Archive for March 12th, 2009
12th March 2009
A vo ben bid bont - let he (or she) that would be leader, be a bridge
“Pan oedd oed Crist 1531” meddai Cronicl Hywel ap Syr Mathew “i torred penn Rh. Ap Gr.” Talfyriad yw hwn am Rhys ap Grufydd ap Urien, un o arglwyddi Dinefwr, yr wyf i wedi cyfeirio ato fe yr wythnos hon ar wefan newydd y Blaid ar annibynniaeth – www.gallcymru.org. Beth yw arwyddocâd dyn a gafodd ei ddienyddio yn 23 oed ar fore 4ydd Rhagfyr 1531? Wel, yn y lle cyntaf mae’r ffaith bod cyn lleied yn gwybod amdano yn dweud cyfrolau ynddo’i hun ar y ffordd yr ydym wedi ein hamddifadu o’n hanes ni ei ein hunain fel cenedl. O herwydd ei drosedd oedd ceisio gwneud ei hun, yn ol y ddedfryd, yn dywysog annibynnol Cymru.
Y Rhys hwn oedd wyr Syr Rhys ap Thomas, prif gefnogwr y Tuduriaid yng Nghymru, a’r dyn wnaeth fwy nag unrhyw un bron i roi’r “Mab Darogan”, Harri Tudur, ar Orsedd Prydain Fawr. Trodd y freuddwyd yn sur i Gymru a theulu Dinefwr o fewn cenehedlaeth. Fe benodwyd Sais, yr Arglwydd Ferrers, o flaen Rhys i dra-arglwyddiaethu yn ne Cymru ac ymddangosodd tueddiadau canoli grym cyntaf y Wladwriaeth -Eingl-Brydeining sydd i raddau helaeth dal gyda ni heddiw. Gwrthododd Rhys derbyn gwrth-Gymreictod Harri’r Wythfed, nag ychwaith ei Wrth-Gatholigiaeth. Nid yn unig merthyr cenedlaethol oedd Rhys, ond y merthyr Catholig cyntaf yn hanes y Diwygiad Protestanaidd ym Mhrydain. Ei wncwl, James ap Gruffydd ap Hywel oedd yr ysbiwr Catholig cyntaf o Brydain i fynd i’r Cyfandir: yn chwilio am gefnogaeth y Pab efallai i wrthrhyfel yng Nghymru.
Yn llinach a ddaeth i rym i wireddu proffwydoliaeth, mi oedd mytheg yn fyw ar lys y Tuduriaid. Soniodd y ddedfryd yn erbyn Rhys am yr hen ddarogan y byddai bran a llaw coch yn maeddu brenin Lloegr. Arfbais Dinefwr oedd tri bran – mae’r llaw coch efallai yn gyfeiriad at Owain Lawgoch, neu at Ogledd Iwerddon oedd mewn gwrthrhyfel ar y pryd. Fe ‘dorrwyd pen’ Rhys ar Tower Hill neu’r Bryn Gwyn yn ol y Mabinogi y claddwyd pen Bran y brenin mytholegol. Rhys hefyd oedd dysgynydd Uried Rheged: pen Urien y ceisiodd Llywarch Hen ei warchod rhag syrthio i fewn i ddwylo ei elynion.
Fe dorrwyd pen y dyn ifanc yma (fel cymain o’i gydweladwyr gynt – Llywelyn ein Llyw Olaf, Rhys Ddu, Rhys ap Tudur ) o herwydd iddo herio awdurdod gwleidyddol Lloegr. O fewn ychydig flynyddoedd fe dorrwyd yr hyn oedd yn weddill o hen annibyniaeth y Cymry hefyd: cyfreithiau Hwel Dda, a ysgrifennwyd yn Ninefwr, yr iaith a’r hyn oedd yn grefydd i ni ar y pryd. Dienyddio Rhys oedd gweithred cyntaf y deddfau Uno.
I raddau healeth mae hanes y ddau Rhys – yr un yn dangos ffyddlondeb i Lundain a’r llall ffyddlondeb i Gymru yn darlunio’r dewis mae pob cenhedlaeth wedi wynebu yn y blynyddoedd wedyn. Yr unig wahaniaeth nawr yw nad oes neb bellach yn mynd i roi ein pen ar bicell. Nyni ydy meistri ein dyfodol ein hunain, os dewisiwn ni fod. A vo ben bid bont.
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“In the Year of our Lord 1531,” says the Chronicles of Hywel ap Syr Mathew, “Rh. Ap Gr. lost his head.” This is an abbreviation of Rhys ap Gruffydd ap Urien, one of the Lords of Dinefwr, whom I referred to this week on Plaid’s new website on independence –www.walescan.org. What is the significance of this man who was executed on the morning of 4th December 1531, at 23 years old? Well, firstly the fact that so few know about him itself speaks volumes about the way we are deprived of our history as a nation. Because his crime was trying to make himself, according to the verdict, the prince of an independent Wales.
This Rhys was the grandson of Sir Rhys ap Thomas, the Tudors’ chief supporter in Wales and the man who did more than almost anyone else to put the ‘Son of Prophecy’, Henry Tudorr, on the British Throne. The dream turned sour for Wales and the Dinefwr family within a generation. He appointed an Englishman, Lord Ferrers, ahead of Rhys to the governorship of south Wales and displayed the first signs of the centralising tendencies of the Anglo-British state that, to some extent, remain with us today. Rhys refused to accept Henry the Eighth’s anti-Welshness, nor his anti-Catholicism. Rhys was therefore not just a nationalist martyr but the first Catholic martyr in Britain’s Protestant Reformation. His uncle, James ap Gruffydd ap Hywel, was the first Catholic spy from Britain to go to the continent: in search perhaps of Papal support for an uprising in Wales.
As a family whose own rise to power was steeped in legend, myth was a central feature of the Tudor court. The indictment against Rhys spoke of an old prophecy that ravens and the red hand would defeat the King of England. The Dinefwr’s coat of arms was three ravens – the red hand perhaps referred to Owain Lawgoch (Owain Redhand), or to Ulster, which was in revolt at the time. Rhys ‘lost his head’ on Tower Hill or the White Hill where, according to the Mabinogi, the head of Bran (the Raven), the King of legends, was buried. Rhys was also a descendant of Urien Rheged: it was Urien’s head that Llywarch Hen tried to prevent it falling into his enemies’ hands.
This young man’s head was lost (like many of his compatriots before him – Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf (Our Last Leader), Rhys Ddu (Black Rhys) and Rhys ap Tudur) because he challenged England’s political authority. Within a few years, the remainder of Welsh independence was lost too – Hywel Dda’s laws, written in Dinefwr, the language and what was our religion at that time. Rhys’ execution was the first act of Union.
To some extent the history of the two Rhys’s – one showing fealty to London and the other his loyalty to Wales - depicts the choice that every generation has faced in the years since. The only difference now is that no-one is going to put our head on a spike. We are the masters of our own future, if we choose to be. A vo bid bont – let he (or she) that would be leader, be a bridge.