Here Britannia clearly refers to Wales and presents it as distinct from other Brittonic-speaking areas. Nowhere is the complex nature of identity more evident than in early medieval Wales.
Sources both from and outside what we would now view as Wales see the Welsh as Britons, who once ruled the entirety of Britain, and — according to Armes Prydein Vawr — would do so again in the future.
But there are hints of an alternative identity being constructed. It is possible that the geographical unit of Wales, is beginning to play a role in ideas of identity. Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Prof Donnelly said: "People from Wales are genetically relatively distinct, they look different genetically from much of the rest of mainland Britain, and actually people in north Wales look relatively distinct from people in south Wales.
While there were traces of migrant groups across the UK, there were fewer in Wales and Cornwall. He said people from south and north Wales genetically have "fairly large similarities with the ancestry of people from Ireland on the one hand and France on the other, which we think is most likely to be a combination of remnants of very ancient populations who moved across into Britain after the last Ice Age.
He said it was possible that people came over from Ireland to north Wales because it was the closest point, and the same for people coming to south Wales from the continent, as it was nearer. However he added: "We don't really have the historical evidence about what those genetic inputs were. The geography of Wales made it more likely that ancient DNA would be retained. Before the late 18th century, Wales was seen by the English as a backwater, but the industrial revolution changed this.
The wealth this generated, along with the wider European movement for national renewal, reinvigorated Welsh identity. A middle class set about building a nation, creating national publications, institutions, festivals and sports teams. Religion was important to the reinvigoration of Welsh identity too. The majority of people were Nonconformists rather than Anglicans, and this was seen as further evidence that Wales and England were different. This new Wales was prosperous and confident, and it was also proud to be part of the British empire.
Imperial power was key to Welsh industrial success and the vast majority of the Welsh population saw Welshness as interwoven with Britishness. Yet, beneath this veneer of Welsh-British patriotism, industrialisation created a cultural chasm within Wales that had not existed before. At first, movement from the countryside to the new industrial regions reinforced Welsh culture there, but gradually industrial communities developed their own vibrant cultures, based around class politics and popular pastimes.
The growing industrial communities also attracted people from England in huge numbers and cultural assimilation with England now sat alongside the existing political assimilation. Industrial and rural Wales began to look as if they had different cultures, especially as migration from England and the cultural capital associated with speaking English undermined the Welsh language in urban communities. The economic collapse of the s and s destroyed Welsh national confidence and led to mass migration to England.
The impact of this on the Welsh language, alongside the long-term decline of the chapels and the rise of a mass British popular culture with cinema and media at its heart, led to fears over the very survival of Wales. In the s and s, all political parties started to look for ways of recognising Welsh nationhood.
Thus, Cardiff was made a capital city, the red dragon was recognised as the official flag, the declining Welsh language was given legal status, and a government post was created to look after Wales. These initiatives came about through a combination of political pressures and protests from within Wales, and a willingness within government to recognise the plurality of the United Kingdom. By , this process had led to the creation of the National Assembly for Wales. For the first time in its history, Wales had a democratic institution of national self-government.
Yet, in the referendum that led to its creation, only a quarter of the electorate voted in favour, while half of people chose not to vote at all. The reality was that, although a mundane sense of Welsh identity was very powerful, the political implications of this were narrow.
This raises questions about the nature of Welsh identity in the past. The identity based on this narrative presents the inhabitants of Wales as Britons, closely connected to the inhabitants of Cornwall, the Old North, and Brittany. Ideas of identity were — and still are — complex and layered. The poet who wrote Armes Prydein Vawr may have viewed all the Brittonic-speaking peoples as Kymry , but the Cornishmen are also referred to as Cornyw and the inhabitants of Strathclyde as Cludwys.
There was a distinction between the inhabitants of Cornwall and of Strathclyde, even though they were grouped as Kymry. There is a similar sentiment in the Life of King Alfred , a biography of Alfred the Great composed in The writer, Asser, refers to Offa of Mercia building a dyke — an earthwork denoting the border — between his kingdom and Britannia. Here Britannia clearly refers to Wales and presents it as distinct from other Brittonic-speaking areas.
Likewise, Cornwall is called Cornubia rather than as part of one unified Britannia. Nowhere is the complex nature of identity more evident than in early medieval Wales.
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