Owen Glendower is a character in William Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 1 based on the historical Owain Glyndŵr.

The spelling Owen Glendower is the anglicisation used in Holinshed's Chronicles, which served as one of Shakespeare's main sources for his history play.

[1] Further, Glendower reports "Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head/Against my power; thrice from the banks of Wye/And sandy-bottom'd Severn have I sent him/Bootless home and weather-beaten back" (3.1).

For example, Holinshed's Chronicles recounts that during the reign of Henry IV, "About mid of August, the king, to chastise the presumptuous attempts of the Welshmen, went with a great power of men into Wales, to pursue the captain of the Welsh, rebel Owen Glendower, but in effect he lost his labor; for Owen conveyed himself out of the way, into his known lurking places, and (as was thought) through art magic, he caused such foul weather of winds, tempest, rain, snow, and hail to be raised, for the annoyance of the king's army, that the like had not been heard of; in such sort, that the king was constrained to return home, having caused his people yet to spoil and burn first a great part of the country.

"[4] According to David Bevington, "Holinshed reports that Glendower became an 'utter barrister, or an apprentice of the law', and adds that others 'have written that he served this King Henry the Fourth, before he came to attain the crown, in room of an esquire'".

"[7] Terence Hawkes appears to characterize Glendower and his daughter as a high point in the depiction of Welsh characters in Shakespeare's literature.

Assimilated into England and reaping the economic benefit of such an arrangement, the Welsh tolerate much, even the criticism of their culture, customs, and language; yet, if pushed too far, they pose a debilitating, dangerous force.

[12] Not until a 1864 revival at the Drury Lane theatre did the audience, for the first time since before Betterton, hear Lady Mortimer’s Welsh song and all of 3.1.