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600 years ago Wales was under the yoke of the English Crown, with its people open to heavy taxation, punitive laws and land confiscation.

People were imprisoned without trial, or even charges, many never to be seen again and the nation's very language and culture was under vicious attack.

A revolt was on the cards and this duly exploded into life on 16th September 1400 when Owain Glyndwr, a Welsh nobleman of the Dee Valley, from whence he took his name, razed his standard outside Ruthin. After safely escorting all the residence out of the town it was totally raised to the ground.

The spark which ignited this assault was a disagreement between Glyndwr and Lord Reginald de Grey of Ruthin Castle over common land de Grey had stolen. Being a close friend of the new King Henry IV all complaints to the King or Parliament by Glyndwr were rejected and the rest, as they say, is history.

Glyndwr himself was a direct descendent of the Welsh Royal House and had had a conventional up-bringing for the time. He studied and served in England, even fighting for Edward III in his Scottish campaigns of 1385, and was the complete Marcher gentleman.

He was over 40 and grey haired by 1400 but he united a disparate nation of only 200,000 people against one of the great powers of Medieval Europe and over the course of the next 16 years, came within an ace of changing the face of British history.

But it was not only on the field of battle that Glyndwr excelled. He set up the first Welsh Universities, a pan-Wales Parliament in Machynlleth as well as becoming the first true Welsh Prince of Wales.

All these achievements have been symbolised by the placing of a stunning new statue to the man in his home town of Corwen. The life size work of art depicts Glyndwr aboard his battle charger, leading his nation in the fight to secure its own future.

It is a truly remarkable memorial to a quite remarkable man.