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grossly inhibiting the favorite summer sport of raiding English strongholds in Wales and on the border. At the moment, Llewelyn did not want any action of his men to divert the attention of the English from the iniquities of their king and his ministers. |
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After the drubbing Henry had taken in 1231 and the rebuilding of the keep called Mold, Llewelyn had expected a massive retaliatory invasion. Henry had been so busy destroying de Burgh, however, that he had not called up an army. Llewelyn knew that one was summoned now, to gather at Gloucester on the Assumption of Saint Mary, but what Henry planned to do with it was very doubtful. The stated purpose of the summons, Llewelyn's informants told him, was to attack the vassals of Hubert de Burgh in Ireland. Llewelyn could not believe this. Not even Henry, much less that clever fox Winchester, would sail off to Ireland with an army when half the men in the southwest were openly in rebellion and many barons throughout the rest of the country were on the brink of following that lead. |
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Most likely the army was being readied to curb Gilbert Bassett and his brothers and henchmen. If so, the rest of the baronage might rise against Henry. Nothing could please Llewelyn better than a long, bloody civil war in England. It was greatly to his advantage, and he would do whatever he could to encourage it. However, it was also possible that the army was being gathered to attack Wales. A war with Llewelyn was one of the devices a clever minister or king might use to divert animosity from himself. |
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Thus, Llewelyn had absolutely forbidden his major vassals to engage in even the smallest raid against English property. In fact, he had sworn that he would roast alive any man who dared steal a pig, a cow, even a chicken, and send him to the victim of the theft to replace the animal. |
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It was easy enough to control the older, propertied |
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