the Welsh. Occasional rebellions were easily crushed; it was not until the

death of Edward III and the arrival of Owain Glyndwr (Shakespeare's Owen

Glendower), that the people of Wales felt confident enough to challenge

their English overlords.

Owain Glyndwr was Lord of Glyndyfrdwy (the Valley of the Dee). He seized

his opportunity in 1400 after being crowned Prince of Wales by a small

group of supporters and defying Henry IV's many attempts to dislodge him.

The ancient words of Geraldus Cambrensis could have served to inspire his

followers:

The English fight for power; the Welsh for liberty; the one to procure

gain, the other to avoid loss. The English hirelings for money; the Welsh

patriots for their country

The comet that appeared in 1402 was seen by the Welsh as a sign of their

forthcoming deliverance from bondage as well as one that proclaimed the

appearance of Owain. His magnetic personality electrified and galvanized

the people of Wales, strengthening their armies and inspiring their

confidence. Even the weather was favorable.

The Welsh leader's early successes released the long-suppressed feelings of

thousands of Welshmen who eagerly flocked to his support from all parts of

England and the Continent. Before long, it seemed as if the long-awaited

dream of independence was fast becoming a reality: three royal expeditions

against Glyndwr failed: he held Harlech and Aberystwyth, had extended his

influence as far as Glamorgan and Gwent, was receiving support from Ireland

and Scotland; and had formed an alliance with France. Following his

recognition by the leading Welsh bishops, he summoned a parliament at

Machynlleth, in mid-Wales, where he was crowned as Prince of Wales.

It didn't seem too ambitious for Owain to believe that with suitable

allies, he could help bring about the dethronement of the English king;

thus he entered into a tripartite alliance with the Earl of Northumberland

and Henry Mortimer (who married Owain's daughter Caitrin) to divide up

England and Wales between them. After all, Henry IV's crown was seen by

many Englishmen as having been falsely obtained, and they welcomed armed

rebellion against their ruler. Hoping that The Welsh Church be made

completely independent from Canterbury, and that appointments to benefices

in Wales be given only to those who could speak Welsh, Glyndwr was ready to

implement his wish to set up two universities in Wales to train native

civil servants and clergymen.

Then the dream died.

Part III

Owain's parliament was the very last to meet on Welsh soil; the last

occasion that the Welsh people had the power of acting independently of

English rule. From such a promising beginning to a national revolt came a

disappointing conclusion, even more upsetting because of the speed at which

Welsh hopes crumbled with the failure of the Tripartite Indenture. Henry

Percy (Hotspur) was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury, and the increasing

boldness and military skills of Henry's son, the English prince of Wales

and later Henry V, began to turn the tide against Glyndwr. Like so many of

his predecessors, Glyndwr was betrayed at home. It is not too comforting

for Welsh people of today to read that one of the staunchest allies of the

English king and enemy of Glyndwr was a man of Brecon, Dafydd Gam (later

killed at Agincourt, fighting for the English).

A sixth expedition into Wales undertaken by Prince Henry retook much of the

land captured by Owain, including many strategic castles. The boroughs with

their large populations of "settlers," had remained thoroughly English in

any case, and by the end of 1409, the Welsh rebellion had dwindled down to

a series of guerilla raids led by the mysterious figure of Owain, whose

wife and two daughters had been captured at Harlech and taken to London as

prisoners. Owain himself went into the mountains, becoming an outlaw. He

may have suffered an early death. for nothing is known of him either by the

Welsh or the English. He simply vanished from sight. According to an

anonymous writer in 1415," Very many say that he [Owain Glyndwr] died; the

seers say that he did not" (Annals of Owain Glyndwr). There has been much

speculation as to his fate and much guessing as to where he ended his final

days and was laid to rest.

There is an expression coined in the nineteenth century that describes a

Welshman who pretends to have forgotten his Welsh or who affects the loss

of his national identity in order to succeed in English society or who

wishes to be thought well of among his friends. Such a man is known as Dic

Sion Dafydd, (a term used in a satirical 19th century poem). The term was

unknown In fifteenth century Wales, but, owing to the harsh penal

legislation imposed upon them, following the abortive rebellion, it became

necessary for many Welshmen to petition Parliament to be "made English" so

that they could enjoy privileges restricted to Englishmen. These included

the right to buy and hold land according to English law.

Such petitions may have been distasteful to the patriotic Welsh, but for

the ambitious and socially mobile gentry rapidly emerging in Wales and on

the Marches, they were a necessary step for any chance of advancement. In

the military. At the same time, Welsh mercenaries, no longer fighting under

Glyndwr for an independent Wales, were highly sought after by the new king

Henry V for his campaigns in France. The skills of the Welsh archers in

such battles as Crecy and Agincourt is legendary.

Such examples of allegiance to their commander, the English sovereign, went

a long way in dispelling any latent thoughts of independence and helped

paved the way for the overwhelming Welsh allegiance to the Tudors

(themselves of Welsh descent) and to general acquiescence to the Acts of

Union. The year 1536 produced no great trauma for the Welsh; all the

ingredients for its acceptance had been put in place long before.

The so-called Act of Union of that year, and its corrected version of 1543

seemed inevitable. More than one historian has pointed out that union with

England had really been achieved by the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284. Those

historians who praise the Acts state that the Welsh people had now achieved

full equality before the law with their English counterparts. It opened

opportunities for individual advancement in all walks of life, and Welshmen

flocked to London to take full advantage of their chances.

The real purpose was to incorporate, finally and for all time, the

principality of Wales into the kingdom of England. A major part of this

decision was to abolish any legal distinction between the people on either

side of the new border. From henceforth, English law would be the only law

recognized by the courts of Wales. In addition, for the placing of the

administration of Wales in the hands of the Welsh gentry, it was necessary

to create a Welsh ruling class not only fluent in English, but who would

use it in all legal and civil matters.

Thus inevitably, the Welsh ruling class would be divorced from the language

of their country; as pointed out earlier, their eyes were focused on what

London or other large cities of England had to offer, not upon what

remained as crumbs to be scavenged in Wales itself, without a government of

its own, without a capital city, and without even a town large enough to

attract an opportunistic urban middle class, and saddled with a language

described by Parliament as "nothing like nor consonant to the natural

mother tongue used within this realm."

From 1536 on, 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.

Part IV

It was the arrival of the Welsh Bible, however, that brought the language

back to a respected position.

In 1588, the translation of the whole Bible itself, the climax of the whole

movement, made Welsh the language of public worship and thus much more than

a generally despised peasant tongue. Perhaps it is to this that much of the

present-day strength of the Welsh language is owed, compared to Irish

(which did not get its own Bible until 1690) and Scots Gaelic (which had to

wait until 1801).

The Welsh Bible, a magnificent achievement, was completed after eight years

by William Morgan and a group of fellow scholars. In 1620 Dr John Davies of

Mallwyd and Richard Parry, Bishop of St. Asaph, produced a revision of

William Morgan's Bible. Most of the nearly one thousand copies of.the

earlier book had been lost or worn out, and this revised and corrected

edition is the version that countless generations of Welsh people have been

thoroughly immersed ever since, it has been as much a part of their lives

as the Authorized Version has been to the English-speaking peoples or

Luther's Bible to the Germans.

In 1630, the Welsh Bible, in a smaller version (Y Beibl Bach), was

introduced into homes in Wales and as the only book affordable to many

families, became the one book from which the majority of the people could

learn to read and write. Other, poorer families, unable to afford the

Bible, were able to share its contents in meetings held at the homes of

neighbors or in their churches or chapels. Later on, countless generations

of children were taught its contents in Sunday School. It is in this way,

therefore, that we can say the Welsh Bible "saved" the language from

possible extinction.

It has been touch and go all the way since, however, with determined

efforts coming from both sides of Offa's Dyke to stamp out the language for

ever. Yet every time the funeral bells have tolled, the language has

miraculously revived itself.

For the continued survival of the language, however, there had to be a

groundwork laid in the field of general education among the masses. There

were still too many people in Wales who could not read or write. As so

often in Welsh history, help came from outside the country itself.

In 1674, a charitable organization, the Welsh Trust, was set up in London

by Thomas Gouge to establish English schools in Wales and to publish books

"in Welsh." Over 500 books were printed in 1718 and 1721 at Trefhedyn and

Carmarthen respectively. Many of these were translations of popular English

works, Protestant tracts that encouraged private worship and prayers, but

along with the six major editions of the Bible that appeared during the

same period, they had the unpredicted effect of ensuring the survival of

the language in an age where many scholars were predicting its rapid

demise. Of equal importance were the cheap catechisms and prayer

books.highly prized by rural families who read them (along with the Beibl

Cymraegd) in family groups during the long, dark winter nights.

So successful were educators, benefactors and itinerant teachers that

perhaps as many as one third or more of the population of Wales could read

their scriptures by the time of Griffith Jones' death in 1761. Jones had

realized that preaching alone was insufficient to ensure his people's

salvation: they needed to read the scriptures for themselves. Though not

intended by such as Jones (the rector of Llanddowror and therefore not a

Nonconformist minister), his writings created a substantial Welsh reading

public primed and ready to receive the appeal of the ever-growing

Methodists, whose ability in such preachers as Hywel Harris was matched by

their eloquence in the pulpit, and who obviously filled a great need among

the masses.

One influential convert was Thomas Charles who joined in 1784, and who set

up the successful Sunday School movement in North Wales that had such a

profound and lasting influence on the language and culture of that region.

Another preacher of great influence was Daniel Rowland, who had converted

in 1737 after hearing a sermon by Griffith Jones. With Hywel Harris, he

assumed the leadership of the Methodist Revival. Rowland's enthusiasm along

with that of his colleagues, attracted thousands of converts, and though

their initial intention was to work within the framework of the established

church, opposition from their Bishops, all of whom had little real interest

in Wales and knew nothing of its language and culture, led finally to the

schism of 1811 when an independent union was founded.

This was the Calvinistic Methodist Church (today known as the Presbyterian

Church of Wales). Providing the excitement and fervor that the established

church had been lacking for so long, it did much to pave the way for the

rapid growth of the other non-conformist sects such as the Baptists and

Independents. The movement also was responsible for producing two names

that are outstanding in the cultural history of Wales: William Williams and

Ann Griffiths (dealt with at length in my History of Wales).

Part V

The result of the coming of heavy industry to south Wales in the 19th

century could not have been foreseen, especially its twofold effect on the

language and social life of the area. First, with so many Welsh speakers

moving into the area in search of jobs, bringing their language (and their

chapels) with them, a Welsh culture survived in many fields of valley

activity.

Such a heavy toll came to so many areas of the southern valleys. In the

counties of Glamorgan and Monmouth, the long, verdant valleys quickly

filled up with factories, mills, coal mines, iron smelting works (and

later, steel works), roads, railways, canals, and above all, people. Houses

began to spread along the narrow hillsides, filling every available space

upon which a house could be set, small houses, crammed together in row

after row, street after street, town after town all strung together on the

valley floor. Houses separated only spasmodically by the grocery store, the

somber, grey chapel, or the public house. Above them all loomed the

blackened hillsides and the slag heaps of waste coal or industrial refuse.

And all this brought about by the discovery of coal.

In the southern valleys, an Anglo-Welsh character came into being; one that

came to dominate the political, social and literary life of Wales, and it

was here also that a new and particular kind of Welshness was forged,

symbolized by the cloth-capped, heavy drinking, strike-prone, English-

speaking, rugby fanatic of the Valleys..To such a character, and to a

certain extent, to the majority of the three large urban areas of Cardiff,

Swansea and Newport, the people of the West and North, the Bible-toting,

chapel-going, teetotal, parsimonious, and above all Welsh-speaking were

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