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
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.
John ap William ap John.
Inner Temple.
March 7, 1853.
Footnote 3:[(return)]
This supporter, and the crest, as also the supporter which I shall mention presently, attached to the respective shields of Arthur Prince of Wales, and of Henry Prince of Wales, sons of Henry VII., is in fact a Wyvern, having, like the dragon, a tail resembling that of a snake, but differing from the dragon in the omission of the two hind legs. The supporter in respect of Wales, afterwards alluded to as assumed by the English monarchs of the House of Tudor, was a dragon strictly.
Mathraval, in the vale of Meifod, in Montgomeryshire, the palace of the sovereigns of Powys, erected by Rhodri Mawr, King of Wales: