Feasts of swans

In 1316 Sir Gruffudd Llwyd engaged in correspondence with Edward Bruce, who had been proclaimed High King of Ireland. In his letters, Llwyd hailed Bruce as king and declared, on behalf of the nobles of Wales, that if Bruce came to Wales, or sent an army on his behalf, the Welsh would rise and join him to drive out the English.

There is more to this than meets the eye. A few months earlier, autumn 1315, Edward II had held a secret meeting with several Welsh magnates: they included Gruffudd Llwyd, Morgan ap Maredudd, Philip ap Hywel and Master Rees ap Hywel.

The purpose of this meeting was to prepare the defence of the Welsh coast against a threatened Scots invasion from Ireland. Edward gave full power to his Welsh officers to organise the lands and resources of the principality.

One theory is that Gruffudd's real motive, in contacting Edward Bruce, was to lure him over to Wales. There, he and his men could be ambushed and wiped out.

This was not an uncommon tactic, and the other Welshmen present at the meeting were familiar with it. Morgan ap Maredudd had been a royal agent for decades: in 1295 he had lured out the notorious English traitor, Sir Thomas Turberville, and handed him over to Edward I for execution. Philip ap Hywel and his brother Rees were closely linked to the Mortimers of Wigmore, who had killed Prince Llywelyn of Wales in an ambush in 1282. They were also heavily involved with the similar killings of the Mac Murrough brothers, at Arklow in Ireland, in the same year.

As for Gruffudd Llwyd, he was a royal commissioner of array and a Swan Knight, knighted the Feast of Swans in 1306. He and Morgan had led the last army Edward I ever raised in 1307, and there is little in his career to suggest he wanted to join forces with the Bruce Scots.

Edward Bruce, no fool he, refused the bait. There was no Scottish expedition to Wales, so Edward's administration could breathe again. Until the next crisis.

(Attached, third pic, is part of one of Gruffudd's letters to Bruce. As you can see, it is in Norman-French).