Saunders Lewis | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Saunders Lewis in 1973 | |
| President ofPlaid Cymru | |
| In office 1926–1939 | |
| Preceded by | Lewis Valentine |
| Succeeded by | John Edward Daniel |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Saunders Lewis 15 October 1893 |
| Died | 1 September 1985(1985-09-01) (aged 91) |
| Political party | Plaid Cymru |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Alma mater | University of Liverpool |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | British Army |
| Years of service | 1914-1919 |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Unit | King's Liverpool Regiment South Wales Borderers |
| Battles/wars | |
Saunders Lewis (bornJohn Saunders Lewis; 15 October 1893 – 1 September 1985) was aWelsh politician, poet, dramatist,Medievalist, andliterary critic. Born into a Welsh-speaking ministerial family inGreater Liverpool, Lewis studied in a public school growing up. He rediscovered the importance of both hisheritage language and cultural roots while serving as a junior officer in theBritish Army during thetrenches of theFirst World War. As a vocal supporter ofWelsh nationalism, Lewis believed, however, that heritagelanguage revival,cultural nationalism, the dramatic arts, andculture needed to precedeWelsh devolution orpolitical independence. If the excessiveAnglophilia andcolonial mentality traditionally known asDic Siôn Dafydd was never challenged or defeated, Lewis predicted in 1918, "theWelsh Parliament would [only] be an enlarged County Council."[1]
Lewis accordingly became a co-founder of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru (The National Party of Wales), now theWelsh nationalistpolitical party known asPlaid Cymru, at a covert meeting with fellow nationalists during the 1925National Eisteddfod of Wales. Lewis has been described byJan Morris as, "the most passionate of twentieth centuryWelsh patriots",[2] and as being, "one of the few twentieth century writers in Welsh with a European reputation, but for many Welshmen [he was] chiefly the keeper of the national conscience."[3] Lewis is usually acknowledged as one of the most vitally important figures in 20th-centuryWelsh-language literature. He is also widely credited, through his 1962 radio addressTynged yr Iaith ("The Fate of the Language"), with almost singlehandedly bringingWelsh back from the brink oflanguage death.
In 1970, Lewis was nominated for aNobel Prize in Literature and was appointed as aKnight Commander of theOrder of St Gregory byPope Paul VI. Saunders Lewis'traditionalist Catholic anddistributist beliefs gave him a simultaneouslyanti-Marxist andanti-colonialist interpretation ofWelsh history and a similar vision, influenced by his study of what had he considered to have worked inIrish nationalism, for the future of theWelsh people. Lewis was overwhelmingly voted the tenth greatest Welsh hero in the '100 Welsh Heroes' poll, released onSt. David's Day 2004.[4]
John Saunders Lewis was born into a Welsh-speaking family inWallasey inthe Wirral,Cheshire, in thenorth-west of England, on 15 October 1893. He was the second of three sons of Lodwig Lewis (1859–1933), aCalvinistic Methodist minister, and his wife Mary Margaret (née Thomas, 1862–1900). When he was only six years old, Lewis's mother died and his unmarried maternal "Aunt Ellen" (Ellen Elizabeth Thomas) moved into themanse and helped to raise him.[5]
Jan Morris has describedLiverpool as the closest there is to ametropolis for the people ofNorth Wales.[6] During a television interview withAneirin Talfan Davies, Lewis later recalled that this was also true during his childhood, as in and around Liverpool, "there were around about a hundred thousand Welsh-speakingWelsh people... So I was not born inEnglish-speaking England... but into a society that was completely Welsh and Welsh-speaking."[7]
Even though his father was a scholar, "who liked solitude and study", and possessed a very large library ofWelsh literature, the only Welsh-language books that Saunders Lewis read while growing up wereBishop Morgan'sBible, the hymnbook, and Sunday school commentaries.[8]
Lewis attended prestigious English-speakingLiscard High School for Boys[9] where he was bullied at first, due to the fact that what little English he could speak, "was full of Welsh words." In time, however, Lewis became, "a typical product of the English education system." He became editor ofThe Liscard High School Magazine and often visited the Wallasey Public Library, where he read contemporary English literature and, as a teenager, was enthusiastic when he discovered the recentmythopoeic poetry and prose reimaginings ofIrish folklore andmythology byIrish nationalistsWilliam Butler Yeats,John Millington Synge, andPadraic Colum.[10]
Lewis later recalled that through these writers, "I came for the first time to understand what patriotism meant and the spirit of the nation meant. And I soon began to think that things like those , which had seized hold of them in Ireland, were the things I should seize hold of in Wales."[11]
Lewis' earliest attempts at writing poems were in English and were inspired byWilliam Wordsworth,Walter Pater,John Wesley and theKing James Bible.[12]
After enteringLiverpool University to studyEnglish literature in 1911, Lewis is believed to have first met fellow student Margaret Gilcriest, a Roman Catholic fromCounty Wicklow and staunch believer in Irishpolitical andcultural nationalism, in December 1913.[13] Lewis and Gilcriest shared an enthusiasm for literature and in their subsequent courtship by letters, all of which have since been published, there are references to the writings ofDora Sigerson,Katherine Tynan,James Clarence Mangan,Alice Meynell,Emily Lawless,Thomas Kettle,Daniel Corkery, andJames Joyce.[14]
After his aunt Ellen persuaded his father "to accept the inevitable", Lewis and Margaret Gilcriest (1891-1984) were married at Our Lady and St Michael Roman Catholic Church inWorkington,Cumberland, on 31 July 1924. They had one child, a daughter.[15][16]
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When theFirst World War broke out, an idealistic Lewis, feeling inspired by theAesthete philosophy of Walter Pater to, "savour this experience of life-energy at the utmost", enlisted in the 3rd Battalion,King's Liverpool Regiment on 4 September 1914.British Army records describe Lewis at the time as five-feet and three inches in height, weighing just over seven and a half stone, and as having red hair and grey eyes.[17]
In April 1915, Lewis applied for a commission with theSouth Wales Borderers and was promoted tofull lieutenant in February 1916. The following summer, he was deployed toactive service on theWestern Front.[18]
During the war, Lewis read thetrilogy of novelsThe Cult of the Self (French:Le Culte du moi) by the French writerMaurice Barrès. Barrès, aFrench nationalist, had called since the 1890s, alongsidePaul Claudel andPaul Bourget, for, "a 'return' to national values and traditions."[19] This volume heavily influenced Lewis' growing sense of his own Welsh identity and belief in the vital importance ofcultural nationalism.[20]
Furthermore, according to Jelle Krol, Lewis, was amazed to see how his own father's recent words of advice were echoed by Barrès, who wrote, "the only way to cultivate your personality as an artist and to develop your own resources, is to go back to your roots".[21] Lewis accordingly, "discovered the importance of his Welsh roots during his service in France."[22]
In April 1917, Lewis was severelywounded in action in the left leg and thigh nearGonnelieu, with, "the calf of the leg nearly blown away",[23] as part of theBattle of Cambrai.[20] Afterwards, Lewis needed more than a year to convalesce, during which his younger brother, Ludwig Lewis, waskilled in action on 7 July 1917. Although Lewis desperately wanted to visit and help comfort their grieving father atSwansea, his own battlefield injuries were still far too severe to permit him to travel.[24]
In a 23 July 1918 letter toThe Cambria Daily Leader, Lewis, as he would do for the remainder of his life, explained why he feltcultural nationalism needed to precede politicaldecolonisation, "In Wales, if we gave ourselves less to party politics and more to the development of our own education and culture, we should make Wales more fitted to have anindependent life of her own underHome Rule. And Home Rule, before we have a real national spirit, would mean simply that theWelsh Parliament would be an enlarged County Council."[25]
After his return from the trenches, Lewis entered the literary field by arguing that three conditions needed to be met forWelsh literature to become truly meaningful. Firstly, "a more professional attitude to Welsh drama". Secondly, the reestablishment of a direct link betweenWelsh culture with that of mainland Europe, and particularly withFrench culture, and, lastly, a more continual religious and cultural exploration of pre-Reformation Wales by Welsh writers and intellectuals.[22]
In a 22 October 1919 letter toThe Cambria Daily Leader, called for a revival of drama in the Welsh language, beginning with the improvement of dramas set in the villages, "All the plays we have seen so far describe, and rather idyllically describe, village manners. But village life is more than 'manners'. It includes memories and traditions and song and even dance and mummery. Village and peasant drama, if it should tell the round truth, must include romance, theMabinogion, themonastery,witchcraft,fairyland, and all theancient playgrounds of men. Let us widen our field."[26]
In a letter of 25 October 1919 to the same newspaper, Lewis urged Welsh-languageplaywrights and the theatre going public to both, "take note of the dramatic history of Europe." Lewis continued, "And so it seems to me we should begin anew withtranslation. We should translate into Welsh the plays of the acknowledged masters, ofEuripides, ofCorneille, ofRacine, ofMoliere, ofIbsen, of theSpaniards, and we should act them continually; we should learn the classics."[27]
In 1922, he was appointed as lecturer in Welsh literature at theUniversity College of Wales, Swansea. During his time at Swansea he produced some of his most significant works of literary criticism:A School of Welsh Augustans (1924),Williams Pantycelyn (1927), andBraslun o hanes llenyddiaeth Gymraeg [cy] (An outline history of Welsh literature) (1932).[28] He continued in this post until his dismissal for a political act of arson at Penyberth, Gwynedd, in 1936.[29]
Discussions of the need for a "Welsh party" had been conducted since the 19th century.[30] With the generation or so before 1922 there "had been a marked growth in the constitutional recognition of the Welsh nation", wrote historianJohn Davies.[31] By 1924 there were people in Wales "eager to make their nationality the focus of Welsh politics".[32] Lewis's experiences inWorld War I, and his sympathy for the cause ofIrish independence, brought him to Welsh nationalism.[citation needed] He was an advocate forWelsh independence.[33]
In 1924, Lewis foundedY Mudiad Cymreig ("The Welsh Movement") with a small group of fellow nationalists. The group met secretly for the first time in Penarth on 7 January 1924.[34] The group continued to meet in secret throughout 1924 and began drawing up a set of aims and policies intended to "rescue Wales from political and cultural oblivion".
At around the same time as Lewis formedY Mudiad Cymreig, another group of nationalists formedByddin Ymreolwyr Cymru ("The Welsh Home Rule Army") in Caernarfon.[35] The group was led byHuw Robert Jones, who made contact with Lewis in early 1925 and proposed to form a new political party.[34]
Lewis met with Jones,Lewis Valentine, Moses Griffith, Fred Jones and D. Edmund Williams in a café called Maes Gwyn[35] during the 1925National Eisteddfod inPwllheli,Gwynedd, with the aim of establishing a "Welsh party".[32] They foundedPlaid Genedlaethol Cymru ("National Party of Wales"), on 5 August 1925.[36] The principal aim of the party would be to foster a Welsh-speaking Wales.[37] To this end it was agreed that party business be conducted in Welsh, and that members sever all links with other British parties.[37] Lewis insisted on these principles before he would agree to the Pwllheli conference.
According to the 1911 census, out of a population of just under 2.5 million, 43.5% of the total population of Wales spoke Welsh as a primary language.[38] This was a decrease from the 1891 census with 54.4% speaking Welsh out of a population of 1.5 million.[39] With these pre-requisites, Lewis condemned"'Welsh nationalism' as it had hitherto existed, a nationalism characterized by inter-party conferences, an obsession withWestminster and a willingness to accept a subservient position for the Welsh language", wrote Davies.[37] It may be because of these strict positions that the party failed to attract politicians of experience in its early years.[37] However, the party's members believed its founding was an achievement in itself; "merely by existing, the party was a declaration of the distinctiveness of Wales", wrote Davies.[37]
During the inter-war years,Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru was most successful as a social and educational pressure group rather than as a political party.[40] For Saunders Lewis, party president 1926 to 1939, "the chief aim of the party [is] to 'take away from the Welsh their sense of inferiority ... to remove from our beloved country the mark and shame of conquest.'" Lewis sought to castWelshness into a new context, wrote Davies.[40]
Lewis wished to demonstrate how Welsh heritage was linked as one of the 'founders' of European civilization.[40] Lewis, a self-described "strongmonarchist", wrote "Civilization is more than an abstraction. It must have a local habitation and name. Here its name is Wales."[40][41] Additionally, Lewis strove for the stability, educational and cultural advancement, and economic prosperity of local communities inY Fro Gymraeg. He also denounced bothlaissez fairecapitalism andMarxism, and instead promoted what he calledperchentyaeth: (lit. "distributing property among the masses"), based onCatholic social teaching,Distributism, andChristian democracy.[40]
Saunders Lewis perceived the early development of BBC radio broadcasting in Wales (which was almost entirely in English) as serious threat to his aim of arresting the decline of the Welsh language (then down to 36%) and turning Wales back into a 100% Welsh-speaking nation. At the same time he also recognised that if he could exert influence and pressure on the BBC, the Corporation could become a useful tool to serve Plaid Cymru's political ends. In 1929 he declared it would soon be necessary to arrange for "thousands of Welshmen to be prosecuted for refusing to pay for English programmes".[42] The following year Lewis was commissioned by E.R. Appleton, Director of the BBC's Cardiff radio station, (who had banned broadcasting in Welsh) to broadcast a talk which would "explain Welsh Nationalism". On vetting the script, which advocated political nationalism in preference to "cultural nationalism", Appleton decided it was too controversial and inflammatory to be broadcast.[43] In October 1933 the University of Wales Council, which had been lobbying for more Welsh-language broadcasting, appointed a ten-man council to press the case with the BBC. It includedDavid Lloyd George,William George,W. J. Gruffydd and Saunders Lewis – who was continuing to incense the BBC by publicly alleging it was "seeking the destruction of the Welsh language". The University Committee, which was described by BBC Director GeneralJohn Reith as "the most unpleasant and unreliable people with whom it has been my misfortune to deal" gained ever more influence on the BBC in Wales not least in the selection of BBC staff – a function delegated to the committee by the corporation. As newspapers of the time noted, appointees seemed primarily drawn from the families of the Welsh-speaking elite including "the son of a professor of Welsh and the offspring of three archdruids".[44] Saunders Lewis's assiduous campaigning over the years was to succeed in cementing an ongoing Plaid Cymru influence within the BBC. When the BBC's Welsh Advisory Council was eventually established in 1946, although half its members were Labour, several Plaid Cymru supporters were appointed including Saunders Lewis's successor as Plaid Cymru president,Gwynfor Evans.[43]
Welsh nationalism was ignited in 1936 when the UK Government settled on establishing anRAF training camp and aerodrome atPenyberth[45] on theLlŷn Peninsula inGwynedd. The events surrounding the protest, known asTân yn Llŷn ("Fire in Llŷn"), helped definePlaid Genedlaethol Cymru.[46] The UK Government settled on Llŷn as the site for its training camp after similar proposed sites inNorthumberland andDorset met with protests.[47]
However, Prime MinisterStanley Baldwin refused to hear the case against building this "bombing school" in Wales, despite a deputation representing 500,000 Welsh protesters.[47] Protest against the project was summed up by Lewis when he wrote that the UK Government was intent upon turning one of the "essential homes of Welsh culture, idiom, and literature" into a place for promoting a "barbaric" method of warfare.[47] Construction of this military academy began exactly 400 years after the passage of theLaws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542.[47]
On 8 September 1936, the building was set on fire and in the investigations which followed Saunders Lewis,Lewis Valentine, andD. J. Williams claimed responsibility.[47] They were tried at Caernarfon, where the jury failed to agree on a verdict. The case was then sent to be retried at theOld Bailey in London, where "the Three" were convicted, and sentenced to nine months imprisonment. On their release fromWormwood Scrubs, they were greeted as heroes by 15,000 Welsh people at a pavilion inCaernarfon.[47]
Many Welsh people were angered by the judge's scornful treatment of the Welsh language, by the decision to move the trial to London, and by the decision of University College, Swansea, to dismiss Lewis from his post before he had been found guilty.[46]Dafydd Glyn Jones wrote of the fire that it was "the first time in five centuries that Wales struck back at England with a measure of violence... To the Welsh people, who had long ceased to believe that they had it in them, it was a profound shock."[46]
However, despite the acclaim the events ofTân yn Llŷn generated, by 1938 Lewis's concept ofperchentyaeth ("home ownership") had been firmly rejected asnot a fundamental tenet of the party. In 1939 Lewis resigned asPlaid Genedlaethol Cymru president, saying that Wales was not ready to accept the leadership of a Roman Catholic.[46]
Although Lewis was the son and grandson of prominentWelsh Calvinistic Methodist ministers, he had converted toRoman Catholicism in 1932.
Lewis maintained a strict neutrality in his writings through his columnCwrs y Byd inY Faner. It was his attempt at an unbiased interpretation of the causes and events of the war.[48]
Outside of the party's initial position on the war, party members were free to choose for themselves their level of support for the war effort.Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru was officially neutral regarding involvement theSecond World War, which Lewis and other leaders considered a continuation of theFirst World War. Central to the neutrality policy was the idea that Wales, as a nation, had the right to decide independently on its attitude towards war,[49] along with opposition towards the UK government's decision to involve Wales in the conflict.[49] With this challenging and revolutionary policy Lewis hoped a significant number of Welshmen would refuse to join thearmed forces.[48]
Lewis and other party members were attempting to strengthen loyalty to the Welsh nation "over the loyalty to the British State".[49] Lewis argued "The only proof that the Welsh nation exists is that there are some who act as if it did exist."[48]
However, most party members who claimedconscientious objection status did so in the context of their moral and religious beliefs, rather than on political policy.[48] Of these almost all were exempt from military service. About 24 party members made politics their sole grounds for exemption, of whom 12 received prison sentences.[48] For Lewis, those who objected proved that the assimilation of Wales was "being withstood, even under the most extreme pressures".[48]
Prior to 1950, universities could elect and return representatives to the House of Commons. The University of Wales seat had become vacant when the constituency'sLiberal Member of Parliament,Ernest Evans, had been appointed acounty court judge in 1942. Lewis was selected to contest the seat for Plaid Cymru in the ensuing1943 University of Wales by-election.
His opponent was former Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru Deputy Vice-presidentWilliam John Gruffydd. Gruffydd had been voicing doubts about Lewis's ideas since 1933,[50] and by 1943 he had left Plaid Cymru and joined theLiberal Party. His other opponent, independent candidateAlun Talfan Davies, was another former member of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru who would later become Chairman of theWelsh Liberal Party.
The "brilliant but wayward" Gruffydd was a favorite with Welsh-speaking intellectuals and drew 52.3% of the vote, to Lewis's 22.5%.[50]
The election effectively split the Welsh-speaking intelligentsia, and left Lewis embittered with politics, leading him to retreat from direct political involvement.[51] However the experience proved invaluable for Plaid Cymru, as "for the first time they were taken seriously as a political force."[51] The by-election campaign led directly to "considerable growth" in the party's membership.[51]
In 1962 Lewis gave a radio speech entitledTynged yr iaith ("The Fate of the Language") in which he predicted thecomplete extinction of the Welsh language by 2000 unless immediate action was taken.[52]
Lewis's radio speech was in response to the 1961 census, which showed a decrease in the percentage of Welsh speakers from 36% in 1931 to 26%, of the population of about 2.5 million.[53] In the census the counties of Merionethshire (Meirionnydd), Anglesey (Ynys Môn), Carmarthenshire (Sir Gaerfyrddin), and Caernarfonshire averaged a 75% proportion of Welsh speakers, with the most significant decreases in the counties ofGlamorgan,Flint, andPembroke.[53][54]
Assuming, "a gloomy sepulchral tone", Lewis argued that the Welsh language was, "driven into a corner, ready to be thrown, like a worthless rag, on the dung heap." The responsibility for this lay, according to Lewis, less in the hands of theBritish civil servicebureaucracy than with the timidity and indifference of the Welsh-speaking people themselves. As he had fully intended it to do, Lewis' lecture immediately touched a raw nerve.[52]
While Lewis' had wished to shame Plaid Cymru into more direct action promoting a Welshlanguage revival, his speech instead led to the formation ofCymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society) later that year at a Plaid Cymru summer school held inPontardawe inGlamorgan.[55] The foundation ofCymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg allowed Plaid Cymru to focus on electoral politics, while the Cymdeithas launched a campaign ofcivil disobedience aimed at the State's policy of coerciveAnglicisation.[56]
According to Marcus Tanner, "For the first time, the British government was forced to recognise the existence of a substantial non-Anglophone culture, and to rethink attitudes that had been set in stone sinceHenry VIII's so-calledActs of Union. The new, more conciliatory attitude began underLabour, but continued under theConservatives."[57]
Responding to escalating demands fordevolution in the United Kingdom, in 1964 theLabour Government established theWelsh Office (Welsh:Swyddfa Gymreig) and the post ofSecretary of State for Wales. The Welsh Language Bill of 1967 granted Welsh equal status to English in the legal system. Further legislation belatedly granted century-old demands forWelsh-medium education.[57]
In 1970, Lewis was nominated for theNobel Prize in Literature.
In March 1983, at the age of 89, Saunders Lewis was made an honorary Doctor of Letters of the University of Wales at a ceremony specially conducted at his home inPenarth. TheCatholic Herald, reporting the honour, noted that in the previous year Lewis had made a plea for the restoration to theCatholic Church in Wales of theTridentine Mass inEcclesiastical Latin, rather than theMass of Paul VI in the "foreign language of English", which he pointed out was "a later arrival".[58]
Lewis died at St Winifred's Hospital inCardiff, on 1 September 1985.[59] Lewis' final request for aTridentineRequiem Mass in Ecclesiastical Latin was denied by BishopDaniel Mullins, who personally offered theMass of Paul VI instead.[60] Following theFuneral Mass, Lewis was buried in the same grave as his wife Margaret in St. Joseph's Roman Catholic cemetery inPenarth. Lewis's medal as aKnight Commander of theOrder of St Gregory, to which he had been appointed byPope Paul VI, was laid on Lewis' casket during the funeral ceremony and then buried with him.[61]
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His literary works includestage plays, poetry, novels and essays. He wrote mostly in Welsh, but he also wrote some works in English. By the time of his death in 1985 some rated him as amongst the most celebrated of Welsh writers.
Lewis was above all adramatist. His notable plays includeBlodeuwedd (The woman of flowers) (1923–25, revised 1948),Buchedd Garmon (The life ofSt. Germain) (radio play, 1936),Siwan (1956),Gymerwch chi sigarét? (Will you have a cigarette?) (1956),Brad (Treachery) (1958),Esther (1960), andCymru fydd (Tomorrow's Wales) (1967). His plays drew upon a wide range of material and covered a range of subject matter includingWelsh mythology andhistory, as well as theChristian Bible, although he also wrote plays set in contemporary Wales.
Lewis also translatedSamuel Beckett'sEn attendant Godot from French into Welsh.
Lewis' use of poetic forms in theWelsh language included both the use of the traditional24 strict metres incynghanedd such ascywyddau andawdlau as well as theSicilian School'ssonnet form, "a variety of other rhyming stanzas", and "full breathedfree verse", which were derived from poetry in other languages.[62]
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Following his conversion to theCatholic Church, Lewis also wrote many works ofChristian poetry inspired by his new faith. These included poems about theReal Presence in theBlessed Sacrament, a poem that sympathetically describesSaint Joseph's crisis of faith, about the traumatic but purgatorial sense of loss experienced by SaintMary Magdalen after theCrucifixion of Jesus Christ, and about attending theTridentine Mass onChristmas Day.[63]
Lewis wrote thelibretto forArwel Hughes's operaSerch yw'r doctor (Love's the doctor), based onMolière'sL'Amour médecin (first performance 1960 byWelsh National Opera).[64]
He published two novels,Monica (1930) andMerch Gwern Hywel (The daughter of Gwern Hywel) (1964) and two collections of poems as well as numerous articles and essays in various newspapers, magazines and journals. These articles have been collected into volumes including:Canlyn Arthur (Following Arthur) (1938),Ysgrifau dydd Mercher (Wednesday essays) (1945),Meistri'r canrifoedd (Masters of the centuries) (1973),Meistri a'u crefft (Masters and their craft) (1981) andAti ŵyr ifainc (Go to it, young men) (1986).
Lewis's legacy remains a controversial one. Particularly controversial was his belief, as expressed inBraslun o Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg, a 1932 outline of the history ofWelsh-language literature, that theEdwardian conquest of Wales was less damaging toWelsh culture andliterature in the long run than theProtestant Reformation, which began under KingHenry VIII with the destruction of the independence of theCatholic Church in Wales fromcontrol by the State. This was because, according to Lewis, King Henry's legacy ensured that subsequent Welsh literature was cut off byreligious persecution and governmentcensorship of thebardic profession from their own religious past and from their previously close links to the rest of Europe.[65]
This was why Lewis urged Welsh-language writers as early as 1919 to read, translate, and draw influence from literature in many other European languages, rather than, as he and many others before him had once done, only reading and emulating literature in English. This is also why he particularly recommended translating into the Welsh-language and arranging regular performances in the theatres of the best French poets andplaywrights of theCounter-Reformation and theBaroque era. Despite his ownFrancophilia, Lewis had also mentioned the importance of combatting theBlack Legend by exposing theWelsh people to the literary canon ofSpanish Golden Age theatre, whose greatest playwrights includedMiguel de Cervantes,Lope de Vega, andPedro Calderón de la Barca.
Without mentioningPope Gregory XI or his 1373 "règle d'idiom", command for the Catholic clergy to both learn and communicate with their flocks in the localvernacular,[66] Lewis believed that the coercive Anglicisation of theWelsh people began with theActs of Union passed under King Henry VIII following his break with the Holy See and commented, "it was this materialistic and pagan triumph that destroyed our Wales."[67]
Explaining his preference for the era before King Henry VIII, Lewis wrote, "There was one law and one civilisation throughout Europe, but that law, that civilisation took on many forms and many colours. It did not occur to the rulers of a country to destroy another land's civilisation, even when they conquered that land... Despite being conquered, being oppressed, too, and quite cruelly, it (Welsh civilisation) grew upright and without losing the innate qualities of its culture. No doubt Wales often yearned for freedom, but did not fear losing its heritage, nor did it. Because there was one law and one authority throughout Europe, Welsh civilisation was safe, and the Welsh language and the special Welsh way of life and society."[68]
For example, historian John Davies writes that, "in a notable article", Saunders Lewis argued that the Welsh bards of the Medieval era, "were expressing in their poetry a love for a stable, deep-rooted civilization." Lewis added that the bards "were the leading upholders of the belief that a hierarchical social structure, 'the heritage and tradition of an ancient aristocracy', were the necessary precondition of civilized life and that there were deep philosophical roots to this belief."[69]
Despite his many statements to the contrary, Lewis' allegedly "condescending attitude towards some aspects of theNonconformist, radical and pacifist traditions of Wales", also drew extremely harsh criticism from fellow Welsh nationalists such asD. J. Davies, asocialist Plaid Cymru member.[40]
Lewis, however, always insisted that his conversion to Catholicism did not keep him from understanding the sensibilities or appreciating the role played in Welsh culture by the Nonconformists. For example, he praisedMethodism andCalvinism for preserving the uniqueness ofWelsh-language literature and culture against theAnglophilia andlinguistic imperialism favoured by theVictorian era Welsh gentry, the Government in Westminster, and theEstablished Church.[70]
Along with his careful study of what had worked and what had failed inIrish nationalism, these were the real roots of Lewis' beliefs that Welsh cultural andlanguage revival,Christian democracy, rural landscape conservation, and an Irish-styleLand War - meaningdirect action tactics intended to reduce rents and coerce anIrish-style breakup and sale of the gentry's estates to their tenants - were preferable causes for theWelsh nationalist movement to embrace thansocialism and which have attracted such extreme criticism, both during Lewis' lifetime and since his death.
In particular, D.J. Davies denounced Lewis' calls for Welshlanguage revival andcultural nationalism. Davies called instead for engaging the English-speakingSouth Wales valleys. Davies also pointed towards left-wing political parties inScandinavia as a model for Plaid Cymru to emulate, and was accordingly far more interested in the "economic implications" of Welshself-determination.[71]
Left wing historian Geraint H. Jenkins has written, "Lewis was a cold fish. His reedy voice, bow tie, cerebral style and aristocratic contempt for the proletariat were hardly endearing qualities in a political leader, and his conversion to Catholicism lost him the sympathy of fervent Nonconformists. Heavily influenced by the discourse of right-wing French theorists, this profoundly authoritarian figure developed a grand strategy, such as it was, based on the deindustrialization of Wales. Such a scheme was both impractical and unpopular. It caused grave embarrassment to his socialist colleague D. J. Davies, a progressive economist who, writing with force and passion, showed a much better grasp of the economic realities of the time and greater sensitivity towards the plight of working people.[72]
During the post-World War II battles betweenPlaid Cymru and theLabour Party over political control ofSouth Wales, a hostile 1946 portrait mocked Saunders Lewis for thinking himself to be the "Masaryk of Wales" and that both theUnited Kingdom and the very concept ofBritishness would one day to collapse similarly to theAustro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. The same writer then sarcastically feigned sympathy for Plaid Cymru, apolitical party which was allegedly burdened by, "bitterness and hate and the (possibly unintentional) air of physical superiority with which only too many of its members have regarded the bulk of their countrymen."[52]
During the 1990s, in the midst of a debate over theGovernment of Wales Act 1998, Saunders Lewis was also accused in theHouse of Commons of having praisedAdolf Hitler in 1936 with the words, "At once he fulfilled his promise — a promise which was greatly mocked by the London papers months before that — to completely abolish the financial strength of theJews in the economic life of Germany."[73]
In 2001, former Plaid Cymru PresidentDafydd Elis-Thomas accused Saunders Lewis during a television documentary of being, "lousy as a politician, lousy as a writer, but a good Catholic".[74]
In the same book, Tanner credited the famous 1962 radio lecture by Saunders Lewis with being the primary reason why theWelsh language was, as of 2004, the only one of theCeltic languages that was neitherdead orcritically endangered.[75]
According to Tanner, "Welsh is more visible than ever before. The moment I drove across the Severn Bridge, signs written in a different language proclaimed that I had entered a different land. It was not likeScotland, whereGaelic bilingual signs were limited to a few Highland areas. As for theBretons inFrance, they can only dream of such symbols of recognition. You can live your life in Welsh now, at least in theory. The officials of theNorth Western Railway, who fired workers on the line fromHolyhead toChester for their inability or unwillingness to speak English in the 1890s, would have a tough time of it now. It is the English-speakingmonoglot who faces a problem in trying to work in the public sector, and the language sections of universities do a booming trade in teaching basic Welsh to English professionals who have taken up such posts. Saunders Lewis saved more than most people though possible by his stirring radio address back in 1962."[76]
Lewis' legacy is further reflected by the fact that, even in decaying and traditionally English-speaking Welsh colliery and industrial towns and cities,Welsh-medium education is increasingly used as a means of bothheritage language learning and reasserting national identity.
For this and many other reasons, Saunders Lewis was overwhelmingly voted by theWelsh people as their 10th greatestnational hero in the '100 Welsh Heroes' poll, the results of which was released onSt. David's Day, 2004.[4]
Lewis contested the University of Wales Constituency on two occasions, once in the general election of 1931;
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Ernest Evans | 2,229 | 75.4 | +11.9 | |
| Plaid Cymru | Saunders Lewis | 914 | 24.6 | N/A | |
| Majority | 1,315 | 50.8 | +12.2 | ||
| Turnout | 3,143 | ||||
| Liberalhold | Swing | N/A | |||
and again in the University of Wales by-election of 1943.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | William John Gruffydd | 3,098 | 52.3 | −9.0 | |
| Plaid Cymru | Saunders Lewis | 1,330 | 22.5 | N/A | |
| Independent | Alun Talfan Davies | 755 | 12.8 | N/A | |
| Independent Labour | Evan Davies | 634 | 10.7 | N/A | |
| Independent Labour | N.L. Evans | 101 | 1.7 | N/A | |
| Majority | 1,768 | 29.8 | +7.2 | ||
| Turnout | 5,918 | 53.4 | −9.0 | ||
| Registered electors | 11,079 | ||||
| Liberalhold | Swing | N/A | |||
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by New position | Vice President ofPlaid Cymru 1925–1926 | Succeeded by ? |
| Preceded by | President ofPlaid Cymru 1926–1939 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
