The geographical situation and present limits of Wales are unnecessary to
be here described. Of its history, the first certain accounts that we
collect are on the invasion of the Romans, when Wales appears to have
been divided into three principalities: the Silures, the Ordovices, and
the Dimitae. The Silures possessed all that tract of country bounded by
the Severn, the Tame, and the Towey; which, comprehending the counties of
Monmouth, Glamorgan, Brecknock, Radnor, Hereford, and part of Gloucester,
Worcester, and Caermarthen shires, comprised the greater part of
South-Wales. The Dimitae inhabited that part of South-Wales westward of
the Towey; and the Ordovices, North-Wales, including Anglesea.
The Romans having subdued _Britannia Prima_, _i.e._ the Southern part of
England, advanced to the conquest of Wales, by them denominated
_Britannia Secunda_; in this, however, they met with an unlooked-for
opposition; the inhabitants were vigorous and brave; and the country,
wildly piled together with mountains, forests, and morasses, presented an
aggregation of difficulties, that would have discouraged a people less
ardent in their enterprizes: nor did they succeed, until after a long
warfare and a severe loss. The Silures and Dimitae fell under the yoke
in the reign of Vespasian, when they were vanquished by _Julius
Frontinus_. The Ordovices were not finally subdued until the time of his
successor, _Agricola_, who, according to Tacitus, exterminated the whole
nation.
The Romans retained possession of this country until A.D. 408, when they
withdrew their legions, and the most warlike of the British youth, for
the defence of their central dominions. The inroads of the Scots and
Picts, which immediately followed, do not appear to have materially
affected the Welch; nor did the Saxons, though at constant war with them
for several centuries, acquire any settled dominion in the country: yet
they more than once partially overran Wales, obliging it to pay tribute;
and in the reign of Edward the confessor, Harold, at the head of a great
army, entering Wales, defeated Prince Griffith, sovereign of North-Wales,
and, establishing himself in Gwent {6} (Monmouthshire), began a Palace at
Portswit, which was, however, destroyed by Griffith before its
completion.
From the departure of the Romans, in 408, to the inroads of the
Anglo-Norman chieftains in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Wales was
divided into numerous petty sovereignties or lordships, of varying name
and extent, but tributary to an imperial Prince; though sometimes that
dignity was split into two or three branches. These chiefs were usually
at war with each other, or with their Princes, who seldom obtained
tribute when their means of enforcing it was questionable.
The Anglo-Norman dominion in Wales was brought about in a manner wholly
different from former conquests. William the First and his successors,
finding sufficient employment in securing their English possessions,
invited their chiefs, holding lands in the neighbourhood of Wales, to
make incursions against the Welch lords, upon their separate interests.
The Norman leaders thereupon, by creating feuds among the native powers,
siding with one or the other party, and breaking with them on convenient
opportunities, contrived to fix themselves in various parts of Wales;
whence their conquests extending, by degrees, overspread the greater part
of the country. The lands thus obtained became the property of the
conquerors, who, under the title of lords marchers, were allowed to
exercise an uncontrolled jurisdiction within their demesnes: but power
acquired on such principles could only be retained by force; every petty
despot secured himself in a fortress, and hence arose the extraordinary
number of castles with which Wales is crowded, amounting, according to a
native author, {7} to 143. The Welch princes still held a considerable
tract of country, frequently overthrew the intruders, and even carried
their arms into England; but in the defeat of the brave Llewelyn, by
Edward the First, Wales lost every remnant of its independence, and
became definitively united to the crown of England.
In the reign of Henry the Eighth Wales was divided into twelve shires,
and Monmouthshire was included among the English counties; the feudal
despotism of the lords-marchers was then abolished; and Wales,
participating in the equal shelter of English jurisprudence, has proved
itself as zealous in defending the common interests of the empire, as it
was formerly conspicuous in struggling for its particular freedom.