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Historian MP casts doubt on Owain Glyndwr parliament

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Owain Glyndwr, self-proclaimed Prince of WalesImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Did Owain Glyndwr's parliament never exist?

Was Owain Glyndwr's parliament a myth?

Rhondda Labour MP Chris Bryant, doyen of parliamentary historians, think so.

As part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s "Democracy Day" I appeared alongside Mr Bryant on a two-hour programme looking at democracy within and beyond the UK.

My role was to summarise developments in Welsh governance through the ages. I mentioned Owain Glyndwr in passing.

Chris Bryant took the earliest opportunity to correct me: "David Cornock said that Owain Glyndwr held a parliament. He didn't. That is complete myth.

"The only person who ever referred to it anywhere near contemporaneously was and he said he pretended to hold a parliament. Actually, if he gathered anybody he gathered a few barons."

Compared to James Blunt, I got off lightly, but then I did go to a comprehensive school.

The Geoffrey of Monmouth reference may though have come as a surprise to some people, not least because Geoffrey of Monmouth lived three centuries before Glyndwr's day.

Image source, Chris Bryant on Twitter

A contrite Mr Bryant later realised he had got things wrong and gracefully corrected his own mistake on twitter.

"An apology. I corrected @davidcornock but I was wrong. It wasn't Geoffrey of Monmouth but who wrote about Owain Glyndwr."

Aside from the reference to Geoffrey of Monmouth, was Chris Bryant right? Was the Glyndwr parliament a myth? Is the under threat? Let me know what you think.

You can watch the programme again on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Parliament tomorrow at 8pm. If you can't wait until then, why not watch on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ iplayer here?