Crouchback is set in the medieval world of 1284, and is based on true events surrounding the death of the last native Welsh Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, who was ambushed at a place called Cilmeri in eastern Wales, late in the afternoon on December 11th, 1282.
From a contemporary chronicle:
And then Llywelyn ap Gruffydd left Dafydd, his brother, guarding Gwynedd; and he himself and his host went to gain possession of Powys and Buellt. And he gained possession as far as Llanganten. And thereupon he sent his men and his steward to receive the homage of the men of Brycheiniog, and the prince was left with but a few men with him. And then Edmund Mortimer and Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, and with them the king’s host, came upon them without warning; and then Llywelyn and his foremost men were slain on the day of Damasus the Pope, a fortnight to the day from Christmas day; and that was a Friday.
—-Brut y Tywysogyon, Peniarth manuscript 20 (The Chronicle of the Princes)
The men who killed Llywelyn cut off his head and carried it to King Edward, who ordered it displayed on a pike in London. Legend says that the rest of Llywelyn’s body was buried at an abbey north of Cilmeri.
Llywelyn’s brother, Dafydd, who took up the mantle of leadership of the Welsh forces after Llywelyn’s death, was captured a few months later and then hanged, drawn, and quartered and dragged through the streets of Shrewsbury, the first man of significance to experience that particular death. Gwenllian, Llywelyn’s infant daughter and only child, was abducted from Llywelyn’s palace at Aber and sent to a convent in England, where she remained a prisoner for the rest of her life.
At Llywelyn’s death, Wales lost its independence and, after the birth of Edward II in Caernarfon in April 1284, King Edward declared him the new Prince of Wales, ensuring that the titular ruler of Wales from then on would be the son of the English king rather than a Welshman.
Unlike my After Cilmeri series, which is set in an alternate universe where Llywelyn lives, Crouchbackis set in the real world, our world, where he does not.
All that sounds terribly depressing doesn’t it? Why would anyone want to read a book (never mind write one!) with all that as the background?
One of my favorite writing quotes, the provenance of which I am uncertain, says to write a good book, the author needs to give her characters a very bad day and make it worse. In the world of medieval Wales, there was nothing ‘worse’ than the conquest of Wales by King Edward of England. For Catrin and Rhys, their world had, in a very significant way, come to an end. In writing this book, I found myself exploring how a person could have something so terrible happen and still live.
Which the people of Wales did. They endured and even prospered for over seven hundred years, speaking their language and living their lives as Welsh men and women.
I also wrote this book as an 80,000 word subtweet, as my daughter says, to a question posed to me a few years ago: if the Welsh had actually hated Edward or resented their colonization, why would they have enlisted in his military in droves and, more to the point, joined his personal guard?
To my mind, the answer is obvious. Worldwide, military service in a conqueror’s army provides stability and income to people who would otherwise have none, regardless of their feelings about their situation. That was clearly the case with medieval Wales, and I wanted to explore that question more fully.
On an even more personal note, my mother was dying of metastatic breast cancer as I wrote this book. In the weeks before she died, we made one last trip together to see family, and I finished the first draft of the book with her sleeping beside me on the plane home. She’d heard all about Crouchback, of course, and I was looking forward to reading it to her out loud in the following week. Instead, she died the next day.
Which brings me back to my question—why write a book set in such a dark time? The answer, for me, is because Crouchback isn’t about grief, as it turns out, but about hope and perseverance, courage and love—and finding joy in the darkest moments of our lives.
Sarah Woodbury, December 16, 2019
Fascinating article. I must get the book.
I was brought up in Brecon and my mother went to school in Cilmeri.
I’ve always found the history around Llewellyn to be fascinating and considered writing about it myself, but for some reason I’ve seemed to have landed on Guy Fawkes, the Gunpowder Plot and related topics.
Thanks and best of luck with this, Tony Morgan
Sarah. I’m on my 4th. rereading and listening to the audiobooks right now of your After Cilmeri Series. I have Crouchback and to tell you the truth it saddens me to think that Llywelyn actually died at Cilmeri but that is true History. I look forward to reading it and getting my mindset on the actual events after Llywelyn’s betrayal and death and Dafydd’s terrible death. The Welsh people have had their ups and down as far as betrayal by their own people and the conquest of Wales by King Edward of England. To read how this David and Goliath situation actually happened and how the Welsh people during their darkest time managed to convey hope and perseverance along with courage and love along with joy sounds like a book we need to read at the time period we find our selves in.
I’m sending my condolences to you and your family at the loss of your mother. I’m 70 yrs. old and lost my mother just as I turned 14 yrs. old. You still grieve after the years pass but memories are a gift from God and I thank him always for this precious gift that sustains me and gives me the Hope of seeing my mother again where sickness and death will be a thing of the past. My our Heavenly Father grant you Peace at this time of the year and always remember that Gift of Memories we have.
Lovely heartfelt post, Sarah. My condolences on the loss of your Mother.
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