We decree, further, that if any ecclesiastic or other person contravene the present statute in any way, by guile or craft, it shall be lawful for us and for other immediate lords-in-chief of a fee so alienated, to enter it within a year of such alienation, and to hold it in fee and as an inheritance. And if the immediate lord be negligent, and fail to enter upon possession of such a fee within a year, then it shall be lawful for the nearest mediate lord of that fee to enter upon and hold that fee, as aforesaid, within the space of half a year following; and so may every mediate lord do, if the lord nearest to him be negligent in entering upon possession, as aforesaid.
And should all the other lords-in-chief (such as be of full age, and within the four seas, and out of prison) be negligent or remiss for one year, we ourselves, after the lapse of a complete year when purchases, donations, or other appropriations of this kind ought to have been made, shall take such lands and tenements into our own hands, and shall enfeoff others on them to do certain fixed services to us for the defence of our realm; saving to the lords-in-chief of those fees, wardships, escheats, and other incidents belonging to them, and the due and accustomed services. And we command you to cause the aforesaid statute to be read in your presence, and henceforth to be firmly held and observed.
Witness the King, at Westminster, on the fifteenth day of November, in the seventh year of his reign.
THE WELSH REBELLION OF 1281-1282.
A. Source.—Annals of Dunstable, p. 291. (Annales Monastici, vol. iii.—Rolls Series.)
A.D. 1282.—In the same year the Welsh rebelled a second time against their lord, the King of England; the chief reason for the rebellion was that the lord King had introduced English laws and customs into their territory, and had decreed that county and hundred courts should follow. Another reason was that the Justiciar of Chester had caused certain of the men of David, brother of the Prince of Wales, to be hung, contrary to the usage of the Welsh. Further, by command of the lord the King, the woods of the said David had been cut down for the construction of a safe highway for travellers, as the result of the misdeeds of robbers.
B. Source.—Annals of Oseney, pp. 287 et seqq. (Annales Monastici, vol. iv.—Rolls Series.)
A.D. 1281.—About the Festival of the Annunciation of the Blessed Mary, Llewellyn, violating the peace which he had some time before entered into with the King of England, at the instigation and with the assistance of his brother David, on whom the King of England had bestowed lands and possessions in England, and whom he had honoured with kindness among the nobles of his household, did not shame, with a large band of robbers, to devastate, plunder, and burn, in frequent raids, those lands, belonging to the King of England and the Marchers, which lay nearest to him; he even attacked the Castles of Flint and Rhuddlan, which the King had begun to build on the borders of Wales to ward off the threatened attacks of the Welsh. When the King, who was at that time keeping Easter at Devizes, heard the news, he sent off a few of his men immediately to check, even a little, the advance of the Welsh, until he himself could take more serious measures. Then, summoning the nobles of the kingdom, he appointed a Parliament to be held at Worcester on the Festival of the Nativity of S. John the Baptist. Meanwhile Roger de Clifford, who was endeavouring to protect the lands lying next his own from the fury of the marauding bands, was captured, mortally wounded, by David and his accomplices, after several of his family had been cruelly put to death. The King, hearing this, decreed in the Parliament above-mentioned that all the nobles of the kingdom should meet him with horses and arms in Wales on the Feast of S. Peter ad Vincula; and when a large army assembled, he laid waste, ravaged, and burned the strongholds, lands, and villages of the Prince of Wales, which lay near him. But the Welsh resisted courageously, and one day, when a detachment from the King's army was advancing somewhat carelessly and allowing itself to become too far separated from the main body, suddenly a countless host of Welshmen, bursting forth from hiding-places in the woods and marshes, attacked our men, who were relatively very few in number. In the struggle were slain the son of lord William de Valence, nephew of the lord King, Richard de Argentoein, and several others, the remainder escaping with difficulty.
The King remained in the region of Rhuddlan until about the Feast of All Saints, and in the meantime the lord John, Archbishop of Canterbury, was sent to Llewellyn at Snowdon to treat for peace with him, or rather to advise and induce him to observe the peace which he had previously made with the King, and confirmed in writing and by oath, especially since the conditions had been carried out. But his mission was fruitless, for Llewellyn could not be induced to make peace. While the Archbishop delayed for three days in Snowdon, the English nobles, showing more foolishness than courage, secretly entered Snowdon, thinking that by craft they could seize it by their own unaided strength. But the Welsh, forewarned of their approach, advanced in force against them, and joining battle, easily prevailed over the small detachment of nobles and put them to flight. The fugitives thought to save themselves by crossing a certain river, but, owing to ignorance of the force of the current, several were drowned, namely, Luke de Tani, William de Dodingsele, William la Zouche, and others; the rest escaped with difficulty. This happened on the Festival of S. Leonard. When the Archbishop came down from Snowdon without accomplishing his aim, he uttered sentence of excommunication against Llewellyn as a violator of his oath, and a perjurer, and against David, his brother, and all their accomplices and abettors.
About the same time died the lord Roger Mortimer, one of the most famous men of his age, and a valiant soldier. On his death, the lord Edmund, his eldest son and heir, together with his brother—perchance, as is believed, to appease the King—laid an ambush for the said Llewellyn; for, being informed of his movements by spies, the said Edmund gathered together a large and powerful force, and, more by chance than was imagined at that time, fell in with Llewellyn when he had descended from the mountains of Snowdon for some unknown reason and was traversing the lower ground with the few followers who still adhered to him, and put him, and those of his men who were unable to escape, to death by the sword. The head of the Prince, whom he recognized among the slain, he cut off and sent to the lord King. This memorable triumph of the slaying of Llewellyn happened, under God, about the Feast of S. Thomas the Apostle, before Christmas. The King, glorying in his victory, ordered the head to be taken to London, and affixed it to the Tower on a spear as a memorial of so notable a success.