Notes and Queries, Number 177, March 19, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 177, March 19, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
The arms referred to by MR. WOODWARD are those on the great seal and privy
seal of "the irregular and wild Glendower," as Prince of Wales, {289}
attached to two documents deposited in the Hotel Soubise, at Paris, in the
Cartons I. 623. and I. 392., relating, it is supposed, to the furnishing of
troops to the Welsh prince by Charles VI., king of France. Casts of these
seals were taken by the indefatigable Mr. Doubleday, to whom the Seal
department of the British Museum, over which he presides, is so much
indebted; and impressions were exhibited by Sir Henry Ellis at a meeting of
the Society of Antiquaries, on the 12th of December, 1833. Engravings of
them, accompanied by the following notice, were communicated by Sir Henry
to the _Archæologia_, and will be found in that publication, vol. xxv.
plate lxx. fig. 2, 3. page 616., and ibid. pp. 619, 620.:
"The great seal has an obverse and reverse. On the obverse Owen is
represented, with a bifid beard, very similar to Rich. II., seated
under a canopy of Gothic tracery: the half body of a wolf forming the
arms of his chair on each side: the background is ornamented with a
mantle semée of lions, held up by angels. At his feet are two lions. A
sceptre is in his right hand, but he has no crown. The inscription:
'OWENUS ... PRINCEPS WALLIE.' On the reverse of the great seal Owen is
represented on horseback, in armour; in his right hand, which is
extended, he holds a sword, and with his left his shield, charged with,
Quarterly, four lions rampant; a drapery, probably a _kerchief de
plesaunce_, or handkerchief won at a tournament, pendant from his right
wrist. Lions rampant also appear upon the mantle of the horse. On his
helmet, as well as on his horse's head, is the Welsh dragon [passant].
The area of the seal is diapered with roses. The inscription on this
side seems to fill the gap upon the obverse 'OWENUS DEI GRATIA ...
WALLIE.'
"The privy seal represents the four lions rampant towards the
spectator's left, on a shield, surmounted by an open coronet [crown]:
the dragon[3] of Wales, as a supporter, on the dexter side; on the
sinister, a lion. The inscription seems to have been '_Sigillum Oweni_
PRINCIPIS WALLIE.' No impression of this seal is probably now to be
found either in Wales or England. Its workmanship shows that Owen
Glyndwr possessed a taste for art beyond the types of the seals of his
predecessors."
The dragon is a favourite figure with Cambrian bards; and, not to multiply
instances, the following lines may be cited from the poem of the "Hirlas
Horn," by Owen Cyfeilioc, Prince of Powys Wenwynwyn,--
"Mathraval's[4] Lord, the Poet and the Prince,"
father of Gwenwynwyn, Prince of Powys Wenwynwyn (the Gwenwen of Sir Walter
Scott's _Betrothed_):--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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