DAFYDD ab IFAN ab EINION (fl. 1440-1468), soldier and commander of Harlech Castle during the Wars of the Roses

His fame rests on his defence of Harlech castle for the Lancastrians (1460-8) during the Wars of the Roses. His father, Ieuan ab Einion of Cryniarth and Hendwr in Edeirnion, Meironnydd, was a descendant of Llywelyn ap Cynwrig of Cors-y-Gedol; his mother, Angharad, was daughter and heiress of Dafydd ap Giwn Llwyd of Hendwr; his wife was Margaret, daughter of John Puleston of Emral, Flintshire. Like so many young Welshmen of his day, he served with the English forces in France during the latter part of the Hundred Years' War - in Rouen, according to Dafydd Nanmor. That he did serve abroad is corroborated by Guto'r Glyn.

When the English power in Normandy collapsed in 1450 Dafydd returned to England, possibly with the troops under his fellow-countryman Mathew Gough. In 1453 his name appears in a Record of Inquisitions for Merioneth to the effect that some of his cattle had been stolen near Ffestiniog. Two years later the rival Roses were at war. Dafydd is stated to have been authorized by queen Margaret to hold Harlech. During the campaign which culminated in the battle of Northampton (July 1460), the queen took refuge in Harlech, and that may have been the occasion on which she put Harlech in Dafydd's keeping. The castle now became a refuge for prominent English Lancastrian partisans, and a convenient link between Margaret and her supporters. Dafydd was repeatedly called upon to surrender, though no active steps were taken to enforce the summons. However, when Jasper Tudor landed with a Lancastrian force at Barmouth (June 1468), Edward IV sent William (lord) Herbert with a powerful army to reduce Harlech, and Dafydd at last submitted (1 August 1468). Fifty prisoners were taken. Two of the most prominent English Lancastrian leaders, Elwick and Troublok, were taken to the Tower of London and executed. Dafydd was apparently included in a general pardon (1 December 1468), while Herbert's reward was the earldom of Pembroke. The date of Dafydd's death appears to be unknown.

Author

• Howell Thomas Evans, (1878 - 1950)

Sources

• William of Worcester, Annales Rerum Anglicarum (1861–4), 773, 788-91
• Giraldi Cambrensis Opera (1861–91), 328
• Historical Collections of a Citizen of London (1189–1469) (1876), 208-9, 237
• Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1461-7 (271, 352, 355, 457, 529), 1467-72 (163, 127)
• Archaeologia Cambrensis, 1848, 71-2
• Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles, with historical memoranda (London 1880), 182
• Rotuli Parliamentorum (1771–1832), 1 Ed. IV, and 1464, 512
• Thomas Roberts and Ifor Williams (eds.), The Poetical Works of Dafydd Nanmor (Cardiff 1923), pp.60-2
• J. Llywelyn Williams, Ifor Williams (eds.), Gwaith Guto'r Glyn (1939), p.41
• Dafydd Llwyd, Peniarth MS 112: Llyfr cywyddau Siôn ap William ap Siôn (679)
• Tudur Penllyn, Peniarth MS 112: Llyfr cywyddau Siôn ap William ap Siôn (682)
• Heraldic Visitations of Wales and Part of the Marches between the years 1586 and 1613, under the authority of Clarencieux and Norroy, two kings at arms (Llandovery 1846), ii, 215-6
• Howell T. Evans, Wales and the Wars of the Roses (Cambridge 1915)

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20732720

Published date: 1959

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