The Battle of Coleshill, by Jamieson Boyd Hurry

❰

1 2

❱

Henry pushed on to Rhuddlan,* and there fortified the castle. Meanwhile a great fleet under the command of [his ally] Madoc Ap Meredith had sailed for Anglesey,* where a few troops were landed, who ravaged the country and even plundered the churches. Indeed so outrageous was their conduct that the incensed islanders combined to attack the invaders as they were returning to their ships overloaded with spoils, and cut them to pieces.

The troops that had remained on board were so terrified at the fate of their comrades that they forthwith sailed back to Chester,* only to hear on their arrival that the war was over. Owen, afraid of being hemmed in between the English army and the fleet, had sued for peace, reinstated his banished brother, done homage to King Henry, and given hostages for his future loyalty. As the South Wales princes were all vassals of North Wales, Owen’s submission was equivalent to a formal acknowledgment of Henry’s rights as lord paramount over the whole country, and the King was technically justified in boasting that he had brought the whole of Wales under his jurisdiction.*

by Jamieson Boyd Hurry 1857-1930

From ‘The Trial by Combat of Henry De Essex and Robert De Montfort at Reading Abbey’ (1919) by Jamieson Boyd Hurry (1857-1930).

* A town near Rhyl, a little further west around the coast of North Wales. Rhuddlan is pronounced rith-lan, where rith rhymes with with.

* A large island off the north west coast of Wales, across the Menai Strait from Bangor.

* By sailing back east along the north coast of Wales, and then up the River Dee.

* Owain’s setback here in 1157 and another in 1163 proved only temporary; in 1165 he broke free from Henry and England, and though it was often imperilled by dynastic squabbles Gwynedd remained independent of the English crown. Indeed Gwynedd grew under Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (r. 1201-1240) and his grandson Llewelyn ap Gruffudd (r. 1255-1282), the first and last independent ruler of Wales to be recognised as Prince of Wales by the English. But in December 1282, Llewelyn ap Gruffudd fell in battle against Edward I, who formally annexed Wales to the English crown the following year. Edward created his son and heir, the future Edward II, Prince of Wales in 1301.

Précis

The heroism of Henry’s land forces was not shared by his fleet. The sailors’ indiscipline so enraged the Welsh in Anglesey that they were driven back in shame to Chester. Fortunately for Henry, in the meantime Owain had surrendered, allowing the English king to believe that his campaign for the subjection of Wales had been a success.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Précis

Questions for Critics

Tags

Read Next