Owain Glyn Dwr (anglicised as Owen Glendower) led a Welsh revolt against the English crown between 1400 and 1409 and was the last to claim the title of independent prince of Wales.
Owain Glyn Dwr was born around the 1350s into an Anglo-Welsh gentry family. His estates provided him with a modest power base in north-east Wales. Glyn Dwr was educated in England, joining the English army and taking part in an invasion of Scotland. He then retired to his estates in Wales. In 1399, against the backdrop of Richard II's overthrow by Henry Bolingbroke in England, Glyn Dwr's long-running land dispute with his neighbour, Reginald de Grey, escalated into rebellion. Glyn Dwr proclaimed himself prince of Wales in September 1400.
There followed several fierce attacks by Glyn Dwr supporters on English border towns, and a more general outbreak of rebellion in north-west Wales. The English were galvanised into action, and Henry IV arrived to lead a successful campaign against the rebels - although Glyn Dwr was never captured. Over the next few years punitive measures were enacted to keep control of Wales, but these were matched by many acts of Welsh rebellion - among them the capture of Conwy Castle in April 1401. In June 1402, at the Battle of Pilleth on Bryn Glas Hill, Glyn Dwr led his troops to victory over an English army led by Edmund Mortimer.
By now Glyn Dwr was leading a national revolt. In 1404 a French expeditionary force landed at Milford Haven, and joined with the Welsh to march towards Worcester, capturing several important castles as they went. Before long, however, the English started to regain control of Wales, and support for the revolt faded. By 1408, the rebellion had reverted to a guerrilla war. Glyn Dwr was now a leader on the run, and he is last mentioned in government records - where terms are offered for his surrender - in February 1416. It is thought that by this time he was already dead.
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