Tudur Aled (c. 1465 – 1525) was a late medieval Welsh poet, born in Llansannan,

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, Flintshire to the east, Wrexham to the southeast, Powys to the south, and Gwynedd and Conwy to the west. Rhyl is the largest town, and Ruthi ...

(Sir Ddinbych). He is regarded as a master of

cynghanedd In Welsh-language poetry, ''cynghanedd'' (, literally "harmony") is the basic concept of sound-arrangement within one line, using Stress (linguistics), stress, alliteration and rhyme. The various forms of ''cynghanedd'' show up in the definitions ...

Beginnings

Tudur Aled was born c. 1465 in Llansannan, in what is now Denbighshire. It is likely that his father's name was Robert and his grandfather's name was Ithel, and that he was of noble stock. Research indicates that his paternal line were descendants of Llywelyn Chwith and that he was related to the Lloyd family of Chwibren, considered to be descendents of Hedd Molwynog (or Ab Alunawg), chief of one of the fifteen tribes of North Wales. It is uncertain when Tudur Aled started to write poetry. A remark by him in his elegy to Dafydd ab Edmwnd suggests that Tudur Aled was his pupil. There are firm references to the Battle of Blackheath (1497). An allusion to the

Battle of Bosworth Field The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field ( ) was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of House of Lancaster, Lancaster and House of York, York that extended across England in the latter half ...

(1485) has been suspected in his

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 ...

to Sir William Gruffudd the Chamberlain. A reference in an elegy to him by Raff ap Robert suggests that he had a wife and a son, who was a priest.Dictionary of Welsh Biograph
Retrieved 14 March 2017.
/ref>

Reputation

Tudur Aled was himself a nobleman and one of the foremost ''Beirdd yr Uchelwyr'' (Poets of the Nobility). His main patrons were the

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

family of Dyffryn Clwyd, and

Rhys ap Thomas Sir Rhys ap Thomas (1449–1525) was a Welsh soldier and landholder who rose to prominence during the Wars of the Roses, and was instrumental in the victory of Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth. He remained a faithful supporter of Henry ...

. He was one of the instigators of the Caerwys

eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, a ...

of 1523. During his final illness, Tudur Aled took the habit of Order of St. Francis. He died in

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, ; , 'Merlin's fort' or possibly 'Sea-town fort') is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community (Wales), community in Wales, lying on the River Towy north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. At the 2021 United Kingdom cen ...

, where he was buried in the Brothers' Court. The event was marked by elegies written by several of his fellow Welsh poets. He was known particularly for poems in honour of secular and religious noblemen. His work also reflects the changes at the beginning of the 16th century, which were threatening the future of the

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's a ...

ic system.

Bibliography

*Thomas Gwynn Jones (ed.), ''Gwaith Tudur Aled'' (Cardiff, 1926). The standard collected edition of Tudur's poetry.

External links

* Tudur Aled at Welsh Wikisource

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tudur Aled 16th-century Welsh poets 16th-century Welsh male writers Welsh-language poets 1460s births 1525 deaths Year of birth uncertain People from Llansannan