Wales Revels

Wales Rebels - The Declaration of Defiance, 1282
Welsh warrior weapons © In 1282 the Welsh, chaffing under English overlordship rebelled. Limited outbreaks of resistance become a united uprising. This was eventually led by Llywelyn himself, who captured key castles and defeated the royal army. Edward responded by leading an even greater host into Wales.
Seeing that the two sides would not beeasily reconciled, the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Peckham, tried to negotiate a settlement. He offered Llywelyn land and titles in England if he would relinquish his position in Wales.
The Welsh council, however, in a statement that is a foretaste of the Scottish 'Declaration of Arbroath', told the Archbishop that Edward had broken his words and treaties, and said that he 'exerts a very crueltyranny over the churches and ecclesiastical persons'.
They would nevertheless be unwilling to do homage to a stranger whose language, customs and laws are totally unknown to them.
The statement, dated 11 November, goes on to declare:
'Likewise the people of Snowdon say that even if the prince were willing to give their land to the king, they would nevertheless be unwilling to do homage to astranger whose language, customs and laws are totally unknown to them.'
It went on to say that acceding to the English would be worse than being ruled by the Saracens.
Spurred on in what was by now a true war of national liberation, the Welsh fought on, attacking the lumbering English knights and disappearing into the woods and hills, spurring Edward to clear paths through the woods.
In asignificant blow to their cause, Llywelyn was killed in a skirmish with an English foot soldier, almost by accident, and his severed head was then sent off to be shown in London as proof of his death.
The revolt faltered, but sustained itself for several months into 1283. With the death of their internationally known leader, uncertainty set in and the Welsh eventually submitted.
Edward now establishedsettler towns, built even more castles, encouraged English migration and kept all local offices in English hands. As one Welsh historian wrote: 'the idea of "Wales" lives thereafter in the words of the poets'.
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Wales subdued: the legacy of the Conquest
Beaumaris Castle, Anglesey © The Statute of Rhuddlan (1284) codified the settlement and saw the imposition of English common law in theprincipality, on all matters, except land claims. Gwynedd (the heart of the principality as defined by the Welsh claimants to the title of prince) was divided into the counties of Anglesey, Caernarfonshire, Flint and Merionethshire.
Wales was left with its language, but daily business increasingly took place in English. Taxes were collected in coin for the first time, and the burden of tax fellhardest on the poor.
The cost of all this fighting and colonisation cost England over £240,000, including £40,000 spent on the castles. It left the crown dependent upon massive loans from the Ricardi bankers, and parliamentary grants of taxation.
One unforeseen consequence of the Welsh and later Scots wars was to fundamentally change the place and role of the English parliament. The fighting andcastles had to be paid for and only by regular grants of taxation could the king raise the necessary funds.
This meant regularly calling a parliament and extending its membership, and therefore those who paid tax, to the commoners, as well as the nobles and clergy. In time, the Welsh would also be summoned to the English parliament.
This necessity probably did more than anything else in the MiddleAges to forge a sense of unity and identity in the native Welsh.
The greatest visible legacy of the conquest remains the castles designed by Master James of St George from Savoy, using the latest European ideas.
Beaumaris in Anglesey, the last one to be built, is the best designed while Caernarfon remains the most impressive structure, inspired as it is by the walls of Constantinople. Harlech,...