| rdfs:comment
| - In the year 1170 AD "Mad-Dog" Madog Ap Owain, Prince of Gwynedd, disappears from the historical records. For centuries there has been speculation across Wales and the wider, non-Welsh-speaking world as to what could have become of this handsome, popular prince who had been surely destined for greatness. The last written record of Prince Madog is contained in "Hanes y Brenin", (History of the King) a four volume history of the kings of Gwynedd written by the monks of Caldey Abbey at the express command of King Dafydd, successor to Madog's father, King Owain. Image:Madoc 1170.jpg
|
| abstract
| - In the year 1170 AD "Mad-Dog" Madog Ap Owain, Prince of Gwynedd, disappears from the historical records. For centuries there has been speculation across Wales and the wider, non-Welsh-speaking world as to what could have become of this handsome, popular prince who had been surely destined for greatness. The last written record of Prince Madog is contained in "Hanes y Brenin", (History of the King) a four volume history of the kings of Gwynedd written by the monks of Caldey Abbey at the express command of King Dafydd, successor to Madog's father, King Owain. Image:Madoc 1170.jpg Madog's loss was only the last act in a series of tragedies in the life of his father. In 1163, following ancient Welsh tradition, King Owain announced that he intended to split his kingdom equally between all seventeen of his sons. Almost immediately thereafter Owain's health began to decline rapidly. Alarmed by his father's loss of vitality, his eldest son (Prince Dafydd) took personal control of Owain's well-being and moved him into the highest tower of his new castle at Dolwyddelan. Here Dafydd attempted to protect his father from all possible sources of infection: visitors, food, water, air etc. But nothing, it seemed, could stop the curse that had fallen over the house of Gwynedd. In 1164, Owain lost two sons whilst they led the Welsh cavalry against the English at the battle of Rhostyllen. Here Princes Rhun and Maelgwn both appear to have received arrow wounds to the back as they charged the Saxon hordes. Sadly even their valour could not force the English to take back the town of Wrexham which remained in Wales for another 300 years before briefly being foisted on Cheshire under the resurgent Prince Llewelyn Ap Gruffydd. The following year Princes Iefan and Cynan both died leading men across the Conwy river in separate incidents, apparently attacked by crocodiles and piranha respectively. In 1166 Prince Hywel succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease, while Prince Iorwerth was attacked and killed by a Bigfoot near Caersws and Prince Cadell "evaporated". By 1167 both Princes Cynwrig and Einion had been lost to alien abduction near Cader Idris, and Iago, Ffilip, Rotpert and Idwal all succumbed to Polonium poisoning at the same Caernarfon ale-house between 1168 and 1169. Madog and his brother Rhirid are both said to have left the country in search of new lands shortly after. In chapter four of "Hanes y Brenin" an unknown scribe takes great pains to dismiss stories of Madog's death, ascribing eye-witness accounts of his beheading at Beddgelert in 1169 as "the slanderous lies of those with evil intent towards our just lord Dafydd". In chapter six he reurns to the theme, warning "Only our Saxon foes profit from malevolent rumour and there is none among us who couldst swear that the quartered body displayed in Rhuthun, Dolgellau, Aberystwyth and Criccieth was Madog's. For 'tis sure that many men have similar scars to Prince Madog's and, verily, some of these must also have the names of Madog's mother, Queen Sioned, his wife and eight children tattooed upon their limbs." "Hanes y Brenin" confirms that Madog's brothers Dafydd and Rhodri jointly inherited the kingdom in 1171 when their father " drowned peacefully in his bed at Dolwyddelan Castle". Twentieth century historians have suggested that both Madog and his younger brother, Rhirid, were executed for political reasons. However, there is evidence to suggest that Madog survived and fled across the oceans. Since Prince Rhodri became the first recorded victim of spontaneous human combustion (1172) and Prince Dafydd's line was wiped out during the English invasions of the fourteenth century, it is possible that the rightful Prince of Wales may be living in North America.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)