Wales: history to 1066

Throughout its early history, as in later periods, the human settlement of Wales has been dictated by the geographical personality of the countryside. It is part of the highland zone of Britain, a land chiefly of mountain and high plateau; its connections with the eastern parts of Britain facing mainland Europe are less than those with Ireland, and with the western sea route that brought the Mediterranean into contact with Scandinavia.

Wales's relative physical isolation meant that native cultures persisted for many centuries after they had been replaced in lowland Britain. An outstanding example is the hut circles of the Bronze Age in North Wales, which were absorbed into the cultures of the Early Iron Age and continued in use well into Romano‐British times. Caves, also, which were used in prehistoric times, continued to be used as the homes of Romano‐British people. At the same time, the settlement of Wales was governed by the height of the human habitation line on the mountain sides, and by the presence of coastal plains in the south and southwest.

The Stone Age
No evidence of human settlement in Wales exists from the Lower Palaeolithic, but remains from the later stages of the Palaeolithic have been found in the caves of North Wales in the Vale of Clwyd, and in the Gower Peninsula. It was in the Gower, in Paviland Cave in the early 19th century, that Dean William Buckland discovered the oldest human burial yet known in Britain.

The food‐gathering economy of the Mesolithic period is represented in North Wales, at Prestatyn in Clwyd, and elsewhere along the coasts, which provided fishing and pebbles for conversion into tools. Wales is rich in remains of chambered tombs, cairns, stone circles, and other megaliths from the Neolithic period. From detailed study, archaeologists have been able to recognize a distinctive megalithic culture centred round the River Severn. An outstanding feature of the Neolithic period was a factory for the making of axes of igneous rock near Penmaenmawr, Gwynedd. Its products were widely traded. Later, in the Bronze Age, the blue stone of the Preseli mountains was quarried to form part of Stonehenge.

The Bronze and Iron Ages
Settlement of Wales in the Bronze Age came from the Cotswold–Somerset area to the south coastal plain, and from Ireland. The Iron Age began in the 7th century BC and is known mainly from metalwork hoards (for example at Llyn Fawr). Later, hill forts were built, simple at first with subsequent elaboration. Most are small, under 1 hectare/2.5 acres, and they are most densely distributed in the Marches (the region of the border with England), where larger ones are also found (for example, Croft Ambrey, Dinorben, Breiddin). Many small farmsteads were also fortified, some (for example, Whitton in Glamorgan) continuing later as Roman villas.

For further details of life elsewhere in Britain before the Roman occupation, see Britain, ancient.

The Romans in Wales
So rapid was the domination of lowland Britain that within four years of the Roman invasion (AD 43) the Roman army was established on the frontier of South Wales, and by about AD 75 the Second Legion was established in its fortress at Caerleon (Isca Silurum) in Gwent (see Roman Britain). This fortress and its adjuncts have been carefully excavated, and its place in the story of Roman Wales is now well documented. Nearby Caerwent (Venta Silurum) became an important town and was the only civilian centre apart from Carmarthen, to the west. With the legionary fortress at Chester, Caerleon became a base of military occupation by troops stationed in auxiliary forts, such as Y Gaer near Brecon, and ‘Gellygaer’.

There was a considerable rebuilding of forts in stone in the 2nd century, but in about AD 120 much of the Welsh garrison was withdrawn to help with the building of Hadrian's Wall. An important reason for the Roman occupation was mineral extraction; there are Roman lead mines in both North and South Wales, and a Roman gold mine at Dolaucothi, Dyfed. One of the forts of the Saxon Shore, designed for defence against Germanic sea raiders, was established at Cardiff. Apart from the areas of military occupation, and the south where villas like those of Llantwit Major were established, the life of the native Celtic population was not much influenced by the Romanization felt elsewhere.

The stronghold of the Britons
On the conquest of what is now England by the pagan Anglo‐Saxons in the period 450–600 the Britons (the Celtic inhabitants of Britain) were driven back into northwest England, southwest Scotland (known as Strathclyde), Wales, and Cornwall. Henceforth, Wales became the main stronghold of the Britons. Powerful native princes arose in Wales, and extended and consolidated their dominions. Among the most notable of these were Cadwallon the Long‐Handed and his son, Maelgwn Gwynedd. The Welsh people were for a time united under the latter's grandson, also named Cadwallon, who was king of Gwynedd.

The Britons of Wales for some centuries made repeated attempts to recover the northern parts of England from the Anglo‐Saxons, but their defeat by Ethelfrith, the Angle king of Northumbria, at the Battle of Chester (c. 613), severed Strathclyde and all north Britain from Wales. Cadwallon made one further attempt to recover the north and to win the crown of Britain, but died fighting for it in 634, leaving to his son, the semi‐mythical Cadwalader (described by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae/History of the Kings of Britain, a distracted and plague‐stricken country. This ill‐fated attempt to continue the political unity bequeathed by Rome to the West found expression in the Arthurian romances, and these gradually came to dominate Welsh political thought. This same period was one in which monasticism made great progress in the country and also gave Wales a patron saint, St David.

The early Middle Ages
After the death of Cadwalader around 664, the struggle for the recovery of the north of Britain was abandoned for ever. For the next 600 years the struggle was between a king who regarded himself as the champion of the Britons, wearing ‘the crown of Arthur’, and the princes who were descended from the tribal princes. For this period the chief source of information is the Chronicle of the Princes written in the first half of the 14th century, probably at the Cistercian abbey of Strata Florida in Ceredigion.

There was a period of internal strife and Anglo‐Saxon aggression, Wales being divided among its many petty princes. The country was once again united under Rhodri the Great (844–78), who successfully resisted the onslaughts of the Danes, but was himself defeated and slain by the Mercians. On his death his dominions were divided among his three sons, Anarawd, Mervyn, and Cadell.

The next important Welsh prince was Howel the Good (c. 909–49), who made himself master of the greater part of Wales, but did homage to King Athelstan of England. He also collected and codified an elaborate system of laws. From 950 to 1010 no supreme king ruled in Wales, but there were constant struggles between various petty local princes, as well as many raids by the Danes and English.

This period of anarchy was followed by the rule of two strong princes, Llewelyn ap Seisillt and his son Griffith Gruffydd ap Llewelyn). Llewelyn completely freed his country from Danish raids. Griffith (1039–63) expelled the English from Gwynedd, conquered South Wales, consolidated his dominions, and made war against England. Eventually the English subdued South Wales and defeated Griffith (1063).

For further events in the history of Wales, see Wales: history 1066 to 1485 and Wales: the Act of Union.