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Garth Celyn

Llywelyn Fawr's palace was at GARTH CELYN, BRYN LLYWELYN, Aber, Gwynedd. He had courts elsewhere but this was his favorite home

                   Hafod Celyn, Hafod Garth Celyn (SH676713)
The summer pastureland of Garth Celyn, on open moorland rising to 800 ft. above O.D.. The small building on this site, now in ruins, was rebuilt in the eighteenth century on the ruins of an earlier building that extended further to the west.
                Celyn after the English conquest

1283 -1553 Garth Celyn was held by the Crown of England. The buildings that had formed the royal home on the promontory of land were not repaired and over the decades became derelict.
John Leland, Henry Vlll’s surveyor noted, ‘Tussog Lluelin uab Gerwerde Trundon (Tywysog Llywelyn ab Iorwerth) had a castel or palace on a hill by the Chirch, wherof yet part stondeth.’
On June 14, 1551, Rhys Thomas of Aberglasney, appointed by Roger Williams, the surveyor of crown lands in north Wales, to be the deputy surveyor, obtained a lease for himself of the royal manors of Aber [Aber Garth Celyn] in Caernarfonshire and Cemais in Anglesey.
In October 1551, William Herbert was made Baron Herbert of Cardiff and then Earl of Pembroke.
On 27 April 1553 the young king, seriously ill with tuberculosis, signed documents that had been placed before him and knowingly or unknowingly granted the royal manors of Aber and Cemais from the Crown to William Herbert, earl of Pembroke and William Clerke.
On 8 June William Herbert, earl of Pembroke and William Clerke obtained a licence from the king to sell Aber and Cemais to Rhys Thomas and his wife Jane. Garth Celyn passed from Crown of England ownership, to the Thomas family. King Edward VI died on 5 July 1553. The Thomas’s according to family tradition ‘built a manor house amongst the palace ruins on Garth Celyn, using the palace ruins.’ Garth Celyn, the 'demesne messuage of the manor of Aber' was also known locally as Bryn Llywelyn, Llywelyn’s Hill.
The Elizabethan Manor house, incorporating a watch tower built c. 1200, was known as Pen y Bryn, simply 'top of the hill'. The watchtower was known as Twr Llywelyn, 'Llywelyn’s Tower': the small building to the east of the main house as Hen Gapel, 'the Old Chapel'.
William de Braose, a young Marcher Lord, having been found in Llywelyn’s chamber together with Joan, Llywelyn’s wife, was hanged by the irate Prince in the marshland, Gwern y Grog, at the foot of Garth Celyn. His body was taken two miles to the west and buried in a cave in the adjacent parish of Llanllechid.

           Garth Celyn Letters. November 1282

Lambeth Palace Archives, London: Registrum Epistolarum Fratis Johannis Peckham Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis. The Garth Celyn letters. (Translated from the original Latin).

November 1282
 Garth Celyn. Letter from Llywelyn, Prince of Wales to John Peckham, archbishop of Canterbury.
To the most reverend father in Christ, the Lord John, by the Grace of God, Archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, from his humble and devoted son Llywelyn, prince of Wales, lord of Snowdon, greetings and filial affection, with all manner of reverence, submission and honour. For the heavy labours which your fatherly holiness has assumed at this time, out of the love you bear to us and our nation, we render you grateful thanks, all the more since, as you have confided to us, you come against the king’s will. You ask us to come to the king’s peace. Your holiness should know that we are ready to do so, provided the lord king will truly observe that same peace as is due to us and ours.
We rejoice that this interlude granted to Wales is at your instance and you will find no impediments placed in the way of peace by us, for we would rather support your efforts than those of any other. We hope, God willing, there need be no occasion for you to write anything to the pope concerning our pertinacity nor will you find us spurning your fatherly entreaties and strenuous endeavours, indeed we embrace them with all the warmth of our heart. Nor is it necessary for the king to weigh his hand yet further against us, since we are fully prepared to render him obedience, always saving our rights and laws, a reservation legally permitted to us.
The realm of England may well be the special object of the Roman curia’s affection, but the aforesaid curia has yet to learn, and must learn, and the lord pope likewise, what evils have been wrought upon us by the English, how the peace formerly made has been violated in all the clauses of the treaty, how churches have been fired and devastated, and ecclesiastical persons, priests, monks and nuns slaughtered, women slain with children at their breast, hospitals and other houses of religion burned, Welsh people murdered in cemeteries, churches, yes at the very altar, with other sacrilegious offences horrible to hear. All which are detailed in these rotuli we send you in writing for your inspection.
Now our best hope is that you fatherly piety may incline kindly towards us, and neither the Roman curia nor the realm of England need be shaken for our sake, provide it is understood in advance that the peace we seek be not only made, but observed. Those who do indeed delight in the shedding of blood are identified manifestly by their deeds, and thus far the English, in their usage of us, have spared none, whether for sex, or age, or weakness, nor passed by any church or sacred place. Such outrages the Welsh have not committed.
It does, however, grieve us very deeply to acknowledge that it is true one ransomed prisoner was killed, but we have neither countenanced nor maintained the murderer, for he was wandering the forests as a freebooter.
You speak of certain persons beginning the fighting at a holy season. We ourselves knew nothing of this until after the fact, when it was urged in their defence that if they had not struck then, death and rape threatened them, they dared neither dwell in their own houses at peace nor go about except in arms, and it was fear and despair that caused them to act when they did.
As to the assertion that we are acting against God, and ought to repent as true Christians, seeking God’s grace, if the war continues it shall not be set at our door, provided we can be indemnified as is our due. But while we are disinherited and slaughtered, it behoves us to defend ourselves to the utmost. Where any genuine injuries and damages come into consideration upon either side, we are prepared to make amends for those committed by our men, provided the like amends are made for damages inflicted upon us. In the making and preserving of peace we are similarly ready to assist to the limit of what is due from us. But when royal pacts and treaties made with us are of none effect, as thus far they have not been observed, it is impossible to establish peace, nor when new and unprecedented exactions against us and ours are daily being devised. In the accompanying rotuli we send to you the catalogue of our wrongs, and of the breaches of that treaty formerly made with us.
We fight because we are forced to fight, for we, and all Wales, are oppressed, subjugated, despoiled, reduced to servitude by the royal officers and bailiffs, in defiance of the form of the peace and of all justice, more maliciously than if we were Saracens or Jews, so that we feel, and have often so protested to the king, that we are left without any remedy.
Always the justiciars and bailiffs grow more savage and cruel, and if these become satiated with their unjust exactions, those in their turn apply themselves to fresh exasperations against the people. To such a pass are we come that they begin to prefer death to life. It is not fitting in such case to threaten greater armies, or move the Church against us. Let us but have peace, and observe it as due, as we have expressed above.
You should not believe all the words of our enemies, Holy Father, the very people who by their deeds oppress and ill-use us, and in their words defame us by attributing to us whatever they choose. They are ever present with you, and we absent, they the oppressors, we the oppressed. In accordance with divine faith, instead of quoting their words in all things, we should rather examine their deeds. May your holiness long flourish, to the benefit and good order of the Church. Dated at Garth Celyn.

 November,The secret terms.
These to be put to the prince in secret.. First: This is the form of the royal grace drawn up by the king’s noblemen,if the Lord Llywelyn should submit himself to the king’s will.
The king will provide for him honourably, bestowing upon him an estate to the value of £1000 sterling, with the rank of an earl, in some part of England. This is on the understanding that the said Llywelyn surrenders to the lord king, absolutely, perpetually and peaceably, his possession of Snowdonia.
The king himself will provide for the prince’s daughter, in accordance with his obligations to his own blood-kin. To this end, the noblemen are confident that they will be able to persuade the king’s mind to compassion.
Item Two: If Llywelyn should take a second wife, and by her have male heirs, the noblemen undertake to procure of the lord king that such heirs shall succeed in perpetuity to inherit the earldom of £1000 value.
Item Three: Concerning the people presently subject of the prince in Snowdonia or elsewhere, provision shall be made for them as God sanctions, and as is consistent with the safety, honour and wellbeing of such people. To which course the king’s mind is already strongly inclined since he desires to provide for all his people with conciliatory mercy.

 November
The terms delivered to Prince Dafydd ap Gruffydd, brother of the Prince of Wales. These to be delivered to Dafydd First: If, to God’s honour and his own, he will take upon him the burden of the Cross, and journey to aid the crusade in the Holy Land, he shall be provided with an establishment suitable to his rank, on condition that he shall never return unless recalled by the king’s mercy. We shall ask and we are sure effectively, that the lord king shall provide for Dafydd’s children.
Item Two: To all the Welsh, of our own initiative, we add these warnings, that dangers will threaten them ever more gravely as time passes, as we have already admonished them by word of mouth, and written to them most urgently, for it grows infinitely burdensome to continue in arms for a longer time, only in the end to be totally extirpated, for the perils menacing you will every day be aggravated. Item Three: After a longer time it grows ever more difficult to live in a state of war, in anguish of heart and body, forever among malignant perils, and at last to die in mortal sin and anger. ItemFour: Which grieves us sorely, if you do not come to peace to the best you may, we dread the necessity of urging ecclesiastical feeling against you to the last extreme, by reason of your excesses, for which there is no way you can be excused. But in which you shall find mercy, if you come to peace. Concerning the above let me have written answer.

Garth Celyn 11 November 1282
The response of the Prince of Wales. To the most reverend father in Christ, the Lord John, by the grace of God Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of all England, his obedient son in Christ, Llywelyn, Prince of Wales and Lord of Snowdon, sendeth greeting.
Holy father, as you have counselled, we are ready to come to the king’s grace, if it is offered in a form safe and honourable for us. But the form contained in the articles which were sent to us, is in no particular either safe or honourable, in the judgement of our council and ourselves, indeed, so far from it that all who hear it are astonished, since it tends rather to the destruction and ruin of our people and our person than to our honour and safety. There is no way in which our council could be brought to permit us to agree to it, even should we so wish, for never would our nobles and subjects consent in the inevitable destruction and dissipation that would surely derive from it.Wherefore we beg your fatherly holiness, as you are bound to pursue that renewed peace, honourable and secure, for which you have exerted such heroic labours already, to devise some expedient bearing a just relation to those articles we have submitted to you in writing.
It would surely be more honourable, and more consonant with reason, if we should hold from the king those lands in which we have right, rather than to disinherit us, and hand over our lands and our people to strangers. Dated at Garth Celyn, on the Feast of Saint Martin.

The reply of the Council of Wales
Though it may please the king to say that he will allow no discussions concerning the Middle Country, or Anglesey, or the other lands bestowed upon his magnates, nevertheless the prince’s council, if peace is to be made at all, will not countenance any departure from the premise that these cantrefs are a part of the unquestionable holding of the prince, lying within the bounds within which the prince and his predecessors have held since the time of Camber, son of Brutus. Further, they belong to the principality renewed to the prince by confirmation, at the instance of Ottobuono of blessed memory, legate of the apostolic see in the realm of England, with the consent of the lord king and his magnates, as is manifest in the treaty. Moreover, it is more equitable that the true heirs should hold the said cantrefs, if need be from the lord king for fee and customary service, rather than they should be given over to strangers and newcomers, even though they may have been powerful supporters of the king’s cause. Further, all the tenants of all the cantrefs of Wales declare with one voice that they dare not come to the king’s will, to allow him to dispose of them according to his royal majesty, for these reasons: First, because the lord king has kept neither treaty nor oath nor charter towards their lord prince and themselves from the beginning. Second, because the king’s men have used the most cruel tyranny against ecclesiastical establishments and persons. Third, that they cannot be bound by the offered terms, since they are liegemen of the prince, who is prepared to hold the said lands of the king by customary service. As to the demand that the prince shall submit absolutely to the king’s will, we reply that since not one man of the aforesaid cantrefs would dare to submit himself to that will, neither will the community of Wales permit its prince to do so upon such terms. As to the king’s magnates guaranteeing to procure an earldom for the prince, we say he need not and should not accept any such provision, procured by the very magnates who are striving to have him disinherited, so that they may posses his lands in Wales. Item: that the prince is no way bound to forgo his heritage and that of his forebears from the time of Brutus, and again confirmed as his by the papal legate, as is suggested, and accept lands in England where language, manners, laws and customs are foreign to him, and where, moreover, malicious mischiefs may be perpetrated against him, out of hatred, by English neighbours, from whom that land has been expropriated in perpetuity. Item: Since the king is proposing to deprive the prince of his original inheritance, it seems unbelievable that he will allow him to hold land in England, where he is seen to have no legal right. And similarly, if the prince is not to be allowed to hold the sterile and uncultivated land rightfully his by inheritance from old times, here in Wales, it is incredible to us that in England he will be allowed possession of lands cultivated, fertile and abundant. Item: That the prince should place the king in possession of Snowdonia, absolutely, perpetually and peaceably. Since Snowdonia is part of the principality of Wales, which he and his ancestors have held since the time of Brutus, as we have said, his council will not permit him to renounce the said lands and accept land less rightfully his in England. Item: The people of Snowdonia for their part state that even if the prince desired to give the king seisin of them, they themselves would not do homage to any stranger, of whose language, customs and laws they are utterly ignorant. For by doing so they could be brought into perpetual captivity and barbarously treated, as other cantrefs around them have been by the royal bailiffs and officers, more savagely than ever was wreaked upon Saracen enemies, as we have said above, reverend father, in the rotuli we sent to you.’

    Extracts from the Register of John Peckham, 1282

Registrum Epistolarum Johannis Peckham, ed. C. T. Martin (1884)-Vol. 2

Extracts from the Register of John Peckham, archbishop of Canterbury, October / November / December 1282. Original Register held in the Lambeth Palace Archives, London. The Chroniclers who recorded hearsay and deliberately spread rumour many years after the death of the Prince of Wales, were not witnesses to the event, and were not personally involved in any way. Neither were they part of the group of trusted intimates who were close to King Edward at the time. Their commentaries are contradictory and factually unreliable. The Register of John Peckham is contemporary and John Peckham was at the very centre of those events. A crucial part of letter CCCLXI has been removed from the Register and its whereabouts and contents are unknown.

Registrum 1282

1. CCCXLI October 1282. (Latin). Llywelyn ap Gruffudd to John Peckham.

2. CCCXLIII October. (Latin). Dafydd ap Gruffudd to John Peckham.

3. CCCLV October. (Latin). Rhys Fychan of Ystrad Tywi to John Peckham.

4. CCCLIII Late October. (Latin). John Peckham’s own account of his intervention in the conflict.

5. CCCLV Early November. (Latin). Secret terms offered to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Delivered on behalf of the archbishop by brother John the Welshman.

6. CCCLVI Early November. (Latin). Terms offered to Dafydd ap Gruffudd.

7. CCCLVII 11 November. (Latin). Llywelyn ap Gruffudd to John Peckham. The rejection of the offer. Dated at Garth Celyn, in the festival of St. Martin.

8. CCCLVIII 11 November. (Latin). Council of Wales to John Peckham. The rejection of the offer.

9. CCCLIX 11 November. (Latin). Dafydd ap Gruffudd replies in person, verbally, to John Peckham. Peckham summarises the conversation for the king’s council.

10. CCCLX 14 November. (Latin). John Peckham to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. We cannot find any other way for peace nor in this do we hope to obtain anything further. But if the need is seen for us to consider anything we will not be slow in response nor deny suitable help. Given at Rhuddlan 14th November 1282

11. CCCLXX 11 December. (Latin). John Peckham to Adda ab Ynyr of Nannau. ‘…..to brother Adam of Nannau, of the Dominican order, greeting, grace and blessing. Recently we sent you with our letters to parts of Snowdonia, for certain negotiations with Lord Llywelyn, prince of Wales, and other magnates of the land for the advantage of the state, so that you would return with us with their replies as quickly as possible. However you have paid little attention to the time of your return, you have neither come to us nor informed us up to now of the answers you received from the prince and aforesaid magnates. For these reasons we command you, firmly enjoining you in the name of obedience, insofar as you cease all tedious delay, to come to us quickly and tell us what you have gathered that should be passed on about matters concerning which we have instructed you, so that we may know clearly what should be done in that area for our good and theirs. For evidence of this we send you these our letters. Farewell, dated at Sugwas 11th December, in the fourth year of our ordination.’

12. CCCLXI Mid December. (Latin). John Peckham to an unknown recipient. ‘Llywelyn, the aforesaid Prince of Wales, moreover having rejected all offers and plans for peace previously described…Nevertheless it was the prince who was killed, the first of his own army, in an ignominious death through the family of Lord Edmund de Mortimer, son of lord Roger de Mortimer; and his whole army was either killed or put to flight in parts of Montgomery on the Friday after the feast of St. Lucy, in other words 11th December 1282 AD, with the tenth indication, the Dominical letter 6 concurrent.’

13. CCCLXXI Mid December, before 17th. (French). John Peckham to Lady Maud Langespey. ‘….but you know that Llywelyn, who was prince of Wales, cannot be absolved if he had not shown sign of repentance in his death such as to atone and wash away his foolishness. Then if it is a certainty that he showed repentance in his death, and appeared as such to those who were there, such as to make the Holy Church absolve him, and if proof is brought before us we will do what is right about it, for otherwise without doing wrong he should not be absolved. Thus we suggest that you and his other friends should work on that, so that any of those who were present at the death should come and put their case before us so as to show the above mentioned signs, for otherwise we can do nothing.’

14. CCCLXXII 17 December. (French). John Peckham to King Edward. ‘…Lord, know that those who were at the death of Llywelyn, found hidden in a most secret place against his body some small things which we have seen. Amongst the other things there was a treasonable letter disguised by false names. And that you may be warned, waned, we send a copy of the letter to the bishop of Bath, and the letter itself Edmund Mortimer has, with Llywelyn’s privy seal, and these things you may have at your pleasure. And his we send to warn you, and not that any one should be troubled for it. And we pray you that no one may suffer death or mutilation in consequence of our information, and that what we send you may be secret. Beside this lord, know that Lady Maud Langespey prayed us by letter to absolve Llywelyn, that he might be buried in consecrated ground, and we sent word to her that we would do nothing if it could not be proved that he showed signs of true repentance before his death. And Edmund Mortimer said to me that he had heard from his servants who were at the death that he asked for the priest before his death, but without sure certainty we will do nothing. Beside this, lord, know that the very day he was killed, a white monk sang mass to him, and my Lord Roger Mortimer has the vestments. Beside this, lord, we request you to take pity on clerics that you will suffer no one to kill them nor do them bodily injury. And know, lord, God protect you from evil, if you do not prevent it according to your power, you fall into the sentence, for to suffer what one can prevent is the same as to consent. And, therefore, lord, we pray you that it may please you that the clerics who are in Snowdonia may go from thence and seek better things with their property in France or elsewhere. For because we believe that Snowdonia will be yours, if it happen that in conquering or afterwards, harms is done to the clerics, God will accuse you of it, and your good renown will be blemished, and we shall be considered cowardly. ….And know, lord, if you do not fulfil our prayer, you will put us in sadness which will never leave us in this mortal life. …Pembridge, Thursday after St. Lucy’s day.’

15. CCCLXXIII 17 December. (Latin). John Peckham to Chancellor Robert Burnell, bishop of Bath and Wells are sending you a certain schedule, enclosed with these letters, which is obscure in words and composed with false names, a transcript of which was found in the pocket of Llywelyn, sometime prince of Wales, together with his own privy seal which are held by Lord Edmund Mortimer, and which we have caused to be held securely in case the king wishes them to be sent to him. From which schedule you can judge well enough that certain magnates neighbouring the Welsh, either Marchers or others, are not sufficiently united in their support of the lord king, so you should make the lord king careful about it, as is appropriate. However because you are as involved in this as we are, let no physical danger come to you as a result and take special care. if the lord king wants to have that transcript which was found in Llywelyn’s pocket he can have it from Lord Edmund Mortimer who is safeguarding it together with Llywelyn’s privy seal and certain other things found with it in the same place.

16. CCCLXXIX 28 December. (Latin). John Peckham to the bishop of Llandaff.

                       References

  • · Public Record Office, London: Welsh Rolls (C47; Exchequer Books (E36); Charter Rolls (C53); Miscellanea (E163); Pipe Rolls (E372), Ancient Correspondence(SC1); Ancient Petitions (SC8)
  • · Vatican Library, Rome, MSS
  • · National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth: NLW MSS; Peniarth MSS; Church in Wales Records.
  • · http://www.llywelyn.co.uk
  • · Pen y Bryn
  •                    Bibliography
  • · Tystiolaeth Garth Celyn Y Traethodydd ISSN 09698930
  • · Caernarvonshire Historical Society Transactions 1962 Article Aber Gwyn Gregin Professor T. Jones Pierce
  • · Gwynfor Evans (2001) Cymru O Hud Abergwyngregyn
  • · Gwynfor Evans (2002) Eternal Wales Abergwyngregyn
  • · Bezant Lowe Mountain Walks from Llanfairfechan
  • · Kathryn Pritchard Gibson Gohebiaeth Llyfrgell Llys Lambeth (1995)
  • · F. E. Fynes-Clinton The Welsh Vocabulary of the Bangor District (Oxford, 1912)
  • · Brut y Tywysogyon, Peniarth MS 20, ed. T. Jones (Cardiff, 1941.)
  • · Brut y Tywysogyon, or The Chronicle of the Princes, Peniarth MS 20 Version, Translation and Notes, ed. T. Jones (Cardiff, 1952).
  • · Calendar of Ancient Petitions relating to Wales, ed. W. Rees (Cardiff, 1975).
  • · Registrum Epistolarum Fratis Johannis {Peckham Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis, ed. C. T. Martin, 3 Vols (RS, 1882-86)
  • · John Edward Lloyd (1911) A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest (Longmans, Green & Co.)