The Blacksmiths Sons

Welsh Longbowmen played a significant part in the One Hundred Year War. Their contribution to the English victories at Crecy Poitiers and Agincourt has been well documented.There are three parts to The Blacksmiths Sons which covers the period from 1360 to 1429.The first part tells the story of two sons of a blacksmith from Caldicot in Gwent South Wales Gethin and John recruited to the army after killing a deer and their participation in an English expedition by the Earl of Buckingham to France and the failed siege of Nantes.In Nantes the young archers suffer from a desperate food shortage as they watch the French regularly resupplied with food and one of them almost dies from dysentery which devastates the English camp.The second part tells of Gethin John and their sons Rhys and Edgar's involvement in the Owain Glyndwr uprising. John becomes a trusted captain of Owain Glyndwr after successful overseas campaigns as a mercenary in France and Spain.In the third part Rhys misses the camaraderie and thrill of the battle. He is keen to emulate John's achievements so he enlists in Henry IV's army which returns to France and tells of his role in the siege of Harfleur the Battle of Agincourt and the Siege of Orleans which Joan of Arc ends. However he is captured by the French and spends four years in a French prison cell.