The Slaughter of the Bards

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After suppressing a minor rebellion in Wales in 1277, Edward invited the Welsh nobles and their Bards to Montgomery Castle for a banquet and a festival of music and song. When the Welsh Bards refused to sing to celebrate his victory but instead sang of Welsh victories, he burned them at the stake. He then dispatched his men to the four corners of Wales to seek out and burn all the remaining Welsh Bards. In all, it is told, five hundred bards were murdered in this barbaric manner. In Wales and throughout the other Celtic nations, memorable events, deaths, and victories in battle were proclaimed by bards in song and verse rather than written in books or on manuscripts, as the majority of the populace could neither read nor write. Edward, the first of England, was infuriated by the unceasing revolts and uprisings by the Welsh but was determined to control them, not only economically and militarily but also culturally. To this end, he decided to eliminate the very core of this culture and that which he deemed responsible for inciting the revolts against English rule: the Bards.