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    The gate of the town, called, in modern times Dinham Gate. The majority of Sir Arnold's men had been left outside; and now that the castle had been surprised and taken, they were admitted into the town. The original town of Dynan was built under the immediate protection of the castle, and probably occupied only that part of the present town in and adjacent to what is still called Dinham. Of the two names is only a corruption of the other. The knights who were in the castle unfastened the doors, and went into the town, and opened the gate of Dynan towards the river, and admitted all their people. They placed at the end of each street in the town a great number of people, and caused the town to be set on fire; and in each street they made two fires. The burgesses and the sergeants of the town, when they saw the fire, rose from their beds, some naked, others clothed, and knew not what to do, for they were almost mad.

    Jorwerth (Edward) Drwyndwn, eldest son of Owen Gwyneth, was never prince of North Wales. His and his son's exclusion from the government, if not originally suggested by the contrivance of Henry II, was perpetuated by the policy of that king, and of Richard I. Jervard, when he heard the news of Sir Walter, caused to assemble Welsh, Scots, and Irish, more than twenty thousand; and he hastened towards the march, burnt the towns, plundered the people, and he had such a great host that the country could not withstand them. Joce was wary and got intelligence of the approach of Jervard; and he and his people and Fulk armed, and boldly attacked Roger de Powys. Roger and his brother Jonas were both in the service and pay of king Henry II. Roger had two sons, Meredyth and Meurich, the latter of whom was the Morice of our history. Roger and his eldest son died between 1179 and 1187. Meurich fitz Roger went with king Richard to Normandy in 1194, and was under the constant patronage of that king; he seems to have died about A.D. 1200, which proves the inaccuracy of several passages in the narrative. His son, Wrenock, succeeded him, and was deprived of Whittington in consequence of king John's reconciliation with the Fitz Warines; but he was in the pay of the English crown till 1224. Wianus, son of Jonas de Powys, occurs as receiving favors from kings Richard and John from 1194 to 1209.

    Roger and Jonas de Powys his brother, who came with the vanguard of Jervard's host, and slew many of their men. Roger and Jonas were not able to withstand the attack, and retreated. At length came Jervard armed, and his arms were of or, quartered with gules, and in each quarter a leopard; a gold shield divided in four by a red cross, with a leopard in each of the four fields.He assailed Sir Joce and Fulk. And they defended themselves long, and slew many of their people; but they (the Welsh) had so many people that Sir Joce could not maintain the contest, and he fell back upon Castle Key, at a league from Dynan. But it was very disastrous to him; for he had lost many of his people.Jervard and the Lacy, who was now glad, pursued Sir Joce and Fulk, and besieged them in the little castle, and assailed them very fiercely. Joce, Fulk, and their knights, during three days, without drinking or eating, defended their weak and old little castle against all the host. On the fourth day, Sir Joce said that it would be greater honor to leave the castle and die in the field with honor, than to die in the castle of hunger and with dishonor; and thereupon they went into the field and slew at their first encounter more than three hundred, knights, esquires, and sergeants.

    When the news came to Sir Joce and Guarin de Metz, they were much grieved, sad, and sorrowful. They sent to all their kinsmen, friends, and to their own people, so that they had within a month seven thousand men well provided. And they came to castle Key, Caynham camp, a well-known entrenched hill, about two miles to the eastward of Ludlow. There was a well towards the eastern end of the inclosure, which has only been filled up at a very recent period. An old Roman camp which is intrenched upon a knoll, a league's distance from Dynan. Castle Key was old at that time, and its gates were decayed; for no people had inhabited it for a hundred years past. For Key, the steward of my lord Arthur the king, Sir Key, or Cay, the well-known seneschal or steward of king Arthur's court. All the country belonged to Walter, and it still retains his name, for the people of the country call it Keyenhom (Cainham). Joce and Guarin and Fulk the Brown, with their people, go on the morrow towards the castle of Dynan, and attack it very fiercely from all sides. Sir Walter and his knights defend very courageously the crenels and the walls; after which Sir Walter and his Irishmen sallied from the castle, and made a fierce attack on those who were outside and his people retreated and entered the castle and defended the walls. Sir Joce, Guarin, and Fulk attack Dynan, but cannot retake it. Jervard Droyndoun and the Lacy and their people assailed Sir Joce and his people, and they defended themselves like lions; but so many people hemmed them in that they could not hold out long; for the horse of Sir Joce was killed, and he himself severely wounded; and his knights, some taken, some slain. Then they took Sir Joce and his knights, and sent them to prison to the castle of Dynan, there where he used to be lord and master.

    The knights and esquires of Lacy fell upon them. The burgesses had no power or, thought to defend themselves; for all who were met with there cut to pieces or burnt in the fire. The damsels went along the lanes, saw their fathers and their brothers lie slaughtered in the streets, fell upon their knees, and implored mercy and pardon of their life. This siege lasted long. Subsequently it happened that, by the assent of a king of England, the gates of the castle, which were treble, were burnt and consumed by fire which was lighted with bacons and grease, and the tower over the gate burnt in. And the high tower which is in the third bail of the castle, which was so strong and well built that no stronger or better tower was at that time known, was in great part beaten down, and that bail almost entirely destroyed.

    When Fulk the Brown saw Sir Joce taken and led away, he went almost mad with grief and anger; he struck his horse with the spurs, and struck a knight who led him through the body with a lance. Fulk felt himself terribly wounded, and could no longer defend himself; he took to flight, and the others hunted him two leagues or more, and, not being able to catch him, they returned and seized all the lands which Fulk had. And they took Guy, the son of Candelou of Porkington, who was Fulk's constable, and sent him to Rhuddlan, and his seven sons with him. The king caused his wounds to be doctored. And he sent for Melette, his mother, and Hawise, his wife, and the rest of their household, and retained them with him, and caused Hawise and Melette to dwell in the queen's chambers. Hawise was advanced in pregnancy, and when her time came she was delivered of a child, and they caused the child to be named Fulk. He in his time was greatly renowned, and it was with good reason; for he was peerless in strength, courage, and goodness.

     

    Sir Guarin fell ill, and took leave of Sir Joce, and went to Alberbury only with one esquire, and died. Fulk the Brown, after his father's death, came to Alberbury, and took homage and fealty of all the people who held of his father; and he took leave of Melette, his mother, and Hawise, his wife, and returned to Sir Joce, and related to him what had happened to his father, at the news of which Joce was much grieved. Fulk was in great grief for his lord; and, as he had heard that King Henry was dwelling at Gloucester. He was there in the yeare 1175, when, in consequence of the troubled state of the border, king Henry held a great council in that city. When Fulk the Brown was healed of his wound, King Henry sent a letter to Sir Walter de Lacy, and commanded him on pain of life and member to deliver Joce de Dynan, his knight, and his knights, whom he holds wrongfully. When Sir Walter heard the message, he was much frightened at it; and he set Sir Joce and his knights at liberty, and clothed and mounted them very honorably, and conducted them through a postern towards the river of Teme and beyond the ford of Teme and beyond Whitcliff. until they came to the high road to Gloucester. When Sir Joce came to Gloucester, the king received him very gladly, and promised him law and right. Joce resided with the king as long as he pleased, and then took leave and went to Lambourne, Berkshire and resided there; and soon after died, and was interred there.

     

    The inveterate hostility of Jorwerth Drwyndwn to the English king, the disaffection of Walter de Lacy, the sometime possession of Ellesmere by the last William Peverel of Brun but the earliest and latest were separated by an interval of half a century. One of those Normans to come to Bradshaw Hall, Derbyshire through Saxon plunder after Hastings was Nigel de Stafford who got thirteen manors in the county and about thirty-one in other counties. The second holding of demesne by a lord was the second Peverell at Eyam manor which was once called Caschin. By Peverell, the Morteynes held in soccage for many decades around the third Peverell for his lordship gifted by King John. On the flight of the third Peverell in 1157, the Manor of Eyam temporarily reverted to the Crown, when the Duke of Montaigne (afterwards King John) gave certain lands in Eyam, Foolow, and Bretton (so say the compilers), together with the Manors of Calver and Rowland, to Richard Stafford, on condition that his descendants kept a lamp burning constantly, before the altar of St. Helen, in Eyam Church. One of the Staffords married Petronilla de Ferrars, and the gift may have arisen from such union, as the De Ferrars came in for the spoil of the Peverells. The Staffords undoubtedly held Tideswell in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and were located at Eyam from the reign of Richard I. to that of Elizabeth, a period which exactly corresponds with the tenure of Haddon by the Vernons, and of Bubnell by the Bassetts.

     

     

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