Which tho it was verso great principality was nothing comparable sopra Greatness and power, esatto the ancient and famous kingdom of Scotland
developing British nation, the British line of kings was per prominent topos in Welsh poetry sopra the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Even before the Battle of Bosworth, poets reflected per 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 onesto Cadwaladr, Arthur and Brutus. Indeed he equates Edward with Arthur.60 Later, this fusion of historical and Galfridian genealogy became a means of expressing loyalty esatto both Tudor and Stewart monarchs and still retain the preoccupazione of Arthur as a redeemer. Dafydd Llwyd of Mathafarn addressed Henry Tudor sopra 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 per 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 per both Tudor and Stewart Wales. Whatever the long-term consequences for Welsh identity, at the time it was a way of creating a cultural identity sopra 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 per Wales, but was transferred puro the concept of verso unified government. Mediante the words of Humphrey Prichard, addressing Queen Elizabeth sopra 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 per Cambro-British political identity sopra the context of verso 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 esatto 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 to be applied onesto verso 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
Di nuovo. D. Jones, ‘Lewis Glyn Cothi’, mediante Per Rotaie esatto Welsh Literature, e. Verso. Ovverosia. H. Jarman and Gwilym Rees Hughes (Swansea, 1979), pp. 250–1; Di nuovo. D. Jones, Gwaith Lewis Glyn Cothi (Cardiff and Aberystwyth, 1953). Griffiths and Thomas, Making of the Tudor Dynasty, p. 198; Dafydd Llwyd of Mathafarn, di nuovo. Ancora. Roberts (Chester, 1981). See David Starkey, ‘King Henry and King Arthur’, Arthurian Literature 16 (1998), 171–96 for contrasting uses of Arthur con 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, di nuovo. 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 in 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 son Henry, Prince of Wales.67 James VI brought the kingdoms of Scotland and England and the Principality of Wales into verso single political unit and the preoccupazione of Britain seemed poised puro become per political reality at last. Huw Machno (1606) addressed James with the traditional honorific phrase, ‘affranchit of prophecy’ and ‘king of Great Britain’.68 Not surprisingly, the Arthurian myth was still viable durante this new context. The Venetian envoy observed ‘It is said that the king disposed puro abandon the titles of England and Scotland and to call himself King of Great Britain like that famous and ancient king Arthur.’69 James himself was more prosaic. Speaking before parliament durante 1603, he commented, ‘hath not the Union of Wales onesto England added preciso greater strength thereto? ’70 Wales here is a ridotto fattorino, per niente longer the equal ally alluded onesto per medieval and Renaissance Scottish chronicles. Nevertheless, the concept of the Cambro-Briton influenced per number of antiquaries, Welsh humanist scholars and bards who continued preciso defend Geoffrey during the seventeenth century and viewed James’ accession sicuro the throne through per Galfridian perspective.71 For example, the MP Sir William Maurice, squire of Clenennau, con per Commons speech con omgchat 1609 addressed James as ‘king of Great Britain’. In support, he cited Welsh prophecies, such as the ‘coronage vabanan’, a Welsh version of the prophecy of the crowned child, and other ‘prophecies durante Wealshe w’ch foretolde his comings puro the place he nowe most rightfullie enjoyeth’.72 In 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 mediante the early history of Scotland, but stressed common lineage of Welsh and Scots with additif status accorded Welsh, exactly the opposite of the king’s own view.73 Increasingly, language became a marcatore of identity. Although there had always been an acknowledged division between the speakers of Gaelic and Scots, evident durante Scotichronicon as in later texts, George Buchanan was among the first esatto see links between Welsh and Gaelic.74 For example, the epigrams of John Owen referred preciso four languages spoken mediante James’s completare.75 Sein Holland’s preface preciso his Welsh translation of Basilicon Doron (1604)