Prince Madoc: The Legend of How the Welsh Colonized North America
How past legends influence the present
We all know Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492 which subsequently opened the land to European colonization in the coming centuries. We also know that he was not among the first Europeans to cross the Atlantic, with the Vikings having achieved that feat nearly five hundred years prior through Leif Erikson whose attempted settlements in Vinland, today part of Newfoundland, remain as proofs. But other more fantastical claims about European colonization exist and are shrouded in mystery, some of which continue to highlight the long shadows of ancient myth.
The Legend of Madoc
According to legend, Prince Madoc was one of the illegitimate sons of the 12th century King of Wales, Owain Gwynedd. King Gwynedd is a significant figure in the history of Wales. He consolidated power among various tribes in Wales, effectively unifying many of the Welsh, and successfully defended the Norman invasions. When King Gwynedd died in 1170, a dispute arose among his sons, which saw his son Dafydd usurp the throne. Distraught by the infighting, Prince Madoc and his companions sailed West and reached America founding civilizations and living happily, eventually intermixing with the Native Americans. An incredibly romantic story, but only one that could be afforded to a nebulous bastard.
Where Madoc landed is inconclusive as there is no hard evidence of the legitimacy of this story, but most of the adherents of this legend speculate that he traversed a similar path as Columbus and made his entrance into North America through the Gulf of Mexico up through Alabama. Some say his people reached the Ohio River Valley, and even more audacious theories say that he founded the Aztec civilization.
The Growth of Madoc’s Tale
The first explicit mention of Madoc was in a Welsh poem written by Maredudd ap Rhys a few years before Columbus set sail for the New World. In the poem it is said, “Splendid Madog(i.e. Madoc) … Of Owain Gwynedd’s line, He desired not land … Or worldy wealth but the sea.” After Columbus’s successful explorations into the New World, numerous other kingdoms flocked to reap wealth from the New World, claim land and install colonies. It is here that the legend of Madoc flourished, as it gave the English a sense of legitimacy in claiming the Americas.
The stories of Madoc and so-called Welsh Indians filled the minds of many settlers, many who claimed to have spoken Welsh with some Indians. 17th-century settler Reverend Morgan Jones was one such, claiming that he was freed from the Doeg tribe of Virginia after speaking Welsh. Proponents of this legend also point to certain blue-eyed and blond Indians, likely of the Mandan tribe residing in the Great Plains. Other claims have been made including: phonetic similarities between Native American languages and Welsh, breastplates resembling a 12th century Welsh coats of arms, and structures said to have been built by Welsh settlers. All of these claims were diverse and scattered, yet were not properly verifiable, so the ambiguity of Madoc’s legend permeated so much so that Thomas Jefferson instructed Lewis and Clark to specifically inquire about Welsh Indians when they went on their Westward expedition.
In the following centuries, Madoc’s legend lived on through poetry and fiction, most notably Robert Southey’s poem Madoc. Attempted scholarly research has been done, but most today regard the legend as a hoax.
The Use of Legends to Impact the Present
The legend of Madoc comes from a similar vein of fantastic theories of pre-Columbian discoveries, such as the theory that ancient Phoenicians of the Mediterranean had contact with the Americas. Alleged artifacts such as coins and markings on rocks have endorsed this theory. However, like much of the supposed evidence that backs Madoc’s legend, these claims were never independently verified and are likely hoaxes.
A prominent pseudo-Aristotelian text, De mirabilibus auscultationibus (On Marvellous Things Heard), which is now widely considered as not written by Aristotle but only attributed to him, espoused this theory. In the text, it is said:
“far across the Ocean lay a great island, discovered by the Carthaginians. That island had forest and all kinds of navigable rivers and different kinds of fruits. The Carthaginians frequented the island because of its riches, and some even inhabited it. But for reasons unknown, navigation to the island was later forbidden, and the Carthaginians abandoned the colonist who had settled there.”
It is possible that this tale may be true, but what is being referred to are likely the Canary Islands or the island of Madeira. It is hard to believe that the Carthaginians would have landed in the Americas let alone inhabited the land without leaving traces or encountering Native Americans.
16th-century Spanish historian, Gonzalo Fernandez De Oviedo used old fringe legends such as those previously mentioned to solidify the claim that it was the Spanish who discovered the Americas centuries before Columbus. Fearing disputes over pre-Columbian legitimacy, the Spanish used the legend of the pre-Christian Spanish king Hesperus to claim the Americas as having always been Spanish. In De Oviedo’s Natural history of the Indes he asserts “by the most ancient rights…God has restored this realm to the kings of Spain after many centuries.”
The Potential Harms of Speculative History
Though these theories are fascinating, there is not enough legitimacy to truly entertain them, and some of these theories may go too far and may give off the impression that the Native Americans could not have crafted civilizations such as the Aztecs or built certain structures without the help of some European involvement. Although there are theories about Islamic, African, Asian, and Polynesian pre-Columbian contact with the Americas, a resounding amount of credence has been put forth regarding European contact without much evidence. This not only gave legitimacy to the various kingdoms of Europe in claiming the Americas, but also allowed for a suspicion that the feats of Native Americans were due to some European influence.
Still, there is enough mystery and alleged substance for pre-Columbus theories of discovery to continue to flourish today. In 1953 members of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a group of women descended from American revolutionaries, saw it fit to install a plaque in Mobile, Alabama which eulogizes Prince Madoc. The plaque was however removed in 2008. The legend of Madoc lives on in the names of towns, streets, poems, and books, but the truth is we will likely never know the historicity of these claims. The tales of Madoc and other early contacts with the Americas will remain a subtle and vague legend within American Mythology. Yet, even murky legends are able to influence the present.
Reference list and Additional Reading
Aristotle, Aeterna Press. On Marvellous Things Heard
Colón Cristóbal, and John Michael Cohen. The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus: Being His Own Log-Book, Letters and Dispatches with Connecting Narrative Drawn from the Life of the Admiral by His Son Hernando Colon and Other Contemporary Historians. London: Penguin Books, 1969.
David Powel. The historie of Cambria, now called Wales, 1811
Gonzalo Fernandez De Oviedo. General and Natural History of the Indes, 1535.
Jaime Gómez de Caso Zuriaga. Spanish Historians of the Sixteenth Century and the Prediscoveries of America Author(s) Penn State University Press, 2000
