Welsh and wished to stave off Henry marching through Wales, as the battles of Grosmont and Pwll Melyn had demoralised the previously victorious Welsh army. Scrope’s service to Richard II had been rewarded with the Archbishopric of York in 1398. The Earl of Northumberland was bitter about the loss of his son and brother at Shrewsbury, and persuaded Archbishop Scrope to join him in rebellion. In the spring of 1405 Scrope composed a manifesto indicting the King on several charges of willful misrule. Having raised three knights and an armed mob of 8,000 men, Scrope set out with Earl Mowbray to join forces with Henry Percy and Lord Bardolf. Before they could meet, however, Percy found himself hopelessly outmaneuvered and delayed. As a result, Percy decided to abandon the expedition led by Scrope and Mowbray, leaving his inexperienced allies to face a large royalist army led by Westmoreland and Lancaster. After a three-day stalemate on Shipton Moor, Scrope agreed to parley with Westmorland, but as soon as the Archbishop disbanded his followers in accordance with the terms of the truce, he was arrested and imprisoned at Pontefract. (It is no wonder that Glyndŵr showed no trust for the King’s forces in his long war.) The King travelled to the Archbishop’s Palace near York for the treason trial. English histories record the betrayal as a ‘battle’ won by Henry IV – he was not present and there was no battle.
The Earl Marshall (Thomas Mowbray), then Sir William Plumpton and then Scrope were executed by beheading in a nearby field. It took five blows of the axe to take off the Archbishop’s head. Sir John Griffiths, a Welsh knight, was also executed. Archbishop Scrope’s tomb in York Minster became a shrine, and some medieval writers saw Henry’s poor health as punishment for killing an Archbishop. Henry would have probably been excommunicated, but for the Roman Pope’s fear of his switching his allegiance to the Pope at Avignon, as Glyndŵr had done. The rebellion had orchestrated by the Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland and Lord Bardolf, but they escaped to Scotland in June, along with Glyndŵr’s bishops, Byford of Bangor and Trefor of St Asaf.
BEAUMARIS CASTLE FALLS JUNE 1405
There were mixed fortunes for Owain in June 1405. English ships sailed from Dublin and attacked Anglesey. There was some kind of battle at Rhos-y-Meirch. Stephen Scrope, Deputy-Lieutenant of Ireland, had landed and Beaumaris Castle fell back into English hands. It had fallen to the Welsh some time after August 1404, and the Anglesey landowner Gwilym ap Gruffudd ap Tudur Llwyd, ‘The Green Squire’, was killed defending the castle. Welsh church relics were looted and taken to Ireland. The Welsh abandoned Anglesey and fled to Snowdonia. Also in this month, John Hanmer was captured, a grave blow to Glyndŵr. (He may have been captured at Usk in March, however). His brother-in-law was one of his closest advisors, and such was his importance that his captor was rewarded with 40 marks, over £26, worth over £130,000 today on the average earning index. John Hanmer eventually ransomed himself and survived the war. However, Radnor Castle was surrendered by Sir John Greyndour – it had only nine men-at-arms and twenty-two archers left defending it – Cefnllys Castle on the Ithon was taken and burned, and the areas of Cnwclas and Knighton and Ogmore laid waste.
As Edmund Mortimer was a minor, the Crown assumed control of his territories. On 24 November 1401 Hugh Burnell was appointed keeper of the Mortimer-owned Cefnllys Castle near Llandrindod Wells. Burnell was empowered to accept the unconditional surrender of rebels, but not to issue pardons without the King’s permission. The garrison at Cefnllys under Sir William Heron, Lord Say, about 1402-3, was stated to be twelve spearmen and thirty archers. On 12 September 1403, the Bishop and Sheriff of Worcester and John Ryall were given a commission to supply Cefnllys with eight quarters of wheat, one tun of wine, three tuns of ale, 200 fish and sixty quarters of oats. There is a record of 27 January 1406 of the grant of the castle to Richard, Lord Grey, which says it was ‘burned and wasted by the Welsh rebels’ (along with the lordships of Knighton and Knucklas), probably in June 1405.
GLYNDŴR’S SECOND PARLIAMENT, HARLECH JULY 1405
The Parliament at Harlech had ambassadors from France, Castile, Brittany and Scotland, and a tourney for entertainment. A possible truce with England was discussed, on the lines of the Treaty of Shrewsbury in 1267, whereby Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was recognized as Prince of Wales. By the treaty, Llywelyn’s gains of former Welsh estates off Marcher Lords were accepted, and the status quo had been restored. An agreement was made to hire 2,000 men from France, who soon came to support the Welsh war effort. Another agreement was made to hire 10,000 troops from Scotland or the North of England, which was to be effected at a later date. Perhaps Henry IV might have accommodated a peace, but he was suffering from a skin illness and increasingly his affairs were passing to his dynamic son, Prince Hal of Monmouth. Prince Henry had been brought up a warrior, and saw glory in finally defeating Wales. After his men’s victories at Grosmont and Pwll Melyn, he was now feeling confident of overall victory. There is a story that two men of Flint infiltrated the Harlech Parliament, and reported to Sir John Stanley in Cheshire. If Prince Henry knew of the deal to hire Scottish and French troops, it would have further strengthened his resolve to fight Glyndŵr rather than parley. However, Stanley was told by these agents, David Whitmore and Ieuan or Jevan ap Maredudd (Meredith) that Glyndŵr had called the most important men from every commote in Wales, and that his purpose was to seek a treaty with Henry IV. (There was probably another Parliament in Harlech in August 1406.)
THE FRENCH ARRIVE AUGUST 1405
Glyndŵr made a treaty with France in 1404 and an expedition under the Comte de Marche was planned for that year but came to nothing except for a raid on Falmouth. A stronger expeditionary force landed in August 1405 with 140 ships but had lost almost all their horses through lack of fresh water. Lord Berkeley and Henry Pay burnt 15 of their ships in the same harbour. The French took Carmarthen, allowing defenders to leave with their goods and chattels. At the same time 15 ships were captured by Lord Berkeley, Henry Pay and Sir Thomas Swinburne when they were sailing from France to help Owain. With these ships the seneschal of France and 8 other captains were taken.
(Walsingham’s Historia Anglicana.)
On the continent, the French army invaded English Aquitaine. Simultaneously, a French fleet assembled in Brest and landed in force at Milford Haven. The Duc d’Orleans wanted to abide by the 1404 treaty with Owain after the ignoble behaviour of de Bourbon. He wanted the English fighting on another front. Part of the funds for the expedition had been raised by the Harlech Parliament, and it left Brest in July with 800 men-at-arms (each with a squire, a page and three archers), 600 crossbowmen and 1,200 light infantry, led by Jean de Rieux, the Marshall of France. Jean of Hengest led the 600 crossbowmen. The army commander was Robert ‘One-Eye’ of La Heuze. The admiral of the fleet was Renaud de Trie, Lord of Fontenay.
Unfortunately, the fleet was becalmed and the fleet had not been provided with sufficient fresh water. All of the heavy cavalry horses died of thirst. Instead of turning back and re-supplying, the fleet landed in the ‘Englishry’ of Pembroke, at Angle Bay near Milford Haven. They also brought modern siege equipment. However their knights had no ‘great horses’, destriers, and the smaller Welsh horses used by Glyndŵr’s warbands were not strong enough to take them in full armour. Also, their crossbows were of little use compared to the rapid-firing longbow favoured by the Welsh. It may be that the tower house at Angle was taken. Tower houses are rare across Wales, but in Pembrokeshire there are examples at Carswell, Eastington, Haroldston, Lydstep, West Tarr, Carew and Caldey Island, built probably because of coastal raids by the Welsh on the Flemish and English settlers. Joined by some of Owain’s forces, the French force slowly marched inland and burned the town of Haverfordwest on 10 August, but failed to take the castle. The French admiral’s brother, Patrouillard de Treyes, was said to have died at Haverfordwest. A French contingent also took the small Picton Castle.
The army then moved and laid siege to Tenby, where the Welsh main army was waiting. French siege engines were set up, but the French appear to have fled, fearing an English fleet was about to attack. It appears that Lord Berkeley and Henry Pay, Warden of the Cinque Ports, with a fleet of thirty warships destroyed a convoy of fourteen French munitions ships, either lying at anchor or making for the Welsh coast. It then destroyed fifteen of the French transport ships lying in the Haven at Milford. French historians seem to believe that the sinking of these ships helped Glyndŵr by keeping the French in Wales. They had intended to return to France quickly after a token effort of solidarity. Tenby was not taken, but a French force negotiated with the garrison at St Clears Castle to take it, and it was agreed that St Clears would surrender if Carmarthen did so first.