Battle of Monmouth (1233)
battle fought in 1233 between (mainly) Welsh and invading Normans
The Battle of Monmouth took place on 25 November 1233, the feast day of St Catherine, between forces loyal to Henry III, King of England, and those of Richard Marshal, Earl of Pembroke and Lord Marshal of England, who had formed an alliance with the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Iorwerth and his supporter Owain ap Gruffydd, a grandson of Rhys of Deheubarth.
Background
Richard Marshal, the second son of the more famous William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, was a leader of the barons opposed to the growth of King Henry's powers. He was an adversary of the king's foreign allies at court, notably the Poitevins Peter de Rivaux and Peter des Roches. Marshal refused to attend Henry's court at Gloucester in August 1233, and Henry declared him a traitor. Marshal retired to his castle at Striguil (Chepstow), while the king and his army moved west to Abergavenny. In response, Marshal joined with Owain to seize the castles at Cardiff and Newport before attacking Abergavenny and Grosmont. The king then retreated to Gloucester.
Battle
According to the chronicler Roger of Wendover in his Flores Historiarum (Flowers of History), Marshal and his knights then came to Monmouth to reconnoitre the town before besieging it. However, they were seen coming towards the castle walls by Baldwin III, Count of Guînes. He was a nobleman of Flanders who, with his mixed force of Flemings and Poitevins, had been entrusted by King Henry with defending the town.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q281013. Authority coordinates are 51.813, -2.725. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1233.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Monmouth (1233)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.