(Vol. vii., p. 205.)
The arms referred to by MR. WOODWARD are those on the great seal and privy
seal of "the irregular and wild Glendower," as Prince of Wales, {289}
attached to two documents deposited in the Hotel Soubise, at Paris, in the
Cartons I. 623. and I. 392., relating, it is supposed, to the furnishing of
troops to the Welsh prince by Charles VI., king of France. Casts of these
seals were taken by the indefatigable Mr. Doubleday, to whom the Seal
department of the British Museum, over which he presides, is so much
indebted; and impressions were exhibited by Sir Henry Ellis at a meeting of
the Society of Antiquaries, on the 12th of December, 1833. Engravings of
them, accompanied by the following notice, were communicated by Sir Henry
to the _Archæologia_, and will be found in that publication, vol. xxv.
plate lxx. fig. 2, 3. page 616., and ibid. pp. 619, 620.:
"The great seal has an obverse and reverse. On the obverse Owen is
represented, with a bifid beard, very similar to Rich. II., seated
under a canopy of Gothic tracery: the half body of a wolf forming the
arms of his chair on each side: the background is ornamented with a
mantle semée of lions, held up by angels. At his feet are two lions. A
sceptre is in his right hand, but he has no crown. The inscription:
'OWENUS ... PRINCEPS WALLIE.' On the reverse of the great seal Owen is
represented on horseback, in armour; in his right hand, which is
extended, he holds a sword, and with his left his shield, charged with,
Quarterly, four lions rampant; a drapery, probably a _kerchief de
plesaunce_, or handkerchief won at a tournament, pendant from his right
wrist. Lions rampant also appear upon the mantle of the horse. On his
helmet, as well as on his horse's head, is the Welsh dragon [passant].
The area of the seal is diapered with roses. The inscription on this
side seems to fill the gap upon the obverse 'OWENUS DEI GRATIA ...
WALLIE.'
"The privy seal represents the four lions rampant towards the
spectator's left, on a shield, surmounted by an open coronet [crown]:
the dragon[3] of Wales, as a supporter, on the dexter side; on the
sinister, a lion. The inscription seems to have been '_Sigillum Oweni_
PRINCIPIS WALLIE.' No impression of this seal is probably now to be
found either in Wales or England. Its workmanship shows that Owen
Glyndwr possessed a taste for art beyond the types of the seals of his
predecessors."
The dragon is a favourite figure with Cambrian bards; and, not to multiply
instances, the following lines may be cited from the poem of the "Hirlas
Horn," by Owen Cyfeilioc, Prince of Powys Wenwynwyn,--
"Mathraval's[4] Lord, the Poet and the Prince,"
father of Gwenwynwyn, Prince of Powys Wenwynwyn (the Gwenwen of Sir Walter
Scott's _Betrothed_):--
"A dytwc i Rufut waywrutelyn
Gwin a gwydyr goleu yn ei gylchyn
Dragon Arwystli arwystyl tervyn
Dragon Owein hael o hil Kynvyn[5]
Dragon iw dechren ac niw dychryn cat
Cyvlavan argrat cymyw erlyn."
_Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales_: London,
1801, 8vo., vol. i. p. 265.
"And bear to Grufydd, the crimson-lanced foe,
Wine with pellucid glass around it;
The Dragon of Arwstli, safeguard of the borders,
The Dragon of Owen, the generous of the race of Cynvyn,
A Dragon from his beginning, and never scared by a conflict
Of triumphant slaughter, or afflicting chase."
Gray, whose "Bard" indicates the inspiration with which he had seized the
poetry and traditions of the Cymri, thus refers to the red dragon as the
cognizance of the Welsh monarchs, in his _Triumphs of Owen_ [ap Griffith,
Prince of North Wales]:
"Dauntless, on his native sands,
The _Dragon_, son of Mona, stands;
In glittering arms and glory dress'd
High he rears his _ruby_ crest."
The dragon and lion have been attributed to the Welsh monarchs, as
insignia, from an early period, and the former is ascribed, traditionally,
to the great Cadwallader.
In the _Archæologia_, vol. xx. p. 579. plate xxix. p. 578., are
descriptions of engravings of the impressions of two seals appendant to
charters of Edward, son of Edward IV., and Arthur, son of Henry VII., as
Princes of Wales, the obverse of each bearing three lions in pale passant,
reguardant, having their tails between their legs, reflected upon their
backs, upon a shield {290} surmounted by a cap of maintenance: Prince
Edward's shield has on each side a lion as a supporter, holding single
feathers, with the motto "Ich dien." On Prince Arthur's seal, the feathers
are supported by _dragons_. Thomas William King, Rouge Dragon, in a letter
to Sir Samuel Meyrick, dated 4th September, 1841, published in the
_Archæologia_, vol. xxix. p. 408., Appendix, regards the lions on these
shields as to the ensigns attributed at the period of the seals to certain
Welsh princes, and the dragon as the badge of Cadwallader.
In a MS. (for reference to which I am indebted to the courtesy of Sir
Frederick Madden), which was recently sold at Sotheby's, containing
translations by Johannes Boerius, presented to Henry, Prince of Wales, son
of Henry VII., about 1505, there is a beautiful illumination containing the
arms of that prince: Quarterly France and England, with the red dragon as
the dexter, and the greyhound of the House of York as the sinister,
supporter.
"THE RED FIERYE DRAG[=O] BEETEN UP[=O] WHITE AND GREENE SARCENET" was the
charge of a standard offered by Henry VII. at St. Paul's, on his entry into
London after his victory at Bosworth Field; and this standard was
represented on the corner of his tomb, held by an angel (Willement's _Regal
Heraldry_, 4to., London, 1821, p. 57.). The red dragon rampant was assumed
as a supporter by Henry VII. in indication of his Welsh descent, and was
borne as a supporter, either on the dexter or sinister side of the shield,
by all the other English monarchs of the House of Tudor, with the exception
of Queen Mary, who substituted for it an eagle: and among the badges
attributed to our present sovereign is, in respect of Wales, "a dragon
passant, wings elevated gu., upon a mount vert."
It may be assumed, with little doubt, that the colour of the dragon borne
by Owen Glyndwr was _rouge_; and although the colour of the other supporter
of his shield, the lion, is not susceptible of such positive inference, it
may be conjectured to have been _sable_, the colour of the lion, the
principal charge on his hereditary shield.
To MR. WOODWARD'S immediate Query as to the blazon--colour of the field and
charges--of the arms on these seals, I can afford no direct answer, never
having met with any trace of these arms in the extensive collections of
Welsh MSS. to which I have had access. These ensigns may have been adopted
by Owen as arms of _dominion_ (as those of Ireland by the English
sovereigns) on his assumption of the principality of Wales, a suggestion
countenanced, if not established, by four lions quarterly ("Quarterly gules
and or, four lions rampant, counterchanged") being assigned to Griffith ap
Llewelyn (killed April, 28 Hen. III., 1244, in attempting to escape from
the Tower), eldest son of Llewelyn ap Iorwerth, prince of Wales (dead 31st
November, 25 Hen. III., 1240), father of the ill-fated and gallant Llewelyn
ap Griffith, last sovereign of Wales, slain at Builth, December 10, 8 Ed.
I., 1282. Further confirmation is, perhaps, afforded to this suggestion by
Owen having, it is understood, vindicated his assumption of the Cambrian
throne as heir of the three sovereign dynasties of North Wales, South
Wales, and Powys respectively,--of the last, as male representative,
through the Lords of Bromfield, of Madoc ap Meredith, the last monarch of
that principality; and of the two former as their heir-general, in respect
of his mother, Elenor, sister of Owen (ap Thomas ap Llewelyn), Lord, with
his paternal uncle, Owen ap Llewelyn ap Owen, of the comot [hundred] of
Iscoed, September 20, 1344, Representative paternally of the sovereigns of
South Wales, and, by female descent, of those of North Wales[6], through
Griffith ap Llewelyn above named.
The hereditary arms of Owen's paternal line, the Lords of Glyndwrdwy, are
those of his ancestor, Griffith Maelor ap Madoc, of Dinas Bran, Lord of
Bromfield, Yale, Chirk, Glyndwrdwy, &c., who died A.D. 1191, viz. "Paly of
eight argent and gules, over all a lion rampant sable," thus differenced,
apparently, from "The Black Lion of Powys" (Argent a lion rampant sable),
the royal ensigns of his father, Madoc ap Meredith, last sovereign Prince
of Powys, who died at Winchester in 1160. I am unable to refer to any seal
of the Lords of Glyndwrdwy, or of the Lords of Bromfield, bearing the
family arms of their line; but they are thus given invariably by the
Cambrian heralds, and, so far, are susceptible of proof by the most
authentic MS. authorities of the Principality. It is, however, remarkable,
that the Heraldic Visitations of Wales of Lewis Dwnn, appointed in 1580
Deputy-Herald for all Wales, by Robert Cook Clarenceux, and William Flower
Norroy King-at Arms, published in 1846 by the Welsh MSS. Society, contain
no pedigree of the house of Glyndwrdwy. Of the descendants, if any, of Owen
Glyndwr himself, beyond his children, I am not aware that there is any
authentic pedigree, or other satisfactory proof; and there seems to be
presumptive evidence that in 12 Henry VI., 1433--a period so recent as
nineteen years from the last date, 19th February, 1 Henry V., 1414, on
which Owen is ascertained to have been alive (Rymer's _Foedera_, ix. p.
330.),--his issue was limited to a daughter and heir, {291} Alice, wife of
Sir John Scudamore, Knt., described in a petition of John, Earl of
Somerset, to whom Owen's domains, on his attainder, had been granted by his
brother, Henry IV., as
"Un John Skydmore, Chivaler, et Alice sa femme, pretendantz la dite
Alice etre file _et heir_ au dit Owyn (Glyndwr)."--_Rot. Parl. 12 Hen.
VI._
I have not found evidence to show that there were any children of Alice's
marriage with Scudamore; and, assuming the failure of her issue, and also
the extinction of Owen's other offspring, the representation of the three
dynasties--
". . . . . . . the long line
Of our old royalty"--
reverted to that of his only brother, Tudor ap Griffith Vychan, a witness,
as "Tudor de Glyndore," in the Scrope and Grosvenor controversy, 3rd
September, 1386, and then twenty-four years and upwards, who is stated to
have been killed under Owen's banner at the battle of Mynydd Pwll-Melyn,
near Grosmont, Monmouthshire, fought 11th March, 1405. Tudor's daughter and
heir, Lowry [Lady] of Gwyddelwern in Edeirnion, "una Baron. de Edurnyon,"
became the wife of Griffith ap Einion of Corsygedol, living 1400 and 1415;
and from this marriage descend the eminent Merionethshire House of
Corsygedol (represented by the co-heirs of the late Sir Thomas Mostyn,
Bart., of Mostyn and Corsygedol; namely, his nephew, the Honorable Edward
Mostyn Lloyd Mostyn, of Mostyn and Corsygedol, M.P., Lord Lieutenant of
Merionethshire, and Sir Thomas's sister, Anna Maria, Lady Vaughan, mother
of Sir Robert Williames Vaughan, Bart., of Nannau) and its derivative
branches, the Yales of Plas-yn-Yale, co. Denbigh, and the Rogers-Wynns of
Bryntangor in the same county; the former represented by the Lloyds of
Plymog, and the latter by the Hughes's of Gwerclas in Edeirnion, Lords of
Kymmer-yn-Edeirnion, co. Merioneth, and Barons of Edeirnion. These
families, co-representatives of the three Cambrian dynasties, all quarter,
with the arms of South Wales and North Wales, the ensigns I have referred
to as the hereditary bearings of the Lords of Glyndwrdwy. Independently of
the adoption of these ensigns in the Welsh MSS. in the British Museum,
College of Heralds, and other depositories, it may be mentioned that they
are quartered in an ancient shield of the Vaughans of Corsygedol, suspended
in the hall of Corsygedol,--one of the finest and most picturesque mansions
in the Principality,--and that they appear in the splendid emblazoned
Genealogy of the House of Gwerclas, compiled in 1650 by Robert Vaughan,
Esq., of Hengwrt, the Camden and Dugdale united of Wales.[7] The arms in
question are ascribed to the line of Bromfield and Glyndwrdwy, and, as
quarterings to the families just named, by Mr. Burke's well-known _Armory_,
the first and, indeed, only work, in conjunction with the Welsh genealogies
in that gentleman's _Peerage and Baronetage_, and _Landed Gentry_,
affording satisfactory, or any approach to systematic and complete,
treatment of Cambrian heraldry and family history. Mr. Charles Knight also,
highly and justly estimated, no less for a refined appreciation of our
historic archæology, than for careful research, adopts these arms as the
escutcheon of Owen in the beautiful artistic designs which adorn and
illustrate the First Part of the drama of _King Henry IV._, in his
Pictorial edition of Shakspeare. (_Histories_, vol. i. p. 170.)
The shield of the Lords of Glyndwrdwy, as marshalled by Welsh heralds,
displays quarterly the arms assigned to their direct paternal ancestors, as
successively adopted previous to the period when armorial bearings became
hereditary. Thus marshalled, the paternal arms of Owen Glyndwr are as
follows: 1st and 4th, "Paly of eight, argent and gules, over all a lion
rampant sable," for Griffith Maelor, Lord of Bromfield, son of Madoc ap
Meredith, Prince of Powys-Fadog; 2nd, "Argent, a lion rampant sable" ("The
Black Lion of Powys") for Madoc, Prince of Powys-Fadog, son of Meredith,
Prince of Powys, son of Bleddyn, King of Powys; 3rd, "Or, a lion rampant
gules," for Bleddyn ap Cyfnfyn, King of Powys.[8] None {292} of these
ensigns is referable to a period anterior to that within which armorial
bearings are attributed to the Anglo-Norman monarchs.
The lion rampant is common to all branches of the line of Powys; but the
bearing peculiar to its last monarch, Madoc ap Meredith, "The _Black_ Lion
of Powys," without a difference, has been transmitted exclusively to the
Hughes's, Baronial Lords of Kymmer-yn-Edeirnion, and the other descendants
of Owen Brogyntyn, Lord of Edeirnion, younger son of Madoc; of whom, with
the exception of the family just named, it is presumed there is no existing
male branch. The same arms were borne by Iorwerth Goch, Lord of Mochnant,
also a younger son of Madoc; but they are now only borne subordinately in
the second quarter by that chief's descendant, Sir John Roger Kynaston of
Hardwick, Bart., and by the other branches of the Kynastons; the first
quarter having been yielded to the arms of (Touchet) Lord Audley, assumed
by Sir Roger Kynaston of Hordley, Knt., after the battle of Blore in 1459,
at which Lord Audley is said to have fallen by the hand of Sir Roger. As
already stated, Griffith Maelor, Madoc's eldest son, bore the black lion
differenced, as did also the twin sons of the latter, viz. Cynric Efell,
Lord of Eglwys Egle, ancestor of the distinguished line of Davies of
Gwysaney in Flintshire, whose ensigns were "Gules, on a bend, argent, a
lion passant sable;" and Einion Efell, progenitor of the Edwards's of Ness
Strange, and of other North Wallian families, who bore "Party per fess,
sable and argent, a lion rampant counterchanged." The ancestor of the
Vaughans of Nannau, Barts.,--Cadwgan (designated by Camden "the renowned
Briton"), younger son of Blyddyn, king of Powys, sometime associated in the
sovereignty with his elder brother Meredith, exhibited, it is stated, on
his banner an azure lion on a golden ground; ensigns transmitted to the
early Lords of Nannau and their descendants, with the exception--probably
the only one--of the Vaughans of Wengraig and Hengwrt, represented
paternally by the Vaughans of Nannau and Hengwrt, Baronets, who,
transferring these arms to the second quarter, bear in the first,
"Quarterly, or and gules, four lions rampant counterchanged." The Wenwynwyn
branch of the dynasty of Powys continued, or at a later period resumed, the
red lion rampant on a gold ground, ascribed to Blyddyn ap Cynfyn; and it is
not a little interesting, that recently a beautiful silver seal, in perfect
preservation, of Hawys Gadarn, heiress of that princely line, who by the
gift of Edward II. became the wife of John de Cherlton, was found near
Oswestry, representing her standing, holding two shields: the one in her
right hand charged with her own arms, the lion rampant; that in the left
with those of Cherlton, two lions passant. The legend around the seal is
"S'HAWISIE DNE DE KEVEOLOC."
The original seal is now in the Museum of Chester, and was exhibited, I
believe, by the Honorary Curator, the Rev. William Massie, at a recent
meeting of the Society of Antiquaries. Of this venerable relic I possess an
impression in wax; and of the great and privy seals of Owen Glyndwr,
beautiful casts in sulphur; and I shall have pleasure in leaving them with
the editor of "N. & Q." for the inspection of MR. WOODWARD, should that
gentleman desire it.