Owain Glyn Dŵr - Prince of Wales

The tragically early death of Professor Sir Rees Davies in 2005, unquestionably the finest and most influential mediaeval historian of the British and Irish Isles of his generation, was felt particularly keenly in Wales. Historians are modest men, he once observed. He then added, They have reason to be. The first sentence was entirely true of Rees Davies but none would agree to apply the second in his case. An inspired teacher at Swansea, University College London, Aberystwyth and finally Oxford, his stylish contributions to mediaeval British history were such a pleasure to read that they belied the extraordinary amount of painstakingly difficult research work that had gone into them. Having reached the highest summits of the historical profession he still found time and inclination to address groups of Sixth Formers or local historical societies in his native Wales. Indeed as President of the Association of History Teachers in Wales at the end of the 1980s and Chair of the National Curriculum History Committee for Wales, he pulled off the remarkable feat of securing a statutory place for Welsh history in the curriculum of state schools in Wales for the first time in their history. Modesty and a razor sharp intellect succeeded at once in disarming and running rings around the Secretary of State for Education at the time, Kenneth Baker, whose preference was for a Kiplingesque version of pan-British patriotism. Entirely appropriate, therefore, that his first love in historical studies was that other Welsh patriot and hero, Owain Glyn Dwr. Rees Davies was raised on the family farm at Cynwyd with the two celebrated Glyn Dwr properties of Glyndyfrdwy and Sycharth lying just a few miles to the north-east and south-east respectively. His mother had regaled him with local Glyn Dwr lore and was exasperated by his characteristically sceptical response, for it was precisely his combination of intellectual honesty and analytical rigour that make his judgements so trustworthy. In two major monographs, Conquest, Co-existence and Change (1987), subsequently re-printed with the more manageable title The Age of Conquest, and then in The Revolt of Owain Glyn Dwr (1995) Rees Davies was widely acknowledged as having made a significant contribution to our understanding of mediaeval Britain. It was something of a coup for Y Lolfa, therefore, though entirely characteristic of the author, that he should agree to write a short popular account of the Owain Glyn Dwrs life and times in Welsh to mark the sixth hundredth anniversary of the revolt that bears his name. The book, published in 2002, succeeded brilliantly in its aims: highly readable, it combined narrative pace with secure judgment to form the best possible introduction to its subject, a book that could be read with profit by experienced historians as well as the general public. It is entirely laudable that Y Lolfa should have decided to give this pearl of a book a wider readership by having it translated into English. The translator, the Cardiganshire antiquarian Gerald Morgan, has largely succeeded in replicating the fluent style of Rees Davies, although the eyebrows of this reviewer were raised on reading that he had been allowed, somewhat immodestly, to embellish the original text: as an elective Cardi, I have included the battle of Hyddgen to which Rees did not refer in his original volume. In Rees Davies substantial 1995 monograph, Hyddgen only merits a parenthetical clause in a single sentence; it is unlikely that failing to mention the battle in the slimmer volume was the result of forgetfulness. We also have our attention drawn to the striking steel memorial to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd at the castle mound at Llandovery, to which Rees Davies might have responded with one of the more infelicitous glosses in this translation (from page 47) oh dear no! These quibbles aside, this is undoubtedly the best short introduction to the revolt of Owain Glyn Dwr available in English. David Barnes It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from , with the permission of the Welsh Books Council. Gellir defnyddio’r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar , trwy ganiatd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru. – Welsh Books Council

Rees Davies was Chichelle Professor of History at All Souls College, Oxford until his death in 2005. He was respected as on of the main expert on medieval Welsh History and Owain Glyndwr, and published his classic Revolt of Owain Glyndwr in 1997.