page_title: History of Gwynedd during the High Middle Ages
section_title: Llywelyn's death and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: History of Gwynedd during the High Middle Ages / History / 13th century / Llywelyn's death and legacy
caption_attribution_description: Manuscript drawing showing Llywelyn the Great with his sons Gruffydd and Dafydd. By Matthew Paris, in or before 1259.
context_page_description: The history of Gwynedd in the High Middle Ages is a period in the History of Wales spanning the 11th through the 13th centuries. Gwynedd, located in the north of Wales, eventually became the most dominant of Welsh principalities during this period. Distinctive achievements in Gwynedd include further development of Medieval Welsh literature, particularly poets known as the Beirdd y Tywysogion associated with the court of Gwynedd; the reformation of bardic schools; and the continued development of Cyfraith Hywel. All three of these further contributed to the development of a Welsh national identity in the face of Anglo-Norman encroachment of Wales.
  Gwynedd's traditional territory included Anglesey and all of north Wales between the River Dyfi in the south and River Dee in the northeast. The Irish Sea lies to the north and west, and lands formerly part of the Powys border the south-east. Gwynedd's strength was due in part to the region's mountainous geography which made it difficult for foreign invaders to campaign in the country and impose their will effectively.
context_section_description: In weakened health, on 10 April 1240, Llywelyn abdicated in favor of his son Dafydd, had taken the monastic habit and entered into the Cistercian Abbey at Aberconwy. The next day Llywelyn died, with a Cistercian annalist writing "Thus died that great Achillies the Second, the Lord Llywelyn [...] whose deeds I am unworthy to recount. For with lance and shield did he tame his foes; he kept the peace for the men of religion; to the needy he gave food and raiment. With a warlike chain he extended his boundaries; he showed justice to all [...] and by the meet bonds of fear and love bound all men to him". Lloyd wrote that of all the Welshmen who fought against Anglo-Norman influence in Wales, Llywelyn's "place will always be high, if not indeed the highest of all, for no man ever made better or more judicious use of native force of the Welsh people for the adequate national ends; his patriotic statesmanship will always entitle him to wear the proud style of Llywelyn the Great".
  Though the prince was often engaged in conflicts, his battles were largely in Marcher controlled territories and directed against Marcher positions. For the greater period of Llewellyn's reign, the lands under his rule were at peace, a peace for which his vassals sought his protection. "Hardly a ripple disturbed the face of the waters [and] Welsh society followed the lines of its natural development", according to J.E. Lloyd.
  The prince was an experienced and astute politician, according to Professor John Davies, whose legacy for Wales in law and government included the continued refinement and sophistication of his government's administration and with the legal system within the principality. Though the principality's archive has disappeared, what remains of Llywelyn's correspondence with English and French counterparts reveal that the prince's chancery produced documents of high quality in both Latin and in French, the lingua franca of the era, with the volume of documents increasing substantially after 1200.  T. Jones Price notes that the Welsh principality was developing the prerequisites characteristic of a cohesive state, along similar lines to continental kingdoms such as France, Navarre, and León. As in England and elsewhere, the prince issued charters, diplomas, grants, and summons, each affixed with the prince's great seal.  Political offices emerged from the prince's household, as in other realms, which formed the nucleus of the Welsh government. The distain was a kind of prime minister, the chamberlain as the treasurer, and with clerks as chancellors. Localized communities became increasingly dependent on the prince's administration, with the prince's appointed judges adjudicating and passing sentences at the commote court. Under the prince's patronage, Welsh law was further codified by the Welsh jurist Iorwerth ap Madog and published sometime around 1240, and known as the Book of Iorwerth, or the Iorwerth Redaction.
  As with much of Europe, Wales remained predominantly rural at the turn of the 13th century, but Llywelyn encouraged the growth of quasi-urban settlements within the Welsh principality which served as centres of trade and commerce. Money grew in circulation, with freemen and nobles paying their taxes in the form of money rather than in produce, at least in the more fertile of the principality's commotes.
  Llywelyn was no less influential in matters of the Welsh Church as he was in war and politics, and demonstrated that he was open to religious reforms and "accessible to new impulses and ideas", according to Lloyd. Llywelyn lent his support to Gerald of Wales' efforts in elevating St. David's into a metropolitan archbishopric with jurisdiction over the whole of Wales, though he would not directly benefit from having the Bangor diocese subject to it. Llywelyn secured the election of Welshmen to vacant Welsh dioceses, largely filled with Anglo-Normans following the Norman invasion of Wales. However, by 1216 Llywelyn's influence in Wales was so wide that he encouraged the election of Iorwerth, abbot of Talley (Abaty Talyllychau), as 
caption: Prince Llywelyn of Wales at his death in 1240, with his sons Gruffydd and Dafydd mourning. Llywelyn is spelt Léolin above his head in the French manuscript.
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