of the town of Brecknock itself, the seat of his government, lately submit voluntarily to their favourite hero, and native chief; while Humphrey de Bohun, the father of the present Humphrey, involved as he was during the whole course of his life in continual troubles and perpetual skirmishes and warfare, had neither power nor leisure to enforce the obedience of his tenants in the principality: but the case was now widely different; aided by the name and authority of the king of Eug. land, the arms or the arguments of Humphrey, the son, prevailed with his dependants, and made even an appearance or attempt at resistance, folly. This complete change in the government and politics of the country, effected with much secrecy, as well as expedition, was, perhaps, not perfectly known to Llewelyn: led by the promises, and flattered with the hopes of assistance held out to him by some men of power in the hundred of Builth and the neighbourhood, he ventured to march with his little army to Aberedwy in Radnorshire, three miles below Builth, on the banks of the river Wye, where it is said he expected to have held a conference with some of his friends: here, however, he found himself fatally disappointed; for, instead of allies and partizans, whom he was encouraged to look for, he perceived he was almost surrounded in the toils and trammels of his adversary. A superior force from Herefordshire having had notice of his route, from some of the inhabitants of this country, approached under the command of Edmund Mortimer and John Giffard. Lewelyn, fiuding from their numbers that resistance would be vain, fled with his men to Builth, and in order to de

ceive the enemy, as there was then snow upon the ground, he is said to have caused his horse's shoes to be reversed; but even this stratagem was discovered to them by a smith at Aberedwy, whose name, as tradition says, was Madoc goch min mawr, or red haired wide mouthed Madoc. He arrived at the bridge over the Wye, time enough to pass and break it down, before, his pursuers could come up with him; here, therefore, they were completely thrown out, as there was no other bridge over the Wye at that time, nearer than Bredwardine, thirty miles below.

Thus foiled and disappointed of their prize for the present, the English immediately returned downwards to a ford known by some of the party, about eight miles below, near a ferry called Caban Twm Bach, or little Tom's ferry boat; in the interim, it should seem Llewelyn must have gained sufficient time to have distanced his followers, if he had made the best use of it; but he had not yet abandoned the expectation of meeting with assistauce, and some hours may have been employed with the garrison of the castle of Builth, who, awed by the approach of Mortimer, refused to treat with or support him. Stowe says, " he was taken at Builth castle, where using reproachful words against the Englishmen, sir Roger le Strange ran upon him and cut off his head, leaving his dead body on the ground." It is by no means improbable that he should have accused the garrison of Builth and the inhabitants of that country with perfidy, and (as Stowe says) used reproachful words towards the English. He may also have bestowed upon the men of Aberedwy, as well as of 3G 4

Builth,

Builth, that epithet which has stuck by them ever since; but he certainly was not slain at Builth castle, or by sir Roger le Strange; for being here repulsed by those from whom he expected support, and baffled in his attempts to reduce them to obedience, he proceeded westward up the vale of Irvon on the southern side, for about three miles, where he crossed the river a little above Llanynis church over a bridge called Pont y coed, or the bridge of the wood, either with an intention of returning into North Wales through Llanganten, Llanavan fawr, Llanwrthwl, and from thence into Montgomeryshire, or perhaps of joining his friends in Caermarthenshire, and Pembrokeshire, to oppose whom, Oliver de Dyneham had been sent by the directions of the king of England, as appears by his letter from Rhuddlan. This passage once secured, he stationed the few troops who accompanied him on the northern side of the river, where, from the ground being more precipitous and much higher than the opposite bank, and at the same time covered with wood, a handful of men were able to defend the bridge against a more numerous enemy. In this situation he preserved a communication with the whole of Brecknockshire, and as he supposed the river was at this season of the year impassable, he waited with confidence and security, while he commanded the pass, in hopes to hear further from his correspondence, or in expectation of being reinforced from the westward; by this means the English forces gained sufficient time to come up with him, and appearing on the southern side of the Irvon, made a fruitless attempt to gain the

bridge: here they probably would have been compelled to have aban'doned the pursuit, or at least Llewelyn might have escaped in safety to the mountains of Snowdon, if a knight of the name of sir Elias Walwyn (a descendant of sir Philip Walwyn of Hay) had not discovered a ford at some little distance, where a detachment of the English crossed the river, and coming unexpectedly upon the backs of the Welsh at the bridge, they were immediately routed, and either in the pursuit, or while he was watching the motions of the main body of the enemy, who were still on the other side of the river, he was attacked in a small dell about two hundred yards below the scene of action, from him, called Cwm Llewelyn, or Llewelyn's dingle, and slain unarmed (as some say) by one Adam de Francton, who plunged a spear into his body, and immediately joined his countrymen in pursuit of the flying enemy. When Francton returned after the engage ment, in hopes of plunder, he perceived that the person whom he had wounded (for he was still alive) was the prince of Wales, and on stripping him, a letter in cypher and his privy seal were found concealed about him: the Englishman, delighted with the discovery, immediately cut off his head, and sent it (as the most acceptable present that could be conveyed) to the king of England: the body of the unfortunate prince was dragged by the soldiers to a little distance where the two roads from Builth now divide, one leading to Llanafan and the other to Llangammarch; here they buried him, and this spot has been ever since known by the name of Cefn y bedd or Cefn bedd Llewelyn,

the

the ridge of Llewelyn's grave; a copy of the letter found upon him, was soon afterwards sent by Edmund Mortimer to the archbishop of Canterbury, who was then at Pembridge in Herefordshire, to be forwarded to the king: the primate in the course of conveying this transcript to his majesty, adds such further intelligence as had reached him, from which it appears that dame Matilda Longspee had interfered, upon hearing of Llewelyn's death, intreating he might be absolved from the sentence of excommunication, and his body buried in a consecrated place; this request Mortimer, with the gallantry of a soldier and the affection of a relation (though that kinsman was an enemy), warmly seconded, by stating an assurance he received from those who were present when Llewelyn expired, that before his death he called for a priest, and that a white monk, who happened to be near, chaunted mass to him previous to his dissolution.

Maud or Matilda Longspee, countess of Salisbury, who thus kindly endeavoured to procure for the corpse of Llewelyn the rights of sepulture, and who married for her first husband William Longspee, the second earl of that name, was the only daughter and heiress of Walter de Clifford, governor of the castles of Caermarthen and Cardigan, by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Llewelyn ap Jorwerth, aunt to the deceased prince. Maud lived sometimes at Clifford castle in Herefordshire, and at other times at Bronllys in Brecknockshire; she married, secondly, sir John Giffard, of Brimsfield in Gloucestershire, who in her right became seised of these possessions, and who was so situated, that notwithstanding this

family connection of his wife's, he was compelled by his allegiance to his sovereign to become one of the leaders of the English troops by whom Llewelyn was defeated and slain.

No attention was paid to the request of Maud or the recommendation of Mortimer, and the remains of Llewelyn, instead of being bones of contention among the loyal inhabitants of York and Winchester (as his brother David's afterwards became) were permitted to rot at Cefn y bedd, in unhallowed ground.

Those who have attentively read the history of Liewelyn (of whatever country they may be) will, I trust, lament the fate, and sigh while they contemplate the fall of the last and greatest of the Welsh princes: his grandfather, Llewelyn ap Jorwerth, had courage and considerable talents, but he was savage in manners, variable in politics, fickle in his attachments, and brutal in his revenge during the greatest part of his life he had a mere driveller to oppose, but the last Llewelyn had to contend with an Alexander, supported by superior numbers and revenues; in short, he had all the virtues of his ancestor, with scarcely any of his vices; he had infinitely more difficulties to encounter, and when he was favoured with the smiles of fortune, he owed them entirely to his own merit and exer

tions.

Memoirs of the late Cardinal York, the last, in a direct line, of the Royal House of Stuart.

The following account of a character whose family once made a conspicuous figure in this country, may

be

be considered interesting: Henry Benedict Maria Clemens, second son of James Stuart, known by the name of "The Pretender," and of Maria Clementina Sobieski, was born at Rome, the 26th of March, 1725, where he almost constantly resided. As a Pretender to the throne of Britain, he was never very forward in urging the pretension; and his general character was that of an inoffensive and respectable individual. The regent duke of Orleans had (by a threat to withdraw the pension paid by France), to please the cabinet of St. James's, obliged the cardinal's father to reside in that city. Toward the close of the year 1745, he went to France, to put himself at the head of 15,000 men, assembled in and about Dunkirk, under the command of the duke of Riche lieu, by order of Louis XV. With this army Henry was to have landed in England, in support of his brother Charles but though preparations were made for embarking these troops, though one part did actually embark, not a single transport left Dunkirk road; and Henry, receiving intelligence of the issue of the battle of Culloden, returned to Rome, where, much to the displeasure of his brother and the friends of his family, he took orders; and in 1747 was made cardinal by Pope Benedict XIV. and afterwards bishop of Frascati, and chancellor of the church of St. Peter. From that time the cardinal of York, the name he assumed on his promotion, devoted himself to the functions of his ministry, and seemed to have laid aside all worldly views, till his father's death in 1788; when he had medals struck, bearing on their face his head, with "HENRICUS NONUS ANGLIÆ REX;" on the reverse, a city, with "GRATIA DEI, SED NON VOLUNTATE HOM

NUM." If we are not misinformed, our sovereign has one of these medal. The cardinal had two rich livings in France, the abbeys of Anchin and St. Amand, and a considerable pension from the court of Spain, all of which he lost by the revolution. In order to assist Pope Pius VI. in making up the sum required by Buonaparte in 1796, the cardinal disposed of all the family jewels; and, among others, of a ruby, the largest and most perfect known, valued at 50,000l. He thus deprived himself of the last means of an independent subsistence, and was reduced to great distress on the expulsion of Pius VI. and his court from Rome. After having passed his days in quiet and dignified retirement at his villa near Rome till 1798, a French revolutionary banditti forced him to renounce his comforts and property, if he would save his life. He arrived at Venice in the winter of 1798, infirm as well as destitute. Cardinal Borgia, who had been acquainted with sir John Hippesley Coxe in Italy, represented to him, by letter, the cardinal's case. Sir John conveyed this letter to a Mr. Stuart, who drew up a memorial, which Mr. Dundas (now Lord Melville) presented to his majesty; and no sooner was our be loved monarch informed of his distressful situation, than his majesty condescended to order his minister to the republic to offer the cardinal, with all possible delicacy, a pension of 40col. for his life. This amiable trait in the character of George III. does equal honour to the king and to the man. The cardinal of York had some claim on the generosity, per haps on the justice, of this country. An act of parliament, still unrepeal ed, had settled on James the second's queen, Mary of Este, he cardinal's grandmother, a jointure of 50,000.

While