Drawing on the latest research on Wales during the eleventh to fourteenth centuries, this book re-examines the commonly held view that the Edwardian conquest brought hardship and nothing else to the people of Wales. David Stephenson studies the achievements of well-known Welsh rulers, such as Llywelyn the Great and Llywelyn the Last, and he also probes the factors that led to the ultimate failure of the Llywelyns and the conquest of their principality by Edward I. In addition, this book includes detailed studies of many of the lesser-known figures responsible for the changing nature of Welsh politics in this period.