Gruffydd

Paternal Surnames Church Cowley Ebrey Ferrington Griffiths Grindley Poole Ridgeway Smith Tudor Williams Maternal Surnames Davies Ellis Jones Hughes Norris Paternal Parishes High Ercall (Ercall Magna) Stanton on Hine Heath Shawbury Rowton Ellerdine Muckleton Great Bolas Astley Upton Magna WatersUpton Hodnet Grinshill Weston Lee Brockhurst MoretonCorb.t Wem Maternal Parishes Berriew,Montg Guilsfield,Mont Llanfair,Montg Oswestry St Martins Stapleton Trefonen Westbury

THE DOMESDAY BOOK. c 1090 William The Conquerer,s Official Record of all the towns and villages of England,the landowners and the quality and value of each holding.The Survey was primarily designed to establish ownership and for taxation purposes. Understandably most of the landowners are his own henchmen and have Norman names. , an occasional Saxon supporter is listed but Welsh names are almost non-existent.The Welsh have either been driven westwards into Wales by the Saxons in previous centuries or now remain as unnamed serfs or slaves. At Doomsday Earl Roger de M ontgomery held Archelou(High Ercall) and from him Earl Edwin held it with five Berwickes(a sub manor without a baronial hall).,seven hides are there.In the demesne are six ploughs and twelve oxherds.Twenty nine villeins,and twelve bordars have fifteen ploughs.There two mills pay twelve horse loads of corn and here is a fishery rendering 1502 large eels.Of woodland their is one league.It is worth twenty pounds now the same. Gerrard de Tournai held Ellerdine and Dodo held it from him and was a freeman.There is one hide and a third paid geld.Gerard de Tournai held Cold Hatton and Godrich held it from him and was a freeman.There is one half hide and two virgates.In these two manors there are two ploughs and four serfs and two orchards and there are six borders with one plough.It was worth twenty shillings. Earl Montgomery holds Rowton and Eddiet from him.Morcar and Dot held it for two manors and were free.There two hides pay geld and there is land enough for four ploughs.In this demesne are a priest,one and three serfs and four borders with one plough.It is worth twenty five shillings.


	GRUFFYDD

THE CONQUEST OF WALES. William I,friend Roger de Montgomery was given the important task of containing the Welsh.The Normans proceeded to build a series of castles all the way from Chester down to Gloucester including Oswestry,Ellesmere, Shrewsbury,Clun, Ludlow,Bishops Castle and Hereford.For the next 200 years the Welsh Princes and Norman Barons were constantly skirmishing with each other or making strategic marriages in attempts to gain more power and land.

The greatest of the Welsh leaders was Llewelyn ap Jowerth,known as Llewelyn the Great Prince of Wales.From 1215 for twenty years he led the Welsh armies against King Henry III and his Barons,laying seige to many Castles and sacking important towns including Shrewsbury,Caemarthen and Newport.Later having taken Henry,s sister Joan as his second wife,who bore him a son David and by intercession of the church he agreed to sign a truce with Henry.He died in 1240 at Conway.


	On Llewelyn,s death unfortunately for the Welsh,his youngest son David ap Llewelyn ap Jowerth with the connivance of King Henry himself and certain Welsh Princes e.g. Gryffydh ap Madoc, Lord of Powis, imprisoned his eldest brother Gryffydh the true heir to the Welsh throne and seized power for himself..For his support David had to pay homage,land,cattle and horses to King Henry.Even more humiliating after the death of Gryffydh,who broke his neck trying to escape from the Tower of London ,King Henry gave the title Prince of Wales to his eldest son Edward. At this point David and the Welsh revolted and attacked the Norman Barons and sacked a number of their Castles only to be gradually subdued by King Henry himself and the treachery of the Irish ,who were encouraged to plunder the Welsh stronghold and supply base of Anglesea.Prince David was gradually driven back into the mountains of Snowdonia where he died a broken man in 1246

		On the death of Prince David ap Llewelyn ap Jowerth the Welsh nobility chose Owen and Llewelyn sons of Gryffydh,who had shared his prison in the Tower,to be joint sovereigns of North Wales.While King Henry awarded all the Welsh Lands from Chester to Conway to Edward his son.. Meanwhile Owen and his younger brother David took up arms against their brother Llewelyn only to be defeated and imprisoned. Now this Llewelyn ap Gryffydh was able to raise the noblity of both North and South Wales against the injustices of King Henry,who had not only annexed much of their best land but had also imposed English Laws and Taxes on them.They soon raised a formidable army divided into two bodies each of 30,000soldiers and two squadrons of 500 armoured knights.Llewelyn now harried the Normans from end to end of Wales much wounding the forces and pride of young Prince Edward aged 17.For the next 26 years 1255-81 the Welsh Princes battled with King Henry,Prince Edward and the Norman Barons,finally entering into negotiations with King Henry after losing the support of the traitorous Meredydh ap Rhys of South Wales.Llewelyn would be allowed to keep his title but little of his Kingdom.He also had to release his brother Owen from prison,who would then be made a Norman knight.While Llewelyn was negotiating through the Archbishops King Henry moved his army along the coast.Llewellyn and his small army of two thousand men were caught off guard in the mountains near Builth and so through treachery Prince Llewelyn was killed, his head cut off and brought to King Henry.Thus ended the last hope of a free and independent Wales.


	Extract from Medieval Court Roll." Madoc son of Griffin held Rowton and Ellerdine in 1255 by service of conducting the King into Wales in time of war."Is this a reward to a Welsh sheep/cattle drover for leading Henry III over the mountains during his Welsh Campaigns?


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