The happy assimilation myth and England’s reign of terror

Stephen Price

One of the worst things about social media is other people.

What started as a good thing, connecting us to one another, has morphed into a cesspit of misinformation, anger and time-wasting, and is conversely having the opposite effect of bringing us together by polarising us and, insanely, driving us further apart than ever.

That’s not to say it doesn’t have its joys. I’ve found new music, new friends, new recipes; been inspired to visit new countries, standing stones, restaurants, and I’ve also, god bless Mr Zuckerberg, discovered a wealth of history that wasn’t taught in schools. ‘Hidden’ histories of our Princes, our language, our people’s massacres and subjugation.

One account worth hanging around on social media for is The History of Wales – a daily source of multiple ‘on this day’ style posts that never fail to astonish. And with over 200,000 followers, I’m certainly not alone.

One of its most recent posts to stir within me feelings of both anger and revulsion came late last month.

The post reads: “On 28th January 1543, Bishop Rowland Lee died. He was Lord President of the Council of Wales and the Marches and Henry VIII’s enforcer of the Acts of Union between England and Wales. He was also described as a “great despiser of Welshmen”

“With the implementation of The Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, the legal system and administration of England were applied in Wales and English became the official language. The act also divided Wales into 13 counties each governed by a Justice of the Peace appointed by Henry.

“These were the existing counties of the principality and included Marcher Lordships being converted into the new counties of Monmouthshire, Brecknockshire, Radnorshire, Montgomeryshire and Denbighshire.

“Henry figured that bringing the Welsh into the Union would require strong measures and appointed the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, Rowland Lee as Lord President of the Council of Wales and the Marches, tasked with bringing law and order to the Welsh regions.

“What ensued was a reign of terror. Lee, who believed the Welsh could not be trusted boasted of hanging 5000 Welshmen during his five years in charge, which resulted in him being referred to as the ‘hanging Bishop’. According to one account, his fervour for hanging was so great that he even hanged the body of a dead man, because of his disappointment at missing an opportunity to do so when he was alive.”

To think that this, and so many other important pieces of information not just from Wales, but from my own doorstep, is new news sets off a skin-prickling level of anger.

That we have all been denied not only this information in our history lessons, but countless others – battle after battle, act and land grab after land grab is one of the greatest shameful acts bestowed upon the Welsh people.

The killing of our princes, the killing of their children, the killing of our chiefs, the punishment of our children in schools for speaking their own language. The list is endless.

And that brings us back to line one, other people…

‘We’re all British’

One of the worst things you can do if you’re easily annoyed by idiocy and questionable information is to read comments online.

Facebook, X, YouTube, and sometimes even a news website’s comment section (God bless the down-voting facility).

Time and time again, on any post that is perhaps being read as ‘anti-English’ to English folk, or a post sharing quite simple historical truths, you’ll find more than a few commenters explaining that ‘we’re all British’, ‘So and so king was Welsh’, ‘It was Vortigern (Gwrtheyrn) wot did it’, and that, contrary to historical evidence, the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Normans et. al. were actually quite pleasant folk, and they all happily intermingled with the welcoming ‘warmongering’ Celts.

England is, you see, dear Welsh person, simply a joyous mix of Celts and a handful of folk from the continent according to the trusty internet. A very ‘now’ take on the sensibilities of how invaders and the invaded from over 1,000 years ago would have seen their brutal, often-short-lived take on reality.

A ring of castles across Wales is simply good foresight on the part of those that knew better. Good for tourism, don’t you know. Nothing colonial to see here.

To Wikipedia, where most Google ‘research’ into this happy assimilation will culminate for the online: “In a Eastern England was populated by Brythonic tribes such as the Iceni, Corieltauvi, and Catuvellauni. In the most common view, the Britons of Eastern England were assimilated by Anglo-Saxons in the first 200 years of invasion, from 450-600 AD, as their kingdoms were conquered. This view is often supported by the lack of Brythonic toponyms in the region, and by various mentions such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 491 AD: “Aelle and Cissa begirt Andredesceaster and slay all who dwell therein, nor was there for that reason one Briton left alive”.

“Evidence of continuing Brythonic presence in Eastern England can be found in the Life of Saint Guthlac, a biography of the East Anglian hermit who lived in the Fens during the early 8th century. Saint Guthlac was described as attacked on several occasions by people he believed were Britons living in the Fens.[50] The 12th century story Havelok the Dane includes a Saxon king Alsi, of Brittonic origin, who ruled over Lincoln, Lindsey, Rutland and Stamford. In the year 1090 a monk in Ramsey wrote that “the savage and untamable race of the Britons was ravaging far and wide in the province of Huntingdon”. This suggests that Britons were still living in the Fens by 11th century and most likely practiced their own style of Christianity, which was considered pagan by local Anglo-Saxons.[50] Another story from Ramsey mentions raids of Britons not far from Royston in the 10th century.[51] In The Memorials of Cambridge we can find a line “If any of the gild slay a man, and he be an avenger by compulsion (neadwraca) and compensate for his violence, and the slain man be a twelfhynde man, let each of the gild give half a mark for his aid: if the slain man be a ceorl, two oras: if he be Welsh (Wylisc) one ora”, where “Wylisc” refers to a Briton. We may infer that, though a Welsh servile population existed in Cambridgeshire in the tenth century, it was not so numerous as elsewhere, and that there the Welshman’s life was more respected.”

Where to start? So assimilation on one hand, but conquering, othering, slaying, no evidence of original place names…

And then we go on to the Britons being called a ‘savage and untamable’ race, with a handsome bounty on their heads.

That, there, is the best they’ve got to offer for assimilation? Imagine the worst then!

In fact, don’t imagine, here’s Wikipedia’s list of ‘Anglo-Welsh Wars’. Centuries upon centuries of spilled blood, and like any other war, casualties reduced to numbers, to romantic tales of heroic princes who inspire pride among us today instead of the blistering anger and full comprehension of the sheer pervasive, suffocating terror of it all.

To paint a picture of England’s treatment of Wales and the Welsh for over a thousand years – our culture, our land and language – as a natural, charming event, a coming together of brethren, is rotten to its core.

Petition

A Senedd Cymru petition launched earlier this month, calling on the Welsh Government to ‘put a much greater focus on Welsh history’ in the GCSE (Curriculum Wales) course, although, of course, plans are in motion to do so already.

The petition, created by Elfed Wyn ap Elwyn states: “At the moment, school leavers in Wales will know more about the history of America and Nazi Germany than the history of their own country.

“The new GCSEs in History being introduced in September this year are likely to exacerbate this situation even further.

“We need your support to ensure that learning the story of our country is put at the forefront, giving our young people the opportunity to understand and appreciate Welsh history as a central part of their education.”

ap Elwyn adds: “The new GCSE History course was postponed for a year last year thanks to a successful campaign by history teachers across Wales who opposed the changes.

“At the time, it was hoped that the WJEC examination board and the Welsh Government would listen to their voice and review the course for the better. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened, and the situation continues without any meaningful changes.”

The petition follows years of campaigning across Wales, including calls from Dr Huw Griffiths, a Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, who has argued that Welsh history is being sidelined in secondary schools and a complete overhaul of Wales’ GCSE history qualification is urgently needed.

The prominent historian was one of 200 teachers that had a hand in compiling the content of Wales’ GCSE history qualification around ten years ago.

But Dr Griffiths says that despite his best efforts, the resulting qualification never had enough focus on Welsh history. He is now battling for this to change.

‘Battle’

With a new GCSE history qualification set to be introduced in Wales in September 2026, Dr Griffiths has called for a complete re-design of what 14 to 16-year-olds are taught about their own country’s history.

The education academic has suggested that the people of Wales themselves should have a hand in what content should be include in the next GCSE history qualification.

Dr Griffiths said: “We are fighting a battle to get Welsh history in our schools.

“As a country we should look together and decide what are the 10 or 15 key facts, events, dates, or figures that every pupil in Wales ought to learn about.

“Every child in Wales should know about Aneurin Bevan and events like the Aberfan disaster. Dates like 1812, 1822 and 1847 are important too.

“Children in Wales should know these things — about who we are as a people. It’s just bonkers that we don’t emphasise it in schools.”

As is reflected in my own school experience, where our Welsh language teachers gave us the only smattering of Welsh history, culture, poetry and the like that we had in the entire seven years of high school, Dr Griffiths says that Welsh language departments in both Welsh and English medium schools do a “far better job” of teaching Welsh history than school history departments do.

He has also compiled and studied the details of history curriculums taught in schools across the world and compared them with Wales.

Dr Griffiths said: “It’s an eye-opener. The amount of history being taught in other countries is vastly different to Wales.

“In Wales, children know far more about Nazi Germany and American history than they do about the Aberfan disaster. They know who Rosa Parks is, but they haven’t got a clue about important figures from their own country.”

Dr Griffiths has suggested several key Welsh historic topics that should be taught to children in Wales.

These include the death of the last Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, and the 1847 Blue Books report — a three-part government publication about the state of education in Wales that was branded a disparaging and prejudiced attack on the Welsh people.

Dr Griffiths said: “If you were to ask the majority of young people in Wales what happened in 1966 they are far more likely to say that England won the World Cup.

“That shouldn’t be the answer, the answer should be Aberfan. There are certain dates in Welsh history that are very important.

“1282 was when Llywelyn, the last Prince of Wales, was killed. 1847 was the Blue Books report which had a massive impact on the Welsh language. These are the dates people in Wales should know about.

“We should take pride in the fact that Lloyd George brought the pensions in and changed British society as a result.

“Aneurin Bevan brought the NHS in. These people changed our society and we should feel pride towards this and make our young people aware of it.”

Plaid Cymru spokesperson for Education, Cefin Campbell MS said: “Understanding Wales begins with knowing our own history. Plaid Cymru has long championed putting Welsh history at the heart of our curriculum, so every young person grows up with a full understanding of our nation’s story.

“We’ve consistently pressed the Welsh Government to ensure it’s taught meaningfully and with pride in every school and forms part of our qualifications. In government, Plaid Cymru would make sure Welsh history is a core part of our curriculum and qualifications, supported, celebrated, and given the importance it deserves.”

Who writes our stories?

For too long, the narrative in the UK has suggested that ‘British history’ begins with the arrival in the UK of the Romans and then the Saxons.

That primitive cave-folk benefitted from roads in straight lines and had a few unnamed squirmishes where they were labelled the bad guys, and from there on in it’s over to the English Kings and Queens and World War II.

So while it might help some people to feel better about their country and their country’s ‘engagement’ with Wales to imagine it was all peaceful assimilation, joy and merriment, the sheer number of accounts of mass murder, mass land grabbing and pervasive shaming and subjugation suggest something a little less palatable, something a little less acceptable in our nation’s history books while others have been in control of the narrative.

Centuries upon centuries of sheer acts of terror, such as the 5,000 Welshmen hung by Bishop Rowland Lee, disprove any suggestion of anything other than our people’s ethnic and cultural cleansing.

That narrative, however, is over, and Wales has much to teach our children.

The consequences of not doing so up until today are plain to see.

The effect of a people knowing their own history? Infinite.

View the petition here.