Before the end of the reign of Elizabeth, however, the Welsh language
was recognised. The last school founded, that of Ruthin in 1595, was
to have a master who could teach and preach in Welsh. And in 1588
there had appeared, by the help of Archbishop Whitgift, the Welsh
Bible of William Morgan. It was the appearance of this Bible that
aroused the first real welcome to the Reformation. But the
Reformation that gave England a Spenser and a Shakespeare aroused no
new life in Wales, not a single hymn or a single prayer.
CHAPTER XIX--THE CIVIL WAR
After the Tudors came the Stuarts. The Tudors did what their people
wanted; the king and the people, between them, crushed the nobles.
The Stuarts did what they thought right, and they did not try to
please the people. Under the Tudors, there was harmony between Crown
and Parliament; and Elizabeth left a prosperous people with strong
views about their rights and their religion. But James I., and
especially his son Charles I., tried to change law and religion.
From the Tudor period of unity, then, we come to the Stuart period of
strife.
From 1603 to 1642 the struggle went on in Parliament. The Welsh
Members nearly all supported the king, and the Welsh people followed
the Welsh gentry in strong loyalty.
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