Sir Dafydd ap Llewelyn ap Hywel (c. 1380 – October 25, 1415), better known as Dafydd Gam or Davy Gam, was a Welsh medieval nobleman, a prominent opponent of Owain Glyndŵr, who died at the Battle of Agincourt fighting for King Henry V, King of England in that victory against the French. The name "Gam" is taken from a Welsh word for "lame/deformed" (from which 'gammy', as in 'gammy leg', may be derived), and stories about him give him a characteristic squint which may have led to his nickname 'gam' . It is possible that he may have lost an eye. Regarded as a traitor ("Crooked David") by some Welshmen, he is regarded as a hero by others; his reputation has waxed and waned with those of his enemy Glyndŵr and his ally King Henry V.
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Dafydd Gam was a member of one of the most prominent Welsh families in Breconshire. 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. Dafydd Gam was the grandson of Hywel Fychan, who held the manor of Parc Llettis near Llanover in Monmouthshire near Abergavenny, and fourth in descent from Einion Sais who held a castle at Pen Pont on the River Usk near Brecon and who had served at both the Battle of Crecy and the Battle of Poitiers. Their power base had developed mainly as consistently loyal supporters of the de Bohun family who were both earls of Hereford and Lords of Brecon from the thirteenth century onwards. Dafydd Gam's father, Llywelyn ap Hywel, purchased the estate of Penywaun near Brecon and Dafydd is thought to have been born there. His family was described as "a striking example of a native family that flourished under the rule of an English aristocratic family."[1] Under Llywelyn ap Hywel, the family’s traditional loyalty was transferred to the new Lord of Brecon, Henry Bolingbroke, who had married Mary de Bohun in the 1380s. Some say Dafydd was previously in service to Henry's father John of Gaunt and, having killed a rival in Brecon High Street, had to leave Wales temporarily.[2] Dafydd Gam was certainly being paid the substantial annuity of 40 marks by Henry’s estate in 1399, even before Bolingbroke became King, and later he and his brothers were described as King’s esquires.[1] It seems likely they were prominent partisans of Henry in South East Wales as he gathered support for his overthrow of Richard II around 1399.
When the Owain Glyndŵr rebellion broke out in 1400, the family’s traditional loyalty to their liege lord remained unshaken and they played a leading role in opposition to the rebellion in the area. Their lands in and around Brecon became a target for Glyndŵr's attacks, and were extensively damaged as early as 1402-1403. The Scottish chronicler Walter Bower names Dafydd as a leader in the crushing defeat of Glyndŵr's men at the Battle of Pwll Melyn near Usk on 5 May 1405.[1] After the battle, 300 of Glyndŵr's men were executed and his son, Gruffudd ab Owain Glyndŵr, was captured. Gam’s local knowledge might well have played a part in the Crown's victory here and in other battles like that at Grosmont around the same time, and may have won over local Welshmen to fight against Glyndŵr. The family's loyalty was rewarded with the gift of some of Glyndŵrs' supporters' confiscated estates in Cardiganshire. In 1412 Dafydd Gam was captured by Glyndŵr’s men and estimates of the amount paid as his ransom recorded at the time, range from 200 to 700 marks, a large amount. That it was paid directly and speedily from the King’s estates in Wales indicates the esteem in which Gam was held by Henry.[1] Glyndŵr had made Gam swear an oath to never bear arms against him again or oppose him in any other way. On his release Gam told King Henry of Glyndŵr's whereabouts and attacked Glyndwr's men. Glyndŵr had Gam's Brecon estates attacked and burned in retaliation and his Brecon house was razed.
Given King Henry V's leadership in the campaign against Glyndŵr, Dafydd would have known the new King crowned in 1413 personally, and perhaps even fought alongside him. Records show that Dafydd Gam served with three foot archers in the Battle of Agincourt campaign. His death in the battle was a fact noted in several contemporary chronicles.[1] There is much controversy about whether Gam was knighted at the battle. His example shows that Welshmen continued to fight in the English army after the Glyndŵr rebellion.
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.[1][3] 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 nineteenth-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.”[4] Juliet Barker, while not accepting the rest of the legend, states in her authoritative history of Agincourt that "Llewelyn was knighted on the field, only to fall in the battle." She says Dafydd's Welsh comrade, and posthumous son-in-law, Sir William ap Thomas may have been knighted at Agincourt.[5]
Some of Dafydd's descendants, who adopted the surname 'Games' to mark their connection to him, remained one of the most powerful families in the Breconshire area until Stuart times.[6] They were noted for their support for Welsh bards. His beautiful daughter Gwladys ferch Dafydd Gam, Seren y Fenni (the Star of Abergavenny), made two good marriages, the first to Sir Roger Vaughan, who also died at Agincourt. Her second was to Sir William ap Thomas of Raglan Castle who survived the battle. Her son became the extremely powerful William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1423-1469) and took the surname Herbert, later to become one of the best known names in the nobility. All these noble connections ensured Dafydd Gam's name remained a celebrated one.
Like his opponent Glyndŵr, Gam has gained a sheen of legend and many stories about him are late oral traditions, folklore and family legends which may be unreliable. Chief amongst them is the tale that he tried to assassinate Glyndŵr at his parliament at Machynlleth in 1404. The still standing Royal House in that town is where, according to local lore, he was imprisoned when the attempt failed. The legends differ on his fate after the attempt failed some state Glyndŵr in a generous gesture let Gam go soon after the Parliament, despite Gam’s refusal to submit, a decision he was later to regret. Others claim he was imprisoned for years, but given Gam’s seeming participation in the Battle of Pwll Melyn in 1405 they certainly cannot be true. The stories concering his rivalry with Glyndŵr include satirical englyn in Welsh supposedly composed by Glyndŵr himself on his rival after burning his house to the ground. These stories also contain descriptions of Gam recorded by George Borrow: “He was small of stature and deformed in person, though possessed of great strength. He was very sensitive of injury, though quite as alive to kindness; a thorough-going enemy and a thorough-going friend.”[2] Whatever the truth of these tales there seems no doubt that Glyndŵr and his men, and popular tradition, regarded Dafydd as one of the chief enemies of the rebellion. Gam is a key character in John Cowper Powys's novel Owen Glendower.
The stories certainly testify to Dafydd Gam’s position as typifying the loyal and valiant Welshman by the Tudor period. He is better known in England as "Davy Gam," by which name he is mentioned briefly in Shakespeare's Henry V (4.8.102) as the last name in the short list of the noble fallen read out to King Henry. He may have made an even larger contribution to the play for as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states Dafydd: “may indeed, as has been suggested, be the model for Shakespeare's Fluellen, the archetypal Welshman.”[1] This theory making Dafydd Gam one of the sources for the play has long been discussed, as early as 1812 it was said “There can be little doubt but that Shakspeare, in his burlesque character of Fluellen, intended David Gam.”[5][7][8]
Fluellen: "If your Majesty is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps, which your Majesty knows, to this hour is an honourable badge of the service, and I do believe, your Majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day". King Henry: "I wear it for a memorable honour; for I am Welsh, you know, good countryman".
Shakespeare captures the local Monmouthshire dialect (still readily to be heard in the town of Monmouth and the hill villages of Trellech and Catbrook) with its glottal sounds.
According to local legend one of Gam's homes was a moated manor house [1] at Llantilio Crossenny, near Abergavenny in Monmouthshire (where just the moat remains today [2], at Hen Gwrt near the modern-day village). There is a legend or story that persists in this part of Monmouthshire that Davy Gam, and all his children had a turn in their eye making them cross-eyed and that if they all linked hands they could reach from the church door to Hen Gwrt. Dafydd Gam is commemorated in a stained glass window, of unknown date, at Llantilio Crossenny church, in the north wall. The inscription is in Latin and the transcription reads 'David Gam, golden haired knight, Lord of the manor of Llantilio Crossenny, killed on the field of Agincourt 1415'.