Roger le Strange, Baron Strange, also known as Roger Lestrange or Roger Strange (died 31 July 1311), Lord of Ellesmere, was an English knight, commander and royal advisor.
Roger le Strange, Baron Strange, also known as Roger Lestrange or Roger Strange (died 31 July 1311), Lord of Ellesmere, was an English knight, commander and royal advisor.
The second son of John Lestrange and his wife Lucy, daughter of Robert of Tregoz, he was given land taken by Henry III of England from rebels in the Second Barons' War. From May 1270 to October 1274 he was Sheriff of Yorkshire, but the focus of his activities was in Cheshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire. Due to his local knowledge of the Welsh Marches he was an important advisor to Edward I of England during his conquest of Wales. During Edward's first campaign in 1277 he was put in charge of Oswestry Castle, Dinas Bran, Builth and Montgomery Castle - the Welsh inhabitants living near these castles regarded him as a tyrant. [1]
Roger played a major part in the 1282-83 campaign and on 30 October 1282 succeeded Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer as the English commander in mid-Wales. On 11 December, he fought at the battle of Orewin Bridge, in which Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was killed - Lestrange wrote the letter informing Edward of his death. From 1283, he took part in the siege and capture of Castell y Bere. [2]
In 1284, he took part in Edward's castle-building campaign in north Wales. [3] In 1287, he took part in the suppression of Rhys ap Maredudd's revolt and the siege of Dryslwyn Castle, as well as the suppression of the 1294 Welsh uprising under Madog ap Llywelyn and the 1295 Gascon and 1297 Flanders campaigns of the Gascon War.
On 21 October 1283, he was transferred to the role of justiciar of the "Forest south of the Trent", which he held until 12 February 1297.
Roger's first marriage was to Maud, widow of Roger II de Mowbray, 6th Baron Mowbray (died 1266), younger brother of William de Mowbray, signatory of Magna Carta. After her death, he was allowed to hold her lands and property until her children came of age in 1278. On the death of his brother, Hamo le Strange, without issue in 1272 or 1273 Roger inherited Ellesmere, Shropshire and other lands. His second wife Eleanor died in 1280 and in 1307 he married his third wife, another Maud.
In 1291 he was sent as an envoy to pope Nicolas IV, only returning in 1292. He was summoned to several meetings of parliament and the royal counsel and in 1295 he was given the title Baron Strange. Despite his contribution to the conquest of Wales, he did not have a fiefdom or lordship there, although he had hoped to rule Maelor Saesneg in north Wales. [4]
He served in the royal household as a knight for many years but he was already recorded as being sick in 1298 - Edward decreed in 1306 that he was so indebted to him for his service that he would attend his funeral. He undertook several further smaller missions for the king and was one of the signatories of the barons' letter to the pope in 1301. He died without surviving issue in 1311 after a long illness.[ citation needed ]
Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Llywelyn II, also known as Llywelyn the Last, was the prince of Gwynedd, and later was recognised as the prince of Wales from 1258 until his death at Cilmeri in 1282. Llywelyn was the son of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Fawr and grandson of Llywelyn the Great, and he was one of the last native and independent princes of Wales before its conquest by Edward I of England and English rule in Wales that followed, until Owain Glyndŵr held the title during the Welsh Revolt of 1400–1415.
The Statute of Rhuddlan, also known as the Statutes of Wales or as the Statute of Wales, was a royal ordinance by Edward I of England, which gave the constitutional basis for the government of the Principality of Wales from 1284 until 1536.
The Kingdom of Powys was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. It very roughly covered the northern two-thirds of the modern county of Powys and part of today's English West Midlands. More precisely, and based on the Romano-British tribal lands of the Ordovices in the west and the Cornovii in the east, its boundaries originally extended from the Cambrian Mountains in the west to include the modern West Midlands region of England in the east. The fertile river valleys of the Severn and Tern are found here, and this region is referred to in later Welsh literature as "the Paradise of Powys".
Humphrey (VI) de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford and 2nd Earl of Essex, was an English nobleman known primarily for his opposition to King Edward I over the Confirmatio Cartarum. He was also an active participant in the Welsh Wars and maintained for several years a private feud with the earl of Gloucester. His father, Humphrey (V) de Bohun, fought on the side of the rebellious barons in the Barons' War. When Humphrey (V) predeceased his father, Humphrey (VI) became heir to his grandfather, Humphrey (IV). At Humphrey (IV)'s death in 1275, Humphrey (VI) inherited the earldoms of Hereford and Essex. He also inherited major possessions in the Welsh Marches from his mother, Eleanor de Braose.
Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer of Wigmore was the second son and eventual heir of Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer of Wigmore. His mother was Maud de Braose.
Cefnllys Castle was a medieval spur castle in Radnorshire, Wales. Two successive masonry castles were built on a ridge above the River Ithon known as Castle Bank in the thirteenth century, replacing a wooden motte-and-bailey castle constructed by the Normans nearby. Controlling several communication routes into the highlands of Mid Wales, the castles were strategically important within the Welsh Marches during the High Middle Ages. As the seat of the fiercely contested lordship and cantref of Maelienydd, Cefnllys became a source of friction between Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and Roger Mortimer in the prelude to Edward I's conquest of Wales (1277–1283). Cefnllys was also the site of a borough and medieval town.
Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, sometimes spelled Blethyn, was an 11th-century Welsh king. King Harold Godwinson and Tostig Godwinson installed him and his brother, Rhiwallon, as the co-rulers of Gwynedd on his father's death in 1063, during their destruction of the kingdom of their half-brother, king Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. Bleddyn became king of Powys and co-ruler of the Kingdom of Gwynedd with his brother Rhiwallon from 1063 to 1075. His descendants continued to rule Powys as the House of Mathrafal.
Owain Lawgoch, full name Owain ap Thomas ap Rhodri, was a Welsh soldier who served in Lombardy, France, Alsace, and Switzerland. He led a Free Company fighting for the French against the English in the Hundred Years' War. As a politically active descendant of Llywelyn the Great in the male line, he was a claimant to the title of Prince of Gwynedd and of Wales.
Llywelyn's coronet is a lost treasure of Welsh history. It is recorded that Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales and Lord of Aberffraw had deposited this crown and other items with the monks at Cymer Abbey for safekeeping at the start of his final campaign in 1282. He was killed later that year. It was seized alongside other holy artefacts in 1284 from the ruins of the defeated Kingdom of Gwynedd. Thereafter it was taken to London and presented at the shrine of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey by King Edward I of England as a token of the complete annihilation of the independent Welsh state.
Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn was a Welsh king who was lord of the part of Powys known as Powys Wenwynwyn and sided with Edward I in his conquest of Wales of 1277 to 1283.
Wales in the late Middle Ages spanned the years 1282–1542, beginning with conquest and ending in union. Those years covered the period involving the closure of Welsh medieval royal houses during the late 13th century, and Wales' final ruler of the House of Aberffraw, the Welsh Prince Llywelyn II, also the era of the House of Plantagenet from England, specifically the male line descendants of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou as an ancestor of one of the Angevin kings of England who would go on to form the House of Tudor from England and Wales.
Reginald de Grey, 1st Baron Grey of Wilton was an English nobleman after whom one of the four Inns of Court is named. He was son of Sir John de Grey and grandson of Henry de Grey. The property upon which Gray's Inn sits was once Portpoole Manor held by Reginald de Grey.
Owen de la Pole, also known as Owain ap Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, was the heir presumptive to the Welsh principality of Powys Wenwynwyn until 1283 when it was abolished by the Parliament of Shrewsbury. He became the 1st Lord of Powis after the death of his father Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn c. 1287. He is not related to the English de la Pole family descended from William de la Pole, Chief Baron of the Exchequer in the following century, later Earls and Dukes of Suffolk.
This article is about the particular significance of the century 1201–1300 to Wales and its people.
Wales in the High Middle Ages covers the 11th to 13th centuries in Welsh history. Beginning shortly before the Norman invasion of the 1060s and ending with the Conquest of Wales by Edward I between 1278 and 1283, it was a period of significant political, cultural and social change for the country.
Wales in the Middle Ages covers the history of the country that is now called Wales, from the departure of the Romans in the early fifth century to the annexation of Wales into the Kingdom of England in the early sixteenth century. This period of about 1,000 years saw the development of regional Welsh kingdoms, Celtic conflict with the Anglo-Saxons, reducing Celtic territories, and conflict between the Welsh and the Anglo-Normans from the 11th century.
The Justiciar of North Wales was a legal office concerned with the government of the three counties in north-west Wales during the medieval period. Justiciar was a title which had been given to one of the monarch's chief ministers in both England and Scotland. Following Edward I of England's conquest of North Wales (1277–1283), the counties of Anglesey, Caernarfonshire and Merioneth were created out of the Kingdom of Gwynedd by the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 and placed under direct royal control. The Justiciar of North Wales was responsible for the royal administration in these counties as well as the administration of justice. English law was applied to criminal law, but in other matters Welsh law was allowed to continue.
Arwystli was a cantref in mid Wales in the Middle Ages, located in the headland of the River Severn. It was chiefly associated with the Kingdom of Powys, but was heavily disputed between Powys, Gwynedd, and the Norman Marcher Lords for hundreds of years, and was the scene of many skirmishes between those groups. Like many other cantrefs and subdivisions, it was divided up by the Laws in Wales Acts in the 16th century.
The conquest of Wales by Edward I took place between 1277 and 1283. It is sometimes referred to as the Edwardian conquest of Wales, to distinguish it from the earlier Norman conquest of Wales. In two campaigns, in 1277 and 1282–83, respectively, Edward I of England first greatly reduced the territory of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, and then completely overran it, as well as the other remaining Welsh principalities.
A series of Welsh rebellions broke out in the century following the conquest of Wales by Edward I in 1283, which had brought the whole of Wales under the control of the Kingdom of England for the first time. In 1400, Welsh discontent with English rule in Wales culminated in the Welsh Revolt, a major uprising led by Owain Glyndŵr, who achieved de facto control over much of the country in the following years. The rebellion petered out after 1409, and after complete English control was restored in 1415 no further major rebellions occurred.