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Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History
1500-1750; Law

                     Personal and legislative unions of the
   constituent countries of the United Kingdom
   Flag of England Flag of Wales   Statute of Rhuddlan ( 1284)
   Flag of England Flag of Wales   Laws in Wales Acts ( 1535– 42)
   Flag of England Flag of Republic of Ireland   Crown of Ireland Act (
   1542)
   Flag of England Flag of Scotland   Union of the Crowns ( 1603)
   Flag of England Flag of Scotland   Acts of Union ( 1707)
   Flag of United Kingdom Flag of Republic of Ireland   Act of Union (
   1801)
   Flag of United Kingdom Flag of Republic of Ireland   Government of
   Ireland Act ( 1920)
   Flag of United Kingdom Flag of Republic of Ireland   Anglo–Irish Treaty
   ( 1921)
   Flag of United Kingdom   Royal & Parliamentary Titles Act ( 1927)

   The Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 were a series of parliamentary
   measures by which the legal system of Wales was annexed to England and
   the norms of English administration introduced in order to create a
   single state and a single legal jurisdiction, which is frequently
   referred to as England and Wales. The Acts refer in particular to two
   Acts of Parliament passed in 1536 and 1543 during the reign of King
   Henry VIII of England, who came from the Welsh Tudor dynasty.

Background

   Flag of England
   Flag of England
   Flag of Wales
   Flag of Wales

   From when Gwynedd was conquered in 1282– 83 until the passing of the
   Laws in Wales Acts in 1535–1542, the administrative system of Wales had
   remained unchanged. By the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 the territory of
   the native Welsh rulers had been broken up into the five counties of
   Anglesey, Caernarfon, Cardigan, Carmarthen, and Merioneth. Even though
   the five counties were subject to English criminal law, the
   'Principality' was the king of England's own personal fief and Welsh
   law continued to be used for civil cases. The rest of Wales, except for
   the county of Flint, which was part of the Principality, and the Royal
   lordships of Glamorgan and Pembroke, was made up of numerous small
   lordships, each with its own courts, laws and other customs.

   When Henry VII came to the throne in 1485 no change was made to the
   system of governing the country. But he remained concerned about the
   power of the Marcher Lords and the lawlessness and disorder in the
   Welsh Marches. To deal with this there was a revival of the Council of
   Wales and the Marches, which had been established in the reign of
   Edward IV. After the deaths of many of the Marcher lords during the
   Wars of the Roses, many of the lordships had passed into the hands of
   the crown.

   Henry VIII did not see the need to reform the government of Wales at
   the beginning of his reign, but gradually he perceived a threat from
   some of the remaining Marcher lords and therefore instructed his chief
   administrator, Thomas Cromwell, to seek a solution. His solution was
   the annexation or incorporation of Wales which, along with other
   significant changes at the same time, led to the creation of England as
   a modern sovereign state.

   The Acts have been known as the "Acts of Union", but they were not
   popularly referred to as such until 1901, when historian Owen M.
   Edwards assigned them that name — a name which some regard as
   misleading as the Acts were concerned with harmonising laws, not
   political union.

The acts

   This harmonisation was done by passing a series of measures between
   1536 and 1543. These included:
     * An Acte for Lawes & Justice to be ministred in Wales in like fourme
       as it is in this Realme (27 Henry VIII c. 26), passed in 1536 and
       repealed with effect from 21 December 1993; and
     * An Acte for certaine Ordinaunces in the Kinges Majesties Domynion
       and Principalitie of Wales (34 and 35 Henry VIII c. 26), passed in
       1543 and repealed with effect from 3 January 1995.

   The first of these Acts was passed by a Parliament that had no
   representatives from Wales. Its effect was to extend English law into
   the Marches and provide that Wales had representation in future
   Parliaments.

   The short titles of the Acts were granted by the Statute Law Revision
   Act 1948.

Effects of the Acts

   These Acts also had the following effects on the administration of
   Wales:
     * the marcher lordships were abolished as political units and five
       new counties ( Monmouthshire, Brecknockshire, Radnorshire,
       Montgomeryshire and Denbighshire) were established, thus creating a
       Wales of 13 counties;
     * other areas of the lordships were annexed to Shropshire,
       Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Glamorgan, Carmarthenshire,
       Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire and Merionethshire
     * the borders of Wales were established and have remained the same
       since; this was unintentional as Wales was to be incorporated fully
       into England, but the status of Monmouthshire was still ambiguous
       until 1974;
     * the courts of the marcher lordships lost the power to try serious
       criminal cases;
     * the office of Justice of the Peace was introduced;
     * Wales elected members to the English (Westminster) Parliament;
     * the Council of Wales and the Marches was established on a legal
       basis;
     * the Court of Great Sessions were established, a system peculiar to
       Wales;
     * a Sheriff was appointed in every county, and other county officers
       as in England.

   These measures were not unpopular with the Welsh, who recognised that
   they would give them equality under law with English citizens. The
   reaction of the prominent Welsh of the day and down the centuries were
   very similar — gratitude that the laws had been introduced and made
   Wales a peaceful and orderly country.

   It was only much later that some of the Welsh started to feel, in the
   words of A. O. H. Jarman, "that the privileges of citizenship were only
   given to the Welsh on condition that they forgot their own particular
   past and personality, denied their Welshness, and merged with England."

   Despite historians such as G. R. Elton, who treated the Acts as merely
   a triumph of Tudor efficiency, modern British and Welsh historians are
   more likely to investigate evidence of the damaging effects of the Acts
   on Welsh identity, culture, and economy. While the Welsh gentry
   embraced the Acts and quickly attempted to merge themselves into
   English aristocracy, the majority of the population could have found
   themselves adrift amidst a legal and economic system whose language and
   focus were unfamiliar to them.

The Acts and the Welsh language

   An often quoted example of the effects on the Welsh language is the
   first section of the 1535 Act, which states: "the people of the same
   dominion have and do daily use a speche nothing like ne consonant to
   the naturall mother tonge used within this Realme" and then declares
   the intention "utterly to extirpe alle and singular sinister usages and
   customs" belonging to Wales.

   Section 20 of the 1535 Act makes English the only language of the law
   courts and that those who used Welsh would not be appointed to any
   public office in Wales:

          Also be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That all
          Justices, Comissioners, Sheriffs, Coroners, Escheators,
          Stewards, and their Lieutenants, and all other Officers and
          Ministers of the Law, shall proclaim and keep the Sessions
          Courts, Hundreds, Leets, Sheriffs Courts, and all other Courts
          in the English Tongue;
          (2) and all Oaths of Officers, Juries and Inquests, and all
          other Affadavits, Verdicts and Wagers of Law, to be given and
          done in the English Tongue;
          (3) and also that from henceforth no Person or Persons that use
          the Welsh Speech or Language, shall have or enjoy any manner
          Office or Fees within this Realm of England, Wales, or other the
          King's Dominion, upon Pain of forfeiting the same Offices or
          Fees, unless he or they use and exercise the English Speech or
          Language.

   An effect of this language clause was to lay the foundation for
   creating a thoroughly Anglicised ruling class of landed gentry in
   Wales, which would have many consequences.

   The parts of the 1535 Act relating to language were definitively
   repealed only in 1993, by the Welsh Language Act 1993, though
   anotations on the Statute Law Database copy of the act reads that
   sections 18–21 were repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1887.

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