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
