Nate Cross

Welsh Heraldic Badge with the Image of the Nate Cross

The Nate Cross ( Wall. Y Groes Naid or Y Groes Nawdd ) is a sacred relic that was considered a fragment of the Life-giving Cross and was located in Aberconwy Abbey ( Eng. Aberconwy Abbey ). It was the property of the kings and princes of Gwynedd , members of the Aberfrau dynasty, which founded the Principality of Wales. They believed that the cross gives them and their people divine protection. It is not known exactly when the artifact came from them or from whom they inherited it, but it is possible that it was brought from Rome by King Hevell Cadell during a pilgrimage in 928 . It was inherited from prince to prince up to Llewelyn the Last and his brother David ^[1] .

After the defeat of Gwynedd, the death of Llewelyn and the execution of David, the Nate Cross was expropriated by England along with a number of other relics, for example, along with the crown of Llewelyn . The list ( Eng. Alms Roll ) of 1283 suggests that the clergyman Hugh Ap Itel presented the cross to Edward I at Aberconway Abbey. The artifact then accompanied the king during his campaign in North Wales. He was then introduced at the head of a procession that took place in London in May 1285 , in which the king, queen, their children, kingdom magnates and fourteen bishops marched.

What happened to the cross after this is unknown. It is believed that he, along with other relics, could be destroyed by Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans during the 1649 revolution . However, other theories of the extinction of this relic are advanced.