Wales Welsh Cymru, western peninsula and political division (principality) of Great Britain (1991 pop. 2,798,200), 8,016 sq mi (20,761 sq km), west of England; politically united with England since 1536. The capital is Cardiff. Wales is bounded by the Irish Sea (N), by the Bristol Channel (S), by the English unitary authority of Chester West and Chester and counties of Shropshire , Herefordshire , and Gloucestershire (E), and by Cardigan Bay and St. George's Channel (W). Across the Menai Strait is the Welsh island of Anglesey .

Land and People

The Cambrian Mts. cover most of Wales, with high points at Snowdon (3,560 ft/1,085 m), Plynlimon (2,468 ft/752 m), and Cadair Idris (2,970 ft/905 m). The eastern rivers—the Dee, Severn, and Wye—drain into England. The Usk flows through Monmouthshire and Newport into the Bristol Channel. The Tywi (Towy), Taff, Teifi, Dovey (Dyfi), and Conwy (Conway) rivers lie completely in Wales. The eastern boundary, drawn in 1536, united England and Wales politically but disregarded cultural and linguistic distribution. Welsh-speaking areas were added to England's Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Gloucestershire; the language survived in Herefordshire until the 18th cent. and survives to a small extent in Shropshire today. Wales has maintained a distinctive culture despite its long union with England. Wales comprises 22 administrative divisions (unitary authorities): Flintshire, Wrexham, Denbighshire, Conwy, the Isle of Anglesey, Gwynedd, Powys, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, the Vale of Glamorgan, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Cardiff, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent, Torfaen, Newport, and Monmouthshire.

In the 1990s about 25% of the population spoke Welsh, although in certain regions the percentage was much higher. The Univ. of Wales was created in 1893 by royal charter; it is the collective name for several constituent institutions, four of them—at Lampeter (1826), Aberystwyth (1872), Cardiff (1883), and Bangor (1884)—predating the university's incorporation.

Economy

N Wales is characterized by farms and pastoral highlands. There had been some industrial development around the coal fields centered on Wrexham, but the fields have largely been closed. The coastal towns of the Lleyn Peninsula (Gwynedd) are tourist and vacation centers for N England's industrial cities. The industrial wealth of Wales is concentrated in the southern counties bordering on the Bristol Channel. This area has large steelworks ( Port Talbot ), oil refineries ( Milford Haven ), tinplate and copper foundries, and the once-rich S Wales coal fields. The southeast also has the greatest concentration of investment in Britain, predominantly in electronics. Other important industrial cities and ports are Newport , Cardiff , Swansea , and Tenby. The labor force has tended to drift into the southern industrial areas, leaving the north sparsely populated. With the decline of the coal industry, the Welsh economy has become increasingly reliant on consumer electronics, automotive parts, chemicals, and tourism, information technology, and other service-related industries.

History

Early History

Welsh tradition stretches back into prehistory (see Celt ; Great Britain ). In the first centuries AD, Celtic-speaking clans of shepherds, farmers, and forest dwellers defended their homes against Roman invaders, who penetrated the north to found Segontium (near Caernarvon) and the south to found Maridunum (now Carmarthen). But the Roman effect upon Wales was light, and Welsh clans continued to dominate large areas of Great Britain, north to the Clyde and the Firth of Forth and south past the Bristol Channel into present Somerset, Devonshire, and Cornwall. They were converted to Christianity by Celtic monks, notably St. David . Although the Anglo-Saxon conquest of E Britain (late 5th cent.) did not seriously affect the Welsh, the invaders did thrust between the main body of Welsh and those south of the Bristol Channel (who nevertheless maintained their national identity for centuries).

Border wars were chronic between the Welsh and the seven English kingdoms known as the heptarchy. The sturdy Welsh fighters, who took the name Cymry [compatriots], withstood the forces of the kings of Mercia and Wessex and later the harrying of the Norsemen. The disparate clans of pastoral people gradually coalesced. Hywel Dda, king of Wales in the mid-10th cent., collected Welsh law and custom into a unified code. At the same time the position of the bard , which was later to yield a wealth of poetry, music, and learning, was formalized. Defense of the besieged hills went on, and Gruffydd ap Llywelyn , the ruler of Wales, maintained Welsh independence until his death in 1063.

English Incursion to Union

William I of England tried to deal with the Welsh by setting up border earldoms to protect his newly won kingdom from their incursions. The power of the border earls (see Welsh Marches ) grew steadily, and Wales was increasingly threatened with English conquest, although Welsh foot soldiers, moving swiftly and secretly over the mountain paths, resisted through 200 years of guerrilla warfare. When the English made inroads in the north, Rhys ap Tewdr held sway in the south, and only after his death (1093) did the Anglo-Norman barons take full possession of the Vale of Glamorgan. Dissension within England in the early 12th cent. relaxed pressure on the Welsh princes, and medieval Welsh culture approached its full blossom (see eisteddfod ; Mabinogion ).

Nevertheless, although invasions from England were repeatedly thwarted and although Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (d. 1240) united the Welsh and gained power by skillfully intervening in the troubled English affairs of King John, the end was certain. During the reign of Llywelyn's grandson, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd , English conquest of Wales was finally accomplished by Edward I in 1282. The Statute of Rhuddlan (1284) established English rule. To placate Welsh sentiment, Edward had his son (later Edward II), who had been born at Caernarvon Castle, made prince of Wales in 1301; thus originated the English custom of entitling the king's eldest son prince of Wales.

Changes in Welsh life, although few, included a gradual cultural decline and the growth of market towns through trade with England. Wool became a staple source of revenue. The Norman barons were left undisturbed in their marcher lordships. Early in the 15th cent. Owen Glendower led a revolt that had a brief but amazing success, and Welsh leaders continued to seek advantage from disturbances in the domestic affairs of their conquerors. Henry VII , the first Tudor king, who ascended the English throne in 1485, was the grandson of Owen Tudor , a Welshman. Tudor policy toward Wales was one of assimilation on a basis of equality. Welsh lands, including the marches, were converted into shires, and primogeniture replaced the old Welsh system of tenure (see gavelkind ).

Leading Welsh families held their lands from the king; the others became leaseholders and tenants after the English pattern. The feudal aristocracy became versed in English manners and were received at the English court. Thus a deep breach, fostered by economic inequality, opened between landlord and tenant and remained unhealed for centuries. A judicial council of Wales, dating from the 15th cent., enhanced royal authority. The Act of Union (1536) and supplementary legislation completed the process of administrative assimilation by abolishing all Welsh customary law at variance with the English and by establishing English as the language of all legal proceedings. Welsh representatives entered the English Parliament; from 1536 onward, the separate history of Wales was mainly religious and cultural.

Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries

The Reformation came belatedly to Wales. Catholic tradition died slowly under Elizabeth I and James I; Puritanism was stoutly resisted, and the Welsh supported Charles I in the English civil war . Oliver Cromwell had to use oppressive measures to get the Welsh to adopt Puritan practices. In the 18th cent. Wales turned rapidly from the Established Church to dissent with strong Calvinist leanings. This was accompanied by great advances in the field of popular education, which attained unusually high standards. Welsh evangelicism had links with the English movement but was actually a native development. The Calvinistic Methodist Church gathered in great numbers of Welsh from the Church of England and bolstered Welsh nationalism, one of the most successful nonpolitical nationalist movements of the world. The strong hold of evangelical Protestantism on Wales was to make the establishment of the Church of England there the dominant question in Welsh politics in the later 19th cent.; one of the last acts of Parliament that applied to Wales alone was the disestablishment of the church in 1914.

Long before that time the tenor and tempo of Welsh life had been changed by the Industrial Revolution. The mineral wealth of Wales was opened to exploitation, at first in the north, then in the rich coal fields of the south. The accent shifted from the sheep walks and farms to the coal pits and factories. By the early 19th cent. the effects of industrialization threatened both cottage industry and agriculture. The distress of rural Wales was dramatically evidenced in the Rebecca Riots of 1843, when poor farmers destroyed toll booths, and in the emigration of large numbers of Welshmen, many to the United States. Numerous company towns sprang up in S Wales, which by the late 19th cent. was the world's chief coal-exporting region. With the benefits of industrialization, however, came poverty and unemployment, which intensified in the years of economic decline following World War I, particularly in the late 1920s and the 1930s.

Twentieth Century

Although Welsh interests had spokesmen in the British government in the early 20th cent.—the flamboyant David Lloyd George and the Welsh supporters of the Liberal party—chronic poverty and increasing unemployment continued almost unchecked until World War II. After the wartime industrial boom the Labour government, which drew substantial support from the socialist stronghold of S Wales, undertook a full-scale program of industrial redevelopment. This included reorganization of the coal mines and tinplate manufacture under government control, introduction of diversified industry, and improvement of communications, housing, and technical education. These actions did not save the coal industry; most of the mines in Wales have been closed, and the few remaining ones have been privatized.

As in earlier days, Welsh nationalism has undergone a revival since the mid-20th cent., with a special interest in education and the arts. The modern National Eisteddfod perpetuates interest in Welsh language, poetry, and choral music. Since 1944, primary and secondary schools have been established with Welsh as the sole language of instruction. A Welsh-language television channel opened in 1982, and there are several Welsh arts, opera, and literature councils on the national level (see also Welsh literature ).

In 1979, Welsh voters decisively defeated a British proposal for limited home rule, but in 1997 they narrowly passed a referendum to establish a 60-member assembly. Elections were held in 1999, with the Labour party winning the most seats and forming a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Labour formed a government alone after the 2003 vote, in coalition with the nationalist Plaid Cymru after the 2007 vote, and alone after the 2011 vote.

Parliamentary legislation passed in 2006 and effective in mid-2007 allowed the assembly to enact laws for Wales, subject to approval from the British parliament, in areas in which the assembly has devolved responsibilities. In 2011 voters approved increased legislative powers for the assembly, allowing it to act independently of Parliament in areas for which it is responsible.

Bibliography

See J. Rhys and D. B. Jones, The Welsh People (1906, repr. 1969); A. H. Williams, An Introduction to the History of Wales (2 vol., 1962); K. O. Morgan, Wales in British Politics 1868–1922 (1963), Rebirth of a Nation: Wales, 1880–1980 (1981), and Modern Wales: Politics, Places, People (1996); W. Davies, Wales in the Early Middle Ages (1982); D. Smith, Wales! Wales? (1984); J. Davies, A History of Wales (1993, repr. 1995); A. D. Carr, Medieval Wales (1995).

Wales. Ireland and Wales are frequently bracketed together as ‘Celtic’ countries, largely on the basis of language. The Irish and Welsh languages do indeed share similarities of structure, though this fact is outweighed by the inability of the speakers of the one to comprehend the other. The Irish are ‘Q’ Celts (thus ceann is the word for ‘head’), whereas the Welsh are ‘P’ Celts (their word for ‘head’ is pen). These linguistic divisions, however, did not prevent political and cultural ties being forged between south‐eastern Ireland and south Wales during the early Christian centuries. Clear evidence of Irish links is provided by 40 ogam stones, most of them in south Wales, testifying to the memory of Irish rulers in that area (Brycheiniog or Brecon). St David, whose main associations were also with south Wales, was mentioned regularly in Irish saints' Lives. There was an Irish translation of the Historia Brittonum. Christianity itself may also have reached Ireland from Wales. It was not until the Viking centuries (800–1000) that the links between the Christian communities across the Irish Sea were seriously weakened and the Welsh scribes learned to differentiate between the Viking ‘Gentiles’ of Dublin (Gynhon Dulyn) and the Irish (Gwyddl).

During the early Christian period, monasticism in Wales and Ireland seems to have been organized on similar ‘Celtic’ lines, with bishops playing a minor role. In modern times, however, Irish and Welsh have been divided by religion. Outside Ulster the religious identity of the majority of the Irish population is Catholic. In contrast Welsh identity since the late 18th century has been largely shaped by Calvinism. In Wales as in Scotland (another ‘Celtic’ country) Irish immigrants after the Great Famine were made to feel unwelcome. The Monmouth militia was termed ‘the Pope's Own’ because of the large number of ‘papists’ in its ranks. In Wales, as in Ulster, many opposed the Irish home rule bill of 1886 on the grounds that home rule meant Rome rule. The Irish were also seen as a threat to the survival of the Welsh language, since they turned more to English than Welsh as a means of communication. A Catholic Irishman, though a Celt, might feel as unwelcome in Celtic Wales as in Saxon England.

In broad political and social terms, however, the histories of Wales and Ireland offer many parallels. In particular both countries have experienced colonization at the hand of a more populous and powerful neighbour. By the 7th century the Britons had been driven west of the Severn. Offa's Dyke became the de facto border, though the Welsh, who still saw themselves as ‘Britons’, dreamed of driving the Saxons east, out of their homeland. (Welsh was in fact the Saxon word for the Britons. The Welsh themselves used Cymry, ‘fellow countrymen’, cognate with ‘Cumbria’ and related to ‘co’ as in co‐operative.) A second wave of colonization from the east took place after the Norman Conquest of 1066 and it is this period which offers the closest parallels with Ireland after the Anglo‐Norman invasion of 1169. As in Ireland, English and Flemish settlers colonized the most fertile areas. As in Ireland, towns became English‐speaking settlements from which the natives were excluded. And as in Ireland, a Celtic resurgence took place in Wales following upon the demographic crises of the mid‐14th century. There was also a strong Anglo‐Norman military presence in both countries, symbolized by the stone castles and earthwork mottes of the marcher lordships. In fact the Anglo‐Norman lords who had successfully established themselves in Wales in the century after 1066 moved to Ireland as their ‘next assignment’. The Fitzgeralds, who took their name from Gerald of Pembroke, were the most successful of these conquistadors, occupying the rich lands of Leinster and the Golden Vale of Limerick. Like their equivalents in Wales these marcher lords enjoyed a great deal of power at the local level.

After the extension of royal power in England from the 1530s onwards, the incorporation of both Wales and Ireland into a wider monarchical structure became possible. English common law, English‐style county administration, and a state church on English lines were introduced into both Wales and Ireland. In Wales the changes met with some resistance, but this was soon overcome. In Ireland there was little resistance at first, but religion proved to be a stumbling block. In a period of prolonged Anglo‐Spanish rivalry the strategic significance of Ireland for the Tudors was immense and Ireland became the target for a new wave of colonization. Such figures as Sir Henry Sidney, Sir John Perrott, and Sir John Davies, all of Welsh background, played key roles in the Elizabethan conquest and the accompanying plantations, as did Welsh settlers of more humble origins. The work of Gerald of Wales, who had commented on Ireland and Wales in the 12th century, was referred to 500 years later by Davies in his True Causes.

The Welsh model of Anglicization was indeed seen as appropriate for Ireland, but whereas Wales was, on the whole, incorporated peaceably into a closer union with England, Anglo‐Irish relations remained troubled during the 17th century and erupted once again during the 1790s. There was no equivalent in Wales of the insurrection of 1798.

During the 19th century, the economies of Wales and Ireland began to diverge. Large‐scale industrialization came to south Wales (and parts of the north) in the form of coal and slate mining and iron working. This was in marked contrast to Ireland, where the Lagan valley in the north‐east was the only area to be industrialized. It was industrialization which enabled Wales to avoid the massive depopulation and large‐scale emigration which most of Ireland experienced after the Famine. In rural Wales, however, there were obvious parallels with rural Ireland, in particular the religious tensions existing between Anglican landlords and nonconformist tenants. In the 1859 Merioneth election tenants at Bala who had opposed the wishes of their landlord were evicted. The result was to create an enduring bitterness which led eventually to the decline of the Anglo‐Welsh ascendancy. The rise of the ‘Young Wales’ nationalist party (Cymru Fydd) in the 1880s owed a great deal to the model provided by Parnell's Nationalist Party. Indeed Tom Ellis, leader of Cymru Fydd, was known as the ‘Parnell of Wales’. Liberalism, however, linked as it was to nonconformity, proved to be more powerful than nationalism in Wales. Welsh nationalism took a cultural form in the shape of enthusiasm for the Welsh language and attendance at festivals of Welsh culture (eisteddfodau). Here parallels with the Gaelic League in Ireland suggest themselves.

During the 20th century Wales and Ireland took divergent paths. Ireland was partitioned into two states, one of which became the Republic of Ireland. In Wales, political nationalism remained very much a minority movement and south Wales, at the western end of the M4 corridor, became closely tied economically with southern England. In the choice between union and independence, Wales seems to have decided that its best interests lay with the Union, provided that its own cultural identity could be maintained.

Bibliography

Davis, R. R. , Domination and Conquest: The Experience of Ireland, Scotland and Wales 1100–1300 (1990)
Evans, D. Simon , The Welsh and the Irish before the Normans: Contact or Impact?, Proceedings of the British Academy, 75 (1989)
Morgan, K. O. , Rebirth of a Nation: Wales 1880–1980 (1981)

Hugh Kearney

Wales, principality of. The term refers to the territorial dominion of the last Welsh princes of Wales; the estate granted to English princes of Wales after 1301; and the entire land of Wales following the Act of Union (1536). The first Welsh ruler to call himself prince of Wales (1244) was Dafydd ap Llywelyn; he was recognized by the pope and his principality was based on Gwynedd, of which his father Llywelyn ab Iorwerth had been prince. Dafydd's nephew Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (d. 1282), prince of Wales, had a more extensive principality in north, north-east, and central Wales of which he was either direct ruler or overlord; his title and principality were acknowledged by Henry III to be hereditary (1267). Llywelyn's brother Dafydd (d. 1283) claimed to be prince of Wales, but his principality was swiftly conquered by Edward I, who annexed and united it to the English crown (1284). This modified principality, which included all royal lands in north Wales (much of Llywelyn's principality) and west Wales (formerly either royal enclaves or lordships held by Llywelyn's vassals), was bestowed in 1301 on Edward I's eldest surviving son, Edward, as the first English prince of Wales. From time to time thereafter, this principality was the territorial endowment of the heir to the throne. It covered half of Wales and should ‘never be separated from the crown, but should remain entirely to the kings of England for ever’ (1301). The title of prince lapsed for periods (e.g. between the accession of Edward II in 1307 and the creation of the Black Prince as prince of Wales in 1343), few heirs who were created prince of Wales in the Middle Ages reached manhood, and some heirs apparent were not created princes of Wales. However, the principality of Wales had a continuous existence as part of the inseparable crown estate, to be periodically vested in the king's eldest son, to be governed and exploited by him.

Edward I outlined an elaborate scheme of government for the principality of Wales in the statute of Wales (1284). It was based on existing arrangements and hence had two sectors, of three counties in north Wales (Anglesey, Caernarfonshire, and Merioneth) based on Caernarfon, and of two counties in west Wales (Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire) based on Carmarthen. Each sector had a justiciar with political and judicial competence, and a chamberlain with financial competence; each county had shire officials and great sessions; more local administrative arrangements were based on the commote with Welsh and English elements. The two sectors were frequently referred to, inaccurately, as the principality of north Wales and the principality of west (or south) Wales. Ultimately responsible to the king's court, council, and officials at Westminster, or (when there was one) to the prince's council, in practice the principality of Wales was a separate and independent jurisdiction. It was a development of Llywelyn's principality, rather than a clear break with it, and it was larger than Llywelyn's in some respects, in others smaller than his: Flintshire, though a royal shire, was attached for administrative convenience to Cheshire and lay outside the principality of Wales; the English princes were overlords of several marcher lordships in the north-east which had been part of Llywelyn's principality.

The council of Edward IV's eldest son began to undertake responsibility for order not only in the principality but also (by 1476) in the marcher lordships and border English shires and so had a Wales-wide authority (as the Council in the March) that was the germ of the arrangements made by the Act of Union (1536). These arrangements consolidated Wales administratively and constitutionally by extending the machinery of government of the principality of Wales to Wales as a whole, including Flintshire and the March. Thus, the ‘country and dominion of Wales’ became conterminous with the principality of Wales, and was so regarded from the 16th cent. onwards. This principality retained peculiar features of law and justice, with separate courts albeit dispensing English common law, until, first, the Council of Wales and the March was abolished as a prerogative court in 1689 and, second, the great sessions were abolished in 1830 and the judicial system assimilated to that of England. The revenues from rights of jurisdiction and lands continued to accrue to the crown and could be granted to individual princes of Wales by special Act of Parliament—though not all princes were granted them. In 1760 they were surrendered by George III along with the crown's hereditary revenues in return for a ‘civil list’; thereafter, no principality lands or financial rights could be bestowed on a prince (in contrast to the duchy of Cornwall).

Yet the concept of the principality of Wales within the United Kingdom survived, largely because of the distinctive culture, language, and sense of identity of the Welsh. Although in modern times prior to the 20th cent. princes of Wales visited their principality rarely, both prince and principality were a focus of Welsh sentiment. The investiture of Prince Edward (later Edward VIII; 1911) took place in an atmosphere of national euphoria, during a picturesque ceremony held at Caernarfon castle in deference to spurious tradition; that of Prince Charles (1969), though more controversial, was enthusiastically welcomed by most Welsh people.

Ralph Alan Griffiths

Bibliography

Edwards, J. G. , The Principality of Wales, 1267–1967 (Caernarfon, 1969);
Griffiths, R. A. , The Principality of Wales in the Later Middle Ages, i: South Wales, 1277–1536 (Cardiff, 1972);
Jones, F. , The Princes and Principality of Wales (Cardiff, 1969).

Wales [OE wealh, wealas (pl.), foreigner, i.e. a native Briton, not a Saxon]. Principality of the United Kingdom, occupying 8,016 square miles in Great Britain, west of England. Roughly a third the size of Ireland or Scotland, its population of about three million is somewhat less than that of the Republic of Ireland and a little more than half that of Scotland. The Welsh people are descendants of the P-Celtic British conquered by the Romans in the 1st century BC, a cause for semantic ambiguity in many languages. In French the Welsh are still les Gallois [the Gauls]. Anglo-Saxons used the terms Brittas and Brittisc to denote both ancient Britons and surviving Welsh, but also employed the mixed forms Bretwalas, Bretwielisc [British foreigners]. From the earliest times the Welsh called themselves Y Gwir Frythoniaid [the true Britons], Brythoniaid, and Cymry. Cymry (also Kymry) derives from the Celtic combrogos [compatriot]; Geoffrey of Monmouth's (12th cent.) asserted etymology tracing the root to an eponymous founder named Camber is clearly spurious. In Modern Welsh Cymry denotes the Welsh people, while Cymru denotes the principality or nation of Wales. Latinized forms such as Wallia and Gwalia were found in both English and Welsh contexts. The demarcation of Wales from ancient Britain is often dated by the Saxon victory at the Battle of Chester, c.615. Yet the memory of Welsh-speaking greater Britain persists in Welsh literature. The early medieval poem Y Gododdin, widely known in Welsh tradition, commemorates the heroic deaths of Welsh warriors travelling from the lowlands of Scotland to what is today Yorkshire. In Welsh the phrase Gwŷr y Gogledd [men of the north/left] denotes the populations of such formerly Welsh petty kingdoms as Rheged, Gododdin, and Strathclyde.

The borders and constituent parts of Wales have not been constant over the centuries. Many a gwlad or petty kingdom flourished within the principality only to merge with its neighbour or fade from the scene. The most long-lasting of these were Gwynedd in the north and Dyfed and Deheubarth in the south, names that were reborn in the Welsh map in 1974. Others include: Brycheiniog, Ceredigion, Gwent, Powys, Seisyllwg, and Ystrad Tywi. Additionally, south-east Wales was often known as Morgannwg, an area later to become Glamorgan, and since 1974, West, Mid, and South Glamorgan. In medieval Wales the principality was divided among four bishoprics, Bangor in the north-west, St Asaph north-east, Llandaff south-east, and St David's south-west. The centre or omphalos where these bishoprics met is Pumlumon [W, five peaks], also a source of the Wye and Severn Rivers. Long-term Anglo-Norman and English designs on Wales culminated in English conquest during the reign of Edward I (1272–1307) and the death of the last native-born Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, in 1282. In 1301, after securing the English-Welsh border with a series of castles, Edward I made his own son (later Edward II) Prince of Wales, a title since borne by male heirs to the British throne. In spite of the failed rebellion lead by Owen Glendower [W Owain Glyndŵr] (1399–1415), Wales drew closer to England; by 1485 a partly Welsh prince, Henry Tudor [W Tudur], became Henry VII of England. Under his son, Henry VIII, Wales became an integral part of the Tudor kingdom, while retaining its identity as a principality. From the 16th century until 1974 Wales consisted of twelve or thirteen counties, sometimes excluding the English-influenced Monmouthshire. Of these, Anglesey, Cardigan, and Carmarthenshire had significant local traditions. With the reconfiguration of 1974, Wales now has eight counties, including the lands of the former Monmouthshire as a part of Gwent; the other seven, while reviving names of older petty kingdoms, now occupy somewhat different territories from those of their medieval namesakes: Clwyd, Dyfed, Gwynedd, Mid Glamorgan, Powys, South Glamorgan, West Glamorgan.

A leading member of the Brythonic family, the Welsh language [Cymraeg] is a close relative of Breton and the now-extinct Cornish. Although Welsh literary tradition begins with the 6th-century Cynfeirdd [early poets] Aneirin and Taliesin, surviving manuscripts date from several centuries later, e.g. the Black Book of Carmarthen [Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin] (c.1250), the White Book of Rhydderch [Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch] (c.1325), and the Red Book of Hergest [Llyfr Coch Hergest] (c.1382–1410). Dispersed through these codices are manuscript copies of the four branches of the Mabinogi, the most highly regarded cycle of medieval Welsh prose literature. Lady Charlotte Guest collected and translated the Mabinogi along with seven unrelated medieval tales and romances from the same milieu in her Mabinogion (1838–49). Although the Acts of Union, 1536 and 1542, proscribed use of the Welsh language in official transactions, gravely diminishing its prestige and authority, the Welsh language thrived in domestic life. Welsh was also the language of literary traditions in different parts of the principality as well as the medium of a continuing oral tradition. Compulsory public education in English repressed Welsh further, but by the end of the 20th century almost 19 per cent of the population (about 500,000) claim that they can speak the language, a higher percentage and a higher total than in any other Celtic culture.

OIr. Bretain [not distinguished from Britain]; ModIr. An Breatain Bheag; ScG A'Chuimrigh; Manx Bretyn; Corn. Kembry; Bret. Kembre. See A. O. H. Jarman and G. R. Hughes, A Guide to Welsh Literature (2 vols., Swansea, 1976–9); see Bibliography under ‘Welsh’ for collections of Welsh traditions.

Wales (Welsh Cymru) The western part of Great Britain and a principality of the UNITED KINGDOM.

Physical

Wales measures roughly 225 km (140 miles) from north to south and between 60 and 160 km from west to east, where it borders England. This border region, the Marches, is a stretch of pasture-land much broken by hills, woods, and twisting rivers. It rises to the Cambrian Mountains, which stretch down the centre of the country. In the south-east are the Brecon Beacons and coalfields, and in the south-west the Pembroke Peninsula with its rocky coasts. Snowdonia is in the north-west. There are deposits of coal and slate and water is an important Welsh resource.

Economy

Coalmining and steel production were the main economic activities in Wales until the 1980s, when depletion of the coal seams led to closure of most of the mines. In the 1930s unemployment rose dramatically and the government encouraged industrial diversification. Petrochemical industries have concentrated in South Wales around the deep-water port of Milford Haven. Forestry and farming, especially the rearing of sheep and cattle, remain important.

History

The population of Wales, which is Celtic in origin, resisted the Romans (who penetrated as far as Anglesey in a campaign against the DRUIDS), and after the departure of the Romans was increased in size by British refugees from the SAXON invaders (c.400). By the 7th century Wales was isolated from the other Celtic lands of Cornwall and Scotland. Christianity was gradually spread throughout Wales by such missionaries as St Illtud and St DAVID, but politically the land remained disunited, having many different tribes, kingdoms, and jurisdictions; Gwynedd, Deheubarth, Powys, and Dyfed emerged as the largest kingdoms, one notable ruler being Hwyel Dda (the Good), traditionally associated with an important code of laws.

From the 11th century the Normans colonized and feudalized much of Wales and Romanized the Church, but the native Welsh retained their own laws and tribal organization. There were several uprisings but as each revolt was crushed the English kings tightened their grip. Although LLYWELYN AP IORWERTH (the Great) (ruled 1194–1240) recovered a measure of independence, EDWARD I's invasion in 1277 ended hopes of a Welsh state: Llywelyn II was killed in 1282, and in 1301 Edward of Caernavon (EDWARD II) was made Prince of Wales. Thereafter Wales was divided between the Principality, royal lands, and virtually independent marcher lordships. The unsuccessful revolt of Owen GLENDOWER in the early 15th century revived Welsh aspirations, but HENRY VIII, the son of the Welsh HENRY VII, united Wales with England in 1536, bringing it within the English legal and parliamentary systems. Welsh culture was eroded as the gentry and Church became Anglicized, although most of the population spoke only Welsh, given a standard form in the Bible of 1588, until the 19th century. The strong hold of the NONCONFORMISTS, especially of the Baptists and Methodists, made the formal position of the Anglican Church there the dominant question of Welsh politics in the later 19th century, leading to the disestablishment of the Church from 1920. The social unrest of rural Wales, voiced in the Rebecca riots, resulted in significant emigration. The INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION brought prosperity to South Wales but during the Great DEPRESSION in the 1930s many people lost their jobs. Unemployment was exacerbated by the closure of most of the coalfields by the 1980s and remains a problem despite the introduction of a more diversified industry. Political, cultural, and linguistic nationalism survive, and have manifested themselves in the PLAID CYMRU party, the National Eisteddfod, and Welsh-language campaigns. A Welsh referendum in 1979 voted against partial devolution from the United Kingdom. A second referendum in 1997 reversed this decision by a small majority and a Welsh Assembly was established in 1999, with Alun Michael (1943– ) as first secretary.

Wales A constituent part of the United Kingdom, which has been under English rule since the thirteenth century, and linked to England since the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1542. A cultural revival in the eighteenth century was reinforced by the spread of Nonconformity, which became an integral part of Welsh identity. Consequently, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the position of the (minority) Anglican Church as the established Church of Wales became an important political issue, until a disestablishment bill was passed in 1914. Its implementation was delayed by the outbreak of World War I, so that the Church of Wales was not disestablished until 31 March 1920. Many of the funds released by this went towards the establishment of the University of Wales and other institutions.

Overreliant on Wales's position as the world's leading exporter of coal, its economy experienced a sharp decline after World War I. This led to steady emigration to mining areas in England, and to further afield, predominantly to the USA and parts of the Commonwealth. This period also experienced a sharp decline in the Welsh language, which virtually ceased to be spoken as a first language in the industrial south. After World War II, the British government in Westminster made further concessions to Welsh distinctiveness. A National Council for Wales was established (1949), and a Minister for Welsh Affairs has been appointed since 1951 (as Secretary of State since 1964). Nevertheless, demands for greater political autonomy grew, expressing themselves in their most radical form in terrorist attacks against English-owned property. The growth of nationalist sentiment expressed itself in the revival of the Welsh language, and in increased support for Plaid Cymru, which won its first seat in Parliament in 1966. However, in a referendum on 1 March 1979, a Welsh Assembly and greater autonomy were rejected by 956,330, with 243,048 in favour. Concern with the Welsh cultural identity continued, and led to the creation of a Welsh-language television channel in 1982.

Support for autonomy only grew slowly, because the cultural and social differences between north and south Wales stood in the way of united demands for Home Rule. Owing to the influence of its Scottish membership, the British Labour Party became committed to devolution during the 1990s. Following its election victory in 1997, Labour offered Wales a limited form of autonomy, with a Welsh Assembly without taxraising powers. A referendum in 1997 approved this with a narrow majority of 50.3 per cent. In 1999, the first Welsh Assembly was elected, with the Labour Party becoming the strongest party, and Plaid Cymru coming second. Labour formed a minority administration under its First Minister, Alun Michel. Michel never enjoyed the full support of his party, however, and he was replaced in 2000 with Rhodri Morgan, who entered a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. The new administration continued to be challenged by the country's north-south divide. It was ruled from the populous south, even though support from autonomy was strongest in the north. At the same time, the north was badly affected by a succession of agricultural crises such as foot-and-mouth disease, which severely tested the Assembly's administrative capabilities right from the beginning.

Wales, principality of The term refers to the territorial dominion of the last Welsh princes of Wales; the estate granted to English princes of Wales after 1301; and the entire land of Wales following the Act of Union (1536). The first Welsh ruler to call himself prince of Wales (1244) was Dafydd ap Llywelyn. Dafydd's nephew Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (d. 1282), prince of Wales, had a more extensive principality in north, north‐east, and central Wales of which he was either direct ruler or overlord; his title and principality were acknowledged by Henry III to be hereditary (1267). Llywelyn's brother Dafydd (d. 1283) claimed to be prince of Wales, but his principality was swiftly conquered by Edward I, who annexed and united it to the English crown (1284). This modified principality was bestowed in 1301 on Edward I's eldest surviving son, Edward, as the first English prince of Wales. From time to time thereafter, this principality was the territorial endowment of the heir to the throne. It covered half of Wales and should ‘never be separated from the crown, but should remain entirely to the kings of England for ever’ (1301).

Edward I outlined an elaborate scheme of government for the principality of Wales in the statute of Wales (1284). It was based on existing arrangements and hence had two sectors, of three counties in north Wales (Anglesey, Caernarfonshire, and Merioneth) based on Caernarfon, and of two counties in west Wales (Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire) based on Carmarthen. The two sectors were frequently referred to, inaccurately, as the principality of north Wales and the principality of west (or south) Wales. It was a development of Llywelyn's principality, rather than a clear break with it, and it was larger than Llywelyn's in some respects.

The council of Edward IV's eldest son began to undertake responsibility for order not only in the principality but also (by 1476) in the marcher lordships and border English shires and so had a Wales‐wide supervisory authority (as the Council in the March) that was the germ of the arrangements made by the Act of Union (1536). These arrangements consolidated Wales administratively and constitutionally by extending the machinery of government of the principality of Wales to Wales as a whole, including Flintshire and the March. This principality retained peculiar features of law and justice, with separate courts albeit dispensing English common law, until, first, the Council of Wales and the March was abolished as a prerogative court in 1689 and, second, the great sessions were abolished in 1830 and the judicial system assimilated to that of England.

The concept of the principality of Wales within the United Kingdom survived, largely because of the distinctive culture, language, and sense of identity of the Welsh. Although in modern times prior to the 20th cent. princes of Wales visited their principality rarely, both prince and principality were a focus of Welsh sentiment.

University of Wales Welsh Prifysgol Cymru, founded 1893 through the organization of three university colleges already existing in Wales into a unified system for the purpose of degree examinations. The university presently comprises the institutions at Aberystwyth (est. 1872 as the University College of Wales), Bangor (est. 1884 as the University College of North Wales), Cardiff (est. 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire), Lampeter (est. 1822 as St. David's College, part of the university since 1971), and Swansea (added 1920, the former Swansea Technical College), as well as the Univ. of Wales College of Medicine (est. 1931 as the Welsh National School of Medicine) and the Univ. of Wales Institute (1996) at Cardiff and the Univ. of Wales College (1996) at Newport.

Wales, Guyana, UK, USA UK: a principality called ‘(Land of the) Foreigners’ from the Old English walh ‘foreigner’ (plural, walas) which the Anglo‐Saxons called the Celts here after defeating them. They became, therefore, ‘foreigners’ in their own country. The Welsh name for the principality is Cymru and the Celts called themselves Cymry ‘Compatriots’. The Roman conquest was completed by 78 and the eastern border of the territory demarcated in the 8th century. The Medieval Latin name was Cambria. Conquered in 1301 by Edward I (1239–1307), King of England (1272–1307), Wales was incorporated into the English realm under the Acts of 1536 and 1543.

Wales (Cymru). ‘(Land of the) foreigners’. OE walh (plural walas). The name was used by the Anglo-Saxons of the ‘alien’ Celts. The Welsh name has a Celtic meaning ‘compatriot’.

Wales Rothm. Wales 1086 (DB). ‘(Settlement of) the Britons’. OE walh (plural walas). This place-name is thus identical in origin with Wales, the name of the principality.

Wales

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