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Almost 700 years since the death of Princess Gwenllian, daughter of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd
Cymdeithas y Dywysoges Gwenllian
The Princess Gwenllian Society
Er fod yna ddefodau sifalri a chanu cerddi yn y Brydain Ganol oesol yr oedd yn gyfnod o greulondeb dwys a chaledi mawr. Yr oedd Lloegr benben Chymru ar rhannau Celtaidd eraill o Brydain. Erbyn 1282, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (ein Llyw Olaf) oedd Tywysog Cymru, yr oedd o hen linach Tywysogion Gwynedd. Yn 1278 priododd Llywelyn ag Eleanor do Montfort mewn seremoni ar risiau allanol Eglwys Gadeiriol Caerwrangon mewn briodas frenhinol. Roedd Brenin Alecsander yr Alban yno, a Brenin Lloegr, y Norman Edward 1, a roddodd anregion cymwys i ddathlur amgylchiad. Ond nid oedd parhad ir cyfeillgarwch yma.
Ym Mehefin 1282, yng Ngarth Celyn, Aber ger Bangor (maer llen dal i fod) ganwyd merch i Eleanor ar Tywysog Llywelyn Y Dywysoges Gwenllian. Tristwch fu marw Eleanor o achosion rhoi genedigaeth. Fel unig blentyn Llywelyn yr oedd i Gwenllian le pwysig iawn yn olyniaeth teulu Tywysogion Cymru, oherwydd hyn yr oedd Edward 1 yn ei gweld yn fygythiad i Goron Lloegr. Pan oedd Gwenllian yn 6-12 mis oed trefnodd Edward i Lywelyn gael ei lofruddio ger Llanfair-ym-Muallt, ac yna gorchmynodd y Brenin ir ferch fach amddifad gael ei chipio oddiwrth ei theulu.
Er mwyn sicrhau na chai Gwenllian eni plant fei hanfonwyd i Briordy o Urdd Gilbert ar dir Abaty Sempringham ynghanol corsdiroedd Swydd Lincoln, taith hirfaith o Gymru.
Bu farw yno am 54 o flynyddoedd yn lleian: yn ddi-urddas, di-wrogaeth hyd ei marw 7 Mehefin, 1337. A oedd hin gwybod pwy oedd hi? Pwy wyr?
Yr oedd Edward yn benderfynol y dylid anghofio Gwenllian, i ni, fuodd hin ddim mwy nag is-nodyn bach ar waelod tudalen mewn llyfrau hanes. Does fawr ddim oi hanes ar gael wahan i ddyddiad ac amser ei marw.
Ond yn 1991 ysgrifennodd Byron Rogers y newyddiadurwr ar hanesydd erthygl am Wenllian yn y Guardian. Darllenodd Capten Richard Turner, Caernarfon, hen longwr bywiog a phenderfynol yr erthygl, a theimlodd ir byw fod y rhan yma on hanes wedi ei gadw oddiwrthym. Aeth Capten ati i godi cofeb fach i Wenllian ar dir ger safler Priordy ger Abaty Sempringham. Mae mur gogleddol a chorff eglwys Sant Andreas heddiw yn rhan or hen Abaty.
Yn 1996 adeg marw Capten Turner, gweithredwyd ar y syniad o sefydlu Cymdeithas y Dwysoges Gwenllian; gydar nd o ofalu am y Gofeb ac i gadwr cof amdani yn fyw.
Erbyn 2001 roedd y gofeb yn dadfeilio a chodwyd cofeb newydd iddi ar yr un safle, darn hardd o Wenithfaen gadarn Gwynedd. Mae hi iw gweld ychydig ir do o Billingborough ar y ln gul syn arwain or B1177 at Eglwys Sat Andreas syn dal i ddwyn yr enw Abaty Sempringham ar lafar gwlad.
Gwaith Ieuan Rees y cain-lythrennwr byd-enwog ywr Gofeb newydd, fei codwyd mewn ymteb i haelioni pobl o bob rhan or byd: pobl sydd yn teimlo colli hanes ein Tywysoges Goll a fu mor agos cael ei llwyr angofio.
Os hoffech fwy o wybodaeth ac i gefnogi'r Gymdeithas gyda tanysgrifiad o 10 y flwyddyn, ewch i'r wefan: http://www.tywysogesgwenllian.co.uk
Fe wnes i ddarganfod y wybodaeth hon mewn papurau a etifeddais gan fy mam ar eimarwolaeth . Hi oedd yn selog Genedlaethol ac yr wyf am sicrhau bod ei hawydd iledaenu'r wybodaeth hon ymhellach i ffwrdd , ei gyflawni . Nid oes gennyf enw'r awdurgwreiddiol ac felly ni allaf credyd nhw .
Ewchi wefan:mae'ncael ei lenwigydagwybodaethardderchogac rwy'ngobeithio y bydd ynysbrydolichigymaintagyysbrydolifi,aysbrydolwydfy mamger fy mron.
I knew nothing ofGwenllian until you mentioned her, Rhianne.
Life in the past wasbrutish and usually short. Gwenllian's tragedy was exasperatedby living into her fifties, too long for her, probably. A heartbreaking story.
Today I've received the things I ordered from the Gwenllian Society. I sent for the pamphlet by Gweneth Lilly which tells the story of Gilbert and Gwenllian, postcards showing the memorial stone (with the silhouette of a nun) and a bookmarkwith the window at Worcester Cathedralshowing Llwyelyn's marriage. They have other items too.
I hope to visit the memorial stoneat Sempringham; I tried looking uphow to get there. I don't have a car and I haven't driven for too long now to start again (I know this will be astonishing to Americans!) so it means taking public transport. I wrote to the local tourist office, with a stamped addressed envelope enclosed, but they have not seen fit to respond so far. The local bus company has a website but doesn't give the times of the buses.
Anyway, I had a charming note from the lady who runs the Society and she is very clearly so enthusiastic. She says she was prompted to foundthe Societyby Byron Rogers's article "The Lost Children".
It was not the English government that made the Welsh switch to speaking English.
It happened because industrialisation led to an influx of English speakers from England, Scotland and Ireland. It happened because English is the language of science, technology and commerce. It happened because the Welsh county councils set up English medium schools after 1870. Education in Wales as in America is largely decided locally not federally.Also individuals chose to switch to English not because they were after government patronage but to succeed in the market place.They had freewill.They chose. My ancestors were all Welsh speaking peasants, coal miners and iron-workers. I much prefer being a Welsh writer in English for the American reader to being stuck in the kind of twll where my ancestors were forced to live in poverty. I thank my Welsh speaking grandparents for having educated my parents entirely in English.
If I wrote in Welsh I would have at maximum a few hundred thousand readers and a few sheep dogs. In America, India, Australia, UK there are hundreds of millions who read English. Plus it remains impossible to get a broad education in Welsh and very few peoply are truly bilingual : one language is stronger. Look at your own Hispanics.
My latest American book came out today. It is called Jokes and Targets and is published by Indiana University Press. Several Welsh jokes and references. Try Amazon.com
Glad you enjoyed the post Margo, I'm a bit of a nationalist at heart, so forgive me if I keep plugging all the Welsh history and such like.
I was made aware of the Llywelyn ambush story at a very early age and also about how the English government robbed a whole generation of the right to speak the mother tongue - my mother was SO passionate about her birthright, and I thank her, bless her!
Last night at the unveiling of the fabulous 'Kardomah Boys' painting by Jeff Phillips, capturing a pictorial record of the five sons of Swansea, it crept into the script too. If you read through the detail here in the 2nd paragraph, it says John Pritchard the writer was one of the Kardomah boys. In the original script of 1949 he chose to talk to the BBC Radio Wales audience about the Welsh language. Dylan Thomas comments too about how ex-pats living elsewhere, such as London get under his skin, because they appear to want to remove themselves from their heritage by adopting a style of speaking that sounds "Like they have a mouthful of Elgin Marbles".... rather than letting any hint of the Welsh lilt spring forth from their mouths.
Agreed, it wasn't the worst that happened in that age but nevertheless it did change the course of Welsh history, and that's pretty diabolical to me.
~Interesting notes you add there Christie. You must blog about that, I'm sure it will interest many here on Americymru who are passionate about Welsh history. I have to admit I had no idea about 'Ole King Cole!
She was also a direct descendant of bad King John of England and grand-daughter of the notorious antisemite after whom the truly awful de Montfort University in England was named. She probably never saw herself as Welsh but as an English and English-speaking nun.Henry VII claimed descent from all manner of Welsh princes including old King Cole ( the one with the fiddlers three) and who cares about the Gogs of Gwynedd anyway
Don't bother with the Google Translation - it really is bad!
Just hop along to the great website, where there is a whole host of information available.
;o) Hwyl Rhianne
Thanks for that. I've looked at the Society's site and it's quite moving to read the poems and see the photos of her memorials and of the Eryri peak named after her.