Welsh Journals

REVIEWS ASPECTS OF WELSH HISTORY. Selected papers of the late Glyn Roberts. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1969. Pp. xv, 345. 60s. (f3 -00). Piety alone would have been a sufficient reason for the publication of this volume; and it is a piety which the readers of the Welsh History Review must feel deeply, for Glyn Roberts was in many ways the founding father of their journal, as readers of A. H. Dodd's sensitive obituary (ante, I, No. 4 (1963), 431-34) will recall. But, piety apart, the appearance of these selected papers can be welcomed on other grounds-both because they reflect the intellectual development of a notable Welsh historian over a period of thirty-five years and also because several of these studies are truly suggestive and all are finely-executed pieces of historical writing. They are not brashly trail-blazing; indeed on the contrary, they are gently iconoclastic and always soberly down to earth. For that reason their impact may not be immediate, but it is the more profound for that. The articles in the volume fall neatly into two sections. Those published before 1940 deal primarily with the political and municipal history of the modern period; those appearing after 1948 concentrate mainly, but not exclusively, on the later middle ages. The years of the second world war and a subsequent spell as registrar at Bangor therefore mark not only a moratorium in Glyn Roberts's historical production but also a re- orientation of his field of historical interest. A good measure of chronological versatility has (partly out of necessity) been one of the notable attributes of many Welsh historians, but in few cases has the change in the field of interest been so complete and so fruitful as in that of Glyn Roberts. The catalyst of change would appear to be the Tudor period. In England historians of the sixteenth century have too often been notorious for their insistence on the novelty-and superiority-of all things Tudor and for their incomprehension (? ignorance) of most things medieval. In Wales, on the other hand, some of the most notable studies of the late medieval period have been undertaken by historians whose primary interest has lain in the sixteenth century. In the case of Glyn Roberts it would appear that it was his interest in the family histories of the Welsh squirearchy which enticed him into the study of the later medieval period. His earlier studies during his 'Swansea period' were of the constitutional variety. Whether they have stood well the test of time in terms of accuracy and interpretation others can better judge; in terms of readability they are certainly fine pieces of writing. His long essay on the political affairs of Carmarthenshire from 1536 to 1900 is a remarkably sustained piece of work. It is political history in the grand style; it has a story to tell and tells it engagingly and always with an eye to the general history of