As the war lasted on, negotiations were attempted; and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had threatened the last sentence of the Church against Llewelyn and his adherents, was sent over to Snowdon to hold a conference.  Llewelyn had already been warned that it was idle to expect assistance from Rome.  He was now summoned to submit at discretion, with a hope—­so expressed as to be a promise—­that he and the natives of the revolted districts would have mercy shown them.  In private he was informed that, on condition of surrendering Wales, he should receive a county in England and a pension of one thousand pounds a year.  David was to go to the Holy Land, and not return except by the King’s permission.  These terms were undoubtedly hard, but could not be called unreasonable, as, by the subjugation of Anglesey, the principality was reduced to the two modern counties of Merionethshire and Carnarvonshire.  Llewelyn and his barons preferred to die fighting sword in hand for position and liberty.  The Primate excommunicated them and withdrew.

About the time of this interview, November 6th, there was a sharp skirmish at Bangor.  Some of the Earl of Gloucester’s troops crossed over before the bridge was completed, except for low-water mark, and were surprised and routed, with the loss of their leader and fourteen bannerets, by the Welsh.  This encouraged Llewelyn to resume offensive operations, and he poured troops into Cardigan to ravage the lands of a Welshman in the English interest.  The English forces in Radnor marched up along the left bank of the Wye, and came in sight of the enemy at Buelth, December 10th.  Llewelyn was surprised during a reconnaissance and killed by an English knight, Stephen de Frankton.  After a short but brilliant encounter, in which the English charged up the brow of a hill and routed the enemy with loss, they examined the dead bodies, and for the first time knew that Llewelyn was among the slain.  A letter was found on his person giving a list, in false names, of the English nobles with whom he was in correspondence, but either the cipher was undiscoverable or the matter was hushed up by the King’s discretion.

Llewelyn, dying under church ban, was denied Christian sepulture.  His head, crowned with a garland of silver ivy-leaves, was carried on the point of a lance through London, and exposed on the battlements of the Tower.  The prophecy that he should ride crowned through London had been fatally fulfilled.

With the death of Llewelyn the Welsh war was virtually at an end.  With all his faults of temper and judgment, he had shown himself a man of courage and capacity, who identified his own cause with his people’s.  But David, though now implicated in the rebellion beyond hope of pardon, had fought under the English banner against his countrymen, with the wish to dismember the principality.  The Welsh cannot be accused of fickleness if they became languid in a struggle against overwhelming power and a king who had shown