290 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 177. 



mounted by a cap of maintenance : Prince Ed- 

 beard's shield has on each side a lion as a sup- 

 porter, 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 Mey- 

 rick, dated 4th September, 1841, published in the 

 ArchcBologia, vol. xxix. p. 408., Appendix, regards 

 the lion*s on these shields as 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 

 io the courtesy of Sir Frederick Madden), which 

 was recently sold at Sotheby's, containing trans- 

 lations 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 Eng- 

 land, with the red dragon as the dexter, and the 

 greyhound of the House of York as the sinister, 

 supporter. 



" tmift vtis fterjje iirajja hntm ttpa infjttc an» 



^VttlXt SutCtntt" 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 sup- 

 porter 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 prin- 

 cipal charge on his hereditary shield. 



To Ma. AVoodward'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 as- 

 signed to Griffith ap Llewelyn (killed April, 

 28 Hen. III., 1244, in attempting to escape from 

 the Tower), eldest son of Llewelyn ap lor- 

 werth, prince of Wales (dead Slst November, 



25 Hen. IIL, 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 under- 

 stood, vindicated his assumption of the Cambrian 

 throne as heir of the three sovereigi dynasties of 

 North Wales, South Wales, and lowys respec- 

 tively, — 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 pater- 

 nally of the sovereigns of South Wales, and, by 

 female descent, of those of North Wales *, through 

 Griffith ap Llewelyn above named. 



The hereditary arms of Owen's paternal line, 

 the Lords of Glyndwrdwy, are those of his an- 

 cestor, Griffith Maelor ap Madoc, of Dinas Bran, 

 Lord of Bromfield, Yale, Chirk, Glyndwrdwy, 

 &c., who died a.d. 1191, viz. "Paly of eight ar- 

 gent 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 Win- 

 chester in 1 1 60. 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 Cam- 

 brian 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, ap- 

 pointed 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 hia 

 children, I am not aware that there is any au- 

 thentic pedigree, or other satisfactory proof; and 

 there seems to be presumptive evidence that in 

 12 Henry VI., 1433 — a period so recent as nine- 

 teen years from the last date, 19th February, 

 1 Henry V., 1414, on which Owen is ascertained 

 to have been alive (Rymer's Fadera, ix. p. 330.), 

 — his issue was limited to a daughter and heir, 



* " His [Owen Glyndwr's] father's name was 

 Gryffyd Vychan : his mother's, Elena, of royal blood, 

 and from wliom he afterwards claimed the throne of 

 Wales. She was eldest daughter of Thomas ap Lle- 

 welyn ap Owen, by his wife EUnor Goch, or Elinor the 

 Red, daughter and heiress to Catherine, one of the 

 daughters of Llewelyn, last Prince of Wales, and wife 

 to Philip ap Ivor of Iscoed."— A Tour in Wales [by 

 Pennant]: Lond. 4 to. 1778, p. 302. 



