BELTANE MAY DAY MESSAGE: Barefoot Welsh Doggies Day.

Much anxt has taken place recently in the Western Mail's letters columns as to whether or not Glyndŵr and his aristocratic comrades were in it for themselves or, had greater egalitarian ideals. The debate was initially prompted by a letter from a Lionel H. Davies of Ciliau Aeron, Ceredigion who lashes out at Prince Owain as being more of a defender of a Welsh Ruling Class rather than one of the masses. Some of the points he raised in his letter may have some virtue but, on the whole, one can state that in any struggle, be it medieval or modern, faults and failings can be detected if one brings it down to a matter of class. Such is certainly true of our present day politicians, be they left, right or centre, who are being exposed on a daily basis of their greed in filling their pockets at the expense of the masses who can but watch in despair as they slip deeper into the almighty mess created by Capitalists and these political con artists.

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A letter in reply to Lionel from H. John of Penybont ar Ogwr refutes much that the aforementioned Lionel had to say, so, it will suffice that I simply add here that whatever, the truth is, the Owain Glyndŵr War of National Liberation allowed an opportunity for the Welsh masses , be they post conquest, downwardly mobile, gentry or upwardly mobile serfs, to seek retribution against those who had truly been oppressing and exploiting Country and Community following on the Conquest of 1282. There's no doubt in my mind that the 'Glyndŵr War' was very much a 'Peasants War'. The facts speak for themselves; The Lord Grey, Glyndŵr's 'Bete Noir', had 184 serfs at the start of the war but only 8 at the end. One does not need to be a genius to realise just how many serfs and poor tenants of the Anglo - Norman Aristocracy must have run off to join what became a real 'rebel's rebellion'; how else could a small country such as Wales, with an approximate population of 500.000, engage an English enemy of a Three Million population in armed struggle for at least 21 years unless such was a popular uprising of as much 'Barefoot Doggis' as Cymric Aristocracy?

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Thus, with May Day upon us, lets celebrate and commemorate the 'Barefoot Doggies', our own 'Brothers and Sisters of the Ox', many later to become Gwerin Owain bandits who continued armed struggle well beyond the Tudor settlement.

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Talking of the Tudors, whose getting the full treatment this year then? Answer... that tyrannical slob, Henry VIII, of course with this year marking the 600th anniversary of his ascendancy to the throne of England and, sure enough, we are to be bombarded with plenty of stamps, TV/Radio progs and mag articles galore for this English King.

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Siân.