"We then proceeded to the commote of Edeirnion in Merionethshire, and there laid waste a fine and populous country; thence we went to Powys and * * *. There being a want of provender in Wales for horses, we made our people carry oats with them, and pursued our march."

From this we gather that the Prince visited Powysland, but that his stay seems to have been of no duration.

In the spring of 1401, Henry Percy, the famous Hotspur, was besieging the castle of Conway, which was held by the insurgents, but with indifferent success, and on the 4th June Percy writes to the Privy Council, complaining of the increasing turbulence of the country and he speaks of his having defeated the insurgents in Cader Idris, and of news having reached him that the Lord Powys had fought with and defeated Owen Glendower and many of his followers on their way to his (Percy's) uncle, Thomas Percy Earl of Worcester.' This exploit was performed by John de Cherleton, Lord of Powys, just before his death which occurred the 19th October, 1401.2

In the battle fought by Glendower at Melienydd in Radnorshire, on 12th June, 1402, he was fortunate enough to take Sir Edmund Mortimer, uncle of the Earl of March, prisoner. In consequence of Henry IV's refusal to pay Sir Edmund's ransom, the latter joined Glendower.

The following letter, written by Sir Edmund, is to our present purpose, as it alludes to and endeavours to protect his tenants in "Arwystley, Kevelioc and Kereynon." The original is in French, but we give the translation :-

"Very dear and well beloved, I greet you much, and make known to you that Owen Glyndowr has raised a quarrel, of which the object is, if King Richard is alive, to restore him to his Crown, and if not, that my honoured nephew, who is the right heir to the said Crown, shall be King of England, and that the said Owen will assert his right in Wales. And I, seeing and considering that the said quarrel is good and reasonable, 1 Montgomeryshire Collections, vol. i, p. 282. 2 Ibid., p. 283.

have consented to join in it, and to aid and maintain it, and, by the grace of God, to a good end, Amen. I ardently hope, and from my heart, that you will support and enable me to bring this struggle of mine to a successful issue. I have, moreover, to inform you, that the Lordships of Mellenyth, Werthrenon, Raydre, the Commot of Udor, Arwystly, Keveillioc and Kereynon, are lately come into our possession; wherefore, I morever entreat you, that you will forbear making inroad into my said lands, or to do any damage to my said tenantry, and that you furnish them with provisions at a certain reasonable price, as you would wish that I should treat you; and upon this point please to send me an answer. Very dear and well-beloved, God give you grace to prosper in your beginnings, and to arrive at a happy issue. Written at Mellenyth, the 13th day of December.

"EDMUND MORTEMER.

"To my very dear and well-beloved M. John Greyndor, Howell Vaughan, and all the gentles and commons of Radnor and Preshemde."2

It would appear from this letter that the fortune of war had put Sir Edmund Mortimer into actual or presumed possession of the lordships of " Arwystly, Kevellioc, and Kereynon," which were previously the property of the Cherletons, Lords of Powys. John de Cherleton died seized of them on 19th October, 1401, and therefore it must be that Glendower had seized them before the following June, and suffered Sir Edmund Mortimer to have them, possibly as one of the inducements of his joining him in the insurrection.

Owen Glendower was now in the meridian of his glory, and in 1402 began to act the part of a prince, and summoned the estates of Wales to meet at Machynlleth, the chief town in "Keveillioc," where he caused his title of prince to be acknowledged. He was formally crowned. The building in which this parliament assembled is still standing, although condemned to the ignoble

1 Sir John Greindre afterwards appears in the English army, that fought successfully against Glendower in 1405 (Pennant, i, 369). 2 Ellis's Original Letters, 2nd series, vol. i, p. 24.

3 Wynne's History of Wales, by Llwyd of Llanybrochwel, 282; Pennant's Tours, i, 359.

purpose of a stable. We are enabled to give an engraving of it. The porch was standing till within a few years ago, when it was taken down by Earl Vane. The narrow escapes which Glendower had of assassination, by Sir David Gam, and his subsequent revenge, it is not to our purpose further to allude to. But this event shows how strong an influence Glendower had acquired in "Kevelioc" and the centre of Powys-land, and how large a number of partizans he had in this district.

A proclamation, dated May 28, 1401, in the second of Henry IV, names Glendower and other rebels as assembling in the Marches of Caermarthen.

The dreaded and proscribed " minstrels, bards, and rhymers," by a persistent reference to ancient wrongs, and ancestral deeds of daring, found no difficulty in arousing the dormant national spirit of the Welsh. Patriotic adventurers, political outcasts, Welsh labourers, from every quarter of the kingdom, and even Welsh scholars from the universities flocked to join the standard of Glendower. We subjoin an original paper' on this latter circumstance, which fully corroborates the Roll of Parliament, and lends a particular local interest to our subject as it brings to our notice members of some of our leading contemporary families, whose patriotic instincts, rising superior to self interest, induced them to stake life and property on the hazardous game of rebellion against English rule.

"Howel Kethin bachiler of the law, duellyng in Myghell Hall at Oxenford.

"Maister Morres Stove of the Collage of Excestre at Oxen

ford.

"Jev' Coghith scoler, duellyng in Teusvikes In at Oxenford.. "Maister David Leget Brith, duellyng in Teusvikes In at Oxenford.

"John Lloid duelling in Cattestrete in Seint Marie entra ****.

"Johan Pole sais that Howel Kethin forsaide schuld have counseilled Griff ap Jen' sckaier, that duelled under Breythin, to go till Owein and duell with him and for to become his mon. Also he sais that Maister Morces Stove was with Owein this somer

1

Ellis's Original Letters, 2nd series, vol. i, p. 8.