We will examine Irish, Scottish, and Welsh history and culture from 500 BC to the present. In particular, lectures and discussions will focus on the early cultural identity of the Irish, Scots, and Welsh and their customs and mythologies; the influence of Roman culture and Christianity on these lands and peoples; the English conquest and colonization of these lands and peoples; and, finally, on the process of political devolution in all three areas. These aspects of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh history will be examined through historical documents and literature, art, music, and film clips. Students will emerge from the class with a clear sense of the events that shaped the early history and culture of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and how those events continue to shape these areas even to the present day.

1. The conquest of Wales
Map of Wales circa 1100
• Hywel Dda, d. 950
– Cyfreith Hywel Dda (the Law of
Hywel the Good)
• English overlordship in the
10th century
– From king (brenhin) to prince
(tywysog) and lord (arglwydd)
• Gruffudd ap Llywelyn,
d. 1063
– Ruled Gwynedd, Deheubarth,
Powys, Ceredigion, and Gwent
• William the Conqueror,
r. 1066-1087
• Marcher lords

2. The conquest of Wales
Modern illustration of Owain Gwynedd
• Henry I, r. 1100-1135
• Powys
– Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, d. 1075
– Maredudd ap Bleddyn, r. 1116-1132
• English Civil War, 1135-1154
• Gwynedd
– Owain Gwynedd, r. 1137-1170
– Dafydd ab Owain, r. 1170-1194
• Deheubarth
– Gruffudd ap Rhys, r. 1120-1137
– Maredudd ap Gruffudd, r. 1137-1155
– Rhys ap Gruffudd, r. 1155-1197
• Yr Arglwydd Rhys
• Eisteddfod

3. The conquest of Wales
Funeral effigy of Rhys ap Gruffudd, St. David’s, Wales
• Henry II, r. 1154-1189
– Campaign in Wales in 1157
– Submission of Owain Gwynedd
and Rhys ap Gruffudd
– Revolt of Welsh princes in
1165
• Rhys established as Henry’s
justiciar in South Wales in 1170s
– Dafydd ab Owain, r. 1170-1194
• Marries Emma, an illegitimate
daughter of Henry II

4. The conquest of Wales
Stone likeness of Llywelyn Fawr, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.
•
•
•
Richard I, r. 1189-1199
John, r. 1199-1216
Llywelyn ab Iorwerth ab Owain
Gwynedd, aka Llywelyn Fawr (the
Great), r. 1194-1240
– Marriage to Tangwystl, daughter of
the king of Mann
• One son, Gruffudd
– Marriage to Joan, illegitimate
daughter of John
• One son, Dafydd
•
•
•
John’s Welsh campaign in 1210
Henry III, r. 1216-1272
Dafydd ap Llywelyn, r. 1240-1246

5. The conquest of Wales
Modern stone monument to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Cilmeri, Wales.
• The four sons of Gruffudd ap
Llywelyn Fawr
– Owain, Llywelyn, Rhodri,
Dafydd
• Llywelyn ap Gruffudd,
r. 1255-1282
– Treaty of Montgomery, 1267
• Llywelyn recognized as Prince
of Wales
• Edward I, r. 1272-1307
– Treaty of Aberconwy, 1277
• The last Welsh War, JuneDecember 1282
• Dafydd ap Gruffudd, d. 1283

6. Wales in 1267 (l) and 1284 (r)

7. Edward I holding parliament in 1278
(Edward center, Alexander III of Scotland to his right and Llywelyn ap
Gruffudd to his left)
From the Garter Book, circa 1524

8. The conquest of Wales
•
Cultural change
–
–
–
–
–
•
The Statute of Rhuddlan, 1284
–
–
–
–
•
•
From killing of political opponents to castration and blinding
From partible inheritance to primogeniture
Princes as makers of law instead of professional jurists
Dafydd ap Llywelyn and changes to the law of feud (galanas)
Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and the jury system
Rhingyll
Pencenedl
Galanas
Amobr and amobrwyr
Edward’s castles
The revolt of Owain Glyndwr, 1400-1408
– A descendant of the dynasty of Powys, d. 1408

9. Beaumaris Castle (Anglesey, north Wales),
outer ward, built 1295-1330

10. Beaumaris Castle, inner ward

11. Caernarvon Castle (Caernarvon, north
Wales), built 1283-1330

12. Conwy Castle (Conwy, north
Wales), built 1283-1289

13. The conquest of Scotland, almost
•
•
•
•
Illustration from a charter to Kelso Abbey, 1159. David I (left) and
Malcolm IV (right). National Library of Scotland.
Kenneth Mac Alpin, r. 843-858
Duncan I, r. 1034-1040
Macbeth MacFindlay, r. 1040-1057
Malcolm III r. 1058-1093
– Margaret, granddaughter of
Aethelred Unraed, r. England 9781016
– St. Andrew
•
David I, r. 1124-1153
– Mathilda, daughter of Henry I of
England, was David’s niece
– Henry II of England, son of
Mathilda, was David’s greatnephew
•
Malcolm IV, r. 1153-1165
– Nicknamed “the Maiden”
– Forced to do homage to Henry II as
overlord, 1163
•
William I, the Lion, r. 1165-1214
– Treaty of Falaise

14. Twelfth-century Scotland

15. The conquest of Scotland
Great seal of Alexander II of Scotland, 1229. British Library.
• Alexander II, r. 1214-1249
• Alexander III, r. 1249-1286
• Margaret, the Maid of
Norway, d. 1290
• The succession crisis
– Edward I’s “Great Cause”
– John Balliol, r. 1292-1296
– Robert Bruce, r. 1306-1329

16. The conquest of Scotland
Modern statue of William Wallace, National Wallace Monument, Stirling.
•
The first Scottish war, 1296-1307
– The Stone of Scone
•
•
•
•
•
•
William Wallace, d. 1305
Battle of Stirling Bridge, 1297
Battle of Falkirk, 1298
Robert Bruce, r. 1306-1329
Battle of Bannockburn, 1314
David II, r. 1329-1371
– Recognized as king of Scotland by
Edward III of England in 1357
•
•
Declaration of Arbroath, 1320
England, Scotland, and France
– The “Auld Alliance”

17. The Declaration of Arbroath, 1320
• To the most Holy Father and Lord in Christ, the Lord John, by
divine providence Supreme Pontiff of the Holy Roman and
Universal Church…
• Most Holy Father and Lord, we know and from the chronicles
and books of the ancients we find that among other famous
nations our own, the Scots, has been graced with widespread
renown. They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the
Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long
course of time in Spain among the most savage tribes, but
nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however
barbarous. Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the
people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west
where they still live today. The Britons they first drove out, the
Picts they utterly destroyed, and, even though very often
assailed by the Norwegians, the Danes and the English, they
took possession of that home with many victories and untold
efforts; and, as the historians of old time bear witness, they
have held it free of all bondage ever since.

18. •
•
•
The Most Holy Fathers your predecessors gave careful heed to these things
and bestowed many favours and numerous privileges on this same kingdom
and people... Thus our nation under their protection did indeed live in
freedom and peace up to the time when that mighty prince the King of the
English, Edward [Edward I], when our kingdom had no head and our people
harboured no malice or treachery and were then unused to wars or
invasions, came in the guise of a friend and ally to harass them as an
enemy. The deeds of cruelty, massacre, violence, pillage, arson,
imprisoning prelates, burning down monasteries, robbing and killing monks
and nuns, and yet other outrages without number which he committed
against our people, sparing neither age nor sex, religion nor rank, no one
could describe nor fully imagine unless he had seen them with his own
eyes…
But from these countless evils we have been set free, by the help of Him
Who though He afflicts yet heals and restores, by our most tireless Prince,
King and Lord, the Lord Robert [Robert Bruce]…
Yet if he should give up what he has begun, and agree to make us or our
kingdom subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert
ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own
rights and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us
our King; for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on
any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor
riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom — for that alone,
which no honest man gives up but with life itself…

19. • May it please you to admonish and exhort the King of
the English, who ought to be satisfied with what
belongs to him since England used once to be enough
for seven kings or more, to leave us Scots in peace,
who live in this poor little Scotland, beyond which
there is no dwelling-place at all, and covet nothing but
our own…
• But if your Holiness puts too much faith in the tales the
English tell and will not give sincere belief to all this,
nor refrain from favouring them to our prejudice, then
the slaughter of bodies, the perdition of souls, and all
the other misfortunes that will follow, inflicted by them
on us and by us on them, will, we believe, be surely
laid by the Most High to your charge…

20. Stone of Scone, taken by Edward I in 1296
and returned to Scotland in 1998

21. Stone of Scone under coronation chair of
English monarchs, Westminster Abbey

22. Edinburgh Castle