the Miniature World of Mike Peters: Davy Gam Welsh Hero of Agincourt

I wanted my English Hundred Years War Retinue to be distinctive, characterful, and based in history, but not to be one of the well-known heroes, the main leaders. I really like the illustrations depicting the Welsh men of Cheshire, Flint, Shropshire, and all points West in their distinctive green and white livery, particularly those by Gerry Embleton in Osprey’s English Longbowman 1330-1515 Warrior series 11.

Most accounts of Agincourt agree that there were some 500 Welsh archers present at the battle or approximately 10% of the army.

A little investigation brought me to Dafydd ap Llewelyn ap Hywel known as Daffyd or Davy Gam or Cam, Gam meaning One eyed, cross eyed or possibly squint eyed, a real hero, a puissant fighter and at 64 an accomplished veteran of many campaigns.

There are many legends that surround this hardened veteran…that he died defending Henry V at Agincourt, that he was knighted on the field as he was dying, that he is Fluellen in Shakespeare’s Henry V, that Gam became the English word gammy, referring to his gammy eye!

And there are many sources on the internet all making various claims concerning his adventures, some of which claim as fact stories that are in other places declared to be unsubstantiated, so what follows is a consensus account based on all the known facts with an occasional nod to the myth.

Dafydd Gam was born in 1351 in the town of Brecon, which was the seat of the Welsh borough of Brecknock. He was the son of Lord Llewellyn of Pen-pont and a member of the Welsh lower nobility, or uchelwr. His was a distinguished family that could trace its ancestral roots back to Cradoc of the Strong Arm, a 5th-century Romanized Celt. Dafydd was “a short, red-haired man with an unprepossessing appearance, but an affable—if outspoken—personality”.

Regarded by Welsh nationalists as a traitor, Gam is regarded as a hero in England; his reputation has waxed and waned with those of his enemy Owain Glyndŵr and his ally King Henry V.

Dafydd Gam was a member of one of the most prominent Welsh families in Breconshire (though the county did not exist in Dafydd's time). His recent pedigree was 'Dafydd Gam ap Llywelyn ap Hywel Fychan ap Hywel ap Einion Sais', but beyond that the family claimed an ancient Welsh lineage going back to the Kings of Brycheiniog (specifically, from Bleddyn ap Maenarch, the king who Bernard de Neufmarché supposedly displaced. Dafydd Gam was the grandson of Hywel Fychan, who held the manor of Parc Llettis near Llanover in Monmouthshire near Abergavenny.

As a young man Dafydd became embroiled in a violent feud with his cousin Lord Richard Fawr of Slwch. It is not known what caused the quarrel, but it culminated in a duel on Brecon High Street. Daffyd killed Richard and had to pay a large fine to avoid capital punishment, however, with vendettas rumoured to be brewing against him, he fled to Herefordshire. There, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, whose Welsh holdings included Monmouth and Brecknock, accepted Dafydd’s oath of fealty and placed the fiery Welshman in his retinue of household troops

In John of Gaunt’s service, Davy Gam saw action Iin a three year crusade in Spain and was appointed an adviser to Henry Bolingbroke, the duke’s eldest son and heir. . Wounded during the fighting, Dafydd returned to Wales to convalesce after the duke’s triumphant return to England. Though 20 years had passed since his self-imposed exile, Dafydd remained too apprehensive to go back to Brecknock just yet, settling instead in adjacent Monmouth, near Henry’s residence.

According to later family tradition, it was during this time that Dafydd Gam became friend and confidant to Bolingbroke’s son, Henry of Monmouth, the future Prince Hal. The boy looked up to the older Welshman, who spent much time with him and helped to tutor him. When Bolingbroke was banished to Ireland by King Richard II in late 1398, Dafydd was one of the few entrusted with the guardianship of the younger Henry. John of Gaunt died in February 1399, and his estates were confiscated by King Richard soon after. Incensed at this repudiation of his rightful inheritance, Bolingbroke invaded England in July and usurped the throne at the end of September. Now Dafydd found himself affiliated with a royal household.

The early years of King Henry IV’s reign were beset by internal disorders, the most notable being a nationalist rebellion in Wales, fomented by disaffected Welsh landowner Owain Glyndwr. Many commoners flocked to Glyndwr’s banner, but the allegiance of the gentry was divided. The aging Dafydd Gam was in a state of semiretirement by then, but as the war with Glyndwr dragged on, with repeated invasions of Wales failing to subdue the rebels, the king recalled Dafydd into active service as an adviser to Prince Hal. With Dafydd’s help the adolescent prince led a series of successful raids into North Wales throughout the spring of 1403. That summer, the influential Henry Percy of Northumberland, aka Harry Hotspur, defected to Glyndwr’s side, and King Henry moved quickly to prevent the two factions from joining forces. Hotspur’s army was intercepted at Shrewsbury in July, and a fierce battle ensued on the 16th. At a critical juncture, Dafydd allegedly advised the prince to send in his division of men to attack Hotspur’s exposed flank, resulting in a decisive victory for the crown.

Daffyd was later implicated in a plot to assassinate Glyndwr for which he spent some time in prison, released he rejoined Prince Hal in time to participate in the battles of Grosmont in March 1405 and Pwll Melyn in May, both defeats for Glyndwr.

By 1409, Glyndwr’s rebellion was all but over, and Dafydd returned to his family in Brecon. In 1412, however, Glyndwr raided Brecon for the express purpose of capturing Dafydd, in revenge for perceived treachery. He succeeded, and by then an infirm Henry IV was unable to do anything about it. Upon Henry’s death the next year, Prince Hal ascended the throne as King Henry V. One of his first acts was to ransom his old friend Dafydd.

Shortly after Henry V invaded France in 1415 and Davy Gam went with him

Agincourt

Stories of Gam's exploits at Battle of Agincourt in which he saved Henry V's life, and that he was knighted either posthumously or as he was dying on the field of victory at Agincourt by King Henry V as a result, are not vouched for in contemporary sources and have thus been discounted by many historians.

According to the legend the intervention occurred during the counter-charge of John I, Duke of Alençon, which certainly is historical, leading to the wounding of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and Henry fighting hand-to-hand in the late stage of the battle. The King was hard pressed and the Duke of Alençon supposedly cut an ornament from Henry's crown with a sword blow. Then a group of Welsh knights in the King's bodyguard led by Dafydd Gam intervened to save Henry's life, only for some to be killed in doing so, including Dafydd himself, and his son in law Sir Roger Vaughan.

One of those supposedly involved in this exploit was Sir William ap Thomas who survived the battle. Some accounts claim Dafydd slew the Duke of Alençon himself. This story was being frequently told by the Tudor period in histories of the campaign and by the descendants of those involved and was widely accepted as the truth at that time. Although both Gam and Vaughan did die in the battle, the exact circumstances of their deaths are unknown. Gam's reputation was still very much alive in 19th-century Wales. George Borrow said of him, "where he achieved that glory which will for ever bloom, dying, covered with wounds, on the field of Agincourt after saving the life of the king, to whom in the dreadest and most critical moment of the fight he stuck closer than a brother". Juliet Barker, while not accepting the rest of the legend, claims in her history of Agincourt that "Llewelyn was knighted on the field, only to fall in the battle." She also says that Dafydd's Welsh comrade, and posthumous son-in-law, Sir William ap Thomas may have been knighted at the battle.

A stained-glass window in a church in Llanthony has an inscription that records his “sacrifice” at Agincourt and describes him as “golden haired”

Whatever the truth, Davy Gam and his green and white clad archers make a good Retinue for Ruckus!