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Welsh Celebrities & Personalities

Glendower, Owen (Welsh; Owain ab Gruffydd) (c. 1359-c. 1416)

Lord of Glyndwr, in Wales, and the last Welsh chief to claim the title of independent Prince of Wales. He is a Welsh national hero and historically famous as the leader of a major revolt for Welsh independence from English domination during the reign of King Henry IV of England. Henry retaliated in 1400 and 1401, but his campaigns were ineffectual. Glendower, gaining control of most of Wales, negotiated for aid with the Irish, the Scots, and the French, all enemies of England, and intrigued also with prominent English lords. The Welsh chief began to style himself Prince of Wales; he called a parliament, established his own government for Wales, and entered a formal alliance with France in 1404. A year later, an English army under Prince Henry, later Henry V, defeated Glendower's forces in three successive battles. The fortunes of the Welsh chief began to wane, and his battles assumed the aspect of petty mountain warfare. He was pardoned by Henry V in 1415, after which nothing is known of him. Glendower was the last great champion of Welsh independence and the one who came closest to realizing it. The Welsh have invested him with a mythology that has obscured historical fact. Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part I, presents Glendower as this idealized hero.