ABSTRACT
Patronage was a public demonstration of power by the powerful, and those in whose hands was concentrated the greatest power in medieval Wales were the princes. As patrons, the princes had an influence on many aspects of life in Wales. One of the principal social and cultural functions of the leaders of native society, be they princely or lordly in origin, was the patronage and sustenance of the bardic tradition. Despite the formal and stylised nature of the poetry there is no reason to dispute its ability to entertain the princes whose love for and patronage of the art was as much a product of habit as of conviction. The courts of the princes of Wales were important cultural centres where bards, musicians, minstrels and the literati generally would receive a warm welcome. The spirit of resistance was also evident in the princes’ initial despoliation of the regular church.
