The Battle of Stalling Down, also known as the Battle of Bryn Owain, is a
battle
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
reputed to have taken place between late autumn or early winter of 1403 or 1405 between a Welsh army under
Owain Glyndŵr
Owain ap Gruffydd (), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr (, anglicised as Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wa ...
and an English army under King
Henry IV of England
Henry IV ( April 1367 – 20 March 1413), also known as Henry Bolingbroke, was King of England from 1399 to 1413. He asserted the claim of his grandfather King Edward III, a maternal grandson of Philip IV of France, to the Kingdom of F ...
. It was part of the
Welsh Revolt
The Welsh Revolt (also called the Glyndŵr Rising or Last War of Independence) ( cy, Rhyfel Glyndŵr) or ( cy, Gwrthryfel Glyndŵr) was a Welsh rebellion in Wales led by Owain Glyndŵr against the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ag ...
of 1400–1415.
Location
Stalling Down is a rolling area of open land a few miles east of the town of Cowbridge, now the village common of
St Hilary in the
Vale of Glamorgan
The Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg ), often referred to as The Vale, is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf to the north, and the Bristol C ...
. The exact site of the battle and the precise details of the action are not known. The general site is known locally as Bryn Owain, meaning Owain's Hill.
The site was known as Stallington, evolving to Stalling Down. A
Roman road
Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...
runs over the hill as it traverses the area and would have been a convenient route for moving a very large army along for the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
.
The Opposing Forces
The
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
army included a small
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
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contingent assimilated into forces from
Morgannwg
Morgannwg was a medieval Welsh kingdom formed via the merger of the kingdoms of the Kingdom of Glywysing and the Kingdom of Gwent.
Formation of Morgannwg
First under King Morgan the Generous (fl. ) until the end of the reign of his descendant I ...
led by
Rhys Gethin
Rhys Gethin (died in 1405) was a key figure in the revolt of Owain Glyndŵr. He was his standard bearer and a leading general. His name means "swarthy Rhys".
Little is known of his life. He had a brother, Hywel Coetmor, who also played a sig ...
('swarthy Rhys') and Cadwgan, Lord of Glyn Rhondda commanded another contingent from the
Rhondda Valleys
Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( cy, Cwm Rhondda ), is a former coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fawr valley ...
region. Cadwgan had a home at Aberochwy, near what is today
Treorchy
Treorchy ( cy, Treorci; ) is a town and community (and electoral ward) in Wales. Once a mining town, it retains such characteristics. Situated in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf in the Rhondda Fawr valley. Treorchy is also one of the 16 c ...
. He fought using a
battleaxe
A battle axe (also battle-axe, battle ax, or battle-ax) is an axe specifically designed for combat. Battle axes were specialized versions of utility axes. Many were suitable for use in one hand, while others were larger and were deployed two-ha ...
as his weapon of choice and was later known as Cadwgan of the Bloody Axe.
Owain Glyndŵr
Owain ap Gruffydd (), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr (, anglicised as Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wa ...
is also reported to have been present in the battle in person.
Outcome
The battle is said to have lasted 18 hours and resulted in an appalling defeat for the King's army. The blood was fetlock deep on the horses that survived the battle.
The English army retreated through
Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
pursued by the Welsh in terrible conditions, which included a thunderstorm and flooding.
Examination of Evidence
In nearby
Llanblethian
Llanblethian ( cy, Llanfleiddian) is a village in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales which sits upon the River Thaw. It makes up part of the community of Cowbridge with Llanblethian, which consists of the village itself, the larger market town of Cow ...
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
SS9874 : S John the Baptist, Llanblethian, Glamorgan, Wales
/ref> in 1896 explorations prior to Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Victorian fashion
** Victorian literature ...
church improvements revealed an oak plank in the floor, which when prised up, revealed a stone stairway descending to a crypt. Inside the crypt were piled three hundred male skeletons, without coffins, and the only known battle to have taken place in this area is Stalling Down. The crypt measured some seventeen feet by fifteen and stood seven feet high at its highest point, the apex of the arched and vaulted roof. Small wall openings to the exterior had been covered up on the outside by earth, effectively sealing the crypt to the outside world. The bones were immediately buried in the churchyard. The clerk's pew contains an inscription that this church was the burial place of the Sweeting family 'before the war with Owen Glyndŵr'. The church is some three miles from the battle ground.
More recently, historians have begun to question the veracity of the report of a battle at Stalling Down; for example, a modern authority on Glyndŵr, the late R. R. Davies
Sir Robert Rees Davies, (6 August 1938 – 16 May 2005) was a Welsh historian.
Biography
Davies was born in Merionethshire, and educated at Bala Grammar School. He was bilingual in Welsh and English. He received a First in his degree from Uni ...
, made no mention of it in his account of the revolt, published in 1995. The problem lies in the fact that the earliest recorded reference to the battle is late, and is found in the works of the 18th-century historian Iolo Morganwg
Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg (; 10 March 1747 – 18 December 1826), was a Welsh antiquarian, poet and collector.Jones, Mary (2004)"Edward Williams/Iolo Morganwg/Iolo Morgannwg" From ''Jones' Celtic Encyclopedi ...
, although Morganwg's account held considerable sway, and was repeated by several later writers, including the Edwardian historian Arthur Bradley in his 1901 biography of Owain Glyndŵr
Owain ap Gruffydd (), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr (, anglicised as Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wa ...
. In it, he places the battle in 1405, calling it the 'battle of Bryn Owen'.
Nevertheless, in spite of this uncertainty it is not safe to conclude that the Battle of Stalling Down never occurred. The discovery of a crypt in the area containing three hundred male skeletons without coffins, combined with the fact there is much local tradition to be found in connection with it, and the context of a battle in either the summer of 1403 or 1405 accords well with our understanding of the progress of Glyndŵr's revolt, as Glyndŵr's presence at nearby Carmarthen in the summer of 1403 is well attested, and it may be that an English incursion along the roman road into nearby Glamorgan produced a confrontation of which the battle of Stalling Down, as remembered today, is a manifestation.
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle Of Stalling Down
Stalling Down
Stalling Down
1403 in England
15th century in Wales
Conflicts in 1403
Cowbridge
1403 in Wales
Glyndŵr Rising