CHAPTER XII

CONCLUSION

As I have led up to the advent of Glyndwr with a rough outline of Welsh history prior to his day, I will now cast a brief glance at the period which followed. English people have a tendency to underestimate, or rather to take into small consideration, the wide gulf which, not only in former days, but to some extent even yet, divides the two countries. They are apt to think that after the abortive rising of Glyndwr, provided even this stands out clearly in their minds, everything went smoothly and Wales became merely a geographical expression with an eccentric passion for maintaining its own language. As, in the introduction to this book, I had to solicit the patience of the general reader and crave the forbearance of the expert for an effort to cover centuries in a few pages, so I must again put in a plea for another venture of the same kind--briefer, but none the less difficult.

The ruin left by Glyndwr's war was awful. It was not only the loss of property, the destruction of buildings, the sterilisation of lands, but the quarrels and the blood-feuds which the soreness of these years of strife handed down for generations to the descendants of those who had taken opposing sides. And then before prosperity had fairly lifted its head, before bloody quarrels and memories had been forgotten, the devastating Wars of the Roses were upon the country, and it was plunged once more into a chaos not much less distracting than that in which the preceding generation had weltered.

Though, by a curious turn of events, she ultimately gave to England a Lancastrian king, Wales most naturally favoured the House of York. Edmund Mortimer, uncle to the young Earl of March, had shared the triumphs and the perils of Glyndwr's rising. The blood of Llewelyn ap Iorwerth flowed in the veins of the Mortimers, and their great estates lay chiefly in Wales and on the border. The old antagonism to Bolingbroke's usurpation, and the sympathy with Richard and his designated heir that half a century before accompanied it, were still remembered. The Yorkists, however, had no monopoly of Wales,--Welsh knights had fought victoriously in France under Henry V., and Marcher barons of Lancastrian sympathies could command a considerable following of Welshmen. The old confusion of lordship government still retained half Wales as a collection of small palatinates. Once more the castles that Glyndwr had left standing echoed to the bustle of preparation and the stir of arms, and felt the blows of an artillery that they could no longer face with quite the composure with which they had faced the guns of Henry the Fourth. It was not so much the actual damage that was done, for this war was not so comprehensive, but rather the passions and faction it aroused among the Welsh gentry of both races, though this new faction no longer ran strictly upon racial lines. Nor, again, was it the amount of blood that was shed, for this compared to Glyndwr's war was inconsiderable, but the legacy, rather, of lawlessness that it left behind. Sir John Wynne of Gwydir, in the invaluable chronicle which he wrote at his home in the Vale of Conway during the reign of Elizabeth, draws a graphic picture of North Wales as Henry the Seventh found it. Sir John's immediate forbears had taken a brisk hand in the doings of those distracted times, and there were still men living when he wrote who had seen the close of the chaos with their own eyes, and whose minds were stored with the evidence of their fathers and grandfathers. Harlech in these wars stood once more a noted siege. It was held for the Lancastrians by a valiant Welshman against the Herberts, who made a somewhat celebrated march through the mountains to besiege it. The stout defence it offered inspired the music and the words of the Welsh national march, "Men of Harlech,"--as spirited an air of its kind, perhaps, as has ever been written. The Vale of Clwyd, the garden of North Wales, was burnt, says Sir John, "to cold coals." Landowners who had mortgaged their estates, he goes on to tell us, scarcely thought them worth redeeming, while the deer grazed in the very streets of Llanrwst. For two or three generations the country was infested by bands of robbers who found refuge in the mountains of Merioneth or the wild uplands of the Berwyn Range, and fought for the privilege of systematically plundering and levying blackmail on the Vale of Conway and the richer meadows of Edeyrnion. Sir John's grandfather found it necessary to go to church attended by a bodyguard of twenty men armed to the teeth. "The red-haired banditti of Mawddy" kept the country between the Dovey and Mawddach estuaries and inland nearly to Shropshire in a state of chronic terror. The Carnarvon squires cherished blood-feuds that almost resembled a vendetta, laid siege to one another's houses, and engaged in mimic battles of a truly bloodthirsty description. The first Wynne of Gwydir left West Carnarvonshire and preferred to live among the brigands of the Vale of Conway rather than among his own relatives, since he would "either have to kill or be killed by them." To try and combat these organised bands of robbers, Edward IV. instituted, in 1478, the Court of the President and Council of the Marches of Wales, with summary jurisdiction over all breakers of the peace--provided always that they could catch them! The legal machinery of the lordships was wholly ineffectual, for though each petty monarch had the power of life and death, the harbouring of thieves and outlaws became a matter purely of personal rivalry and jealousy.

But this epoch of Welsh history ended with the advent of the Tudors, which is in truth an even more notable landmark than the so-called conquest of Edward I. Wales since that time had been governed as a conquered country, or a Crown province--she had been annexed but not united, nor had she been represented in Parliament, while outside the Edwardian counties justice was administered, or more often not administered, by two or three score of petty potentates. One must not, however, make too much of what we now call union and patriotism. Cheshire had been till quite recently an independent earldom, with similar relations to the Crown as the lordship, say, of Ruthin or of Hay. As regards national feeling, it is very doubtful if the sentiments that had animated the heptarchy had been eradicated from that turbulent palatinate who boasted the best archers in England and were extremely jealous of their licentious independence.

But it was a pure accident that in the end really reconciled the Welsh to a close union with the hated Saxon. Steeped as they were in sentiment, and credulous to a degree of mysticism and prophecy, and filled with national pride, the rise of the grandson of Owen Tudor of Penmynydd to the throne of Britain was for the Cymry full of significance. The fact, too, that Henry was not merely a Welshman but that he landed in Wales and was accompanied thence by a large force of his fellow-countrymen to the victorious field of Bosworth was a further source of pride and consolation to this long-harassed people. It would be hard indeed to exaggerate the effect upon Wales and its future relationship with England, when a curious chain of events elevated this once obscure princeling to the throne of England. It was strange, too, that it should be a Lancastrian after all whose accession caused such joy and triumph throughout a province which had shed its blood so largely upon the opposing side. The bards were of course in ecstasies; the prophecy that a British prince should once again reign in London--which had faded away into a feeble echo, without heart or meaning, since the downfall of Glyndwr--now astonished with its sudden fulfilment the expounders of Merlin and the Brut as completely as it did the audience to whom they had so long foretold this unlikely consummation. Not for a moment, however, we may well believe, was such a surprise admitted nor the difference in the manner of its fulfilment. But who indeed would carp at that when the result was so wholly admirable? It is not our business to trace the tortuous ways by which fate removed the more natural heirs to the throne and seated upon it for the great good of England as well as of Wales the grandson of an Anglesey squire of ancient race and trifling estate.

That the first Tudor disappointed his fellow-countrymen in some of their just expectations, and behaved in fact somewhat meanly to them, is of no great consequence since his burly son made such ample amends for the shortcomings of his father. The matrimonial barbarities of Henry the Eighth and his drastic measures in matters ecclesiastical have made him so marked a personage that men forget and indeed are not very clearly made to understand what he did for Wales, and consequently for England too.

By an Act of Parliament in 1535 the whole of the Lordship Marcher system was swept away, and the modern counties of Denbigh, Montgomery, Monmouth, Glamorgan, Brecon, and Radnor were formed out of the fragments. It is only possible to generalise within such compass as this. The precise details belong rather to antiquarian lore and would be out of place here. It will be sufficient to say that the Welsh people of all degrees, after waiting with laudable patience for their first King to do something practical on their behalf, petitioned Henry the Eighth to abolish the disorders under which half their country groaned and to grant that representation in Parliament as yet enjoyed by no part of the Principality, and without which true equality could not exist. The King appointed a commission to carry out their wishes. The sources from which the new counties took their names, though following no rule, are obvious enough. Glamorgan, the old Morganwg, had been practically a County Palatine since Fitzhamon and his twelve knights seized it in Henry the First's time, that is to say, the inferior lordships were held in fealty, not each to the King as elsewhere, but to the heirs of Fitzhamon, who for many generations were the Clares, Earls of Gloucester, having their capital at Cardiff, where higher justice was administered. Pembroke was something of the same sort, though the Flemish element made it differ socially from Glamorgan. Nor must it be forgotten that that promontory of Gower in the latter palatinate was a Flemish lordship. But Pembroke was the actual property of the Crown and its earls or lords were practically constables. The rest of the Marches (for this term signified all Wales outside the Edwardian counties) had no such definitions. That they followed no common rule was obvious enough. Brecon took its name from the old lordship of Brecheiniog that Bernard de Newmarch had founded in Henry the First's time. The old Melynydd, more or less, became Radnor, after its chief fortress and lordship. Montgomery derived its shire name from the high-perched castle above the Severn, Monmouth from the town at the Monnow's mouth. Large fragments of the Marches, too, were tacked on to the counties of Hereford and Shropshire, the Welsh border as we know it to-day being in many places considerably westward of the old line. All the old lordship divisions with the privileges and responsibilities of their owners were abolished, and the castles, which had only existed for coercive and defensive purposes, began gradually from this time to subside into those hoary ruins which from a hundred hilltops give the beautiful landscape of South Wales a distinction that is probably unmatched in this particular in northern Europe. County government was uniformly introduced all over Wales and the harsh laws of Glyndwr's day, for some time a dead letter, were erased from the statutes. Parliamentary representation was allotted, though only one knight instead of two sat for a shire and one burgess only for all the boroughs of a shire; and the two countries became one in heart as well as in fact. Till 1535 the eldest son of English Kings, as Prince of Wales, had been all that the name implies. Henceforth it became a courtesy title; and one may perhaps be allowed a regret, having regard to the temperament of a Celtic race in this particular, that our English monarchs have allowed it to remain so wholly divorced from all Welsh connection. The last actual Prince of Wales was Henry the Eighth's elder brother Arthur, who died at the then official residence of Ludlow Castle a few weeks after his marriage with Catherine of Aragon.

This reminds me too that one peculiarity remained to distinguish the administration of Wales from that of England, namely that famous and long-lived institution, the "Court of the Marches." This has already been mentioned as introduced by Edward the Fourth, who was friendly to Wales, for the suppression of outlaws and brigands. It was confirmed and its powers enlarged by Henry the Eighth's Act, and with headquarters at Ludlow, though sitting sometimes at Shrewsbury and Chester, it was the appeal for all important Welsh litigation. Nor was it in any sense regarded as a survival of arbitrary treatment. On the contrary, it was a convenience to Welshmen, who could take cases there that people in North Yorkshire, for instance, would have to carry all the way to Westminster. For a long time, curiously enough, its jurisdiction extended into the counties of Worcester, Gloucester, Hereford, and Salop. It consisted of a president and council with a permanent staff of subordinate officials. The presidency was an office of great honour, held usually by a bishop or baron of weight in the country, associated with the two justices of Wales and that of Chester. The arrangement seems to have caused general satisfaction till the reign of William the Third, when the growth of industry and population made it advisable to divide Wales into circuits.

The petitions addressed from the Welsh people to Henry praying for complete fusion with England are instructive reading. Marcher rule at the worst had been infamously cruel, at the best inconvenient and inequitable. It was a disgrace to the civilisation of the fifteenth century, which is saying a great deal. To bring criminals to justice was almost impossible when they had only to cross into the next lordship, whose ruler, being unfriendly perhaps to his neighbour, made it a point of honour to harbour those who defied him. The still martial spirit of the Welsh found vent when wars had ceased in petty quarrels, and with such a turbulent past it did them credit that they recognised how sorely even-handed justice was wanted among them.

Lordship Marchers themselves were too often represented by deputies, and something like the abuses that were familiar in Ireland in more recent times owing to middlemen added to the confusion. According to local custom the humbler people of one lordship might not move eight paces from the road as they passed through a neighbouring territory. The penalty for transgression was all the money they had about them and the joint of one finger. If cattle strayed across the lordship boundary they could be kept and branded by the neighbouring lord or his representatives.

In the aforesaid petitions sent up to Henry VIII. the petitioners dwell upon their loyalty to the throne and the unhappy causes that had alienated them from it in the past. They remind him of how they fought in France for Edward III., and of their loyalty to Richard II., which was the sole cause, they declare, of their advocacy of Glyndwr. They indignantly declare that they are not "runaway Britons as some call us," but natives of a country which besides defending itself received all those who came to it for succour at the period alluded to. Resenting the imputation of barrenness sometimes cast on their country, they declare that "even its highest mountains afford beef and mutton, not only to ourselves, but supply England in great quantity." They recall the fact that they were Christians while the Saxons were still heathen. They combat those critics who describe their language as uncouth and strange and dwell on its antiquity and purity. If it is spoken from the throat, say these petitioners, "the Spanish and Florentines affect that pronunciation as believing words so uttered come from the heart." Finally, with presumably unconscious satire, they allude to the speech of the northern part of the island as "a kind of English."

Henry accomplished these great reforms in the teeth of the baronial influence of the whole Marches, and if the slaughter of the Wars of the Roses had made his task somewhat easier, he should have full credit for achieving a piece of legislation whose importance as an epoch-marking event could hardly be exaggerated, not only as affecting Wales but the four powerful counties that adjoined it.

To create and organise six new counties out of chaos, to enfranchise and give representation to twelve, to permanently attach one of the three tributary kingdoms to the British Crown, is a performance that should be sufficient to lift the reign of a monarch out of the common run. Every schoolboy is familiar with the figure of Henry VIII. prancing in somewhat purposeless splendour on the Field of the Cloth of Gold. But who remembers the assimilation of Wales to England which was his doing?

Wales, though small in population, was numerically much greater in proportion to England than is now the case. To-day she is a twentieth, then perhaps she was nearly a seventh, of the whole. It was of vital importance that her people should be satisfied and well governed. The accession of the Tudors and the common sense of their second monarch achieved without difficulty what might have been a long and arduous business.

The palmy days of Elizabeth saw Wales, like England, advance by leaps and bounds. The native gentry, the tribesmen, the "Boneddigion," always pressing on the Norman aristocracy, now came again in wholesale fashion to the front. The grim castle and the fortified manor developed into the country house. Polite learning increased and the upper classes abandoned, in a manner almost too complete, the native tongue. The higher aristocracy, taking full and free part in English life, became by degrees wholly Anglicised, and the habit, though very gradually, spread downwards throughout the whole gentry class. The Reformation had been accepted with great reluctance in Wales. The people were conservative by instinct and loyal to all such constituted authorities as they held in affection. They would take anything, however, for that very reason, from the Tudors, and swallowed, or partly swallowed, a pill that was by no means to their liking. In Elizabeth's time the Bible and Prayer-Book were translated into Welsh, which marked another epoch in the history of Wales much greater than it at first sounds. It was not done without opposition: the desire in official circles to stamp out the native language, which became afterward so strong, had already germinated, and it was thought that retaining the Scriptures and the Service in English would encourage its acquisition among the people. The prospects, however, in the actual practice did not seem encouraging, and in the meantime the souls of the Welsh people were starving for want of nourishment. The Welsh Bible and Prayer-Book proved an infinite boon to the masses of the nation, but it did more than anything else to fix the native tongue.

Wales readily transformed its affection for the Tudors into loyalty for the Stuarts. The Church, too, was strong--the bent of the people being averse to Puritanism, and indeed nowhere in Britain did the survivals of popery linger so long as among the Welsh mountains. Even to-day, amid the uncongenial atmosphere that a century of stern Calvinism has created, some unconscious usages and expressions of the peasantry in remoter districts preserve its traces. The Civil War found Wales staunch almost to a man for the King. There were some Roundheads in the English part of Pembroke, as was natural, and a few leading families elsewhere were found upon the Parliamentary side. Such of the castles as had not too far decayed were furbished up and renewed the memories of their stormy prime under circumstances far more injurious to their masonry. Harlech, Chirk, Denbigh, Conway, and many others made notable defences. The violent loyalty of Wales brought down upon it the heavy hand of Cromwell, though himself a Welshman by descent. The landed gentry were ruined or crippled, and the prosperity of the country greatly thrown back. It is said that the native language took some hold again of the upper classes from the fact of their poverty keeping them at home, whereas they had been accustomed to flock to the English universities and the border grammar schools, such as Shrewsbury, Chester, or Ludlow. Welsh poetry and literature expended itself in abuse of that Puritanism which in a slightly different form was later on to find in Wales its chosen home. But in all this there was of course little trace of the old international struggles. The Civil War was upon altogether different lines. The attitude of Wales was, in fact, merely that of most of the west of England somewhat emphasised.

Smitten in prosperity, the Principality moved slowly along to better times in the wake of England, under the benevolent neutrality of the later Stuarts and of William and Anne. It still remained a great stronghold in outward things, at any rate, of the Church, and kept alive what Defoe, travelling there in Anne's reign, calls "many popish customs," such as playing foot-ball between the services on Sunday, and retiring to drink at the public house, which was sometimes, he noted, kept by the parson, while even into the eighteenth century funeral processions halted at the crossroads and prayed for the soul of the dead. The Welsh landowning families were numerous and poor, proud of their pedigrees, which unlike the Anglo-Norman had a full thousand years for genealogical facts or fancies to play over. At the beginning of the eighteenth century there were very few wealthy landowners in Wales who stood out above the general level, which was perhaps a rude and rollicking one. There was no middle class, for there were neither trade nor manufactures worth mentioning, and little shifting from one class to another. Hence the genealogy was simple, and consequently, perhaps, more accurate than in wealthier societies. The mixture of English blood over most of the country was almost nil among the lower class, and not great even among the gentry.

The peasantry still submitted themselves without question to their own social leaders, and the latter, though they had mostly abandoned their own language, still took a pride in old customs and traditions, were generous, hospitable, quarrelsome, and even more addicted to convivial pleasures than their English contemporaries of that class. Defoe was at a cocking match in Anglesey and sat down to dinner with forty squires of the island. "They talked in English," he says, "but swore in Welsh." That the Welsh gentleman of the present day, unlike his prototype of Scotland or Ireland, shows no trace worth mentioning of his nationality is curious when one thinks how much farther removed he usually is in blood from the Englishman than either. It should be remembered, however, that there were no seats of learning in Wales such as Ireland and Scotland possessed. The well-to-do young Welshman went naturally to England for his education, even in days when difficulties of travelling were in favour of even indifferent local institutions.

Surnames became customary in Wales about the time of the Tudor settlement; previously only a few men of literary distinction had adopted them, such as Owen Cyfylliog, Prince of Upper Powys, Dafydd Hiraethog, etc. The inconvenience of being distinguished only by the names of his more recent ancestors connected by "ab" or "ap" was found intolerable by the Welshman and his English friends as life got more complex. It is said that Henry VIII. was anxious for the Welsh landowners to assume the name of their estates in the old Anglo-Norman fashion, and it is a pity his suggestion was not followed, in part at any rate. But the current Christian name of the individual was adopted instead and saddled for ever on each man's descendants. So a language full of euphonious place-names and sonorous sounds shows the paradox of the most inconveniently limited and perhaps the poorest family nomenclature in Europe.

In 1735, just two hundred years after its complete union with England, began the movement that was in time to change all Wales, I had almost said the very Welsh character itself. This was the Methodist revival. All Welshmen were then Church people. The landed families for the most part supplied the parishes with incumbents, grouping them no doubt as much as possible so as to create incomes sufficient for a younger son to keep a humble curate and ruffle it with his lay relatives over the bottle and in the field. The peasantry may have been cheery and happy, but they were sunk in ignorance. They seem, however, to have been good churchgoers--the old instinct of discipline perhaps surviving--but the spiritual consolation they received there was lamentably deficient, and the Hanoverian régime was making matters steadily worse. Its political bishops rarely came near their Welsh dioceses. All the higher patronage was given to English absentees, for the poor Welsh squires could be of little political service and had no equivalent wherewith to pay for a deanery or a canon's stall. To be a Welshman, in fact, was then, and for more than a century later when the landed class had nearly ceased to enter the Church, of itself a bar to advancement. The mental alertness and religious fervour, however, of the Welsh people had only lain dormant under circumstances so discouraging, and were far from dead. They presented a rare field for the efforts of the religious reformer, though it seems more than likely that the beauty and ritual of an awakened Anglican Church would have appealed to their natures more readily even than the eloquence of the Calvinistic school that eventually led them captive. The Welsh people were imaginative, reverential, musical. Their devotion to the old faith in both its forms was sufficiently shown by the pathetic fidelity with which they clung to their mother churches till, both physically and mentally, they tumbled about their ears.

The Methodist revivalists of the eighteenth century were, as everyone knows, for the most part Churchmen. Many of them were in orders, valiant and devoted men, who not only preached in the highways and hedges, but founded schools all over Wales, whose peasantry at that time were almost without education. They suffered every kind of persecution and annoyance from the Church, while the country clergy headed mobs who treated them with physical violence. No effort was made to meet this new rival upon its own grounds,--those of ministerial energy and spiritual devotion,--but its exponents were met only with rotten eggs. The bishops were not merely absentees for the most part, but from 1700 to 1870 they were consistently Englishmen, ignorant of the Welsh tongue, and regarded in some sort as agents for the Anglicising of Wales. Men who with some exceptions were destitute of qualifications for their office found themselves in positions that would have taxed abilities of the highest order and all the energies of a modern prelate. The holders of Welsh sees laid neither such slender stocks of ability nor energy as they might possess under the slightest contribution on behalf of Welsh religion. With the funds of the Church, however, they observed no such abstention, but saddled the needy Welsh Establishment with a host of relatives and friends. As for themselves, with a few notable exceptions they cultivated a dignified leisure, sometimes at their palaces, more often in London or Bath. One prelate never saw his diocese at all, while another lived entirely in Cumberland. With the Methodist revival one could not expect them to sympathise, nor is it surprising that their good wishes were with the militant pot-house parsons who were in favour of physical force. One must remember after all, however, that this was the Hogarthian period; that in all these features of life England was at its worst; and that the faults of the time were only aggravated in Wales by its aloofness and its lingual complications. The Welsh Methodist, it is true, did not formally leave the Church till 1811, but by that time Calvinism had thoroughly taken hold of the country, and the Establishment had not only made no spiritual efforts to stem the tide, but was rapidly losing even its social influence, as the upper classes were ceasing to take service in its ranks. The Welsh parson of indifferent morals and lay habits had hitherto generally been of the landowning class. Now he was more often than not of a humbler grade without any compensating improvement in morals or professional assiduity. The immense development of dissent in Wales during the last century is a matter of common knowledge. The purifying of the Welsh Church and clergy in the latter half of it and the revival of Anglican energy within the last quarter are marked features of modern Welsh life. We have nothing to do here with the probabilities of a success so tardily courted. But it is of pertinent interest to consider the immense changes that have come over Wales since, let us say, the middle of the Georgian period; and by this I do not merely mean those caused by a material progress common to the whole of Great Britain. For there is much reason to think that the character of the Welsh peasantry has been steadily altering, particularly in the more thoroughly Welsh districts, since they fell under the influence of Calvinistic doctrines. There is much evidence that the old Welshman was a merry, light-hearted person, of free conversation and addicted to such amusements as came in his way; that he still had strong military instincts,[16] and cherished feudal attachments to the ancient families of Wales even beyond the habit of the time among the English. This latter instinct has died hard, considering the cleavage that various circumstances have created between the landed gentry and the peasantry. Indeed it is by no means yet dead.

[16] Recent events have demonstrated that this spirit is still far from extinct.

The drift of the native tongue, too, since Tudor times has been curious. Its gradual abandonment by the landed gentry from that period onwards, with the tenacity with which their tenants for the most part clung to it, is a subject in itself. The resistance it still offers in spots that may be fairly described as in the very centre of the world's civilisation is probably the most striking lingual anomaly in Europe. Its disappearance, on the other hand, in regions intensely Welsh is worthy of note. Radnorshire, for instance, penetrating the very heart of the Principality, populated almost wholly by Cymry, forgot its Welsh before anyone now living can remember. Bits of Monmouth, on the other hand, long reckoned an English county, still use it regularly. It is the household tongue of villagers in Flint, who can see Liverpool from their windows, while there are large communities of pure Celts in Brecon and Carmarthen who cannot even understand it.

The great coal developments in South Wales have wholly transformed large regions and brought great wealth into the country, and replaced the abundant rural life of Glamorgan and its ancient families, Welsh and Norman, with a black country that has developed a new social life of its own. Slate quarrying has proved a vast and profitable industry among the northern mountains, while thousands of tourists carry no inconsiderable stream of wealth across the Marches with every recurring summer. But neither coal-pits, nor quarries, nor tourists make much impression on the Welsh character such as it has become in the North, more particularly under the influence of Calvinism, and very little upon the language which fifty years ago men were accustomed to regard as doomed.

The history of Welsh land since the time of the Tudor settlement is but that of many parts of England. Wales till this century was distinguished for small properties and small tenancies. There were but few large proprietors and few large farmers. In the matter of the former particularly, things have greatly altered. The small squires who lived somewhat rudely in diminutive manor-houses have been swallowed up wholesale by their thriftier or bigger neighbours, but the general and now regretted tendency to consolidate farms scarcely touched Wales, fortunately for that country. Save in a few exceptional districts it is a land of small working farmers, and in most parts the resident agricultural labourer as a detached class scarcely exists.

Few countries in the world contain within the same area more elements of prosperity and happiness than modern Wales, and fewer still are so fortunately situated for making the most of them. Coal, iron, slate, and other minerals in great abundance are vigorously exported and give work and good wages to a large portion of the population. In the rural districts a thrifty peasantry are more widely distributed over the soil, to which they are peculiarly attached, than in almost any part of Britain, and occupied for the most part in the more hopeful and less toilsome of the two branches of agriculture, namely, that of stock-breeding. Surrounded on three sides by the sea, there are ready facilities for the trader, the sailor, or the fisherman. The romantic scenery of the country is another valuable asset to its people and brings an annual and certain income that only one small corner of England can show any parallel to. Education is in an advanced state, while the humbler classes of society have resources due to their taste for music and their sentiment for their native language, which have no equivalent in English village life.

Even those strangely constituted minds that like to dig up racial grievances from the turmoil of the Middle Ages, when right and might were synonymous words the world over, and profess to judge the fourteenth century by the ethics of the nineteenth, must confess that the forced partnership with England has had its compensations. The reasonable Welshman will look back rather with much complaisance on the heroic and prolonged struggle of his ancestors against manifest destiny, remembering always that the policy of the Norman kings was an obvious duty to themselves and to their realm.

Had the Ireland of that day, with its larger fighting strength and sea-girt territory, possessed the national spirit and tenacious courage of Wales, who knows but that she might have vindicated her right to a separate nationality by the only test admissible in mediæval ethics, that of arms? Geography at any rate in her case was no barrier to an independent existence, and there would have been nothing illogical or unnatural in the situation. But geography irrevocably settled the destiny of Wales, as it eventually did that of Scotland. If the conditions under which Wales came into partnership were different and the date earlier, that, again, was partly due to its propinquity to the heart of England. Yet with all these centuries of close affinity to England, the Welsh in many respects--I had almost said in most--have preserved their nationality more successfully than the Celts of either Ireland or the North, and in so doing have lost nothing of such benefits as modern civilisation brings.

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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.

The narratives are the work of writers who are recognized authorities on their several subjects, and, while thoroughly trustworthy as history, will present picturesque and dramatic "stories" of the Men and of the events connected with them.

To the Life of each "Hero" will be given one duodecimo volume, handsomely printed in large type, provided with maps and adequately illustrated according to the special requirements of the several subjects. The volumes will be sold separately as follows:

Large 12^o, cloth extra $1.50 Half morocco, uncut edges, gilt top 1.75

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.

The following are now ready:

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.

NAPOLEON. By W. O'Connor Morris.

HENRY OF NAVARRE. By P. F. Willert.

CICERO. By J. L. Strachan-Davidson.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By Noah Brooks.

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

JULIAN THE PHILOSOPHER. By Alice Gardner.

LOUIS XIV. By Arthur Hassall.

CHARLES XII. By R. Nisbet Bain.

LORENZO DE' MEDICI. By Edward Armstrong.

JEANNE D'ARC. By Mrs. Oliphant.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. By Washington Irving.

ROBERT THE BRUCE. By Sir Herbert Maxwell.

HANNIBAL. By W. O'Connor Morris.

ULYSSES S. GRANT. By William Conant Church.

ROBERT E. LEE. By Henry Alexander White.

THE CID CAMPEADOR. By H. Butler Clarke.

SALADIN. By Stanley Lane-Poole.

BISMARCK. By J. W. Headlam.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT. By Benjamin I. Wheeler.

CHARLEMAGNE. By H. W. C. Davis.

OLIVER CROMWELL. By Charles Firth.

RICHELIEU. By James B. Perkins.

DANIEL O'CONNELL. By Robert Dunlop.

SAINT LOUIS (Louis IX. of France). By Frederick Perry.

LORD CHATHAM. By Walford Davis Green.

OWEN GLYNDWR. By Arthur G. Bradley. $1.35 net.

HENRY V. By Charles L. Kingsford. $1.35 net.

EDWARD I. By Edward Jenks. $1.35 net.

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MOLTKE. By Spencer Wilkinson.

JUDAS MACCABÆUS. By Israel Abrahams.

SOBIESKI. By F. A. Pollard.

ALFRED THE TRUTHTELLER. By Frederick Perry.

FREDERICK II. By A. L. Smith.

MARLBOROUGH. By C. W. C. Oman.

RICHARD THE LION-HEARTED. By T. A. Archer.

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.

In the story form the current of each national life is distinctly indicated, and its picturesque and noteworthy periods and episodes are presented for the reader in their philosophical relation to each other as well as to universal history.

It is the plan of the writers of the different volumes to enter into the real life of the peoples, and to bring them before the reader as they actually lived, labored, and struggled--as they studied and wrote, and as they amused themselves. In carrying out this plan, the myths, with which the history of all lands begins, will not be overlooked, though these will be carefully distinguished from the actual history, so far as the labors of the accepted historical authorities have resulted in definite conclusions.

The subjects of the different volumes have been planned to cover connecting and, as far as possible, consecutive epochs or periods, so that the set when completed will present in a comprehensive narrative the chief events in the great STORY OF THE NATIONS; but it is, of course, not always practicable to issue the several volumes in their chronological order.

THE STORY OF THE NATIONS.

12^o Cloth, each $1.50 Leather, each 1.75

The following are now ready:

GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harrison.

ROME. Arthur Gilman.

THE JEWS. Prof. James K. Hosmer.

CHALDEA. Z. A. Ragozin.

GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould.

NORWAY. Hjalmar H. Boyesen.

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

HUNGARY. Prof. A. Vámbéry.

CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J. Church.

THE SARACENS. Arthur Gilman.

THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stanley Lane-Poole.

THE NORMANS. Sarah Orne Jewett.

PERSIA. S. G. W. Benjamin.

ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. Geo. Rawlinson.

ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof. J. P. Mahaffy.

ASSYRIA. Z. A. Ragozin.

THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley.

IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless.

TURKEY. Stanley Lane-Poole.

MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. Z. A. Ragozin.

MEDIÆVAL FRANCE. Prof. Gustave Masson.

HOLLAND. Prof. J. Thorold Rogers.

MEXICO. Susan Hale.

PHŒNICIA. Geo. Rawlinson.

THE HANSA TOWNS. Helen Zimmern.

EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Alfred J. Church.

THE BARBARY CORSAIRS. Stanley Lane-Poole.

RUSSIA. W. R. Morfill.

THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W. D. Morrison.

SCOTLAND. John Mackintosh.

SWITZERLAND. R. Stead and Mrs. A. Hug.

PORTUGAL. H. Morse-Stephens.

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.

VENICE. Alethea Wiel.

THE CRUSADES. T. S. Archer and C. L. Kingsford.

VEDIC INDIA. Z. A. Ragozin.

BOHEMIA. C. E. Maurice.

CANADA. J. G. Bourinot.

THE BALKAN STATES. William Miller.

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.

THE WEST INDIES. Amos K. Fiske.

THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND IN THE 19TH CENTURY. Justin McCarthy, M.P. Two vols.

AUSTRIA, THE HOME OF THE HAPSBURG DYNASTY, FROM 1282 TO THE PRESENT DAY. Sidney Whitman.

CHINA. Robt. K. Douglass.

MODERN SPAIN. Major Martin A. S. Hume.

MODERN ITALY. Pietro Orsi.

THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. Helen A. Smith. Two vols.

Other volumes in preparation are:

THE UNITED STATES, 1775-1897. Prof. A. C. McLaughlin. Two vols.

BUDDHIST INDIA. Prof. T. W. Rhys-Davids.

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.