Cymro a'r Celt Llundain

THE CYMMRODORION. "WALES AND WARS OF THE ROSES." On Friday evening, 22nd inst., an inter- esting and historical lecture was delivered before the members of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion at Hanover Square, London, by Mr. Howell T. Evans, M.A., of Cardiff, on William Herbert, the first Earl of Pembroke." Major General Sir Ivor Herbert, Bart., M.P., who is a direct descen- dant of the Earl of Pembroke, presided. William Herbert (Mr. Evans stated) first appears on the horizon of history in the middle of the fifteenth century. He is there under the care of another daring Welshman, Matthew Goch, known in English chronicles as Matthew Gough. Herbert probably crossed over to France in 1441 in the retinue of his father, Sir William ap Thomas, who was a member of the Duke of York's Council. Outlining Herbert's military training under Matthew Goch, which began with an expe- dition against the Swiss in Alsace, Mr. Evans stated that at the Battle of Formigny, in April, 1450, Herbert was taken prisoner, and when he returned to England towards the end of the year he was knighted-a fitting reward for his exploits during several years of tempestuous conflict. During the personal feud between York and Somerset, in 1450 to 1455, Herbert wisely held aloof from the perilous game of faction, but, Mr. Evans stated, there is every reason to believe that his sympathies were with York, in spite of which, however, be- tween the first Battle of St. Albans, in 1455, and the Parliament of Coventry, in 1460, he was a Lancastrian. Nevertheless, every English historian hitherto has considered him a steady Yorkist. A few weeks before the Coventry Parliament the Yorkists had been scattered at Ludlow, a panic for which (Mr. Evans contended) contemporary docu- ments proved Herbert to be mainly respon- sible. However, when the Earl of Warwick defeated the Lancastrians at Northampton in 1460 the shrewd, penetrating Herbert bad become a Yorkist. That battle made the Duke of York heir to the Throne, and at Christmas of the same year, leaving Warwick in London, he went to his Yorkshire estates and sent his son, Edward Earl of March, to the Marches of Wales. Queen Margaret swooped down from Scotland, defeated York at Wakefield, York being slain, and then, marching on London, blew Warwick's army into fragments at the second Battle of St. Albans. The only un- defeated Yorkist army in the field was that of the Marches of Wales, under Edward and William Herbert. This army crushed the Lancastrians at Watermouth Cross, and, marching straight on London, proclaimed the Earl of March King as Edward IV. There can be no doubt that in placing a Yorkist on the Throne Herbert played the part which Sir Rhys ap Thomas played in putting the Tudors on the Throne after Bosworth. Ed ward IV. showed his gratitude by admitting Herbert as a member of his Council and conferring upon him lavish grants. Campaign in Wales. During the next few years Herbert assisted his Sovereign against the Lancastrians in the North of England. The Welsh poets of the time make glowing references to his feats of valour there. But his chief task was against Jasper Tudor in Wales. He reduced Pem- broke, and, marching northwards, took Denbigh. Driving Jasper before him, he came upon the main Welsh Lancastrian army at Tuthill, Carnarvon. Here a fierce battle ensued, in which the Lancastrians were defeated. This battle in 1462, the record of which lies deep in a morass of Parliamentary archives, has never been mentioned by any historian, either local or general. For this work Herbert became, amongst other things, sheriff of Glamorgan, Chief Justice and Chamberlain of South Wales, Constable of Newport and Brecknock. The last phase in Herbert's romantic sareer is intimately associated with the Earl of Warwick, the King-maker. He threw aside the gauntlets of war and became the accomplished courtier. While Warwick and the Nevilles were shedding freely the blood of their followers at Hedgely Moor and Hexham, Herbert ingratiated himself with the King, to the deep mortification of War- wick. Contemporary chroniclers at this time describe him as the King's most con- fidential friend. The struggle between these two antagonists was prolonged, intense, and ruthless. Politically it represented a struggle between the old nobility, championed by Warwick, and the new, championed by the Welshman, already created Lord Herbert. Bloodshed was inevitable, and both champ- ions perished, but not before Lord Herbert had shown himself worthy the steel of a Warwick. In June, 1467, Herbert was largely instru- mental in bringing about the dismissal of Warwick's brother, the Lord Chancellor. Towards the end of that year Herbert be- came still more aggressive, having captured a courier in Wales carrying letters from Queen Margaret to the garrison at Harlech. He sent him up to Londop, where the man accused Warwick of having treasonable correspondence with the Lancastrians. Matters came to a head in 1469, but some little time before, Herbert was deputed to reduce Harlech, and for his exploit he was made Earl of Pembroke, and grants were made to him which gave him full control of all the military resources of Wales. Immediately afterwards Herbert was sum- moned to deal with Warwick, who had now risen against the King. The two forces met at Edgecote Herbert's force fled, and he, amongst others, was taken prisoner and executed the next day.

The new Member for Radnorshire, Mr. Venables Llewellyn, is interesting himself very successfully in agricultural matters in the House of Commons, and may prove a very useful friend to the agricultural class in future debates. It is a sign of a weak cause when the Church press has to indulge in personal abuse when dealing with the policy and actions of Mr. Lloyd George. Not content with personal abuse the Church Times must slander our nation because it gave to Britain this renowned Chancellor. In a recent issue it said that a country like this needs rulers who have had a longer acquain- tance than Mr. George and his forbears have enjoyed with civilised usages We note with pleasure that a Churchman in the person of Rev. J. H. Jenkins, of Newport, has thought fit to defend our country from such a sneer. Speaking at a Church meeting last week he remarked that it was a pity if an important Church organ could only attack the Chancellor's financial policy by slighting a proud and ancient nation. From the remotest times Mr. Lloyd George's forefathers had striven hard and successfully with some of the gravest problems of civilisation. It was not that Welshmen claimed for their ancestors a monopoly of diligence and application. For by the latter portion of those times the forbears of this particular writer were busy, too-cracking nuts in the forests of Saxony We learn that Sir S. T. Evans, the newly- appointed President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division, has promised to attend a concert to be given on Tuesday, May 3rd, by the London Welsh Choral Society, of which he is president. Speaking at the Carnarvon Primrose League meeting last week, Mr. H. C. Vincent —the Conservative candidate at the last election—announced that the Budget had gone to the waste-paper basket, and there it would remain for ever as a monument of the most atrocious and muddleheaded finance ever brought forward into the House of Commons." "Muddleheaded" is good, and Mr. Vincent is evidently an example of it in political movements. Mr. J. Aubrey Rees, the secretary of the League of Young Liberals, is a native of Kington, on the Welsh border. He removed to Swansea when a mere boy, and after leaving school, entered the grocery business in that well known town. He subsequently came to London, and founded the National Association of Grocers' Assistants. He is a smart organiser and a racy speaker. One of the finest and oldest churches in Wales is St. Woollo's, Stow Hill, Newport. Its history goes back to the period when Gwynllyw, tired of the world, retired to what was then a lonely hill, and erected a little church of wattle on the site of the present edifice. The church has a rare and beautiful Norman doorway, and monuments of the Morgans and Herberts, lords of the Manor of Newport. The present vicar of St. Woollo's is the Rev. D. H. Griffiths, M.A., son of Mr. T. Griffiths, Aberystwyth. Mr. Edgar Jones, M.P., speaking last Sun- day at Bloomsbury Chapel Men's Meeting, on Character and Environment," eulogised the strenuous lives and strong, simple faith of such pioneers of the last century as Christmas Evans and John Elias, whose work did so much to emancipate the Welsh nation from the tyrannical feudal environ- ment then existing. He pleaded for a return of that forceful spirit among young Welsh- men, especially in this great metropolis. It was a stirring address, and conveyed a good impression of the speaker's character and possibilities.