The Conquest of Wales – A Visitor’s Guide In the mid-thirteenth century Wales was to all intents and purposes an independent nation. Its people not only spoke their own language; they also lived according to their own laws and customs, and were governed by their own native princes. Yet in the space of a single generation this independence was decisively terminated. By the end of the thirteenth century, the halls of the Welsh princes had been razed and replaced by mighty English castles. The country was governed by Englishmen, and English law prevailed. Wales, in a word, had been conquered. Anglo-Welsh hostility had a long history – not for nothing were the two peoples separated by the eighth-century earthwork known as Offa’s Dyke – but in the century or so before the conquest this hostility had been sharpened by contrasting economic fortunes. Thanks to its expanding agricultural base, twelfth-century England could boast new towns, large cities, great cathedrals, international trade and a plentiful silver coinage.
