88-756: The Welsh Marches ( Welsh : Y Mers ) is an imprecisely defined area along the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom . The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods. The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin Marchia Walliae ) was originally used in the Middle Ages to denote the marches between England and the Principality of Wales , in which Marcher lords had specific rights, exercised to some extent independently of
176-441: A Welsh Language Scheme, which indicates its commitment to the equality of treatment principle. This is sent out in draft form for public consultation for a three-month period, whereupon comments on it may be incorporated into a final version. It requires the final approval of the now defunct Welsh Language Board ( Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg ). Thereafter, the public body is charged with implementing and fulfilling its obligations under
264-594: A Welsh-language edge inscription was used on pound coins dated 1985, 1990 and 1995, which circulated in all parts of the UK prior to their 2017 withdrawal. The wording is Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad (Welsh for 'True am I to my country'), and derives from the national anthem of Wales, " Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau ". UK banknotes are in English only. Some shops employ bilingual signage. Welsh sometimes appears on product packaging or instructions. The UK government has ratified
352-663: A census glossary of terms to support the release of results from the census, including their definition of "main language" as referring to "first or preferred language" (though that wording was not in the census questionnaire itself). The wards in England with the most people giving Welsh as their main language were the Liverpool wards of Central and Greenbank ; and Oswestry South in Shropshire . The wards of Oswestry South (1.15%), Oswestry East (0.86%) and St Oswald (0.71%) had
440-405: A fair amount. 56 per cent of Welsh speakers speak the language daily, and 19 per cent speak the language weekly. The Welsh Government plans to increase the number of Welsh-language speakers to one million by 2050. Since 1980, the number of children attending Welsh-medium schools has increased, while the number going to Welsh bilingual and dual-medium schools has decreased. Welsh is considered
528-500: A fortification at Longtown in Herefordshire before refortifying Hereford. Shortly afterwards, Ælfgar was restored to his earldom and a peace treaty concluded. Around this time Gruffydd was also able to seize Morgannwg and Gwent , along with extensive territories along the border with England . Historian John Davies stated that Gruffydd was: During this time, between 1053 and 1063, Wales lacked any internal strife and
616-517: A king") as Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester stated — whereas in England fief-holders were directly accountable to the king. The crown's powers in the Marches were normally limited to those periods when the king held a lordship in its own hands, such as when it was forfeited for treason or on the death of the lord without a legitimate heir whereupon the title reverted to the Crown in escheat . At
704-399: A new language altogether. The argued dates for the period of "Primitive Welsh" are widely debated, with some historians' suggestions differing by hundreds of years. The next main period is Old Welsh ( Hen Gymraeg , 9th to 11th centuries); poetry from both Wales and Scotland has been preserved in this form of the language. As Germanic and Gaelic colonisation of Britain proceeded,
792-536: A particular case. From this developed the distinctive March law . The Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 followed the conquest of the Principality by Edward I of England . It assumed the lands held by the Princes of Gwynedd under the title " Prince of Wales " as legally part of the lands of the Crown, and established shire counties on the English model over those areas. The Marcher Lords were progressively tied to
880-479: A single discourse (known in linguistics as code-switching ). Welsh speakers are largely concentrated in the north and west of Wales, principally Gwynedd , Conwy County Borough , Denbighshire , Anglesey , Carmarthenshire , north Pembrokeshire , Ceredigion , parts of Glamorgan , and north-west and extreme south-west Powys . However, first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales. Welsh-speaking communities persisted well into
968-520: A surprise attack on Gruffydd's court at Rhuddlan . Gruffydd was nearly captured, but was warned in time to escape out to sea in one of his ships, though his other ships were destroyed. In the spring of 1063 Harold's brother Tostig Godwinson led an army into North Wales while Harold led the fleet first to south Wales and then north to meet his brother's army. Gruffydd was forced to take refuge in Snowdonia , where he met his death. Gruffydd's head and
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#17327657394601056-661: Is available throughout Europe on satellite and online throughout the UK. Since the digital switchover was completed in South Wales on 31 March 2010, S4C Digidol became the main broadcasting channel and fully in Welsh. The main evening television news provided by the BBC in Welsh is available for download. There is also a Welsh-language radio station, BBC Radio Cymru , which was launched in 1977. Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Gruffydd ap Llywelyn ( c. 1010 – 5 August 1063)
1144-716: Is distantly related to the verb march , both ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *mereg- , "edge" or "boundary". After the decline and fall of the Roman Empire which occupied southern Britain until about AD 410, the area which is now Wales comprised a number of separate Romano-British kingdoms, including Powys in the east. Over the next few centuries, the Angles , Saxons and others gradually conquered and settled in eastern and southern Britain. The kingdom of Mercia , under Penda , became established around Lichfield , and initially established strong alliances with
1232-420: Is evidenced by the dropping of final syllables from Brittonic: * bardos 'poet' became bardd , and * abona 'river' became afon . Though both Davies and Jackson cite minor changes in syllable structure and sounds as evidence for the creation of Old Welsh, Davies suggests it may be more appropriate to refer to this derivative language as Lingua Britannica rather than characterising it as
1320-492: Is from the 13th-century Middle English marche ("border region, frontier"). The term was borrowed from Old French marche ("limit, boundary"), itself borrowed from a Frankish term derived from Proto-Germanic *markō ("border, area"). The term is a doublet of English mark , and is cognate with German Mark ("boundary"). Cognates are found in the English toponyms " Mercia " and " Mersey ", and in continental place-names containing mark , such as " Denmark ". The term
1408-542: Is no modern legal or official definition of the extent of the Welsh Marches. However, the term the Welsh Marches (or sometimes just the Marches) is commonly used to describe those English counties which lie along the border with Wales, particularly Shropshire and Herefordshire. The term is also sometimes applied to parts of Powys, Monmouthshire and Wrexham. The Welsh Marches Line is a railway line from Newport in
1496-638: Is spoken by smaller numbers of people in Canada and the United States descended from Welsh immigrants, within their households (especially in Nova Scotia ). Historically, it has also been known in English as "British", "Cambrian", "Cambric" and "Cymric". The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 gave the Welsh language official status in Wales. Welsh and English are de jure official languages of
1584-500: The 2016 Australian census , 1,688 people noted that they spoke Welsh. In the 2011 Canadian census , 3,885 people reported Welsh as their first language . According to the 2021 Canadian census , 1,130 people noted that Welsh was their mother tongue. The 2018 New Zealand census noted that 1,083 people in New Zealand spoke Welsh. The American Community Survey 2009–2013 noted that 2,235 people aged five years and over in
1672-466: The 2021 census , 7,349 people in England recorded Welsh to be their "main language". In the 2011 census, 1,189 people aged three and over in Scotland noted that Welsh was a language (other than English) that they used at home. It is believed that there are as many as 5,000 speakers of Patagonian Welsh . In response to the question 'Does the person speak a language other than English at home?' in
1760-683: The Battle of Dyrham , a military battle between the West Saxons and the Britons in 577 AD, which split the South Western British from direct overland contact with the Welsh. Four periods are identified in the history of Welsh, with rather indistinct boundaries: Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, and Modern Welsh. The period immediately following the language's emergence is sometimes referred to as Primitive Welsh, followed by
1848-430: The Battle of Mechain in an attempt to win back part of their father's kingdom. However, they were defeated, one being killed and the other dying of exposure after the battle. Gruffydd married Ealdgyth , daughter of Earl Ælfgar of Mercia after he abducted, and marriage to, the wife, name unknown, of Hywel ab Edwin in 1041. Gruffydd had at least three children: two sons called Maredudd and Idwal, both of whom died at
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#17327657394601936-596: The Earl of Hereford , Ralph the Timid , then set Hereford on fire. This force was mounted and armed in the Norman fashion, but on 24 October 1055 Gruffydd and Ælfgar defeated it. They then sacked the city and destroyed its motte-and-bailey castle . Earl Harold was given the task of counter-attacking, but Gruffydd and Ælfgar had retreated to South Wales whilst Harold ventured no further than Hereford. He seems here to have built
2024-538: The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect of Welsh. The language has greatly increased its prominence since the creation of the television channel S4C in November 1982, which until digital switchover in 2010 broadcast 70 per cent of Channel 4's programming along with a majority of Welsh language shows during peak viewing hours. The all-Welsh-language digital station S4C Digidol
2112-519: The Old Welsh period – which is generally considered to stretch from the beginning of the 9th century to sometime during the 12th century. The Middle Welsh period is considered to have lasted from then until the 14th century, when the Modern Welsh period began, which in turn is divided into Early and Late Modern Welsh. The word Welsh is a descendant, via Old English wealh, wielisc , of
2200-686: The Proto-Germanic word * Walhaz , which was derived from the name of the Celtic people known to the Romans as Volcae and which came to refer to speakers of Celtic languages, and then indiscriminately to the people of the Western Roman Empire . In Old English the term went through semantic narrowing , coming to refer to either Britons in particular or, in some contexts, slaves. The plural form Wēalas evolved into
2288-640: The United States spoke Welsh at home. The highest number of those (255) lived in Florida . Sources: Calls for the Welsh language to be granted official status grew with the establishment of the nationalist political party Plaid Cymru in 1925, the establishment of the Welsh Language Society in 1962 and the rise of Welsh nationalism in the later 20th century. Of the six living Celtic languages (including two revived), Welsh has
2376-629: The Welsh . The process took a century and was never permanently effective. The term "March of Wales" was first used in the Domesday Book of 1086. Over the next four centuries, Norman lords established mostly small marcher lordships between the Dee and Severn, and further west. Military adventurers went to Wales from Normandy and elsewhere and after raiding an area of Wales, then fortified it and granted land to some of their supporters. One example
2464-472: The Welsh kings . However, his successors sought to expand Mercia further westwards into what is now Cheshire , Shropshire and Herefordshire . As the power of Mercia grew, a string of garrisoned market towns such as Shrewsbury and Hereford defined the borderlands as much as Offa's Dyke , a stronger and longer boundary earthwork erected by order of Offa of Mercia between AD 757 and 796. The Dyke still exists, and can best be seen at Knighton , close to
2552-402: The king of England . In modern usage, "the Marches" is often used to describe those English counties which lie along the border with Wales, particularly Shropshire and Herefordshire , and sometimes adjoining areas of Wales. However, at one time the Marches included all of the historic counties of Cheshire , Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire . The term March
2640-542: The "hugely important role", adding, "I look forward to working with the Welsh Government and organisations in Wales in developing the new system of standards. I will look to build on the good work that has been done by the Welsh Language Board and others to strengthen the Welsh language and ensure that it continues to thrive." First Minister Carwyn Jones said that Huws would act as a champion for
2728-473: The 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This is the language of nearly all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion , although the tales themselves are certainly much older. It is also the language of the existing Welsh law manuscripts. Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible to a modern-day Welsh speaker. The Bible translations into Welsh helped maintain
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2816-596: The 1880s identified a small part of Shropshire as still then speaking Welsh, with the "Celtic Border" passing from Llanymynech through Oswestry to Chirk . The number of Welsh-speaking people in the rest of Britain has not yet been counted for statistical purposes. In 1993, the Welsh-language television channel S4C published the results of a survey into the numbers of people who spoke or understood Welsh, which estimated that there were around 133,000 Welsh-speaking people living in England, about 50,000 of them in
2904-536: The 1993 Act nor secondary legislation made under it covers the private sector, although some organisations, notably banks and some railway companies, provide some of their information in Welsh. On 7 December 2010, the Welsh Assembly unanimously approved a set of measures to develop the use of the Welsh language within Wales. On 9 February 2011 this measure, the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 ,
2992-486: The Assembly which confirms the official status of the Welsh language; which creates a strong advocate for Welsh speakers and will improve the quality and quantity of services available through the medium of Welsh. I believe that everyone who wants to access services in the Welsh language should be able to do so, and that is what this government has worked towards. This legislation is an important and historic step forward for
3080-891: The British kings to a meeting at Hereford in AD 926, and according to William of Malmesbury laid down the boundary between Wales and England, particularly the disputed southern stretch where he specified that the River Wye should form the boundary. By the mid-eleventh century, Wales was united under Gruffydd ap Llywelyn of Gwynedd , until his death in 1063. Immediately after the Norman Conquest , King William of England installed three of his most trusted confidants, Hugh d'Avranches , Roger de Montgomerie , and William FitzOsbern , as Earls of Chester, Shrewsbury and Hereford respectively, with responsibilities for containing and subduing
3168-517: The Brittonic speakers in Wales were split off from those in northern England, speaking Cumbric, and those in the southwest, speaking what would become Cornish , so the languages diverged. Both the works of Aneirin ( Canu Aneirin , c. 600 ) and the Book of Taliesin ( Canu Taliesin ) were written during this era. Middle Welsh ( Cymraeg Canol ) is the label attached to the Welsh of
3256-682: The Celtic language spoken by the ancient Celtic Britons . Classified as Insular Celtic , the British language probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was probably spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth . During the Early Middle Ages the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, thus evolving into Welsh and
3344-613: The English crown following the Edwardian conquest of Wales in the 13th century. By the 16th century, many marcher lordships had passed into the hands of the crown, as the result of the accessions of Henry IV , who was previously Duke of Lancaster , and Edward IV , the heir of the Earls of March ; of the attainder of other lords during the Wars of the Roses ; and of other events. The crown
3432-477: The English king whom they were bound to support in times of war, but their lands were exempt from royal taxation and they possessed rights which elsewhere were reserved to the crown, such as the rights to create forests, markets and boroughs. The lordships were geographically compact and jurisdictionally separate one from another, and their privileges differentiated them from English lordships. Marcher lords ruled their lands by their own law— sicut regale ("like unto
3520-458: The English kings by the grants of lands and lordships in England, where control was stricter, and where many marcher lords spent most of their time, and through the English kings' dynastic alliances with the great magnates. The Council of Wales and the Marches , administered from Ludlow Castle , was initially established in 1472 by Edward IV of England to govern the lands held under the Principality of Wales which had become directly administered by
3608-550: The Greater London area. The Welsh Language Board , on the basis of an analysis of the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study, estimated there were 110,000 Welsh-speaking people in England, and another thousand in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In the 2011 census , 8,248 people in England gave Welsh in answer to the question "What is your main language?" The Office for National Statistics subsequently published
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3696-496: The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, all new signs have Welsh displayed first. There have been incidents of one of the languages being vandalised, which may be considered a hate crime . Since 2000, the teaching of Welsh has been compulsory in all schools in Wales up to age 16; this has had an effect in stabilising and reversing the decline in the language. Text on UK coins tends to be in English and Latin. However,
3784-704: The Welsh Language Scheme. The list of other public bodies which have to prepare Schemes could be added to by initially the Secretary of State for Wales, from 1993 to 1997, by way of statutory instrument . Subsequent to the forming of the National Assembly for Wales in 1997, the Government Minister responsible for the Welsh language can and has passed statutory instruments naming public bodies who have to prepare Schemes. Neither
3872-895: The Welsh Parliament, the Senedd , with Welsh being the only de jure official language in any part of the United Kingdom, with English being merely de facto official. According to the 2021 census , the Welsh-speaking population of Wales aged three or older was 538,300 (17.8%) and nearly three quarters of the population in Wales said they had no Welsh language skills. Other estimates suggest that 862,700 people (28.0%) aged three or older in Wales could speak Welsh in March 2024. Almost half of all Welsh speakers consider themselves fluent, while 20 per cent are able to speak
3960-526: The Welsh language, though some had concerns over her appointment: Plaid Cymru spokeswoman Bethan Jenkins said, "I have concerns about the transition from Meri Huws's role from the Welsh Language Board to the language commissioner, and I will be asking the Welsh government how this will be successfully managed. We must be sure that there is no conflict of interest, and that the Welsh Language Commissioner can demonstrate how she will offer
4048-487: The Welsh of the 16th century, but they are similar enough for a fluent Welsh speaker to have little trouble understanding it. During the Modern Welsh period, there has been a decline in the popularity of the Welsh language: the number of Welsh speakers declined to the point at which there was concern that the language would become extinct. During industrialisation in the late 19th century, immigrants from England led to
4136-630: The Welsh-speaking heartlands, with the number dropping to under 50 per cent in Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire for the first time. However, according to the Welsh Language Use Survey in 2019–20, 22 per cent of people aged three and over were able to speak Welsh. The Annual Population Survey (APS) by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that as of March 2024, approximately 862,700, or 28.0 per cent of
4224-579: The ancestor of Cumbric as well as Welsh. Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time. The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to the Cynfeirdd or "Early Poets" – is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was supposedly composed in the Hen Ogledd , raising further questions about the dating of
4312-667: The border. 52°N 3°W / 52°N 3°W / 52; -3 Welsh language Welsh ( Cymraeg [kəmˈraːiɡ] or y Gymraeg [ə ɡəmˈraːiɡ] ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people . Welsh is spoken natively in Wales , by some in England , and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province , Argentina ). It
4400-408: The census. In terms of usage, ONS also reported that 14.4 per cent (443,800) of people aged three or older in Wales reported that they spoke Welsh daily in March 2024, with 5.4 per cent (165,500) speaking it weekly and 6.5 per cent (201,200) less often. Approximately 1.7 per cent (51,700) reported that they never spoke Welsh despite being able to speak the language, with the remaining 72.0 per cent of
4488-405: The country. By about AD 1100 the March covered the areas which would later become Monmouthshire and much of Flintshire , Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire , Brecknockshire, Glamorgan , Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire . Ultimately, this amounted to about two-thirds of Wales. During the period, the Marches were a frontier society in every sense, and a stamp was set on the region that lasted into
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#17327657394604576-414: The course of the 20th century this monolingual population all but disappeared, but a small percentage remained at the time of the 1981 census. Most Welsh-speaking people in Wales also speak English. However, many Welsh-speaking people are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain and the social context, even within
4664-479: The decline in Welsh speakers particularly in the South Wales Valleys. Welsh government processes and legislation have worked to increase the proliferation of the Welsh language, for example through education. Welsh has been spoken continuously in Wales throughout history; however, by 1911, it had become a minority language, spoken by 43.5 per cent of the population. While this decline continued over
4752-442: The figurehead of his ship were sent to Harold. The Ulster Chronicle states that he was killed in 1064 by Cynan, whose father Iago had been put to death by Gruffydd in 1039. Gruffydd had probably made enemies in the course of uniting Wales under his rule. According to Walter Map , Gruffydd said of this: Following Gruffydd's death, Harold married his widow Ealdgyth , who was to be widowed again three years later. Gruffydd's realm
4840-491: The following decades, the language did not die out. The smallest number of speakers was recorded in 1981 with 503,000 although the lowest percentage was recorded in the most recent census in 2021 at 17.8 per cent. By the start of the 21st century, numbers began to increase once more, at least partly as a result of the increase in Welsh-medium education . The 2004 Welsh Language Use Survey showed that 21.7 per cent of
4928-469: The highest number of native speakers who use the language on a daily basis, and it is the Celtic language which is considered the least endangered by UNESCO . The Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 provide that the Welsh and English languages be treated equally in the public sector, as far as is reasonable and practicable. Each public body is required to prepare for approval
5016-476: The highest percentage of residents giving Welsh as their main language. The census also revealed that 3,528 wards in England, or 46% of the total number, contained at least one resident whose main language is Welsh. In terms of the regions of England , North West England (1,945), London (1,310) and the West Midlands (1,265) had the highest number of people noting Welsh as their main language. According to
5104-672: The jurisdiction of the marcher lords was abolished in 1536. The acts had the effect of annexing Wales with England and creating a single state and legal jurisdiction , commonly referred to as England and Wales . The powers of the marcher lordships were abolished, and their areas were organised into the new Welsh counties of Denbighshire , Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire , Brecknockshire, Monmouthshire , and Carmarthenshire . The counties of Pembrokeshire and Glamorgan were created by adding other districts to existing lordships. In place of assize courts of England, there were Courts of Great Sessions . These administered English law, in contrast with
5192-506: The language, its speakers and for the nation." The measure was not welcomed warmly by all supporters: Bethan Williams, chairman of the Welsh Language Society, gave a mixed response to the move, saying, "Through this measure we have won official status for the language and that has been warmly welcomed. But there was a core principle missing in the law passed by the Assembly before Christmas. It doesn't give language rights to
5280-402: The least endangered Celtic language by UNESCO . The language of the Welsh developed from the language of Britons . The emergence of Welsh was not instantaneous and clearly identifiable. Instead, the shift occurred over a long period, with some historians claiming that it had happened by as late as the 9th century , with a watershed moment being that proposed by linguist Kenneth H. Jackson ,
5368-448: The marcher lordships, which had administered Welsh law for their Welsh subjects. Some lordships were added to adjoining English counties: Ludlow , Clun , Caus and part of Montgomery were incorporated into Shropshire; Wigmore , Huntington , Clifford and most of Ewyas were included in Herefordshire; and that part of Chepstow east of the River Wye was included in Gloucestershire . The Council of Wales, based at Ludlow Castle ,
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#17327657394605456-495: The material and language in which it was originally composed. This discretion stems from the fact that Cumbric was widely believed to have been the language used in Hen Ogledd. An 8th-century inscription in Tywyn shows the language already dropping inflections in the declension of nouns. Janet Davies proposed that the origins of the Welsh language were much less definite; in The Welsh Language: A History , she proposes that Welsh may have been around even earlier than 600 AD. This
5544-419: The modern border between England and Wales. Campaigns and raids from Powys led, possibly around about AD 820, to the building of Wat's Dyke , a boundary earthwork extending from the Severn valley near Oswestry to the Dee estuary . In the centuries which followed, Offa's Dyke largely remained the frontier between the Welsh and English. Æthelstan , often seen as the first king of a united England, summoned
5632-468: The modern period across the border in England. Archenfield was still Welsh enough in the time of Elizabeth I for the Bishop of Hereford to be made responsible, together with the four Welsh bishops, for the translation of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Welsh. Welsh was still commonly spoken there in the first half of the 19th century, and churchwardens' notices were put up in both Welsh and English until about 1860. Alexander John Ellis in
5720-433: The name for their territory, Wales. The modern names for various Romance-speaking people in Continental Europe (e.g. Walloons , Valaisans , Vlachs / Wallachians , and Włosi , the Polish name for Italians) have a similar etymology. The Welsh term for the language, Cymraeg , descends from the Brythonic word combrogi , meaning 'compatriots' or 'fellow countrymen'. Welsh evolved from Common Brittonic ,
5808-503: The other Brittonic languages. It is not clear when Welsh became distinct. Linguist Kenneth H. Jackson has suggested that the evolution in syllabic structure and sound pattern was complete by around AD 550, and labelled the period between then and about AD 800 "Primitive Welsh". This Primitive Welsh may have been spoken in both Wales and the Hen Ogledd ('Old North') – the Brittonic-speaking areas of what are now northern England and southern Scotland – and therefore may have been
5896-402: The people of Wales in every aspect of their lives. Despite that, an amendment to that effect was supported by 18 Assembly Members from three different parties, and that was a significant step forward." On 5 October 2011, Meri Huws , Chair of the Welsh Language Board , was appointed the new Welsh Language Commissioner. She released a statement that she was "delighted" to have been appointed to
5984-471: The population not being able to speak it. The National Survey for Wales, conducted by Welsh Government, has also tended to report a higher percentage of Welsh speakers than the census, with the most recent results for 2022–2023 suggesting that 18 per cent of the population aged 3 and over were able to speak Welsh, with an additional 16 per cent noting that they had some Welsh-speaking ability. Historically, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh. Over
6072-502: The population of Wales aged 3 and over, were able to speak the language. Children and young people aged three to 15 years old were more likely to report that they could speak Welsh than any other age group (48.4 per cent, 241,300). Around 1,001,500 people, or 32.5 per cent, reported that they could understand spoken Welsh. 24.7 per cent (759,200) could read and 22.2 per cent (684,500) could write in Welsh. The APS estimates of Welsh language ability are historically higher than those produced by
6160-407: The population of Wales spoke Welsh, compared with 20.8 per cent in the 2001 census , and 18.5 per cent in the 1991 census . Since 2001, however, the number of Welsh speakers has declined in both the 2011 and 2021 censuses to about 538,300 or 17.8 per cent in 2021, lower than 1991, although it is still higher in absolute terms. The 2011 census also showed a "big drop" in the number of speakers in
6248-409: The required fresh approach to this new role." Huws started her role as the Welsh Language Commissioner on 1 April 2012. Local councils and the Senedd use Welsh, issuing Welsh versions of their literature, to varying degrees. Road signs in Wales are in Welsh and English. Prior to 2016, the choice of which language to display first was the responsibility of the local council. Since then, as part of
6336-497: The south of Wales to Shrewsbury, via Abergavenny, Hereford, and Craven Arms . The Marches Way is a long distance footpath which connects Chester in the north of England, via Whitchurch , Shrewsbury , Leominster and Abergavenny to the Welsh capital, Cardiff. The Marches School is a secondary school in Oswestry , Shropshire. The school has several meeting rooms named in Welsh, and has students and staff from both sides of
6424-483: The south of Wales. Many new towns were established, some such as Chepstow , Monmouth , Ludlow and Newtown becoming successful trading centres, and these tended also to be a focus of English settlement. At the same time, the Welsh continued to attack English soil and supported rebellions against the Normans. The Norman lords each had similar rights to the Welsh princes. Each owed personal allegiance, as subjects, to
6512-539: The south, for in 1044 Hywel is again recorded returning to River Towy with a fleet from Ireland , Gruffydd, however, defeated and killed Hywel. Gruffydd ap Rhydderch of Kingdom of Gwent was able to expel Gruffydd ap Llywelyn from Deheubarth in 1047 and became king of Deheubarth himself. Afterwards the nobles of Ystrad Tywi had attacked and killed 140 of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn's household guards, Gruffydd exacted his revenge in Towy and Dyfed . Gruffydd ap Llywelyn
6600-730: The time of the Industrial Revolution. Hundreds of small castles were built in the border area in the 12th and 13th centuries, predominantly by Norman lords as assertions of power as well as defences against Welsh raiders and rebels. The area still contains Britain's densest concentration of motte-and-bailey castles. The Marcher lords encouraged immigration from all the Norman-Angevin realms, and encouraged trade from "fair haven" ports like Cardiff . Peasants went to Wales in large numbers: Henry I encouraged Bretons , Flemings , Normans , and English settlers to move into
6688-508: The top of a culturally diverse, intensely feudalised and local society, the Marcher barons combined the authority of feudal lord and vassal of the King among their Normans, and of supplanting the traditional tywysog among their conquered Welsh. However, Welsh law was sometimes used in the Marches in preference to English law, and there were disputes as to which code should be used to decide
6776-526: The use of Welsh in daily life, and standardised spelling. The New Testament was translated by William Salesbury in 1567, and the complete Bible by William Morgan in 1588. Modern Welsh is subdivided into Early Modern Welsh and Late Modern Welsh. Early Modern Welsh ran from the 15th century through to the end of the 16th century, and the Late Modern Welsh period roughly dates from the 16th century onwards. Contemporary Welsh differs greatly from
6864-458: Was Bernard de Neufmarché , responsible for conquering and pacifying the Welsh kingdom of Brycheiniog . The precise dates and means of formation of the lordships varied, as did their size. The March, or Marchia Wallie , was to a greater or lesser extent independent of both the English monarchy and the Principality of Wales or Pura Wallia , which remained based in Gwynedd in the north west of
6952-435: Was active on the Welsh border in 1052 when he attacked Herefordshire with an army consisting of a fleet of 18 ships from Ireland, they defeated a mixed force of Normans and Anglo-Saxons in the Battle of Leominster . According to Brut y Tywysogion , Sweyn Godwinson was called in to help Gruffydd's brother Rhys against Gruffydd ap Rhydderch in 1045 to keep hold of Deheubarth. Gruffydd raided Leominster in 1052, which
7040-564: Was also directly responsible for the government of the Principality of Wales, which had its own institutions and was, like England, divided into counties. The jurisdiction of the remaining marcher lords was therefore seen as an anomaly, and their independence from the crown enabled criminals from England to evade justice by moving into the area and claiming "marcher liberties". Under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 introduced under Henry VIII ,
7128-466: Was at peace. The later Brut y Tywysogion described him as being "the head and shield of the Britons". John of Worcester referred to him, several decades later, as Rex Walensium , King of the Welsh . Gruffydd reached an agreement with Edward the Confessor , but the death of his ally Ælfgar in 1062 left him more vulnerable. In late 1062 Harold Godwinson obtained the English king's approval for
7216-437: Was divided again into the traditional kingdoms. Bleddyn ap Cynfyn and his brother Rhiwallon came to an agreement with Harold and were given the rule of Gwynedd and Powys. Thus when Harold was defeated and killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the Normans reaching the borders of Wales were confronted by the traditional kingdoms rather than a single king. Gruffydd left two sons who in 1069 challenged Bleddyn and Rhiwallon at
7304-639: Was made King. Soon after gaining power, he surprised a Mercian army at Rhyd y Groes near Welshpool and defeated it, killing Edwin, brother of Leofric, Earl of Mercia . He then attacked Dyfed , which his father had ruled but was now under Hywel ab Edwin . Gruffydd again defeated Hywel in the Battle of Pencader in 1041 (halfway between Carmarthen and Lampeter but didn't win entirely until 1042 at "Pwlldyfach" (near Carmarthen ) and carried off Hywel's wife. Gruffydd seems to have been able to drive Hywel (and his Irish fleet of "Black Gentiles / Pagans") out of
7392-518: Was passed and received Royal Assent, thus making the Welsh language an officially recognised language within Wales. The measure: The measure required public bodies and some private companies to provide services in Welsh. The Welsh government's Minister for Heritage at the time, Alun Ffred Jones , said, "The Welsh language is a source of great pride for the people of Wales, whether they speak it or not, and I am delighted that this measure has now become law. I am very proud to have steered legislation through
7480-595: Was reconstituted as the Council of Wales and the Marches , with statutory responsibilities for the whole of Wales together with, initially, Cheshire , Shropshire , Herefordshire , Worcestershire and Gloucestershire . The City of Bristol was exempted in 1562, and Cheshire in 1569. The Council was eventually abolished in 1689, following the " Glorious Revolution " which overthrew James II (VII of Scotland) and established William III (William of Orange ) as king. List of Marcher lordships and successor shires: There
7568-411: Was the Battle of Llanllieni , the Welsh fought Normans and Anglo-Saxons. In 1055 Gruffydd ap Llywelyn killed his rival Gruffydd ap Rhydderch in battle and recaptured Deheubarth. Gruffydd allied himself with Ælfgar , son of Leofric, Earl of Mercia , who had been deprived of his earldom of East Anglia by Harold Godwinson and his brothers. They marched on Hereford and were opposed by a force led by
7656-426: Was the first and only Welsh king to unite all of Wales under his rule from 1055 to 1063. He had also previously been King of Gwynedd and Powys from 1039 to 1055. Gruffydd was the son of Llywelyn ap Seisyll , king of Gwynedd, and Angharad daughter of Maredudd ab Owain , king of Deheubarth , and the great-great-grandson of Hywel Dda . After his death, Wales was again divided into separate kingdoms. Gruffydd
7744-608: Was the son of Llywelyn ap Seisyll, who had been able to rule both Kingdom of Gwynedd and Kingdom of Powys , and of Angharad ferch Maredudd. On Llywelyn's death in 1023, a member of the House of Aberffraw , Iago ab Idwal ap Meurig , became ruler of Gwynedd and began his rise to power in Powys. In 1039, Iago, king of the kingdom of Gwynedd, was killed (supposedly by his own men), his son Cynan forced into exile in Dublin , and Gruffydd
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