The Welsh are a Celtic people. Their average height is 1.695 metres; the cephalic index, 7s.0. The Welsh are brunettes, with black hair and hazel eyes. The earliest inhabitants of Wales, as of the rest of Britain. are supposed to have been of non-Caneasie origin. These were suc ceeded by Celts, possibly first of the Gaelie di vision. although in the earliest historic times Wales, like Britain, was occupied by Cymric or Brythonic Celts. After the Saxon invasion Wales was, as it still remains, the ethnic centre of this race, although later admixtures of both Irish and English have probably modified the type.
IiisTorty. At the time of the coming of the Romans, the tribes of Wales, representing a mix ture of the primitive Iberians with the later in vading Celts, were the Deeongi in the north. the Opdovices in the centre, the Silures in the south east, and the in the southwest, all bear ing the general name of Cymry. After a long struggle the subjugation of these tribes was aecomplished under Vespasian. The Celtic in habitants of Britain, fleeing before the wave of Anglo-Saxon invasion, took refuge in the Welsh mountains. where, in time, they were merged with their native kinsmen and main tained their independence against' the Teuton The country was divided into sev eral States, of which Gwynedd. Gwent, Dyved. and Powys were the most important, of these the first two, because of their situation on the eastern frontier of Wales, were engaged in con stant hostilities with the An do-Saxon king doms, especially Northumbria and Mereia. Con stant warfare, too, prevailed among the Welsh principalities themselves. In 1002-04 Harold, the son of Godwin, overran Wales with an Eng lish army after a struggle with Llewellyn ap Griffith, King of Gwynedd. William the Con queror succeeded in forcing the recognition of his sovereignty from the Welsh princes, but this did not prevent them from raiding the English border, for protection of which the early Norman kings erected a munher of feudal lordships with Cry extensive poweis, the so-ealled lords of the The inareliers were a turbulent class and it source of trouble to the kings. but they served their purpose in holding the Welsh hack.
Llewellyn, Prince of North Wales, had sided with Simon de Montfort against Ilenry I11., but, later had submitted to the King. In 1273, how ever, he refused to pay homage to the new King, Edward 1., Ivho in 127 7 invaded Wales and at Rhuddian compelled Llewellyn to submit to hu miliating terms, ineluding the surrender of the eastern portion of his lands and the annual acknowledgment of fealty. Llewellyn ruse iu rebellion in 1282, loll perished, and his brother David, who carried on the struggle. was cap tured in the following year and beheaded. By 1281 the English conquest of the country was complete, and the of introducing English law and administration was begun. In 1301 Edward I. conferred on his second son, Edward, horn at Carnarvem, in Wales, the title of Prince of Wales (see WALES, PRINCE Or), and this suf ficiently satisfied the pride of the Welsh to keep them loyal for a hundred years. The national spirit did not die out. however, and was nom. ished by the songs of the bards, whom the Eng lish Government regarded with great disfavor. [port the seizure of the English throne by Henry IV. a revolt broke out ill Wales, which, under the leadership of Owen Glendower as sumed, in 14u3, formidable proportion's. Ilenry IV. repeatedly invaded the country, but the re volt was not suppressed till the death of Glen dower, shoot 1 4 15. The Welsh submitted to Henry IV.. whom, from his birthplace, Almn mouth. they regarded as their countryman. Glendower's was t Ile last national uprising. In 1530 Wales Was illenrpOrated with England, its inhabitants receiving all the rights and privi of English subjects. Worthy of notice ii the national revival of recent years, which has taken the form of a patriotic cultivation of the ancient Ctinrie tongue and literature. See WELsil LA NI: EAGE AND LITERATURE, ('coke, Topographical and Statistical Descri pl ion of ( London, n. d.) ; Woodward, History of Walcs (ill., 18501 : Odgers, Local Gov ernmcnt ht England and Wales (ib., 1S99); Rhys and The 'Welsh People (ib., 1900) ; Ed wards, (New York, 1902).