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William de Breos
Parc le Breos takes its name from
the Norman
de Breos family, of
whom there are various spellings such as Braose, Brewys, Breuse, and even Bruce
on the sign by Giant’s Grave.
The de
Breos family came to
Britain
with the conquering
Normans, were based first at
Bramber Castle
in
Sussex,
and became Lords of Gower during medieval times, with a reputation for tyranny
and ruthlessness - though surprisingly one de Breos was a bishop of Llandaff
from 1266 to 1287.
Several of these
Lords of Gower were named William, but can be differentiated by the year that
each one died, or be numbered like British monarchs.
During the reign of King John in
1203 the Lordship of Gower was granted to a William de Breos who died in
1212.
Of particular interest is his
grandson, a William de Breos who was born in Brecon around 1197, and who succeeded
his father Reginald de Breos (after whom Reynoldston is named) to the Lordship
in 1227.
This de Breos was particularly
detested by the Welsh, being called
Gwilym Ddu, or
Black William. He was
captured
near Montgomery
in mid Wales
in 1228, by the Welsh forces of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llywelyn Fawr
), ruler of Gwynedd, and ransomed for the
huge amount of £2,000. Although de Breos
made an alliance with Llywelyn during his captivity, the Norman evidently had an affair with
Llywelyn’s wife, Princess Joan (Siwan in Welsh), an illegitimate
daughter of King John.
As happened in
those times, she had been given in marriage at the age of ten to seal a treaty,
marrying the 32-year-old prince of Gwynedd in Chester Abbey in 1204.
Siwan later became an able intercessor for
her husband with her half-brother, King Henry III.
The entry in 1230 for the
Chronicle of Ystrad Fflur (Strata Florida, the abbey in
Cardiganshire) states: “In this year William de
Breos the Younger, lord of Brycheiniog, was hanged by the Lord Llywelyn in
Gwynedd, after he had been caught in Llywelyn's chamber with the king of
England's daughter, Llywelyn's wife."
This probably took place at Llywelyn’s residence at
Abergwyngregyn
in north-east Gwynedd.
The Abbot of Vaundey recorded: “On 2
nd
of May…. he was hanged on a tree, and this not privily
or in the night time, but openly and in the broad
daylight, in the presence of more than 800 men assembled to behold the piteous
and melancholy spectacle.” To
hang a nobleman as if he were a common thief was a particular insult which
threatened to bring the English king’s wrath down upon the Welsh.
Siwan herself died seven years later and was
buried in Llanfaes Friary, near present-day Beaumaris in
Anglesey.
These events form the basis of “Siwan”, the major 1956 dramatic poem
in Welsh
by playwright Saunders
Lewis, who lived in Hanover Street
and in Newton,
and it is arguably his finest play.
It may have caught his attention when Saunders Lewis was Welsh lecturer
at University College of Wales,
Swansea,
from 1922 to 1936, for a field near Parc le Breos is called Cae Gwilym Ddu -
Black William’s Field.
There is a
tradition that de Breos’s body was brought back from
North
Wales and buried there.
However, Nigel Jenkins points out that there are similarly named fields
in other parts of
Wales, and
he doubts whether in those days a body would be brought to Gower from
North Wales: so the tradition is tenuous.
Pennard Castle
may have built by another William de Breos who died in 1290, while one who died
in 1326 gave Hunts Farm to his huntsman William de Hunde in 1317, and another
ordered a rebel Gwilym (William) Cragh from Llanrhidian to be hung - yet Cragh,
known as “the hanged man”, miraculously survived.
Thankfully historians Gerald Gabb
and Derek Draisey have studied the maze of persons named William de Breos, and
are well equipped to handle enquiries about that family.
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