Welsh Dragon
Ancient leaders of the Celtic Britons that are personified as dragons include Maelgwn Gwynedd, Mynyddog Mwynfawr and Urien Rheged.
The story continues in the Historia Brittonum, written around AD 829, where Gwrtheyrn, King of the Britons is frustrated in attempts to build a fort at Dinas Emrys.
The military use of the term "dragon" (in Latin, "draco") dates back to the Roman period and this in turn is likely inspired by the symbols of the Scythians, Indians, Persians, Dacians or Parthians.
[3] One notable Draco symbol which may have influenced the Welsh dragon is that of the Sarmatians, who contributed to the cavalry units stationed in Ribchester from the 2nd to 4th centuries.
[1]: 44 Although not compiled until later, the main part of Y Gododdin and the heroic poems on Urien Rheged by Taliesin almost certainly date in origin to the sixth century.
[15] Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr, a court poet to Owain Gwynedd, refers to him in one elegy, personifying him as "The golden dragon of Snowdonia of eagles".
Lludd must set a trap for them at the exact centre of the island called Oxford, put them to sleep with mead, and then bury them underground in a stone chest.
The third plague is caused by a mighty magician, who casts a spell to make the whole court fall asleep while he raids their stores.
Historia Brittonum was written c. 828, and by this point the dragon was no longer just a military symbol but associated with a coming deliverer from the Saxons.
The King sent his soldiers out across the land to find such a lad, and discovers such a boy, Emrys (Ambrosius Aurelianus), but Emrys reveals the real reason for the collapsing towers: a hidden pool containing two dragons, one red and one white, representing the Britons and the Saxons specifically, are buried beneath the foundation.
When the later Arthurian legends reached their modern form, Geoffrey of Monmouth, writing in the 12th century for a French and Breton audience, wrote that King Arthur used a golden dragon banner.
[22][23] It is also mentioned in at least four manuscripts that Arthur is associated with the golden dragon, and the standard functions as a haven for wounded soldiers in battles.
[24]: 69-71 Owain Glyndŵr's banner was known as Y Ddraig Aur or 'The Golden Dragon' (Middle English: Gilden Dragoun).
[29][30] Historian John Davies adds that the dragon raised by Glyndŵr was a symbol of victory for the Celtic Britons.
[34]: 148 [35]: 131 Following his son's victory at Bosworth Field, Henry VII used a red dragon on a white and green background upon entering St Paul's.
[38] The red dragon appears on a mount but with a label of three points Argent about the shoulder to difference it from the monarch's badge.
The augmented badge is blazoned: Within a circular riband Argent fimbriated Or bearing the motto Y DDRAIG GOCH DDYRY CYCHWYN ["the red dragon inspires action"], in letters Vert, and ensigned with a representation of the Crown proper, an escutcheon per fesse Argent and Vert and thereon the Red Dragon passant.
The banner's accession documents included a note from one of the former members "The banner was worked by Mrs Henry Lewis… [she] was also President of the South Wales Federation of Women's Suffrage Societies + she led the S. Wales section of the great Suffrage Procession in London on 17 June 1911, walking in front of her own beautiful banner… It was a great occasion, some 40,000 to 50,000 men + women taking part in the walk from Whitehall through Pall Mall, St James's Street + Piccadilly to the Albert Hall.
[50] The red dragon of Wales appears on the Welsh Seal struck in 2011 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
According to their guidance, the "logo consists of a dragon and Welsh Government name separated by a horizontal line, positioned together in a fixed relationship which must not be altered.
