Tudur Aled (c. 1465 – 1525) was a late medieval

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 peopl ...

poet, born in Llansannan,

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

(Sir Ddinbych). He is regarded as a master of

cynghanedd In Welsh-language poetry, ''cynghanedd'' (, literally "harmony") is the basic concept of sound-arrangement within one line, using stress, alliteration and rhyme. The various forms of ''cynghanedd'' show up in the definitions of all formal Welsh ...

Beginnings

It is uncertain when Tudur Aled started to write poetry. A remark by him in his elegy to

Dafydd ab Edmwnd Dafydd ap Edmwnd (fl. c. 1450–97) was one of the most prominent Welsh language poets of the Later Middle Ages. Life Dafydd was born into a family of Norman ancestry in Hanmer, in Flintshire (now Wrexham County Borough), north-east Wales. As a ...

suggests that Tudur Aled was his pupil. There are firm references to the Battle of Blackheath (1497). An allusion to the

Battle of Bosworth Field The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 Augu ...

(1485) has been suspected in his

cywydd The cywydd (; plural ) is one of the most important metrical forms in traditional Welsh poetry (cerdd dafod). There are a variety of forms of the cywydd, but the word on its own is generally used to refer to the ("long-lined couplet") as it is b ...

to Sir William Gruffudd the Chamberlain. A reference in an elegy to him by Raff ap Robert suggests that he had a wife and a son, who was a priest.Dictionary of Welsh Biograph
Retrieved 14 March 2017.
/ref>

Reputation

Tudur Aled was himself a nobleman and one of the foremost ''Beirdd yr Uchelwyr'' (Poets of the Nobility). His main patrons were the

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

family of Dyffryn Clwyd, and

Rhys ap Thomas Sir Rhys ap Thomas (1449–1525) was a Welsh soldier and landholder who rose to prominence during the Wars of the Roses, and was instrumental in the victory of Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth. He remained a faithful supporter of Henry ...

. He was one of the instigators of the

Caerwys Caerwys is a town in Flintshire, Wales. It is just under two miles from the A55 road, A55 North Wales Expressway and one mile from the A541 road, A541 Mold, Flintshire, Mold-Denbigh road. At the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census, the popula ...

eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, ac ...

of 1523. During his final illness, Tudur Aled took the habit of Order of St. Francis. He died in

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, ...

, where he was buried in the Brothers' Court. The event was marked by elegies written by several of his fellow poets. He was known particularly for poems in honour of secular and religious noblemen. His work also reflects the changes at the beginning of the 16th century, which were threatening the future of the

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise ...

ic system.

Bibliography

*Thomas Gwynn Jones (ed.), ''Gwaith Tudur Aled'' (Cardiff, 1926). The standard collected edition of Tudur's poetry.

External links

* Tudur Aled at Welsh Wikisource

References

16th-century Welsh poets 16th-century male writers Welsh-language poets 1460s births 1525 deaths Year of birth uncertain People from Llansannan {{Wales-poet-stub