ABSTRACT
The dispatch by Rhys of his son Hywel Sais and some one thousand troops to Normandy is clearly evidence of a sea-change in Anglo-Welsh relations. In the words of the Gesta Stephani, the Welsh were ‘the stern masters of those before whom a little earlier they had bent compliant necks’. In respect of Welsh affairs Henry II had achieved no less, but certainly no more, than his kingly predecessors in so far as his authority was mediated through client rulers who took it upon themselves either to enforce or to dilute his commands. In 1216 the native chroniclers record the first known instance of a Welsh prince, Gwenwynwyn, having done homage to another, Llywelyn — a formal submission, moreover, that was committed to writing. In view of the growing nucleation of political power in Wales, much of Anglo-Welsh politics resolved itself into relations between kings of England and princes of Gwynedd.
