GRUFFYDD
,
ELIS
(
fl.
c.
1490-1552
),
‘the soldier of Calais,’ copyist, translator, and chronicler
.
He was born some time
between 1490 and 1500
in
Gronnant Uchaf
,
Gwespyr
, in the parish of
Llanasa, Flints.
, where he inherited twenty-four acres of land from his uncle
Siôn ap Dafydd
. Nothing is known of his early life in
Wales
, but in his ‘Chronicle’ (
v. infra
) he has much to say about himself in the service of the
Wingfield
family, in
London
and
France
. He was with
Sir
Robert
Wingfield
on ‘
The Field of the Cloth of Gold
,’ near
Calais
, in
1521
, when the
emperor
Charles
V
met
Henry
VIII
, and also in the army of the
duke of Suffolk
(
Sir
Charles
Brandon
) during the campaign in
France
between
July and Christmas 1523
. From the beginning of
1524 until 1529
he was keeper of
Sir
Robert
Wingfield
's palace in
London
; and it was there that he copied what is now
Cardiff Phillipps MS. 10823
, a collection of
Welsh
prose and verse. On
27 Jan. 1529
he enlisted with the garrison at
Calais
, and it was there and in various other places in
France
, with the
English
forces, that he spent the rest of his life. There, too, he translated from the
English
a large compilation of medieval recipes (
Cwrtmawr MS. 1
), which he completed
c.
1548
, and wrote his
Chronicle of the ‘history’ of the world from the Creation down to his own time
(
N.L.W. MS. 5276
and
Mostyn MS. 158
). For the most part, the Chronicle consists of translations and adaptations of
English
and
French
chronicles, but use is sometimes made of ‘some of the books of
Wales
.’ The most original and valuable section is the last, where
Elis
deals with his own times and with many of his personal adventures. The date of his death is unknown, but he was alive in
1552
.
Bibliography:
-
National Library of Wales Manuscript
5276;
-
Mostyn MS. at the National Library of Wales,
Aberystwyth
158;
-
Cwrtmawr Manuscript in the National Library of
Wales
1;
-
Cardiff Manuscript
Phillipps 10823;
-
E. A. Lewis
,
An Inventory of the Early Chancery
Proceedings concerning Wales
, 1937
,
1937
, 115;
-
Reports on Manuscripts in the Welsh
Language
. Historical Manuscripts Commission,
1898–1910
, I, i, 214, ii, 96, 871;
-
Bulletin of the Board of Celtic
Studies
, x, 284, xi, 21, 85;
-
T. Jones
,
Mân Us
, 1949
,
1949
, 60.
Author:
Professor Thomas Jones, D.Litt., Aberystwyth
