Dictionary of Welsh Biography

ADAM OF USK (Adam Usk; 1352? - 1430), lawyer Crown was given and on 19 February he set out. He was not long in winning papal favour, having in January 1403 taken care to obtain the king's pardon for the Westminster misdeed. Boniface IX and still more readily Innocent VII were prepared to bestow upon him a British bishopric. But Adam had now, as the result, it may be, of the growing power of Glyn Dwr, to meet the bitter hostility of the king
AIDAN (fl. 6th century), saint ' Aidan (Maidoc) is stated to have been present at that saint's altercation with king Arthur. S. Aidan is commemorated on 31 January in all the Irish martyrologies.
ALBAN, Sir FREDERICK JOHN (1882 - 1965), chartered accountant and administrator to 1916, when he resigned to become secretary and controller of the Welsh National Memorial Association established by David Davies, aft. Lord Davies (1880 - 1944), and his sisters, Gwendoline and Margaret to commemorate King Edward VII and to combat tuberculosis in Wales. He acted as accountant for the Ministry of Food in Wales, 1918-19. He resigned from his post with the Memorial Assoc. in 1922
AMBROSIUS AURELIANUS (fl. ( c. 475)), British leader the Ambrosius of history with characteristic freedom; he becomes Aurelius Ambrosius, son of Constantine (not the Great), who is carried off as an infant to Brittany, returns to Britain, is anointed king, and overwhelms Vortigern. He then meets Hengist in battle and slays him; the country is pacified, churches are restored, and law and order re-established. The complication introduced by Nennius is
ANARAWD ap GRUFFYDD (d. 1143), prince He was the eldest son of Gruffydd ap Rhys ap Tewdwr, and, on the death of his father in 1137, stepped into his position as leader of the men of Deheubarth. He had already, in spite of his youth, showed in this year some independence; the S. Davids chronicle records how, without the assent of his father, he slew Letard 'Little King' - a local tyrant, as his name suggests, who from his seat at
ANARAWD ap RHODRI (d. 916), prince alliance with the Danish kingdom of York, but this bore little fruit, and instead he turned to Alfred of Wessex. He was cordially received; honour and gifts were bestowed upon him, and the king stood as his godfather at confirmation. In return, he promised obedience to Alfred as over-king, a position which gave him equality with Ethelred of Mercia. Such was his standing in 893, according to Asser; it was
ANEIRIN (fl. second half of the 6th century), poet According to the Historia Brittonum of Nennius (c. 796), five notable Welsh poets, namely Talhaearn Tad Awen (father of song), Neirin, Taliesin, Blwchfardd, and Cian were eminent in Welsh poetry during the wars against Ida, king of Northumbria (547-59), and probably also during those waged against his sons. So, 'Neirin' is the first form of the name, but by 1200 it had acquired an 'a' before the
ANIAN (d. 1306?), bishop of Bangor upheaval of 1282 sent Anian again to the king's side, where he appears, at Rhuddlan, on 28 July of that year. On the death of Llywelyn he came back, in the company of the king, to his diocese, and was active in the settlement of North Wales. He received privileges in acknowledgment of his help, the return of writs and other legal rights in the lands of the bishopric, licence to make a will, and a share
ANIAN (d. 1266), bishop of St Asaph He succeeded to the see on the death of Hywel ab Ednyfed (died 1247). The Middle Country was at the time under the control of the Crown, and both Einion himself and his chapter formally conceded, on 15 September 1249, the right of the king to authorize an election and to approve the choice, as in the case of an English bishopric. Before 27 September the bishop elect had done homage and had by
ANIAN (d. 1293), bishop of St Asaph arrived at in the same year at Berriw, and also to the compact between Llywelyn and Rhodri executed at Caernarvon on 12 April 1272. On 30 October 1272 he appears as the prince's envoy to Henry III, then nearing his end, and is praised by the king as having well performed his task. But Llywelyn's veiled hostility to the new sovereign brought about a change in Anian also. At the end of 1273 he wrote to
ANTHONY, WILLIAM TREVOR (1912 - 1984), singer Beecham, who invited him to sing the part of King Mark in a broadcast performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in 1946. From 1948 onward he appeared at Covent Garden and at a number of important music festivals, at Leeds, Edinburgh and Aldeburgh, under the direction of Benjamin Britten. In June 1958 it was he who created the part of the Voice of God in Britten's opera Noye's Fludde. Between 1946 and
ANWYL family Park, Llanfrothen Royal Oak, continued his father's work as D.L. and died s.p. at Llwyn in 1685. Their second son, ROBERT ANWYL, who had conducted Prynne in a hazardous voyage from Caernarvon Roads to the Isle of Jersey in 1637, was fined £1,200 for his loyalty in advancing £300 to the king during the Civil War; he was high sheriff of Merioneth, 1650. He died in 1653, leaving two infant sons by his wife Katherine

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