Wales in revolt

Edward I had conquered Wales in the 1280s, and colonised it. He brought English people to enlarge small towns. Pembrokeshire, in the far southwest, even became known as "the little England beyond Wales". Edward's officers drove many of the Welsh into the hills, and gave their land to English farmers. Many Welsh were forced to join the English army, not because they wanted to serve the English but because they had lost their land and needed to live. They fought in Scotland and in France, and taught the English their skill with the longbow.

A century later the Welsh found a man who was ready to rebel against the English king, and whom they were willing to follow. Owain Glyndwr was the first and only Welsh prince to have wide and popular support in every part of Wales. In fact it was he who created the idea of a Welsh nation. He was descended from two royal families which had ruled in different parts of Wales before the Normans came.

Owain Glyndwr's rebellion did not start as a national revolt. At first he joined the revolt of Norman—Welsh border lords who had always tried to be free of royal control. But after ten years of war Owain Glyndwr's border rebellion had developed into a national war, and in 1400 he was proclaimed Prince of Wales by his supporters. This was far more popular with the Welsh people than Edward I's trick with his newborn son at Caernarfon in 1284- However, Glyndwr was not strong enough to defeat the English armies sent against him. He continued to fight a successful guerrilla war which made the control of Wales an extremely expensive problem for the English. But after 1410 Glyndwr lost almost all his support as Welsh people realised that however hard they fought they would never be free of the English. Owain Glyndwr was never captured. He did for Wales what William Wallace had done for Scotland a century earlier. He created a feeling of national identity.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1956