Siege of Dryslwyn Castle (1287)
Who Fought
History & Significance
Rhys ap Maredudd (c. 1250 – 2 June 1292) was a senior member of the Welsh royal house of Deheubarth, a principality of Medieval Wales. He was the great grandson of The Lord Rhys (died 1197), prince of south Wales, and the last ruler of a united Deheubarth. He is best known for his leadership of a revolt in south Wales in 1287–88 whilst King Edward I of England was away in Gascony.
Because Deheubarth fragmented after the Lord Rhys' death in 1197, Rhys ap Maredudd's father had ruled over a truncated portion of the ancient kingdom. Rhys succeeded his father in 1271 as lord of the region of Deheubarth known as the Cantref Mawr, and considered himself custodian of Dinefwr, the royal capital of Deheubarth. He ruled the Cantref Mawr from 1271, though not under the aegis of the Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, as his father had, so relations between the two men appear to have been cold. He was among the first Welsh noblemen to submit to the English crown during the Anglo-Welsh war of 1276–77, on the grounds that his claims to the lands of Maenordeilo, Mallaen, Caeo and Mabelfyw, and Dinefwr Castle – all within Deheubarth and ruled by his great-grandfather – would be properly considered. The agreement has been indicative to some historians of Rhys' ambitions to reconstitute Deheubarth as a unified kingdom within the principality of Wales.
He continued to exercise power in the Cantref Mawr after Llywelyn's death in 1282, and the execution of the last native prince of Wales, Dafydd ap Gruffudd, the following year. His failure, alone of all the noblemen of Deheubarth, to adhere to Llywelyn and Dafydd's cause in the war of 1282–3 led to king Edward I of England bestowing additional lands on Rhys for his allegiance to the English crown. Edward, however, refused to deliver to Rhys the long sought-after castle at Dinefwr. This state of affairs led Rhys to make Dryslwyn castle his main residence, and it seems likely that he embarked on a substantial building programme there in the late 1270s and early 1280s.
Rhys endeavoured to remain loyal to the English crown in the hope he may be restored to more of his former patrimony, but no such offers were forthcoming from the king – instead, Edward forced Rhys to quitclaim the castle to him in October 1283. Taking advantage of Edward’s absence in Gascony in 1287 he rebelled and led the capture of most of Ystrad Tywi, the heartland of Deheubarth, including the castles at Dinefwr and Carreg Cennen. Though the revolt was quelled by the autumn, it broke out again in November, and was only brought to a conclusion after a ten-day siege of Rhys' final stronghold, the castle at Newcastle Emlyn, in January 1288.
The ground they fought on
The site of Siege of Dryslwyn Castle (1287) lies on Arenig Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Arenigian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.
Perhaps the most arresting moment of the entire siege came not from the Welsh defenders but from English overconfidence underground. As the king's engineers drove mine workings beneath Dryslwyn's curtain walls to bring them down, a group of English knights descended to inspect the progress of the tunnelling. The mine collapsed around them, killing several on the spot. It was a sharp reminder that the methods employed to crack open a Welsh castle on its rocky hilltop carried mortal risk for those directing the assault as much as for those enduring it.
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- Rhys ap Maredudd · Wikipedia
- Dryslwyn Castle · Wikipedia