Difference between revisions of "Wales"

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Wales is a principality that is a part of the United Kingdom. It occupies the peninsula of land between the Bristol Channel and the River Dee, on the west side of southern Great Britain. Anglesey, Holy Island, and the bardic island of Bardsey are also part of Wales.

Much of Wales is mountainous; the Cambrian Mountains run the length of the country, from Snowdonia in the north. Several geological periods are named after the ancient Welsh tribes that lived in regions where strata characteristic of the period are to be found; the Ordovician ((Ordovices), the Silurian (Silures), and the Cambrian period is named for Cambria, the Latin for Wales.

The largest city in Wales is Cardiff, which was declared to be the capital city in 1955, against competition from Swansea. Other important locales include the ports of Holyhead and Milford Haven; the mining and industrial centres of Llanelli, Neath, Pontypridd, Merthyr Tydfil and Wrexham; the ecclesiastical cities of St. Asaph and St. Davids; the resorts of Phwelli, Llandudno, Colwyn Bay, Rhyl and Prestatyn; the university towns of Bangor and Aberystwyth; and the villages of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (the longest place name in Britain) and Llanddewi Brefi.

English is universally spoken in Wales - however, the ancestral Celtic language of Welsh is still spoken as a first or second language by approximately a quarter of the population. The long-term decline in Welsh-speakers has stabilised since the early 1990s owing to the introduction of compulsory Welsh language classes in schools.

The national emblems are the leek and the daffodil.

History

Wales emerged as a nation from the collapse of Romano-British Britannia following the invasions of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes from the fifth century AD onwards. What is now known as Wales was for a time known as 'North Wales', while Devon and Cornwall (in SW England) were 'West Wales' until their conquest. The Mercian king Offa (Mercia equates roughly to the English Midlands) created an substantial earthwork, Offa's Dyke running between the Irish Sea and the Severn estuary in the later eighth century to separate his kingdom from Welsh lands. The dyke broadly marks the Anglo-Welsh boundary to this day.

The Norman Conquest of England following 1066 gave rise to Norman attempts to occupy Wales; by the thirteenth century much of eastern and southern Wales were under Norman control in autonomous 'Marcher Lordships' owing loyalty to the English crown. What was left of independent Wales was not a unitary nation, but comprised a number of separate, often warring, principalities, and only late on, under English pressure, did these unite to acknowledge one 'Prince of Wales'. These princes were provided by the most powerful of the Welsh states, Gwynedd, in the mountainous NW of the country. Most notable was Llewelyn the Great (1173-1240; who unified the country, and gave it a code of laws). His grandson, Llewelyn ap Gruffydd, was unable to resist a powerful invasion mounted by the English king Edward I, and his death in battle in 1282 marked the extinction of independent Wales.

A number of huge fortifications were built by Edward to pacify the country, notably that of Caernafon Castle, and maintained by his successors. These castles wer known as the Iron Ring.

A major revolt against English rule was mounted in the early fifteenth century led by Owain Glyndwr, a member of the prosperous Welsh gentry who became embittered against the local English magnates for reasons which are uncertain, but probably owe as much to personal disputes as national sentiment. Glyndwr's rebellion achieved astonishing success, for a while. Beginning on Good Friday 1401, the rebels came to control much of the countryside and many Welsh towns, even advancing to Worcester in England. Glyndwr, who had been proclaimed Prince of Wales, held two parliaments at Machynlleth in mid Wales, and allied himself with the Duke of Northumberland and the Earl of Mortimer in a plan to dismember the English kingdom once Henry IV had been conclusively defeated. He made an alliance with France, and created two (short-lived) universities, one each in north and South Wales. However, by 1408 the tide had turned. His Northumbrian allies had been defeated and English forces retook many Welsh towns. The rebels resorted to guerilla warfare but by 1410 Glyndwr was a fugitive and he disappears from history, his fate a mystery.

Much as Owain Glyndwr emerged from the ranks of the Welsh gentry, so too did Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, who in 1485, as a somewhat tendentious claimant to the throne of England through the Lancastrian line, led an army of disaffected English magnates to victory over the Yorkist king Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Henry became King Henry VII and the progenitor of the Tudor dynasty, the first Welsh king of England. Henry's son, Henry VIII, completed the absorption of Wales into England in 1536, when the remaining parts of Wales were formally annexed to England and 'shired' - that is, divided into counties (shires) with sheriffs and lords lieutenant, rather than being ruled as marcher lordships.

Charles, eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, is the current Prince of Wales, a title normally bestowed on the first-born son of the sovereign but implying no particular monarchical role in the Principality. The Welsh flag has a picture of a dragon, usually called Idris. The Welsh flag forms no part of the Union Flag as at the time the flag was first devised Wales was considered as part of the Kingdom of England.

Even today in modern Wales, vestiges of anti-English sentiment remain strong in some parts; the Welsh Nationalist Party, Plaid Cymru typically returns several members to the British Parliament, and with the unaffiliated Welsh terrorist group the Meibion Glyndwr, ("the Sons of Glendower") conducting a sporadic campaign of arson against English-owned holiday homes in recent years.^[1]

Druidry survived as a major force in Wales until the 18th century, and may never have completely died out. The first modern Welsh druids date from 1717, but they took many of their rites from existing practices.

Government

Although constitutionally the United Kingdom is a unitary state with one sovereign, parliament and government - there has been moves to give power to national legislature in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, this has taken the form of devolution. Power for certain areas of government like education, health and the environment are fully the responsibility of their national governments. However, central government maintains the right to overturn any decision by a national assembly, as as such the Parliament of the United Kingom remains sovereign in the United Kingdom as a whole.

Devolution

A National Assembly for Wales as established under the Government of Wales Act of 1998. The assembly consists of 60 Assembly Members or AMs. The Welsh Assembly Governemnt is the executive arm who have been delegated much of the powers of the Assembly.

Industry

South Wales was formerly heavily industrialised, with coal mining and steelworking, whereas North Wales is a pastoral area used mainly for sheepfarming.

Coal mining in South Wales has undergone a recent resurgence due to the discovery of new energy resources, particularly in the Crumlin area.

Sport

Soccer enjoys major popularity, with rugby union being particularly popular in South Wales.

World significance

Welsh-derived surnames are common in the United States. The Welsh name Jones is in fact the fourth commonest surname in the U. S.^[2]; within the hundred commonest surnames, the Welsh names Evans, Edward, Morgan, and Jenkins rank 48th, 49th, 57th, and 83rd respectively.^[3] Names beginning with a double L, such as Lloyd and Llewellyn are almost certain to be Welsh, as is Floyd (the "Fl" being an attempt to imitate the sound of the Welsh double-L.

It is often said that the vowels in English are "A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y;" however, in Welsh the letter W can be a vowel (pronounced roughly like a double-length U). Most English dictionaries contain some Welsh-derived English words such as cwm (a circular valley or cirque) and crwth (an traditional Celtic fiddle-like musical instrument). These can be very effective stumpers when playing word games, provided of course that they are actually included in whatever dictionary is the authority agreed on by the players.

Notes and references

1. ↑ http://www.welshdragon.net/resources/Articles/arson.shtml
2. ↑ Smith, Johnson and Williams ranking first, second and third
3. ↑ Most Common Surnames in the U. S., website which claims its source is the U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, Population Analysis & Evaluation Staff