Kevin Patrick Mostyn Family - Person Sheet
Kevin Patrick Mostyn Family - Person Sheet
NameHywel 'the Dun Stag' AP IEUAN FYCHAN, 16G Grandfather
FatherIeuan Vychan AP IEUAN (-1477)
MotherAngharad VCH HYWEL (->1457)
Web Notes notes for Hywel 'the Dun Stag' AP IEUAN FYCHAN
He was 3rd and 4th cousin to Henry Tudor (King Henry VII of England) through several lines of descent.
Howel or Hywel, called the "Dun Stag", son and heir of Ieuan Fychan of Pengwern and Mostyn, by Angharad, heiress of Mostyn, succeeded to the estates in 1457-8. According to a deed cited in the pedigree of 1663, Howel leased Mostyn to his younger brother, Ellis, in 1457-8, and in N.L.W. MS. 1560 C, a copy of a pedigree compiled (from much older data) close to 1596, he is called "of Pengwern," where, from a contemporary poem, we know that he as living at Rhiw'r Hyddod (the Slope of the Stags), about 1459. Later, we find him at Mostyn; probably soon after 1460.
Concerning Howel's life we know very little. His youth was passed amid violence. Speaking of this period, Evans, in his Wales and the Wars of the Roses, says that "the savage license and wolfish avarice of the strong were let loose upon the weak and the law abiding. . . . Official records present nothing better than a frightful spectacle of barbarity, a catalogue of robberies and tragedies." About the year 1442, continues Mr. Evans, "the blaze of riot raged with amazing fury, private property and public finance being equally involved in the general ruin." The old statutes against the Welsh were, so far a possible, stupidly put into operation, increasing the disorder. The "State of Wales" in 1447-8, is thus officially described (from Rot. Parl., 1447, 1449, 154. Stat. of the Realm, 27 Henry VI; c. 4): "Misgoverned persons take divers persons and cattle under colour of distress where they have no manner of fee, or cause to make such distress, but feign actions and quarrels. And many times for [page 57] taking of such distresses and in such resistance of them, great assemblies of people, riots, mains and murders be made, and if it be not hastily remedied other inconveniences belike to follow, of which takings, bringings, and carryings in this behalf no due punishment is, where of the people of the said parts daily abound and increase in evil governance."
The Wars of the Roses did not tend to improve the situation. Clans like the Trefors and Kyffins rode up and down the country beheading on the spot anyone they could capture, for no other reason than kinship to this or that faction; or fought each other to the death for the first good morrow. A few trusted men, as in the case of Ieuan Fychan of Pengwern and Mostyn (father of Hywel), whose services in France, or elsewhere, had enabled them to secure exemptions from the statute forbidding Welshmen to bear arms or hold office, were commissioned, and given extraordinary power for the purpose of restoring order. How far they succeeded we cannot say; but the conditions described actually continued in some parts of Wales, although in a milder form, down to the breaking out of the great civil war, in 1642; notwithstanding drastic action taken from time to time by the Court of the Marches.
Shortly after his father's death we find Howel following the fortunes of the House of Lancaster, and in touch with his kinsman Jasper Tudor, who, in 1464, moving "from country to country in Wales, not always at his heart's ease, nor in the security of life or safety of living,: sought refuge, finally, at Mostyn. [Tudur Penllyn (Cardiff MSS.) states that Jasper took boat at Barmouth, so that it appears that he went in a fishing boat from Cots y Gedol to Mostyn, where Howel furnished him with a sea-worthy vessel.] Ellis Griffith, in his History [Mostyn MS, N.L.W.] tells us [page 58]
Howel or Hywel, called the "Dun Stag", son and heir of Ieuan Fychan of Pengwern and Mostyn, by Angharad, heiress of Mostyn, succeeded to the estates in 1457-8. According to a deed cited in the pedigree of 1663, Howel leased Mostyn to his younger brother, Ellis, in 1457-8, and in N.L.W. MS. 1560 C, a copy of a pedigree compiled (from much older data) close to 1596, he is called "of Pengwern," where, from a contemporary poem, we know that he as living at Rhiw'r Hyddod (the Slope of the Stags), about 1459. Later, we find him at Mostyn; probably soon after 1460.
Concerning Howel's life we know very little. His youth was passed amid violence. Speaking of this period, Evans, in his Wales and the Wars of the Roses, says that "the savage license and wolfish avarice of the strong were let loose upon the weak and the law abiding. . . . Official records present nothing better than a frightful spectacle of barbarity, a catalogue of robberies and tragedies." About the year 1442, continues Mr. Evans, "the blaze of riot raged with amazing fury, private property and public finance being equally involved in the general ruin." The old statutes against the Welsh were, so far a possible, stupidly put into operation, increasing the disorder. The "State of Wales" in 1447-8, is thus officially described (from Rot. Parl., 1447, 1449, 154. Stat. of the Realm, 27 Henry VI; c. 4): "Misgoverned persons take divers persons and cattle under colour of distress where they have no manner of fee, or cause to make such distress, but feign actions and quarrels. And many times for [page 57] taking of such distresses and in such resistance of them, great assemblies of people, riots, mains and murders be made, and if it be not hastily remedied other inconveniences belike to follow, of which takings, bringings, and carryings in this behalf no due punishment is, where of the people of the said parts daily abound and increase in evil governance."
The Wars of the Roses did not tend to improve the situation. Clans like the Trefors and Kyffins rode up and down the country beheading on the spot anyone they could capture, for no other reason than kinship to this or that faction; or fought each other to the death for the first good morrow. A few trusted men, as in the case of Ieuan Fychan of Pengwern and Mostyn (father of Hywel), whose services in France, or elsewhere, had enabled them to secure exemptions from the statute forbidding Welshmen to bear arms or hold office, were commissioned, and given extraordinary power for the purpose of restoring order. How far they succeeded we cannot say; but the conditions described actually continued in some parts of Wales, although in a milder form, down to the breaking out of the great civil war, in 1642; notwithstanding drastic action taken from time to time by the Court of the Marches.
Shortly after his father's death we find Howel following the fortunes of the House of Lancaster, and in touch with his kinsman Jasper Tudor, who, in 1464, moving "from country to country in Wales, not always at his heart's ease, nor in the security of life or safety of living,: sought refuge, finally, at Mostyn. [Tudur Penllyn (Cardiff MSS.) states that Jasper took boat at Barmouth, so that it appears that he went in a fishing boat from Cots y Gedol to Mostyn, where Howel furnished him with a sea-worthy vessel.] Ellis Griffith, in his History [Mostyn MS, N.L.W.] tells us [page 58]