No
sooner had the ground been cleared however, than the local Welsh
chieftain Bleddyn ap Maenarch and his men struck, but to no avail
for the Norman chained mailed knights soon put them to flight
and the construction of the prefabricated wooden structure based
on the initial one at Hastings in Kent continued. However, determined
that the Norman invader should be driven out, Bleddyn called for
armed support from his brother in law Rhys ap Tewdwr, the king
of Deheubarth. When the two sides met in battle three mile north
of Brecon it was the Norman Bernard de Newmarch who emerged the
victor. Indeed his chain mailed knights, fighting on horseback
with lance, shield, and sword decimated the Welsh allies. This
could be seen the following morning by those moaning the dead,
for both Bleddyn and Rhys wore the masks of death with great cuts
to their bodies and head.
The strength
of Brecon continued to grow, soon the castle turned from being
a wooded prefabricated structure to that of one of stone with
ten tall towers that dominated the local skyline. The defences
of the town to were strengthened by a stone wall with entry now
being gained by four major gates. In 1217 Llywelyn ap Iorwerth,
Llywelyn The Great and prince of Gwynedd in north
Wales, advanced south and placed the town under siege. However,
the townspeople succeeded in buying him off with 100 marks and
five hostages. It was a different scenario when Llywelyn again
advanced south in 1231, this time there was no placating him.
The town was successfully overrun and put to the torch, as for
the castle; well that held out
In 1233 Brecon was once again the focus of Llywelyn's attentions,
once again his men successfully stormed the walls and fired the
town. Even the castle was subjected to a more determined effort,
to the point that siege engines were deployed for a whole month
in an attempt to break in. However, the immense effort was to
no avail, for the walls plus the garrison of the sturdily built
fortress repelled all attempts to break in. Following the withdrawal
of Llywelyn the citizens of the border town enjoyed twenty years
of peace, that was until Llywelyn ap Gruffudd the grandson of
Llywelyn the Great decided that Brecon was the ideal
place from which to launch his attacks on Gilbert de Clare the
lord of Glamorgan. Following his capture of the town Llywelyn,
at the treaty of Montgomery in 1267, was allowed to retain Brecon,
from where in 1270 he launched his successful attack against Caerphilly
castle. However, despite this success by the Prince of Wales,
the lordship of Brecon was back in English hands by 1273. Any
further destruction to the town by Llywelyn was avoided by his
untimely death at Builth in December 1282.
For nearly a hundred and twenty years, following the death of
Llywelyn, Brecon enjoyed a peaceful existence, traders bought
and sold their goods, families were raised and there was a hustle
and bustle around the border town. Towards the end of September
1400 that all changed, and it once again became a town at war;
for news reached the town that in the north east of Wales all
hell had broken loose. Owain Glyndwr had been sworn as the new
Prince of Wales and then had risen in revolt and attacked Ruthin
castle and town. |