Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/308

Rh notice, and in the following year (1150?) Madog enlisted the aid of Ralph, earl of Chester, in an attack upon the prince of Gwynedd. The battle was fought at Consillt, near Flint (Brut y Saeson in Myvyrian Archaiology, 2nd ed. p. 677), and proved a signal victory for Owain. Foiled in this first enterprise, Madog nevertheless adhered to his policy. In 1157, when Henry II made his first expedition into Wales, Madog took no part in the national resistance organised by Owain Gwynedd, but watched the conflict as a spectator, probably in virtue of a secret understanding with the king. The chronicle known as ‘Brut y Saeson’ (followed by Powel and others) says that Madog was commander of the fleet which attacked Anglesey in the course of the campaign (Myv. Arch. 2nd ed. p. 678), but this statement, in itself improbable, is made by no other authority, and probably arose through the confusion of two consecutive sentences in ‘Brut y Tywysogion.’ What the latter (and better) authority says of Madog is that ‘he chose a place for encampment between the king's host and Owain's, that he might receive the first onset the king should make’—a sarcastic description, probably, of Madog's real attitude of armed neutrality. It is not without significance that one result of the campaign was that Iorwerth the Red, Madog's brother, was enabled to destroy the obnoxious castle in Ial.

Madog died in 1160, and was buried in the church of St. Tysilio at Meifod. His son Llywelyn died almost immediately afterwards; other children who survived him longer were: Gruffydd Maelor (d. 1191), Owain Fychan (d. 1186), Elise, Owain Brogyntyn, Marred, who married Iorwerth Drwyndwn, and Gwenllian, who married the Lord Rhys (, Itinerarium Kambriæ, i. 1). The genealogists add Cynwrig Efaill and Einion Efaill. The ‘Myvyrian Archaiology’ contains two contemporary poems in honour of Madog by Gwalchmai (2nd ed. pp. 147–9), and four by Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr (pp. 154–6).

 MADOG OWAIN GWYNEDD (1150–1180?), supposed discoverer of America, is not mentioned in ‘Annales Cambriæ,’ in ‘Brut y Tywysogion,’ or in any poem of the time, and there is no contemporary evidence of the existence of any son of Owain Gwynedd (d. 1170) bearing this name. Two passages in the poetry of Llywarch ap Llywelyn [q. v.] have, indeed, been quoted in support of the theory that Madog made a mysterious voyage to the west and discovered the New World, but neither will bear the significance attached to it. The first, appearing in an ode in praise of Rhodri ab Owain (Myvyrian Archaiology, 2nd ed. p. 202, ‘Ker aber congwy,’ &c.), manifestly refers, not to any expedition over sea, but to the battle of the Conway estuary, fought by Llywelyn ab Iorwerth at some point in the course of his struggle (1188–1195) with his uncles David and Rhodri. The second (ib. p. 205) certainly contains the name Madog, but there is nothing to show who is meant among the many Madogs of the time; moreover, the person of whose blood the poet has to prove himself innocent by the ordeal of hot iron clearly was murdered, though by an unknown hand, and cannot have sailed off publicly on an adventurous voyage, as it is assumed Madog did.

The earliest mention of Madog at present known to exist in Welsh literature is in a poem by Maredudd ap Rhys, a bard of the middle of the fifteenth century. Having previously begged (after the bardic manner) a fishing-net of one Ifan ap Tudur and succeeded in his petition, Maredudd returns thanks for the gift, and, speaking of his delight in fishing, compares himself to Madog, ‘right whelp of Owain Gwynedd,’ who would have no lands or goods save only the broad sea (Iolo MSS., Liverpool reprint, pp. 323–4). The reference to Madog in the third series of triads (Myvyrian Archaiology, 2nd ed. p. 401) may very well belong to the same period, though the manuscript is only of the sixteenth century. Madog's, we are told, was the third of three disappearances; he went to sea in ten ships with three hundred men, and none knew whither they went. It is to be observed that the first two disappearances are obviously mythical, the second being that of Merlin and nine other bards who went to sea in a house of glass; nor is any attempt made to connect that of Madog with discoveries in the west. Thus the triad, taken in conjunction with the allusion of Maredudd ap Rhys, appears to show that already, before the voyage of Columbus, a legend had sprung up as to mysterious seafaring on the part of a son of Owain Gwynedd. Such legends have, of course, been known in every age and country.

The first to set up a public claim on behalf of Madog as the discoverer of America was Dr. David Powel, who in 1584 gave to the world Humphrey Llwyd's translation and continuation of ‘Brut y Tywysogion,’ with additions of his own, as ‘The Historie