Wales is acountry that ispart of theUnited Kingdom and the island ofGreat Britain,bordered byEngland to its east, theIrish Sea to its north and west, and theBristol Channel to its south.

A –B –C –D –E –F –G –H –I –J –K –L –M –N –O –P –Q –R –S –T –U –V –W –X –Y –Z –See also

• The people of Snowdon assert that even if theirprince should giveseisin of them tothe king, they themselves would refuse to do homage to anyforeigner, of whoselanguage,customs andlaws they were thoroughly ignorant.
  • Anonymous address of Welsh lords (1282),Reg. Johannis Peckham, II, p. 471, quoted in R. R. Davies, 'Law and National Identity in Thirteenth-Century Wales', in R. R. Davies (ed.),Welsh Society and Nationhood: Historical Essays Presented to Glanmor Williams (1984), p. 52

• Nec alia, ut arbitror, gens quam haec Kambrica, aliave lingua, in die districti examinis coram Judice supremo, quicquid de ampliori contingat, pro hoc terrarum angulo respondebit.
  • Whatever else may come to pass, I do not think that on theDay of Direst Judgement any race other than the Welsh, or any other language, will give answer to the Supreme Judge of all for this small corner of the earth.
    • Gerald of Wales, quoting an unnamed Welshman, inDescriptio Cambriae (1194), Bk. 2, ch. 10; translation byLewis Thorpe fromThe Journey Through Wales and the Description of Wales (1978) p. 274

• [Y]ours is an ancient language, and the language is connected with an ancient history, and it is connected with an ancient music and with an ancient literature... [Y]our laudable and patriotic efforts will come to be more and more understood and regarded by theEnglish people at large, and that prosperity and honour will attend the meetings by which you endeavour to preserve and to commemorate the ancient history, the ancient deeds, and the ancient literature of your country, thePrincipality of Wales.
  • William Ewart Gladstone, inaugural address to the opening of the Eisteddfod in Mold, of which Gladstone was President (19 August 1873), quoted inThe Times (20 August 1873), p. 5

• I affirm that Welsh nationality is as great a reality as English nationality. It may not be as big a reality in that it does not extend over so large a country, but with the traditions and history of Wales, with the language of Wales (hear, hear), with the religion of Wales (cheers), with the feelings of Wales, I maintain that the Welsh nationality is as true as thenationality ofScotland, to which by blood I exclusively belong.
  • William Ewart Gladstone, speech in Swansea (4 June 1887), quoted inThe Times (6 June 1887), p. 10

• The Welsh made a very good and a very hard fight against the English in self-defence, and what was the consequence? That the English were obliged to surround your territory with great castles; and the effect of this has been that, as far as I can reckon, more by far than one-half of the great remains of the castles in the whole island south of the Tweed are castles that surround Wales. That shows that Wales was inhabited by men, and by men who valued and were disposed to struggle for their liberties.
  • William Ewart Gladstone, speech to the Eisteddfod in Wrexham (8 September 1888), quoted in A. W. Hutton and H. J. Cohen (eds.),The Speeches of The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone on Home Rule, Criminal Law, Welsh and Irish Nationality, National Debt and the Queen's Reign. 1888–1891 (1902), p. 61

• On the other edge ofEurope, in the countryside of Wales, another formidable weapon againstmen andhorses was being perfected. TheEnglishkings began to appreciate the possibilities of the Welsh longbow in their twelfth-century wars in Wales when Welsh archers with six-foot bows, taller than they were, fired arrows that could go through layers ofchain mail, wooden saddles and flesh. In 1346, during theHundred Years War between theFrench and theEnglish,Edward III brought his Welsh archers toFrance. AtCrécy a much weaker English force turned to fight the pursuing French. The French had three times as many mountedsoldiers, considered the finestcavalry in Europe, 6,000Genoesecrossbowmen and 20,000foot soldiers against 5,000. The English, however, had 11,000 archers armed with longbows. The Genoese fired first but did not inflict much damage on the English army. As the Genoese scrambled to reload, French knights, impatient for glory, started to trample them from behind, while the English archers launched a devastating fire. As one witness said, ‘Every arrow told on horse or man, piercing head, or arm, or leg among the riders and sending the horses mad.’ The French knights charged again and again, while the Welsh archers steadily reloaded and fired. By nightfall the ground was covered with dead and dying horses and men. The French lost over 1,500 knights and 10,000 who were ‘not of gentle blood’. The English losses were two knights, forty ‘others’ and some ‘few dozen’ Welsh. The unchallenged dominance of knights on the battlefield started to die there too.
  • Margaret MacMillan,War: How Conflict Shaped Us (2020)

• The land of my fathers. My fathers can have it.
  • Dylan Thomas, inAdam (December 1953)

• Years and years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there werewolves in Wales, andbirds the colour of red-flannel petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hills, when wesang and wallowed all night and day in caves that smelt likeSunday afternoons in damp front farmhouse parlours, and we chased, with the jawbones of deacons, the English and the bears, before the motor car, before the wheel, before the duchess-faced horse, when we rode the daft and happy hills bareback, it snowed and it snowed.
  • Dylan Thomas,A Child's Christmas in Wales (1954) p. 11

• There are still parts of Wales where the only concession to gaiety is a striped shroud.
  • Gwyn Thomas, inPunch (18 June 1958)

• All right, I was Welsh. Does it matter?
  I spoke a tongue that was passed on
  To me in the place I happened to be,
  A place huddled between grey walls
  Of cloud for at least half the year.
  Myword forheaven was not yours.
  The word forhell had a sharp edge
  Put on it by thehand of thewind
  Honing, honing with a shrill sound
  Day and night. Nothing thatGlyn Dwr
  Knew was armour against the rain's
  Missiles. What was descent from him?
  • R. S. Thomas, in "A Welsh Testament", inTares (1961)

• EvenGod had a Welshname:
  He spoke to him in the old language;
  He was to have a peculiar care
  For the Welsh people.History showed us
  He was too big to be nailed to the wall
  Of a stone chapel, yet still we crammed him
  Between the boards of a blackbook.
  • R. S. Thomas, in "A Welsh Testament", inTares (1961)

• You are Welsh, they said;
  Speak to us so; keep your fields free
  Of the smell of petrol, the loud roar
  Of hot tractors; we must havepeace
  And quietness.
  • R. S. Thomas, in "A Welsh Testament", inTares (1961)

• Welsh language
• Welsh people

• Encyclopedic article onWales on Wikipedia
• Media related toWales on Wikimedia Commons
• Wales travel guide from Wikivoyage

• The dictionary definition ofWales on Wiktionary
• Works related toPortal:Wales on Wikisource

• United Kingdom
• Wales