The Treaty of Pipton, signed 19th June 1265

 The Treaty of Pipton 

signed 19th June 1265.

The coat of arms of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd and Earl Simon de Montfort.

The treaty of Pipton was drawn up by Earl Simon de Montfort and Llywelyn, Prince of Gwynedd, and was signed by the then captive King Henry on 22nd June 1265. It is named after Pipton-on-Wye in the middle Welsh Marches where it was signed.

What did the Treaty agree?
It officially recognised Llywelyn as 'Prince of Wales' and his lordship over the magnates within his lands. It gave Llywelyn rightful possession of all the land he and his allied forces had recently conquered in Wales and the Marches.

All the lands and castles that had been taken from him or from Dafydd ap Llywelyn were to be restored in full.

The treaty also promised to had over three castles and their lands on the English border to the Welsh. These were at Hawarden, Whittington and Painscastle, all of great strategic importance in the protecting of Llywelyn's western border.

In return for these sizable gains in territory and status, Llywelyn was to pay the King of England 30,000 marks (£20,000) over the next ten years. A huge sum of money!

There were rumours at the time that Earl Simon had also agreed to the marriage of his daughter, Eleanor, to Llywelyn. The marriage did actually take place in October 1278, but not until after it had triggered the Welsh War of 1276-7.

Llywelyn also mustered an army of 5,000 infantry at Pipton, which was sent into England to help de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham.

The political shrewdness of Llywelyn can be seen in the clause that he added regarding any defaulting on the obligations of the treaty by the English King. If this happened or the King died and his successor did not ratify the treaty, all of Llywelyn's obligations were to be cancelled. This proved a most wise addition to the treaty as within six weeks, Simon de Montfort was dead and King Henry had abandoned the treaty which he had signed under duress

What did the treaty achieve?

For Llywelyn, this treaty finally recognised his status as the primary ruler in Wales although he still had to pay homage to the King of England. Of course, there were many Lords in other Welsh territories which would still dispute his title of Prince of Wales, especially the Lords of Powys in mid-Wales and Deheubarth in south-west Wales.

For de Montfort, it gave him an ally in Wales whose military actions would tie down at least some of the forces of the Marcher-Lords who were now increasing supporting Lord Edward and the Royalists. In many ways this back-fired and drove more Marchers into the Royalist camp.

Even though King Henry negated the treaty after the Battle of Evesham, an only slightly watered down version was agreed as the "Treaty of Montgomery" signed on 25th September 1267 (more to come about this treaty in  future post).