Welsh History

Lesson 4: Union with England

In this lesson the student will learn how the Act of Union permanently made Wales a part of the United Kingdom. In addition, we'll see how its ancient language was saved from extinction through the translation of the Scriptures, how this stimulated the nation’s literary men, and how, in turn, there followed a renewal of national pride.

Recommended reading: Struggle pp 42-72; Wales A to Z relevant entries; Intro to Lit. pp. 30-58

The Act of Union

After the failure of the Glyndwr rebellion, it was inevitable that Wales would be annexed to England. Union had really been achieved by the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284. Most of Wales had supported Richmond's rebellion against King Richard and were delighted that the throne was to be occupied by one of Welsh lineage. Henry acknowledged Wales and Welsh support by naming his son and heir "Arthur".

His daughter, meanwhile, married James lV of Scotland. It was apparent that a United Kingdom of Great Britain was rapidly being created by those in power in London. The policy was continued when Henry VIII succeeded his father in 1509 after young Arthur’s premature death. The problem of Scotland remained a thorn in the side of the early Tudors, but in the meantime Wales could be dealt with permanently.

The first of the Acts of Union (a modern term describing several acts of legislation having to do with Wales) took place in 1536. Its provisions ensured the political annexation of Wales to England, for it gave notice that part of their intent was "[henceforth] . . .to utterly extirpate all and singular the sinister usages and customs differing from the same {English laws]."

The Act authorized the appointments of many of the Welsh gentry as Justices of the Peace, abolished any legal distinction between citizens of Wales and those of England, settled the border by the creation of new counties out of the old lordships, and gave Wales representation in the Westminster Parliament.

There certainly seemed to be major benefits to be gained from close ties with England.

From this time on, English law would be the only law recognized by the courts of Wales. In addition, the administration of Wales was placed in the hands of the Welsh gentry, and thus a class was created who would use English in all legal and civil matters. Before very long, this Welsh ruling class would be divorced from the language and the common folk of their own country.

In 1536, Wales had no government of its own; it had no capital city; it had no town large enough to attract an opportunistic urban middle class; and, according to the Statute, it was stuck with a language "nothing like nor consonant to the natural mother tongue used within this realm."

In 1561, William Herbert of Raglan, in Southeast Wales, was appointed to Parliament as Baron Herbert, the first full-blooded Welshman to become part of the English aristocracy. He was the first in a long tradition that, for centuries to come, would drain the Welsh nation of its leaders and men and women of influence.

Welsh men were found in strategic positions in legal, military and professional circles. They were in the forefront of England's colonial enterprises, filled leading positions in the Welsh Church (for the first time in many centuries) and in 1571 were successful in having Jesus College, Oxford, founded as a Welsh college.

A new and permanent British identity was being forged out of the people of Wales. Though its full expression had to wait until the other Act of Union in 1707 that joined Scotland to England and Wales, the glorious age of Elizabeth saw the emergence of an overseas empire. It was then that the foundations of the new attitude were set firmly in place.

Britain's conversion to Protestantism was relatively peaceful. The majority of people in Wales were closely allied to their fellow islanders under threats of invasion from Spain and the fear of a return to what was considered a morally and spiritually bankrupt foreign church (or foreign rule in the case of Mary and Philip).

It was this sense of a shared religious destiny that slowly integrated itself into the minds of the peoples of both countries so that they also began to think of themselves as sharing a common British heritage.

When Elizabeth died in 1603, a Scottish king came to the throne of Britain.

From that time on, any differences between Wales and England, and between Welsh people and English people, are not found in the political arena. In so many ways, both were truly part of the diversity that made up the kingdom of Great Britain, yet the struggle to remain Welsh continued, however fitful, and with good reason.

The social and cultural differences of the Welsh, especially in the matter of their language, kept them apart from their neighbors and made their society seem so strange and "closed" to the rest of Britain, and it is in the language of Wales where the differences are most experienced.

To a large extent, the Welsh language, Welsh literature, and to a lesser extent the Protestant religion, were the pillars that kept the struggle for independence alive, as dismal and as hopeless as it seemed after 1536 and even more so after 1603. Each of these had been helped immeasurably by the fortuitous arrival of and widespread dissemination of the Welsh Bible.

1  2  3  4  5