A History of Wales, derived from authentic sources

Preface

. § 1. The facts of this History, from the earliest period to the year 1066, are derived from the works included in the 'Monumenta Historica Britannica ; ' from the 'Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales,' edited by Aneurin Owen and published by the Lords Commis sioners of the Treasury, under the direction of the Master of the Bolls ; and from the Triads, Poems, and Genealogies preserved by the Welsh Bards. For the testimony of Sharon Turner to the historical value of the Welsh Triads and Poems, I must refer the reader to his ' Vindication of the Ancient British Poems.' Of the Genealogies, Sir Francis Palgrave says:1 'Admitting that the British pedigrees must be employed with caution, they may yet be received as historical testimony.' Of ancient Cambrian records altogether, Mr. Gunn2 remarks, that he cannot perceive ' how we are justified in withholding from the traditions of our own country the faith we repose on those of distant ages, which, like them, were orally delivered, and on which so much of ancient history is founded.' 1 Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, ed. 1832, p. 416. 2 Preface to Nennius, ed. 1841, p. xsxix. VI

PREFACE.

. The dates, from the year 59 B.C. to a.d. 498, are derived from the Chronological Abstract prefixed to the first volume of the ' Monumenta Historica Britan nica,' pp. 129-146. It is much to be regretted that Sir Thomas Hardy could not send forth, in the same volume, a Chronological Abstract of the Saxon Period. His ' Introductory Eemarks on the Chronology of the Mediæval Historians in connection with the Chronolo gical Abstract,' pp. 102-128, are valuable for the sake of a few clear statements concerning the dates of particular facts, and also because he points out the systematic causes of the marvellous discrepancies which occur in the dates given by different historians and chroniclers, and the inconsistencies which frequently clash even in one work. He considers that mediæval chronology was generally vitiated by the wrong use of the Diocletian tables.

This was obviously the case, and erroneous calculations and the contemporary use of various periods for the commencement of the year multiplied and complicated the sources of confusion. It was not until after a.d. 891, that December 25 was commonly adopted as new year's day ; and, towards the close of the tenth century, that usage gave way to another, which established March 25 as new year's clay. This continued to be authorized in England until the twenty-fourth year of the reign of George n., when an Act of Parliament corrected the calendar according to the Gregorian principle, and appointed January 1, 1753, to be the first of a future series of Eno-lish new years' days. Gildas, the oldest British writer whose works are extant, mentions only one date, and that so ambio-u-

PREFACE.

. VII ously, as to admit a doubt whether he meant to say that the battle of Badon Hill and of his own birth was forty-four years after the arrival of the Saxons, or forty four years before his authorship. Nennius, the British historian next in time to Gildas, gives dates, but scarcely any which are trustworthy. The oldest Saxon writer extant, the venerable Bede, varies strangely sometimes in his chronology, and assigns three different dates to the first arrival of the Teutonic invaders. The dates of the early parts of the Saxon Chronicle are open to correction, but I can find no better guide through the chronological intricacies of the period, A.D. 498-1154, than that chronicle affords. From the year 1154, when the Saxon Chronicle ends, I have usually preferred the chronology of Florence of Worcester and his continuators, of Eoger of Wendover, and of Matthew Paris, to that of Simeon of Durham and other English chroniclers.

Rhymer's Fœdera, and other authentic collections of deeds, documents, and letters, have greatly assisted my ascertainment of dates ; all difficulties created by obsolete descriptions of particular days being smoothed away by the Glossary of Dates and Calendar of Saints' Days furnished by xSir Harris Nicolas. The Preface to the 'Monumenta Historica Britannica' attests that the chronicle entitled Annales Cambriæ ' forms the basis of the legitimate history of Wales,' and states that ' its notices throughout, though very brief, are highly valuable.' Mr. Skene'2 limits his special estimation of this 1 Chronology of History. a The Four Ancient Books of Wales, vol. i. c. iii. pp. 38, 39.

PREFACE.

. chronicle to MS. A, which commences with the year 444, and ends with 954, having been compiled a century and a half before any of the other Bruts were written. Although the practice of making decennial entries has sometimes misplaced events within such periods, the chronology of the 'Annales Cambriæ ' is indeed highly valuable ; and I have constantly rested upon it, from a.d. 444 to 1288, as a chief authority, comparing its dates with those of the Brut y Tywysogion and of English writers, and referring in difficult emergencies occurring between the middle of the first and the close of the seventh century to Bees's Welsh Saints, a judicious work, which conveys the result of a careful and critical examination of the ancient Welsh Genea logies. § 2. ' A cry over the abyss,' like that uttered by the unsuccessful claimant of Cymric land, might well be raised by students over many hopeless vacancies in Cymric history ; and many an incident, variously set forth by conflicting chroniclers, remains, after laborious research and innumerable conjectures, a dark 'place of a hundred perplexities.' From the reign of Trajan (a.d. 98 — 117) to the fall of the Western Empire (a.d. 476), I have gladly accepted guidance from the first thirty-eight chapters of Gibbon,1 who has treated British authorities with ex emplary candour, and recognized Ancient British valour with heart-stirring eloquence.

Turner, in his ' History of the Anglo Saxons,' scarcely does due justice to the intellectual culture of the Druids though otherwise his account of the Ancient Britons 1 Decline and Fall.

PREFACE.

. IX forms a well-balanced estimate of Classic and Cymraeg authorities, and I acknowledge my obligations to him for it. To Palgrave's admirable work, on ' The Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth,' I am still more deeply indebted. Various attempts have been made by previous writers to reconcile the statements of Tacitus and the native evidence on one side, with the assertion of Dion Cassius on the other, the former showing Caradog to have been a Silurian chief, the latter assuming that he was a son of Cunobelin. To me it appears that Dion, aware that Caradog succeeded Cunobelin in the sovereignty of Britain, though ignorant of his origin, and knowing Togodumnus succeeded his father Cunobelin in the tribal kingdom of the Trinobantes, was misled by the division of dignities into the erroneous notion that they were brethren.

Then, again, Cadwalader is a great historical difficulty. The 'Annales Cambriæ' say, 'A.D. 682. Mortalitas magna suit in Britannia, in qua, Catgualart, films Cat guolaum, obiit.' MS. B. substitutes, for the last clause of the above sentence, the words ' pro qua Catwaladir, filius Catwallaun, in Minorem Britanniam aufugit.' MS. C substitutes ' et Cadwallader rex Britanniam dereliquit, et ad Armoricam regionem perrexit.' The caligraphy of the MS. marked A, from which the text of the 'Annales Cambriæ ' is printed in the M. H. B. and in Ab Ithel's complete edition, belongs to the close of the tenth, or to the beginning of the eleventh, century. This MS. is supplemented by a paternal and maternal pedigree of Owen ab Howel Dda in the same hand writing. Hence the editors infer that both were either X

PREFACE.

. copied or compiled for Owen's use by his household bard; and, guided by the last entry in MS. A, Ab Ithel fixes its date at a.d. 954. The Brut y Tywysogion in its earliest year, a.d. 081, states that ' Cadwalader the Blessed, son of Cadwallon, son of Cadvan, king of the Britons, died at Rome on May 12, as Myrddin had previously prophesied to Vortigern of repulsive lips ; and thenceforth the Britons lost the crown of the kingdom and the Saxons gained it.' This Brut is attributed to Caradog of Llancarvan, who died some little time before the year 1152. MS. A of this Brut does not appear to be older than a.d. 1318. The different accounts of Cadwalader given by the first and by the two other MSS. of the Annales, and the decorated addition or alteration set forth in the Brut, might mislead lax inquirers either into acqui escence with the reiterated assertion that Cadwalader went to Britanny, or into an assent to the still bolder perversion, that he died at Rome.

Nevertheless, the simple statement of the Annales in MS. A is strongly upheld by further evidence. Nennius testifies that Catgualart, king of the Britons, succeeded his father Catgublaun, and died at home of a dreadful pestilence. Bede in his 2 ' Ecclesiastical History ' relates the remarkable life of Cadwalla, ' a daring young man of the royal race of the Gewissæ who had been banished his country.' This Cadwalla, having gained the crown of Wessex, and pursued a fierce career of war and con quest, after a reign of two years, under a religious impulse abandoned all his earthly honours, went to 1 Nennius, § 64. 3 Book ii. c. xii. ; book iv. c. xv. xvi. ; book v. c.

PREFACE.

. XI Rome, was baptized by the name of Peter, and died a few days afterwards, on April 20, 689, being about thirty years of age. Pope Sergius gave him a solemn funeral, and caused an epitaph to be written and placed upon his tomb. Bede gives a copy of the epitaph, and relates that Ina, being of the blood royal, succeeded Cadwalla on the throne of the West Saxons. The Saxon Chronicle, under the years a.d. 685, 686, 687, and 688, records the principal facts of Cadwalla's life in accordance with Bede, but placing the king's death a year earlier. Geoffrey of Monmouth,1 bishop of St. Asaph (a.d. 1152-54), prolongs the life and reign of Cadwallon to the year 642 ; boldly identifies the Cadwalla of the West Saxons with the Cadwalader of the Britons ; and says that his mother, the wife of his father Cadwallon, was the half-sister of Penda, king of the West Saxons ; that a fearful pestilence caused Cadwalader and most of his surviving people to seek refuge in Britanny; that he was preparing to return, but forbidden by an angel, who commanded him to go to Rome ; that he consequently went thither, was confirmed by Pope Sergius, and died there April 20, a.d. 689.

If we candidly pass judgment, upon this narrative without allowing prejudice against Geoffrey to prevent the reception of truth at his hands, it appears extremely probable, from the wellattested2 alliance of Penda and Cadwallon, that this account of Cadwalader's maternal origin is correct ; that Geoffrey's authority had sufficient power over the scribes who, towards the close 1 British History, book xii. c. xiv. xv. xvi. xvii. xviii. 3 Bede, book ii. c. xx.

PREFACE.

. of the thirteenth century, wrote the MSS. B and C of the 'Annales Cambriæ,' to induce them to export the hero to Britanny; and that the same authority enabled Cara dog of Llancarvan, Geoffrey's contemporary, to waft the same hero to Rome ; but the attempted identification is an utter failure, for a man who died in 682, 688, or 689, at the age of thirty, could not be the son of a man Jwho was slain in 633, or 2629. Palgrave, Herbert, and Kemble acknowledge Cad walla to be a British name ; and Kemble remarks that Mol, the name of Cadwalla's brother, indicates one of mixed blood. Bearing this opinion in mind, perhaps the true solution of the problem may be approximately traced. Nennius mentions Catgabail3 a king of Guene dot, who escaped with his army when other kings of the Britons were slain at Gai Campi.

The pedigree of Owen ab Howel makes Tutgail the father of Rotri and the son of Catgualart. This Tutgail is called Edwal by Humphrey Lhwyd; and Dr. Powel suggests,4 that Edwal is a corrupt form of the name Cadwalla, and that he who bore it reigned for a time over both the Britons and West Saxons, and then went to Rome and died there. This identification is not liable to any chronological objection, and agrees with the order in which the British kings are named by Nennius. § 3. Those readers who desire to know more of the history of the Welsh people may advantageously consult the authorities named in the margin, and other works to which those authorities will direct them. 1 Bede, Eccl. Hist, book iii. c. i. 2 Annales Cambriæ. 3 Nennius, 64, 65 ; Annales Cambriæ, a.d. 656, 657 ; Bede, book iii. c. xxiv. a.d. 655. 4 Historie of Cambria, ed. 1584, pp. 7-13.

PREFACE.

. XIII In cases of conflicting evidence, I have given refer ences to the best authorities on both sides, although the text records my own deliberate judgment, and the dimensions of this book forbid quotations and disqui sitions. The letters j, k, and v, being foreign to the Welsh alphabet, I have used in the spelling of Welsh words the native i, c hard, and single/, which are their equi valents in sound. The Welsh dd is pronounced like the English th in breathe. The Welsh th is pronounced like the English th in pith. The Welsh 11 is liquid, and nearly represented in sound by Ih. The Welsh w is pronounced like the English oo in the word too. In the orthography of Welsh proper names, I have generally been guided by the Welsh Chronicles, Me diæval Documents in Rymer's Fœdera, Aneurin Owen, Ab Ithel, and Williams of Llancadwaladr. ' J. W. 56 Colbshill Street ; October 8, 1869, CONTENTS.

CHA.PTEK. PAGE I. The Cymry of Ancient Britain . . .1 II. The Cymry and the Romans, b.c. 53 — a.d. 54 . 17 III. The Cymry and the Romans, a.d. 54 — 96 . 29 IV. The Cymry and the Romans, a.d. 9G — 306 . 41 V. The Cymry and the Romans, a.d. 306 — 411 . 55 VI. The Cymry in the Fifth Century . . 67 VII. The Cymry and the Saxons, a.d. 500 — 566 . 80 VIII. The Cymry and the Saxons, a.d. 566 — 634 . 94 IX. The Cymry and the Saxons, a.d. 634 — 819 . 108 X. The Cymry, the Saxons, and the Danes, a.d. 819—915 . . - . .119 XI. The Cymry and the Saxons, a.d. 915 — 948 . 132 XII. The Cymry, the Saxons, and the Danes, a.d. 948 —1039 . . . • . .153 XIII. The Cymry and the Saxons, a.d. 1039 — 1063 . 167 XIV. The Cymry, the Saxons, and the Normans, a.d. 1063—1091 180 XV. The Cymry and the Normans, a.d. 1091—1112 . 192 XVI.

The Cymry and the Normans, a.d. 1112 — 1137 . CONTEXTS. CHAPTER. PAGE XVII. The Cymry and the Nokmans, a.d. 1137—1169 . 234 XVIII. The Cymry and the Normans, a.d. 1169—1194 . 263 XIX. The Cymry and the Normans, a.d. 1194—1240 . 295 XX. The Cymry and the Anglo-Normans, a.d. 1240 — 1246 . . . . . .337 XXI. The Anglo-Normans and the Cymry, a.d. 1246 — 1276 . . . . . .352 XXII. The Anglo-Normans and the Cymry, a.d. 1276 — 1282 . . . . . .396 XXIII. The Anglo-Normans and the Cymry, a.d. 1282 — 1287 418 XXIV. TnE Plantagenet Princes and the Cymrt, a.d. 1327—1422 432 XXV. The Plantagenet Princes and the Cymry, a.d. 1422—1485 . . . . .459 XXVI. The Tudor Dynasty, a.d. 1485—1603 . . 475

Appendix

. . . . .497 INDEX -503 CHAP. I. HISTORY OF WALES.

Chapter I. The Cymry Of Ancient Britain

Love thou thy land with love far brought From out the storied past, and used Within the present, but transfused Through future time by power of thought. — Tennyson. § 1. It has been well said that the memory of races,1 like that of individual men, tenaciously and vividly retains the recollections of infancy, which become in each race the subjects of oral traditions and of songs and ballads, until at last they assume a mythic or symbolic form, presenting usually two different aspects, one exhibiting the migrations of the several tribes and their arrival in successive colonies ; the other assigning to each race a paternal ancestor, whose name personifies that of the people, and from whom an ethnological genealogy connects their tribes as his children and the kinsfolk of each other. The earliest British historian who treats of ethnology states that, according to Roman annals,2 the Britons deduce their origin from the Trojans ; and that according to another account derived from ' the ancient books of our ancestors'3 and from ' ancient tradition,' 1 Skene's Four Ancient Books of Wales, vol. i. c. vii. pp. 97-101. 2 Nennius, § 10. 3 Ibid. §§ 17, 18.

B CHAP. I. Alanus, a descendant of Japheth, was the first man who dwelt in Europe ; that he had three sons, Hisicion, Armenon, and Neugo ; that Hisicion had four sons, three of them being Romanus, Brittus, called also Briutus and Brutus, and Albanus ; that from each of these sons sprang a distinct people, Brittus being the progenitor of the Britons, and Albanus of the Albans. According to the native Triads,1 the earliest inhabitants of Great Britain were the Cymry, who, after their own settlement in the island, admitted the Lloegrwys and the Brython at two successive periods to take possession of different parts of it. Philological researches prove that these three nations had sprung from the same branch of the Celtic stock.2 They spoke dialects of the same language, they observed the same customs, and united in upholding one religious institution.

The territories which they severally possessed were called Alban, Lloegyr, and Cymru.3 Alban lay north ward of the Friths of Forth and Clyde. Lloegyr con sisted of the midland, eastern, and southern parts of the island, together with the south-western peninsula,4 Ictis, and the Cassiterides. Cymru5 included the south- 1 These traditionary memorials may he found Myv. Arch. vol. ii. p. 57 ; Davies's Celtic Researches, pp. 153-156 ; Parry's Camhro-Briton vol. i. pp. 45-50, vol. iii. pp. 133-137 ; Turner's History of the Anglo- Saxons, ed. vi. vol. i. book i. c. ii. p. 48 ; Thierry's Norman Conquest (Whittaker's ed.), pp. 1,2; Ab libel's Eccl. Antiq. of the Cymry, pp. 5-7, 9. 2 Historical Triads, 5; Prichard's Researches into the Phvsical History of Mankind; Prichard's Origin of the Celtic Nations (Latham's ed. 1857); Cambrian Journal, 1854, pp. 5-33; Skene's Four Ancient Books of Wales, vol. i. c. vii. and viii. 3 Historical Triads, 2. 4 Gibson's Camden's Brit. ed. 1772, p. 117; Lyell's Principles of Geology, ed. 1807, pp. 539-43. 5 Skene's Four Ancient Books of Wales, vol. i. c. x. pp. 165-183- CHAP, I. ern part of North Britain, and the districts now known by the names of Northumberland, Durham, Cumber land, Westmoreland, the West Riding of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire, besides the country which is now divided into the thirteen counties of Wales, and a broad margin of lands extending to the eastward beyond the lines of the rivers Dee and Severn, and comprehending parts of the present counties of Salop, Worcester, Hereford, and Gloucester.

Although the term Briton is said to have been locally attached to particular tribes, the Greeks and Romans, as well as the earliest native writers,1 applied it generally to all the native inhabitants of the island, and in that sense it is commonly used throughout the present work. The Cymry appear to have been more intimately con nected with the Lloegrwys than with the Northern Britons of Alban. § 2. The Lloegrwys and Cymry consisted of many distinct tribes,2 and every tribe was locally established under its own Pencenedyl, a royal ruler whose office was hereditary in his family, but could only be retained by him while he continued in full vigour both of mind Turner's Hist, of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. i. c. i. ; Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, part i. c. x. and xiii. and else where throughout ; Palgrave's Hist, of tbe Anglo-Saxons quoted in Rees's Welsh Saints, pp. 203-205 ; Davies, On the Races of Lancashire, in Trans. of the Philological Society, December 7, 1855 ; Skene's Intro duction to the Dean of Lismore's Book; Ab Ithel, Eccl.

Antiq. of the Cymry. 1 Nennius, History of the Britons, §§ 7, 9, 12 ; Bede's Eccl. History, book i. c. i. ; Saxon Chronicle, Prelude, &c. 2 Cæsar, De Bel. Gal. lib. iv. eo. xix. xxv. xxxiv. ; Tacitus, Agric. e. xv. ; Triad 57 ; Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, ed. 1832, part i. c. x. p. 75 ; Stilling-fleet. Orig. Brit. ed. 1685, p. 05, (where he cites Diod. Sic. lib. iv. ; Strabo, lib. iv. ; Mela, lib. iii. c. vi. ; Dion. Severus, &c.) ; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ed. 1846, vol. i. c. i. p. 21 ; Archdeacon Williams, Claudia and Pudens, p. 47. b CHAP. I. and body. A federal connection existed between the tribes, and their several kings met together at stated times in national convention. In case1 of extensive warfare or foreign invasion, it was usual for the kings of both nations to elect one among them to hold for a term a military monarchy over all the rest, and this sovereign2 of the kings of the tribes was called their Pendragon3 or Gwledig.

The nearest kinsmen4 of the royal families constituted the nobility of each tribe. They employed themselves in the sports of the chase, and in practising equestrian and chariot exercises with other warlike accomplishments. From the royal and noble families the most intelli gent, studious, and eloquent youths are inferred to have been selected and trained up as members of the Druidical class.5 This class, chiefly by means of moral influence, controlled alike the kings, the nobles, and the people. It consisted of three orders.6 The members of the first were more emphatically called the Druids, being at once the priests, the legal judges of civil and criminal causes, the chief councillors in affairs of state, and the living oracles of natural and moral philosophy. One of them resided in every cwmwd7 to offer sacrifices and to instruct the people.

Besides the portion of land to which every freeborn Cymro was 1 Cæsar, De Bel. Gal. lib. v. c. ix. ; Tacitus, Agric. c. xxvii. 2 Tacitus, Ann. lib. xii. c. xxxvii. 3 'Dux bellorum.' — Bede, book iii. c. i. 4 Cæsar, De Bel. Gal. lib. vi. c. xiv. 5 Ibid. c. xiii. ; Diod. Sic. Bib. Hist. lib. v. c. ii. ; Davies, Celtic Researches, pp. 139-199. 6 Diod. Sic. Bib. Hist. lib. v. c. ii. ; Strabo, lib. iv. c. iv. § 4 ; Amm. Marcel, lib. xv. c. ix. § 8. 7 Ab libel's Eccl. Antiq. of the Cymry, p. 30 ; Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, edited by Aneurin Owen for the Record Commission folio ed. pp. 641, 649. CHAP. I. entitled and the immunities and privileges belonging to his class, this local priest could claim a contribution from every plough used in the hamlets of his cwmwd. Executing1 their judicial functions as subservient parts of their priestly office, they periodically offered up as holocausts convicted criminals, together with cattle and sheep, enclosed in a colossal frame of wicker work.

In political emergencies they occasionally had recourse to divination by the throes of a human victim slain with a sword ; and holding the maxim that only man's life was equivalent to man's life, they sometimes offered up a human sacrifice, hoping thereby to prolong the days of a sick person. The Druids declared the supremacy of one Almighty God, but believed in the existence of subservient deities,2 and rendered especial honour to the sun and fire. They acknowledged the immortality of the soul, but looked forward to its endless transmigrations.3 The theological and philosophical Triads imputed to the Druids by Greek and Roman historians and by national tradition prove them to have been studious, reflective, and sagacious sages, possessing a vast store of experimental knowledge,4 acute in discerning, and earnest in pursuing intellectual and moral truth.5 1 Cæsar, De Bel.

Gal. lib. vi. c. xv. ; Diod. Sic. Bib. Hist. lib. v. c. ii. ; Strabo. lib. iv. c. iv. § 5; Tacitus, Agric. § ll, Ann. lib. xiv. c. xxx. ; Davies's Myth, and Rites of the British Druids, p. 617. 2 Cæsar, De Bel. Gal. lib. vi. c. xv. ; Stillingfleet, Orig. Brit. ed. 1685, p. 57, where he quotes Origen in Ezek. Horn. 4. 3 Cæsar, De Bel. Gal. lib. vi. xiii. ; Pomponius Mela, lib. iv. ; Lucan, lib. i. ; Diog. Laer. Lives of the Philosophers (Bohn's ed.), proem, p. 7, and Pythagoras, lib. viii. ; Toland, Hist, of the Druids, letter i. c. xiii. p. 82; Smith, Hist, of the Druids, ed. 1780, p. 18; Vindication of the Ancient British Poems, appended to Turner's Hist, of the Anglo-Saxons, ed. 6, vol. i. p. 633. -1 Amni. Marcel, lib. xv. c, ix. § 8. 5 Herbert, Neo-Druidic Heresy, p. 15 ; Archdeacon Williams, Gomer, CHAP. I. The members of the second Druidical order were called Bards.1 To them were entrusted the arrangement and preservation of the family genealogies, upon which depended the descent and division of property.

Facility in writing was more especially required for this purpose. They used an alphabet resembling the old Greek2 characters in their records, which are said to have consisted of the coel-faen (token-stone),3 the coelbren (token-stick), and the peithynen (elucidator). Poetry and music were the means which they employed to fix moral maxims in the memory,4 to celebrate the praises of living heroes, to immortalize the worthy actions of the dead, and to enhance the influence of religious rites. Their harps and voices, set to the melodious rhythm and rhyme of their Triads, maintained the ascendency of the Bards over the feelings of a people susceptible in the highest degree of the pleasures of sound. The third order consisted of disciples, many of whom were candidates passing through a course of twenty years' training5 for the bardic and priestly orders.

The others were medical herbalists, astronomers, geopart i. ; Smith, Hist, of the Druids, pp. 60-76 ; Davies, Celtic Researches p. 184 ; Pictet, Mystere des Bardes. 1 Toland, Hist, of the Druids, pp. 60-66, 109 ; Smith, Hist, of the Druids, pp. 5-8. 2 Cæsar, De Bel. Gal. lib. vi. c. xiii. ; Ab Ithel, Eccl. Antiq. of the Cymry, pp. 32, 33. On the authority of Zeuss, Latham, in his edition of Prichard's Celtic Nations, p. 374, mentions among the most ancient Welsh MSS. the Codex Oxoniensis Prior, which contains the alphabet of the Coelbren y Beirdd. 3 Waring's Recollections of Iolo Morganwg, appendix, pp. 186-195 ■ Toland, Hist, of the Druids, letter i. c. xiii. pp. 83, 84 ; Davies Myth, and Rites, p. 490 ; Davies, Celtic Researches, p. 272. 4 Diod. Sic. Bib. Hist. lib. ii. c. ii. ; Lucan, lib. i. ; Cambrian Re-rister 1795, p. 396; Toland, Hist, of the Druids, pp. 188, 192; Davies, Celtic Res. p. 191 ; Davies, Myth, and Rites, p. 560. 5 Cæsar, De Bel.

Gal. lib. vi. c. xiii. Davies, Myth, and Rites, p. 44. CHAP, I. graphers, and practitioners of various ingenious and mechanical arts. Talents of every kind were thus appropriated according to their peculiar tendencies, and the ability of each individual was made to contri bute to the aggrandizement of the Druidical class. Learners were prohibited from writing clown their doctrinal tenets, in order that those tenets might be the more effectually impressed upon their own minds, while withheld, in an authentic and tangible form, from all persons not regularly set apart and schooled for initia tion. Over all the disciples, bards, and priestly Druids, an Arch-Druid held supreme authority.1 He was invested with his office by the suffrages of his order, but the choice usually fell upon the ablest and most distinguished man among them.

The members of the whole Druidical class were exempt from the payment of tribute and taxes, and also from military service ; they had a right to pass from place to place without molestation or hindrance, in times of war as well as in times of peace, and they could exact shelter and maintenance wherever they went.2 Their native tradition, preserved in the Triads, that the regions they inhabited were peopled gradually by the arrival of successive tribes, accords with probability ; but the contradictory assertions of indigenous origin, a descent from Hercules, and from Pluto, may be traced to foreign sources.3 1 Cæsar, De Bel. Gal. lib. vi. c. xiii. ; Davies, Myth, and Rites, p. 185 ; Smith, Hist, of the Druids, p. 8. 2 Cæsar, De Bel. Gal. lib. vi. c. xiii. 3 Ibid. c. xvi. ; Amm. Marcel, lib. xv. c. ix. §§ 4,5; Thenphilus Antiochenus, lib. ii. c. xlvi. ; Justin, Hist. lib. xliv. c. iii. ; Nennius, § 18.

CHAP. I. § 3. At the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, at the summer and winter solstices,1 and at other stated periods, the Druids held solemn conventions in different localities, and, amidst the most sacred rites of their religion, assisted at councils of state, and administered the civil and criminal laws. The punishments by which they enforced their decrees were slavery, ex communication, and death.2 Several forms of trial by ordeal 3 existed among their judicial institutions. Great Britain, even in the nineteenth century, still feels the influence of other parts of their legal system. The oral, unwritten law, delivered down from one generation to another by custom and tradition, appears to have been derived from the practice of the Druids. The partition of lands by the custom of gavelkind is cer tainly of ancient British origin, and so also is the division of the goods of an intestate person between his widow and children or next of kin.