Wales

Wales (Welsh: Cymru; pronounced IPA: /ˈkəmrɨ/, approximately "COME-ree") is one of the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom. more...

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Wales is located in the south-west of Great Britain and is bordered by the English counties of Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Gloucestershire to the east, the Bristol Channel to the south, St George's Channel to the south-west, and the Irish Sea to the west and north, and also by the estuary of the River Dee (Afon Dyfrdwy) in the north-east.

The term Principality of Wales (Tywysogaeth Cymru) is its formal name but is rarely used in everyday business, and is an unpopular term among some. Wales has never been a sovereign state although Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, King of Gwynedd and Powys, brought more of what is today's Wales, together with some English territory, under independent rule, and in 1056 the English recognised his claim of sovereignty. By the time of the English conquest of Wales in 1282, when King Edward I of England defeated Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (Llywelyn II) in the Battle of Cilmeri, Wales had however reverted to its traditional independent kingdoms. Welsh law was not replaced in all cases by English law until the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542. It was as recently as 1955 that the Queen declared the capital of Wales to be Cardiff (Caerdydd), although the Prince of Wales - argued by Welsh Nationalists to be an English pretender to the title, the case is arguable - was invested at Caernarfon, and Machynlleth (along with other towns) was the home of a parliament called by Owain Glyndŵr during his rising at the start of the fifteenth century. Tradition has it that in 1404 he was crowned Prince of Wales in the presence of emissaries from France, Spain and Scotland. If true (and these countries certainly showed support to Owain), this is the only example of Wales ever being recognised as anything like a sovereign nation.

In 1999, the National Assembly for Wales was formed, with powers to amend primary legislation from the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In 2006 these powers were widened through a second Government of Wales Act.

Etymology

See also: List of meanings of countries' names

The English name for Wales originates from the Germanic word Walha, meaning "stranger" or "foreigner", probably derived from the name Volcae. As the Celts of Gaul were Romanized, the word changed its meaning to "Romanic people", as is still apparent in the name of the Walloons of Belgium, Wallachia in Romania, as well as the "-wall" of Cornwall. The Welsh themselves called themselves Cymry, "compatriots", and named their country Cymru, which is thought to have meant "Land of the Compatriots" in Old Welsh; this has reference to their awareness that they were the original countrymen of Wales, and indeed Britain by virtue of their ancestors the Brythoniaid (Brythons), and also in order to distinguish themselves from the foreign invaders of Britain, the Saeson (English). There is also a mediaeval legend found in the Historia Regum Britanniae of Sieffre o Fynwy (Geoffrey of Monmouth) that derives it from the name Camber, son of Brutus and, according to the legend, the eponymous King of Cymru (Cambria in Latin); this however was largely the fruit of Geoffrey's vivid imagination. Cumberland and Cumbria in the north of England derive their names from the same Old Welsh word.

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