SION TUDUR (died 1602), poet

Siôn Tudur died on the eve of Easter Sunday, 3 April 1602, and was buried in S. Asaph church the following Monday, 5 April. In view of the fact that, towards the end of his life, he claimed to be the oldest of all the bards, and that some time before 1580 he had complained to Rhys Gruffudd of Penrhyn that he was growing old, it is suggested that he was born before 1530. His home was at Wigfair, S. Asaph, and he was a landed proprietor of the lineage of Llywarch Howlbwrch. He spent some time at the court in London where he was one of queen Elizabeth's bodyguard. He addressed eulogies, elegies, and begging poems to over sixty North Wales families; among them are poems to four generations of the house of Botryddan, four of Mostyn, and three of Lleweni - nearly all relating to the period after 1566. He occasionally went out as a strolling bard, going as far as Abergwili, where he called on bishop Richard Davies. He was given the rank of apprentice chief bard at the Caerwys eisteddfod, 1568. There is a letter written in his own handwriting in the Wigfair collection in the N.L.W. (see Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, vii, 112-7). His wife was Mallt, daughter of Pyrs Gruffudd of Caerwys, serjeant-at-arms to Henry VIII. They had three children, Thomas, Elizabeth, and Margaret.

Author

• Dr Enid Pierce Roberts

Sources

• Archaeologia Cambrensis, 1915, 'Robert Parry's Diary'
• elegies on Siôn Tudur in Jes. Coll. MS. at the Bodleian Library, Oxford 15
• W. J. Gruffydd, Llenyddiaeth Cymru o 1450 hyd 1600 (Lerpwl 1922), 83-91
• O. Jones printed some of his work in Ceinion Llenyddiaeth Gymreig (1876)

Further Reading

• Wikipedia Article: Siôn Tudur

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q7533495

Published date: 1959

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