Theosophy Cardiff, Wales, UK:- General History of Wales

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Theosophical Society, Cardiff Lodge,

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A General History of Wales

The Cardiff Theosophical Society is pleased to provide this historical outline to acquaint visitors to our site with the history and traditions of Wales.

The area now known as Wales has been inhabited by modern humans for at least 29,000 years, though continuous human habitation dates from the period after the last Ice age. Wales has many remains from the Neolithic period (mainly chambered tombs), as well as from the Bronze Age and Iron Age.

Traditionally, historians have believed that successive waves of immigrants brought different cultures into the area, largely replacing the previous inhabitants, with the last wave of immigrants being the Celts. However, studies

of population genetics now suggest that this may not be true, and that immigration was on a smaller scale. There is some evidence that the Welsh

population is very similar genetically to the population of Ireland and also share some genetic links with the Basques.

Prehistoric Wales

The earliest known human remains discovered in modern-day Wales are those of the Red Lady of Paviland, a human skeleton dyed in red ochre. It was discovered in 1826 in one of the Paviland limestone caves of the Gower Peninsula in south Wales. Despite the name, the skeleton is that of a young man who lived about 29,000 years ago at the end of the Upper Paleolithic Period (old stone age). His remains are also considered the oldest found in the United Kingdom. Additionally, he is considered to be the oldest known ceremonial burial in Western Europe. The skeleton was found along with jewellery made from ivory and seashells, and a mammoth's skull.

Bryn Celli Ddu, a late Neolithic chambered tomb on AngleseyFollowing the last Ice age, Wales became roughly the shape it is today by about 8000 BC and was inhabited by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. The earliest farming communities are

now believed to date from about 4000 BC, marking the beginning of the Neolithic period. This period saw the construction of many chambered tombs, the most notable including Bryn Celli Ddu and Barclodiad y Gawres on Anglesey (North Wales).Metal tools first appeared in Wales about 2500 BC, initially copper followed by bronze. The climate during the Early Bronze Age (c. 2500-1400 BC) is thought to have been warmer than at present, as there are many remains from this period in what are now bleak uplands. The Late Bronze Age (c. 1400-750 BC) saw the development of more advanced bronze implements. Much of the copper for the production of bronze likely came from the copper mine on the Great Orme on the North Wales coast near Llandudno, the largest known mine in Europe during this period.

The earliest iron implement found in Wales is a sword from Llyn Fawr called Rhondda, thought to date to about 600 BC. The Iron Age saw the building of hillforts which are particularly numerous in Wales, examples being Pen Dinas

near Aberystwyth and Tre'r Ceiri on the Lleyn peninsula. A particularly significant find from this period was made in 1943 at Llyn Cerrig Bach on

Anglesey, when the ground was being prepared for the construction of a Royal Air Force base. The cache included weapons, shields, chariots along with their fittings and harnesses, and slave chains and tools. Many had been deliberately broken and seem to have been votive offerings.Wales under the Romans

Tribes of Wales at the time of the Roman invasion. Exact boundaries are conjectural.Up to and during the Roman occupation of Britain, Wales was not a

separate country, but all inhabitants of Britain and Ireland spoke Celtic languages and were essentially of the same ethnic origin. The area was divided

among a number of tribes, of which the Silures in south-east Wales and the Ordovices in central and northwest Wales were the largest and most powerful. These two tribes were the ones who put up the strongest resistance to the Roman invasion.

The first attack on the Welsh tribes was made under the legate Publius Ostorius Scapula about 48 AD. Ostorius first attacked the Deceangli in the north-east, who appear to have surrendered with little resistance. He then spent several

years campaigning against the Silures and the Ordovices. Their resistance was

led by Caratacus, who had fled what is now southeast England when it was conquered by the Romans. He first led the Silures, then moved to the territory of the Ordovices, where he was defeated by Ostorius in 51 AD. Caratacus fled to the Brigantes, whose queen handed him over to the Romans.

The Silures were not subdued, however, and waged effective guerilla warfare against the Roman forces. Ostorius died with his tribe still unconquered; after his death they won a victory over the Roman Second Augusta Legion. There were no further attempts to extend Roman control in Wales until the governorship of Caius Suetonius Paulinus, who attacked further north and captured the island of Anglesey in 60 or 61 AD. However he was forced to abandon the offensive to meet the threat from the rebellion of Boadicea. The Silures were eventually subdued by Sextus Julius Frontinus in a series of campaigns ending about 78 AD. His successor Gnaeus Julius Agricola subdued the Ordovices and recaptured Anglesey by the beginning of 79 AD.

The Romans occupied the whole of Wales, where they built roads and forts, mined gold and conducted commerce, but their interest in the area was limited because of the difficult geography and shortage of flat agricultural land. Most of the Roman remains in Wales are military in nature. The area was controlled by legionary bases at Deva (Chester in England) and Isca Silurum (Caerleon in Gwent, South Wales), with roads linking these bases to auxiliary forts such as Segontium (Caernarfon, North Wales) and Maridunum (Carmarthen, South Wales). Romans are only believed to have established one town in Wales, Caerwent, Gwent, South Wales (Venta Silurum). Wales was part of the Roman province of Britannia Superior and later of the province of Britannia Prima, which also included the West Country of England.

Early Mediaeval Wales

When the Roman garrison of Britain was withdrawn in 410, the various states within Wales were left self-governing. One of the reasons for the Roman withdrawal was the pressure put upon the empire's military resources by the incursion of barbarian tribes from the east. These tribes, including the Angles and Saxons, were unable to make inroads into Wales, but they gradually conquered eastern and southern Britain (which then became England), leaving Wales cut off from her Celtic relations in Scotland, Cornwall and Cumbria.

The Welsh language flourishes as an official working language in Wales today. A Celtic language continued in Cumbria until the Middle Ages but insufficient written records exist to reconstruct it. Cornish survived in Cornwall until the 18^th Century and has been revived. The Anglo – Saxon advance forced many Celts to migrate to Brittany in Northern France and the Breton language, which is close to Cornish, still flourishes there. Scots Gaelic is from an earlier Celtic migration to the British Isles and is very different from Welsh.

Wales became Christian, and the "age of the saints" (approximately 500-700) was marked by the establishment of monastic settlements throughout the country, by religious leaders such as Saint David, Illtud and Teilo.

Mediaeval kingdoms of Wales.

Wales was divided into a number of separate

kingdoms, the largest of these being Gwynedd in North West Wales, Powys in East Wales and (from the mid 10th century, Deheubarth in the South West. Gwynedd was the most powerful of these kingdoms in the 6th and 7th centuries, under rulers such as Maelgwn Gwynedd (died 547) and Cadwallon ap Cadfan (died 634) who was able to lead his armies as far as Northumbria and control it for a period. Powys as the easternmost of the major kingdoms of Wales came under the most pressure from the English. This kingdom originally extended east into areas now in England, and its ancient capital. Pengwern was on the site of modern Shrewsbury. These areas were lost to the kingdom of Mercia. The construction of the earthwork known as Offa's Dyke (usually attributed to Offa, King of Mercia in the 8th century) may have marked an agreed border.

For a single man to rule the whole country during this period was rare. This is often ascribed to the inheritance system practised in Wales. All sons received an equal share of their father's property (including illegitimate sons), resulting in the division of territories. However the Welsh laws prescribe this system of division for land in general, not for kingdoms, where there is

provision for an edling (or heir) to the kingdom to be chosen, usually by the king. Any son, legitimate or illegitimate, could be chosen as edling and there

were frequently disappointed candidates prepared to challenge the chosen heir.

The first to rule a considerable part of Wales was Rhodri Mawr, originally king of Gwynedd during the 9th century, who was able to extend his rule to Powys and Ceredigion. On his death his realms were divided between his sons. Rhodri's grandson, Hywel the Good, formed the kingdom of Deheubarth by joining smaller kingdoms in the southwest and had extended his rule to most of Wales by 942. He is traditionally associated with the codification of Welsh law at a council which he called at Whitland, the laws from then on usually being called the "Laws of Hywel". Hywel followed a policy of peace with the English. On his death in 950 his sons were able to keep control of Deheubarth but lost Gwynedd to the traditional dynasty of this kingdom.

Wales was now coming under increasing attack by Viking raiders, particularly Danish raids in the period between 950 and 1000. Godfrey Haroldson is said to have carried off two thousand captives from Anglesey on 987, and the king of Gwynedd, Maredudd ab Owain is reported to have redeemed many of his subjects from slavery by paying the Danes a large ransom.

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was the next ruler to be able to unite most of the Welsh kingdoms under his rule. Originally king of Gwynedd, by 1055 he was ruler of almost all of Wales and had annexed parts of England around the border. However he was defeated by Harold Godwinson in 1063 and killed by his own men. His territories were again divided into the traditional kingdoms.

Wales and the Normans

At the time of the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the dominant ruler in Wales was Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, who was king of Gwynedd and Powys. The initial Norman successes were in the south, where William Fitz Osbern overran Gwent before 1070.

By 1074 the forces of the Earl of Shrewsbury were ravaging Deheubarth. The killing of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn in 1075 led to civil war and gave the Normans an opportunity to seize lands in North Wales. In 1081 Gruffydd ap Cynan, who had just won the throne of Gwynedd from Trahaearn ap Caradog was enticed to a meeting with the Earls of Chester and Shrewsbury and promptly seized and imprisoned, leading to the seizure of much of Gwynedd by the Normans. In the south, Iestyn ab Gwrgant, the last ruler of the kingdom of Morgannwg, was deposed about 1090 by Robert Fitzhamon, lord of Gloucester, who established a lordship based in Cardiff and subsequently conquered the lowland part of Glamorgan. Rhys ap Tewdwr of Deheubarth was killed in 1093 while resisting Norman encroachment in Brycheiniog, and his kingdom was seized and divided between various Norman lordships. The Norman conquest of Wales appeared virtually complete.

In 1094 however there was a general Welsh revolt against Norman rule, and gradually territories were won back. Gruffydd ap Cynan was eventually able to build a strong kingdom in Gwynedd. His son, Owain Gwynedd, allied with Gruffydd ap Rhys of Deheubarth won a crushing victory over the Normans at the Battle of Crug Mawr in 1136 and annexed Ceredigion. Owain followed his father on the throne of Gwynedd the following year and ruled until his death in 1170.Powys also had a strong ruler at this time in Madog ap Maredudd, but when his death in 1160 was quickly followed by the death of his heir, Llywelyn ap Madog, Powys was split into two parts and never subsequently reunited. In the south, Gruffydd ap Rhys was killed in 1137, but his four sons, who all ruled Deheubarth in turn, were eventually able to win back most of their grandfather's kingdom from the Normans. The youngest of the four, Rhys ap Gruffydd (The Lord Rhys) ruled from 1155 to 1193, and after Owain Gwynedd's death led to the splitting of Gwynedd between his sons, Rhys made Deheubarth dominant in Wales for a time.

Out of the power struggle in Gwynedd eventually arose one of the greatest of Welsh leaders, Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, also known as Llywelyn Fawr (the Great), who was sole ruler of Gwynedd by the end of the 12th century and by his death in 1240 was effectively ruler of much of Wales. Internal strife again broke out when Llywelyn's son and successor, Dafydd ap Llywelyn died suddenly without leaving an heir in 1246. A period of internal conflict ended in the rise to power of Llywelyn the Great's grandson, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (a.k.a. Llywelyn the Last). Llywellyn's ambition in uniting Wales under his leadership conflicted with Edward I of England's suzerinity of Wales, and war followed. After Llywelyn's death when he was surprised away from his army at Cilmeri in 1282, his brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd continued the resistance, but was never able to

gain control of any large part of Wales. He was captured in 1283 and executed by hanging, drawing and quartering at Shrewsbury.

Annexation

Harlech Castle (North Wales) was one of a series built by Edward I to consolidate his conquest.After passing the Statute of Rhuddlan which restricted Welsh laws, King Edward's ring of impressive stone castles assisted the domination of Wales, and he crowned his conquest by giving the title Prince of Wales to his son and heir in 1301. Wales became, effectively, part of England, even though its people spoke a different language and had a different culture. English kings paid lip service to their responsibilities by appointing a Council of Wales, sometimes presided over by the heir to the throne. This Council normally sat in Ludlow, now in England but at that time still part of the disputed border area.

From the reign of William the Conqueror, the border areas of Wales were ruled by the Marcher Lords who had considerable power, held their own courts and raised their own armies. This was effectively a colonial occupation system. These were known as the Marches of Chester, Shrewsbury and Hereford and lasted until the Act of Union with England in 1536.

The county of Cheshire (England) was the Palatinate of the Earl of Chester with its own laws and parliament. A large area of North Wales was ruled from Chester.

Welsh literature, particularly poetry, continued to flourish however, with the lesser nobility now taking over from the princes as the patrons of the poets. Dafydd ap Gwilym who flourished in the middle of the 14th century is considered by many to be the greatest of the Welsh poets.

In 1400, a Welsh nobleman, Owain Glyn Dŵr or Owen Glendower, revolted against King Henry IV of England. Owain inflicted a number of defeats on the English forces and for a few years controlled most of Wales. Some of his achievements included holding the first ever Welsh Parliament at Machynlleth and plans for two universities. Eventually the king's forces were able to regain control of Wales and the rebellion died out, but Owain himself was never captured. His rebellion caused a great upsurge in Welsh identity and he was widely supported by Welsh people throughout the country.

In 1485 Henry Tudor landed in Wales with a small force to launch his bid for the throne of England. Henry was of Welsh descent, counting princes such as Rhys ap Gruffydd (The Lord Rhys) among his ancestors, and his cause gained much support in Wales. Henry defeated King Richard III of England at the Battle of Bosworth with an army containing many Welsh soldiers and gained the throne as King Henry VII of England.

Under his son, Henry VIII of England, the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 were passed, annexing Wales to England in legal terms, abolishing the Welsh legal system, and banning the Welsh language from any official role or status, but it

did for the first time define the England-Wales border and allowed members representing constituencies in Wales to be elected to the English Parliament.

From the Union to the Industrial Revolution

Following Henry VIII's break with Rome, Wales for the most part followed England in accepting Anglicanism, although a number of Catholics were active in attempting to counteract this and produced some of the earliest books printed in

Welsh. In 1588 William Morgan produced the first complete Welsh translation of the Bible.

Wales was overwhelmingly Royalist in the Civil War in the early 17th century and was an important source of men for the armies of King Charles I of England, though no major battles took place in Wales. There is a record of a battle three miles from Newport in Gwent but it cannot now be ascertained exactly where it took place. There were some notable exceptions to Royalist support such as John Jones Maesygarnedd and the Puritan writer Morgan Llwyd.

Education in Wales was at a very low ebb in this period, with the only education available being in English while the majority of the population spoke only Welsh. In 1731 Griffith Jones (Llanddowror) started circulating schools in Carmarthenshire, held in one location for about three months before moving (or 'circulating') to another location. The language of instruction in these schools was Welsh. By Griffith Jones' death, in 1761, it is estimated that over 200,000 people had learnt to read in schools throughout Wales.

The 18th century also saw the Welsh Methodist revival, led by Daniel Rowland, Howell Harris and William Williams Pantycelyn. In the early 19th century the Welsh Methodists broke away from the Anglican church and established their own denomination, now the Presbyterian Church of Wales. This also led to the strengthening of other nonconformist denominations, and by the middle of the 19th century Wales was largely nonconformist in religion. This had considerable

implications for the Welsh language as it was the main language of the nonconformist churches in Wales. The Sunday schools which became an important feature of Welsh life made a large part of the population literate in Welsh, which was important for the survival of the language as it was not taught in the schools.

The end of the eighteenth century saw the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, and the presence of large coal deposits in south-east Wales meant that this area soon saw the establishment of coal mines and other industries using the coal for various purposes.

The Nineteenth Century

In the early 19th century parts of Wales became heavily industrialised, and the social effects of industrialisation led to bitter social conflict between the Welsh workers and the English factory owners. During the 1830s there were two armed uprisings, in the new town of Merthyr Tydfil in 1831, and the Chartist uprising in Newport, Gwent in 1839, led by John Frost. The Rebecca Riots, which took place between 1839 and 1844 in South and Mid Wales were rural in origin. They

were a protest against the high tolls which had to be paid on the local Turnpike roads.

Partly as a result of these disturbances, a government enquiry was carried out into the state of education in Wales. The enquiry was carried out by three English commissioners who spoke no Welsh and relied on information from witnesses, many of them Anglican clergymen. Their report, published in 1847 as Reports of the commissioners of enquiry into the state of education in Wales

concluded that the Welsh were ignorant, lazy and immoral, and that this was caused by the Welsh language and nonconformity. This resulted in a furious reaction in Wales, where the affair was named the Treachery of the Blue Books.

Socialism gained ground rapidly in the industrial areas of South Wales in the latter part of the century, accompanied by the increasing politicisation of religious Nonconformism. The first Labour MP, Keir Hardie, was elected for the

Welsh constituency of Merthyr in 1900. In common with many European nations, the first movements for national autonomy began in the 1880s and 1890s with the formation of Cymru Fydd, led by Liberal Party politicians such as T. E. Ellis and David Lloyd George.

Another movement which gained strength during the 1880s was the campaign for disestablishment. Many felt that since Wales was now largely nonconformist in religion, it was inappropriate that the Church of England should be the

established church in Wales. The campaign continued until the end of the century and beyond, with the passing of the Welsh Church Act 1914, which did not come into operation until 1920, after the end of the First World War.

The nineteenth century brought about a large increase in population as Wales, like the rest of the UK, largely attributable to high birth rates. In 1801 just over 587,000 people lived in Wales; by 1901, this had increased to over 2,012,000. The most significant rises in population occurred in industrial counties - Denbigh, Flint, (North Wales) Monmouth and Glamorgan (South Wales). The century witnessed a transition from a society that was predominantly rural (around 80 % lived

outside urban settlements in 1800) to a largely urbanised, industrial society (in 1911, only 20 % lived in non-urban areas).

The Twentieth Century

In the early part of the century Wales still largely supported the Liberal Party, particularly when David Lloyd George became Prime Minister during the First World War. However the Labour party was steadily gaining ground, and in the years after the war replaced the Liberals as the dominant party in Wales, particularly in the industrial valleys of South Wales.

Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 but initially its growth was slow and it gained few votes at parliamentary elections. In 1936 an RAF training camp and aerodrome at Penyberth near Pwllheli was burnt by three members of Plaid Cymru - Saunders Lewis, Lewis Valentine, and D. J. Williams. This was a protest not only against the construction of the training camp, known as "the bombing school" but also against the destruction of the historic house of Penyberth to make room for it.

This action and the subsequent imprisonment of the three perpetrators considerably raised the profile of Plaid Cymru, at least in the Welsh-speaking areas.

Wales since 1945

The period following the Second World War saw a decline in several of the traditional industries, in particular the coal industry. The numbers employed in the industry in Wales, which at its peak around 1913 employed about 232,000 men, fell from 106,000 in 1960 to 30,000 in 1979. This period also saw the Aberfan disaster in 1966, when a tip of coal slurry slid down to engulf a school with 144 dead, most of them children.

By the early 1990s there was only one deep pit still working in Wales. There was a similar decline in the steel industry, and the Welsh economy, like that of other developed societies, became increasingly based on the expanding service sector.

Wales was officially de-annexed from England within the United Kingdom in 1955, with the term "England" being replaced with "England and Wales", and Cardiff was proclaimed as the capital of Wales. Nationalism only became a major issue during the second half of the twentieth century. In 1962 Saunders Lewis gave a radio talk entitled Tynged yr Iaith (The fate of the language) in which he predicted the extinction of the Welsh language unless action was taken.

This led to the formation of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) the same year. Nationalism grew particularly following the flooding of the Tryweryn valley in 1965, drowning the village of Capel Celyn to create a reservoir supplying water to Liverpool. In 1966 Gwynfor Evans won the Carmarthen seat for Plaid Cymru at a by-election, their first Parliamentary seat.

Another response to the flooding of Capel Celyn was the formation of groups such as the Free Wales Army and Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (MAC - Welsh Defence Movement). In the years leading up to the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales in 1969, these groups were responsible for a number of bomb blasts destroying water pipes and tax and other offices. Two members of MAC, George Taylor and Alwyn Jones, the "Abergele Martyrs", were killed by a home made bomb at Abergele the day before the investiture ceremony.

Plaid Cymru made further gains in the 1974 General Election, and largely as a result of this, devolution became the policy of the Labour party. However a referendum on the creation of an assembly for Wales in 1979 led to a large

majority for the "no" vote. The Welsh Language Act 1993 gave the Welsh language equal status with English in Wales with regard to the public sector.

In May 1997, a Labour government was elected with a promise of creating devolved institutions in Scotland and Wales. In late 1997 a referendum was held on the issue which resulted a "yes" vote, albeit by a narrow majority. The Welsh Assembly was set up in 1999 (as a consequence of the Government of Wales Act) and possesses the power to determine how the government budget for Wales is spent and administered.

Over the course of the 20th century, the population of Wales increased from just over 2,012,000 in 1901 to 2.9 million in 2001, but the process was not linear - net out-migration caused population to fall in the economic depression of the 1930s. English in-migration became a major factor from the first decade of the 20th century, when there was net gain of 100,000 people from England. In this era, most incomers settled in the expanding industrial areas, contributing to a partial Anglicisation of some parts of south and east Wales. The proportion of the Welsh population able to speak the Welsh language fell from just under 50 % in 1901 to 43.5 % in 1911, and continued to fall to a low of 18.9 % in 1981.

Over the century there has also been a marked increase in the proportion of the population born outside Wales; at the time of the 2001 Census 20 % of Welsh residents were born in England, 2 % were born in Scotland or Ireland, and 3 % were born outside the UK. Whereas most incomers settled in industrial districts in the early 1900s, by the 1990s the highest proportions of people born outside

Wales were found in Ceredigion, Powys, Conwy, Denbighshire and Flintshire.

The Twenty-first Century

The Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff BayThe results of the 2001 Census showed an increase in the number of Welsh speakers to 20.8% of the population aged 3 and over, compared with 18.7% in 1991 and 19.0% in 1981. This compares with a pattern of steady decline indicated by census results during the 20th century.

In Cardiff the Millennium Stadium, opened in 1999, was followed by the Wales Millennium Centre opened in 2004 as a centre for cultural events, notably opera. The new Welsh Assembly building was completed in February 2006.