The Claim
There’s a solid gold crown hidden in the grave of a 15th century Welsh prince
Owain Glyndŵr was the last native Welshman to be crowned the Prince of Wales and is known as somewhat of a hero in Welsh history. He was proclaimed as a prince by his supporters on the 16th of September, 1400 when he led a revolt against the occupying English forces. His revolt is remembered as the last war of independence against English rule before Wales was incorporated into England by the Laws in Wales acts of 1535 to 1542.
For the next 15 years after he was crowned his campaign was relatively successful, which saw him and his army capture numerous towns and castles across the country, and gathered many supporters over the years. But then the story ends the same way most stories do when a small army faces a larger one and he was defeated during a battle against the English in the year of 1412 which is when history ends and legend begins.
He lost almost all of his army in a crushing defeat and knew he would never raise another one of the same size, so he went into hiding. He ignored more than one royal pardon and there are no historical entries about him after he retreated from the battlefield in 1412.
Before the English offered him a pardon they put a huge bounty on him, though non of his supporters turned him over and non of the searching parties found a single trace of him. Its because of these hiding tactics that no one knows where he is buried, so whats this about a golden crown?
To be honest the idea of a golden crown is probably nothing more than rumours, though it could be entirely possible as Wales has had some rather large gold mining operations over the years and someone such as a prince having a golden crown isn’t out the question.
But whether or not the crown is made out of gold doesn’t change the fact his grave would most certainly contain some very valuable treasure, such as various personal belongings and most probably his sword. Even if his crown was made from regular materials, the long lost crown of the last prince of Wales to wage a war of independence for his country would be worth millions, so where is it?
Over the years snippets of information have appeared which suggest what happened to him, though non give any kind of actual location. The only reliable piece of information after he disappeared is that he died in the year 1415 at the latest.
The first clue comes from a supporter of Owain Glyndŵr named Adam of Usk who made an entry in his journal in the year 1415 which goes as follows:
“After four years in hiding, from the king and the realm, Owain Glyndŵr died, and was buried by his followers in the darkness of night. His grave was discovered by his enemies, however, so he had to be re-buried, though it is impossible to discover where he was laid.”
The next clue comes from a diary kept by a Reverend called Francis Kilvert who writes an entry in the year 1875 about a very old grave in his churchyard at Monnington. He describes it as a large flat white carved stone sunk heavily into the ground which bears the name “Owen Glendower”, which was a very unusual and expensive type of grave marker for the time, but unfortunately the stone was smashed to pieces during some ground works and the underlying grave left as it was. Since then the grave yard has changed greatly over the years and the exact where abouts of that particular grave is now unknown.
The last clue comes from a visitor to one of Owain Glyndŵr decedents in 2006 who took them to a house in Mornington Straddle in Herefordshire where he was told that Glyndŵr spent the last of his days living with one of his daughters and his burial place has been a family secret for 600 years, though the last person who apparently knew this secret died without telling anyone. There is a mound in the area which many believe to be his grave site, though it hasn’t been confirmed and digging up graves is somewhat frowned upon by the local authorities.
There are also claims about him being buried under St Cwrdaf church in Llanwrda, Carmarthenshire as well as various other sites most of which seem to be on the estates of his children, but no ones knows for sure and if his grave is under a church or protected site its likely that it will never be investigated.
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