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Historical person
1220–1282
Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, commonly called Llywelyn the Last, was prince of Gwynedd and the most powerful native Welsh ruler of the thirteenth century. A member of the House of Aberffraw, he emerged from dynastic conflict to dominate much of Wales. The Treaty of Montgomery in 1267 brought formal recognition from Henry III of England of Llywelyn’s title as Prince of Wales, marking the high point of his political authority.
Relations with Edward I deteriorated after the English king’s accession, particularly over homage, border disputes and Llywelyn’s proposed marriage to Eleanor de Montfort. Edward invaded Wales in 1277 and imposed a restrictive settlement, while a renewed Welsh rising in 1282 led to full-scale conquest. Llywelyn was killed near Builth in December 1282. His brother Dafydd continued resistance briefly, but Edward’s victory ended the independent principality and brought Gwynedd under direct English rule.
In Sharon Kay Penman’s Falls the Shadow, Simon defeats Henry at Lewes and briefly governs through a council and parliament, while maintaining an alliance with Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in Wales. In David Pilling’s Longsword VI (the Broken Arrow), in Wales the defeated prince, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, plans to claw back his lost power. Llywelyn ap Gruffudd is treated fictionally in Sharon Kay Penman’s The Reckoning, Griff Hosker’s Broken Arrow, David Pilling’s Longsword (V), Griff Hosker’s Targets of Treachery, and Griff Hosker’s Wallace’s War.
Series
The trilogy follows native Welsh rulers and their families across the thirteenth century, from Llywelyn the Great and Joanna through Simon de Montfort’s baronial reform movement to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd’s final struggle against Edward I. It treats Welsh politics, marriage, kinship and resistance alongside English royal expansion.
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Lord Edward’s Archer follows Gerald Warbow from the Welsh Marches into the wars and political crises of Edward I and Edward II. The series combines archer warfare with the Second Barons’ War, Welsh resistance, crusading, the Scottish wars and court intrigue. It is a medieval military sequence about…
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The Longsword series follows Hugh Longsword and the surviving Montfortian rebels after the Second Barons' War. Moving from outlaw resistance in England to Edward's crusade, political conspiracy and the conquest of Wales, the novels trace the violent consolidation of royal power under Henry III and Edward I.
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