Note 878 — Chapter IV · TUTORS AND GOVERNORS 1221–1223

Brut, p. 313. Roger of Wendover’s account of the war between the Marshal and Llywelyn in 1223 is as follows: “Eodem anno, dum Willelmus Marescallus comes Penbroc fuit in Hibernia, Loelinus rex Walensium in manu forti cepit duo castella praedicti Willelmi, et omnes quos in eis invenit capitibus privari fecit, et impositis in eisdem castellis Walensibus suis, recessit. Sed cum post dies paucos ad notitiam praedicti Marescalli res gesta pervolasset, rediit cum festinatione in Angliam; exercitu magno congregato, castella praedicta obsedit et cepit; et quia Loelinus prius omnes homines Marescalli quos in castellis ceperat capitibus amputatis interfecerat, Willelmus Marescallus Walensibus talionem reddens eorum capita detruncari fecit; et deinde ad majorem vindictam terram Loelini hostiliter ingressus igne et ferro quaeque sibi obvia devastavit” (vol. iv. pp. 84, 85). There seems to be a double, or rather triple, confusion here. It was not in 1223 but in 1220 that Llywelyn took two castles which belonged to the Marshal (see above, p. 161). The two castles which he took in 1223 belonged not to the Marshal but to Fulk FitzWarine and Baldwin of Hodnet respectively (see above, footnote 873); and the two castles which the Marshal captured on his return were not the same (“praedicta castella”) which Llywelyn had taken on either of these two occasions, for they were Cardigan and Caermarthen, of which Llewelyn had been legal custodian—“the person who had the custody of the castles on the part of the King,” as the Brut puts it (l.c.)—ever since 1218. The cutting off the prisoners’ heads is doubtful, especially on the side of the Marshal, because the Welsh chronicles would have been almost certain to mention such an act on his part if it really took place, and they give no hint of any such thing.