Qualla: Battle of Crogen https://qualla.com/battle-of-crogen en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/v/battle-of-crogen-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Crogen https://qualla.com/battle-of-crogen Battle of Crogen: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-crogen/ Photo credit Jeremy Bolwell, CC BY-SA 2.0. It may not have been a battle. Some historians think nothing happened at all in the Ceiriog Valley in the summer of 1165 - that the whole story is a 16th-century invention, dressed up by Welsh chroniclers and repeated until it sounded like history. Others think it was a series of small skirmishes among the trees, what one modern commentator called 'a series of minor harassments' rather than anything you could call a battle. Either way, what is certain is that Henry II of England had assembled a serious army to crush Owain Gwynedd's alliance of Welsh princes, marched it as far as the Berwyn Mountains, and gave up. He went home in August. He returned to his court at Anjou. And on the way back through Shrewsbury, he ordered the blinding of twenty-two Welsh hostages, two of them Owain's sons.

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Image: Jeremy Bolwell | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/v/battle-of-crogen-wp/gcmv-battle-of-crogen-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Crogen: The March on Wales https://qualla.com/battle-of-crogen/ Photo credit Richard Law, CC BY-SA 2.0. Henry II had spent 1164 planning a punitive expedition into Wales. The stated grievance was Rhys ap Gruffudd of Deheubarth, who had been raiding along the border in breach of the homage Welsh princes had given Henry at Woodstock in July 1163. The Welsh saw it differently - their ...

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Image: Richard Law | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/v/battle-of-crogen-wp/gcmv-battle-of-crogen-the-march-on-wales.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Crogen: Oswestry and Corwen https://qualla.com/battle-of-crogen/ Photo credit P.khiao, CC0. By July 1165 Henry was at Oswestry, gathering his army. Owain had come south to Corwen, taking up position to block the obvious invasion route up the Ceiriog Valley and over the Berwyns. The Berwyn range - over 800 metres at its highest - separates the headwaters of the Dee from ...

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]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/v/battle-of-crogen-wp/gcmv-battle-of-crogen-oswestry-and-corwen.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Crogen: The Gap of the Graves https://qualla.com/battle-of-crogen/ Photo credit AtticTapestry, CC BY-SA 4.0. The woodsmen and their guard were attacked in the valley. The losses, most modern historians agree, were probably light - this was not Bannockburn or Hastings, just a flash of violence among the trees - but the local memory was specific. The place where the skirmish happened beca...

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Image: AtticTapestry | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/v/battle-of-crogen-wp/gcmv-battle-of-crogen-the-gap-of-the-graves.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Crogen: Rain on the Berwyns https://qualla.com/battle-of-crogen/ Photo credit BrianPritchard, CC BY-SA 2.0. What really stopped Henry II was the weather. After the harassment in the Ceiriog Valley, the army tried to cross the Berwyn Mountains and ran into severe storms. The mountains in north Wales catch every front coming off the Irish Sea, and an August storm in the high country coul...

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Image: BrianPritchard | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/v/battle-of-crogen-wp/gcmv-battle-of-crogen-rain-on-the-berwyns.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Crogen: The Long Consequences https://qualla.com/battle-of-crogen/ Photo credit BrianPritchard, CC BY-SA 2.0. Crogen, real or imagined, mattered out of proportion to its size. Henry II never tried to conquer Wales again. The Marcher Lords - who had expected royal support and got none after 1165 - drew their own conclusions. Many of them looked elsewhere for opportunity, and within a few ...

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]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/v/battle-of-crogen-wp/gcmv-battle-of-crogen-the-long-consequences.mp3 0:06 6 full