The older
historians stop when they come to the year 1284, and sometimes give a
hasty outline of a few rebellions up to 1535. They then give the
Welsh a glowing testimonial as a law-abiding and loyal people, and
find them too uninteresting to write any more about them.
The history of Wales does, indeed, appear to be nothing more than the
gradual disappearance of Welsh institutions. The Court of Wales was
restored with the king in 1660; but its work had been done, and it
came to an end in 1689. The Great Sessions came to an end in 1830;
and, though we now see that their disappearance was a mistake, the
bill abolishing them passed through Parliament without a division.
The last difference between England and Wales was deleted; and if
Wales has no separate existence left, why should we write or read its
history?
Because the two centuries of apparent settlement and sleep were the
period of a silent revolution, more important, if our aim is to
explain the living present rather than the dead past, than all the
exciting plots and battles of the House of Cunedda from the rise of
Maelgwn to the fall of the last Llywelyn. During these centuries,
the history of Wales ceases to be the history of princes and nobles,
it becomes the history of the people.
Pages:
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106