Tag Archives: Wales

05/7/13

The Roman Conquest of Britain

When the Romans invaded Britain in 43 AD, they crossed in three divisions, under the command of Aulus Plautius.  The ships are thought to have traveled from Boulogne to what is now Richborough, on the east coast of Kent.

The Romans operated on a shock and awe type of warfare and eleven tribes of southeast Britain surrendered to Claudius.  The Romans moved west and north from there,  establishing their new capital at Camulodunum.

It wasn’t until late in 47 AD that the new governor of Britain, Ostorius Scapula, began a campaign against the tribes of modern day Wales.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_conquest_of_Britain

“The ever-pugnacious Caratacus – the Caradog of Welsh legend – moved north to carry on the fight in the territory of the Ordovices in Anglesey and Caernarfon. There, in 51AD, he was defeated and his family captured.”

Later, the Silures defeated the forces sent against them in 52AD, and the grip of the Romans on their new British territory remained a troubled one. Fresh campaigns in 57 and 60AD struck deep into Welsh territory.

The latter campaign was directed at the seat of druidical power in Wales, the Isle of Anglesey. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, the legionnaries doffed their clothes and swam naked across the Menai Straights to do battle with the druid-led Celts.”  .”   http://www.britainexpress.com/wales/history/roman-invasion.htm

“The novelty of the fight struck the Romans with awe and terror. They stood in stupid amazement, as if their limbs were benumbed, riveted to one spot, a mark for the enemy. The exhortations of the general diffused new vigor through the ranks, and the men, by mutual reproaches, inflamed each other to deeds of valor. They felt the disgrace of yielding to a troop of women, and a band of fanatic priests; they advanced their standards, and rushed on to the attack with impetuous fury. The Britons perished in the flames, which they themselves had kindled. The island fell, and a garrison was established to retain it in subjection. The religious groves, dedicated to superstition and barbarous rites, were leveled to the ground. In those recesses, the natives [stained] their altars with the blood of their prisoners, and in the entrails of men explored the will of the gods.”  http://www.bukisa.com/articles/37180_the-roman-invasion-of-wales#ixzz1GzLHSv8g

Just when it looked as if the Romans would be able to subdue the Welsh tribes, a revolt by the Iceni in Norfolk broke out, led by their queen, Boudicca (Boadicea). The Roman forces were diverted, and the Welsh territory remained under very tenuous Roman control for several years.”   http://www.britainexpress.com/wales/history/roman-invasion.htm

Despite this great victory on Anglesey, the Romans continued to have difficulties with the people of northwest Wales.  This is evidenced by the number of military installations in the area and the lack of villas.

“Throughout the second half of the 4th century the Empire became increasingly unstable; barbarian attacks on the borders increased, and it seems that the legions were gradually withdrawn from Wales to counter threats on the continent.

By 390AD there were probably no Roman troops remaining within the borders of Wales. In the next few decades most of the legionnaries in England followed and Brittania was esentially undefended.

The Irish saw their chance; in 405 pirates under Nial ravaged the western coast, and may have precipitated a fresh influx of Irish settlers.”  http://www.britainexpress.com/wales/history/roman-invasion.htm

05/2/13

St Derfel and the Stag

st-derfels-horse-3316870In a nutshell, St. Derfel was a Welsh saint who started out as a warrior in King Arthur’s court (right there we have a problem in the assumption that King Arthur was real, but moving on …). Late in life, he took up his vocation as an itinerant preacher, spreading the Word throughout Wales and  establishing churches and ultimately being buried beside his fellow saints, to the incredible number of 20,000 (again, that can’t be right).

I started out thinking that the carving of the stag, his totem, essentially, and all that remains of his mission, was one of the most obscure pieces of Welsh history possible to find, but after reading some more, there’s a lot more to this story.

“For most of Europe, the really important thing was to have a bit of the saint’s actual body. But in Wales it was thought to be wrong to move the bodies of the saints around or to chop them up to provide relics for as many places as possible. Instead, the Welsh valued things that had belonged to their saints – their books, their bells, the staves which supported them on their long treks around the country. Possibly the decorated staff which is now in the porch was a substitute for the one which had been lost. It could be a bit of decorative carving from elsewhere in the church, or it could be a very elaborate version of a pilgrim’s staff. This would have balanced the depiction of Derfel as a warrior with something that reminded you of his career as a wandering saint.

The animal with Derfel, though, was in fact not a horse but a stag. Many of the Welsh saints had stags as companions. Brynach’s cart was pulled by two stags. Another two stags helped Cadoc’s monks to rebuild their monastery. Illtud rescued a stag which was being hunted by King Meirchion. The animal became tame and helped to pull a cart. All these stories show the way the saints were expected to be able to control the natural world: the wildest and most terrifying of animals did their bidding.

We do not know what the story about Derfel and the stag was. The neighbouring church at Llangar was said to have been built on a site shown by a white stag, and there may have been a similar story about the stag at Llandderfel. Or perhaps Derfel rode the stag, like St Teilo. (The carving of St Teilo riding his stag in the parish church of Llandeilo Talybont, now in the museum at St Fagans, is a modern copy of a medieval carving from Brittany.)

Prayer and pilgrimage

The carving of Derfel and his stag was of enormous importance to the people of north Wales. It was very vividly carved, and parts of it could be made to move. The eyes, for example, could blink. This wasn’t necessarily to deceive people – any more than a modern computer animation at an old building is meant to deceive. But it made the statue more lifelike, and so gave it more power. We also need to remember that the statue was painted – you can still see traces of the red undercoat on the stag.

According to Ellis Price, who was sent by Thomas Cromwell to take the statue down at the Reformation, as many as six hundred people visited it on the saint’s day in April. Not that this compares with the tens of thousands (many of them Welsh) who went to Rome or Compostela on the great festival days, but it’s still pretty impressive for a little hamlet in the Welsh hills.

The church was built to accommodate these large numbers. The intricately-carved screen between the nave and the chancel had a gallery that could take a choir of sixty people. Their music would have amazed and delighted visitors.

The pilgrims who came to Llandderfel brought cattle and horses as well as money to offer to the saint. Ellis Price went so far as to claim that the local people believed the statue had the power to rescue them from hell. He may have been exaggerating here – or it could have been that the priest overstepped the mark in his pitch for offerings on the saint’s day….

So why is the carving of St Derfel’s stag so important? To begin with, it makes us think about the Age of the Saints in Wales. The Welsh saints were an interesting bunch, always awkward, sometimes challenging. They were expected to live in harmony with nature, but also to be able to control it. The stag was Derfel’s companion but it sat submissively at his feet.

The Welsh saints were people of holiness but also people of great power, and they could use that power in ways that seem strange to us. Derfel was a soldier: not one of the chivalrous knights of later Arthurian legend but a skilled fighter, someone trained to kill. Cadoc cheated King Arthur over a herd of cattle and blinded King Rhun of Gwynedd. Robbers from Gwynedd who attacked Winefride’s shrine at Holywell all suffered horrible deaths.

The statue also makes us think about the lives and beliefs of ordinary people in medieval Wales. They seem to have valued Derfel for his courage and leadership as much as his piety. In a way, a saint who had been a soldier was more holy because he had had to choose to change his way of life. Saints as well as soldiers were expected to be able to protect their people, in the way that Derfel did.

The battered remains of Derfel’s stag also make us think about the changes of the sixteenth century. They were traumatic for many people – but they gave us the Welsh Bible and the culture of the chapel and the gymanfa ganu, and they helped to make us the people we are today.

The later history of the carving is important, too. The way it was carried around the parish at Easter may actually be a survival of pre-Reformation parish processions, with the statue of the saint bringing blessing to the whole community. Giving children rides on the“horse’ was perhaps a way of diminishing its power, but it also shows affection. The rural dean who ordered the mutilation of the carving in 1730 was clearly aware of its power – and it’s equally clear that the locals were reluctant to damage it too much.”

Read the rest of the article at:  http://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/nostalgia/welsh-history-month-st-derfel-3316866

 

04/16/13

Witchcraft and Witch Trials in Wales

Exiles in TimeA discovery in Tuscany might indicate an incident where a witch was killed in Tuscany:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2041671/800-year-old-remains-witch-discovered-graveyard-Tuscany-Italy.html#ixzz1Z6Q83H34

They found “the 800 year old remains of what archaeologists believe was a witch from the Middle Ages after seven nails were found driven through her jaw bone . . . “  The evidence isn’t conclusive, but it is surely suggestive.

I have ancestors who were both accused witches, and the accuser of witches in the Salem trials 350 years ago in the late 1600s.  That fear of witchcraft seems to have been widespread during that era. What’s interesting is that it was far more widespread then than in the Middle Ages. In fact, nobody was accused of witchcraft in Wales in the 13th century, and there is essentially no mention of it in the historical record. 

“The development of witch trials and the witch craze is seen has developed slowly  throughout Christianity’s domination of Europe. These range from Augustine of  Hippo’s belief that witches were impossible to Thomas Aquinas’ belief that  demons attempt to corrupt humans. Common historical theory has it that a witch  craze exploded in the 15th century and spread like wildfire across the  continent.

“All witch trials and witch hunts were contained by English common law. A  witch was first defined in 1542. There were accusations prior to this date, but  such accusations were not recognised legally. This was then revoked in 1547 and  then re-instated in a new guise in 1563. The English crime of witchcraft was not  demonological (an alliance between man and the devil) but maleficious (of having  mysterious powers).

It is clear that as these trials, even those of Matthew Hopkins, were bound  by English law. This meant that torture could not be used as an interrogation  method. Furthermore, the prosecutor in the trial had to provide material  evidence to prove their case. In addition, the accused would be allowed to  provide eight “compurgators” who would testify as to the accused good  character.”
Read more at Suite101: Most English Witch Hunts Failed | Suite101.com http://www.suite101.com/content/most-english-witch-hunts-failed-a359588#ixzz1ZCOyXfXx

A new book states, however, that because of the tradition of druidry in Wales, “it was a relative haven for paranormal practices, sparing the pointy-hatted pagans from hanging, drowning and other unhappy endings. In “Pembrokeshire Witches and Wizards,” author Brian John claims the Welsh druidic tradition lent a tolerance to the cause of witchcraft which still persists.  ‘Only three witches in Wales went to trial, in 1656,’ says John. ‘And that was at an English court in Chester.’”  http://www.celticattic.com/contact_us/the_celts/celtic_nations/wales/legends_of_long_ago.htm

An article from the BBC supports this position:  “Stories about witches are found all over the world – during the 16th and 17th centuries a “witch craze” in Europe saw over 100,000 people, mainly women, accused of witchcraft and executed by secular government and the church.  Yet there were relatively few witch trials in Wales, with only five Welsh witches being executed for their supposed crimes. With great reliance placed on the power of the wise man or the wise woman, witchcraft in Wales had long been connected to healing . . .

“Witchcraft comes into the historical record in 1594,” comments historian Richard Suggett, “when Gwen ferch Ellis from Bettws is indicted and subsequently executed for witchcraft. It’s the first recorded instance of what, I suppose, you can call black witchcraft. She was a healer but for some reason she was persuaded by another woman, called Jane Conway, to leave a charm at Gloddaeth, the home of Sir Thomas Mostyn, a sworn enemy of Jane Conway.” Gwen was convicted of murder by witchcraft and duly hung. There were many other accusations of witchcraft – but proving them was another matter. Most of the women spent brief periods in prison before being released when the case against them collapsed.”  http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/waleshistory/2010/03/welsh_witches.html

“There are historical records for 228 executions for witchcraft between 1000 and 1684 in England.  This is approximately one guilty verdict every three years. Witch trials peaked  in the country between 1550 and 1650; with most occurring during the English  Civil War. This means whole decades went by without witch trials in the  Kingdom.  Marc Carlson has brought together incomplete records of trials in England.  The Home Circuit saw 456 trials, Essex saw 290, York 117, Norfolk 15 and the  Western Circuit 52. We know that only 23.9 percent of trials in the home circuit  ended in conviction. 23 out of 267 trials in Essex ended with guilty verdicts  while Norfolk saw no successful convictions. Meanwhile, in the West Country  there were 7 convictions, with one overturned on appeal. There are no statistics  for York.”  http://www.suite101.com/content/most-english-witch-hunts-failed-a359588

This site goes even further and state that “not a single witch lost their life in Wales.”

More resources:

Carlson, Marc, 2004, Witches and Witchtrials in England, the Channel  Islands, Ireland and Scotland, Tulsa University(link)

Burr, George L, ed, 1898-1912, The Witch Persecution at Wurzburg, Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania (link)

Garland, Anna, 2003, The Great Witch Hunt: The Persecution of Witches in  England, 1550-1660, Auckland University Law Review (link)

Read more at Suite101: Most English Witch Hunts Failed | Suite101.com http://www.suite101.com/content/most-english-witch-hunts-failed-a359588#ixzz1ZCPkARIf


04/14/13

Daily Living in the Middle Ages

The tapestry to the right is The Triumph of Death, or The 3 Fates, a Flemish tapestry (probably Brussels, ca. 1510-1520), located now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Depected are the three fates, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, who spin, draw out and cut the thread of Life, represent Death in this tapestry, as they triumph over the fallen body of Chastity. This is the third subject in Petrarch’s poem The Triumphs. First, Love triumphs; then Love is overcome by Chastity, Chastity by Death, Death by Fame, Fame by Time and Time by Eternity.

Pretty gloomy, eh?

From a modern perspective, life in the Middle Ages appears not to have a lot to recommend it.  For example, for the majority of women, their lives consisted of unceasing labor, hand-to-mouth existence, a total lack of political representation (although that was not much different than for the majority of men, if they were landless), restrictions of the Catholic Church, societal acceptance of physical abuse, and the very real possibility in dying in childbirth at a young age.

For men, it wasn’t much different, substituting dying in battle for childbirth and you aren’t far off.  Both men and women died of illness and infection, such that the median lifespan during this time was in the middle forties.

But people did live then.  They raised their children, they cared for one another, and it does seem from what has been passed down to us, that they found beauty and pleasure in their lives.

Digging deeper into history, there is far more going on there than simply than the Hobbesian  “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”.  (This quote, by the way, has been taken out of context for most of its life.  Hobbes wasn’t describing life in the Middle Ages; he was explaining what life would be life without a strong monarchy.  In his opinion, absolute monarchy was a way to avoid the war of ‘man against man’.)

While a strong central government in England, led by Edward I in the 13th century, did have some affect on averting war within the nation, it led to more wars against other nations, and in Wales in particular, a far less free and materially wealthy existence.

In fact, if you look at the consequences of the Industrial Revolution in the 17th and 18th centuries, the lives of average people, in terms of nutrition, longevity, cleanliness, etc. were on the whole far, far worse, than their lives would have been as peasants in the Middle Ages.

http://www.medieval-life.net/ has a good series of descriptions about different aspects of life in the Middle Ages. For example:

“Medieval villages consisted of a population comprised of mostly of farmers. Houses, barns sheds, and animal pens clustered around the center of the village, which was surrounded by plowed fields and pastures. Medieval society depended on the village for protection and a majority of people during these centuries called a village home. Most were born, toiled, married, had children and later died within the village, rarely venturing beyond its boundaries.

Common enterprise was the key to a village’s survival. Some villages were temporary, and the society would move on if the land proved infertile or weather made life too difficult. Other villages continued to exist for centuries. Every village had a lord, even if he didn’t make it his permanent residence, and after the 1100′s castles often dominated the village landscape. Medieval Europeans may have been unclear of their country’s boundaries, but they knew every stone, tree, road and stream of their village. Neighboring villages would parley to set boundaries that would be set out in village charters.

Medieval peasants were either classified as free men or as “villeins,” those who owed heavy labor service to a lord, were bound to the land, and subject to feudal dues. Village life was busy for both classes, and for women as well as men. Much of this harsh life was lived outdoors, wearing simple dress and subsisting on a meager diet.

Village life would change from outside influences with market pressures and new landlords. As the centuries passed, more and more found themselves drawn to larger cities. Yet modern Europe owes much to these early medieval villages.”

http://www.learner.org/interactives/middleages/feudal.html is another good site. Much of this is oversimplified and specifically related to the Feudal system, which was not uniform across Europe. The differences between what went on in France verses Wales, for example, are very great.

Welsh people were not farmers but herders, had fewer villages, and land ownership was more egalitarian:

“Wales in the Age of the Princes was not a primitive society.

There were three main social groups: the uchelwyr - the upper class, thebonheddwyr - the freemen and the taeogion - the unfree peasants. Each group had its role in society.

The taeogion (villeins) lived in compact villages in the fertile lowlands. Organised by the maer y biswail (the mayor of the dunghill), they supplied the needs of the princely court. They also had to do farm work for the prince each year. Tied to the land, they could not leave their own village. Their arable crops were vital for Wales. Edward I realised this and, in his 1277 invasion, his forces quickly took Anglesey and seized the grain harvest.

The lowlands were linked to the hills economically. Farming communities moved from the hendref, their main settlement in the lowlands, to the hafodwith its upland pastures each summer. The upland farmers were generally bonheddwyr (freemen) who lived in kinship groups, each looking after its owngwely (clan land). They performed military service for the prince, but did not do menial tasks like the taeogion. The upland farms were also vital to Wales. They enabled the Welsh to keep their economic and political independence when the Marcher lords occupied the fertile lowlands.

While the traditional view is that the Welsh were not an urban people, over 80 towns were established in the period 1100-1300. Towns did develop more in the Marcher lordships because these areas were richer, but the Welsh princes also encouraged the development of towns, often near their castles. Trade increased in tandem with these new towns and Wales exported primary goods like cattle, skins, fleeces and cheese. Imports included necessities like salt, wheat and iron, but reliance on these imports would be a weakness against an aggressive King of England.”  http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/heritage/medieval_exhibition/life_in_wales.htm

 

04/4/13

Owain Gwynedd’s birthday

The Good Knight When was Owain Gwynedd born?  Here’s the truth:  no idea.

Okay, that’s not entirely true.  Like Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, nobody seems to have recorded the date Owain Gwynedd was born, or even the year.  This is fine as far as it goes, because we can make some general estimates.  The problem arises when the birthdays for his many, many children haven’t been recorded either.  Nor his siblings.  Nor the dates of his marriages.

My go-to-guide, John Davies History of Wales doesn’t discuss birthdays or ages, probably because he knows it’s fraught with difficulties, but many web sources try.  For example, here’s one huge root of the problem, the Wikipedia entry, citing a book by John Edward Lloyd  A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest (Longmans, Green & Co.) written in 1911.  This has Owain born c. 1100, and a long list of his offspring  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owain_Gwynedd):

Now, if you make the mistake of clicking on some of those links, for example, Iorwerth ab Owain Gwynedd, the eldest son of Owain’s first wife, Gwladys, you find that this same 1911 source has him born in 1145 while neither Rhun nor Hywel get birthdays.  As they were full grown men by 1143, when Hywel is tasked with rousting his uncle Cadwaladr out of Ceredigion, you have to think he’s at least 20 at the time.  While Owain might have had mistresses and wives concurrently, among the Welsh princes, that was actually uncommon.  In addition, there is no mention in the annals of any sons of Owain Gwynedd but Rhun (who died in 1146) and Hywel until the 1150s.

Click on Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd.  Once again, no birthday, but he is first mentioned in the annals in 1157, which means at the latest, he was born in 1143/44, since Welsh boys became men at the age of fourteen.  Obviously, we now have a problem, since this 1911 source has the eldest son of Owain’s first wife being born in 1145, and the eldest son of his second wife born a year earlier.

It gets worse.  The Castles of Wales site, normally very reliable, has Owain Gwynedd born as late as 1109.  If this is true, however, then for Hywel to be  20 in 1143, than he would have to been fathered by Owain at the precocious age of 14, and his elder brother Rhun even earlier.  Not impossible, but . . . http://www.castlewales.com/owain_g.html

Furthermore, Citing The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens (by Mike Ashley, Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc. New York, 1998), elsewhere on the site, it makes the claim that Owain was born c. 1100 (so I give them a pass on that), but now Dafydd, the eldest son of his second wife Cristina, was born in c. 1135.

Deeper into a search, the EBK site reports that Owain’s father, Gruffydd, married Angharad in 1195 (when he was 40) and had three sons (Cadwallon, Owain, Cadwaladr) and some daughters, including the youngest, Gwenllian.  http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/gruffcgd.html  Fine. But it is Gwenllian who elopes with the much, much older Gruffydd ap Rhys in 1113.  Whoa.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruffydd_ap_Rhys  Note that the particular entry on Gwenllian, which actually has citations, not all of which I have access to, has her born c 1197, which by necessity must push all these other dates back into the earlier 1190s to make any of this work.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwenllian_ferch_Gruffydd

Here’s a hilarious family tree, showing the problem of not analyzing what you’re reading.  It actually shows this first son of the first wife being born after the second son of the second wife (Rhodri this time).  I’d love to find those sources.  http://www.princesofgwynedd.com/pdf/LlywelynFamilyTree.pdf

03/27/13

Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales

410px-Arms_of_Dafydd_ap_Gruffydd.svgDafydd ap Gruffydd was the younger brother of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the Prince of Wales who ruled portions of Wales, to a greater or lesser degree, since the death of his uncle (also named Dafydd) in 1246.  The younger Dafydd was born in 1238, thirteen years after Llywelyn.  This Dafydd spent the majority of his life in England, to which his family was forced to come when his father was imprisoned at the Tower of London by King Henry.  Llywelyn, 16 at the time and a man, had refused to leave Wales with the rest of his family, and thus was on the spot, so to speak, when his uncle Dafydd died.

At that point, Dafydd ap Gruffydd was only 8 years old, and in no sense prepared to put forth a claim to his patrimony.  That occurred for the first time in 1255, when he conspired with his brother, Owain Goch, to force Llywelyn to relinquish some of his lands to Dafydd.  They were defeated in the Battle of Bryn Derwin.  Llywelyn accepted Dafydd back into his favor a year later, only to have Dafydd betray him again in 1263, and again in 1274 when he attempted to assassinate Llywelyn.

To say that Dafydd had a problematic relationship with Llywelyn is an understatement. Llywelyn kept Owain Goch imprisoned for the rest of his life, but he released Dafydd after Bryn Derwin and gave him lands, ultimately bowing to his younger brother’s rightful claim. At the time, Llywelyn perceived Owain, the elder brother, as the greater threat.

From Brynne Haug:  “Dafydd’s choice to turn to Edward in 1263 and again in 1274 was self-serving in that he believed his chances better with the king than with Llywelyn. Llywelyn had little choice but to accept Dafydd back when he changed his mind: in 1267 Edward I stipulated it in the Treaty of Mongomery, and it was again a condition in 1277.” What must have been  most aggravating to Llywelyn was that Dafydd was one of the impetuses for ALL of the wars against England that peppered his reign:  in 1267, in 1277, both times when he fought against Llywelyn on the side of the English, and in 1282, when he forced Llywelyn to throw his weight behind Dafydd himself after he launched an attack on Edward’s castles in Wales.

Whatever his motives, Dafydd did stay true to Wales after Llywelyn’s death. In June 1283, English soldiers captured Dafydd, took him to Shrewsbury, and, in October, executed him.  He was hung, drawn, and quartered, and his head displayed in the tower of London alongside Llywelyn’s.

Sources:

J. Beverly Smith, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd:  The Prince of Wales.

Brynne Haug, Captive Cymru: Llywelyn and Gwynedd in the Wars of King Edward.

Peniarth MS 20, The Chronicle of the Princes

03/23/13

The Irish in Wales

The Irish, Welsh, and Scots all have a Celtic ancestry, but they settled their respective regions before the Roman conquest of Britain.  There is an amazing amount of debate as to the origin of the Celts:  were they Phoenician?  stocky and dark?  tall and blonde?  as culturally cohesive as the label suggests?   The standard theory is that the Celts were an Indo-European group that gradually migrated across Europe and Asia, with an identifiable, distinct culture by 750 BC.  As a group, they were well-known to the Greeks and Romans.

http://archaeology.suite101.com/article.cfm/archaeology_and_the_celts

The Celts had arrived in Britain and Ireland by 400 BC, super-imposing upon whatever native peoples were already there.  The Celts in these regions, then, were on the fringes of Celtic culture, not their heart, which was centered in Northern Europe, particularly in what is now Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

http://www.knowth.com/the-celts.htm

The links between Wales and Ireland continued to hold through the Roman conquest and the years after.  There is strong evidence of a continued Irish presence in Wales, particularly on the west coast of Wales.  The rulers of Dyfed were of Irish descent into the 7th century–and there is also evidence of repeated raids from Ireland to Wales.

According to Thomas:

“… both Irish and Welsh sources portrayed it as a tribal migration of the Irish Dessi or Deisi headed by their own king and, from the Irish viewpoint, a suitable ‘expulsion’ saga was adduced. The direct line of Irish rulers of Welsh Dyfed went on into the 7th and 8th centuries. An interesting mix arose; by 400 Irish and British were fully differing languages, and additionally Christians from both nations used different scripts (Latin and Ogham) for their memorials. Irish never replaced British in Wales the way it did in Scotland, but relative numerical strengths do not necessarily explain why; less obvious factors could be involved.”

http://www.islandguide.co.uk/history/ogham.htm

Within Welsh mythology, the Irish play a significant role as well.  Taliesin sings of himself:  I have been with Bran in Ireland.  This is in reference to the tale of Bran the Blessed who obtains a magical cauldron from Cerridwen (in disguise as a giantess).  She had been expelled from a lake in Ireland. The cauldron can resurrect the corpse of dead warriors placed inside it (this scene is believed to be depicted on the  Gundestrup cauldron):

http://www.unc.edu/celtic/catalogue/Gundestrup/kauldron.html.

Bran gives his sister Branwen and her new husband Matholwch — the King of Ireland, and not to be confused with Math ap Mathonwy, the King of Gwynedd – the cauldron as a wedding gift, but when war breaks out Bran sets out to take the valuable gift back. He is accompanied by a band of a loyal knights with him, but only seven return home.   A similar tale is told in Taliesin’s poem, the Spoils of Annwn about King Arthur’s descent to the Underworld.

In the Middle Ages, there was much back and forth between the rulers of Wales and the rulers of Ireland.   Not only did they share ancestry and blood, but retreated one to the other at various times when they were driven out of their own kingdom (in the case of Gwynedd, due to usurpers or the Normans). In one specific case, Owain Gwynedd’s father, Gruffydd ap Cynan, claimed ancestry to both the Norse kingdom of Dublin and to the Celtic High Kings of Ireland:

“According to the Life of Gruffudd ap Cynan, Gruffudd was born in Dublin and reared near Swords, County Dublin in Ireland. He was the son of a Welsh Prince, Cynan ap Iago, who was a claimant to the Kingship of Gwynedd but was probably never king of Gwynedd, though his father, Gruffudd’s grandfather, Iago ab Idwal ap Meurig had ruled Gwynedd from 1023 to 1039. When Gruffudd first appeared on the scene in Wales the Welsh annals several times refer to him as “grandson of Iago” rather than the more usual “son of Cynan”, indicating that his father was little known in Wales. Cynan ap Iago seems to have died while Gruffudd was still young, since the History describes his mother telling him who his father was.

Gruffudd’s mother Ragnhild was the daughter of Olaf of Dublin, son of King Sigtrygg Silkbeard and a member of the Hiberno-Norse Uí Ímhair dynasty.[1] Through his mother, who appears in the list of the fair women of Ireland in the Book of Leinster, Gruffudd claimed relationships with many of the leading septs in Ireland. His great-great grandparents on his mother’s side include the High King of Ireland, Brian Bóruma, and the King of Dublin and King of Northumbria, Olaf Cuarán, and Gormflaith.[1]

During his many struggles to gain the kingship of Gwynedd, Gruffudd received considerable aid from Ireland, both from the Hiberno-Norse at Dublin, but also those at Wexford, and also from Muircheartach Ua Briain.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruffudd_ap_Cynan

03/14/13

The Dream of Welsh Independence

On December 11th, 1282, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was killed amidst the conflict with Edward I.  Less than a year later, his brother, Dafydd ap Gruffydd, was hung, drawn, and quartered and dragged throught he streets of Shrewsbury–as final payment for what Edward perceived as the ultimate betrayal.  The two men had been as close as brothers, once, and ended in epic hatred.  In further retribution, Edward  took all the signs of office–the true cross, the scepter, the crown–of the throne of Wales for himself.  And he made sure his son, Edward II, was born at Caernarfon Castle (in 1284), so that Edward could name him the Prince of Wales.  The heir to throne of England has been called the Prince of Wales ever since.

It has been 731 years since 1282.  Is that too long a time to remember this?  Has too much time passed for Welsh people to think independence is a reasonable thing to ask?

A 2007 BBC poll reported that 20% of the people of Wales backed independence, while 70% did not; this is in comparison to Scotland, where 32% of the population supported independence from England.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/6263807.stm

The ’Acts of Union’ were passed in 1707, by Scotland’s and England’s parliaments (Wales, of course, had no say in the matter).  When James VI of Scotland inherited the English crown after the death of Elizabeth I (1603) the two countries had been effectively joined, albeit with some resistance on the part of the Scots.  That resistance continued through the final defeat at Culloden in 1745, at which point the English did to the highland Scots what they’d done to the Welsh 500 years before.  http://www.britishbattles.com/battle_of_culloden.htm

The leader of the independence movement in Wales is Plaid Cymru, a political party.  They say their aims are:

1) To promote the constitutional advancement of Wales with a view to attaining Full National Status for Wales within the European Union.  2)  To ensure economic prosperity, social justice and the health of the natural environment, based on decentralist socialism.  3)  To build a national community based on equal citizenship, respect for different traditions and cultures and the equal worth of all individuals, whatever their race, nationality, gender, colour, creed, sexuality, age, ability or social background.  4)  To create a bilingual society by promoting the revival of the Welsh language.  5)  To promote Wales’s contribution to the global community and to attain membership of the United Nations.  http://www.plaidcymru.org/content.php?nID=1221;lID=1

Of the sixty members of the Welsh National Assembly, the purpose of which (from their own web site) “is a democratically elected body that represents the interests of Wales and its people, makes laws for Wales and holds the Welsh government to account.”   There are 26 members of the Labour Party, 14 members for Plaid Cymru, 13 Welsh Conservative, and 6 Liberal Democrats.   Wales is led by a ‘first minister’ who is appointed by the crown (Queen Elizabeth), putting the Welsh Assembly on equal footing with Scotland within the three states that make up Great Britain.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Minister_for_Wales

The question for the Welsh boils down to two:  1)  what are the consequences of becoming independent?  and 2)  what are the consequences of not?

03/12/13

Leprosy

Leprosy was one of the scourges of the Middle Ages–not so much because of scale, but because when a person caught it, their community cast them out.  The lazar house in the Brother Cadfael books, St. Giles, plays a significant role in the series.  In the movie, Kingdom of Heaven, Baldwin IV of Jerusalem is portrayed as a leper, which is historically accurate.  He ruled from 1174 to 1185.  The man who recognized he had the disease (instead of the Baron played by Liam Neeson) was William of Tyre, later Archbishop and Chancellor.  As you can see from the following article, the rest of the movie is entirely fictive as well:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_IV_of_Jerusalem

Leprosy, also known as ‘Hansen’s Disease’, is a contagious disease caused by a bacteria, Mycobacterium leprae, which is why it is curable post-antibiotics.  Left untreated, leprosy is often progressive, causing permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes. Body parts fall off as a result of disease symptoms, rather than the disease itself.  ”

  • M. leprae multiplies very slowly and the incubation period of the disease is about five years. Symptoms can take as long as 20 years to appear.
  • Leprosy is not highly infectious. It is transmitted via droplets, from the nose and mouth, during close and frequent contacts with untreated cases.
  • Untreated, leprosy can cause progressive and permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes. Early diagnosis and treatment with multidrug therapy (MDT) remain the key elements in eliminating the disease as a public health concern.   http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs101/en/

 

The issue with leprosy in the Middle Ages was partly that is was so disfiguring (although not very contagious), and partly that the Bible ascribes it as a product of divine punishment.  People thus inflicted were driven out of their communities and condemned to wander the countryside, often from one leper house to another.

In today’s world millions of people stills suffer from leprosy.   It is curable, but ignorance and poverty are pervasive and prevent its eradication.  This article:  http://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/eng/news/20091026GlobalAppealReport.html, is well-meaning, but indicates that the prejudice against people with leprosy and their families continues all  over the world.

03/7/13

Eryri (Snowdonia)

Eryri, Snowdonia in English, was the place in Gwynedd to which the Princes of Wales retreated, and their final stronghold when the English pressed on them from every side.  Mt. Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) has always been at its center, but it traditionally included the Carneddau range and essentially all the land west of the Conwy River. It is the land the Edward allowed Llywelyn ap Gruffydd to keep in the 1277 treaty.  Today, as a national park, it includes 838 square miles.

From John T Koch, Celtic Culture: An Historical Encyclopedia:
“The first literary mention of Eryri occurs in the 9th century Historia Brittonum, where an account is given of the downfall of the semi-legendary 5th century king Vortigern.  Pursued by his revolted Anglo-Saxon mercenaries and hated by his Brythonic countrymen, the king’s magi direct him to build a stronghold in a secure place on the far side of his kingdom.  Such a place is found in Eryri . . .

“The place-name Eryri has had two Celtic roots proposed to explain it:  1) that it describes a high place [from the Latin eryr]  or 2) that it denotes the abode of eagles [Welsh eryr 'eagle'].  Of course, even if Eryri had not originally meant ‘eyrie’, this idea would automatically occur to any Welsh speaker, writer, or poet . . . In a transferred sense, eryr is often used as a kenning for ‘hero’ in Welsh poetry, which adds further significance to the place-name as the traditional mountain stronghold of the strongest and most militaristic independent Welsh kingdom, Gwynedd.”

1262 marks the year that Llywelyn ap Gruffydd styled himself for the first time as “Prince of Wales and Lord of Snowdon (Eryri)”.  Llywelyn Fawr had referred to himself as ‘prince of Aberffraw’, which his grandson no longer mentions, although others continue to refer to him as its lord (J. Beverly Smith Llywelyn ap Gruffydd p. 145).  Because the latter was never recognized by the kings of England, the second Llywelyn chose to focus on Wales instead of Aberffraw   Both, however, were ‘lord of Snowdon’ and believed that this land encompassed not only Eryri as present historians have come to know it, but to all the lands in Gwynedd from the Dee to the Dyfi Rivers (Smith, p. 188).

The primary castles in Eryri are:  Dolwyddelan, Dolbadarn, Garth Celyn, and Castell y Bere.  The fort to which Koch refers is Dinas Emrys, on the western slopes of the Snowdonian mountains.