“So Who are the Welsh, anyway? !”

by Caitlyn Johnston,

25 May 2004

I was going to study Mongolia for a paper I’m writing for a class in my MBA – Global Management programme, but as I was taking a quick peek at the entries for the United Kingdomin the Economist Intelligence Unit, I found something disturbing.The Economist Intelligence Unit has made an interesting assumption that all the nations within the UK are English, and have English values.Wales,Scotland and Ireland are not differentiated between.But guess what - Wales does not have the same value system as England.For that matter, neither does Ireland Cornwall Northern Ireland or Scotland I draw from my experience as the webmistress for the Welsh league of Arizona over the last three years, and my membership in Clan Johnston/e in America for the last four years, as well as my studies of Celtic history and culture over the last 10 years.The word “Wales” is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word “Weolas” which means “foreigner” or “enemy”.The Welsh called themselves “Cymry” which means “companions”, and “Welsh” is “Cymraeg” – the language of Companions. To call a Welsh person “English” is an insult, and vice versa.

Cymru – Wales, Land of My Fathers

Capitol: Caerdydd - Cardiff - Population of 305,000.

Population as of 2001 : 2.9 million. Main Industry: Aerospace, Automotive, Customer Relationship Management, Semiconductors, Life Sciences, Information Technology, Software and Multimedia

As of May 2001, a little over 500,000 people speak Welsh today, or about 25% of the two point nine million people who live in Wales. This is remarkable when you realize that in 1300, Welsh was the native language of Scotland Indeed, William Wallace, immortalized by Mel Gibson in “Braveheart”, was a Welsh speaker.

Hanes Cymru – A History of Wales

Wales fought off the Romans, Vikings the Saxons and the Normans for over two thousand years. For further reading about Welsh history visit
www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history

Llywelyn Fawr and Llywelyn Ein Lliw Olaf

The Norman kings sought to weaken the power of the Welsh kingdoms in the 1300s. The princes of Gwynedd reacted by trying to unite Wales. Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (a.k.a. Llywelyn Fawr – the Great) had the daunting task to trying to unite the Welsh princes against the invaders.In 1205, Llywelyn married Joan, the illegitimate daughter of King John of England. By then he was master of Gwynedd. He expanded his power southwards, seizing Powys Wenwynwyn and northern Ceredigion. John sent an army to Gwynedd and Joan succeeded in making peace between her father and her husband. John's troubles, which led in 1215 to the sealing of the Magna Carta, allowed Llywelyn to capture royal castles, Carmarthen and Cardigan among them. In 1216, Llywelyn presided over a meeting of Welsh rulers at Aberdyfi where he was recognized as their overlord. In 1218, through the Treaty of Worcester, the English crown recognised his position. Thereafter, his power was rarely challenged. He died in 1240 and would be hailed as Llywelyn the Great. It was his grandson, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (a.k.a. Llywelyn Ein Lliw Olaf – the Last) who won recognition as Prince of Wales in 1258, with authority over the other Welsh rulers.In 1273, Llywelyn Ein Lliw Olaf The principality of Wales ruled by a Welsh dynasty lasted for 15 years, although in its last five years its power was much diminished. The years 1267-77 were a period of much promise, suggesting that there were in medieval Wales all the elements necessary for the growth of statehood. Llywelyn was lord of some three quarters of the surface area of Wales, and had perhaps 200,000 subjects. The administrative machinery of the principality developed, and its chancery produced documents of the highest standard. Its chief need was time, to allow it to become an undisputed fact, which is precisely what was not vouchsafed to it. In 1282 Edward, King of England was determined to achieve total victory, although the cost in time, effort and money, undoubtedly caused him dismay. Edward attacked Llywelyn from the South, from the East and from the sea. The king's supporters had some successes. They impeded Edward's advance across the North East; in the Tywi ValleyLlywelyn's southern allies proved effective; his opponents' attempts to cross the Menai Strait on a bridge of boats were disastrous. Late in 1282, Llywelyn decided to rouse the men of the middle March, a region always central to his strategy. It was there, at Cilmeri near Builth, that he was killed on 11 December 1282. Yet the struggle continued. Dafydd assumed the title of Prince of Wales. He was captured at the foot of CadairIdris on 25 April 1283 and was executed at Shrewsbury

Llywelyn ap Gruffydd’s brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd carried on the struggle for Wales, and was captured in 1283.He was imprisoned for several years, then awarded the most brutal and torturous death.His was the first known incident of death by being drawn, quartered, hung and beheaded in British history. 30 years later, William Wallace of Scotland also suffered this fate at the hands of King Edward I.

In 1284 Edward I completed the conquest of Wales and, by the terms of the Statute of Rhuddlan, it became an English principality. To ensure his control, Edward I built a ring of powerful castles, including the castles at HarlechBeaumaris on Anglesey, and Caernarfon. But Wales was not united with England. The March continued as a series of lordships, while Llywelyn's territories were divided into the counties of Anglesey Caernarfon Flintshire, Cardiganshire, and Carmarthenshire. English”.To appease them, King Edward I gave the title Prince of Wales to his infant son, born 1284, who indeed spoke no english

Owain Glyndwr

The ancestry of Owain Owain Glyndwr (Owain Glyndyfrdwy Owain of the Valley of the Dee) was, on his father's side, heir to the dynasty of Powys Fadog. On his mother's side he represented what was left of the claims of the descendants of the Lord Rhys of Deheubarth. The male line of the Gwynedd dynasty became extinct with the death of Owain Lawgoch in 1378. Thereafter, to the extent that a Welsh claimant to the title of Prince of Wales did exist, it was Owain Glyndwr. Born in about 1350, Owain held at Glyndyfrdwy near Corwen, and Sycharth near Chirk, remnants of the patrimony of his ancestors. The immediate spark for revolt seems to have been the King's unwillingness to mediate fairly in a dispute between Owain and his neighbour, Reginald Grey of the Rhuthun marcher lordship. On 16 September 1400, a group of Owain's supporters proclaimed him Prince of Wales at Glyndyfrdwy. They attack English settlements in north-east Wales and then melt away into the mountains. Nothing then happened until his allies, the Tudor family of Anglesey, occupied Conwy Castle at Easter 1401. A few month later, Owain defeated a force on Pumlumon, and enthusiasm for him became apparent over much of Wales. The King led several campaigns against him, but his orthodox strategy made little headway against Owain's guerrilla tactics. His campaigns were hindered by such appalling weather that some believed Glyndwr had influence over the elemental forces of nature. In an act of frustration, parliament passed the penal code, which prohibited the rebellious Welsh from gathering together, gaining access to office, carrying arms and dwelling in fortified towns, with the same restrictions being imposed upon Englishmen married to Welsh women. Declining fortunes Although 1405 represented the climax of Owain's power, the year had its setbacks. The French contribution proved disappointing. Defeats at GrosmontCastle and at Pwllmelyn near Usk undermined Glyndwr's authority in the South East. By 1406 his main hope was further assistance from France. That March he wrote to the king of France offering to transfer the allegiance of Wales from the Pope in Rome, as recognised by England, to the Pope in Avignon, as recognised by France. The letter,written at Pennal near Machynlleth, sought recognition of St David's as an archbishopric with authority over the other bishops of Wales and several of those of England. It called for the appointment of clerics fluent in Welsh, the establishment of two universities in Wales and the retention in the country of the revenues of Welsh churches. The 'usurper', Henry IV, should have been excommunicated and the Welsh should have receive full remission for any sins they may commit in the struggle against him. The French did not respond. Henry IV's son later Henry V proved an effective military leader. Aberystwyth Castle was lost in 1408 and Harlech Castle in 1409. Thereafter, Glyndwr was a fugitive in the mountains. He probably died in about 1416 at Kentchurch on the Herefordshire border at the home of his daughter Alys. The location of his grave has proved a matter of much speculation. The outcome of the revolt Glyndwr's revolt proved devastating for the people of Wales. Chroniclers reported that Glyndwr 'brought all things to waste' and the English king 'proclaimed havoc in Wales'. It was accompanied by an extensive destruction considered characteristic of peasant revolts - which in some senses it was. It can also be considered a civil war, for not all Welshmen were prepared to abandon their allegiance to the English crown. At least a generation passed before the economy began recovering. The Welsh gentry, many of whom had supported Glyndwr, came to the conclusion that their future lay in co-operation with the English authorities. 350 years passed before the significance of the revolt was fully realised. From the late 18th century onwards, Glyndwr was increasingly recognised as the greatest hero in the history of the Welsh people and his revolt seen as central to the growth of the sense of Welsh nationality.

Welsh and the Tudors

The house of Tudor ruled England , Wales and Ireland from 1485 to 1603. Henry VII showed some favour to the land of his paternal grandfather, and his granddaughter Elizabeth I was not without sympathy for Wales. Indeed it was perhaps the accession of the Tudor dynasty which ensured that the irreconcilability with English power, so evident in Ireland was not seen in Wales. With the crown in possession of the principality, as well as the Lancastrian and the Yorkist lordships of the March, the king's power was paramount in virtually all parts of Wales. Henry VII maintained the Council in the Marches, established at Ludlow by Edward IV; he abolished villeinage in much of the north, but did little else. He and his son took lethal action against leading figures in Wales , including the Stanleys in the North East, the House of Dinefwr in the South West and the Duke of Buckingham in the South East. The language clause of the act of 1536 There were about 7,500 words in the 1536 act, of which 150 dealt with the Welsh language. This 2% of the statute has become the subject of more comment than the rest of the legislation. English was to be the only language of the courts of Wales , and those using the Welsh language were not to receive public office in the territories of the King of England. Outside south Pembrokeshire, south Gower, parts of the Vale of Glamorgan and some areas along the border, the mass of the population have Welsh as their only language. Thus, it proves impossible to exclude Welsh from the courts and interpreters are used on a considerable scale. It is unlikely the English authorities sought the extinction of Welsh. What they wanted was uniform administration, and implicit in that was the creation of a Welsh ruling class fluent in English. In 1536 significant numbers of the Welsh gentry already spoke English. The proportion rose rapidly thereafter, but more than 200 years pass before English wholly ousted Welsh from the homes of the landowners. When this happened, Welsh became confined to the working and lower middle classes, a development central to public attitude to the language.

Act of England. Welsh representatives took their seats in Parliament. Customary Welsh laws which differed from those of England were abolished and the use of the Welsh language for official purposes prohibited. The Welsh gentry continued to exercise local authority in the name of the monarch, from whom they held their lands.

By the reign of Elizabeth I, the Tudor settlement in Wales had won general acceptance. The justices of the peace were drawn from the ranks of the Welsh gentry. The Tudors, stated the contemporary commentator George Owen of Henllys (Pembrokeshire), 'gave to Welsh magistrates of their own nation'. For the next 250 years at least, the Welsh historical record was dominated by the activities of landed families. They were loud in praise of the Tudor settlement which removed any ambiguity concerning the status of the Welsh. With that settlement the Welsh, in the eyes of the law, became English. Yet it would be equally valid to argue - as there was no longer any advantage in boasting of the condition of being English - that henceforth everyone living in Wales was Welsh, a principle which would be built upon over succeeding generations.

The Cymru Fydd or Young Wales Movement Founded in 1886, Cymru Fydd was intended to fulfil several roles, some of which were perhaps contradictory: it sought to be the Welsh expression of the Liberal Party, to further an awareness of Welsh nationality and to advance the cause of Welsh devolution. In the 1890s it also became the vehicle for the ambition of Lloyd George who made tireless efforts to ensure that the Liberal politics of Wales had a stronger Welsh identity. However, at a meeting in Newport in 1896, it became evident that this was unacceptable to a large proportion of Wales' Liberal activists and by the end of the century the movement had fizzled out. In 1910 the home rule issue was revived by ET John, specifically in the context of the likelihood that Ireland would become self-governing. It was again much discussed in the immediate post-war years, but although Wales gains some administrative devolution, nothing of great substance is achieved. In 1925 Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru (the National Party of Wales later Plaid Cymru, the Party of Wales) was founded. However, until the 1950s at least, the party had only a marginal role in Welsh politics.

The road to the Welsh Assembly: the first half of the 20th century.

The 20th century ended with the opening of the National Assembly of Wales in Cardiff Bay. It was in many ways an unexpected and unlikely happening, previously seen by many as an impractical outcome. Admittedly, in the first decades of the century, when there were enthusiastic home rulers among the Liberals, and when the Labour Party adopted 'Home Rule All Round' as its official policy, the issue received some attention. In the 1920s, however, the Liberals' enthusiasm waned as it became apparent that if there were a Welsh Parliament, they would not control it. In the face of depression, the Labour Party came to believe that effective planning from the centre was the answer to economic problems. It argued that devolution would undermine the unity of the British working class. The granting of full self government to the greater part of Ireland in 1922 meant the devolution issue loses all urgency. The establishment of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru in 1925 meant home rulers who might otherwise have been active in the traditional parties found themselves isolated in a new party which had very little influence. Furthermore, the traditionalist views of its leader, Saunders Lewis, were out of tune with the mood of Wales. The party did, however, win much publicity and some support as a result of the attack by its leaders on the Bombing School at Penyberth in Llyn in 1936. The Second World War, like the First, strengthened the awareness of the British people striving and suffering together. The Labour government elected in 1945 was rigorously centralist with its most charismatic figure, Aneurin Bevan, contemptuous of any concession to Welsh nationalism. Plaid Cymrumade a crucial breakthrough in 1966 when the party's president Gwynfor Evans was victorious in the Carmarthen by-election. There were further advances from 1974 onwards, and by 1992 Plaid Cymru held four of the 40 constituencies of Wales. Equally significant was the change within the Labour Party. Britain joined the European Common Market in 1972, creating the need to reconsider the nature of all levels of government. The success of Germany's devolved system and the growing wealth of Ireland indicated that having a populous, highly centralised state was not necessarily the road to stability and prosperity. The excessive concentration of wealth and power in London became an issue in England as well as in Wales and Scotland. These considerations, together with the need to thwart the rise of nationalist parties in Wales and Scotland, caused the Labour government of 1974-79 to devote much of its energies to devolution. However the assembly it offers to Wales was rejected in the referendum of 1979 by 956,330 votes to 243,048. In the years immediately after the referendum, devolution seemed a dead issue. But years of Thatcherite right wing policies reminded the Welsh they had to live with political ideas that were mostly unacceptable to them. The appointment of non-Welsh politicians - John Redwood in particular - as Welsh secretaries kept the issue alive. And the extra powers that were transferred to the Welsh Office made people think they could possibly rule themselves. The 1977 Labour government which came to power in an election that saw not one Conservative being elected in Wales - offered a second referendum in 1997. This time, 559,419 people voted for an Assembly for Wales with 552,698 against. In the Assembly elections in 1999, partly under the proportional representation system, the Labour Party won 28 seats, Plaid Cymru 17, the Conservatives nine and the Liberal Democrats six.

Gwrthdystio gan Cenhedloedd Unedig - Protection from the United Nations

The future of Wales and the Welsh language is now looking considerably brighter.  There has been a resurgence of interest in Welsh language and culture. Even celebrities are acting on this.
The following is from a report by Cymuned:

 “At the end of May 2002, Jerry Hunter from Penygroes in North Wales gave evidence on behalf of the Communities Pressure Group CYMUNED to the United Nations Working Group on Minorities. The evidence was well received. The Working Group Chairman remarked that it was of significance to the international community. A situation existed, he said, where "some people could afford two or three houses, and others have none", and the whole subject of in-migration has "particular significance for the disintegration of language communities. 

“Welsh speakers have been oppressed in a variety of ways since the conquest of Wales in the late middle ages, including the legislative relegation of the language to a secondary status within Wales and the practice of the 'Welsh not' in the 19th century, which led to beating children for speaking their native tongue in school. The discrimination was less brutal and obvious during the 20th century, and the U.K. Government made some legislative amends by passing Welsh Language Acts in 1967 and 1993 which removed some of the official stigma formerly placed upon the language. However, the weight of past centuries’ injustices and a failure to make this minority language truly equal in all spheres of Welsh life has meant that the language continued to decline.

“A little over 500,000 people speak Welsh today, or about 18% of the three million people who live in Wales. As Wales is part of the United Kingdom, and as the total population of the U.K. is now estimated at around 60 million people, it will be seen that those who speak Welsh constitute a very small minority within the greater state in which they live, being less than 1% of the entire population of the United Kingdom.” (Cymuned,2003).

The United Nations has granted protection to the Welsh Language as an endangered indigenous language.  For more information, please visit www.cymuned.org

Dewi Sant – Saint David

St. David is the only Welsh saint to be canonized and culted in the Western Church. He has been the patron saint of Wales since the 12th century, but very little is known about his life. He died in 589 or 601 after founding a monastery in the area of Pembrokeshire which now bears his name, and living an austere life devoted to God. He is first to be found in an Irish Catalogue of Saints dating from around 730 and by 800 his feast day was determined as March 1^st, the day of his death.  People wear leeks and daffodils to church as part of their celebration. (Data-Wales, 2004).
Saint David has worked his way into modern sea faring.  The English phrase “Davy Jones’ locker”(meaning the bottom of the sea) refers to St. David, since Jones is a common Welsh surname.

Busness yn Cymru – Business in Wales

Wales is an integral Nation of the United Kingdom and the European Union. The Welsh economy has attracted significant inward investment across a range of sectors over recent decades, helping its growth and diversification. Over the past 20 years, over 1,500 companies have invested some $20 billion in Wales, over 40% of which was reinvestment. Wales is now a domestic and international base for a number of leading multinationals including Ford, Dow Chemical, Sony, Honeywell, 3M and GE.     Successful Welsh businessmen hold tenaciously to their idealistic Celtic values.  Most famously within historical context was, Robat Owens, who is tributed with being a father of business administration in the 1800s.

Robert Owen was a Welsh entrepreneur who bought his first factory in 1789, at the age of 18. He is important in the history of OB because he was one of the first industrialists to recognize how the growing factory system was demeaning to workers.  Repulsed by the harsh practices he saw in factories—such as the employment of young children (many under the age of 10), 13-hour workdays, and miserable working conditions—Owen became a reformer. He chided factory owners for treating their equipment better than their employees. He criticized them for buying the best machines but then employing the cheapest labor to run them. Owen argued that money spent on improving labor was one of the best investments that business executives could make. He claimed that showing concern for employees both was profitable for management and would relieve human misery.

“For his time, Owen was an idealist. What he proposed was a utopian workplace that would reduce the suffering of the working class. He was more than a hundred years ahead of his time when he argued, in 1825, for regulated hours of work for all, child labor laws, public education, company-furnished meals at work, and business involvement in community projects.”(Robbins,2001).

Owen’s idealism is typical of the Welsh, as Celts in general have always valued fairness and equity.       

CONCLUSION --- Finally and perhaps most importantly, the Welsh prize the arts above all other expressions.  Winning an award at the National Eisteddfod is the most celebrated prize in Wales. It is their equivalent of the Super Bowl in the US. The Eisteddfod is an annual fair at which competitors are judged in the arts. The Gorsedd of the Bards judges traditional Welsh poetry, called Cyn ghahedd, classical music, dance, traditional Welsh choir, called Gymanfa.
  “The Gorsedd of Bards is an association whose members consist of poets, writers, musicians, artists and individuals who have made a distinguished contribution to the Welsh nation, language and culture. For example world famous opera star Bryn Terfel, England cricketer Robert Croft, former Labour Leader in the Lords, Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos, ex-Welsh rugby stars Gareth Edwards and Ray Gravel.” (Eisteddfod, 2004).

If there’s anything in this report that is incorrect, please e-mail me with the changes.  Thanks!   johnstonITconsulting@msn.com

Work Consulted

Cymuned.www.cymuned.org   23 May 2004.

BBC.www.bbc.co.uk/wales/storyofwelsh   23 May 2004.

www.cymuned.org Data-wales.co.uk   24 May, 2004

Croeso Cynnes. The History of the Welsh Language - Hanes yr Iaith Gymraeg. www.croeso-cynnes-wales.co.uk

Davis, John. A History of Wales. 1993. Allen Lane The Penguin Press. London. www.bbc.co.uk/wales

www.eisteddfod.org.uk   25 May 2004.

Ford, David. www.earlybritishkingdoms.com 25 May 2004.

Robbins, Stephen, P.  Organizational Behavior, 9th Ed.  Massachusetts : Pearson Custom Publishing. 2001

Wales-Catalonia Website. www.estelnet.com  25 May 2004.

Wikipedia.org  en.wikipedia.org 25 May 2004.