The Papacy had always proved to be a broken reed for Welsh princes;
but Owen's alliance with Peter de Luna, the anti-Pope Benedict XIII.,
gave a certain amount of prestige to his title. The alliance with
Scotland, based on common kinship, could bring him no help at that
time: because it was torn between two factions during the reign of
the weak Robert III.; and the next king, the poet James I., was
captured at sea and put into an English prison.

The French alliance was much more promising; it would give what Owen
wanted most--siege engines, a fleet, and an army of trained soldiers.
Charles VI. of France, the father-in-law of the deposed Richard,
refused to make peace with the usurper Henry; his fleet protected the
Welsh coast, and in 1405 a French army of 2,800 men landed at
Milford.

Owen struggled on, with waning power, until his death in 1415. He
came too soon for success, while the power of the House of Lancaster
was increasing.

Of all figures in the history of Wales, that of Owen Glendower is the
most striking and the most popular. The place of his grave is
unknown, his lineage and the date of his death a matter of
conjecture; there is much mystery about even his most brilliant
years. But his majestic figure, his wisdom, and his ideals remained
in the memory of his country. His ghost wandered, it was said,
around Valle Crucis. His spirit, more than that of any hero of the
past, seems to follow his people on their onward march. This is not
on account of his political ideals, but because he was the champion
of the peasant and of education.