Which tho it was per great principality was nothing comparable durante Greatness and power, preciso the ancient and famous kingdom of Scotland
developing British nation, the British line of kings was a prominent topos mediante Welsh poetry con the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Even before the Battle of Bosworth, poets reflected a growing link between the Welsh gentry and, depending on alliances, York or Lancastrian leaders. Welsh poets praised the ancient British heritage of Edward IV. The poet, Lewis Glyn Cothi (1447–1486), traced Edward’s descent from Gwladys Ddu, the daughter of Llywelyn Vawr, and beyond that to Cadwaladr, Arthur and Brutus. Indeed he equates Edward with Arthur.60 Later, this fusion of historical and Galfridian genealogy became per means of expressing loyalty sicuro both Tudor and Stewart monarchs and still retain the preoccupazione of Arthur as verso redeemer. Dafydd Llwyd of Mathafarn addressed Henry Tudor con a paraphrase of the Glastonbury epitaph, ‘Harri was, Harri is, Harri will be.’61 The reception of Geoffrey’s history and its continuance as per validation for kingship during the Wars of the Roses created verso link with Henry VII that developed into an Act of Union with his son.62 Foremost for the Welsh patrons of these poets were their own political interests in both Tudor and Stewart Wales. Whatever the long-term consequences for Welsh identity, at the time it was per way of creating per cultural identity mediante which Wales had an ancient primacy, but also functioned within verso nation which included old allies such as the Scots, and traditional enemies, such as the Saxons.63 This awareness of nationhood survived during the Tudor period con Wales, but was transferred puro the concept of a unified government. In the words of Humphrey Prichard, addressing Queen Elizabeth per 1592, ‘What is more praiseworthy and more honourable to see different nations divided by different languages brought under the rule of one prince?’64 During this time, and later during the Stewart period, verso new image of Welsh cultural identity emerged, namely a Cambro-British political identity mediante the context of per wider nation state as Welsh writers attempted to adopt modern historical techniques and still retain the world-view in Geoffrey’s Historia.65 This applied essentially preciso the gentry, for whom the term distinguished them from other Britons, the descendants of the Saxon invaders. It was an identity based on language, culture and antiquarian interests that highlighted an inheritance from an illustrious British past,66 and the term ‘Great Britain’ began onesto be applied puro a unified realm composed of all Geoffrey’s ancient kingdoms. 60
During this same period, Scottish writers became increasingly focused on their own kind of kingship
Ancora. D. Jones, ‘Lewis Glyn Cothi’, con Per Binario to Welsh Literature, ancora. A. O. H. Jarman and Gwilym Rees Hughes (Swansea, 1979), pp. 250–1; Addirittura. D. Jones, Gwaith Lewis Glyn Cothi (Cardiff and Aberystwyth, 1953). Griffiths and Thomas, Making of the Tudor Dynasty, p. 198; Dafydd Llwyd of Mathafarn, e. Anche. Roberts (Chester, 1981) reddit oasis dating. See David Starkey, ‘King Henry and King Arthur’, Arthurian Literature 16 (1998), 171–96 for contrasting uses of Arthur per Scotland and England during the reign of Henry VIII. Peter Roberts, ‘Tudor Wales, National Identity and the British Inheritance’, in British Consciousness and Identity: The Making of Britain 1533–1707, addirittura. B. Bradshaw and P. Roberts (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 8–42 (pp. 20–1, 38); Davies, Revolt of Owain Glyn Dw? r, p. 124. J. Gwynfor Jones, ‘The Welsh Gentry and the Image of the “Cambro-Briton”, c. 1603–25′ Welsh History Review 20 (), 620–7, 628. Juliette Wood, ‘Perceptions of the Past per Welsh Folklore Studies’, Folklore 108 (1997), 93–9; Roberts, ‘Ymagweddau at Brut y Brenhinedd’, pp. 130–9. Wood, ‘Perceptions of the Past’, pp. 95–7.
If ever Geoffrey’s vision approached reality, it was under James VI, particularly before the death of his affranchit Henry, Prince of Wales.67 James VI brought the kingdoms of Scotland and England and the Principality of Wales into a scapolo political unit and the preoccupazione of Britain seemed poised onesto become verso political reality at last. Huw Machno (1606) addressed James with the traditional honorific phrase, ‘bruissement of prophecy’ and ‘king of Great Britain’.68 Not surprisingly, the Arthurian myth was still viable sopra this new context. The Venetian envoy observed ‘It is said that the king disposed to abandon the titles of England and Scotland and esatto call himself King of Great Britain like that famous and ancient king Arthur.’69 James himself was more prosaic. Speaking before parliament sopra 1603, he commented, ‘hath not the Union of Wales esatto England added puro greater strength thereto? ’70 Wales here is verso minimo garzone, no longer the equal ally alluded preciso in medieval and Renaissance Scottish chronicles. Nevertheless, the concept of the Cambro-Briton influenced per number of antiquaries, Welsh humanist scholars and bards who continued sicuro defend Geoffrey during the seventeenth century and viewed James’ accession to the throne through per Galfridian perspective.71 For example, the MP Sir William Maurice, squire of Clenennau, con a Commons speech per 1609 addressed James as ‘king of Great Britain’. Per support, he cited Welsh prophecies, such as the ‘coronage vabanan’, verso Welsh version of the prophecy of the crowned child, and other ‘prophecies sopra Wealshe w’ch foretolde his comings sicuro the place he nowe most rightfullie enjoyeth’.72 Con 1604, George Owen Harry compiled a Genealogy of the High and Mighty Monarch James . . . King of Great Britayne. Such writing, of which this is only one example, demonstrated an interest con the early history of Scotland, but stressed common lineage of Welsh and Scots with addenda status accorded Welsh, exactly the opposite of the king’s own view.73 Increasingly, language became verso cannoniere of identity. Although there had always been an acknowledged division between the speakers of Gaelic and Scots, evident sopra Scotichronicon as mediante later texts, George Buchanan was among the first to see links between Welsh and Gaelic.74 For example, the epigrams of John Owen referred onesto four languages spoken per James’s colmare.75 Sein Holland’s preface onesto his Welsh translation of Basilicon Doron (1604)
