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Könige und Prinzen von Wales
There is a popular song of Dafydd Iwan "Yma O Hyd" (meaning still here) that praises the continuity of the Welsh as a people since the time of Macsen Wledig in the fifth century Macsen is the Welsh name for Magnus Maximus, who may have been the Dux Britanniarum (the Roman leader of Britain) and whose military campaigns on the continent gave him control of the greater part of the Western Empire until he was defeated by Theodosius.
After Magnus had taken the bigger part of the Roman British garrison to Europe with him, Britain lay undefended against the Irish invasions to the west and the Germanic tribes to the east. Within a hundred years after 410, when the Emperor Honorius had no troops to spare for the British garrisons, the island was completely estranged from Roman control, and it was during these years that the Welsh nation came into being.
After the withdrawal of the Roman legions, Britain found itself being gradually divided into three areas that later became Germanic England, Brythonic Wales and Gaelic Scotland. These areas had become firmly established by the time that Bede wrote his "Ecclesiastical History of the English People," about 730. In that work he gives an account of the beginnings of the English kingdoms.
For the history of the Welsh kingdoms we have to wait until about 960 when a collection, known as the "Annales Cambriae," was compiled, somewhere in Wales, that included pedigrees of Welsh royal families. In the meantime, the completion of Offa's Dyke during the last years of the eighth century ensured that a physical boundary would permanently exist between the Celtic people to its west and the Germanic people who, by the time of Bede, had conquered most of the land to its east.
Brythonic kingdoms survived only in Strathclyde, Cornwall and Wales. Alas, for the continuity of an independent nation, history gives us only five rulers who could claim to be kings of Wales. A sense of unity out of the ever-quarrelling, petty Welsh kingdoms and princely fiefs was brought about only by Rhodri Mawr (Rhodri the Great), Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good), Gruffudd ap Llywelyn (1039-63), Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llwyelyn the Great) (1194-1240) and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (1248-82).
1. Rhodri Mawr
Just as Egbert, King of the West Saxons and later of Kent, is the first ruler to be styled King of the Angles or English people in 829-30, so Rhodri Mawr, (Rhodri the Great, 820-78) is remembered as the first to claim the title of king of the Welsh. He was the first to unite most of Wales under his rule, 844-78. Professor Davies points out that the title "great" was bestowed upon only two other rulers in the same century: Charlemagne (Charles the Great) and Alfred the Great. All three contributed greatly to the growth of statehood among their respective nations. Rhodri, son of Merfyn Frych, became King of Gwynedd in 844, following the death of his father; of Powys following the death of his uncle in 855; and of Seisyllwg (including Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi) following the death of his brother-in-law in 872. He was most successful in keeping out the Danes and the English from settling his territories. By uniting the three principal kingdoms of Wales under his rule, Rhodri showed that an independent Wales could exist that need not be subservient to the rule of English monarchs. Gwynfor Evans cites Nora Chadwick, calling Rhodri "the greatest of all the kings of Wales." His success was mainly due to his creation of a consciousness in the Welsh-speaking people of Britain that they could act together as one. Gwynfor Evans also laments the fact that this great king had no biographer to properly record his achievements, unlike Alfred of Wessex, who had a biographer Asser, a Welshman from St. David's. Rhodri was killed in 878 fighting against the English of Mercia.
2. Hywel ap Cadell ap Rhodri
Hywel ap Cadell ap Rhodri, is known in history as Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good: 890-950). A grandson of Rhodri Mawr, he came into possession of Dyfed around 904 and Brycheiniog some years later. The combined kingdoms became known as Deheubarth, a unit seen by Dr. Davies as of central importance in the history of Wales during the next four centuries. In 942, Deheubarth was united with Gwynedd and Powys, giving Hwyel control over most of Wales with the exception of Glamorgan. He wisely kept peace with the English through a policy of conciliation, earning a reputation more as a diplomat than warrior. The king gained his reputation for his consolidation of the Law of Wales, one of "the most splendid creations of the culture of the Welsh" (Davies. p.88). In the Cyfraith Hywel, his accomplishment was to systemize the ancient legal customs of Wales: it is notable for its elements of mercy, common sense and a great respect for women and children that has been lacking from many legal systems of other countries right up to the present day. In "Brut y Tywysogyon," the unusually gifted ruler was described as "the chief and most praiseworthy of all the Britons." No other Welsh king gained the title of Dda (The good).
3. Gruffudd ap Llywelyn
Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, (1007-63) was King of all Wales only from 1055-63, yet he was the only Welsh ruler to unite the ancient kingdoms of the whole of Wales. Gwynfor Evans points out that though for five centuries the people of Wales had shared a common language, culture, history, religion and for the most part a common law, it was only under Gruffudd ap Llywelyn that it had a single sovereign, and thus a measure of political unity. Gruffudd was a grandson of Maredudd ab Owain, King of Deheubarth and the son of Llywelyn ap Seisyllt, ruler of Gwynedd. By force of arms, he seized Gwynedd and Powys, and overthrew Deheubarth, Gwent and Morgannwg. Walter Map, in "De Nugis Curalium" (c.1180), recorded the kings' account of his military campaigns against his fellow Welsh: "Speak not of killing. I do but blunt the horns of the offspring of Wales, lest they should wound their dam." Gruffudd was even successful in reclaiming lands east of Offa's Dyke from the English settlers. He established his court at Rhuddlan, in the heart of an area settled by Mercians, and his conquests of areas of Northeast Wales formerly part of the earldom of Chester meant that they would remain Welsh as parts of the later counties of Flintshire and Denbighshire. His very successes, however, led to the invasion of Wales by Harold, Earl of Wessex. During the fighting, Gruffudd was assassinated by a fellow Welshman. Wales was never again wholly united under a single sovereign though Llywelyn ap Iorweth's successes over a century later surpassed those of his predecessor.
4. Llywelyn ap Iorwerth
Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, (Llywelyn Fawr or Llywelyn the Great: 1173-1240) can justly be called the greatest of the medieval Welsh kings. By 1202, he had taken advantage of the quarrels of his uncles and had become ruler of the kingdom of Gwynedd. Further successes in Deheubarth, after the death of the Lord Rhys, and in Powys made him the most powerful of all the Welsh rulers, though it was Gruffudd ap Llwyelyn who is remembered as the only native monarch to rule over all of Wales. In 1205 he married King John of England's daughter, Joan, and helped his father-in-law in a campaign against King William of Scotland. By 1210 the situation had changed dramatically. John invaded Gwynedd, Llywelyn being forced to retreat to the mountainous areas to the West. When John found himself embroiled in struggles with his Barons and the Pope, Llywelyn was able to reassert his authority in North Wales. In 1216, he presided over a Welsh Parliament at which he was acknowledged as overlord of all other native Welsh rulers, a position confirmed at the Peace of Worcester in 1218, by Henry III. The achievements of Llywelyn were many. Before he died in 1240 as a monk at Aberconwy monastery, he had inspired a revision of the Laws of Hywel Dda. His reorganization of the administrative machinery of Wales, his maintenance of cordial relations with the Pope and the English Church, and the bringing of an era of peace and prosperity to the territories under his control were all testaments to his remarkable diplomatic and military skills. It is no wonder that his achievements on behalf of his people were widely celebrated by Welsh poets.
5. Llywelyn ap Gruffudd
Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (Y Lliw Olaf: Llywelyn the Last 1246-82). Welsh custom meant that Llewelyn's kingdom would be divided among all four male heirs. Though Llywelyn the Great had tried desperately to ensure that his Kingdoms would pass in entirety to his son Dafydd, it was not to be. Within one month of his adession, Dafydd was forced to surrender much of his father's gains to the new English King, Henry III. His premature death left Gwynedd to be divided between the sons of his brother Gruffudd, including Owain and Llywelyn. The infamous Treaty of Woodstock had restricted their lands to Gwynedd, west of the River Conwy held as vassals of King Henry, but Lywelyn was not satisfied. He attempted to regain the lost territories and prestige of his uncle, Llywelyn the Great. Starting by depriving his brothers of authority, he began his campaign by attacking English castles and overrunning many. Recognized by other Welsh rulers, Llywelyn assumed the title of Prince of Wales in 1258, a date commemorated by all in Wales who detest the idea of the first-born son of the English monarch assuming that role as a gift (in 1301, an odious and thoroughly bogus title was bestowed by Edward I to his eleventh child, son of Elinor and born at Caernarfon Castle, Gwynedd in 1284). Troubles with Henry III's barons led him to accede to many of Llywelyn's demands and in 1267, at the Treaty of Montgomery, the Welshman (and his heirs) was confirmed as Prince of Wales. The accession of Edward I, however, as king of a united England, meant the end of the ambitions of Llywelyn. Yet again, an English invasion of Wales meant that its rulers were stripped of most of their possessions and The Treaty of Aberconwy restricted Llywelyn from all his territories east of the Conwy. At Cilmeri, near Builth in mid-Wales in December, 1282, Llywelyn was killed by English soldiers. The head of the last of the native-born Welsh princes was sent to London to be mounted as that of a traitor. Yet another ballad by Dafydd Iwan poignantly expresses sorrow at the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd.
"Du oedd y Dydd gerllaw Cilmeri Pan oedd gwlith yr nos heb godi
Du yw'r awr pan dros y borfa Yn orbennydd ein lliw ola.
Black was the day around Cilmeri When the night mists failed
Black the hour when cross the marsh Came the killer of our last ruler."
The royal house of Gwynedd was no more, and with its decease came the virtual end of the ruling families of the Kingdom of Wales.
Welsh Rulers of Britain
Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI and Elizabeth I
For centuries the people of Wales have taken great pride in the accession of the Tudors to the throne of Britain. Yet no Tudor monarch is included in Gwynfor Evans' "Welsh Nation Builders," for none of them had the interests of Wales at heart. Nevertheless, when Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at Bosworth Field, it was a matter of great celebration in Wales that at long last a true Welshman (both by origins and upbringing) would be king of Britain, thus fulfilling the ancient prophecies. Perhaps the dream of Welsh supremacy over the whole of Britain would at last come to pass.
In 1485, a report of the Venetian envoy to London stated: "The Welsh may now be said to have recovered their independence, for the wise and fortunate Henry VII s a Welshman." Alas, nothing of the sort took place. As Professor Davies succinctly points out, Henry VII was only one quarter Welsh; it was his English blood that gave him a claim to the English throne, and it was not a matter of his family identifying themselves with the Welsh, but the Welsh identifying themselves with the Tudors. Henry VII's own view is expressed in a letter to the Welsh gentry, seeking their support before Bosworth: "To free this our Principality of Wales of such miserable servitude as they have long piteously stood in." He obviously wanted to make Englishmen out of those who had supported his cause so fervently and so loyally. This task, however, remained to his son.
It was not, therefore, surprising that the Act of Union, a series of legislation passed between 1536 and 1543 in the reign of Henry VIII ensured that Wales would be from henceforth completely under the authority of the crown of England, no matter who held the title. In addition, the Welsh language was proscribed for almost all official and legal purposes; in all parts of Wales, English law replaced those of Hywel Dda. More serious, perhaps, was the rapid anglicization of the Welsh gentry and their alienation from the most vital elements of the native culture, especially their divorce from the Welsh language, the repercussions of which are even felt today.
Yet certain achievements took place in Wales under the Tudors that had a lasting and beneficial effect upon the Welsh consciousness and that did much to foster the idea of Cymreictod (that feeling of belonging together as one people). They are listed below:
- The end of the power of the Marcher Lordships, as their administrations increasingly came into the hands of the king. In 1489, the end of the earldom of March united the March with Wales, and paved the way for the 1536 legislation, for good or bad.
- The granting of charters to various counties and towns that emancipated the taeogion (villein class) in those parts of Wales where they still existed. The Welsh were given rights to hold land according to the Law of England, to become burgesses and town officials.
- The breaking of the link with Rome that led to the eventual conversion of Wales to the Protestant faith and particularly to the later culture of Methodism that did much to shape attitudes in late eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century Wales.
- The abolition of any legal distinction between the Welsh and the English. After 1536, the Welsh were English in the eyes of the law, yet conversely, "as there was no longer any advantage in boasting the condition of being English," (Davies, p.233) everyone living in Wales was considered as Welsh. This too, has had a profound effect on the subsequent history of Wales. The Welsh political scene of the 1990's, particularly, reflects the anomaly. The derisive comments of Kim Howells, Labour M.P. for Pontypridd, defy logic, common sense and decency. They show a paranoid hatred of Welshness. And this by a representative of the Welsh people in the British Parliament!! The Tudors certainly did their work well.
- The representation of the Welsh in the Parliament of England. With the advent and rise of Plaid Cymru, in the present century, the Tudor policy of totally eliminating any political divisions between England and Wales may finally be unravelling.
- The 1551 publication of "Kynniver Llith a Ban," a translation by William Salesbury of the main texts of the "English Prayer Book" that had been undertaken at the request of Edward VI's advisors. The effects upon the Welsh language are incalculable, for the book was followed by the translation of the whole Bible into Welsh, in the reign of Elizabeth I.
- At the insistence of the royal courtiers and members of the English Parliament that the Welsh people should learn English, the bishops of Wales and Hereford (where Welsh was still widely spoken) were commanded to make sure a Welsh version of the Bible and the Prayer Book would be available in every parish in Wales by March 1, 1567. According to Dr. Davies, the statute was peculiarly ironic, for it meant that parliament authorized the use of Welsh in spiritual matters barely a generation after its ban in secular matters. An act of 1563 had stated that the English Bible should be placed alongside the Welsh Bible so that the Welsh, somehow dealing in both languages side by side, could master English. To do this, of course, there had to be a Welsh Bible, and the work of translating the New Testament was begun by William Salesbury and others.
- The Bishop Morgan Bible of 1588. This momentous work, comparable in its effects on the Welsh language to the King James Bible on the English and the Luther Bible of the Germans was accomplished mainly through the efforts of William Morgan, vicar of Llanrhaeadr-Mochnant in mid-Wales. This was so successful, a copy having been placed in all the parish churches of Wales (and quickly worn out or lost [or perhaps stolen]), that a new edition was published in 1620. Not enough can be said about the Welsh Bible. At a time when the Bardic orders of Wales were rapidly disappearing, the Bible ensured that "the purity, accuracy and strength of the poetic vocabulary should live on" (Stephens, p.410). It did more than save the language from becoming a bunch of disparate dialects or even of being extinguished forever; it had far-reaching effects on the religion, language, literature and above all, on the nationhood of Wales. It was the Welsh Bible that nurtured the feeling of Welshness, of the idea of an independent nation, that soaked into the consciousness of a conquered and often despairing people. For that, we have to thank, if not "that red-haired Welsh harridan" as A.L. Rowse has described Queen Elizabeth I, but, at least, her advisors and her consent.
- The partaking of the Welsh in the literary renaissance of Europe as part of the British nation as a whole. As Dr. Davies has pointed out, the Welsh literary tradition would perhaps not have survived without the example of the humanists who collected and copied the works of antiquity. In particular, this tradition fostered the determination to defend the central myth of Welsh history as provided by Geoffrey of Monmouth.
- The dynamic spirt of the Welsh of the Tudor Age and that urge for modernization that Dr. Davies has seen as separating them from their fellow Celts in other parts of Europe. This can be debated, of course, but there was a great upsurge of pride in the accomplishments of the Welsh at the royal court and in all spheres connected with it. Welshmen excelled in the teaching of law at the premier English universities, they were prominent in the Inns of Court, in the military and even in Parliament itself. Though Elizabeth I, as Dr.Davies believes, may have had as little interest in the cradle of her line at Plas Penmynydd (home of Henry Tudor's grandparents) as has Elizabeth II in the cradle of her own line at Saxe-Coburg, nevertheless, it was during her reign that Wales felt itself alongside England and Scotland, a full-fledged partner in a union of three nations.
The ruling dynasty of the Tudors ended in 1603. Since 1485, there had taken place unparalleled changes in Wales and in the lives of the Welsh people. It is difficult to state whether these changes would have taken place without the rule of the Tudor monarchs, or to assess the rate or direction of change if Henry Tudor had not become king in 1485. Whether or not that victory was the greatest blessing ever enjoyed by the Welsh people, as put forward by spokesmen for the Welsh gentry one hundred years after the event, is still open for discussion.
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