Kenvig. The English heard with horror how he had burnt down churches full of women, and perpetrated all kinds of atrocities (Matt. Paris, iii. 201-2). On 20 June 1231 the king summoned a council and army at Oxford (ib. iii. 203; Royal Letters, i. 400). Llywelyn was again excommunicated, and his lands placed under an interdict, which was confirmed by the pope (ib. p. 202; Osney Annals, p.72; Worcester Annals, p. 422). Troops were also got ready in Ireland, and all exports from Ireland to Wales forbidden (Royal Letters, i. 402). But no serious injury was done Llywelyn in this campaign. A monk of Cwmhir tempted the English garrison of Montgomery into an ambush. Henry marched to Cwmhir, and exacted a fine of three hundred marks. His chief exploit was to rebuild Maud's Castle with stone. A three years' truce was patched up in December, and the sentence of excommunication suspended {Dumtaple Annals,p. 127). The negotiations for Davydd's marriage with Isabella de Braose were now resumed (Fœdera, i. 208). But nothing was concluded, and in 1232 Llywelyn renewed his ravages in the lands of the house of Braose. Richard of Cornwall manfully defended his new possessions, but when Peter des Roches urged upon Henry to make a new expedition, the king pleaded his poverty (Matt. Paris, iii. 219). Llywelyn's successes are therefore easy to understand. When, however, Hubert de Burgh fell, the charges against him included complicity in the death of William de Braose, and stealing from the royal treasury and sending over to Llywelyn a gem that made the wearer invincible. To such shifts were Llywelyn's opponents now reduced.
The revolt of Richard Marshal, earl of Pembroke [q. v.], from Henry III gave Llywelyn a new excuse for his depredations. He actively joined the brother and successor of his old foe in war against the king. His followers and vassals in South Wales had a large share in the exploits of the army with which Richard defeated Henry at Grosmont, near Monmouth, in 1233. At the same time Llywelyn himself was for three months engaged in the siege of the king's castle at Carmarthen (Brut y Tywysogion). But a fleet sailed up the Towy and raised the siege, whereupon Llywelyn went back to his own country. In March 1234 a new truce was arranged (Royal Letters, i. 525), and the death of Earl Richard in Ireland soon brought about a more general cessation of hostilities. In the same year Llywelyn released his first born, Gruffydd, from his six years' confinement.
The active career of Llywelyn was approaching its close. In 1236 fear of him was still strong enough to induce Gilbert Marshal to restore a castle that he had taken from a lesser Welsh chieftain (Brut y Tywysogion, p. 325), and Alexander, king of Scots, trusted to the aid of Llywelyn in his attempt to acquire Northumberland (Matt. Paris, iii. 372). In February 1237 the Princess Joan died at Aber. In the same year Llywelyn made his final submission to Henry, promising to be faithful to him and to serve him in his wars (ib. iii. 385). Llywelyn, already an old man, was now smitten with partial paralysis, and suffered severely from the renewed hostility of his unruly son, Gruffydd. The English feared that Llywelyn's new zeal for their alliance might conceal some new treachery, but Llywelyn was at last sincere in his professions. His great desire was to secure the succession of Davydd, his son by Joan, to the whole of his dominions and power. He realised that the best way of securing this was by interesting King Henry in his nephew's welfare. But he did not neglect to conciliate the goodwill of his own subjects. On 19 Oct. 1238 he gathered together all the princes and barons of Wales at the Cistercian abbey of Strata Florida in Ceredigion (Brut y Tywysogion, p. 327). There they all swore oaths of fealty to Davydd as his successor. As Gruffydd still resisted, he was deprived of all his lands but the cantred of Lleyn. In his new-born zeal for peace Llywelyn deprived one of his chieftains of his lands for murdering his brother. Davydd now became through his father's infirmities practical ruler of Wales, and in 1239 sought to promote his own succession by imprisoning his brother at Criccieth. Llywelyn took upon himself the habit of religion among the Cistercians of Aberconway. There he died on 11 April 1240, and there he was buried. 'I am unworthy,' wrote the Latin annalist of Wales, 'to narrate the mighty deeds of this second Achilles. He dominated his enemies with sword and shield. He kept good peace for the monks, providing food and clothing to those who made themselves poor for Christ's sake. By his wars he enlarged the boundaries of his dominions. He gave good justice to all men, and attracted all men to his service' (Annales Cambriæ;, pp. 82-3). He was certainly the greatest of the native rulers of Wales, and the title of 'Llywelyn the Great' was recognised in the official documents of Edward I (Monasticon, vi. 200). If other Welsh kings were equally warlike, the son of Iorwerth was by far the most politic of them. He even seems to have kept up some sort of a standing force of soldiers (Stephens, Literature of the Kymry, p. 327). While never for-
