Welsh Journals

Apr. 4, 1900. PYE-GONES. 349 princely line of Deheubarth, the successors of Rhys ap Tewdwr, whose patrimony and power extended over the beautiful Vale of Towy and much adjacent land. This was the country of the Owen Lawgoch traditions. His cave was to be seen near Llandeilo, not far from Dinefwr, the chief seat of the Deheubarth Princes (Arch. Camb., 5th Series, Vol. x., p. 167), and an Owen ap Thomas ap Llewelyn appeared in its pedigrees at the very period under consideration. Certain pleas De quo warranto (18 Edw. III.), calling upon this Owen ap Thomas to prove certain rights which he claimed, seemed to point to a cause of complaint which Owen probably had against the English King, and, in view of the remark of the French Chronicler of Saint Denis already men¬ tioned, it was well to bear in mind that this Owen ap Thomas was uncle to Owen Glendower. But against the identification of Owen Lawgoch with either the Deheubarth or the Gwynedd princely lines was the undoubted absence of any actual fact in Owen's career on Welsh or on English soil that attached him in the remotest degree to the one or other of those lines. There remained one other line that claimed to be Princes of Wales (whether rightly or wrongly does not affect this particular inquiry.) This was the line of Mor- ganwg, of whom about the year 1316 Llewelyn Bren appears to have been the chief representa¬ tive. Whether Llewelyn Bren ever claimed to be a prince by descent from one of the recog¬ nised Welsh princely families was not very clear; he was at any rate a great man in Glamorgan¬ shire in 1316, when he headed a rising directed more particularly against the younger Despencer, lord of Glamorgan, who had deprived him of cer¬ tain lands and offices. The revolt was suppress¬ ed by the Earl of Pembroke, the Earl of Here¬ ford, and Despencer. Llewelyn was seized and carried off to the Tower of London with several of his sons. After an incarceration of over a year he was handed over to Despencer as his seigneurial lord. It was clear from Despencer's correspondence with John Ingge, his steward of the lordship of Glamorgan, that Llewelyn was in Despencer's way, and he was accordingly done to death in Cardiff Castle, the shameful deed being one of the charges brought against Despencer by the Commons when his own time oame a few years later. Now, looking at the facts related of Owen de Galles, and especially at Owen's expres¬ sions to the Earl of Pembroke, the grandson of the sister of the Earl who had aided in the sup¬ pression of Llewelyn Bren's revolt, ("Ha, Earl of Pembroke, are you come into this country to do me homage for such lands as you hold in the Principality of Wales whereof I am rightful heir, the which your king hath taken from me by evil counsel and advice?" and again, "I will show to you what you have done to me, and also to the Earl of Hereford and to Edward Spencer, for by your fathers, with other counsellors, my lord my father was betrayed)," it was, said the lecturer, impossible to resist the conclusion that Owen de Galles was the son of Llewelyn Bren of Mor- ganwg. It was true that there was a difficulty about the pedigree which he (the lecturer) had no desire to minimise. Elsewhere, on a previous occasion, he had shown that Mr G. T. Clark's pedigree of Llewelyn Bren was all wrong, and that Llewelyn's father was named Gruffydd, a similarity of descent to that of the last Prince of Wales of the line of Gwynedd that may have helped to deceive later pedigree-makers. Llew¬ elyn Bren had a son whose name, Anglicised into Roger, could be no other than Rhodri or Rhydderch. Further than this, it was impossi¬ ble at present to press the identification of Owen ap Retherick, the link on the one hand with Owen Lawgoch, on the other with Owain de Galles. Legend in Glamorganshire and in the Vale of Towy represented Owen as sleeping in his cave surrounded by his warriors awaiting the signal to come forth to take his rightful place at the head of his nation, though the sober truth was that Owen was sleeping his last sleep in the peaceful church of Saint Leger, near Mortagne and the banks of the Gironde Estuary, far away from his country and his people. Yet in a very true sense Owen is not dead but sleepeth, and the potent voice of Principal Rhys had called him from his long rest, and it lay with them all to do their utmost to place him beyond the reach of historical cavil in one of the foremost positions in the Cymric Walhalla. The reader of the paper was most cordially ap¬ plauded for his presentment of what may turn out to be a most important historical discovery.— An interesting discussion followed.—Mr J. H. Davies defended the view adopted by Miss Angharad Llwyd, and the connection of Owen Lawgoch with the Princely line of Gwynedd. In his opinion, Owen of Wales was a "gentleman from Shropshire," descended from Llewelyn ap Gruffydd: his record is as yet incomplete.—Mr Willis Bund added a few words of commendation, and Mr Humphreys-Owen, M.P., after referring to the paper, emphasised a point raised by the Chairman: the need of placing one or two Welsh experts in an official position at the Record Office, with a view to the proper examination and elucidation of historical documents relating to Wales. Mr Lloyd George, M.P., in proposing a vote of thanks to Mr Edward Owen for his inquiry into an interesting period in Welsh history, sup¬ ported the observations made by Mr Humphreys- Owen, and agreed that further strenuous efforts should be made to press the need in regard to Welsh Records upon the attention of Parliament. —Mr William Evans seconded the vote of thanks, which was carried with acclamation.—Mr Robert Williams (of Lee) in proposing a cordial vote of thanks to Principal Rhys for initiating the sub¬ ject, referred to an Owen Lawgoch tradition located at Ystrad Owen, near Cowbridge, which has much interest for folk-lorists.—Mr Arthur Price seconded the proposal, which was heartily passed. APRIL 4, 1800. NOTES. FUNERAL GARLANDS IN CHURCHES.— A custom prevailed and continued even down to recent years of making funeral garlands on the death of young unmarried women of unblemished