England has always played the most powerful part in the history of the
British Isles. However, the other three countries, Wales, Ireland and Scotland,
have a different history. Until recently few historians looked at British
history except from an English point of view. But the stories of Wales, Ireland
and Scotland are also important, because their people still feel different from
the Anglo-Saxon English.*The experience of the Welsh, Irish and Scots helps to
explain the feeling they have today.
Wales
By the eighth century most of the Celts had been driven into the Welsh
peninsula. They were kept out of England by Offa's Dyke, the huge earth wall
built in ad 779. These Celts,
called Welsh by the Anglo-Saxons, called themselves cymry, "fellow
countrymen".
Because Wales is a mountainous country, the cymry could only live
in the crowded valleys. The rest of the land was rocky and too poor for
anything except keeping animals. For this reason the population remained small.
It only grew to over half a million in the eighteenth century. Life was hard
and so was the behaviour of the people.* Slavery was common, as it had been all
through • Celtic Britain.
Society was based on family groupings, each of which owned one or more
village or farm settlement. One by one in each group a strong leader made
himself king. These men must have been tribal chiefs to begin with, who later
managed to become overlords over neighbouring family groups. Each of these
kings tried to conquer the others, and the idea of a high, or senior, king
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