The Last Princes of Wales (Violent Delights Book 7)

Afterword

This one is 'inspired' rather than 'based' on true events, because simply put, there's relatively little information to go on about this phase of the welsh wars or even the commanders.

Henry's movements, post Shrewsbury and until about 1409, become incredibly hard to track. We know when he showed up for Parliament, and he had correspondence and such to prove he was working, but I simply can't reliably account for his movements, like I, say, can later in his life in 1415 or on campaign in France. Likely this is because he was busy recuperating after his head injury, and hiding how possibly ill he was.

Owain, similarly, simply put, I don't even know how many children he had. Not every account even lists his children, and different lists online ascribe different ages and maternity of the children. It's agreed Madog, Catrin, Alys, and Maredudd were his and Margarets, however Ieuan, John, and others were unclear if they were his illegitmate children, or simply his brothers/nephews or something like that.

It's only in Walsingham's account that we get not only who signed the peace treaty in 1407, and therefore the defenders of Aberyswyth besides Rhys, but also the fascinating detail of who wrote it, which is Master Richard Courtenay, our old friend. This is fascinating, in that most history books don't even bother to name Courtenay till 1413, but this not only places him in the game 6 years earlier, but also at Henry's side doing his dark bidding, in this case coming up with a very complicated treaty, meaning he was on campaign with Henry, and highly trusted. A mere 'clerk' wouldn't be given authorship of the treaty, a clerk might help write it, but he's given sole authorship. This means he was already Henry's right hand man.

Even during the siege we don't know if Henry was personally present, for what period, or if he was doing other raids in Wales. He did burn much of Wales to the ground at this time, which usually signifies his personal involvement as he was ...fond of setting people and places on fire.

It's generally agreed Owain 'relieved' the castle. Sometimes that is cited as with men...but how did he get men past a blockade? Hence I choose to have him alone. I've no idea how he got in, or if he simply sent a message. I find it unlikely Henry's army was careless enough to allow an entire army in. Also, I highly doubt they let him leave again! That makes little common sense.
The English would, as in the novel, claim that Owain got in by 'trickery' and that they broke the contract. Technically they didn't. Owain was relief so the contract was null and void.

There's no record of Henry attempting any peace again with either castle.

Some books place Owain back at Harlech when it fell, some claim he 'escaped' and was living till 1415...how? How did a sixty something year old man escape one (or two) sieges? Even at this age Henry was no fool. Nor were Oldcastle or anyone else running things, they wouldn't let him just slip away.

Owain's descendants by his daughter Alys, claim that he lived with their family in his remaining years, in disguise. I find this hard to believe given his wife and daughter and grandaughters were starving in the Tower! How would he have enjoyed retirement as it were? Chivalry demanded he free them Henry knew this that's why he did it. I take the fact that he did not show himself to save them proof positive he wasn't alive. Owain, from what we can tell, was a fair, if typical man. He was put in a poor situation, and everyone has their faults, but he was trying to do the right thing for Wales and it takes a pretty callous person to leave their wife, child, and grandchildren, in prison, which we have no reason to believe he was.

Most of the books on Henry, hardly mention the siege at all, sometimes the dates are confused, and the accounts on Henry IV mention the siege but not the prince's involvement...which further confuses things. I did my best to cross reference to get the dates as accurate as possible. Henry IV was highly infirm at the time so his son was realistically the mastermind behind military movement.