The reign of Henry the Seventh, as might naturally have been expected, was one of brighter hopes and more unrestricted freedom, than any Wales had witnessed since the extinction of her native princes. A new description of bard now arose, less venerated, less connected with that mysterious origin to which their predecessors were referred, and undistinguished, except by their effusions, from other classes of society. Of this new class of minstrels, the days of chivalry over, the chief duties were to celebrate the hospitality and private virtues of their patrons, in whose halls they were maintained, and upon whose decease it became their melancholy task to compose a funeral song, to be recited in the presence of the surviving relatives by a _Datceiniad_. Regular bardic assemblies, convened by royal authority, were discontinued after the reign of Elizabeth. This illustrious queen issued a precept for holding a royal Eisteddfod on the 26th May, 1568. The document is still preserved in the family of Mostyn, whose ancestors are named therein, with other gentlemen of rank and property in the principality. The objects of such meetings, as well as the distinctive character attached to the bardic order, may be easily collected from the following passage extracted from the royal commission. “Whereas it is come to the knowledge of the Lorde president and other our counsell in the Marches of Wales, that vagrant and idle persons naming themselves minstrels, rithmirs, and barthes, are lately grown to such an intolerable multitude within the Principality of North Wales, that not only gentlemen and others, by their shameless disorders, are oftentimes disquieted in their habitations, but also the expert minstrels and musicians in town and country thereby much discouraged to travail in the exercise and practise of their knowledge; and also not a little hindered in their living and preferments,” &c. At the assemblage called by direction of this precept seventeen poetical bards were present and thirty-eight of their musical brethren; William Llyn was admitted to the degree of Pencerdd or doctor, and three others to the rank of masters of the art of poetry. The prize was awarded to Sion ap William ap Sion. Caerwys, in Flintshire, was the place chosen for the celebration of Eisteddfodau in later years, having once been the royal residence of Llewellyn, but the more ancient bardic assemblies were convened at Aberffraw, in the palace of the princes of Gwynedd; Dinefawr, the noble castle of the lords of South Wales; and Mathrafel, the royal palace of the chiefs of Powisland.