508 On Two Welsh Prisoners, by Mr James Hardy. 



said Gentlemen ; denieing them all laws and customes of Wales, 

 and of the countie of Caermardhyn. 



2. The said King in his countie of Cardigan by his said Jus- 

 tices compelled the said Gentilmen to give judgement upon them- 

 selves ; where their predecessors never suffered the like of 

 Englishmen. 



3 The said Justices of the King have taken awaie the courtes 

 of the noblemen in "Wales, and compelled the people to satisfie 

 before them for trespasses ; whenas they ought to have satisfied 

 by the said nobles. 



4. Where a wrecke hapneth upon anie of the grounds of the 

 noblemen, whose ancestors had wrecke, they should have the 

 same ; yet the king forbiddeth them, and the said king by color 

 of that shipwrecke contrarie to their custome and lawe did con- 

 demn them in eight marks, and broke away all the goods of the 

 shipwrecke. 



5. That none of our men of the countie of Cardigan dare come 

 amongst the Englishmen, for fear of imprisonment ; and if it 

 had not been for feare of hurt, the nobles would never have 

 stirred."* 



In 1282, Llewelyn was surprised and slain by the English. 

 In 1283, David, brother of the Welsh Prince, was made 

 captive, and executed as a traitor. " The capture of David 

 led to the voluntary surrender of many chiefs of the insur- 

 rection, and Grufydd and Cynan, sons of Meredycl, Rhys 

 Vychan ab Rhys ab Maelgwn, Gryfydd and Llewelyn, sons 

 of Rhys Vychan, and some other men of note, were sent to 

 London and imprisoned in the Tower."*f* Trivet in mention- 

 ing these circumstances, says : " On learning this, Rees 

 Vauhan, (i.e. the Little,) the very noblest (nobilissimus 

 Wallensium) of all the Welsh, surrendered to the Earl of 

 Hereford, and being delivered to the king, was imprisoned 

 in the Tower of London.j The similarity of Welsh names 

 is so perplexing that I cannot undertake to "redd the 

 marches," between these two passages. 



The period when Rees ap Maelgwn and Cynan ap Mere- 

 dydd were removed to Bamburgh, is not known, but they 

 were there 16th Edw. I., 1288, five years after their im- 

 prisonment in the Tower. The evidence of this is a deed, 

 a year older than the one quoted in the Club's "Proceedings," 

 cited in Hartshorne's " Feudal and Military Antiquities of 

 Northumberland," vol. ii., pp. 242-3. 



* Powel's Hist, of Cambria, p 355. 

 f Williams' Hist of Wales, p. 421. 

 ., ^ \ Triveti Annales, pp. 307, 308. 



