LEWIS GLYN COTHI
or
LLYWELYN Y GLYN
(
fl.
1447-1486
),
one of the greatest of the 15th cent. Welsh bards
.
He took his bardic name from that of the forest of
Glyn Cothi
, within the confines of which, probably, he was born, perhaps at
Pwllcynbyd
in the parish of
Llanybydder
. Early in life he became an
outlaw
in
North Wales
in company with
Owen ap Gruffudd ap Nicholas
. This may have been as early as
1443
. The earliest certainly datable of his poems is his elegy upon the death of
Sir
Griffith
Vychan
of
Guilsfield
, in
1447
. Like the children of
Gruffudd ap Nicholas
(q.v.)
, he sided with the
Lancastrian party
in the
Wars of the Roses
, and
Jasper
Tudor
(q.v.),
earl of Pembroke
, and afterwards
duke of Bedford
, was his hero. He became an
outlaw
, on account of his devotion to
Jasper
, after the
battle of Mortimer's Cross
,
1461
. This did not prevent him from singing to patrons who supported the
Yorkists
, and few poets broadcast eulogy so widely over
Wales
as he did. It is said that he settled at
Chester
, and that, having m. a widow without the consent of the burgesses, he was ejected from the city. That something did happen to make him the laughing-stock of the citizens of
Chester
, and make them particular objects of his hate, is certain, but it is unsafe to build much upon bardic exercises, without independent corroborative evidence. His wife
is not mentioned in his poems, but he had a son,
John
, who died at the age of 5. He sang much to the gentry of
Carmarthenshire
,
south Cardiganshire
, and
Radnorshire
, and his best work is found in these poems. His zeal for
Jasper
Tudor
was revived towards the end of his life, and, as was natural, vaticinatory elements became more prominent in his poetry. None of his poems can be dated much later than
c.
1486 or 1487
, and it may be concluded that he d.
before 1490
. There is a tradition that he was buried at
Abergwili
. A considerable body of his poetry has survived in his own hand, and his manuscripts show that he was also
versed in heraldry
. He wrote a few columns in the ‘
Red Book of Hergest
,’ and the ‘
White Book of Hergest
,’ lost in a fire at a
London
bookbinder
's shop early in the
19th cent.
, is said to have been largely written by him. About 230 of his poems have been preserved. Of these 154 were printed in
The Poetical Works of Lewis Glyn Cothi
, published by the
Society of Cymmrodorion
under the editorship of
Walter
Davies
(
Gwallter Mechain
)
and
John
Jones
(
Tegid
)
(qq.v.) in
1837
. His entire works are now being issued in three volumes [vol. i,
1953
] by the co-operation of the
National Library of Wales
and the
University of Wales Press Board
.
Bibliography:
-
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
;
-
Pen. MSS. at the National Library of Wales,
Aberystwyth
40, 70, 109;
-
R.B.H.
Poetry‘Llyfr Coch Hergest’ (Jesus College MS. cxi).
Reference is made to page numbers in the manuscript not in the
printed editions. See also
;
-
Llanstephan Manuscript at the National Library of
Wales, Aberystwyth
7;
-
Gwaith Lewis Glyn Cothi
(ed.
E. D. Jones
),
1953.
Author:
Evan David Jones, F.S.A., (1903-87), Aberystwyth
