Maredudd ap Rhys (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1450–1485), also spelt Meredudd ap Rhys, was a

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic languages, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh c ...

poet and priest from

Powys Powys ( , ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham to the north; the English Ceremonial counties of England, ceremo ...

. He was born in gentry, having pedigree blood, as discovered from the

Peniarth Manuscripts The Peniarth Manuscripts, also known as the Hengwrt–Peniarth Manuscripts, are a collection of medieval Welsh manuscripts now held by the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. The collection was originally assembled by Robert Vaughan (c. 159 ...

. He is thought to have been the bardic tutor to Dafydd ab Edmwnd, and thus won distinction both as a poet and as a poetry teacher.

Priesthood

Maredudd lived at

Ruabon Ruabon (; ) is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough Wrexham County Borough () is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough, with city status in the United Kingdom, city status, in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. I ...

as parish priest. While some sources date this position to 1430, no evidence of his vicarhood this early can be found.D.R. Thomas, A history of the Diocese of S Ataph By 1450, he was also rector of

Meifod Meifod, formerly also written Meivod (), is a small village, Community (Wales), community and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward north-west of Welshpool in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales, on the A495 road and loca ...

and

Welshpool Welshpool ( ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community in Powys, Wales, historically in the Historic counties of Wales, county of Montgomeryshire. The town is from the Wales–England border and low-lying on the River Severn. The c ...

. In the 1480s,

Guto'r Glyn Guto'r Glyn (c. 1412 – c. 1493) was a Welsh language poet and soldier of the era of the ''Beirdd yr Uchelwyr'' ("Poets of the Nobility") or ''Cywyddwyr'' ("cywydd-men"), the itinerant professional poets of the later Middle Ages. He is consid ...

accused Maredudd of hankering after his place in

Valle Crucis abbey Valle Crucis Abbey (Valley of the Cross) is a Cistercian abbey located in Llantysilio in Denbighshire, north Wales. More formally ''the Abbey Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Valle Crucis'' it is known in Welsh both as ''Abaty Glyn Egwestl'' a ...

Poetry

Various manuscripts attribute at least twenty-one

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 ...

au (a form of Welsh metre) to Maredudd on the theme of love, religion and nature. He wrote both private and social as well as prophetic poems. However, only five of his poems have ever been printed. Within his poems, Maredudd had taken inspiration from

Dafydd ap Gwilym Dafydd ap Gwilym ( 1315/1320 – 1350/1370) is regarded as one of the leading Welsh poets and among the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages. Dafydd’s poetry also offers a unique window into the transcultural movement of cultural pract ...

, among other earlier poets, similarly composing a

to the wind. He also wrote two lyrical cywyddau following the death of two priestly friends, wherein he accused winter of preventing his seeing his friends more often and praised spring as their ally. Maredudd was fond of fishing and thus wrote a humorous poem concerning the

coracle A coracle is a small, rounded, lightweight boat of the sort traditionally used in Wales, and also in parts of the west of Ireland and also particularly on the River Boyne, and in Scotland, particularly the River Spey. The word is also used for ...

and a 'begging poem' on fishing-nets, where Maredudd compares himself with Madog ab Owain Gwynedd, this being the earliest certain reference to the man believed at one point to have discovered America in the 12th century. Some of Maredudd's prophetic poetry presents himself as among the seers of the 15th century, as he questions the teaching that fate would ensure that the anarchy prevailing in Wales at the time would reduce. He complains of the endless killings of lords and in war, writing of the uncertainty of life. In 1483, he also wrote an elegy for

king Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...

, who he hoped would restore peace in Wales. Maredudd's religious poems often took the form of didactic poems of God as the creator, of the passion of Christ and of the intercession of the Virgin Mary. One poem tells the story of a man cured of agonising hip pain through the 'Living Image' at St. John's church, Chester. In this church, he claims that the deaf will have their hearing restored, speech will be given to the dumb, sight to the blind and life to the dead.

Personal life

Maredudd ap Rhys married a woman named Angharad, who bore him a son named Siôn and a daughter.

References

https://biography.wales/article/s-MERE-APR-1450 *

References

E. Roberts, ''Gwaith Maredudd ap Rhys a'i Gyfoedion'', (University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, 2003) 15th-century Welsh poets Welsh-language poets People from Powys Year of birth unknown 15th-century Welsh Roman Catholic priests {{Wales-writer-stub