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MadocThis article is about the legendary Welsh prince. For other references, see Madoc (disambiguation). Madog ap Owain Gwynedd. Madoc (Madoc ap Owain Gwynedd) was a purported Welsh prince who, some believe, discovered America in 1170, over three hundred years before Christopher Columbus's voyages in 1492. His father, King Owain Gwynedd ap Gruffydd had at least 13 children from his two wives, and, it is said, several more born out of wedlock, among them Madoc and his brother Riryd. They were living at a time when Wales was torn by strife and civil war. Upon his father's death in 1170, as usual fighting broke out among the possible successors. Madoc, disheartened, set sail to explore the western sea, found what is described as a distant and abundant land, and returned to Wales to recruit settlers; he then sailed west a second time for good. Madoc's landing place has been suggested by some theories to be Mobile Bay in what is now Alabama in the United States. There has been some speculation that these early Welsh settlers were later absorbed by American Natives, and that members of the Mandan tribe, strikingly different in culture, language and appearance, might be descendants of Madoc and his fellow voyagers. Stories of Welsh-speaking Indians were popular enough that even Lewis and Clark were ordered to look out for them, and folklore has long claimed that Louisville, Kentucky was once home to a colony of Welsh-speaking Indians. Possibly the first written account of Madoc's story is found in the Voyages of Richard Hakluyt (1552?–1616?); the Historie of Cambria 1584 by David Powel (1552?–1598?) also contains an early version. Another account comes from John Dee in 1577. Dee claimed that King Arthur had won a vast empire in the North Atlantic and that the voyages of Madoc had confirmed the title of the Welsh to those terrirories. By the age of Elizabeth I of England, Dee asserted, they were under the sovereignty of the queen as successor to the Welsh princes (and being a Tudor, of Welsh stock herself). Basically Dee was making the assertion as a priority claim on North America for England (by then including Wales) over those of other nations. Recent research by Alan Wilson, Baram Blackett and Jim Michael suggests an even earlier date (and a different person) behind the myth. Taking a hint from early Welsh texts which mention another son of King Arthur's father Uther Pendragon named Madog Wilson, Blackett and Michael attribute the legend to the 6th century. Using radiocarbon dating and DNA profiling methods on artefacts and human remains found in the US Midwest and in Wales, they claim to have found strong indications that the Khumric (Welsh) Prince Madog Morfran ap Meurig ("the Cormorant"), brother of King Arthur II, left Wales in the aftermath brought by heavy destruction due to debris falling from a comet (562 CE), and arrived in North America where he set up colonies. This theory has not convinced mainline anthropologists or historians, however; most still doubt that a Madoc ever made a trip to North America, and some doubt the prince existed at all. Several local guest houses and pubs are called Prince Madoc in his memory. However, according to this source, the towns of Porthmadoc (Porthmadog, Port Madoc) and Tremadoc, county Gwynedd, Wales are named after the North Welsh industrialist and Member of Parliament, William Alexander Maddock (1773–1828). The Prince Madog, the University of Wales' new research vessel, set sail on 2001-07-26 on her maiden voyage. The most influential version of the story is given by Robert Southey in his Madoc. This epic inspired Paul Muldoon to write Madoc — A Mystery, a long, multi-layered poem (which won him the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize). It explores the Madoc legend, mostly through association with Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge who (in 1794) had played with the idea of going to America to set up an "ideal state". Literature - Powel, David (editor) (1585): Historiae Libri Sex, Magna Et Fide Et Diligentia Conscripti: Ad Britannici codicis fidem correcti...prefixus est catalogus Regem Britanniae: per Davidem Pouelum... Including: Giraldus Cambriensis, Itinerarium Cambriae... & Cambriae Descriptio. London: 8vo. Henry Denham & Ralph Newbury for Edmund Bollifant.
(This is actually an abridgement of Geoffrey of Monmouth's (1100?–1154) Historia regum Britanniae, together with Giraldus de Barri's (1146?–1220?) Itinerarium Cambriae and Cambriae Descriptio, each with their own title-page.) - Pugh, Ellen (1970): Brave His Soul: The Story of Prince Madog of Wales and His Discovery of America in 1170. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. ISBN 0396061907
- Wilson, Alan / Blackett, Anthony Thomas (1981): King Arthur, II King of Glamorgan and Gwent. : M.T. Byrd (Arthurian History). ISBN 0862850010
- Olson, Dana (1987): The Legend of Prince Madoc Discoverer of America in 1170 a.D. and the History of the Welsh Colonists Also Known as the White Indians Or the Moon-Eyed People.
- Muldoon, Paul (1990): Madoc: A Mystery. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0571144888 – New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0374195579
- Gilbert, Adrian / Wilson, Alan / Blackett, Baram (1999): The Holy Kingdom: Quest for the Real King Arthur. : Corgi Adult. ISBN 0552144894
- Davies, John (1990): A History of Wales. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0140145818.
eBook - Southey, Robert (1812): Madoc, an epic poem in two vols.
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