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Historical person
1220–1282
Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, often called Llywelyn the Last, was the final native Prince of Wales recognised before Edward I’s conquest. His resistance to English expansion ended with his death in 1282 and the collapse of independent Welsh rule.
In Sharon Kay Penman’s Falls the Shadow, Simon defeats Henry at Lewes and briefly governs through a council and parliament, while maintaining an alliance with Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in Wales. In Sharon Kay Penman’s The Reckoning, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd seeks to preserve the principality recognised under the Treaty of Montgomery while Edward I insists on expanding English royal authority. Other novels featuring Llywelyn ap Gruffudd include David Pilling’s Longsword VI (the Broken Arrow), Griff Hosker’s Lord Edward’s Archer, Griff Hosker’s An Archer’s Crusade, Griff Hosker’s Broken Arrow, and Griff Hosker’s King in Waiting.
Historical context
Series
The trilogy follows native Welsh rulers and their families across the thirteenth century, from Llywelyn the Great and Joanna through Simon de Montfort’s baronial reform movement to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd’s final struggle against Edward I. It treats Welsh politics, marriage, kinship and resistance alongside English royal expansion.
All books in this series
Lord Edward’s Archer follows Gerald Warbow from the Welsh Marches into the wars and political crises of Edward I and Edward II. The series combines archer warfare with the Second Barons’ War, Welsh resistance, crusading, the Scottish wars and court intrigue. It is a medieval military sequence about…
All books in this series
The Longsword series follows Hugh Longsword and the surviving Montfortian rebels after the Second Barons' War. Moving from outlaw resistance in England to Edward's crusade, political conspiracy and the conquest of Wales, the novels trace the violent consolidation of royal power under Henry III and Edward I.
All books in this series
