DEATH AND COMMEMORATION IN LATE MEDIEVAL WALES DAVID HALE A submission presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of South Wales/Prifysgol De Cymru for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2018 Abstract This study examines the attitudes to and commemoration of death in Wales in the period between the end of the thirteenth century and the middle of the sixteenth century by analysis of the poetical work produced during this period. In so doing, this is placed in the wider context of death and commemoration in Europe. Although there are a number of memorial tombs and some evidence of religious visual art in Wales which has survived from the late medieval period, in comparison with that to be found in many other European countries, this is often neither so commonplace nor so imposing. However, the poetry produced during this period very much reflects the visual material that was produced in other parts of Europe. The poetry shows that the Welsh gentry at that time were familiar with many of the themes surrounding death and commemoration so obvious in European visual art such as the macabre and the fate of both the body and the soul after death. With war, famine and disease being so commonplace during the Middle Ages, and the late medieval period witnessing the effects of the Black Death, it is, perhaps, little wonder that macabre imagery and concerns about the fate of the soul were so often produced in European visual art of the time. These concerns are reflected in the Welsh poetry of the period with several poets composing quite vivid poetry describing the fate of the body as a decomposing corpse after death or allusions to the personification of Death appearing to claim its victims. The tension that many felt between the role of God on Judgement Day and God as Redeemer is also apparent in a number of the poems composed at this time. This study shows how important the role of the poet was amongst the gentry in Wales during the late medieval period, a role which ensured that the patrons of the poets were immortalised in words rather than by physical memorials. It also highlights the importance of poetical works of the period as an important primary source for historical research. Many of the poems give a contemporaneous account of important events of the period such as symptoms of plague victims which confirm that the Black Death was indeed the bubonic form of the plague. 1 Acknowledgements Although completed on a part-time basis over a five-year period, this study has impacted on my personal time and that of my family considerably. Despite this, both my wife, Wendy, and my son, Craig, have been extremely supportive throughout. For putting up with me locking myself away in my study, dragging you both around countless churches, historical sites and libraries and being sound boards for me to bounce my ideas off, I thank you both from the bottom of my heart. Diolch yn fawr i chi’ch dau – rwyf yn cyflwyno hwn i chi ac i Kirsty fy merch. When I first embarked on what has at times seemed like the work of a lifetime, it was with what was then the University of Wales, Newport that I was a student. I would like to thank the staff of the History Department, the Library and the Postgraduate Research Centre for their support in helping me begin this journey. In particular, I owe a massive debt of gratitude to Professor Madeleine Gray for the amazing support and direction which she has given me throughout the last five years. There were one or two low points in the final year when I started to feel that this was just not happening; an hour’s conversation with Maddy soon had me revitalised and back on track. Thank you so much Maddy. Having decided to produce this work in English added an extra burden – that of translating medieval Welsh into modern English. It was on Professor Ann Parry Owen that the task of checking my interpretation and translation fell and I am extremely grateful to her for the help and guidance that she has provided throughout. Also to the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Research for allowing Professor Parry Owen the time to provide that assistance. My final thanks goes to all those who went before me, transcribing and analysing the works of the Welsh poets, be they research students whose dissertations I have studied or editors of the works of specific poets. I could not have completed this research without reference to all that has gone before. I can only hope that my work is up to the standard that they have set and will help further promote a greater understanding of the part that Wales and the Welsh have played not just within our own borders, but throughout the United Kingdom and beyond. 2 Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 1 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 2 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 10 2 Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 12 2.1 Structure of the Thesis ................................................................................................. 20 2.2 Names .......................................................................................................................... 21 3 Historical Context ............................................................................................................... 23 3.1 Christianity in Wales ................................................................................................... 24 3.2 Death and Commemoration ......................................................................................... 27 3.3 Prayers ......................................................................................................................... 29 3.4 Indulgences .................................................................................................................. 32 3.5 Commemoration and Wills .......................................................................................... 33 3.6 Memorial Monuments .................................................................................................. 38 3.7 The Macabre and Medieval European Art ................................................................... 40 3.8 The Welsh Bardic Tradition......................................................................................... 42 3.9 The Renaissance .......................................................................................................... 47 3.10 The Reformation ........................................................................................................ 47 4.1 Death Caused by Plague .............................................................................................. 49 4.2 Killed or Struck Down? ............................................................................................... 58 4.2.1 Cause of Death Given ........................................................................................... 58 4.2.2 Struck Down ......................................................................................................... 60 4.3 Death Personified ......................................................................................................... 66 4.4 God as Executioner ...................................................................................................... 77 5 Death and the Fate of the Body ........................................................................................ 105 5.1 The Body in the Grave ............................................................................................... 109 5.2 The Macabre in Late Medieval Welsh Poetry ........................................................... 144 5.3 Grief and Mourning ................................................................................................... 146 5.4 The Child in Medieval Society .................................................................................. 180 6 The Fate of the Soul .......................................................................................................... 196 6.1 Purgatory .................................................................................................................... 196 6.2 Prayers for the Souls .................................................................................................. 198 6.3 Intercession and the Saints ......................................................................................... 258 6.3.1 The Native Saints ................................................................................................ 260 6.3.2 Requests to the Virgin Mary ............................................................................... 266 3 6.4 The Day of Judgement ............................................................................................... 280 6.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 291 7 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 292 References ...........................................................................................................................