Thrown into outer darkness
In 1276 Amaury de Montfort was captured at sea by Edward I's privateers, along with his sister Eleanor. These were two of the children of Simon de Montfort, killed at Evesham in 1265. They were on their way to seal a marriage pact with Prince Llywelyn of Wales, disobeying a strict injunction from King Edward not to enter the kingdom.
Both were imprisoned for severeal years. During this time Amaury was far from idle. Such a highly educated man, graduated from the Faculty of Arts at Padua, with one of the best mathematicians in Europe for a tutor, could not simply sit and stare at the wall.
After begging for writing materials, he wrote two treatises on theology, put together at Corfe castle in the spring and summer of 1276. Remarkably, his work survives as part of a codex from Cerne Abbey, also in Dorset, now held at the Bodleian library. Amaury's writing forms the third part of the codex, probably acquired by the Bodleian between 1605 and 1611.
Apart from his ruminations on theology, the work also reveals Amaury's disturbed state of mind. He complains of being let down by a close friend, probably one of those who had accompanied Amaury and his sister, Eleanor, on their ill-fated voyage to North Wales.
Annoyingly, Amaury does not name this monstrous friend. He adds that the traitor was not rewarded as he expected to be, but was rejected by Amaury's captors. He gloats biblically over the traitor's fate:
“And the children of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12)
We know that Amaury was accompanied by several English knights and servants, his sister, and two Welsh Dominicans. In his biography of Llywelyn the Last, J Beverley-Smith highlights the actions of the Welsh Dominicans. When war broke out in 1276, the head of the order went into North Wales to persuade his kinsmen to defect to Edward I. This man was Friar Llywelyn ap Gruffudd of Bangor. He was accompanied in his task by Friar Ifor, prior of the Dominican house at Rhuddlan.
In July 1277, these men secured the defection of Rhys ap Gruffudd ab Ednyfed Fychan, one of the most powerful men in Gwynedd and a key member of Prince Llywelyn's council. Rhys in turn arranged the defection of his brother, Hywel, and his cousin, Gruffudd ap Iorwerth. Friar Llywelyn is described in the document as Rhys's uterine brother i.e. they shared the same mother but had a different father.
Thus, the document sealed at Chester in July 1277 marks the point where one of the most important dynasties of North Wales chose to desert their prince. It can, feasibly, be traced back to the ill-fated marriage alliance between Prince Llywelyn and the Montforts.