Protest

There is some evidence of popular grievances but none of popular outbreaks where the motivation was social or economic. The motives behind the Glyn Dvr revolt in 1400 were essentially political, but it did have other dimensions. As a protest by the leaders of native Welsh society it subsumed the social and economic grievances that would have been present at all levels of that society by the end of the fourteenth century; Wales, after all, was not exempt from the problems that beset the rest of contemporary Europe. But whereas in England in 1381 a popular revolt, not of those at the bottom of the pile but of those who were beginning to rise in the world and were finding the obligations of villeinage increasingly irksome, was aimed at the landowning class, in Wales it was this class which planned and led the revolt. There were differences; Wales did not have the rich and powerful monastic communities that were to be found across the border and at which much of the protest was directed. Furthermore, unfreedom and the burdens associated with it had almost died out in Wales by 1400; it survived, as we have seen, only as a means of raising revenue. There is nothing to suggest that the English revolt of 1381 had any resonance at all in Wales, although the last two decades of the fourteenth century do appear to have been a time of hardship. There is no evidence either of any of the religious or mil-lenarian ferment so common over much of Europe in the years after the plague; the native Welsh millenarian tradition did not manifest itself in this way. There was undoubtedly a degree of popular protest involved in the Glyn Dtwr revolt; given the circumstances of the previous half-century there could hardly fail to be. But it was controlled and channelled by those who had planned the revolt in the first place, the leaders of the native Welsh community.

One of the most interesting things about the Glyn Dtwr revolt is that recovery was so rapid. The short-term economic results of the revolt were little short of disastrous; hardly any revenue was collected for the crown as long as it lasted and there was extensive destruction, although many of the contemporary problems had their origins in the plague or even earlier rather than in the rebellion. As the century progressed, however, there were signs of recovery and even of some prosperity. Estates were continuing to be built up and the land market was expanding. Work on churches is always an index of prosperity; the finest churches of north-east Wales, possibly the most prosperous part of the country, like Wrexham, Mold and Gresford, were the fruits of the generosity of the Stanleys and Margaret Beaufort, but others, like the double-naved churches of the Vale of Clwyd and town churches like Cardiff and Tenby, suggest some local recovery. There was certainly disorder; the situation in Eifionydd was graphically described by Sir John Wynn of Gwydir in his family history, but it was no worse than it was in many parts of contemporary England.45 The accession of Henry VII saw a concerted attempt to reorganize the revenue of the crown in Wales. The finances had suffered as a result of the crises of the fourteenth century followed by plague and revolt and the collapse of income from bond communities as a result of the virtual disappearance of bondmen. In 1490 came a crackdown in north Wales with the dismissal of the chamberlain, Sir William Griffith of Penrhyn, and his replacement by royal officials. One of the consequences of this attempt to tighten up a slack financial administration and the resultant pressure on the community was a revolt in Merioneth in 1498 which had to be put down by military force.46 In the lordship of Brecon in 1496 arrears of ?2,000 had to be written off by the lord, the duke of Buckingham. Surviving bondmen were demanding their freedom and in the early years of the sixteenth century a series of charters was granted to the principality and to the various marcher lordships of north Wales to that end.