Aber History Part 5: Welsh Pride

Up until the 1300's, the village of Llanbadarn Gaerig (which would become Aberystwyth) was deemed a town by the crown in 1307, it had been difficult to attract Englishmen to the fortified city in such hostile territories.  Therefore, the crown decided to allow Welshmen to move into the town, in order to make it a viable settlement. By 1310 50 of the 144 men holding privileges in the area were Welsh: this proportion was a good bit higher than in any of Edward's other castle towns.  Welsh involvement in the town actually made the town much more stable than the other walled castle towns in North Wales, where Welshmen were deemed forinsecos, or foreigners and excluded.

Sometime in the next few decades Dafydd ap Gwilym is born in Penryn-Coch, only a few miles to the Northeast of Aberystwyth.  Dafydd is often regarded as the greatest Welsh poet.  Although little is known of his life, his poetry offers a contemporary look at the culture and life of the time, as well the women.  Here is an example of his poetry (in English translation, of course):

Praise of Llywelyn ap Gwilym

	The grammar book of Dyfed, it summons

	To wine-houses in Llywelyn's region;

	A haven, let all men's greetings go,

	A warm court-place for many, to Emlyn.

	A lake for a park in Emlyn, a canal as far as Teifi,

	and taverns in all places,

	let him deter shame, [and] let him kill his foe,

	where a hammer blow may be, a pathway of honour.

	A pathway of honour, a great bolt battering the mighty, a clear

	provocation to England and Scotland,

wherever he comes the whole world draws near, a giving hand, and the name of Llywelyn.

Here is a link to more of his poetry, in both Welsh and English, which Swansea University has so kindly collected:  http://www.dafyddapgwilym.net/index_eng.php.

A bardic statue of the Welsh poet

In Dafydd's lifetime, the Black Death falls upon Britains shores.  This dreadful disease would kill millions of people on the isle of Britannia alone.  The disease would not be fully fought off until  the Elizabethan Age, even later, and it would take 400 years for the population to recover to its former strength. In 1348, the same year the Plague hits England, records show that the population of burgesses (those holding rights in the town) in Aberystwyth is cut in half, and this can be presumed that this is because of the Plague and that the rest of the town's population was affected in the same manner.

Depiction (not at all gory enough) of the Black Death

A milestone occurs in 1361 in the courts of England.  Up until this year, the English language was developing in private homes, at private parties, slowly becoming the dominant language of Britannia.  Up until now French was the official language: it was required that French was spoken in law court, and the flowing words were the only words in which official documents could be written.  In the year 1361, however, English is allowed in law court, although documentation is still required in the language of the Normans.

Another step towards becoming a fully running is town is made when the Grand Jury of the Town, Liberty and Borough of Aberystwyth, which would eventually become the Aberystwyth Town Council. But the future of the township became threatened in the rebellion of Owain Glyndwr against England's Crown from 1400-1408.  In 1401 he sieged Aberystwyth Castle, but only managed to burn the town.  He returned once again in 1403, but this time with aid from France: he garrisoned his troops less than a mile away at Plas Crug.  The next year Owain calls a Parliament at Machynlleth and has himself crowned Owain IV of Wales.  Envoys from France, Scotland, Castille arrive and promise to aid the Welsh Indepence Movement.  Owain Glyndwr captures Aberystwyth Castle soon after, and in 1405 French troops arrive to provide assistance.  A treaty is sealed between Owain and Charles IV of France at the Castle.

Owain Glyndwr, statue located at Cardiff City Hall

In the last two years of the Welsh Rebellion Prince Henry (later Henry V) experimented with the use of the cannon, funnily nicknamed the Messagere, in his first attempt to siege Aberystwyth Castle.  The first cannon cast in England was bronze, weighed two tons, and threw shot of thirty pounds.  Since the art of casting cannons was not at all perfected, the beast exploded, and Henry's siege failed.  He tries again in 1408 and captures the castle, which would remain in English hands until the present day.

Henry utilizes his prize in 1415 after the Battle of Agincourt when he defeated France as king of Britain.  In fact, one excuse for the battle was to exact revenge against the French for aiding the Welsh Rebellion.  But nonetheless, the castle is used in order to house prisoners taken during the battle.  The Castle is again used to house prisoners in 1428 when the Bishop of Aberconway raids Strata Florida Abbey, loots the premises, and then goals some of the monks.

The Abbey Ruins

English disputes over the Throne begin in 1455, when the notorious War of the Roses begins.  While the War of the Roses did not directly affect Aberystwyth or Wales in general, it is a key point in British history.  The war was fought by rival branches of the Royal Plantagenet House, York and Lancaster: the heraldic symbols of the houses were the red and white rose.  By the end of the war, which occurs in 1485, the Tudors of Lancaster, but he marries Edward IV's daughter, Elizabeth of York, to unite the two houses.  His line would famously rule England for 117 years.

The Tudor Rose: a mix of red and white to symbolise the joint houses of Lancaster and York

Around 1480 Welsh poetry once again puts a stamp on the face of history, with the poet Gwerful Mechain.  Her most famous poem, "Cywydd y Cedor", as a riposte to the famous poem "Cywydd y Gal" of Dafydd ap Gwilym's canon.

I will end this post with the lovely poems.  Both "Cywydd y Gal" and "Cywydd y Cedor":

(If you are offended by sexual references, please do not continue!)

Cywydd y Gal

By Dafydd ap Gwilym

(Poem of Penis)

May God give a penis: need there is to watch
Over thee with an eye hereafter.
For this, from the claim of the stiff-necked stake,
Otherwise, forever more,
Wing of the body, need there is,
Lest complaint, to put a bridle in thy face
To restrain thee so that thou be not charged.
Once one bright work of our minstrels,
Most hateful roll of wood thou art with me.
Horn of a cod neither rise nor will I get
A New Year’s gift from good women of the Faith,
The claim of a lap.
Swelling, a fit of misfortune,
Cease thy strange whim,
Accursed stick,
The two halves of a maiden.
Eel of the thin hole,
(More) like a green hazel stick
Thou art, than the thigh of a large man.
A raid with night, a long chisel,
A staff thou art for a word of great love.
Clasp of the cover of the bare bottom of a girl,
The eye of your head 
Watches every pretty little wife happily,
Wise and stupid, the testicles of thy tribe,
Skin of dewlap, muzzle, two testes of fruit
A theft thou art of wantonness,
Shape in the neck-bone of a goose.

Cywydd y Gal

By Gwerful Mechain

(Poem of the Vagina)

Every foolish drunken poet,
boorish vanity without ceasing,
(never may I warrant it,
I of great noble stock,)
has always declaimed fruitless praise
in song of the girls of the lands
all day long, certain gift,
most incompletely, by God the Father:
praising the hair, gown of fine love,
and every such living girl,
and lower down praising merrily
the brows above the eyes;
praising also, lovely shape,
the smoothness of the soft breasts,
and the beauty’s arms, bright drape,
she deserved honour, and the girl’s hands.
Then with his finest wizardry
before night he did sing,
he pays homage to God’s greatness,
fruitless eulogy with his tongue:
leaving the middle without praise
and the place where children are conceived,
and the warm quim, clear excellence,
tender and fat, bright fervent broken circle,
where I loved, in perfect health,
the quim below the smock.
You are a body of boundless strength,
a faultless court of fat’s plumage.
I declare, the quim is fair,
circle of broad-edged lips,
it is a valley longer than a spoon or a hand,
a ditch to hold a penis two hands long;
C**t there by the swelling arse,
song’s table with its double in red.
And the bright saints, men of the church,
when they get the chance, perfect gift,
don’t fail, highest blessing,
by Beuno, to give it a good feel.
For this reason, thorough rebuke,
all you proud poets,
let songs to the quim circulate
without fail to gain reward.
Sultan of an ode, it is silk,
little seam, curtain on a fine bright C**t,
flaps in a place of greeting,
the sour grove, it is full of love,
very proud forest, faultless gift,
tender frieze, fur of a fine pair of testicles,
a girl’s thick grove, circle of precious greeting,
lovely bush, God save it.