June 14th 1404, Owain Glyndŵr was declared Prince of all Wales and allied himself with the French against King Henry IV.
Portrait of Owain Glyndŵr from his great seal
Owain ap Gruffydd, born circa 1354 and more commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr (anglicised to Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander in the Late Middle Ages, who led a 15-year-long fight to end English rule in Wales.
Glyndŵr was an educated lawyer, forming the first Welsh parliament under his rule, and was the last native-born Welshman to claim the title Prince of Wales.
In 1400 Owain Glyndŵr, a descendant of several Welsh royal dynasties, had a dispute with a neighbouring English lord that resulted in Glyndŵr claiming his title of Prince of Wales, which instigated the revolt against English rule. In response to the uprising, discriminatory penal laws were implemented against the Welsh people; this deepened public unrest and significantly increased support for Glyndŵr across Wales.
In 1404, after a series of successful castle sieges and several battlefield victories against the English, Owain gained control of the country and was proclaimed by his supporters Prince of Wales in the presence of French, Spanish, Scottish and Breton envoys.
He summoned a national parliament, where he announced plans to reintroduce the traditional Welsh laws of Hywel Dda, establish an independent Welsh church, and build two universities. Owain also formed an alliance with King Charles VI of France; in 1405 a French army landed in Wales in support of Glyndŵr.
Under Owain Glyndŵr's leadership, an internationally recognised independent Welsh state was briefly established. It lasted for five years until February 1409, when English forces captured Owain's last remaining strongholds of Aberystwyth Castle and Harlech Castle, effectively ending his territorial rule in Wales. Glyndŵr refused to surrender to the new king Henry V, ignoring two offers of a pardon from the monarch.
He retreated to the Welsh hills and mountains with his remaining forces, where he continued to resist English rule by utilising guerrilla tactics. This continued until Owain disappeared in 1415, when one of his supporters, Adam of Usk, recorded that he died of natural causes.
Despite the large bounty placed on him by the English crown, Glyndŵr was never betrayed or captured, and in Welsh culture he acquired a mythical status alongside the likes of Cadwaladr, Cynon ap Clydno and King Arthur as a folk hero awaiting the call to return and liberate his people – "Y Mab Darogan" ('The Foretold Son').
In William Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 1 he gains his anglicised name, Owen Glendower, and appears in the tale as a king rather than a prince.
Owain Glyndŵr is still very much revered and respected throughout Wales, is seen as the father of Welsh nationalism and is remembered as a national hero.
Glyndŵr was even described by Fidel Castro as the first effective guerrilla leader. It has been suggested that Castro, who may have kept books about the Welshman, and Che Guevara copied some of Glyndŵr's methods in the Cuban Revolution.