Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales

Chapter 249: SIR RHYS AP THOMAS CONSULTING A WIZARD CONCERNING KING HENRY VII.

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History - Other Mythology, Legends & Folklore

About This Book

A compilation of folk beliefs, tales, and customs gathered across western and mid-Wales from elderly informants and local tradition. It presents translated Welsh narratives and organized material on fairies, mermaids and water‑horses, ghosts, witches and wizards, omens, animal superstitions, and popular spells, alongside accounts of wedding, birth, funeral, inheritance and sheep‑shearing customs, divination practices, augury, and prophecies. The emphasis is on literal fidelity to oral testimony and on preserving vanishing traditions rather than offering theoretical interpretation.

SIR RHYS AP THOMAS CONSULTING A WIZARD CONCERNING KING HENRY VII.

When the Earl of Richmond (afterwards Henry VII.) was about to land in Wales from France on his way to Bosworth, Sir Rhys Ap Thomas, consulted a well-known wizard and prophet, who dwelt at Dale, as to whether the Earl would be successful to dethrone Richard III. After much hesitation, and at the urgent demand of Sir Rhys, the Conjurer on the next day prophesied in rhyme as follows:—

“Full well I wend, that in the end
Richmond, sprung from British race.
From out this land the boare shall chase.”

The “Boare” meant Richard III. See “Life of Sir Rhys Ap Thomas,” by M. E. James, page 49.