The Red Bandits of Mawddwy (
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
: ''Gwylliaid Cochion Mawddwy'') were a band of red-haired robbers,
highwaymen
A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to fo ...
or
footpad
In archaic terminology, a footpad is a robber or thief specialising in pedestrian victims. The term was used widely from the 16th century until the 19th century, but gradually fell out of common use. A footpad was considered a low criminal, as opp ...
s from the area of Mawddwy in
Mid Wales
Mid Wales ( cy, Canolbarth Cymru or simply ''Y Canolbarth'', meaning "the midlands") or Central Wales refers to a region of Wales, encompassing its midlands, in-between North Wales and South Wales. The Mid Wales Regional Committee of the Senedd ...
in the 16th century, who became famous in folk literature.
History
In the 1500s, Mawddwy was a lawless area, since it was situated on the boundary between the
Welsh Marches
The Welsh Marches ( cy, Y Mers) is an imprecisely defined area along the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods.
The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin ...
and
Meirionnydd
Meirionnydd is a coastal and mountainous region of Wales. It has been a kingdom, a cantref, a district and, as Merionethshire, a county.
Kingdom
Meirionnydd (Meirion, with -''ydd'' as a Welsh suffix of land, literally ''Land adjoined to Meirion ...
. The only certain historical knowledge about the bandits is that they murdered the Sheriff of Meirionnydd, the Baron
Lewis ap Owen, of Cwrt Plas-yn-dre,
Dolgellau
Dolgellau () is a town and community in Gwynedd, north-west Wales, lying on the River Wnion, a tributary of the River Mawddach. It was the traditional county town of the historic county of Merionethshire ( cy, Meirionnydd, Sir Feirionnydd) un ...
on 12 October 1555. The attack was carried out by a group of bandits in Dugoed Mawddwy, near
Dinas Mawddwy
Dinas Mawddwy () is a village in the community of Mawddwy in south-east Gwynedd, north Wales. It lies within the Snowdonia National Park, but just to the east of the main A470, and consequently many visitors pass the village by. Its population is ...
. Several of the bandits were hanged for the murder, and there are laments for the Baron by a number of poets, including
Gruffudd Hiraethog
Gruffudd Hiraethog (died 1564) was a 16th century Welsh language poet, born in Llangollen, north-east Wales.
Gruffudd was one of the foremost poets of the sixteenth century to use the cywydd metre. He was a prolific author and gifted scholar. Tho ...
. In the subsequent court case it was alleged that John Goch, or John Goch ap Gruffudd ap Huw, was the man who struck the fatal blow.
The near-contemporary writer Robert Vaughn wrote that the bandits:
Other information about the bandits comes from sources such as
Thomas Pennant
Thomas Pennant (14 June Old Style, OS 172616 December 1798) was a Welsh natural history, naturalist, traveller, writer and antiquarian. He was born and lived his whole life at his family estate, Downing Hall near Whitford, Flintshire, in Wales ...
, who related the history with the chronicle of his visit to Dinas Mawddwy in about 1770. There is no certainty whether this part of the story is history or fable. According to Pennant the Sheriff had arrested a number of the bandits and was about to hang them; in their midst two sons of Lowri, daughter of Gruffudd Llwyd. One of these was very young, and Lowri implored the Baron to have mercy on the youngest, but Lewis Owen refused to listen, and hanged the two together with more than eighty other bandits. Pennant said that Lowri threatened vengeance on the sheriff:
[ Local farmers were said to be so afraid that they fixed scythes in the wide chimneys of their houses to prevent the bandits from climbing down them - some of these improvised defences remained in place until the early 1800s.]spinster
''Spinster'' is a term referring to an unmarried woman who is older than what is perceived as the prime age range during which women usually marry. It can also indicate that a woman is considered unlikely to ever marry. The term originally den ...
. In an attempt to save herself from the gallows, she declared that she was pregnant. This was confirmed by a jury of married women. The memory remains about the bandits in a number of placenames in the area, for example ''Llety'r Gwylliaid'' (bandits' lodging) and ''Llety'r Lladron'' (robbers' lodging) near ''Bwlch Oerddrws''. [
]
Modern times
In 1936 and 1938 locals dressed up and re-enacted tales of the bandits on film. The second of these films was in colour and is believed to have been the first ever colour film produced in Wales.[
The pub in ]Mallwyd
Mallwyd () is a small village at the most southern end of Gwynedd, Wales in the Dinas Mawddwy community, in the valley of the River Dyfi. It lies on the A470 approximately halfway between Dolgellau and Machynlleth, and forms the junction of t ...
is named ''Brigands Inn'', although that name is a modern concoction, having previously been called Bury's Hotel.[
]
References
{{reflist
External links
The Bandits of Mawddwy
by John W Meredith, Reverend H E Hughes and Richard Elis Jones, 1936, (in Welsh)
Gwylliaid Cochion Mawddwy (1938)
YouTube (in Welsh)
History of Wales