Welsh Journals

GWENWYNWYN­-TRAITOR OR PATRIOT ? By R. VAUGHTON DYMOCK. I IMAGINE that the majority of persons sufficiently conversant with the facts to be capable of forming an intelligent opinion on this subject would, without hesitation, answer this question adversely in other words, they would pronounce the Prince a traitor. Owen Rhoscomyl in Flame-bearers of Welsh history," speaks of Gwenwynwyn of traitor memory." I am quite aware that I am guilty of great audacity in suggesting that there may be something to be said on the other side. Nevertheless, I do suggest it. To begin with, what was the State to which our Prince's patriotism was due ? Wales was not a single State, but a conglomeration of several States. Gwen- wynwyn was Prince of one of these States, the Upper Powys, and it was to the Upper Powys that his patriotism was primarily due. He might owe duties of other kinds to the remaining States he could owe patriotism to his own Principality alone. If he did anything that was for the benefit of the Upper Powys, it was not an unpatriotic action, however dis- advantageous it might be to any other part of the land now known as Wales. I assume that my readers are acquainted with the details of the Prince's career, and I do not propose to dwell on them at length, but merely to mention them for the purpose of drawing inferences relative to the subject of this article. It is obviously impossible for me or anyone else to say what motives actually did induce him to act as he did upon each occasion, and I shall only try to shew that his actions may have been caused by far-seeing devotion to his Principality, in which case I venture to think that we may fairly