Introduction

These are the words of Adam Usk who provides a contemporary record of the rebellion of Owain Glyn Dŵr, which broke out in 1400 and lasted for around nine years. His stark account of the problems posed to the English government by the rebellion emphasises its effect on taxation and even puts a figure on the amount of such revenue lost to the crown in 1404 from Wales as a result. An examination of any actual erosion of taxation claimed to have been caused by the effects of the revolt could reveal just how effectively the Welsh extended the war zone to the English border counties; more importantly, it could also reveal whether any shortfall in taxation revenue was caused by genuine hardship, reflecting specific acts of destruction, or whether the rebellion was used as a convenient pretext not to pay.

Several other explanations for loss of revenue are possible, including such underlying causes of hardship as bad weather, poor harvests or providing manpower and supplies for the army to fight the Welsh. Tax evasion may simply account for any problems, all the more so since there were clearly sympathisers of Glyn Dŵr in the English border areas. However, historians since Adam Usk, including the late Professor Rees Davies, in his major study of the rebellion, have corroborated much of the chronicler's account of the devastating and persistent effects of the conflict on society and the economy. The peak of the rebellion between 1403 and 1406 has moreover been seen as ‘the most devastating experience of destruction that Wales has suffered as a country’. Given that English central government records, particularly those of taxation, do indeed contain claims of hardship in the English counties closest to Wales ostensibly caused by the rebellion of Owain Glyn Dŵr, could those records be used to show that the revolt had a similar effect there as well?