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THE BATTLE OF MYNYDD HYDDGEN, JUNE 1401 AD
Extract from THE LAST PRINCE "Wales’ Braveheart: Owain Glyndwr, The last Welsh Prince of Wales 1359-1415 A.D"
The f...irst Victory: the Battle of Mynydd Hyddgen
When the news reached Owain about his cousin’s capture of one of the mightiest castles in medieval Europe he was overjoyed. The Tudors had taken the initiative in the North and now Owain needed to force home a victory in mid-Wales to open up the road to the south. During the winter Owain had been forging weapons and training his men ready for the fore-coming campaign at his mountain headquarters near the foot of Plynlimon (Cambrian Mountains). In June 1401 A.D a force of some 1,500 English and Flemish settlers from Cededigion and the Marcher Lordship of Pembrokeshire had been sent to crush rebel activity in the Plynlimon area. Owain and his 400 followers were severely outnumbered, but he used his military experience to lure the English deep into the boggy inhospitable terrain. The battle took place in the valley at a place called Esgair Ffordd (Ridgeway) where the Llygant and Nant Goch streams flow into the Hyddgen river. In the marshy ground the English infantry and armoured knights got bogged down. The lightly armoured Welsh used their hill ponies to increase mobility and inflict devastating loses upon the enemy with the deadly Welsh longbow. After a bloody climax to the battle, the English broke ranks and fled the field in total disarray.
Gruffudd Hiraethog “The Annals of Owen Glyndwr” reported:

“In the summer of 1401 Owain rose with 120 reckless men and robbers and took them to the uplands of Ceredingion. 1,500 men from the lowlands of Ceredigion, Rhos and Penfro assembled and came to the mountain to seize Owain. The battle was on Hyddgant Mountain and no sooner did the English soldiers turn their backs in flight than 200 of them were slain. Owain won great fame, and a large number of fighting men from all over Wales rose and joined him.”
The battle of Mynydd Hyddgen was the first victory for Owain against an organised army. Overnight his reputation was transformed from a local rebel to a national leader against English oppression. Even in England Welsh workmen and scholars downed their tools, packed up their belongings and returned to Wales to join the fight for freedom.
Back in North Wales, after holding out for three months Owains cousins’ negotiated the surrender of Conwy castle.
On midsummer’s day the Welsh garrison marched out of the castle unmolested. They handed over the keys, 1000
Marks and nine hostages as agreed in the terms of the surrender to Hotspur and Prince Henry.
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July 16th-

16th of July Owain Glyndwr's victory against overwhelming odds over the King's forces The Battle of Mynydd Hyddgen in the summer of 1401 is considered his first victory in the field and it set the tone for the spread of the rebellion in its early stages and turned him from a local rebel to a national leader.
Not much is known of the battle, but the probable site is a remote area of the Pumlumon Mountain range. It is thought that Owain's force of just 120 men would have be...en made up mostly of archers mounted on hill ponies that would have been well suited for travelling across boggy or mountainous regions. The English-Flemish army meanwhile would have generally consisted of infantry with some light cavalrymen supporting them. Despite having decent equipment, many of the English-Flemish soldiers were lacking in military experience, and there was a general lack of discipline within their army.

The sole written source is The Peniarth Manuscript 135 written by the poet Gruffydd Hiraethog many years later in 1550 and based on earlier accounts that have not survived;
"Owain rose with 120 reckless men and robbers and brought them in war like fashion to the uplands of Ceredigion; and 1500 men of the lowlands of Ceredigion and of Rhos and Penfro assembled there and came to the mountain with the intent to sieze Owain, The encounter between them was on Hyddgen Mountain and no sooner did the English troops turn their backs in flight than 200 of them were slain. Owain now won great fame and a great number of youths and fighting men from every part of Wales rose and joined him, until he had a great host at his back"

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6th July 1403

6th July
Glyndwr takes Carmarthen on 6th July 1403
Owain Glyndwr, since being proclaimed Prince of Wales by his followers, had been a thorn in the flesh of Hen...ry IV of England. However, until 1403 Owain's success had been confined to North Wales, where, along with his Tudur cousins, he had captured or destroyed several Anglo-Norman strongholds such as Ruthin, Conway and Welshpool. Owain had thwarted Henry's counter-attacks, captured his son's baggage train and in 1401 had achieved a major victory at the battle of Mynydd Hyddgen.

During 1402, Glyndwr's forces had gone from strength to strength, capturing and ransoming his arch-rival Reginald de Grey in April and defeating and capturing Edmund Mortimer at the battle of Pilleth on Bryn Glas hill near Prestigne in June. This represented a significant advance into Mid Wales. An alliance with the Mortimer family, sealed by marriage to Owain's daughter, posed an increased threat to Henry IV's power. However, it was in July 1403 that Owain Glyndwr truly swept to power throughout Wales. His advance through his mother's homeland of Deheubarth, down the Tywi Valley secured the strongholds of Dryslwyn, Newcastle Emlyn and on 6th July, following a short siege, Carmarthen. With his army now 8000 strong, and with hundreds of Welsh archers and experienced men-at-arms defecting from Henry's army to swell Glyndwr's ranks, this could be said to represent the almost total collapse of English rule in Wales at that time.