The English Establishment’s long-term efforts to destroy the Welsh language.
By English Establishment I mean the Monarchy, the English dominated Parliament, the Civil Service, the Armed Forces, the Security Services and, latterly during the last 2 – 3 centuries, the London-based English Media.
Over the last 7 centuries the English Establishment – far from concealing its intentions – has proclaimed in 3 statutes (accessible via Google) its aims of eliminating Welsh National Identity, indeed the Welsh Nation, and destroying the Welsh language.
The first occasion was after the eventual violent, barbaric military conquest and takeover of Wales by England in 1282. Following this conquest and military occupation of Wales, the English Establishment, under Norman King Edward 1st, enacted The Statute of Westminster (1284) which states (I quote verbatim):
“To put the country of Wales and her inhabitants under feudal authority” and “to annex and unify the said country with the crown of the Kingdom (of England) ………in one body”.
The implications of this law are clear, namely that Wales is to be seized (annexed) by England and joined (unified) to England, i.e., become part of a Greater-England. As England, the conquering country, had a much larger population than Wales this process, if successful, could only have one long-term end result – the absorption of the Welsh nation into the English nation, thus totally eliminating the Welsh nation including, and in particular, its language. This was, of course, without the consent of the people of Wales – they were given no say whatever in the matter.
The Welsh people were expected to pretend that they had suddenly, overnight been transformed into English people and expected to adopt English customs and language, but little of this change, desired by the English Establishment, materialised. This pretence is, to a considerable extent, expected of us to this day. With the Cross of St David (and any other symbol of Wales) banished from the Union Jack we are expected to pretend that we are represented on it by England’s Cross of St George! However, except for a short period of independence under the last authentic Prince of Wales, Owain Glyndŵr (1400 – 1412), Wales was essentially a colony of England controlled by military means (with very many castles built, maintained and manned) until:
The second statute that superseded and effectively reinforced the 1284 Statute and was in 2 parts. It was a lot more specific than the 1284 Statute. These were the so-called Acts of Union 1536/43 (endorsed by that tyrannical mass-murderer Henry VIII) passed by the English Parliament consisting entirely of English MPs (322 of them) and imposed on Wales, certainly without the consent of its people who were totally ignored regarding the matter. The key passage echoed the 1284 Statute (again I quote verbatim):
“That the King’s said country or dominion of Wales shall be, stand and continue forever from henceforth incorporated, united and annexed to and with his Realm of England”.
The words “annexed” and “united” again appear (as in the 1284 Law) but these Acts also make it clear that Wales is to be “incorporated” into England – an unambiguous policy clearly aimed at eliminating the Welsh nation. The clear intention was “ethnic cleansing”, but by a less brutal form than physical extermination. In addition further specific measures were introduced designed to facilitate this objective, in particular measures aimed at the elimination of the Welsh language – completely banning the language from public life:
“Also be it enacted that all justices, commissioners, sheriffs, coroners, stewards and their lieutenants, and all other officers and ministers of the law, shall proclaim and keep the sessions, courts, hundreds (divisions of counties), sheriff’s courts and all other courts in the English tongue; and all oaths of officers, juries and inquests, and all other affidavits, verdicts and wagers of law to be given and done in the English tongue; and also from henceforth no person or persons that use the Welsh language shall have or enjoy any manner of office or fees within this realm of England, Wales or other of the King’s dominion upon pain of forfeiting the same office or fees, unless he or they use and exercise the English speech or tongue”.
Thus use of the Welsh language was to be confined to the home, the church and private conversation.
There is little doubt that this gross linguistic oppression would have resulted in the destruction of the Welsh language within a century or two were it not for the translation of the Bible into Welsh by the Rev. William Morgan (1588). This set a very high standard for written Welsh and played a very large part in the language’s relatively successful survival until the 19th Century.
The 1536/1543 Acts also introduced a more subtle method of controlling Wales (very much cheaper than military occupation). The English Parliament realised that because the population of England was 10 times that of Wales (it is now 18 times bigger and increasing), applying something approaching “democracy based on population proportional representation” on an “England and Wales” basis would ensure that England is totally dominant and in control of Wales “forever” – a term inserted into the Act with complete confidence.
As a result, Wales was allocated 27 MPs and its people were successfully hoodwinked into believing that this amounted to genuine and effective power and influence in deciding the destiny of, and control of, their country. However, with England’s massive hegemony as a result of having an enormous majority of MPs (92.3%), this was an illusion of gigantic proportions (as it is today).
However, early in the 19th Century the English Establishment decided that conversion of Welsh people into English people was not happening quickly enough, not least in their reluctance to adopt the English language as their own (over 80% of the population were still Welsh speaking, most being monolingual Welsh).
The English Parliament decided that more draconian action was required to thoroughly anglicise the people of Wales and despatched 3 non-Welsh speaking Anglican, English, Barristers (R R W Lingen, Jellynger C Symons and H R Vaughan Jonson) to Wales to gather the necessary evidence to justify this course of action. It is abundantly clear that the verdict was agreed well in advance of the investigation, namely that the Welsh people must be thoroughly anglicised, the English language being force-fed to them. The report of their investigation alleged that “the Welsh language was a monumental drawback to the people of Wales – economically, linguistically, culturally, morally (!), etc.” Their conclusion (The Treachery of the Blue Books” – a reference to the colour of the report’s covers) stated that the remedy was the imposition of an exclusively “English” educational system on the children of Wales in order to comprehensively Anglicise the population. Of course, the views of the people of Wales were never solicited on the issue. They were not consulted – but totally disregarded and the Anglicization policy was soon deliberately implemented, formally so by the third statute:
William. E. Foster’s Education Act 1870 (this introduced compulsory “English” primary education).
This Act was designed solely with the children of England in mind and was imposed upon Wales by the English Parliament, in accordance with its long-standing pretence that Wales’ children were essentially English children. Consequently a network of “English” schools was imposed on Wales based on the totally dishonest and outrageous charade that Welsh children were linguistically (and otherwise) exactly the same as English children. It was imposed to make Welsh children become monolingual English speaking people and to make them identify with England and the English language – not Wales and the Welsh language. Some people argue that the 1870 Act does not actually ban the Welsh language. It did, of course, have this effect since it was designed for England and, as such, it naturally made no mention of the Welsh language.
This fact together with the government’s extreme anti-Welsh language policy adopted as a result of the Blue Books, produced a virulent anti-Welsh climate that ensured that pro-English indoctrinated teachers imparted an exclusively English language education to the children of Wales in which Welsh was effectively outlawed.
Thus the Welsh language was made an outcast in its own country with school children being physically punished for speaking it. After some 20 years Welsh was very grudgingly introduced into schools – but not as a medium of instruction – rather only as a subject of very low status, value and esteem taught as a “second language” (a title having a pretty obvious connotation that it is second rate) for a bare minimum amount of time.
English medium schools in Wales today are still complying with the 1870 Education Act almost to the letter for they are – with extremely few exceptions – successfully and enthusiastically producing monolingual English speaking people who can only communicate in Welsh extremely ineffectively, if at all (and causing many children from Welsh speaking homes to become stunted and only semi-literate in their first language). Moreover, I know of no evidence whatsoever of any merit or advantages in being monolingual, whereas the benefits of being bilingual (or multilingual) are numerous and well documented. For this reason alone, steering Wales’ education system towards Welsh medium education would therefore be very well-advised and very sensible. However implementing this policy would undoubtedly have to overcome complacency, inertia, defence of the status quo and anti-Welsh language prejudice and bigotry from many people associated with English medium education, including County Councils. The “only English really matters” mentality is still prevalent in English medium schools and amongst a lot of Councillors.
This policy imposed by the 1870 Act has had a devastating effect on the Welsh language with now just 19% of the people of Wales being able to speak the language. The English Establishment’s plan to eliminate Welsh is, indeed, well on the way to being successful. It has poisoned the minds of a substantial proportion of the people of Wales towards the Welsh language and created a lot of illogical, intolerant, anti-Welsh bigotry and contempt for, and even hatred of, the language.
CONCLUSION.
This unhealthy, irrational and disdainful attitude towards the Welsh language has largely been created by English medium education – the education currently provided by approximately three quarters of the schools in Wales. The obvious antidote is Welsh medium education, i.e., creating a rapidly increasing number of Welsh medium schools. Unlike English medium schools, these do not produce monolingual people. Indeed, all of their pupils become thoroughly articulate bilingual individuals who are fluent in both English and Welsh, i.e., reading, writing and speaking both languages on leaving school.
By Gwyn Hopkins 24 March 2017 (Updated 8/1/2022)
O. N. Mae’r datganiad isod yn dangos fod yr Eglwys yng Nghymru’n (sef Eglwys Lloegr bryd hynny) yn arddel yr un meddylfryd dirmygus ac afiach tuag at y Gymraeg yng nghyfnod y Llyfrau Gleision:
Ar dudalen 82 o lyfr J. Graham Jones – “Hanes Cymru (Llyfr Poced)” ceir y geiriau “Ni chafodd yr un esgob a allai bregethu yn y Gymraeg ei benodi i esgobaeth yng Nghymru rhwng 1713 a 1870”.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
P.S. The statement below shows that The Church in Wales (then The Church of England) possessed the same contemptuous and unhealthy mentality towards Welsh at the time of the Blue Books.
On Page 82 of J. Graham Jones’ book “The History of Wales (Pocket Book)” we find the words “Not one bishop that could preach in Welsh was appointed to a bishopric in Wales between 1713 and 1870”.
