§ 1. Gruffydd ab Llewelyn ab Iorwerth being a Cymro of the whole blood and the first-born son, possessing the advantages of lofty stature and a handsome person, and distinguished by dauntless courage and martial prowess, had by his majestic bearing and affable demeanour won the warm hearts of many among the men of Gwynedd, whose prejudice against Dafydd, as the son of an Englishwoman, was aggravated by the apparent injustice of Llewelyn's preference. It consequently happened, notwithstanding all the precautions which had been taken during the old king's life, that a fierce and sanguinary warfare broke out upon the clay of his death between the partisans of his two sons, and raged with unrelenting fury for many weeks. At length, by the interposition of the Bishop of Bangor, Dafydd invited his brother to attend a conference and to treat of peace. Accordingly, under the prelate's safe-conduct, Gruffydd and Owen his eldest son set out for the appointed place on September 29, but, being treacherously waylaid and captured by Dafydd's emissaries, were closely immured in the castle of Criccieth.

Richard, bishop of Bangor, not content with excommunicating Prince Dafydd for this treachery, went to the King of England, expatiated upon the heinous nature of the crime, and importunately conjured him to avert from the kingly honour of England the shameful reproach which this transaction must bring upon it when known at the Court of Rome and in other distant lands.