Page:Speeches and addresses by the late Thomas E Ellis M P.pdf/21

 Truly, Owen Glyndwr was "not in the roll of common men." From. Glyndyfrdwy, says Owen M. Edwards, he went to "free Wales from lord marcher and king alike." He was not a mere robber chieftain, this student of Dante and associate of kings. His ideals, described in a letter to the Kling of France, were those of a statesman of the times at his best—the independence of Wales, a Welsh archbishopric, and two Welsh Universities. In that iron age of rapacity and cruelty and treachery, Owen Glyndwr stands out from the degenerating nobles as a prince of kingly generosity and statesmanlike views, as the defender of the labourer and as the representative of culture and of philanthropy. Lewis Glyn Cothi, in Henry VI.'s time, referring to one of Glyndwr's daughters, wrote:—

"Ei thad oedd dwysawg cadarn, A holl Gymru fu'n ei farn."

Iolo Goch fervently hoped that when Glyndwr's evening sun was set, Wales would gratefully place never-fading laurels on his tomb. Glyndwr lies in Monnington on Wye, but there