Chapter XVIII: Appendix: The Bards

The Bards as a class were so deeply interwoven with the whole life of ancient Wales and, though long shorn of most of their official glory, played so prominent a part in the rising of Glyndwr, that it seems desirable that a chapter touching on the subject should be included in this book. Within such limits the subject can only be treated in the most general and elementary manner. Yet such treatment is excusable from the fact that the slenderest and most inefficient description of Welsh song and Welsh singers must contain matter unknown to most English readers. I imagine that few of these would resent being asked to divest their minds of the time-honoured notion that the teaching of the Druids was nothing but a bloodthirsty and barbarous superstition. At any rate, Bardism and Druidism being practically the same thing, one is obliged to remind those readers who may never have given the matter any attention at all, that among the ancient Britons of the Goidel stock who inhabited most of Wales and the West previous to the Cymric immigration, Druidism was the fountain of law, authority, religion, and, above all, of education. The Druids, with their three orders, were a caste apart for which those who were qualified by good character and noble birth to do so, laboriously trained themselves. They decided all controversies whether public or private, judged all causes, from murder to boundary disputes, and administered both rewards and punishments. Those who ventured to defy them were excommunicated, which was equivalent to becoming moral and social lepers.

The three orders were known as Druids, Bards, and Ovates. The first were priests and judges, the second poets; the third were the least aristocratic, practised the arts and sciences, and were, moreover, a probationary or qualifying order through which candidates for the other two, who were on the same level of dignity, had to pass. As everyone knows, there was an Arch-Druid of the Isle of Britain who had his sanctuary in Anglesey. But it is a matter of much less common knowledge how close was the connection between the Druids and Christianity in the Roman period and even afterwards. The Romans, with conquest foremost in their minds, most naturally aimed at the native rulers of the people and made these bardic orders the objects of their special attack. Their slaughter on the banks of the Menai as described by Tacitus, and the destruction of the Sacred Groves of Mona, are among our familiar traditions.

The Druid orders fled to Ireland, Brittany, and elsewhere. But in time, when the Romans, strong in their seats, grew tolerant, the exiles returned and quietly resumed, in West Britain at any rate, something like their old positions.

When Christianity pushed its way from the West into the island, the bardic orders, unable to resist it, seem by degrees to have accepted the situation and to have become the priests of the new faith, as they had been the custodians and expounders of the old. This transition was the less difficult seeing that the Druids preached all the ordinary tenets of morality, and the immortality of the soul. To what extent the early Christianity of western Britain was tainted with the superstition of the Druids is a question upon which experts have written volumes, and it need not detain us here. A notable effort was made in the fourth century to merge Christianity, so to speak, in the old British faith, and Morgan or Pelagius, "seaborn," of Bangor Iscoed was the apostle of this attempted reaction. He left the island about A.D. 400, and his converts in what we now call Wales were numerous and active. The movement is historically known as the "Pelagian heresy" and has some additional importance from the number of ecclesiastics that came from over the sea for the purpose of denouncing it.

But all this is rather the religious than the secular side of Bardism, the leading feature of whose teaching in pre-Roman days had been the committal to memory of its literature, both prose and verse. Writing was discountenanced, as the possession of these stores of learning thus laboriously acquired were a valuable asset of the initiated. Three was the mystic number in the recitation of all axioms and precepts, for many of these were committed to writing later on in the seventh and tenth centuries, and are now familiar as the Welsh "Triads."

The bards, as a lay order, remained of great importance. In the laws of Howel Dda (tenth century) the royal bard stands eighth among the officers of the State. The fine for insulting him was six cows and twenty silver pennies. His value was 126 cows, his land was free, and he had the use of a house. His noblest duty was to sing "The Monarchy of Britain" at the head of his chieftain's army when victorious. The number of songs he had to sing to the King and Queen respectively during the social hours was clearly defined, as were his claims upon each. Among the latter was a specified portion of the spoils of war, a chessboard made from the horn of a sea-fish from the King, and a ring from the Queen. It was the business of the bards, moreover, to preserve genealogies, and they were practically tutors to the rising generation of the aristocracy. Every family of position in Wales had its domestic bard, while below these there were a great number of strolling minstrels who visited the dwellings of the inferior people, from whom they exacted gifts of money ("cymmorthau") as well as free quarters.

In treating of individual and well-known bards one naturally turns for a beginning to the sixth century, when that famous quartet, Taliesin, Merddyn, Aneurin, and Llywarch Hên, flourished. Several poems either actually their work or purporting to be so are extant. To linger over a period so dim, however great the names that adorn it, would be out of place here. That all four were great kings of song in their time is beyond doubt. The legends that distinguish them are comparatively familiar: how Taliesin was found floating in a leather bottle in Prince Elphin's salmon weir near Aberdovey, how Merddyn as a boy astonished the advisers of Vortigern and became his good angel, and how Llywarch Hên, at a hundred and fifty years of age, witnessed the slaughter of the last of his four-and-twenty sons in battle against the Saxons. His poem on the death of Cynddylan, Prince of Powys, seizes the imagination, not so much from the description the poet-warrior gives of the death of his friend and his own sons in a decisive combat which he himself took part in, but from the almost certain fact that from the top of the Wrekin he saw the Saxons destroy and sack Uriconium ("the white town"), whose ruins are such a striking feature among the sights of Shropshire.

From these four giants until 1080 there is little left whereby to judge of the merits of the bards, and no great record of their names. That they sang and played and gave counsel and kept genealogies is beyond question, but it was not till after the Norman conquest of England that they began to leave much behind them in the way of written documents.

When Prince Griffith ap Kynan returned from Ireland to Wales and the poet Meilir arose to sing his triumphs and good qualities, a new era in bardic history may be said to have commenced. The intellectual and religious revival that distinguished the twelfth century in Western Europe was conspicuous in Wales. The bards were no longer singing merely of battles, but of nature and kindred subjects, with a delicacy that showed them to be men of taste and culture. In the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, in spite of war and conquest, the age was a golden one in Welsh song. Between eighty and ninety bards of this period have left poems behind them as a witness of their various styles and merits, while there are no literary remains whatever of very many who are known to have been quite famous in their day. Thousands, too, of popular songs must have existed that the jealousy of the composers or, more probably, the price of parchment consigned to oblivion.

"When the literary revival of this period reached Wales, its
people," says Mr. Stephens in the _Literature of the Kymri_,
"were better prepared than their neighbours for intellectual
effort." "An order of bards existed, numerous and well
disciplined; a language in all its fullness and richness was
in use among all classes of people, and as a necessary
consequence their literature was superior, more copious, and
richer than that of any contemporaneous nation. The fabulous
literature so prized by others was in no great repute, but
gave way to the public preference for the more laboured and
artistic productions of the bards."

Several Welsh Princes of commanding character and unusual ability came to the front in the long struggle with the Norman power, and were no unworthy sources of bardic inspiration. Many of them aspired themselves to literary as well as martial fame, of whom Owain Cyfeiliog, Prince of Upper Powys, was the most notable. Poetry was in high repute. Eisteddfodau were held periodically with much ceremony and splendour, and were sometimes advertised a year in advance, not only throughout Wales but in Ireland and other portions of the British Islands. Not poetry alone but literature generally and music, of course, both vocal and instrumental, were subjects of competition, while Rhys ap Tudor, a long-lived and distinguished Prince of South Wales, revived, after a sojourn in Brittany, the system of the Round Table. To Englishmen the long list of bards who adorned the period between the Norman arrival and Glyndwr's rising would be mere names, but even to those who may only read the works of the most notable in translations, they are of great interest if only as a reflection of life and thought at a time when England and English were still almost silent.

Gwalchmai, the son of a distinguished father, Meilir, already mentioned, was among the first of the revived school, whose work is regarded by Celtic scholars as of the first quality. His love of nature is prominent in many of the poems he has left:

"At the break of day, and at evening's close,
I love the sweet musicians who so fondly dwell
In dear, plaintive murmurs, and the accents of woe;
I love the birds and their sweet voices
In the soothing lays of the wood."

Owain Gwynedd was the hero-king of Gwalchmai's day. His repulse of an attack made by Henry the Second's fleet under the command of an unpatriotic Prince of Powys in Anglesey is the subject of the bard's chief heroic poem:

"Now thickens still the frantic war,
The flashing death-strokes gleam afar,
Spear rings on spear, flight urges flight,
And drowning victims plunge to-night
Till Menai's over-burthened tide,
Wide-blushing with the streaming gore,
And choked with carnage, ebbs no more;
While mail-clad warriors on her side
In anguish drag their deep-gash'd wounds along,
And 'fore the King's Red chiefs are heap'd the mangled throng."

Owain Cyfeiliog, a Prince of Powys in the end of the twelfth century, though a noted warrior, is a leading instance of a royal bard. His chief poem, _The Hirlâs Horn_ (drinking-cup), is famous wherever Welsh is spoken:

"This horn we dedicate to joy;
Then fill the Hirlâs horn, my boy,
That shineth like the sea,
Whose azure handles tipped with gold
Invite the grasp of Britons bold,
The sons of liberty."

This is one of the longest poems of the twelfth century. The scene is the night after a battle, and the Prince with his warriors gathered round him in the banqueting-hall sends the brimming cup to each of his chieftains successively and enumerates their respective deeds. A leading incident in the poem is when Owen, having eulogised the prowess of two favourite warriors in glowing terms, turns to their accustomed seats, and, finding them vacant, suddenly recalls the fact that they had fallen in the battle of the morning:

"Ha! the cry of death--And do I miss them!
O Christ! how I mourn their catastrophe!
O lost Moreiddig--How greatly shall I need thee!"

A most suggestive poem by another Prince is a kind of summary of his progress through his dominions from the Ardudwy mountains,

"Fast by the margin of the deep
Where storms eternal uproar keep,"

to the hills above Llangollen where he proposes "to taste the social joys of Yale." This is Howel, the illegitimate son of Owain Gwynedd, who seized and held for two years his father's kingdom. Though so strenuous a warrior, his poems are rather of love and social life. He sings with much feeling of the joys of Wales; her fair landscape, her bright waters and green vales, her beauteous women and skimming seagulls, her fields clothed with tender trefoil, her far-reaching wilds, and plenteousness of game. Himself a successful stormer of castles, there is something richly suggestive in the action of a man laying down the torch and bloody sword and taking up the pen to describe his havoc:

"The ravens croaked and human blood
In ruddy streams poured o'er the land;
There burning houses war proclaimed;
Churches in flames and palace halls;
While sheets of fire scale the sky,
And warriors 'On to battle!' cry."

Then the author wholly changes his mood:

"Give me the fair, the gentle maid,
Of slender form, in mantle green;
Whose woman's wit is ever staid,
Subdued by virtue's graceful mien.
Give me the maid, whose heart with mine
Shall blend each thought, each hope combine;
Then, maiden fair as ocean's spray,
Gifted with Kymric wit's bright ray,
Say, am I thine?
Art thou then mine?
What! silent now?
Thy silence makes this bosom glow.
I choose thee, maiden, for thy gifts divine;
'Tis right to choose--then, fairest, choose me thine."

There is much misunderstanding as to the fashion in which the bards were treated by Edward the First. During war the leading minstrels were naturally identified with the patrons whose banners they followed and whose praises they sang; but the statement that they were put to death as bards rests on wholly secondary authority and seems doubtful. Stringent laws were certainly made against the lower order of minstrels who wandered homeless through the country, but they seem to have been devised as much for the protection of the common people, who were called on to support them, as against the men themselves, who were regarded by the authorities as mendicants and idlers. The superior bards, who kept strictly to the houses of the great, were probably not often interfered with. These, though they had regular patrons and fixed places of abode, made extended tours from time to time in which there seems to have been no special distinction between North and South Wales. The hatred of the bards towards England was a marked feature of their time, and was so consistent that though many Welsh princes, in their jealousy, lent their swords, as we have seen, to the invader, no bards, so far as one knows, turned against their countrymen. For generations they prided themselves in being intellectually superior to the Saxon. They also saw, after the Norman conquest, the English race despised and held down by their conquerors, and a species of serfdom in use among the Saxons which had no prototype in their own country. The ordinary bards, however, had beyond all doubt sacrificed much of their old independence and become the creatures of their patrons and ready to sell their praises for patronage. Even the respectable Meilir confesses:

"I had heaps of gold and velvet
From frail princes for loving them."

Llewelyn the Great, the second, that is to say, of the three Llewelyns, aroused the enthusiasm of Bardic literature and was the subject of much stirring eulogy:

"None his valour could withstand,
None could stem his furious hand.
Like a whirlwind on the deep,
See him through their squadrons sweep.
Then was seen the crimson flood,
Then was Offa bathed in blood,
Then the Saxons fled with fright,
Then they felt his royal might."

Dafydd Benvras, the author of this stanza, left many poems, and later on Griffith ap Yr Ynad Goch wrote what is regarded as among the finest of Welsh odes, on the death of the last Llewelyn, laying the blame of that catastrophe on the wickedness of his countrymen:

"Hark how the howling wind and rain
In loudest symphony complain;
Hark how the consecrated oaks,
Unconscious of the woodman's strokes,
With thundering crash proclaim he's gone,
Fall in each other's arms and groan.
Hark! how the sullen trumpets roar.
See! how the white waves lash the shore.
See how eclipsed the sun appears,
See! how the stars fall from their spheres,
Each awful Heaven-sent prodigy,
Ye sons of infidelity!
Believe and tremble, guilty land.
Lo! thy destruction is at hand."

After the Edwardian conquest in 1284 the note of the bards sensibly softened and attuned itself much more generally to love and nature. The song-birds particularly were in great request as recipients of poetic addresses and confidences.

"And thou, lark,
Bard of the morning dawn,
Show to this maid
My broken heart."

While the same singer, Rhys Goch, describes thus the light tread of his ladylove:

"As peahens stride in sun-ray heat,
See her the earth elastic tread;
And where she walks, neath snow-white feet
Not e'en a trefoil bends its head."

The latter part of the 14th century was extremely prolific in poetry which, with some notable exceptions, is regarded rather as showing a good general level than as producing any masterpieces. Dafydd ap Gwilym, the Welsh Ovid, is of course a striking exception. Over 250 of his poems are preserved, while Lewis Glyncothi, Gutyn Owain, Iolo Goch, Glyndwr's bard, and two or three more have left behind them something like 300 others. Dafydd ap Gwilym, who was buried at Strata Florida, holds one of the highest places in Cymric literature. It is as a love poet that he is chiefly distinguished, but his love of nature and his own beautiful country finds sole expression in many of his productions. His ode to Fair Glamorgan, written from "the heart of wild, wild Gwynedd," asking the summer to be his messenger, is regarded as one of his best. In translation it is interesting as a contemporary picture, though a poetic one, of the richest Welsh province.

"Radiant with corn and vineyards sweet,
And lakes of fish and mansions neat,
With halls of stone where kindness dwells,
And where each hospitable lord
Heaps for the stranger guest his board,
And where the generous wine-cup swells,
With trees that bear the luscious pear,
So thickly clustering everywhere.
Her lofty woods with warblers teem,
Her fields with flowers that love the stream,
Her valleys varied crops display,
Eight kinds of corn and three of hay;
Bright parlour with her trefoiled floor!
Sweet garden, spread on ocean shore."

Quotations have already been made in the body of this book from Iolo Goch's ode to Glyndwr, and throughout the Wars of the Roses Lewis Glyncothi, Gutyn Owain, and Tudor Aled continued to sing of contemporary events.

The leading charge against Cymric poetry is that it is too prone to elaborate the mere art of versification at the expense of fire and animation. Alliteration was of course the chief method of ornament, though the rhyming of the terminal syllable was by no means always ignored. But, speaking generally, skill in the arrangement of words according to certain time-honoured conventions occupied more than an equitable share in the making of Welsh verse. A tendency to put mere sound above feeling and emotion did much to cramp it, and often forced it into mannerisms and affectations that would rather destroy than enhance the intrinsic merits of a composition.

"Beyond all rhetorical ornaments," says Giraldus Cambrensis,
"they preferred the use of alliteration and that kind more
especially which repeats the first letters or syllables of
words. They made so much use of this ornament in every
finished discourse that they thought nothing elegantly spoken
without it."

Mr. Stephens, by way of illustration, points out poems by the greater bards which from the first line to the last commence with the same letter. He also attributes the extraordinary elaboration in structure with which fashion was prone to cumber Welsh poetry to a desire for increasing the difficulties of composition and in consequence the exclusiveness of the bardic order. It is not surprising that in a country where war was the chief business of life it should be by far the favourite subject of the minstrel, particularly when one remembers that the celebration of his employer's exploits or intended exploits was the chief source of the domestic poet's livelihood. The wars of Glyndwr stirred again the old fighting note which after the Edwardian conquest had given way in a great measure to gentler themes. The old laws against the bards, enunciated by Edward I., now for long a dead letter, were renewed, but after this final submission of Wales it is doubtful if they continued to have much meaning, particularly amid the chaos of the ensuing Wars of the Roses, when the bards most certainly did their full share of singing.

I have said nothing of the music which both in early and mediæval Wales played such a prominent part in the national life. The harp was always the true national instrument, though the pipe or bagpipe was well known and in frequent use; but it was never really popular, as in Ireland and Scotland, and this was surely a valuable testimony to the superior culture of the Welsh musicians. Griffith ap Kynan, King of North Wales about 1100, already mentioned, introduced it into the Eisteddfod as the result of his Irish education. The pipes had hitherto been forbidden, and the result at the celebrated Eisteddfod at Caerwys was that Griffith's prize of a silver pipe went to a Scotsman. The Welsh, in short, despised the instrument. Lewis Glyncothi has left an amusing satire on a piper. He finds himself in Flint at an English marriage, where the guests would have none of him or his harp, but "bawled for Will the Piper, low born wretch" who comes forward as best he may, "unlike a free enobled man."

"The churl did blow a grating shriek,
The bag did swell, and harshly squeak,
As does a goose from nightmare crying,
Or dog crushed by a chest when dying,
This whistling box's changeless note
Is forced from turgid veins and throat;
Its sound is like a crane's harsh moan,
Or like a gosling's latest groan."

Giraldus, half Welshman himself, writing after his extended tour through Wales, about 1200, with Archbishop Baldwin, says:

"The strangers who arrived in the morning were entertained
until evening with the conversation of young women and with
the music of the harp, for in this country almost every house
is provided with both. Such an influence had the habit of
music on the mind and its fascinating powers, that in every
family or in every tribe, they esteemed skill in playing on
the harp beyond any kind of learning. Again, by the sweetness
of their musical instruments they soothe and delight the ear.
They are rapid yet delicate in their modulation, and by the
astonishing execution of their fingers and their swift
transitions from discord to concord, produce the most pleasing
harmony."

The part-singing of the Welsh seems also to have greatly struck Giraldus in contrast to the unison in which he heard the musicians of other nations perform.

To draw the line between the bard and musician would be of course impossible. Many writers of verse could only declaim; some could sing to their own accompaniment. The mass of musicians, how ever, we may take it, belonged to the lower grade of wandering bards, who played first, as we have seen, upon the national instrument, the harp, as well as upon the pipe and "crwth" (a kind of rude violin).

The tone of morality was certainly not high among the mediæval Welsh bards. They had long lost all touch with the order of the priesthood, and indeed monks and poets had become almost as a matter of course inimical to one another. The latter, too, maintained a steady hatred of the Saxon that was almost creditable, seeing how often their masters, for the sake of interest or revenge, took up arms against their fellow-countrymen.

It is sufficiently difficult merely to touch, and that in the slightest manner, so vast a subject as this. In recognising the insufficiency of such an attempt, I am almost thankful that the period of Glyndwr and the succeeding turmoil of the Wars of the Roses puts a reasonable limit to my remarks. For it goes without saying that when Wales settled down under the Tudors to its happy and humdrum existence, the martial attitude of the bards as feudal appanages and national firebrands altogether ceased. Welsh poets hereafter were private individuals, their song ceased for the most part to be of war; nor was the Saxon or the Lloegrian any longer an object of invective. The glory of this new United Britain to which they belonged was not without its inspiration, but it has been by no means a leading note in Welsh verse, which, speaking generally, has since in this particular sung upon a minor key.

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INDEX

A

Aber, 60, 72

Aberdaron, 201, 264-269

Aberffraw, 25

Abergavenny, 143

Abergavenny, Lord of, 227

Aberystwith, 231, 284-293

À'Court, Sir Francis, 262, 286

Adam of Usk, 130, 133, 150, 156, 159, 163

Albans, St., 193

Anarawd, 20

Anglesey, 70, 71, 75, 127, 135, 217, 218, 279

Anne, Queen, 323

Arundel, Earl of, 99, 177, 298

Arvon, cantref of, 295

Asaph, St., 66

Audley, Lord, 68, 86, 216

Augustine, St., 8, 9, 10

Avignon Pope, the, 234, 269-271, 299

B

Baldwin, Archbishop, 48

Bangor, 57, 75, 148, 299

Bangor Iscoed, 6

Bardolph, Earl, 252, 264, 268

Bards, the, 123, 134, 143, 163

Bardsey, Isle of, 53

Barmouth, 118

Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, 195, 229, 290

Beaufort, Earl, 128

Beaumaris, 279

Berkeley, James, Lord, 290

Berkhampstead, 170, 180

Berkrolles, Sir A., 231

Berkrolles, Sir Laurence, 281-283

Berwick, 203, 204

Bifort, Llewelyn, 234, 251, 252, 279, 299

Blanche, Princess, 168, 169

Bleddyn ap Cynvyn, 85

Bolde, John, 148-152, 219

Bramham Moor, battle of, 268

Brân the Blessed, 232

Brecon, 36, 142, 193, 194, 221, 317

Breiddon Hills, 17

Bristol, 212;
sailors of, 220, 287, 288

Brith, David, 134

Bromfield, Lordship of, 106

Browe, Sir Hugh, 141

Bryn Owen, battle of, 245

Brynsaithmarchog, 157

Builth, 152

C

Cader Idris, 141

Cadvan, King, 16

Cadwallader, 231

Cadwgan of the battle-axe, 260

Caer Drewyn, 122, 144

Caerleon, 2, 215, 245

Caerphilly, 215-217, 245

Canterbury, Archbishop of, 73, 79

Cardiff, 214, 215, 316

Cardigan, 5, 71, 79, 142, 149, 152

Carew, Thos., Earl, 191, 192, 202

Carmarthen, 28, 71, 79, 142, 152, 191, 192, 197, 198, 212-217, 256, 287

Carnarvon, 78, 86, 128, 139, 148, 190, 247

_Carnarvon, Record of_, 240, 287, 301

Carte, 303

Charles, King of France, 224, 225

Charltons, the, 146, 217, 229, 230, 297

Cheshire, 315

Chester, 1, 28, 32, 43, 44, 135, 140, 143, 144, 177, 203, 210, 302, 318

Chirk, 44, 87, 106, 155, 323

Clares, the, 316

Clear's, St., 191

Clwyd, Vale of, 18-20, 77, 135, 312

Coed Eulo, 43

Coity Castle, 37, 231, 259, 260, 275

Colwyn, 98

Colwyn ap Tangno, 232

Conway, 52, 61, 64-66, 75-78, 97, 98, 138-140, 218, 219, 323

Cornwall, conquest of, 16

Cornwall, Sir John, 217

Corwen, 44, 106, 122

Courtenay, Richard, 291

Courtenays, the, 214

Craig-y-dorth, battle of, 229

Creton, M., 121

Criccieth Castle, 62, 190, 219

Croesau Common, 111

Crofts, 104

Cunedda, 5

Cwm Hir Abbey, 53, 145

Cymmer Abbey, 166

Cynddylan, 7

Cynllaeth, 88

Cyrnwigen, 223

D

Dafydd ap Griffith, 71, 72, 74, 76

Dafydd ap Gwilim, 149, 235

Dafydd ap Llewelyn, 61-65

Dafydd ap Owen Gwynedd, 47

Dafydd ap Sinion, 232

Danbury church, 164

Danes, the, 17, 28

Daron, David, Dean of Bangor, 251, 252, 264, 279

David, St., 5

David's, St., 12, 28, 33, 48, 80

Dean, Forest of, 287

Dee River, 88, 91, 122

Defoe, 323, 324

Deganwy Castle, 57, 64

Deheubarth, description of, 14

Denbigh, 72, 118, 135, 141, 323

Denbigh County, 78

Deorham, 6

Despencer, Lady, 217, 242-244

Dinas Brân, 86, 87, 107, 118

Dolbadarn Castle, 66, 157, 301

Dolgelly, 141, 223

Dolwyddelan, 56, 301

Don, Henry, 190, 225

Doncaster, 125

Douglas, Lord, 181, 182, 203-206, 264

Dovey, the, 142, 143

Durham, 125

Dynevor Castle, 185, 190, 202

Dysanni River, 280

E

Eadgar, King, 26

Edeyrnion, Vale of, 102, 123, 240

Edinburgh, 126

Edward I., 67, 69-71, 75, 78, 79, 213

Edward II., 80

Edward III., 285

Edward IV., 313

Einion, 34, 35

Eleanor, Queen, 80

Elen, Glyndwr's mother, 88

Elfreton, Henry de, 138

Elizabeth, Queen, 321

Elizabeth Scudamore, 105

Ellis, Sir Henry, 189

Eltham, palace of, 242

Emma, wife of Dafydd ap Owen Gwynedd, 47

Emma, wife of Lord Audley, 86

Ethelfred, King, 10

F

Faireford, John, 193

Fitzhamon, 35-37, 316

Flemings, the, 40, 41, 144, 145

Flint, 43, 45, 78, 98, 99, 330

France, Charles, King of, 224, 225, 299

Franciscans, their plot, 169

G

Gam, Davy, 221-223, 298, 302

Gascoine, Judge, 252

Giraldus Cambrensis, 11, 47-52, 215

Glamorgan, 33-35, 175, 214, 245, 246, 251, 252, 259, 277, 278,
303, 316-330

Gloucester, Earl of, 75, 291, 318

Glyncothi, Lewis, 306

Glyndwr, his birth, and legends connected with it, 82, 83;
as a popular hero, 84;
descent, 87, 88;
place of birth, 89;
first recorded appearance, 90;
his designation, 91;
his youth, 92, 93;
esquire to Bolingbroke, 94;
supposed adherence to Richard II., 95, 99;
home life, 100-103;
wife and family, 104, 105;
estate and hospitality, 106, 107;
quarrel with Grey of Ruthin, 112;
refused a hearing, 113;
further persecution by Grey, 114, 115;
attacked by Earls Grey and Talbot and escapes, 120;
heads the Welsh forces, 122;
supported by the bards, 123;
declared Prince of Wales, 124;
eludes King Henry's forces, 127;
excluded from pardon, 128;
winters at Glyndyfrdwy, 131, 132;
attitude towards Hotspur and Prince Henry, 135, 136;
turns his army southwards, 138;
occupies Plinlimmon, 142, 143;
gains a victory at Mynydd Hyddgant, 144;
ravages South and Mid-Wales, 145, 146;
creates panic in England, 147;
frustrates Henry's second invasion, 149, 150;
all-powerful in Wales, 151;
goes to Carnarvon, 152;
meeting with Hotspur, 153, 154;
winters again at Glyndyfrdwy, 155;
attempts the capture of Harlech, 156;
captures Grey and ransoms him, 156-158;
sends letters to Scotland and Ireland, 159, 160;
destroys St. Asaph, 164;
adventure with Howel Sele, 165-168;
leaves North Wales, 170;
battle of Pilleth and capture of Edmund Mortimer, 171, 172;
devastates Glamorgan, 175;
his doings in Carnarvonshire, 176;
attacks west coast castles, 177;
established reputation as a magician, 178;
baffles Henry's third attempt to crush him, 180;
marries his daughter to Mortimer, 183;
his affairs prospering, 185;
invests west coast castles, 188;
his houses at Sycherth and Glyndyfrdwy destroyed by Prince
Henry, 186-188;
activity in South Wales, 190;
captures Carmarthen, 191;
checked by Carew, 192;
creates alarm in England, 193;
consults a soothsayer, 197;
meditates invasion of England, 198;
collision with the Percys, 201;
causes of his absence from battle of Shrewsbury, 202;
visits North Wales, 209;
invades Herefordshire, 211;
baffles Henry again, 211-214;
takes border castles, 215;
receives aid from the French, 217;
his Anglesey troops, 218;
attacks Carnarvon, 218;
captures Harlech, 220;
holds a parliament at Machynlleth, 221;
arrests Davy Gam, 222;
holds a council at Dolgelly, 223;
sends envoys to the King of France, 224;
letter to Henry Don, 225;
active on the Marches, 226;
defeat at Mynydd-cwm-du and victory at Craig-y-dorth, 229;
holds court at Llanbadarn and Harlech, 231-234;
situation in 1405, 237-242;
attempt to carry off the young Earl of March, 242;
victory at Pant-y-wenol, 245;
defeat at Grosmont, 247;
defeat at Pwll-Melyn and death of his brother, 249;
sends envoys to the North, 250;
his supposed wanderings, 252, 253;
summons a parliament to Harlech, 254;
meets his French allies at Tenby, 255;
marches to Worcester, 256-258;
retreats to Wales, 259;
his magic art again, 260;
dissatisfied with the French, 261;
secures exemption money from Pembroke, 262;
signs the tripartite indenture at Aberdaron, 264-268;
his famous letter to the King of France, 269-273;
his fortunes sensibly waning, 276;
traditions of his wanderings, 280-283;
movements uncertain, 284;
relieves Aberystwith, 291;
still active but no longer the same terror to England, 294;
loses Harlech and Aberystwith, 295;
his family captured, 296;
his fortunes sink, 300;
relapses gradually into a mere outlaw, 302;
legends concerning his wanderings, 303;
offered pardon by Henry V., 303;
claims of Monnington and Kentchurch as scene of his death, 307;
estimate by Welshmen of his position, 308

Glyndwr's Mount, 103

Glyndyfrdwy, 88, 91, 100, 104, 106, 120, 122, 128, 131, 186-190, 198

Gower, 197

Grendor, Sir John, 145, 184, 259, 290

Grenowe ap Tudor, 127

Grey, Reginald, Earl of Ruthin, 109-124, 154-159, 172, 173

Grey, Richard, Earl de, 177

Griffith ap Dafydd, 115-118

Griffith ap Llewelyn I., 28, 30, 31

Griffith ap Llewelyn II., 53, 68

Griffith ap Madoc, 85-87

Griffith, Sir John, 252

Griffith, son of Glyndwr, 165, 233, 249, 275, 306

Griffith y Baron Gwyn, 88

Grosmont, 246, 247, 304

Gutyn, Owen, 235

Gwenllian, illegitimate daughter of Glyndwr, 306

Gwent, 303

Gwynedd, description of, 13

H

Hall, 258, 259

Hanard, Jankyn, 190

Hanmer, family of, 104, 105

Hanmer, Griffith, 128

Hanmer, John, 224

Hardyng, Chronicle of, 154-159, 173, 174, 179

Harlech, 78, 156, 186, 190, 219, 220, 231-233, 262, 275, 287,
288, 293, 295, 296, 323

Harold, 29

Haverford-west, 41, 255

Hebog, Moel, 280

Henry I., King, 40

Henry II., King, 42-45

Henry III., 59-66

Henry IV., 93, 94, 121, 125-131, 136-140, 147-151, 154, 157, 158,
168-170, 177-181, 185, 200-207, 210-214, 230, 241-244, 256-261,
278, 284-292, 298, 302

Henry VII., 314

Henry VIII., 315, 319, 325

Henry, Prince, 117, 121, 125, 128, 135-137, 148, 185-190, 198,
202, 205, 210, 227, 240-247, 259, 276, 278, 284-295, 302,
303

Herbert, Lord, 232

Hereford, 193-195, 212-214, 226, 250, 251, 256, 257, 287, 288, 295, 317

Heytely field, 204

Higham Ferrers, 200

Hoare, Sir R. C., 168

Holinshed, 164, 204

Holt Castle, 87

Homildon, battle of, 181, 182

Hopkyn ap Thomas, 198

Hotspur, 131, 135-137, 139-142, 153, 154, 181, 182, 203-207

Howel ap Edwy, 28

Howel ap Owen Gwynedd, 45, 46

Howel Dda, 21-24

Howel Sele, 165-168

Howel Vychan, 219

Hugueville, Sire de, 255-258

I

Iago ap Idwal, 28

Iestyn, 38

Innocent, Pope, 58

Iolo Goch, 100-102, 124, 163, 208, 234, 283, 309

Iolo Morganwg MSS., 245, 281, 294

Isabel, daughter of Glyndwr, 105, 129

Isabella of France, 126

J

Janet Crofts, Glyndwr's daughter, 105

Jevan ap Meredith, 254

Joan, wife of Llewelyn II., 56, 60, 62

Joanna of Brittany, 168, 183

John, King, 56, 57

John ap Howel, 276

K

Katherine, wife of Edmund Mortimer, 233, 296

Kentchurch, 304

Kidwelly, 191

Kingeston, Archdeacon, 195, 196, 226, 227

L

Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, 135

Lampadarn, 186, 275

Lampeter, 152

Leget, David, 134

Leicester, 125

Leland, 189

Leominster, 211

Lichfield, 177, 202

Lilleshall, 177

Lincoln, 177

Lionel, son of Edmund Mortimer, 296

Llanbadarn, 28, 224, 231

Llandilo, 76, 185

Llandovery, 152, 185

Llanfaes Abbey, 60

Llangollen, 102, 123, 280

Llanrwst, 25, 61, 312

Llansantffraid, 172

Llansilin, 101, 127

Llewelyn ap Griffith, last Prince of North Wales, 65-72

Llewelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of North Wales, 55-60

Llewelyn ap Madoc, 86, 87

Llewelyn ap Seisyllt, Prince of North Wales, 27, 28

Llewelyn of Cayo, 150

Lleyn, promontory of, 53, 217

Lloid, John, 134

Llywarch, Hên, 7

London, 80

Ludlow, 177, 318

Lupus, Hugh, Earl of Chester, 32, 33

Lussan, Mme. de, 255

M

Machynlleth, 220-225, 269

Madoc ap Griffith, 85

Madoc ap Meredith, 80

Madoc ap Owen Gwynedd, 46

Maelgwyn, Prince of Gwynedd, 232

Maidstone, 244

Manorbier Castle, 41, 47

March, Earl of, 170, 242

Margaret Monnington, Glyndwr's daughter, 105

Matthew of Paris, 74

Melynydd, 317

Meredith, son of Glyndwr, 105, 233, 276, 304, 306

Meredith ap Owen, 118

Merioneth, 78, 215, 287, 301, 313

Milford, 254, 255

Monmouth, 259, 317, 330

Monnington, 104, 303-305

Monnow River, 246

Montgomery, 32, 146, 177, 317

Morgan of Coity, 37

Mortimer, Earl of, 87

Mortimer, Sir Edmund, 106, 170-172, 183, 184, 200, 201, 232, 242,
287, 296

Mortimer, Sir Ralph, 65

Mynydd-cwm-du, battle of, 229

Mynydd-Hyddgant, battle of, 144

N

Nannau, 165-168

Nevin tournament, 80

Newcastle, 126

Newmarch, Bernard de, 36

Newport, 215, 245

Newport, Sir Edward, 247

Northampton, 125, 193, 294

Northumberland, Earl of, 199, 200, 201, 209, 251, 252, 264-269, 279

Nottingham, 177

O

Offa, King of Mercia, 8, 13, 19

Ogof Dinas, 303

Oldcastle, Sir John, 290

Oswestry, 101, 116

Owen ap Griffith, 65, 66

Owen Cyfeiliog, 85

Owen Gwynedd, 42-45

Oxford, 133, 134

P

Pant-y-wenol, 245

Pauncefote, John, 216

Pembroke, 40, 41, 262, 316

Pengwern, 7

Penmynydd, 138, 314

Pennal, 269

Pennant, 143, 257

Perfeddwlad, the, 54, 57, 67, 71

Pilleth, battle of, 171, 181

Plinlimmon, 142, 143

Pontefract, 99, 125

Powys, description of, 14

Powys Castle, 146

Pulestone, 128

R

Radnor, 142, 317, 329

Radnor, New, 145

Rhondda valley, 260

Rhuddlan, 19, 32, 43, 78, 190

Rhys ap Gethin, 171, 190, 233, 246, 247

Rhys ap Griffith, 289

Rhys ap Jevan, 234

Rhys ap Tudor, 33

Rhys Ddu, 298

Rhys Dwy, 234

Richard II., 93-99, 121, 203

Rieux, Jean de, 255

Robert ap Jevan, 234

Roderic the Great, 15, 16

Rûg, 306

Ruthin, 106, 107, 110, 111, 156

Rutland, Lord, 152

S

Salisbury, Earl of, 95, 96

Salusburys of Rûg, 305

Scott, Sir Walter, 168

Scrope, Archbishop, 252

Scrope, Sir Henry, 216

Scrope and Grosvenor trial, 89

Scudamore, Alice, 104, 304

Scudamore, Philip, 298

Shakespeare, 181

Shrewsbury, 7, 58, 68, 77, 125-128, 177, 198-202, 297, 318

Shrewsbury, Abbot of, 205

Shrewsbury, battle of, 203-209

Shropshire, 226, 229, 317

Simon de Montfort, 68

Skidmore, 194

Snowdon, 70, 76, 128, 158, 172, 222

Somerset, Earl of, 306

Stafford, Lord, 206

Stanley, Sir John, 254

Stove, Morres, 134

Strata Florida Abbey, 149, 152, 291

Strathclyde, 19, 20

Strongbow, Gilbert de, 286

Sycherth, 100-103, 120, 128, 188, 190, 198, 306

T

Talbot, Earl of, 120

Talbot, Gilbert, 247, 295, 303

Tenby, 41, 256

Thomas, Prince, 177

Thomas ap Llewelyn, 80

Towy, Vale of, 278, 279

Towyn, 280

Trefgarn, 89

Tren, 8

Trevor, Bishop of St. Asaph, 113, 164, 165, 225, 226, 234, 249, 299

Tripartite Indenture, 201

Tudor, Glyndwr's brother, 90, 218, 233, 249

Tudor, Owen, 314

Tudor, William and Rhys, 138-140, 233, 252

Turberville, 38

Tutbury, 230

U

Uriconium, 2, 7

Usk, 215, 245

V

Valle Crucis Abbey, 52, 85, 280

Vychan, Griffith, Glyndwr's father, 82, 88, 89

Vychan, Roger, 222

W

Warren, Earl, 87

Warwick, Earl of, 178

Waterton, Hugh de, 195, 242

Welshpool, 146, 177, 217, 229, 290, 297

Whitmore, David, 254

William III., 323

William Rufus, 34

William the Conqueror, 33

Winchester, 77

Windsor Castle, 298

Woodbury hill, 257

Worcester, 210, 227, 228, 252, 256, 278

Worcester, Percy, Earl of, 152, 205, 206

Wynne, Sir John, of Gwydir, 312, 313

Y

Yale, Lordship of, 106

Yonge, Griffith, 224, 234

York, 77, 206, 251

York, Duke of, 214, 227, 242, 244, 290, 293

[Decoration]

Heroes of the Nations.

EDITED BY

EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A.,

Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.

A Series of biographical studies of the lives and work of a number of representative historical characters about whom have gathered the great traditions of the Nations to which they belonged, and who have been accepted, in many instances, as types of the several National ideals. With the life of each typical character will be presented a picture of the National conditions surrounding him during his career.

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HEROES OF THE NATIONS.

A series of biographical studies of the lives and work of certain representative historical characters, about whom have gathered the great traditions of the Nations to which they belonged, and who have been accepted, in many instances, as types of the several National ideals.

The volumes will be sold separately as follows: cloth extra, $1.50; half leather, uncut edges, gilt top, $1.75.

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NELSON. By W. Clark Russell.

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. By C. R. L. Fletcher.

PERICLES. By Evelyn Abbott.

THEODORIC THE GOTH. By Thomas Hodgkin.

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. By H. R. Fox-Bourne.

JULIUS CÆSAR. By W. Warde Fowler.

WYCLIF. By Lewis Sergeant.

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HENRY OF NAVARRE. By P. F. Willert.

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By Noah Brooks.

PRINCE HENRY (OF PORTUGAL) THE NAVIGATOR. By C. R. Beazley.

JULIAN THE PHILOSOPHER. By Alice Gardner.

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CHARLES XII. By R. Nisbet Bain.

LORENZO DE' MEDICI. By Edward Armstrong.

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ROBERT THE BRUCE. By Sir Herbert Maxwell.

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FREDERICK II. By A. L. Smith.

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WILLIAM THE SILENT. By Ruth Putnam.

JUSTINIAN. By Edward Jenks.

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[Decoration]

The Story of the Nations.

Messrs. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS take pleasure in announcing that they have in course of publication, in co-operation with Mr. T. Fisher Unwin, of London, a series of historical studies, intended to present in a graphic manner the stories of the different nations that have attained prominence in history.

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GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harrison.

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THE JEWS. Prof. James K. Hosmer.

CHALDEA. Z. A. Ragozin.

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SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan Hale.

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THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W. D. Morrison.

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THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. C. W. C. Oman.

SICILY. E. A. Freeman.

THE TUSCAN REPUBLICS. Bella Duffy.

POLAND. W. R. Morfill.

PARTHIA. Geo. Rawlinson.

JAPAN. David Murray.

THE CHRISTIAN RECOVERY OF SPAIN. H. E. Watts.

AUSTRALASIA. Greville Tregarthen.

SOUTHERN AFRICA. Geo. M. Theal.

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BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. R. W. Frazer.

MODERN FRANCE. André Le Bon.

THE BUILDING OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. Alfred T. Story. Two vols.

THE FRANKS. Lewis Sargeant.

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THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND IN THE 19TH CENTURY. Justin McCarthy,
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MOHAMMEDAN INDIA. Stanley Lane-Poole.

WALES AND CORNWALL. Owen M. Edwards.

Transcriber's Note

The author uses some extensive variations in the spelling of proper nouns. This is sometimes variation between Welsh and English, or sometimes within either the Welsh or the English. Except where there was a definite error or clear prevalence of one form over another, these variations are preserved as printed. Those which have been amended are as follows:

Page ix--Geraldus amended to Giraldus--... Giraldus Cambrensis
on the Welsh ...

Page x--Plimlimmon amended to Plinlimmon--... Owen Goes to
Plinlimmon ...

Page xv--VALLEY amended to VALLE--VALLE CRUCIS ABBEY

Illustration facing page 54--VALLEY amended to VALLE--VALLE
CRUCIS ABBEY

Page 189--Sagherne amended to Saghern--... and explain Prince
Henry's "Saghern" in that manner.

Page 217--Despenser amended to Despencer--... was in the
charge of a Châtelaine, Lady Despencer.

Page 226--Kingston amended to Kingeston--Archdeacon Kingeston
at Hereford once again takes up his pen ...

Page 293--Bardolf amended to Bardolph--... and with Bardolph
and Bifort, Owen's Bishop of Bangor, ...

Page 317--Brecheniog amended to Brecheiniog--Brecon took its
name from the old lordship of Brecheiniog ...

The author explicitly thanks a W. D. Haydon for photographs used in the book, however the List of Illustrations references this person as W. D. Hayson. The List of Illustrations and the credit under the photograph have both been amended, as the transcriber found other photographs attributed to Haydon, but none to Hayson.

Page 267 mentions Lœgira. This is probably an error for Lœgria, but as it is part of an extended quotation, is preserved as printed.

Minor punctuation errors have been repaired. Hyphenation usage has been made consistent.

The following amendments have been made:

Page xvi--MANORBRIER amended to MANORBIER--MANORBIER CASTLE
262

Page xvi--ABERYSWITH amended to ABERYSTWITH--ABERYSTWITH
CASTLE 290

Page 52--Florada amended to Florida--... Ystradfflur (_Strata
Florida_) in Cardigan ...

Page 91--Dwrfdwy amended to Dwfrdwy--... simply means the Glen
of the Dwfrdwy or Dyfrdwy, ...

Page 107--repeated 'the' deleted--... to make himself popular
upon the banks ...

Page 121--depositition amended to deposition--... for some
time after his deposition at the English Court.

Page 222--Glynwdr amended to Glyndwr--When next Glyndwr went
campaigning ...

Page 224--intrument amended to instrument--By this instrument
Glyndwr and the French King ...

Page 297--viligance amended to vigilance--... showed a
vigilance in Wales ...

Page 298--Aberyswith amended to Aberystwith--... we have seen
at Aberystwith, Harlech, and elsewhere.

Page 308--decendants amended to descendants--... which their
descendants, if they showed much vigour ...

Page 353--Glyncothe amended to Glyncothi--Glyncothi, Lewis,
306

Page 355--Holinshead amended to Holinshed--Holinshed, 164, 204

Page 355--Llandovey amended to Llandovery--Llandovery, 152,
185

The index entries for Sir John Cornwall, Doncaster, and Lichfield, were out of order. They have been moved to the correct place. Note also that Elizabeth Scudamore is listed in the index under E, while Alice Scudamore and Philip Scudamore are listed under S. These have been preserved as printed.

The frontispiece illustration has been moved to follow the title page. Other illustrations have been moved where necessary so that they are not in the middle of a paragraph.

Credits in the List of Illustrations were originally set as footnotes. The transcriber has instead put the appropriate credit below each item.