Welsh Journals

REVIEWS WALES FROM REVOLT TO CIVIL WAR No reader of this book' can doubt that it is a major work of historical literature, fully living up to the high standards already set in the new History of Wales series by Professors R. R. Davies and Kenneth O. Morgan. It opens at the end of one civil war and finishes at the beginning of another. Its overarching theme lies in the gradual recovery of Wales from the trauma of the Glyndwr revolt and its slow transformation thereafter. The older interpretations of Llewelyn Williams-a rapid transition from the medieval to the modem under Henry VIII-and of Saunders Lewis-the destruction of Welsh independence and nationhood-are firmly rejected. But although Glanmor Williams believes that there was no distinct watershed or 'revolution' during these two centuries, there was, in his view, a long-term reorientation of Welsh attitudes and a gradual penetration by the Protestant Church. The volume is divided into two parts: the first, 'Rebellion and Recovery', runs from 1415 to 1536, the second, 'Wales Reoriented and Reformed', from 1536 to 1642. The opening chapter deals with the consequences of the Glyndwr revolt, which was economically, socially and politically disruptive for all classes, as the armies of king and rebels pillaged and destroyed. Chapters 2-6 then analyse the political, legal, economic, social, religious, and intellectual condition of fifteenth-century Wales. Changes were already under way: Welsh law was begining to decline and Welsh landowners were taking over local power. But although there were defects in the legal system, once the aftermath of the Glyndwr revolt was past, Wales was not more disorderly than it had been before 1400 or was to be in the early sixteenth century. Living standards were low for the vast majority in an economy where the average husbandman could sustain only one and a half persons by his efforts, a telling and disconcerting figure. But there were growing opportunities for the few, and as the economy recovered from the years of revolt ambitious landowning dynasties began to emerge. The top ranks of society consisted of Welsh 'barons' and English peers, to both of whom the poets paid tribute, attesting to lineage and status in return for cash. 'It is for my gold that I shall find the whole world sweet and kind', commented one poet (p. 102). The Church recovered quickly from the cataclysmic effects of revolt, and if the monastic ideal was declining, parish churches were being built and beautified, while enthusiasm for pilgrimages was high. Above all, a common culture was maintained in every part of Wales by a larger number of top-ranking poets than had been known in any earlier period. RECOVERY, REORIENTATION. AND REFORMATION. WALES c. 1415-1642. By Glanmor Williams. Clarendon Press/University of Wales Press, 1987. Pp. xvi, 528. £ 40.00