Syr Hywel y Fwyall


Syr Hywel y Fwyall, or 'Hywel of the Battleaxe', was a Welsh knight and hero. He is also referred to as Sir Hywel ap Gruffydd.

Military career

Hywel was one of the Welshmen who fought at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, and Welsh tradition made him out to be the actual captor of John II of France, "cutting off his horse's head at one blow"
Hywel seems to have fought well, for he was knighted by Edward the Black Prince, and was made Constable of Criccieth Castle in 1359, as well as being given the rent of Dee Mills at Chester, "besides other great things in North Wales". As a memorial of his services, a mess of meat was ordered to be served before his axe in perpetuity, the food being afterwards given to the poor "for his soul's health". Hywel was also "raglot" or bailiff of Aberglaslyn, and died "between Michaelmas 2 and the same time 6 Rich. II", leaving two sons, Meredydd, who lived in Eifionydd; and Dafydd, who lived at Henblas, near Llanrwst.

Family

The bard Iolo Goch describes his family in a poem: his wife was "Tanglwst, daughter of one Dafydd Fychan ap Hywel; there was one son, Gruffydd, who left no direct heirs". But several of the Eifionydd families have descended from his elder brother, Einion.

Naming

The so-called "battle-axe" the fywall is a double sided pole-axe, that is a staff of about 6 ft or more probably of hazel topped with an axe on one side and a sharp bevelled point not necessarily curved and a spear to the top.. they are not French for naming of parts but Roman bevel on the other used by the British Welsh to unhorse mounted opponents whilst on foot. It is referenced as a pole-axe in the National Biographies of Great Britain and other sources

Ancestry

Further to Sir Howell is his ancestry linking to well known Welsh warlord leaders, which extends back through Welsh documented lineages to the 3rd century before Christ and the arrival of Roman influence over the Britons. This includes controversial but quite well founded and established conjecture as to the origin of King Arthur This ancestry then extends back from the Roman mercenary indigenous tribe, the Oawattadeni or Wotadini, extending back from Ros in North Wales where they were settled in land as payment from protecting Wales from Danish invaders/intruders crossing from Ireland, as they extended down from Nordic Shetland and Orkney through the Outer Hebrides, and Finnish Ellan Vannin and later to Dublin.
Sir Hywel's lineage also includes Coel Hen and Caradoc where it merges with the lineage of the current Welsh princes including the Retired. It also merges there with Phew... as in Llewelyn, or fuel and in other paths.
Several ancestors are described as wearing the authority of the red tunic
The authority of Rome. The influence as warlord mercenaries from Edinburgh through Cymru or Hywel being a British title or word meaning "most eminent" or "foremost".
In which all Cymru up to the policies with Strathclyde, the separate Kingdom of Berwick transposed thro' from Bamburgh, became unified as one English Kingdom, now England & Wales in defiance of the Viking Danish/Scandinavian keels.

Coat of arms

His arms having been knighted on the field are depicted in other 19th century publications but described as with tradition of defeating any knight in battle, where the arms of the defeated are taken to the arms of the vanquished being this the arms of France by representation the King of France as one Fleur de Lys on Azur or a Fleur de Lys in one corner covered by a Welsh Griffen in rouge sometimes mistaken as a Lion Rampant but in that case holding a pole axe in a proposed notion for the part of his descendant in vanquishing the Germans in the Great War.

Disputed heritage

According to Philip Yorke's The Royal Tribes of Wales, his father was Gruffydd ab Howel ab Meredydd ab Einion ab Gwganen. Sir John Wynne, however, says that he was the son of Einion ab Gruffydd Both the accounts agree that he was descended from Collwyn ab Tangno, "lord of Eifionydd, Ardudwy, and part of Llŷn". The Dictionary of Welsh Biography gives his father as being "Gruffydd ap Hywel, of Bron-y-Foel in the township of Ystumllyn and the parish of Ynyscynhaiarn, Eifionydd, by Angharad, daughter of Tegwared y Bais" and his grandmother as being the granddaughter of Ednyfed Fychan.