Monmouthshire in the 14th century: prosperity and plague

Chepstow Castle, a crossing point

Prosperity
   Monmouthshire in the 14th century was relatively accessible from England and became quite affluent, particularly in the towns which grew up (some around castles) such as Chepstow, Abergavenny, Monmouth, Newport, Tryleg and Caerleon. The county had a higher ratio of castles per square mile than any other similar region of England or Wales, except Herefordshire and Northumberland. To get my tenses right - it still does and therefore has a record number of post-castle-visit CAKE opportunities. Even though some fortresses were starting to fall into disrepair, several were sufficiently comfortable and welcoming for leading English lords to spend time in them, Henry V being born in Monmouth.
   These lowlands of the south-east were also appealing because of their good hunting: a well-stocked park in Grosmont made it a favourite residence of the House of Lancaster and the towns offered specialised crafts and services, weekly markets and twice-yearly fairs. A suburb of Abergavenny was called Englishton and several spots were the homes of Benedictine priories, outposts of northern French monasteries.

The River Usk from the Flood Route or Noah's Ark Route

   Manors grew wheat and the River Usk provided salmon, prized as far away as East Anglia. Wood and charcoal also formed an important part of the economy. More distant parts of the region were still thoroughly Welsh in language, customs and culture: 87% of taxpayers in 1292 round Monmouth had English surnames but the proportions were reversed in the district around White Castle. The men of Gwent were particularly skilled in military techniques, especially the bow and arrow, and were sought after in English wars against France. One detail I like from this tapestry of prosperity is that of the journey of Lady Elizabeth de Burgh of Usk travelling to her East Anglian estates in 1350, escorted by 130 horses and 28 hackneys, the menage quaffing an impressive 80 gallons of ale per day en route. If that makes you feel thirsty you may have a cup of tea with your CAKE.

Usk Castle

The Plague
   I have scattered the story of affluence with photographs because it is hard to know how to illustrate this next part of the story. Towards the end of the century Monmouthshire (Gwent) was composed of 5 great lordships: Abergavenny; Monmouth and Three Castles; Striguil (Chepstow); Usk and Caerleon; and Gwynllwg (Newport) - the latter now having the least visited ruined castle in the area. (Don't try to boost its numbers: the local council makes no attempt to make the relic accessible.) Changes in lordships caused by natural demise were disruptive but the advent of the Black Death was cataclysmic.
   There are many facts here which are only probable but the outline is clear: in the winter of 1348-9 the pandemic arrived and was known as "Y Farwolaeth Fawr" which does sound more ominous than the English version, "The Great Death". It killed between a third and a quarter of the population. Recurrent further outbreaks meant that economic recovery seemed nearly impossible: particularly distressing was that of 1361-2 which carried off the younger generation who might otherwise have revived the economy. In 1362, 36 of the 40 tenants of Caldicot are recorded as dead and only 114 labour services remained out of a previous 2000, though these figures might be cumulative over more years. Areas spared so far were devastated by the 1369 spread of this virulent disease. The county was overturned by such losses.

Caldicot Castle

   Yet there was some recovery despite the demographic collapse although it was the lower classes of men and women who scraped together money to satisfy the well organised lords' demands. This was, in some ways, merely a delay of inevitable consequences: labour shortages made demesne farming less profitable and many lords became long-distance, rent-collecting owners. Serfdom as a system was eclipsed and workers could now make demands on their lords. The peasantry became rebellious (schoolroom titters at the back about revolting peasants will not be tolerated) and there were risings against the lords in Abergavenny and ominous threats to Monmouth in 1381 which prompted John of Gaunt to fortify his castle there.

Monmouth Castle

What next?
   I can pick 3 words from my unlocked word-hoard to answer that question: Owain Glyn Dwr.

I have written a brief biography of this enigmatic man followed by an attempt at assessment. Many of my posts are about castles in Monmouthshire: you might like to start by reading about Henry V's birthplace: Monmouth Castle. An account of Marcher lordships goes a little further in explaining this aspect and there is an article on Medieval markets in the area.
On the right of this blog there is a rather daunting list of books consulted with gratitude but I am particluarly indebted to The Gwent County History vol. 2 for this piece.

The Charterhouse: 4 Chapters of English History

  The Charterhouse, in the centre of London near St. Paul's, has a history dating back 650 years but is still alive today with 40 residents or Brothers, for whom it is home. These are elderly men in financial and social need but women will soon be allowed to apply: because it is partly domestic casual visitors are welcome to certain parts of the ancient building but those on the guided tour can see much more. We went on this hour-long pre-booked walk, accompanied by a charismatic and knowledgeable speaker and found the experience uplifting and memorable. Touchingly, the dining table was neatly laid ready for the Brothers' afternoon tea.
   She explained how there were 4 previous main chapters in the history of the site: a Black Death burial ground with a chapel; a Carthusian monastery; a Tudor courtyard house and then a school, hospital and almshouse

   The Black Death in London in the mid-fourteenth century killed around 40% of its population of about 70,000 people, leaving one third of the land within the walls uninhabited for a decade. It was in 2014 that evidence of a large emergency burial pit here, outside the city walls, was discovered by workers on the Crossrail project: DNA and isotopes revealed that they were 25 victims of plague outbreaks in 1348-9: some sources add 1361 and the early 15th century. It had been believed that prayer would help the souls of these dead to enter heaven and the wealthy courtier and soldier, Sir Walter Manny, built a small chapel for this purpose - he was fittingly buried before the high altar in 1372 as requested in his Will.

  The monastery was the largest Carthusian establishment in England and one of the best endowed: its 26 monks were greatly revered as this order was severe in its way of life, requiring poverty and solitude - although the range of cells testifies to personal space. They attracted large amounts in gifts. With its additional 40 priests and lay brothers, it was a significant presence in London for more than 160 years after 1371. Thomas More, later Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII, came here around 1500 to find his vocation, eventually deciding to become a lawyer. In 1537 the monastery was seized by the crown and dissolved. The Prior who led the resistance, John Houghton, was executed in 1535 for treason and his body was chopped into pieces. In all, 16 men from here died for their faith.

 The site for the Tudor Mansion was bought in 1545 by Sir Edward North who remodelled the ruined buildings as a courtyard house typical of that era in the metropolis. Queen Elizabeth stayed here for 4 days in 1558 prior to her formal entry into the city of London for coronation. In 1565, the 4th Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Howard, bought the house, renaming it Howard House and making it his principal urban residence, grand enough with tapestries, paintings and upholstered furniture. to accommodate royal ceremonies in the Great Chamber.

 
The most splendid chamber is The Great Hall, built by North but much embellished by Norfolk. The ceiling was largely damaged in the bombing and resultant fire of 1941. It has been beautifully restored as can be seen by comparing the modern with a small portion at the side. Here, intriguingly, Norfolk had placed a decorative thistle, emblem of Scotland and evidence of his treasonable support for Mary, Queen of Scots (and intention of marriage to her) for which he was executed in 1572: this was therefore a notably reckless piece of interior design, as our guide pointed out. It suggests a certain political naiveté on his part.

  In the early 17th century, Thomas Sutton, a self-made man of huge fortune and a philanthropist, set up his charitable foundation here:  an almshouse/hospital and a school. (The speculation as to who would inherit his wealth probably inspired Ben Jonson's play, Volpone). Football was important in the school and the fact that it was played in the cloisters may have led to the off-side rule and throwing in from the touchlines. In 1872 the school moved to Godalming: W. M. Thackeray was a pupil here so disliking it that he satirised his experience at "Slaughter House" in his fiction - a somewhat crude mocking name which might reflect real misery and the smashing of his nose by another pupil which left him permanently disfigured. He later softened his attitude.

  The complex building is beautiful, calm and inspiring, having been sensitively restored (after the destruction in 1941 by an incendiary bomb during the Blitz) in the 50's under the direction of John Seely and Paul Paget. The tour is one of those valuable experiences that lives with you long afterwards. Access for the public is recent and demand for the tour is high - book ahead and enjoy it and the CAKE in the cafe!
   The loyal followers of my blog will perceive with their sharp intellects that this trip cannot be taken entirely on Monmouthshire buses but the excellent National Express service from Cardiff or Newport will take you cheaply and efficiently to Victoria - I did warn you we would be going abroad in 2017! I intend to post more in the future about the plague and the historic characters connected with this fascinating building.
For opening times and details click here.

Owain Glyn Dwr: an unlikely hero?

The young man
    Although we may think of Owain Glyn Dwr as a rebellious warrior, his early life was peaceful and prosperous. His name, Owen of the Glen of Water, derives from one of two main family estates, Glyndyfrdwy, the Glen of the Water of Dee. The main family residence was at Sycharth, destroyed by Prince Henry (later Henry V.) Both sides of the family could claim to be descended from Welsh princes but the date of his birth is uncertain as are details of his childhood.
   He probably spent 7 years at the Inns of Court in London, as an "apprentice of the law" and trained as a squire and soldier. He passed a period in the home of Sir David Hanmer, a knight and one of the principal lawyers of Edward III, who introduced the young man to the affluent world of landowners and to his daughter, whom Owain married. Margaret was described by a poet as "the best of wives" and together the couple reared 6 sons and 3 daughters, a "beautiful nest of chieftains."
   They were comfortably settled at Sycherth with an annual income of £200 (multiply by 2-300 for modern equilvalence) making Owain extremely wealthy and able to maintain a house described by poets as "frequented by bards, the best place in the world," with a moat, a gatehouse, richly-filled private chambers and stained glass windows, surrounded by "smiling green meadows", stables, pigeon-house, deer-park, orchards etc. The poets, Iolo Goch and Gruffudd Llwyd, found in Owain qualities derived from impeccable birth, breeding and leadership: aristocratic hospitality, generosity to the vulnerable and ferocity towards his enemies. Why then, did he, in prosperous middle age, forsake all these advantages to lead a rebellion against mighty forces and royal power?

Why rebel? Why then?

   One of the causes lies in what we have already noted: the influence of bards and poets. They extolled a time when the forefathers of the Welsh had ruled over a great empire before sinking to present lowliness and there was a sense that a much-needed new leader was due to appear after the deaths of Llewelyn ap Iorwerth (the Great, 1194-1240), Llewelyn ap Gruffudd (the Last, 1247-1282) and his brother, Dafydd who was captured and executed. Edward I had hammered North Wales, built huge castles and established English boroughs around them, although he did not suppress Welsh literature nor the language.
   Owain may have also felt personally disappointed in aspects of his career: 3 men who might have furthered his promotion because of his early service to the crown had not done so: Richard II, Henry of Lancaster and Thomas, Earl of Arundel had failed to help him to the knighthood he might have expected. He had also been humiliated by Henry IV in a land dispute with Lord Grey of Ruthin. Yet he had support for rebellion from the church, the uchelwyr, (the great and the good) and ordinary people - Welsh students came from Oxford and Cambridge to join him and farmers left farms in England to enlist.
   The Welsh Marches had never been fully subjugated and England was in a state of weak control because of the insecure position of Henry IV, whose right to the throne was disputed. The climate had deteriorated causing famines, the 100 Years' War had started with consequent heavy taxation and the waves of plague, the Black Death, had ravaged the populations of Europe. Wales suffered perhaps more than many other areas from these unsettling, even catastrophic events. The anti-Welsh Penal Laws were passed in 1401 and 1402. Conditions were ripe for attention to bards who proclaimed the coming of a Welsh deliverer, possibly, some maintained, called Owain. Economic circumstances combined with prophecies and a folk-memory of Merlin to welcome an otherwise unlikely rebel.

The war

   This section will have to be summarised even more than the previous ones because of its complexity and because otherwise you would have to come to grips with names such as Dafydd ap Hywel Fychan ap Hywel ap Dafydd when you would prefer to be eating CAKE.
  Owain was victorious for several years against huge odds and was a thorn in the flesh of Henry IV and an enormous expense to him. He used mostly guerrilla tactics but there were 3 main battles, excluding the Battle of Shrewsbury when Henry intercepted the forces of Henry Percy (Hotspur), Owain's partner, before he could arrive. These were: Bryn Glas in 1402 when Owain scored a notable victory and Edmund Mortimer was captured - his nephew of the same name had a claim to the throne; Grosmont, where 800-1000 of Owain's men were killed and Pwll Melyn, near Usk, where Owain's forces were heavily defeated under the command of his son who was captured and imprisoned. At Llandovery, on 9th October 1401, Llewelyn ap Gruffudd Fychan of Caeo was executed in front of the king for his part and a superb statue commemorates his bravery.

   The years 1405-6 were the climax of Owain's powers with a Tripartite Indenture drawn up giving him not only Wales but parts of England, the French army on its way and the Pennal letter sent to France which would transfer loyalty to the Pope at Avignon and free the Church in Wales from English control as well as creating universities. He had been enthroned as Prince of Wales (very annoying to the English who called their heir to the throne by that title), he had his own great seal and was holding tournaments to show his influence.
  During the next 5 years he lost his position: England began to recover with Henry IV's victory over the Percy family; the French army went home; maintaining guerrilla war was costly and he had gained few castles; the men of the lordships of Caerleon and Usk ceased to support him and there was a terrible winter in 1407-8. He held Harlech Castle and Aberystwyth for a while but they were low on provisions. Prince Hal attacked Aberystwyth and, finally, Owain became an outlaw and bandit and his wife was taken prisoner with his daughters and 3 granddaughters. The 6 sons had joined the rebellion and died childless No-one knows where he is buried and this led to a belief in some quarters that he had not died and would return.

Finally
   - yet not so as I find this whole uprising and the character of Owain so complex and fascinating that I will write another post analysing the issue and doubtless causing controversy and much discussion over CAKE.

Avoid saying "Ll" as you eat!

   If you are not Welsh-speaking you may like to know that "ap" means "son of" (which accounts for the way names build up into strings) and that you can pronounce "ll" convincingly by voicing this phoneme with your tongue curled up behind your top gum/palate. The "dd" in names is pronounced "th" and the "ch" is hard and formed at the back of the throat.There should be a circumflex on the "w" of Glyndwr but my technical skills fall short here.
  If you prefer simply to visit the places connected with the narrative without twisting your tongue you could start with Usk Castle and nearby Pwll Melyn and move on to Abergavenny where scorch marks from his arson have been found in the Tithe Barn. His legacy spreads throughout Wales and as you ride your bus in the Marches, you are never far from scenes of skirmish or major destruction.

For an appraisal of his rebellion and its effects click here. To read more about the castles involved, use the search button on the top right of this blog post.
 

Visiting Tintern

 
First sight
   As your bus draws into Tintern and you see this magnificent ruin flanked by cars and coaches it is difficult to realise that the area, until recently, had seemed wild and untamed. There is so much to say about the site that I will, for the moment, leave the architecture mostly on one side and concentrate on the people who have passed through and the attitudes to it over the centuries.

Foundation and monastery

   It was founded in 1131 on the 9th May by Walter de Clare, Lord of Chepstow, some say as an act of penance because he was haunted by the ghost of his wife whom he had murdered. It was only the second foundation of Cistercian monks in Britain and the first in Wales. This order of white-robed monks followed the rule of St. Benedict but with renewed emphasis on austerity and remoteness: they specialised in manual labour and agriculture. There may have been a brief period when behaviour became more lax as there were reports in 1217 of the Abbot drinking with the Bishop and his monks, and women working in the fields on at least one of the granges - hardly a scandal in our terms! The ruin we see today is largely that of the great church, cruciform with an aisled nave and dating from the 13th century when it was more than 30 years under construction.

The Black Death and Dissolution

   This plague devastated the area as it did so many parts of the country in 1349,  the main effect here being that the thriving agricultural enterprise became neglected and harvests lay ungathered. Tintern found it impossible to recruit the lay brothers it needed to work the fields and tend the sheep (3000 at one estimate) and, by the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII, there were only 13 monks left, although it was the largest house in Gwent. The uprising of Owain Glyndwr further impoverished the estate. It was then valued at a mere £192 per annum and in 1536 on September 3rd it was surrendered to the King with its estates incorporated into crown lands. In 1541 its bells were melted and the King's plumbers paid £8 for the work. It probably became roofless in 1546 as we know that the Earl of Worcester paid £166 for the lead.
   Within 30 years of Dissolution - a gap that seems to me surprisingly short - industrialisation had started in the area and Tintern became a major centre with wireworks and other complexes up the Angidy Valley where you can see the remains today on a lovely walk.

Tourism and the cult of the picturesque.
    During the 18th century there developed a romantic fashion for the cultivation of the individual's sensibility (derided by Jane Austen) and this was focussed on picturesque scenery in a seminal work published in 1782 by the Rev. William Gilpin who defined the concept in great detail finding the Wye satisfying in most respects: the scene had to be rough, intricate, varied without obvious straight lines and must work as a whole with a ruined abbey or castle adding "consequence." In fact the ivy-covered Abbey was insufficiently picturesque for his taste and he famously wrote that "a mallet judiciously used ... might be of service" to make it more irregular.
   There came many renowned writers and artists: Wordsworth wrote his lines above the Abbey after a 5 year gap; Coleridge got lost at night between Piercefield and Tintern - some reports say he nearly rode his horse off the edge of a quarry; Turner's work can be seen in the Chepstow Museum.

A personal view
   Impressive though the frontage is, I find that it is even more so round the back near the river seen from outside and it is here that I wrote a dizain on the subject.

                                            The picturesque: we track it through
                                            Woods, water, ivy, ruined stones.
                                            We conjure phrases: "azure blue"
                                            Tints backdrops for this Abbey's bones;
                                            "What if's?" tick all our known unknowns
                                            We time ourselves as hours pass,
                                            Laugh, chat and tip the decade-glass,
                                            Clock poets, painters, men of God,
                                            Dot chequered picnics on the grass
                                            Where silent white monks turned the sod.

Afterwards
   There is a particularly good shop situated in the car park which sells quality wall hangings with an Arthurian theme and delicious CAKE can be consumed in the White Monk cafe. The excellent Phil Anslow bus service now connects straight through from Cwmbran to Monmouth, where the ruins of the castle can be seen, changing its number at Chepstow: 63/69. You could use it to visit Usk with its castle and the site of the battle of Pwyll Melyn. It is a marvellously scenic run and many people take it for the views of the Severn Estuary and Tintern.
   I am aware that I have merely skimmed the surface of information about this spot and will return to the various aspects in more detail, - in those dark winter months ahead.

      For opening hours click here