BERNARD NEWMARCH 287 the Welsh King, which was apparently on Llangorse Lake, and took his wife prisoner. The battle is called by the Welsh Gwaith y Ddinas Newydd, the Battle of the New City. Brecknock was again invaded by Alfred, Earl of Mercia, about the year 982. A century later came the final overthrow of the Principality, when the last prince, Bleddyn ab Maenarch, fell in a great battle against the Norman adventurer, Bernard Newmarch, in 1092, on the river Yscir, five miles above the present town of Brecon. At the same time, and on the same field, fell Rhys ab Tewdwr, Prince of Dyfed. "I may perhaps be allowed to indulge in an imaginary though probable description of the encounter," says Mr. Theophilus Jones. "It has been just hinted that the expedition of Bernard was concerted between him and Fitzhammon, or at least that the success of the latter led to the invasion of Brecknockshire. In his route, therefore, from England, the conqueror of this county very naturally called upon his countrymen in Glamorganshire, who, if they did not join, at least so far assisted him as to point out the road taken by Rhys in his flight from Hirwain-Wogan. Pursuing his steps, the invader came to Caerbannau, which being too strongly fortified by nature as well as art to promise success in an attack on the western side, it would seem that the Normans made a feint of filing off northward, along a ridge parallel with the river Yscir, as if they intended proceeding towards the Epynt Hills and the hundred of Builth. On the south or eastern side of the river, where the British troops were posted, the lane called Heol y Cymry, as far as it bears that name, runs parallel with the supposed march of the Normans. Along this lane the Britons proceeded watching the motions of the enemy, but concealed from them by higher ground on the left hand, so that apprehending no opposition, Bernard and his forces attempted to cross the Yscir through a wood, from this event called Cwm Gwern y Gâd, the Wood of the Vale of Battle. Here, however, they were observed by some British scouts upon the opposite eminence, when the Welsh army, pouring down the common, must certainly have attacked the enemy to great advantage; but the discipline of the Normans prevailed, the assailants were driven back, and in their retreat or flight, tradition informs us, Rhys lost his head near a well on the common just mentioned, |