Download
1 / 79
790 likes | 1.01k Views
Wales- Cymru. Identity and nationalism 1588-2014. The Penal Laws after GlynDwr. 1402-1624 Banned Welsh from senior civil office Banned the carrying of arms Property could not be bought in England Englishmen who married Welsh women came under the Penal Laws. The Acts of Union 1535, 1542.
E N D
Wales- Cymru Identity and nationalism 1588-2014
The Penal Laws after GlynDwr • 1402-1624 • Banned Welsh from senior civil office • Banned the carrying of arms • Property could not be bought in England • Englishmen who married Welsh women came under the Penal Laws.
The Acts of Union 1535, 1542 • The Laws in Wales Act • The creation of a single state England and Wales. • Single juristiction • Before Wales had come under the fiefdom of the English monarch. • Welsh laws continued in civil cases until 1535. • Harmonization. • Thomas Cromwell.
The Acts of Union 1535, 1542 • Effects: • Marcher lordships were abolished. • Establishment of more Welsh counties. • The legal establishment of the Council of Wales and the Marches. • MPs go to Westminster • Popular amongst the Welsh gentry-equality under the law. • Creation of a peaceful Wales. • Damaging effect on Welsh identity, culture and economy.
The Acts of Union 1535, 1542 • Effect on the Welsh language. The Acts of Union 1535, 1542. • The English language alone was to be used in administration and the law. • All administrators must only use English.
The Council of Wales and the Marches • 1470-1689 • 20 member council appointed by the Crown. • The chairman was often a bishop. • Heard criminal cases, cases of corruption and misgovernment. • An early experiment in regional government.
Wales-Cymru • 1546 First printed book in Welsh. • 1567 Translation of Prayer Book and New Testament into Welsh. • 1588: Translation of the whole Bible into Welsh- its influence. • This period also represents the end of Catholicism in Wales (except for small numbers in SE Wales)
Wales -Modern Period • 1707 Edward Lhuyd’sArchaeologia Britannica. Beginnings of Celtic Studies. • Mid 18th century- the beginnings of Welsh non-conformity. Howel Harris. Rejection of Anglicanism. • 1737-61: the circulating schools of Griffith Jones • 1743 The Methodist Association in Wales
The Methodist Revival • Key names: Howell Harris, Daniel Rowlands and the most prominent: William Williams Pantycelyn. (often just called Pantycelyn). • Methodism in Wales was a break with Anglicanism (not officially until the early 19th century). It was an evangelical form of Protestantism inspired by the works of Calvin.
The Methodist Revival • Pantycelyn was a great writer of religious poems (we would call them hymns) still popular today. • Another great eighteenth century Welsh religious writer was Ann Griffiths (1776-1805), who died shortly after childbirth at the early age of 29. • Following her death her hymns were written down by her maid’s husband. They are love-songs, full of vividimages and meatphors, reflecting a deep knowledge of the Bible and the beliefs of the Non-conformists (all the non-Anglican versions of Protestantism).
The Methodist Revival • By the nineteenth century, Welsh Nonconformity was no longer a radical force in religious terms, but rathera social force and institution that dominated Welsh all aspects of Welsh culture. • Religious leaders were now the leaders of society in Wales and they disapproved of the older folk culture of Wales.
Wales • Beginnings of industrialisation in Wales 1757. • Iron works, • coal-mining, • tin works. • Dowlais, • Merthyr Tudful,
Wales -Modern Period • Beginnings of industrialization in Wales: • The first iron-works in 1757 in Hirwaun, south Wales. • The centre of Welsh culture and history shifts to the south-east, the iron works and then the coal industry.
Wales (2)-Modern Period • Wales had by then (late 18th century and 19th century) become a non-conformist Protestant nation, largely Welsh-speaking (only) and for most of the population living in an industrialized environment (especially after 1860).
Rediscovering roots: IoloMorgannwg • Iolo Morgannwg (1747-1826) was a prolific poet and keen promoter of ancient Welsh history. • He claimed to have ‘discovered’ many poems by the 14th century poet Dafydd ap Gwilym in local manuscripts but they were mainy invented. • He felt that Glamorganshire, his placeplace, deserved a rich literary history, and so he partly invented it! • He was a remarkable poet in his own right.
Wales -Modern Period • First census in Wales 1801- population of Wales 587,000. • Separation of Welsh Methodists from the Church of England (Anglicans). • Merthyr Riots 1831. Beginnings of unionisation. • Rebecca Riots 1839-44.
The Rebecca Riots : 1839-1843 • This unrest led to the Rebecca Riots from 1839 until the middle of the 1840s. The rioters main target were the numerous tollgates erected by the various turnpike trusts established at the end of the eighteenth century. The rioters, men dressed in women's clothing and known as the Daughters of Rebecca, would attack and destroy the tollgates. The protest movement attracted widespread support and it was not long before the attacks widened, the Carmarthen Workhouse was attacked and both landowners and magistrates were threatened.
MerchedBeca-Rebecca’s Daughters • “Rebecca: "What is this my children? There is something in my way. I cannot go on...." Rioters: "What is it, mother Rebecca? Nothing should stand in your way," Rebecca: "I do not know my children. I am old and cannot see well." Rioters: "Shall we come and move it out of your way mother Rebecca?" Rebecca: "Wait! It feels like a big gate put across the road to stop your old mother." Rioters: "We will break it down, mother. Nothing stands in your way." Rebecca: "Perhaps it will open...Oh my dear children, it is locked and bolted. What can be done?" Rioters: "It must be taken down, mother. You and your children must be able to pass." Rebecca: "Off with it then, my children."
The Blue Books 1847 • A government enquiry into education in Wales. • Three commissioners from England who knew no Welsh and based their work on the evidence given by Anglican ministers. • The report mentioned that schools often only had English speaking teachers and pupils who only knew Welsh. The textbooks were all in English. • In fact, most children learned Welsh literacy in the Sunday schools run by the Welsh Chapels (non-conformist churches).
The Blue Books 1847 • The report also concluded that the Welsh were lazy, immoral and ignorant and that this was a consequence of the Welsh language and non-conformity. • There was a furious reaction led by one Robert Jones Derfel. • It can be argued that the reaction to this prejudiced report led to the self-governance of Wales movement. • A digital version of the whole report can be found on the National Library of Wales site.
consequences • ‘One of the inevitable results of the report was its effect on the nation's mind and psyche. It was at this time that ordinary Welsh people began to believe that they could only improve themselves socially through education and the ability to speak and communicate in English’.
Wales (2)-Modern Period • 1865- a contingent of Welsh people leave for Patagonia in Argentina, founding the still existing and thriving Welsh settlements in South America. • 1872 –The University of Wales opens (in Aberystwyth).
Wales -Modern Period • 1886- the Cymru Fydd movement is founded. • 1898-the foundation of the South Wales Miners’ Federation. The ‘FED’. • 1916-Lloyd George becomes first Welsh prime-minister of the UK. • 1925 Plaid Cymru is founded. The National Party of Wales. Formany decades is in the political dessert but by the 1990s is one of the main forces in Welsh politics.
1884-emancipation for Welsh males • Following the Reform Act of 1884 the majority of the adult males of Wales were given the vote. Most of them were content to support the Liberal Party, some because of their Nonconformist loyalties and others because they considered Liberalism to be an umbrella movement capable of accommodating a wide range of radical causes - the furtherance of the interests of the working class among them.
Politics in Wales • Liberalism: in 1885 . All but five of the 35 parliamentry seats were won by the Liberal party. • Amongst these were such as David Lloyd George and Tom Ellis. The liberals championed the cause of the non-conformist tenant farmers and all those who believed that the diversity and special needs of Wales needed to be addressed.out of this grew the ‘Young Wales’ movement and calls for self-government.
Politics in Wales • The growth of nationalism- • The very concept of Wales as a nation. • At the turn of the century (c1899), the Welsh language was spoken by over one million people, and there was every indication that Welsh could become the language of law, science and politics. • Yet, by the early years of the 20th century, the numbers of Welsh speakers had fallen to less than 50% of the Welsh population.
Politics in Wales • However, notions of national liberation were slow to get off the ground. Most liberal leaders were luke-warm, and the ideology of Britishness (Empire, Queen, law) pervaded the Welsh nation. • In 1900, Keir Hardie was elected in Merthyr Tudful (South Wales) as the first socialist MP in Wales. This signalled an end of an era.
During the first two decades of the twentieth century there was a sense of optimism in Wales which saw the creation of the University of Wales, the National Library of Wales, the National Museum of Wales (Cardiff). • The regaining of a sense of Welsh history was being promoted by such historians as O.M.Edwards. • by 1911, two thirds of the Welsh population lived in Glamorgan and Monmouthshire (SE Wales).
Lloyd George: social justice, and the creation of a pension scheme. • Life in rural Cardiganshire- tuberculosis, maternal mortality. • Yet, in 1914, still only five of the 34 Welsh MPs were socialist (Labour Party).
Unrest in early 20th century Wales • The Tonypandy riots in 1910, followed by the military occupation of the Rhondda Valley in 1911 (controlled by Winston Churchill). • The growth in syndicalism (unions). • The three-year strike at the Penrhyn Quarry in NW Wales. • South Wales became very militant. The 1915 miners’ strike in the middle of WW1. • General strike and miners; lockout in 1926.
