Welsh heraldry
In Wales a coat of arms usually said who you descended from, not what you had achieved. Here are the royal and tribal arms, the national emblems, and how to read a blazon.
- XVNoble Tribes of North Wales
- 150+heraldic ancestors counted by Francis Jones
- 1493earliest known mention of the fifteen tribes
What makes Welsh heraldry different
In Wales a coat of arms was mostly a statement of descent. A family bore the arms of the ancestor it claimed, not arms granted for its own deeds.
In the Tudor period, bards and genealogists gave arms to royal and tribal ancestors who had lived centuries before heraldry existed. Their descendants then bore those arms. Francis Jones counted more than 150 of these heraldic ancestors.
Gair i gall A word from BranArms tell you which ancestor a family claimed, not one it proved.
Use the arms as a lead to the right Bartrum stock, then prove each generation from records.
Arms of the old kingdoms
Gwynedd
Quarterly Or and Gules, four lions passant guardant counterchanged
The four lions. The earliest dated picture of them is from about 1250.
Powys Wenwynwyn
Or, a lion rampant Gules, armed and langued Azure
Southern Powys. As given in Thomas Pennant's Tour in Wales (1778).
Powys Fadog
Argent, a lion rampant Sable, armed and langued Gules
Northern Powys. The arms given for Madog ap Gruffudd Maelor.
Deheubarth
Gules, a lion rampant within a bordure engrailed Or
Rhys ap Tewdwr and the house of Dinefwr.
All shields on this page are attributed arms: given to these people long after they lived, and drawn by us from the written blazons.
Arms of the XV Noble Tribes of North Wales
Fifteen ancestors from whom practically all the gentry of North Wales claimed descent. No mention of the fifteen tribes has been found before 1493, and the list was not settled until the later 1500s.
Francis Jones called the list "convenient but artificial": nothing shows that these "tribes" existed as groups in the Middle Ages. The arms below are given in his standard order.
Hwfa ap Cynddelw
AngleseyGules a chevron between three lions rampant Or
Tribe profile →
Llywarch ap Brân
AngleseyArgent a chevron Sable between three crows proper, each with an ermine spot in its bill
Tribe profile →
Gweirydd ap Rhys Goch
AngleseyArgent on a bend Sable three leopards' faces Argent
Cilmin Troed-ddu
CaernarfonshireQuarterly, 1 and 4 Argent a double-headed eagle displayed Sable; 2 and 3 Argent three ragged staves fired Gules; over all an escutcheon Argent with a man's leg couped at the thigh Sable
Tribe profile →
Collwyn ap Tangno
Caernarfonshire and MerionethSable a chevron between three fleurs-de-lis Argent
Nefydd Hardd
CaernarfonshireArgent a chevron Sable between three spear-heads Sable, embrued, points upward
Tribe profile →
Maelog Crwm
CaernarfonshireArgent on a chevron Sable three angels kneeling, wings raised, Or
Tribe profile →
Marchudd ap Cynan
CaernarfonshireGules a Saracen's head erased proper
Tribe profile →
Hedd Molwynog
DenbighshireSable a stag passant Argent, attired Or
Tribe profile →
Braint Hir
DenbighshireVert a cross flory Or
Tribe profile →
Marchweithian
DenbighshireGules a lion rampant Argent, armed and langued Azure
Tribe profile →
Edwin of Tegeingl
FlintshireArgent a cross flory engrailed Sable between four Cornish choughs proper
Tribe profile →
Ednywain Bendew
FlintshireArgent a chevron Sable between three boars' heads couped Sable
Tribe profile →
Eunydd of Gwerngwy
Or of Dyffryn Clwyd · DenbighshireAzure a lion rampant Or (sometimes quartered with his mother's Azure, a fess Or between three nags' heads erased Argent)
Ednywain ap Bradwen
MerionethGules three snakes nowed in a triangular knot Argent
Tribe profile →Attributed arms, assigned to the founders long after their lifetimes, mostly by bards and heralds of the Tudor period. Blazons from Francis Jones (1958).
How to read a blazon
"Quarterly Or and Gules, four lions passant guardant counterchanged, armed and langued Azure"
The four lions of Gwynedd. Read them word by word:
- Quarterlyshield split into four
- Or · Gulesgold · red
- Passant guardantwalking, looking out at you
- Counterchangedcolours reversed in each quarter
- Armed and langued Azureblue claws and tongues
Arms that tell a story
Three crows
A pun: brân is Welsh for crow, and Llywarch's father was Brân.
Tribe profile →
A black leg
Another pun: Cilmin Troed-ddu means Cilmin Black-foot.
Tribe profile →
Golden eagles
Tudor bards gave Owain Gwynedd the golden eagles of the house of Gwydir.
The oldest tribal coat
Collwyn ap Tangno's fleurs-de-lis: first found in the 14th century.
How the tradition grew
- c. 1200: seals
Welsh rulers start to use seals. Gwenwynwyn of Powys sealed in 1200 and 1206 with a mounted knight, not a coat of arms.
- 1246: a lion rampant
Dafydd ap Llywelyn, prince of Gwynedd, seals with a lion rampant. No colours are recorded.
- c. 1250: the four lions
The earliest dated picture of the lions of Gwynedd, in Matthew Paris's Chronica Majora, after Llywelyn the Great's death.
- 14th century
Collwyn ap Tangno's arms, the oldest of the fifteen tribal coats, first appear. Gruffydd de la Pole of the Powys line seals with a lion rampant in 1310 and 1321.
- 1493: the fifteen tribes
The earliest known mention of the fifteen tribes. Genealogists codify the list, which is settled in the later 1500s.
- Tudor period
Bards and genealogists assign arms to royal and tribal ancestors, and their descendants bear them. Between 1586 and 1613 the deputy herald Lewys Dwnn collects gentry pedigrees across Wales.
- 1662 and 1795–99: into print
Robert Vaughan sets out the Five Royal Tribes in 1662. The fifteen tribes are first printed in the Cambrian Register (vol. 1, for 1795), and Philip Yorke's Royal Tribes of Wales follows in 1799.
- 2008: the Royal Badge
The Royal Badge of Wales is approved, built on the four lions of Gwynedd. Since October 2024 it has used the Tudor Crown.
Sêl Seal of Dafydd ap Llywelyn, 1246
Borne arms, not attributed: a lion rampant on his seal. No colours are recorded, so we show it as a wax impression.
The red dragon and other emblems
In legend a red dragon fights a white one, in the Historia Brittonum (9th century) and in the tale Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys.
The dragon formed part of the Tudor royal arms from 1485 to 1603. A dragon on a green mound later became a royal badge for Wales: sources give the date as 1800 or 1807.
The badge was given its motto on 11 March 1953, under Elizabeth II:
"Y Ddraig Goch Ddyry Cychwyn"
The red dragon gives the lead
The dragon flag was officially recognised in 1959.
The leek
The story of St David's soldiers wearing leeks is legend. The earliest firm record of the leek on St David's Day is from 1536, in Henry VIII's household.
The daffodil
Cenhinen Bedr means "Peter's leek". A later emblem: popular in the 19th century, and used by Lloyd George at the 1911 investiture.
St David's Cross
A gold cross on a black field.
Welsh mottoes you will meet
True am I to my country
Royal Badge of Wales, 2008The red dragon gives the lead
Dragon badge, 1953The truth against the world
Motto of the GorseddDeath rather than shame
A regimental mottoHow Welsh arms worked
Arms follow ancestry
In England, arms could be granted to a new man without any reference to his forebears. In Welsh practice, arms came with the pedigree: a family bore the arms of the ancestor it claimed.
Arms given after the fact
In the Tudor period, bards and genealogists assigned coats of arms to royal and tribal ancestors who had lived centuries before heraldry existed. Their descendants then bore those arms. Francis Jones counted more than 150 such founding figures. The best-known groups are the Five Royal Tribes and the Fifteen Noble Tribes of Gwynedd.
Telling branches apart
Families of one stock often bore the same arms, sometimes with small changes of colour or an added charge to tell the branches apart. Some coats were quartered to show more than one line, as with Eunydd's arms and his mother's.
What this means for your research
Arms in a pedigree book or on a memorial tell you which ancestor a family claimed. Use that as a lead to the right Bartrum stock. Then prove each generation from records: deeds, wills, extents and parish registers.
The Five Royal Tribes and other heraldic ancestors
Five rulers whom later genealogists set at the head of Welsh gentry pedigrees. Robert Vaughan listed them in print in 1662. Like the Fifteen Tribes, the grouping is a genealogists' framework, not a medieval institution.
Gruffudd ap Cynan
c. 1055–1137King of Gwynedd, born in exile in Ireland. Father of Owain Gwynedd.
Royal tribe · Gwynedd
Rhys ap Tewdwr
d. 1093King of Deheubarth from about 1078 until 1093. Ancestor of the Lord Rhys.
Royal tribe · Deheubarth
Bleddyn ap Cynfyn
d. 1075King of Gwynedd and Powys. Many Powys gentry families claimed descent from him.
Royal tribe · PowysElystan Glodrydd
dates uncertainHis descendants ruled the land between the Wye and the Severn.
Royal tribe · Rhwng Gwy a HafrenIestyn ap Gwrgant
fl. c. 1081–1093The last native ruler of Glamorgan before the Normans.
Royal tribe · Morgannwg
Ednyfed Fychan
d. 1246Steward of Gwynedd and ancestor of the Tudors of Penmynydd.
StewardNotable heraldic families
House of Aberffraw
The princes of Gwynedd: the four lions counterchanged.
House of Dinefwr
Rulers of Deheubarth: a gold lion on red within a gold engrailed border.
Powys Wenwynwyn
A red lion on gold. Gwenwynwyn's line bore a lion, which passed by marriage to the Charltons.
The Tudors
Claimed descent from Marchudd through Ednyfed Fychan. The dragon was part of their royal arms, 1485–1603.
The Talbots
Earls of Shrewsbury, who adopted the Deheubarth arms, traditionally through marriage.
Vaughans of Trawsgoed
Earls of Lisburne. Francis Jones notes their descent from Collwyn ap Tangno, whose arms they share.
A living tradition
The old tribal arms still turn up in pedigree books and on memorials. The four lions attributed to the princes of Gwynedd now form the Royal Badge of Wales.
For further reading, Francis Jones's two short 1958 articles are the classic introduction and are free to read online. Michael Powell Siddons's The Development of Welsh Heraldry (National Library of Wales, 1991–93) is the full study.
The four lions of Gwynedd, gold and red, counterchanged, within a riband with the motto Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad and a wreath of leek, thistle, shamrock and rose. Since October 2024 the badge has used the Tudor Crown.
Sources
- Francis Jones, "The Development of Welsh Heraldry", Coat of Arms no. 33 (1958), Heraldry Society. theheraldrysociety.com
- Francis Jones, "Arms of the XV Noble Tribes of North Wales", Coat of Arms no. 36 (1958), Heraldry Society. theheraldrysociety.com
- J. E. Lloyd, "Dafydd ap Llywelyn (d. 1246)", Dictionary of Welsh Biography (1959). biography.wales
- "Welsh heraldry", Wikipedia (secondary source; royal arms, citing Pennant's Tour in Wales and Matthew Paris). en.wikipedia.org
- "Fifteen Tribes of Wales", Wikipedia (secondary source; cites Bartrum, NLW Journal 12, 1962). en.wikipedia.org
- "Tribes of Wales", Wikipedia (secondary source). en.wikipedia.org
- "Yorke, Philip (1743–1804), of Erddig", Dictionary of Welsh Biography. biography.wales
- "Dwnn, Lewys (c. 1550–c. 1616)", Dictionary of Welsh Biography. biography.wales
- T. Jones Pierce, "Madog ap Maredudd (d. 1160)", Dictionary of Welsh Biography (1959). biography.wales
- Glyn Roberts, "Ednyfed Fychan (Ednyfed ap Cynwrig) and his descendants", Dictionary of Welsh Biography (1959). biography.wales
- Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, "National emblems (FAQ)". museum.wales
- "Royal Badge of Wales", Wikipedia (secondary source). en.wikipedia.org
- "Flag of Wales", Wikipedia (secondary source). en.wikipedia.org
- Michael Powell Siddons, The Development of Welsh Heraldry (National Library of Wales, 1991–93). Further reading.