Owain in 1404 captures and garrisons the…

Owain in 1404 captures and garrisons the great western castles of Harlech and Aberystwyth.

Anxious to demonstrate his seriousness as a ruler, he holds Court at Harlech and appoints the devious and brilliant Gruffydd Young as his Chancellor.

Soon afterwards he calls his first Parliament (or more properly a "Cynulliad" or "gathering") of all Wales at Machynlleth where he is crowned Owain IV of Wales and announces his national program.

He declares his vision of an independent Welsh state with a parliament and separate Welsh church.

There are to be two national universities (one in the south and one in the north) and a return to the traditional law of Hywel Dda.

Senior churchmen and important members of society flow to his banner.

English resistance is reduced to a few isolated castles, walled towns, and fortified manor houses.

Owain demonstrates his new status by negotiating the "Tripartite Indenture" with Edmund Mortimer and the Earl of Northumberland.

The Indenture agrees to divide England and Wales between the three of them.

Wales is to extend as far as the rivers Severn and Mersey including most of Cheshire, Shropshire, and Herefordshire.

The Mortimer Lords of March are to take all of southern and western England and Thomas Percy, 1st Earl of Worcester, is to take the north of England.

Most historians have dismissed the Indenture as a flight of fantasy.

However, it must be remembered that in early 1404 things look very positive for Owain.

Local English communities in Shropshire, Herefordshire and Montgomeryshire have ceased active resistance and are making their own treaties with the rebels.

It is rumored that old allies of King Richard II are sending money and arms to the Welsh and the Cistercians and Franciscans are funneling funds to support the rebellion.

Furthermore, the Percy rebellion is still viable; even after the defeat in May of the Percy Archbishop Scrope.