Born this day, 1913 in Cardiff.

R.S.Thomas - poet and priest who was noted for his nationalism, spirituality and deep dislike of the anglicisation of Wales. He was nominated for a Nobel Prize and awarded the Queen's Medal for Poetry. He is regarded as one of Wales's finest poets, with a career spanning fifty years, he was also a prolific campaigner on issues such as holiday homes, the Welsh language and nuclear disarmament.

Today is the feast day of St Gwynllyw.

Saint Gwynllyw, born c. 450 was King of Gwynllwg and an active and merciless warrior who in one raid accompanied by 300 men, abducted Gwladys, the beautiful daughter of King Brychan of Brycheiniog, with whom, he had a son, the famous Saint Cadoc.

To celebrate his son's birth Gwynllyw went on another raid stealing cattle from Caerwent. In adulthood, Cadoc was deeply religious and according to some sources, persuaded Gwynllyw to seek forgiveness for his sins and give up his life of violence.

Gwynllyw then had a dream in which an angel spoke to him and he saw a vision of a white ox. When he later saw the same ox as in his dream he founded a hermitage on the site of what is now St Woolos Cathedral on Stow Hill overlooking Newport.

On this day, 1461 the Battle of Towton occurred. It was an important battle during the War of the Roses.

The Battle and Welsh involvement

The Wars of the Roses were a series of civil wars between 1455 and 1485, that pitted the ruling Lancastrian monarchy against the house of York, they had arisen from the slow breakdown of English government under Henry VI, who, prone to bouts of mental illness, procrastinated on decision making, which resulted in factions being formed and enmities being deepened.

This drove Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, to assert his own claim to the throne, but when he was killed in December 1460, his son, the future Edward IV took up the fight.

* Wales played a central role in the War of the Roses, because many of the prominent figures, were of Welsh descent, or owned land in Wales. Wales in the 15th century was divided into two administrative entities.

1) The Principality of Wales, which was under the rule of the monarch and was divided into two groups of shires, centred at Carmarthen and Caernarvon and governed by a justiciar and chamberlain appointed by the crown.

2) The Marcher Lordships, in which each Lord had complete responsibility for government and neither Royal writs nor Royal officials, had any authority.

* The House of Lancaster had a blood connection from Henry VI's half-brothers, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond and Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke and Lancastrian support was therefore strongest in the Principality.

* The House of York had a blood connection from Richard, Duke of York's maternal relatives, the Mortimers, who were one of the most powerful Marcher families. Edward IV was also the Mortimer heir, therefore, Yorkist support was strongest in the Marches.

The battle took place in snowy conditions, on a plateau between the villages of Towton and Saxton in Yorkshire, 12 miles south-west of York. It was the bloodiest ever fought on British soil, with casualties believed to have been in excess of twenty thousand which resulted in the fighting being frequently stopped to remove the dead bodies. The result was a crushing victory for the Yorkists and Edward IV.

On the 29th of March 1895, Dinas Oleu, a gorse-covered hillside in the Mawddach Estuary became the first property donated to the National Trust. The 4.5 acres of land containing rare species of plants and birds was given to the Trust by Mrs Fanny Talbot, a friend of Octavia Hill and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, two of the Trust's founders.