Records: the Welsh Dialogue

## **What *didn’t* happen: the life of Owain Lawgoch**

**Owain Lawgoch** (English: Owain of the Red Hand, French: *Yvain de Galles*), full name **Owain ap Thomas ap Rhodri** (c. 1330 – July 1378), was a Welsh soldier who served in Spain, France, Alsace, and Switzerland. He led a Free Company fighting for the French against the English in the Hundred Years' War. As the last politically active descendant of Llywelyn the Great in the male line, he was a claimant to the title of Prince of Gwynedd and of Wales.

In 1377 there were reports that Owain was planning another expedition, this time with help from Castile. This was a personal affront to John of Gaunt, who had his sites set on Castile – and Gaunt in the Atl-U, Gaunt sent sent a spy, the Scot Jon Lamb, to assassinate Owain, who had been given the task of besieging Mortagne-sur-Gironde in Poitou.

In the original timeline, Lamb gained Owain's confidence and became his chamberlain, which gave him the opportunity to stab Owain to death in July 1378, something Walker described as “a sad end to a flamboyant career.” The Issue Roll of the Exchequer dated 4 December 1378 records “To John Lamb, an esquire from Scotland, because he lately killed Owynn de Gales, a rebel and enemy of the King in France ... £20.”

As it were, John of Gaunt was relieved of his duties before he carried out contracting Lamb for the hit.

### **Diverging in a Lack of Blood**

This might've allowed Owain to continue fomenting revolution in Wales, ore his assistance of the French, though now *things had changed*.

The stories of the Regiment of St. George in Arundel had made their way through Wales and his compatriots were now certain that St George was going to march through and lay waste to everything in their path, with Arthur, Reborn, carrying Excalibur before the army, just to show the Welsh who really owned that legend now.

France was placing its call to fight magic, and they were trying to classify it as witchcraft, but you couldn't mention it without evoking the name of the Prince of the Epiphany, He Who Had Become Magi, Merlin (Reborn): *Richard*. And Prince Richard had just relieved France of most of the Aquitaine gains they'd recovered from Edward III – and it didn't appear the Prince was letting up now.

Even as Charles V, the French king with whom he'd met, recruited from across Europe, all Owain could think of was the words of his own closest advisors: rushing to Paris is a fool's errand.

Owain went deep underground, getting himself good and lost. Under an assumed name, well disguised, he wound up near old stomping grounds in Switzerland. He was looking for find himself, to seek answers, but it was the Aquitaine Sergeants-at-Arms that found him and they were seeking the same answers...

## **The Extraordinary Rendition of a Welsh Prince**

Owain was a capable fighter and coordinator of men. Not world famous by any means, but where he'd been, he was often remembered. That was the perfect opportunity to let his capture be known in the countryside. It was a simple process, with two men in cloaks confronting a Welshman, and the fight was over before it began. A punch to the face and the capable fighter had been rendered unconscious. He was carried out, to a non-descript carriage, and disappeared into the night.

Moments later, the news of Owain's capture made it through town. The politically savvy got the news through to Geneva by that night. It went by horseback, arriving in Paris within two days that the French ally had been captured in Switzerland. By whom was unclear, but it didn't take a genius to figure out: *the Plantagenets*.

The fact that his mangled body wasn't dumped and found on the Welsh frontier sent signals to all corners of those concerned. Not to say there weren't those who wanted him dead, including plenty in Wales that were loyal to England.

Rather, the Welsh prisoner was delivered by the *Bordeaux Vanguard* (SA) to Windsor Castle, where King Edward IV was living as Westminster was rebuilt. Owain made an appearance before the Royal Court, still with a bandaged nose but otherwise unharmed.

It was the bandaged nose that defused many who would've rather killed Owain on the spot. That he'd suffered *something* was important. His general health, though, spoke volumes about how the prisoner was maintained during the process. The prisoner would be given due process, whatever the English Crown determined that would be.

### **The Crown Palatine Speaks for England**

King Edward was exceptionally reserved. His first impulse was to kill Owain and hang him by his own intestines. Not exceptionally civilized, however, and he knew that. While that was never publicly specified, it was fairly easy to see the intent in the face of the king (and was all but confirmed in how he said what he didn't actually say).

Rather the Crown of England was represented in court by the still-recovering Prince of Wales, Crown Prince of England Edward of Angoulême. With his father seething behind him, articulated that the capture of Owain Lawgoch opened the opportunity to bring a lasting peace to Wales.

*One way or another*, the king intoned after him.

A Welsh-English parliament was called with both Welsh factions, the Prince of Wales, Owain the pretender and the King of England. This mixed parliament would be held in Chester.

The symbolism of Excalibur and the power of Merlin's magic were already major social factors in the public perception of the Crown, but House Plantagenet was actually trying to *minimize* that now*.* This was pivoting, as much about regional Welsh identity, rights of the commons, entitlement of nobility, tax collection and so on.