The History Which Inspired The Company Name 'Fychan'
Coming up with an original business name that provides a unique identity on the internet is getting ever tougher. Even with an unusual surname such as mine and a willingness to morph 3 or 4 words together, the options are limited.
Yet I wished to have some family affiliation with my latest endeavours and so with some help and prompting from my daughter I started to backtrack into the origin of my surname.We can trace our line back to 1770 where my great, great, great, great, great grandfather John Baughen ( 1770-1837) lived in Banbury in Oxfordshire UK and had a weaving business there . The “’expert” view is that the family originated from South Wales and probably moved into Oxfordshire by droving sheep up from South Wales to the more populated Midlands of England. An involvement in weaving grew from there.
The name Baughen is believed to have Welsh roots having evolved from the loose spellings of the time that generated names such as Vaughn, Vaughan, Vychan, Bychan, all of which were believed to have been derivations of Fychan which meant ‘smaller’ or ‘junior’.
Once you land on Fychan you turn up a very interesting character, not particularly well known, but actually quite a player in the history of the UK, for it is he who elevated and launched his line on a journey that would see his descendant assume the throne of England as Henry VII after his victory at the battle of Bosworth in 1485. Ednyfed Fychan is the father of the Tudor dynasty.
Ednyfed Fychan (1170 – 1246) was a Welsh warrior who loyally served Llywelyn the Great and his son Prince Dafydd as a seneschal or senior councilor, as Llywelyn unified tribal North Wales to fight against the English.
Fychan seems to have come from relatively lowly birth but worked his way up through hard work and prowess as both a warrior and administrator. He is personally reputed to have slain three English nobles when the Earl of Chester attacked Llywelyn at the behest of King John. He clearly had a gift for administration and while serving Llywelyn he accumulated
lands that were both strategic and appear to have been granted favourable exemptions from Royal dues.
Any Welsh force that uses the northern Welsh mountains as a stronghold is dependent the lower lying Isle of Anglesey for food. Fychan’s appointments and lands centred on the north coast and Anglesey which would indicate he was trusted to protect these vital supplies. Clearly he had established his influence and his family base. He acted as a trusted councilor at the negotiations between the Welsh and the English in 1218 at the treaty of Worcester and again in 1235. He is reputed to have had a brood of sons with his first wife of whom not much is known, but it was his marriage to his second wife Gwenllian that really started the ascent of the line. She was a princess from South Wales whose mother was Llywelyn’s aunt. This indicates the regard that the Royal family had for Fychan. With Gwenllian he had 6 sons all of whom went into the service of the Welsh kings.
For the next 4 generations the family held their position and status within Wales. Fychan’’s great, great, great grandson, Tudor Fychan married Margaret who was descended from Llywelan on her mother’s side and the Plantagenet line of King John and Edward 1 on her father’s side. The royal lineage soup thickened!
Their five sons all supported the rebellion led by Owain Glyndwr against Henry IV of England between 1400 and 1406 . Their youngest son Owain was the one that protected the family estates and wealth against the punitive measures imposed
on Welshmen after the rebellion. He fought with the English King Henry V in France and appears to have gained favour and been accepted on the fringes of the English court. After Henry’s campaigns, France sued for peace and a royal marriage helped seal the treaty. Henry V was married to Katherine de Valois in 1420, daughter of Charles VI of France through his marriage to Isabelle of Bavaria. Henry died in 1422 leaving Katherine a widow at 21 years old with her son to raise as a future king of England Henry VI.
Katherine stayed at the Royal lodgings so that the councillors of the day could watch over her and subtly prevent her re-marrying. However around 1430 she did marry Owain Tudor, allegedly in secret. Owain was made an honorary Englishman Owen Tudor … which was important given Henry IV punitive laws against Welshmen and given his new status. Katherine died in 1437 but left behind two sons Edmund and Jasper. After her death Owen was arrested by the Councilors who retrospectively withdrew his English status but he was released from prison in 1439. From around 1445 Edmund and Jasper were welcomed back to court under the patronage of Henry VI, their half-brother.
Edmund married Margaret Beaufort, another lady with royal lineage that traced back to Edward III. They had a son which Edmund did not live to see, Henry Tudor, who went on to win the battle of Bosworth in 1485 and become Henry VII of England (1457 – 1509 ) and establish the Tudor dynasty. Henry Tudor’s claim to the throne was at best tenuous but he clearly had inherited the family talents for strategic marriage and understanding the importance of wealth. After his victory in 1485 he immediately married Elizabeth of York, uniting the houses of Lancaster and York as a way of healing the rift that had led to the War of the Roses. He inherited a bankrupt exchequer but through a series of taxes and levies he raised funds from the powerful barons, reducing their power and increasing his. He saw off several attempts to overthrow him and during his reign the wealth and power of England steadily increased and the rule of law strengthened.
His son Henry VIII (1509 -1547) carried on the family traditions being famous for his six marriages in pursuit of a royal male heir. The need to re-marry crystallised the break from Rome to form the Church of England and the resulting dissolution of the monasteries filled the royal exchequer with wealth. One of Henry’s lesser lauded achievements was to have the foresight to establish and invest in an English navy. It may have been a concoction of royal warships and legitimised privateering but it served his daughter Elizabeth well in defeating the Armada in 1588 and is arguably a significant reason why Britain grew an Empire and English is as widely spoken as it is today.
It is a great back story even if it is 'stretching a pretty long bow' to create a link to Ednyfed Fychan! …but it’s a pleasure to shed some light on the man.
It would be fascinating to meet him. No doubt a tough and determined character.
Anyone living to the age of 76 in the 12th century was made of stern stuff. Campaigning in the Welsh mountains is not for the faint-hearted! Very late in life, in his sixties, he reputedly joined a crusade and was abroad for a couple of years. Although fashionable at the time, a crusade late in life often signalled a special effort to earn absolution for previous sins by fighting for Christ in order to gain entry to heaven. Who knows? ....
I imagine that if I met him face to face that he would be pretty daunting …but at least I would be taller!
- David
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