Today, (September 16) is a big occasion in Wales as we celebrate Owain Glyndwr Day.
The celebrations will mark the day that Owain Glyndwr was proclaimed Prince of Wales, in
Glyndyfrdwy, near Llangollen in 1400.

Which was the start of a 15 year rebellion to regain Welsh Independence, which had been lost a century earlier.
The ceremony at Glyndyfrdwy, attended by key spiritual leaders, signifiant figures of the age and members of Owain’s extended family was a hugely symbolic move.

As the “Prince of Wales” title had been appropriated by Edward 1 and given to his own baby son, following his conquest of Wales in the 1290’s.
Now, Glyndwr was re-claiming the title through his own impeccable personal lineage, and re-claiming Wales’s right to be a sovereign nation again.

In many respects, Glyndwr was an unlikely revolutionary having served on military campaigns in both Scotland and France, a prominent landowner in North-East Wales and well-connected within the social order of the day as both a lawyer and administrator.

Yet he was intensely aware of his Welsh lineage and his right to the Prince of Wales title through both his father and his mother’s respective houses.
With the bards also whispering in his ears for years that he was the “Mab Darogan”- the Deliverer- that Wales had been waiting for.

A combination of personal, political, social and economic factors all came to a head by the end of the 1390’s, which enabled him to make his bold move at Glyndyfrdwy on September 16, 1400.

It’s interesting that Owain Glyndwr day has become much more of an event on the Welsh calendar over recent years.
With this interest in the past no doubt a reflection of the growing modern campaign for Welsh Independence.

This author has been writing about Owain Glyndwr all week on his Twitter/X platform, with one tweet having been read by over 80k readers by yesterday( Friday).
Perhaps the popularity of this tweet can be put down to the fact that so many Welsh people and people elsewhere as well are still unaware of some of the key details of Glyndwr’s rebellion.

The Tripartite Indenture of 1405( see associated image) is perhaps the most surprising element tof all for people who are re-discovering their history.
This was an agreement between Owain Glyndwr and two of the main challengers to the English Monarch at the time( Henry 1V), Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland and Edmund Mortimer( who was also Owain’s son-in-law).
The three planned an equitable territorial settlement between them which would include a Greater Wales,with England divided between Northumberland and Southern England.

The Greater Wales conceived in the plan was no arbitary line drawn on the map, as it basically followed the Mersey in the north and the Severn in the south.
But it also adhered to an ancient Welsh prophecy, which stipulated that the borders of Wales would be set at Onnau Meigion.
Which as the map shows, would include tracts of Merseyside, Shrewsbury, Oswestry and other marcher territories.
It was a breathtaking idea drawn up by Glyndwr himself and agreed to by his two allies as a way of breaking the stranglehold of the Crown, and sharing power between them.
The agreement was actually signed at the home of the Archdeacon of Bangor, North-West Wales showing the primacy of Glyndwr in the whole arrangement.

Unfortunately, circumstances contrived to defeat this unique agreement and an upturn in the fortunes of Henry IV meant it had to be abandoned.
Glyndwr’s rebellion also lost its own momentum after 1405 although the struggle still persisted up in some areas up to 1415.
Owain Glyndwr himself was never captured despite a generous bounty offered for his head by Henry 1V, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding his eventual disappearance from the stage of history has only served to increase his reputation over the centuries.

Glyndwr is considered a breed apart from the traditional feudal rule of the previous kings of Wales because of his “modern” agenda.
Convening Welsh Parliaments with two representatives from each Welsh community summoned to attend.
Calling for A Welsh Church with Welsh-speaking clergy.
Calling for two universities to serve the nation- one in the north and one in the south.
And calling for the restoration of Welsh Law based on the laws of Hywel Dda from the 11
th century.
Although Owain Glyndwr’s rebellion eventually failed, it’s clear that the rebellion also “saved” Wales.
It saved the idea of Wales as a distinct nation with its own future to forge, at a time when that was seriously under threat after its conquest by Edward 1sta century before this.

Wales could easily have gradually become just another English county after the conquest.
Such was the power of Edward 1 at the time and the ring of castles he built here to remind the Welsh that they were a conquered people.
We give thanks today, more than any other day of the year, that this never happened.
A great deal of that is down to one man- Owain Glyndwr and his dream of Welsh freedom.
As another great patriot once said – The dream will never die.
Aled Gwyn Job