WELSH CENTENARY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 52, Issue 3750, 1 May 1936, Page 3

WELSH CENTENARY

UNION WITH ENGLAND IN 1536. CELEBRATIONS PLANNED FOP. JULY. For the first time in 94 years Britain has no Prince of Wales in this the fourth centenary year of the union of England and Wales. It was in 1535 that the Act of Union, one of the most important statutes in Welsh history, was drafted by Thomas Cromwell, and it came into effect the following year. Many historians have given brief space to what Professor G. M. Trevelyan descibes as “ the most successful act of English imperialism of the modem type.!’ But in the light of history it is now admitted that the union of England and Wales was one of the most permanently successful of Tudor achievements.

Certain it is that for many years prior to the coming of the Tudors Welshmen lived in unhappy times. Owain Glyndwr, the hero of Welsh popular tradition, died in 1416, and, bereft of leaders, the country became a nation of peasants. Poverty was rife, lawlessness rampant, and literature declined. Then came the Wars of the Roses and the power of- the rival claimants to the throne lay in Wales and the Marches. Henry Tudor came to Wales as a deliverer, who belonged to a family of standing in north Wales. To his countrymen he was the long-promised hero who was to deliver his race from the intolerable yoke of the Saxon.

For a generation the struggle continued, until in 1485 the Welshman was crowned Henry VII. of England

and Wales. The Middle Ages were over, and the modem world ready to begin. As one historian writes: "With Henry and the Tudors came those changes which saw the fall of an aristocracy and the rise of a monarchy wisely tolerating, and apparently bending before the people in their Parliament.”

Welshmen considered that they had recovered their independence by placing one of their own princes on the throne of England. In many departments of national life the first Tudor king prepared the way for his more brilliant son, and it was Henry VIIL who gave Wales the opportunity to play an equal part with England in the life of the Empire. At his. instigation the Act of Union was framed, providing that:—

“ Wales shall continue for ever from henceforth incorporated, united, and annexed to and with this realm of England, and that all her sons in the said principality, country, or dominion of Wales shall have entry and inherit all singular freedoms, liberties, rights, privileges, and laws of this realm and others of the King’s Dominions, as other of the King’s subjects naturally bom within the same.”

Principality and Marcher lordships were abolished, and Wales divided into counties, to be governed like English counties, through justices of the peace, subject to the orders of the King’s Council aiM laws made in Parliament. Welsh shires and boroughs were henceforth represented in the English House of Commons. Welsh justices were able to rule in the wild hill regions, where tribalism and feudalism had ran riot for centuries, and lawlessness was suppressed. Inequalities of commercial privilege were removed, customs abolished, and grants made, and English boroughs in North Wales were thrown open to Welshmen. The fact that the House of Tudor occupied the English throne enabled the Welsh people to accept union on these terms, and kept the principality loyal throughout the dangerous storms of Tudor times. Faithful it has remained ever since. But. it is not too much to say that no Prince of Wales has been so popular in that country as the new King of England, who claims descent from the Tudors. Welsh enthusiasm knew no bounds when, as a youth of seventeen years, he addressed a huge concourse at Carnarvon Castle on the occasion of .his investiture. It was the first speech in which a Prince of Wales used the Welsh language. He arised a storm of cheering when he concluded: “ The many links of the past, my Tudor descent, the great title I bear, as well as my name David, all bind me to Wales, and to-day I can safely say that I am in the old land of my fathers.”

Arrangements had been made for the celebration in July of the silver jubilee of the Prince; a round of visits to Wales was scheduled, and 13th July was to be proclaimed an Empire holiday. Plans for the celebrations will now be either cancelled or will take another form associated with the popularity of King Edward.