Cymru/Wales

Wales on the map

Wales  The Last of the Celts ch 5, ch 6  An introduction to Wales, the Welsh and the Welsh language  The part played by the language in any consideration of Wales in the past and the present.

Wales: a quick look at the past  Wales came under English military rule in 1282 (following the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd). The battle at Cilmeri. Edward I.  Welsh law vied with English law.  1400 Rebellion of Owain Glyndwr, ‘Prince of Wales’.  The uchelwyr, land-owning class of native Welsh.

Wales: a quick look at the past  Perchentyaeth- householdership: aristocratic obligations to uphold social hospitality, but also a delight in ancestry, honour, and cultivication of the Welsh language.  Very large number of houses built between  Poets were the ‘carpenters of praise’. Their belief in a ‘deliverer of the Britons/Welsh’.

Wales: a quick look at the past  Henry Tudor (half English, a quarter French, a quarter Welsh). His grand-father was Owain Tudur of Penmynydd, Anglesey (NW Wales).  Thomas Cromwell and the Act of Union 1536 (on the statute books until 1993).  Good governance to Wales; forbade the use of Welsh in official circles.

Wales: a quick look at the past  Unlike Scotland, Wales did not succeed in retaining its legal system, nor did it have an established educational system of universities.  Yet, the sense of cultural, linguistic and social continuity is very strongly felt after 1536 until the modern period.

Wales: a quick look at the past  Charting the course of Welsh history in such a complex period as the 20 th century is not an easy task.  Industrialization: it was a mistake to depend almost entirely in SE and NE Wales on coal- production.  Lloyd George, Aneurin Bevan and James Griffiths- the socialist ideal in Wales. Welfare state.

Wales: a quick look at the past  The dominance of the (British) Labour Party in industrial Wales, and the declining Liberal Party in rural Wales.  The beginnings of parliamentary nationalism. Plaid Cymru.