glendower
glendower
Owen Glendower (Welsh spelling: Owain Glyndwr) was born circa 1359. He would go on to become one of the most powerful noblemen in Wales, but he had many interesting life experiences before that time. Glendower studied law at Oxford, then served a term at the Inns of Court in London as an apprentice-at-law. He married an Englishwoman, Margaret Hanmer, the daughter of a justice of the King's bench. He even briefly fought in the English army on the side of Henry IV.
By 1400, however, Glendower had begun his open revolt against England. Using the excuse of a disagreement with Lord Grey of Ruthin, an English baron who lived near the Welsh border, Glendower started hostilities toward England and King Henry IV himself in particular. It seems that the King, despite requests from Glendower, had refused to do anything about Lord Grey, whom Glendower claimed had harassed him and stolen his lands. From its start as a limited personal quarrel, the fight soon grew into a large-scale rebellion bent on gaining Welsh independence from England. Encouraged by his followers, Glendower even proclaimed himself Prince of Wales.
Glendower was a fearsome enemy for the English. Mostly as a result of the English perception of the Welsh as dark and mystical, Glendower had a reputation for being a powerful and terrifying sorcerer. Rumor had it that he defeated Edmund Mortimer in 1402 by magically raising storms against the English forces. All of this is most likely pure fable, but Glendower did nothing to stop the rumors, since they fed so well into his lust for power.
After his capture of Edmund Mortimer and Mortimer's marriage to his daughter Katherine (Welsh spelling: Catrin), Glendower allied himself with Mortimer's in-laws, the Percys, though he did not actually fight with them in the Battle of Shrewsbury. Glendower considered the rebels' loss at Shrewsbury only a temporary setback in the fight against Henry IV, and he continued to wage guerilla warfare against England. In 1404, he made an alliance with King Charles VI of France, who recognized Glendower's claim to the title of Prince of Wales as rightful. Glendower then began to set up his own government in Wales, even calling his own parliament. He lost several battles over the next few years, though, and this weakened him considerably. Glendower eventually disappeared into the Welsh mountains, rejecting the offering of amnesty given to him by the new King Henry V. The time, place, and circumstances of his death have remained mysterious.