Tribes of Wales
"The five royal tribes of Wales" and "The fifteen tribes of North Wales" refer to a class of genealogical lists which were compiled by Welsh bards in the mid-15th century.[1] These non-identical lists were constructed on the premise that many of the leading Welsh families of their time could trace their descent to the "five royal tribes of Wales" or the "fifteen noble tribes of North Wales".
In the surviving manuscripts, the first occurrence of the "fifteen tribes of Gwynedd" is probably in parts written by Gutun Owain in National Library of Wales NLW Peniarth MS 131.[2] The Welsh headings which stand above the pedigrees of Eunydd of Dyffryn Clwyd and Hwfa ap Cynddelw on p. 85 and the tribe of Gollwyn ap Tangno on p. 90 all read something like "one of the 15 tribes (llwyth)". A related list is found in British Library Add MS 14919, f. 121v.[2]
A more developed example is to be found on two folios of a 16th or 17th-century manuscript in the British Library, Harley MS 1970, folios 34r-v, where the list is accompanied by a number of heraldic designs.
The basic idea of five regal and fifteen common (i.e. noble) tribes was later used by the antiquarian and genealogist Philip Yorke as a model for his Royal Tribes of Wales (1799).[3]
Five Royal tribes of Wales
The Five Royal Tribes of Wales were recorded by Robert Vaughan in his book 'British Antiquities Revived', published in 1662.[4] From the medieval ages, there were five royal figures identified in Wales who were the ancestors to many Welsh noble families, tracing their family descent through male and female lines.[5]
Five royal tribes list
| Name | Location | Century | Royal title | Coat of Arms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gruffudd ap Cynan | Gwynedd | 1000-1100 | King | |
| 2 | Rhys ap Tewdwr Mawr | South Wales | 1000 | King | |
| 3 | Bleddyn ap Cynfyn | Powys | 1000 | King | |
| 4 | Ethelystan Glodrydd | Wye and Severn | 900-1000 | Prince | |
| 5 | Iestyn ap Gwrgant | Glamorgan | 1000 | King |
Fifteen tribes of Wales
The origins of the Fifteen Tribes of Wales of North Wales, like the Five Royal Tribes, go back to 1493, when genealogists recorded the ancestry of Welsh folk from the medieval ages. The antiquary Robert Vaughan then recorded them in the mid-17th century. However, the list was not published until the release of the Cambrian Register in 1795 by either Dr. Owen Pughe or Walter Davies. Then later during the 1790s, both Thomas Pennant and Philip Yorke published works about the founders of Welsh tribes.[6][7][8]
15 tribes list
| Name | Location | Century | Royal ancestor | Coat of Arms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hwfa ap Cynddelw | Anglesey | 1100-1200 | Cunedda | |
| 2 | Llywarch ap Bran | Anglesey | 1100-1200 | Rhodri Mawr | |
| 3 | Gweirydd ap Rhys Goch | Anglesey | 1100-1200 | Cunedda | |
| 4 | Cilmin Troed-Ddu | Caernarvonshire | 800-900 | Coel Hen | |
| 5 | Collwyn ap Tangno | Merionethshire and Caernarvonshire | 1000-1100 | Cunedda | |
| 6 | Nefydd Hardd (Nefydd the Handsome) | Caernarvonshire | 1100-1200 | Cunedda | |
| 7 | Maelog Crwm (Maeloc the Bowed) | Caernarvonshire | 1100-1200 | Cunedda | |
| 8 | Marchudd ap Cynan | Caernarvonshire | 800-900 | Coel Hen | |
| 9 | Hedd Molwynog | Denbighshire | 1100-1200 | Rhodri Mawr | |
| 10 | Braint Hir (Braint the Tall) | Denbighshire | 800-900 | Rhychwyn the Bearded of Rhos or nephew of Cadwallon ap Cadfan | |
| 11 | Marchweithian | Denbighshire | 1000-1100 | Coel Hen | |
| 12 | Edwin ap Tegaingl | Flintshire | 1000-1100 | Gronw ap Einion ab Owen ap Hywel Dda ap Cadell ap Rhodri Mawr | |
| 13 | Ednowain Bendew (Ednowain the Strong-head) | Flintshire | 1000-1100 | Beli Mawr | |
| 14 | Eunydd of Gwerngwy | Denbighshire | 1000-1100 | Rhys ap Marchan, descended from Coel Hen | |
| 15 | Ednowain ap Bradwen | Merionethshire | 1100-1200 | Coel Hen |
References
- ^ Siddons, "Genealogies [2] Welsh", p. 802
- ^ a b Bartrum, "Hen Lwythau Gwynedd a'r Mars", p. 233
- ^ Yorke 1799.
- ^ British Antiquities Revived, p. 75-76, at Google Books
- ^ Pennant 1796, pp. 283–289.
- ^ Yorke 1799, p. 171.
- ^ Jones, Francis (October 1958). "Arms of the XV Noble Tribes of North Wales". theheraldrysociety.com. Retrieved 29 May 2025.
- ^ Pennant 1796, pp. 290–317.
Books
- Bartrum, Peter C. (1962). "Hen Lwythau Gwynedd a'r Mars" [The Old Tribes of Gwynedd]. National Library of Wales Journal. 12: 201–235.
- Bartrum, Peter C. (1983). Welsh Genealogies. A.D. 300–1400: Welsh Genealogies A.D. 1400–1500. Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales. ISBN 0907158080.
- Pennant, Thomas (1796). The history of the parishes of Whiteford, and Holywell. pp. 283–317.
- Siddons, Michael Powell (1991). The Development of Welsh Heraldry. Vol. 1. Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales. ISBN 090715851X.
- Siddons, Michael (2006). "Genealogies [2] Welsh". In Koch, John T. (ed.). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Denver, and Oxford: ABC-CLIO. pp. 800–2.
- Yorke, Philip (1799). The Royal Tribes of Wales. Wrexham.