British antiquities revived, or, A friendly contest touching the soveraignty of the three princes of VVales in ancient times managed with certain arguments whereunto answers are applyed by Robert Vaughan, Esq. ; to which is added the pedigree of the Right Honourable the Earl of Carbery, Lord President of Wales ; with a short account of the five royall tribes of Cambria, by the same author.

The Answer.

ALthough the Kings of England after the overthrow of Rees ap The∣odor did terme the withstanding of their power in Wales rebel∣lion and Treason, it cannot be conceived that should be a sufficient ground for their title to the principality of Wales: for what are those termes, but the hard censure of their utter and alwaies professed ene∣mies in their greatest anger and indignation, peradventure after some shamefull overthrow and losse received, and therefore not much to be regarded. But it cannot be granted they gave such names to those wars; for the wars between King John (with his Successors the Kings of England) and Lhewelyn the great, David his son, Owen Goch and Lhewe∣lyn ap Griffith, Princes of Wales, are alwaies termed Guerrae, as it ap∣pears in the submissions of David ap Lhewelyn, An: 1240. & 1241. of Owen Goch and Lhewelyn, An: the adward of Ottobonus the Pope's Legate, An: 1268. and the agreement between Edward the first, and the said Lhewelyn prince of Wales, An: 1277. do likewise call those wars Guerrae, which doth not in any Author signifie Rebellion, as must needs be acknowledged. Now that the kings of England thenceforth

did give Seigniories and possessions in Wales to their Subjects, who did erect strong Forts, and Castles therein, it is confessed, as touching some part of the inheritance of Rees ap Theodor; and it is also true, that be∣fore and after the death of Rees ap Theodor, the Kings of England did vex and molest Griff: ap Conan (as the Author of his Life averreth) and his successors the princes of Wales, sometimes by craft and deceit, and sometimes with unjust wars; insomuch that to purchase their peace and quietnesse, and not otherwise, the princes were often content to yield up unto the Kings of England four Cantreds. This with other hard dealings hath been noted by diverse writers, and Henry the second did not stick to confesse the same, when he said, as Giraldus affirmeth, Per vires nostras magnas injuriam & violentiam irrogemus Cambris, to which force and violence, and not to any new soveraignty gotten by the overthrow of Rees ap Theodor must be attributed what submission or acknowledgment of soveraignty, that Griff. ap Conan and his suc∣cessors the princes of Wales, did to the kings of England, if any was de∣manded or performed over and above the wonted and usuall. It is also manifest, that the Archbishop of Canterbury did obtein a supremacy over the Bishops of Wales shortly after the overthrow of Rees ap Theodor, yet not by reason of this said overthrow, but of the suggestion of false wit∣nesses before Pope Eugenius in the Remensian Councell, whose Aposto∣licall decrees all the churches in Europe obey'd in those dayes. Moreover you urge out of the statute of Ruthlan that king Edward 1. added no more to his former possessions of the principality of Wales by the con∣quest of Leoline, but only Terram de Snowdon, whereas it doth not so appear in any copy of the said statute that ever I could find, and yet I have seen diverse in Wales anciently written on parchment, both in the Latine and British tongues. As concerning the dishonour done to the prince after his death, by fixing his head on the highest turret of the Tower of Lond••n, Examples of this kind of dealing with Princes we have frequent in histories: Tigranes King of the Armenians, who lived under Tiberius Caesar, could not with all his kingly titles, as Ta∣citus sayth, escape the common death of a Romane. Tacitus speaks also in the 2d. book of his Annals, of Artavasdes King of Armenia, whom Antonius having by treachery got into his power, loaded with chaines, and afterwards put to death. Cyrus that great monarcò of the Persians

who being overthrown and slain by Tomyris queen of the Scythians, had his head cut off, and in great contempt and de••ision flung into a vessell full of of man's blood. Ptolomy Ceraunus King of Macedon was in battell vanquished and slaine by Belius (a Brittain as some are of opinion) who caused his head to be cut off, and carried before him on the point of a spear round about the field in token of victory and tri∣umph. There be many the like examples in histories of Kings and Em∣perors, whose bodies have been coursely handled by their enemies, who de facto use them so, as being in their power, though de jure they ought not to deale so with lawfull princes. And here I may not passe over how that the Abby of Ystratflur, wh••re you say that the body of Rees ap Theodor was decently buried, was not founded before the dayes of the Lo: Rees ap Griff. ap Rees ap Theodor Prince of Southwales, as ap∣peares by his Charter made presently after the foundation. Ego Rhesus Southwalliae proprietarius princeps venerabile M••nasterium vocabulo Stradflur aedificare coepi, & aedificatum dilexi & feci, res ejus auxi, & possessiones in quantum suffragante Deo volui, amplam & omnem donatio∣nem quam eidem monasterio antea contuli, Anno iterum ab Incarnatione Domini, 1184. scilicet praesentis scripti memoriâ stabilivi, tres etiam sel••i scilicet Gruff. Rhesus, & Mredith candem donationem eodem tempore & loco in manu Abbatis de Straflur obtulerunt. And in the year of our Lord 1164. (just 20. yeares before the date of the former charter,) as witnesseth the book of Conwey, it was first covented: Rees ap Theodor was slain Anno 1091. whereby it appeares that your Abby was not founded 73 yeares after his death. It remaines now that I speak some∣what of the true and undoubted conquest of Wales atchieved by Ed. 1. as it appeares by the power that he assumed over all the inhabitants of Wales, after the fatall overthrow of Leoline the last prince of the Bri∣tish bloud; for of all the Kings of England he was the first that altered the forme of Government in Wales, he was the first that made the sta∣tute of Ruthlan as a Law to govern the people of that countrey by; he also created Edw: of Carnarvan his eldest son prince of Wales, who ac∣cording to Mr. Camden, and diverse more ancient writers, erat primus ex Anglico sanguine Walliae princeps. Hereby it appears that W. Rufus was not the conqueror of Wales, nor Rees ap Theodor the soveraigne prince of Wales; for if Rees had been the superior Prince, King W. Ru∣fus,

having learned of his Father the lesson of a Conqueror, would in no case have omitted to accomplish those rites of a Conqueror. Nei∣ther did the kings of England challenge the principality of Wales by the conquest of W. Rufus, but by the atchievement of Ed. 1. as it ap∣pears first of all by the words of the statute of Ruthlan: Divina provi∣dentia (saith Ed. 1) quae in sui dispositione non fallitur, inter alia suae dis∣pensationis munera, quibus nos & regnum nostrum Angliae decorari digna∣ta est, terram Walliae cum incolis suis prius nobis jure feodoli subjectam jam sui gratiâ in proprietatis nostrae domini••m obstaculis quibuscunque ces∣santibus totaliter & cum integritate convertit, & corenae regni praedicti tanquam partem corporis ejusdem anne•••• it & univit. Henry the fourth gives the title of Conqueror of Wales to Ed. 1. in his lawes against the Welshmen, made An: 2. H. 4. thus, Nulle-Gall••is ait chastel, fortresse ne maison defensive de son propre, ne de autre agardere, autrement que n••scoit us••z en temps le Roy Ed: conquerer de Galez: that is, No Welchman shall have castle, fortresse, nor house defensive of his own, nor of other to keep, otherwise then was used in the time of king Edward Conqueror of Wales. The title of those Petitions made at Kenynten do averre the same: Peticones de Kenynton factae apud Kenynton per homines North∣walliae tam pro communitatibus comitatuum quam pro singularibus perso∣nis exhibitae domino principi filio regis Ed: conquestoris Walliae, Auno re∣gni praedic: Ed. 33. And John de Delves in the 8. year of Ed: 3. layes open the King's title to the principality of Wales in these words: Terra Walliae est terra conquesta & conquisita fuit per dominum Edwardum nuper regem Angliae proavum demini principis nunc per quem conquestum tota terra tam de dominio quam in servitiis injuncta fuit & annexa coronae Angliae.