Military history of Wales: battles, princes and rebellions

Seen from Wales, much of this history is not Britain at war but a country of several kingdoms facing a larger neighbor, winning battles such as Crug Mawr and Bryn Glas and losing its princes at Orewin Bridge. Welshmen also fought for the English crown throughout, in Edward I's own armies and on both sides of the Wars of the Roses. This page follows the Welsh kingdoms, the March, the princes and the conquest, the risings and the Tudors, and then the Welsh soldiers who served the British state. The wars of England and of Great Britain are on our page on the military history of Britain.²

Who ruled Wales before the Normans?

After the end of Roman rule around 400, native leaders founded a number of kingdoms in Wales: Gwynedd in the northwest, Powys in the northeast, Dyfed in the southwest, and in the southeast Glywysing and Gwent. Britannica notes that tradition traced the kings of Gwynedd to Cunedda, said to have come from northern Britain to drive out the Irish. These were separate realms, not a single state.³

By the 12th century three kingdoms dominated, Gwynedd, Powys and Deheubarth, ruled from Aberffraw, Mathrafal and Dinefwr. Their rulers were called kings and later princes or lords, and each held his land by homage to the king of England. Gerald of Wales, writing in 1188, found the men of the south best with the bow and those of the north with the long lance.⁴

The Norman March

After 1066 the Normans set up the earldoms of Chester, Shrewsbury and Hereford on the border and pushed into Wales from each. After Rhys ap Tewdwr, king of Deheubarth, was killed in 1093, they overran almost the whole of the south and founded the lordships of Cardigan, Pembroke, Brecon and Glamorgan. This was the March of Wales, where marcher lords held wide powers under the custom of the March, largely free of the king.⁵

The Welsh fought back. When Henry I died in 1135, revolt spread across the south. In the autumn of 1136 the sons of the king of Gwynedd and Gruffydd ap Rhys of Deheubarth routed the Normans and Flemings of the south outside Cardigan, at Crug Mawr; the Royal Commission writes that the victory re-established Welsh rule over much of southern and central west Wales. Lloyd notes that the Welsh could now put armored cavalry in the field beside their foot.⁶

The princes of Gwynedd

Gwynedd rose first. Under Gruffudd ap Cynan and his son Owain Gwynedd, who died in 1170, it reached from the Dyfi to the Dee and withstood the pressure of Henry II. The Dictionary of Welsh Biography credits Owain with setting the native rulers of Wales alongside the great feudal magnates of his time; he accepted Henry's overlordship and changed his style from king to prince.⁷

His grandson Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, who died in 1240, united Gwynedd again and won a dominant place among the Welsh princes. His grandson in turn, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, took the title Prince of Wales in 1258, and in 1267 Henry III recognized it by the Treaty of Montgomery, with the right to the homage of the Welsh lords. Britannica describes the result as a Principality of Wales made of the old kingdoms and parts of the March; the Dictionary calls it the first experiment in Welsh statehood.⁸

How did Edward I conquer Wales?

Edward I invaded in 1277 with three coordinated advances and naval support, blockaded Llywelyn in Snowdonia and starved him into submission; the prince kept only Gwynedd west of the Conwy. Welshmen fought on both sides: Morris, working from the pay rolls, found some 15,000 infantry in Edward's pay at one time in 1277, 9,000 of them Welsh.⁹

War returned in 1282. On 11 December, near Builth, English troops of the March turned the Welsh position on the Irfon, and Llywelyn, away from his army, was killed by a man who did not know who he was: the battle of Orewin Bridge. The Royal Commission calls it a decisive engagement, after which the possibility of an independent Wales, at that date, was gone. His brother Dafydd held out until the summer of 1283.¹⁰

Edward secured the conquest with castles: Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech, and later Beaumaris, each with a borough of English settlers. UNESCO, which lists the four as a World Heritage site, calls them the finest examples of late 13th and early 14th century military architecture in Europe, largely the work of James of St George. By the Statute of Wales of 1284 the principality was organized as shires on English lines. A further rising in 1294 to 1295 was crushed.¹¹

Owain Glyndŵr's rising: did it succeed?

In September 1400 Owain Glyndŵr, a gentleman descended from the princes of Powys and Deheubarth, attacked Ruthin after a quarrel with its lord, Reginald Grey; a Welsh source has him proclaimed Prince of Wales that day. Britannica writes that the revolt quickly became a national struggle. Between 1400 and 1407, by Britannica's account of Welsh history, the royal government lost control of most of Wales.¹²

In June 1402 his men routed an English army at Bryn Glas, near Pilleth, and captured its commander, Sir Edmund Mortimer, who changed sides when the king refused his ransom. In 1404 Glyndŵr held Harlech and Aberystwyth, called a parliament at Machynlleth and made a treaty with France. Then the tide turned: his allies in England were crushed, Prince Henry took his strongholds by 1409, and after 1412 he disappears from the record, never betrayed.¹³

When did Wales become part of England?

In the Wars of the Roses Wales was a recruiting ground for both sides. In February 1461 Edward, Earl of March, defeated a Lancastrian army raised in Wales by Jasper Tudor at Mortimer's Cross on the border; Jasper's father, the Welsh squire Owen Tudor, was beheaded at Hereford. Harlech Castle still held out for Henry VI in 1468, when Jasper landed in vain to relieve it.¹⁴

Owen's grandson Henry Tudor was born at Pembroke Castle in 1457. In August 1485 he landed at Milford Haven and advanced into England to defeat Richard III at Bosworth. Under his son, the acts of 1536 and 1543 incorporated Wales into the realm of England: the marcher lordships became counties, English law replaced Welsh law in the courts, and Wales sent members to Parliament.¹⁵

The civil wars in Wales

In 1642 Wales leaned to the king. Britannica notes much sympathy for the royalist cause, with Parliament finding its support mainly in the border counties and in Pembrokeshire. In 1648 unpaid Parliamentarian soldiers in Pembrokeshire mutinied and declared for the king, and their rising became the Welsh front of the Second Civil War.¹⁶

On 8 May 1648 about 3,000 New Model veterans under Colonel Thomas Horton broke Rowland Laugharne's rebel army of about 8,000 at St Fagans, west of Cardiff, and took some 3,000 prisoners. The Royal Commission calls it the last set-piece defeat of the royalist forces; Pembroke held out against Cromwell until July.¹⁷

Fishguard, 1797

The last invasion of Britain landed in Wales. On 22 February 1797 about 1,400 French troops under the Irish-American William Tate came ashore at Carregwastad Point near Fishguard, to raise revolt. They found none; looting and drink broke their discipline, and two days later they surrendered on Goodwick Sands to Lord Cawdor's militia, yeomanry and volunteers, raised in Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire. The Royal Commission calls it the last attempted invasion of Britain.¹⁸ › Battle of Fishguard, 1797

Welsh regiments: Welsh soldiers in British service

After the union Welshmen fought in English and then British armies, and from the late 17th century in regiments that came to carry the name of Wales. The National Army Museum traces the Royal Welch Fusiliers to a regiment raised at Ludlow in 1689 for the war in Ireland, and later recruited mainly in north Wales. These were soldiers of the British state, in its European wars and its wars of empire, and the regimental labels were not always as Welsh as they look.¹⁹

The 24th Foot, famous for Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift in 1879, was then the 2nd Warwickshire Regiment; its depot had moved to Brecon only in 1873, and it became the South Wales Borderers in the army reforms of 1881. The Welsh Guards were formed in February 1915 and mounted their first guard at Buckingham Palace on St David's Day.²⁰

World War I brought the heaviest losses. From 7 to 12 July 1916 the 38th (Welsh) Division attacked Mametz Wood on the Somme; in five days of fighting, the National Army Museum and Amgueddfa Cymru both record, it lost about 4,000 men killed, wounded or missing. In 1982 the Welsh Guards lost 32 men when RFA Sir Galahad was bombed at Bluff Cove in the Falklands. In 2006 the Royal Welch Fusiliers and the Royal Regiment of Wales were merged into the Royal Welsh.²¹

Memory and commemoration

Wales remembers its princes more than its victories. Llywelyn is Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf, our last leader, and a granite monolith at Cilmeri, set up in 1956 in place of an obelisk of 1902, marks the traditional spot where he fell. The Royal Commission calls Owain Glyndŵr one of the best known national heroes of Wales, and Britannica notes that he became one with the revival of Welsh nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries.²²

Fishguard keeps its invasion alive in a memorial stone of 1897 at Carregwastad, in the legend of Jemima Nicholas, and in a tapestry made for the bicentenary. At Mametz a red dragon stands as a memorial to the Welsh Division, and Christopher Williams's great painting of the battle hangs in the National Museum in Cardiff.²³

Battles of Wales on this site

Every battle we cover in which Welsh princes, Welsh risings or forces raised in Wales fought, in date order, victories and defeats alike.

The Middle Ages 476 to 1500 · 4

1. 1136
   Battle of Crug Mawr, 1136Welsh forces vs Anglo-Norman lords of the March

   In autumn 1136 the princes of Gwynedd and Deheubarth routed the Normans and Flemings outside Cardigan; the bridge over the Teifi broke under the fugitives and Ceredigion passed to the Welsh.

   
2. 1282
   Battle of Orewin Bridge, 1282Principality of Wales vs Kingdom of England

   On 11 December 1282 English troops turned the Welsh position on the Irfon near Builth, and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, away from his army, was cut down by a man who did not know him.

   
3. 1402
   Battle of Bryn Glas, 1402Glyndŵr's rebels vs Kingdom of England

   On 22 June 1402 Glyndŵr's rebels routed an English army near Knighton; Mortimer's own Welsh archers changed sides, and the captured commander became Glyndŵr's son-in-law.

   
4. 1461
   Battle of Mortimer's Cross, 1461House of York vs Lancastrian army from Wales

   Under a triple sun, the 18-year-old Edward of March routed Jasper Tudor's Lancastrian army from Wales, and Owen Tudor, grandfather of Henry VII, was beheaded at Hereford.

   

The early modern era 1492 to 1789 · 1

1. 1648
   Battle of St Fagans, 1648Parliament vs Royalist rebels of south Wales

   On 8 May 1648 Horton's 3,000 Parliamentarians routed Laugharne's 8,000 Welsh rebels at St Fagans in two hours, taking about 3,000 prisoners and ending the rising in south Wales.

   

The Napoleonic era 1789 to 1815 · 1

1. 1797
   Battle of Fishguard, 1797Pembrokeshire militia and volunteers vs French expeditionary force

   In February 1797 about 1,400 French troops under William Tate landed near Fishguard to start a revolution; two days later, drunk and bluffed, they surrendered to Lord Cawdor on Goodwick Sands.

   

Timeline

1. 1093
   Rhys ap Tewdwr of Deheubarth is killed; the Normans overrun most of south Wales.²⁴
2. 1136
   The Welsh rout the Normans and Flemings at Crug Mawr near Cardigan.²⁵
3. 1267
   By the Treaty of Montgomery Henry III recognizes Llywelyn ap Gruffudd as Prince of Wales.²⁶
4. 1282
   Llywelyn is killed near Builth, at Orewin Bridge.²⁷
5. 1284
   The Statute of Wales organizes the conquered principality into shires.²⁸
6. 1400
   Owain Glyndŵr's rising begins with the attack on Ruthin.²⁹
7. 1402
   Glyndŵr's men rout an English army at Bryn Glas.³⁰
8. 1461
   Edward of March defeats Jasper Tudor's army at Mortimer's Cross.³¹
9. 1485
   Henry Tudor lands at Milford Haven and wins at Bosworth.³²
10. 1536
    The first act of union incorporates Wales into the realm of England.³³
11. 1648
    Parliament routs the rebels of south Wales at St Fagans.³⁴
12. 1797
    The French land at Fishguard and surrender two days later.³⁵
13. 1916
    The 38th (Welsh) Division takes Mametz Wood at a cost of about 4,000 casualties.³⁶