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FAMOUS SONGS
Maynard (Welsh words by Mynyddg), telling of the plume with its motto " Ich Dien" which is supposed to have been found in the helmet of King John of Bohemia, who was slain in the Battle of Cressy, and, having been "adopted by Edward the Black Prince, has been ever since worn as the crest or cognizance of the Prince of Wales as heir apparent to the British crown.
The oldest Welsh melody extant is the plaintive air of " Morva Rhuddlan," composed by King Caradoc's Court Minstrel immediately after the battle of Rhuddlan Marsh, in which the Welsh forces suffered a terrible defeat and their royal chief was left dead upon the field. This tune, than which there is nothing more plaintive in the whole range of music, was com-posed in the year 795. " Several of the Welsh songs that are most popular at the present day/' says a sympathetic scribe, "date from the eleventh century, when the bardic craft was at its zenith in the Principality, and Gryfudd ap Cynan, King of North Wales, held a congress of music masters in the Isle of Anglesey for the purpose of reforming the Order of Welsh Bards, and invited members of the fraternity from Ire-land to assist in carrying out the contemplated innovations. The most important of the reforms
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