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
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.