access to the bridge over the Menai.  In their panic the soldiers rushed into the water rather than face the enemy.  Many leading men were drowned, including Tany himself, the author of the treachery.  Flushed with this success Llewelyn rejected Peckham’s terms.  In great disgust the archbishop went back to England, bitterly denouncing the Welsh.  But defeat only strengthened the iron resolution of Edward.  He issued fresh summonses for men and money.  Contrary to all precedent, he determined to continue the campaign through the winter.

Llewelyn was probably ignorant of the perilous plight into which the king had fallen.  With the approach of bad weather he became afraid that he would be starved out in Snowdon.  Any risk was better than being caught like a rat in a trap, and, fearing lest a cordon should be drawn round the mountains, he made his way southwards, leaving David in command.  His enemy, Roger Mortimer, was just dead, and Mortimer’s eldest son Edmund, a youth brought up for the clerical profession, was not likely to hold the middle marches with the same strong grasp as his father.  Thither accordingly Llewelyn made his way, hoping that on his approach the tribesmen of the upper Wye, over whom he had ruled so long, would abandon their English lord for their Cymric chieftain.  A force gathered round him, and he occupied a strong position on a hill overlooking the river Yrvon, which flows into the right bank of the Wye, just above Builth.  The right bank of the Yrvon was held by the English of Builth.  But the only way over the stream was by Orewyn bridge, which was held by a detachment of the Welsh.  Their position seemed so secure that, on December 11, Llewelyn left his troops to confer with some of the local chieftains.  The English were, however, shown a ford over the river; a band crossed in safety, and, taking the defenders of Orewyn bridge in the rear, opened up the passage over it to their comrades.  The English ascended the hill, their mail-clad squadrons interlaced with archers, in order that the Welsh infantry might be assailed by missiles before they were exposed to the shock of a cavalry charge.  In the absence of their leader, the Welsh were a helpless mass of sheep, and were easily put to flight.  Meanwhile Llewelyn, hearing the din of battle, hurried back to direct his followers.  On the way he was slain by Stephen of Frankton, a Shropshire veteran of the Barons’ War, who fought under the banner of Roger l’Estrange.  The discovery of important papers on the body first told the conquerors the rank of their victim.

Thus perished the able and strenuous chief, who had struggled so long to win for himself in Wales a position similar to that occupied by the King of Scots in the north.  His death did not end, but it much simplified, the struggle.  The south and midland districts were entirely subdued, and the interest of the war again shifted to the mountains of Snowdon, where David strove to maintain himself as Prince of Wales.