R&I – TxPat ***
Hi
My profile of Courage is on a Warrior Prince who beat the odds of an overwhelming Englisce force!
Cry Ewlo!
Not often that we hear that victory in battle has been won by a smaller force outnumbered 2, 3, or 4 times against a more significant army. Britain has had a turbulent time when it comes to wars and conflicts with the native people of this isle see occupations, wars and battles for more than a thousand years from the dawn of Prydeinig/British history. Julius Caesar tried it twice in pre-history to subdue the Brythonic speaking Celtic-Gauls in 55 and 54 BCE. Boasting that he had a victory so as not to tarnish his reputation at home, as Rome was in a civil war. A triumph with so little an army against the whole island.
We native Brythoniaid/Britons thank Tacitus for setting the story straight and telling the truth about Caesar’s expedition. Tacitus wrote: Even Julius Caesar, the first Roman who set his foot in Britain at the head of an army, can only be said by a prosperous battle to have struck the natives with terror and to have made himself master of the sea-shore. The discoverer, not the conqueror of the island, he did no more than show it to posterity. Rome could not boast of conquest.[The Works of Cornelius Tacitus (1830), by Arthur Murphy, The Life of Agricola, Ch. XIII, p. 596, Jones-London]
However, the start of Prydeinig/British history is seen as 43 CE, with the beginning of the conquest of Prydain/Britain by the Romans, which was still raging in the 78 CE. With the enemies at the gates of Rome, the Romans left Britain c. 410 leaving a vacuum and a defenceless people stripped of all arms during the occupation with only moulds to make weapons.
Enter the Picts from the north, the Scotii-Gael from the west and the Germanics from the east. The rest is a history of the natives Britons being ethnically cleansed and driven back westwards and across the Môr Udd/Lords Sea (English Channel) to Brittany, France, by the Germanics.
(Legend has it that Arthur (Golden Bear) held the Germanic back with a force smaller than the Germanics who were getting reinforcement by the day from their homeland of Germania. Relative peace is said to have lasted for 30 to 50 years after a great battle which was won by the Britons as it is said that took place at Baddon c.488- 500. However, by 550 the latter (Germanics) were on the move again under stronger leaders with firmly establishing settlement down the east coast. From then on the Germanics were masters of most of the country we know of England.)
Robert the Bruce (of Norman ancestry), king of the Scots (1306-29) defeated the superior forces of England in 1307 at the Battle of Loudoun Hill. The Bruce won with a force that was 5 times greater than his inferior 600 men. In 1314, Robert the Bruce clashed with the English again at the Battle of Bannockburn. Yet he had victory over a much larger force more than twice the size of his army. However, in 1513, the tables were turned, and this time in favour of England, when at the Battle of Flodden aka Flodden Field the English were outnumbered by the by almost 2 to 1 by their Scottish foe had victory, with heavy casualties on the Scottish army, culminating with the death loss of their king, James IV of Scotland (1388-1413).
Owain ap Gruffudd king of Wales and Prince of Gwynedd
However, there is a battle between the Welsh and English that has not really been given its just place in history as English historians of the time feared retribution from their king who wanted that battle lost in the annals of time.
The Battle of Ewlo (English: Ewloe or Coleshill) in 1157 was between the Welsh warrior Prince Owain of Gwynedd, and the king of England Henry II (1154-89)—the first of the Plantagenet line of monarchs.
Before going forward we need to go back to 1155 when Henry II was newly crowned king of England, he had been bequeathed Iwerddon/Ireland by Pope Adrian aka Hadrian IV (1154-9) the first and only English pope. Iwerddon/Ireland in the 12th century was a patchwork of kingdoms and chiefdoms all vying for power over neighbouring domains. However, in 1155, unbeknown to the kings and chieftains of Ireland, grand theft of their lands and the forced conversion of its people to an alien, foreign religion was being played out 2,500 km away in Rome. Rome had no right to Ireland, it had not been conquered by the Romans, and the fall of Rome had null and void any rights in 476 CE.
Greed was Henry’s 2nd name and his belief that he had the God-given right to acquire any lands and people he wished. Well, he was in luck! He had problems at home, and He wanted Iwerddon/Ireland—but to facilitate that Wales and its great prince of that day were in the way. So in 1157 Henry II amassed a massive army of 30,000 men. It was the most significant Norman army ever raise on English soil to go to war against a neighbouring kingdom
(Owain ap Gruffudd (b c. 1100) was king of Gwynedd from 1137-70. He was better known as Owain Mawr (English: Owen the Great) and the first to be styled “Tywysog Cymru/Prince of Wales.” A true Warrior Prince and it is said that one of his sons, Madoc sailed to America and landed near what is now Mobile Alabama in 1170. However, that is a story already told.)
Henry II and his army crossed at Chester into Wales which was against an earlier treaty that England would stay out of Wales. Fortunately, Owain Gruffudd was close by in Basinwark with a small detachment mainly of Archers and Knight. In fact, it was probably a bit more than that, it was about 3,000. A 10th of the size of English forces. Henry II must have been delighted, to say the least when his vanguard gave him the news. His goal was to finish off Owain and retake Castell Rhuddlan/Rhuddlan Castle. (A mighty fortress less than 3 miles from where I sit writing the post.) Henry sent a large force into Ewloe wood to flank around the Welsh army. Moving into such terrain favoured the Welsh and Owain sent a significant portion of his troops into the woods and ambushed the English. The Welsh action was successful, and the English detachment was routed. Henry II himself was almost killed in the fighting and only saved by the effort of Roger de Clare, Earl of Hertford.
http://www.castlesfortsbattles.co.uk/north_wales/ewloe_castle_battle_coleshill.html
The Welsh not only routed the English army in the woods, but they also defeated Henry II naval fleet in Sîr Mon/Anglesey. However, Henry had sufficient men to get to Rhuddlan, and Owen knew his limit and sued for peace.
Henry was Humiliated by the defeat at the hands of the Welsh Prince and knew he could not live it down, the humiliation must have been eating at him. In 1165 he tried it again, but this time he would take the Welsh and Owain Gwynedd by surprise. You can say that the Welsh intelligence was likened to that of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence of today. Welsh army was waiting!
Henry II took the Berwin (White Head ) mounting route which was impossible to trek an army in Welsh weather. Like all great commanders, Owain spoke to his men giving them the courage for what looked like an annihilation of the Welsh forces if Henry made it over the Berwin range, which they didn’t and had to turn back into England. Owain told his men to look the English in the eye and drum the shields with their swords and Cry Ewlo! Ewlo! As loud as they could, to tell them to come and meet their God…!
What do you say?
Jero Jones