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II.—The Political Geography of Wales. by Henry Salusbury Milman, Esq., M.A., F.S.A.
Read 6th May, 1858.
The historical drama of a country is imperfect and hardly intelligible unless it represent the scenes on which, and the political conditions under which, its action takes place. Its narrative should he accompanied by a contemporary view of the political geography,—of the territorial limits and divisions of the country, so far as they affect or are affected by the course of political events.
That part of our national history which concerns Wales in its relation to England especially requires such illustration.
The political geography of Wales belongs and is confined to the period of its separate political existence; which, however, did not terminate so early as is generally assumed. Wales indeed finally submitted to the English power in the reign of Edward I., but it never became part of the English Realm until that of Henry VIII. It was then annexed by the English Legislature,[1] and politically merged in the united Realm of England and Wales.
The name of the greater country alone has been and is frequently used, not only in popular but in official language, to denote the whole, and the Legislature has declared that in statutes it shall be so understood:[2] yet the name of the lesser survives—a legitimate consequence of, and a perpetual testimony to, distinction of race and language, and an honourable record of independence preserved long after the Anglo-Saxon states had been merged in the kingdom of England.
The political boundary of Wales originally coincided with its physical or geological boundary as laid down by modern science,—namely, the line of the rivers Severn and Dee. But this was soon over-stepped by the Anglo-Saxon invaders, who gradually forced the Welch further to the westward, and established a new boundary, at first indeterminate, but at length defined by Offa's Dyke. The frontier territory traversed by the Dyke was then and long after known as the Marches of Mercia (or England) and Wales.
