The 13th century in Wales was the age of two Llywelyns, one The Great and one The Last.
This was a pivotal time in Welsh history, a time when the country teetered between becoming an independent nation in its own right or becoming part of the English empire.
Under Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (The Great) the balance swung one way. Born in 1173, he married Joan, the daughter of the English King John, but he consolidated power and territory until he controlled most of northern Wales.
Some say his success was due to the weakness of the English throne. Remember 1215? This was when King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta, giving his noblemen increased rights and privileges. But most historians also credit Llywelyn Ab Iorwerth as a man of both skill and daring.
The fortunes of Wales were reversing by the time his grandson, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (The Last) came to the throne in 1255. At first, things looked promising. The English King Henry III was still having trouble with those pesky barons, and in the Treaty of Montgomery in 1267, Henry III recognized Llywelyn's position, granting him the title Prince of Wales — and making him the first (last and only) native-born prince of the territory.
When Edward I came to the English throne in 1272, however, Llywelyn decided not only to refuse to pay homage but also arranged to marry Eleanor de Montfort, the daughter of a rebel baron.
After a few other disagreements, Edward I had had enough of the recalcitrant Prince of Wales and gathered up some 15,000 troops to beat him into submission. Against these odds, Llywelyn had little choice but to accept the king's terms. Llywelyn retained his title but little of his power.
In 1282, the Welsh revolted, largely led by Llywelyn's brother Dafydd. Going to the aid of his brother, of course, drew the ire and the forces of Edward I. Ironically, Llywelyn was killed in a minor skirmish by an English soldier who likely didn't even know who he was. But with his death came also the death of hopes of Welsh independence.
That notion was further cemented a couple of centuries later when Harri Tudur of Wales became Henry Tudor, Henry VII of England.
The story of the Llywelyns slipped into relative obscurity, but in recent years it has come to the fore again, at least in the area of Abergwyngregyn.
In 1992, Brian and Kathryn Pritchard Gibson bought a 36-acre chicken farm there called Pen Y Bryn with what they thought was a 17th-century Elizabethan manor house.
The local folks called the place Twr Llywelyn, but other than noticing that the tower part of the house appeared to be much older, the Gibsons didn't think much about it until they noticed a hollow sound under the living room floor, and under the floorboards they discovered hidden stairways, secret rooms, walls and tunnels.
After extensive research, Kathryn was able to authenticate the connection to Llywelyn the Great and Llywelyn the Last. According to a Web site (www.castlewales.com/pen.html) documenting the history of Pen Y Bryn, "it is the lost palace of the Princes Llywelyn, dating back to 1211."
Pen Y Bryn is where Joan, daughter of King John and wife of Llywelyn the Great lived and died. It is where Llywelyn the Last lived; where his wife, Eleanor, died in childbirth. After his death, Llywelyn's daughter was apparently abducted from the house by Edward I and sent to live in seclusion in a priory; her life probably spared only because her mother was the king's cousin.
On the Web site, professor David Austin of the University of Wales and a leader medieval archaeologist calls Pen Y Bryn "an immensely important site in the national psyche of Wales." And the Royal Commission of Ancient Monuments has declared it "the most important site discovered in Wales in this century."
E-mail: carma@desnews.com