Madoc
Page 21
The Pipe Rolls for 1197 say that ‘Walensian’ mercenaries were on Lundy and Willem might have been with them.
The book mentions Madoc’s fame as a sailor, his grandfather’s Viking blood (though it does not actually name Owain Gwynedd), the belief of Madoc in the Fountain of Youth and the fact that he went to the court of Louis as an envoy, disguised as a monk.
There is then a gap, the manuscript being incomplete. It recommences by saying that Madoc’s voyage was a penance inflicted on him by a conscience-stricken bard (possibly Llywarch). Willem states that Madoc found a “paradise under the sea” and how he returned to Lundy for two new ships. He mentions that the expedition was equipped with ‘ten painted pearls to probe the rivers’ – perhaps a reference to coracles. The ‘seaman’s magic stone’ is also mentioned, confirming the knowledge of Western sailors of the magnetic compass at that early date. It is interesting to note that Willem’s friend, the Welsh Walter Map, was educated in Paris until 1161, in the place and around the period when Guiot de Provins and Alexander Neckham were writing about the magnetic compass.
Willem says that the magic stone would ensure the safe return of a sailor to his home port, provided he ensured the safety of his ship with nails of horn – a striking agreement with the Welsh tales of the construction of the Gwennan Gorn.
Willem says that the ‘paradise’ was not Madoc’s ultimate goal, but that this lay six days distance from the ‘treacherous garden in the sea –la mer dégringolade’… again, extraordinary in that it described the Sargasso Sea, almost three centuries before Columbus.
A French chart of the 1600s has “St. Brendan? Matec?” written alongside the Azores, with the word “Matec” again in the corner, followed by the words “voyez Guillaume PB et Jacob van Maerlant”.
The first name must refer to Willem (PB = Pays Bas), the other to a Dutchman who had written several romantic epics around the year 1260. In his Spiegel Historiael, van Maerlant refers to ‘Madoc’s Dream’. Again these facts point to very early references to Madoc, untainted by post-Columbus influences or Tudor anti-Spanish propaganda.
Maredudd ap Rhys, a clergyman-poet living at Ruabon about 1450, wrote several odes to Madoc, saying that he was the son of Owain Gwynedd andwas tall, of comely face, mild manners, pleasing countenance and fond of sea-roaming.
Deacon claims that in a shipload of granite which arrived at Barnstaple in 1865 from Lundy, a partly-defaced stone tablet was found. On it was carved, in old-style Welsh, an inscription reading:
“IT IS AN ESTABLISHED FACT, KNOWN FAR AND WIDE, THAT MADOC VENTURED FAR OUT INTO THE WESTERN OCEAN, NEVER TO RETURN.”
The tablet was undated, but experts who examined the script said that it could not be more recent than 1300. The fact that the words were in the Welsh language suggests that it was carved before 1242, as in that year William de Marisco was taken prisoner to London, ending the era of alliance with the Welsh in defiance of the English king.
Devonshire records of 1893 quote archives of Lundy stating that in 1163, ‘an emissarie of the Prince of Gwynet (Gwynedd) landed at Lundy to seek aid against Henrie of England’.
G. D. Burtchell, an Irish antiquarian, mentions some Gaelic verses from an Old Irish song which indicate that Madoc was a Welsh sailor-prince and friend of Dermot McMurrough, King of Leinster. He was “learned in the ways of the sea, creator of a ship harder than the currach and who praised the beauties of the seas as he sang to the music of his harp”.
Cynfric ap Gronow, a pre-Tudor Welsh bard, wrote in a poem:
“Horn Gwennan, brought to the Gele to be given a square mast, was turned back from Afon Ganol’s quay, for Madoc’s famous voyage”.
He also testified to Madoc having discovered “a wondrous new lande of strange and delectable fruits, surrounded by a warm sea in which plantes do grow …”This last is interpreted as referring to the Sargasso Sea. Cynfric also agrees with another bard, Ieuan Brechfa, in stating that the oak for the Gwennan Gorn came from the forests of Nant Gwynant in North Wales.
This Ieuan Brechfa, a bard from the Carmarthen area who wrote around 1450, has much to say about Madoc, some repeated from earlier sources. One poem included the verse “Madoc, alive in truth, but slain in name, a name that would be whispered on the waves, but never uttered on the land”.
This again confirmed the fact that was some mystery aboutMadoc’s disappearance from Wales, fitting in with the poem ‘Ode to the Hot Iron’ by Llywarch Prydydd y Moch, who wrote in 1169-70 (the date of Madoc’s emigration):
“From having with my hand and blade slain the blessed one,
From having been accessory to a murderous deed,
Good Iron exonerate me; that when the assassin
Slew Madoc, he received not the blow from my hand”.
This is obviously a plea – possibly allegorical – to the ordeal of the hot iron as a judicial test of truthfulness.
Another of Brechfa’s poems says “Hail to thee, Winetland, fabled country of the Norsemen”. Written about 1450, this is a remarkable allusion to Vinland, the Newfoundland settlements of the Vikings, established about the year 1000, showing that these Norse tales were well-known in Wales before the Columbus era.
Meirion, an eighteenth century bard, quotes currently unknown poems of Llywarch, which tell of Owain Gwynedd’s wrath with Brenda of Carno and his suspicion that a youth was having an affair with her. This was only rectified on her deathbed.
He also quotes that “Madoc, the lonely one, was forced to find consolation on the great ocean after being robbed of his love.”
The same bard states that Madoc sailed with Riryd from Lundy. In 1634, Sir Thomas Herbert wrote that Madoc sailed with his brothers Edwall and Einion from Abergele – the reference to Edwall is wrong, as he had been killed before 1170.
Another Cardiganshire poet, Deio ab Ieuan Ddu, writing about 1450, makes Madoc a legendary figure, the patron of fishermen and renowned as a sailor.
In the Cottonian Manuscripts in the British Museum, a Latin text of 1477 – before Columbus again – says “Filius Oweni Gwynet et eius navigatione terras incognitas; Wallice”.
An old parchment, not later than the 1400s, was found among the papers of a Heaven family, previous owners of Lundy. This was in Welsh (again suggesting a latest date of the thirteenth century) and was an adaptation of the Moses story of a baby cast adrift, this time applied to the infant Madoc in a coracle. It went on to say that he was a skilled handler of ships, having learned this from exile in Ireland. It later describes him as ‘the sailor-magician of Bardsey’, creator of a ship that could not sink.
Roger Morris of Coed y Talwrn, writing in 1582, explainedthe name ‘Ffrydiau Caswennan’ from old stories. He says that Madoc, son of Owain Gwynedd, was a real sailor, having voyaged far and wide, but was baffled by the Vortex of Bardsey Race. He built a ship fastened with stag-horns, which he called Horn Gwennan, so that the sea would not swallow it. With this ship he visited many lands, but even so, the Bardsey Race severely damaged it on his return from a voyage.
John Dee, the Elizabethan mathematician and astrologer, confidant of Queen Elizabeth, based arguments in support of the Madoc story on several sources, including the ‘Inventio Fortunata’ map by Nicholas of Lynne, a Carmelite Monk who made arctic voyages about 1300.
Dee also quoted James Cnoyen, a Dutch explorer, saying that Cnoyen possessed a pre-1400 map based on information from Nicholas of Lynne and Willem of Ghent. It showed the track of Madoc’s and Nicholas’s voyages and indicated an island far out in the western ocean called ‘Gwerddonau Llion’, discovered by Madoc. Dee thought that this was somewhere near the Sea of Weed and could be either “Bermoothes”, (mentioned by Shakespeare in The Tempest), now called Bermuda or possibly the Bahamas.
Sir George Peckam wrote the first Tudor account in a book A True Reporte (1583), laying claim to English rights in the New World. He claimed to have a source in David Ingram who had sailed with Sir John Hawkins and who had heard Welsh words spoken in America.
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br /> In 1584, David Powel’s Historie of Cambria was published, claiming many ancient sources, including Caradoc of Llancarfan, Gutyn Owen and Cynfric ap Gronow. On Madoc, it says:
“He was one of Owain Gwynedd’s sons by diverse women. Loved by many, but caring nothing for power, he left the land in contention between his brothers and prepared certain ships with men and munition. He sought adventure by sea, sailing west, leaving the coast of Ireland so farre north, that he came to a lande unknown, where he saw manie strange things. This lande must be part of Nova Hispania or Florida (at that time, Florida meant any part of America) and he returned home and prepared a number of ships and got such men and women who were desirous to live in quietness and taking his leave of his friends, took his journey thitherward again. This Madoc, arriving in the countrie in the year 1170, left most of his people there and returned backfor more of his nation.”
Richard Hakluyt, who wrote a survey of voyages of discovery in his Principall Navigations of 1589, researched deeply into Welsh and continental sources and definitely avers that Madoc reached the New World, probably the West Indies.
Peter the Martyr was a scholar at the Spanish court of Ferdinand V, where he wrote a series of Decades. The first was published on 6th November 1493, only a few months after the return of Columbus. Peter says in it: “Some of the inhabitants of the land honoreth the memory of one Matec, when Columbus arrived on the coast … and that the nations of Virginia and Guatemala celebrate the memory of one of their ancient heroes, whom they call Matec.”
He also asserted later that Columbus had marked one of his maps in the area of the West Indies with the comment “Questo he mar de Cambrio” (These are Welsh waters).
The Dutch writer, Homius, states in his De Originibus Americanis of 1652 that “Madoc, a prince of Cambria, with some of his nation, discovered and inhabited some lands in the west and that his name and memory are still retained amongst the people living there, scarcely any doubt remains”.
Hornius refers to Peter Martyr’s Decades – he thought that Madoc made two landings, one in Mexico and the other in Chicimecca Indian country.
Aber Cerrig Gwynion is no longer on maps of Wales, but in the Welsh Ports Books of 1550-1603, ‘Aber Kerrik Gwynon’ was listed under Caernarvon and Denbighshire.
According to Deacon, in a Rye saleroom a few years ago, a damaged manuscript was bought by the late Rev. E. F. Synott; this was part of a list of lost ships from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. One entry read: “AberKerrik Guignon; nonsunt Guignon Gorn,Maduac … Pedr Sant, Riryd, filius Oueni Gueneti. An 1171.”
Against the name of the ship belonging to Riryd, son of Owain Gwynedd, was the sign of the Cross, possibly indicating that it was known that the ship had foundered.
The site of Aber Cerrig Gwynion was established by the presence of an old stone pier, still used as rockery in the garden of a house called ‘Odstone’, at Rhos-on-Sea, Colwyn Bay. This now has a memorial plaque upon it, stating that it was from there that Prince Madoc sailed for America in 1170. The cement inthe quay has been examined and declared to be as least as old as that used in Conway Castle.
The old creek which used to run past the quay to the sea, a few yards distant, was called the ‘Afon Ganol’ (the middle river), but the name was lost until recent researches rediscovered it. It is the same name as that mentioned in the poem of Cynfric ap Gronow.
The Spaniards were concerned with suggestions that other Europeans had ante-dated Columbus in his discovery of America. Even some of his own nation were sceptical of his claims, including Peter the Martyr. It was suspected that Columbus knew of the existence and location of the West Indies before he set sail.
In 1959, a Russian historian, Professor Isypemick of the Uzbek Academy, discovered a secret letter written by Columbus to Queen Isabella, revealing that he had a map of the new islands provided by earlier explorers. This was confirmed by the Map Curator of the Royal Geographical Society, who said there had been secret communications between Columbus and Isabella.There are other maps in the US Library of Congress and one discovered forty years ago in Turkey, which bear this out.
In 1526, the Spaniards sent out three expeditions to look for the ‘gento bianco’, the white people, which included searches in the West Indies for traces of Madoc. Between 1624 and 1627, letters passed between the King of Spain and Luis de Rojas, Governor of Florida, indicating that searches were still being made in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mexico.
Hernando de Soto, the Spanish explorer, found traces of ancient fortifications in the neighbourhood of Mobile Bay and in the Chattanooga area, which he considered could not be the work of Indians.
A manuscript bought in London in 1947 was found to be a translation of 1599 of a work of the previous year in Spanish, by Buid de Haro, entitled Anatomie of Spayne.
Now in the United States, the manuscript reads “Presumcions to prove ye Spaniardes not to be ye first discoverers of ye Indes … Francisco Lopez de Gomara wrighteth that the inhabitants of Acumazil and other places, long before the Spaniardes ever arrived, honored the Cross. A sonne of the Prince of Wales called Madoc in the year 1170, sayled into the West Indies and inhabited the country of Mexico.
When Fernando Cortes conquered it, Montezume made an orationto his people, in which he led them to understand how they were descended from a white nation, come from afar off. And how their prophets had often told them how they were again to become subjects to another nation of the same qualities.”
This speech of Montezuma is recorded elsewhere, by Cortes himself and also in a Spanish manuscript found in Mexico in 1748.
Montezuma is recorded as saying: ‘We came from a generation very far off, in a little island in the north.’
Another version from Spanish records says “The ancient tradition that the Great Being had declared on his departure that he should return some day. The white men had come from the quarter where the sun rose beyond the ocean.”
The tales of pale-skinned, blue-eyed, Welsh-speaking Indian tribes in the south-eastern United States are legion and cannot be touched upon here.
Suffice it to say that for much of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, repeated claims and assertions have been made, many of them spurious. The consensus of opinion is that there are fortifications of medieval type and date (certainly not Indian) spread through Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky, following the rivers that join Mobile Bay to the Missouri. One tribe, the Mandans, last heard of on the upper Missouri, have atypical characteristics that mark them as different from other Amerinds. They were studied by George Catlin in the early part of the last century and he records their destruction as a tribe in 1838, from smallpox introduced by furtraders.
The American end of the Madoc story has no historical or literary evidence to back it up, but even so, could occupy another book for its full exploration.
Lastly, on the 10th of November 1953 a tablet was erected on the shore of Fort Morgan, Mobile Bay, Alabama, by the Virginia Cavalier Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Under the Red Dragon emblem, stand these words:
“In memory of Prince Madoc, a Welsh explorer, who landed
on the shores of Mobile Bay in 1170 and left behind with the
Indians, the Welsh language.”
Even more recently, the Welsh community in New York commissioned a bronze likeness of Madoc, to be placed in 1975 in the museum at Mobile.
In spite of the denials spanning many centuries, the thin thread connecting the old quay at Aber Cerrig Gwynion and the shores of Mobile Bay, still holds firm. Though Madoc himself has never been identified in the annals of medieval Welsh history, the legend stubbornly persists.
Historical Fiction from critically acclaimed
BERNARD KNIGHT
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©Bernard Knight 1977, 2016
First publi
shed in Great Britain 1977 by Robert Hale Ltd
This edition published by Accent Press Ltd 2016
ISBN 9781910939840
Copyright © Bernard Knight 2016
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All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.