Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542

Laws in Wales Act 1535

Parliament of England
Long title An Acte for Laws & Justice to be ministred in Wales in like fourme as it is in this Realme
Statute book chapter 27 Henry VIII c. 26
Territorial extent Wales, Marcher Lordships
Dates
Repeal date 21 December 1993
Other legislation
Repealing legislation Welsh Language Act 1993
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted
Laws in Wales Act 1542

Parliament of England
Long title An Acte for certaine Ordinaunces in the Kinges Majesties Domynion and Principalitie of Wales
Statute book chapter 34 & 35 Henry VIII c. 26
Territorial extent Wales, Marcher Lordships
Dates
Repeal date 3 January 1995
Other legislation
Repealing legislation Welsh Language Act 1993
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted
Documents relevant to personal and
legislative unions of the Countries
of the United Kingdom

The Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 (Welsh: Y Deddfau Uno 1535 a 1542) were parliamentary measures by which the legal system of Wales was annexed to England and the norms of English administration introduced. The intention was to create a single state and a single legal jurisdiction; frequently referred to as England and Wales. The Acts were passed during the reign of King Henry VIII of England, who came from the Welsh Tudor dynasty.

They are sometimes known as the Acts of Union, but the legal short title of each Act since 1948 is "The Laws in Wales Act". They are also often seen cited by the year they received Royal assent (i.e. "were passed"), in 1536 and 1543 respectively, although the official citation uses the contemporary year in which the Parliamentary session began. In the case of each of these Acts this date occurred between 1 January and 25 March, adding to the ambiguity in the dating because of the use at that time of the Julian or "old style" calendar.[1][2][3]

Contents

Background

From the conquest of Gwynedd in 1282–83 until the passing of the Laws in Wales Acts, 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 Tudor, Earl of Richmond (descended from the great Welsh House of Tudur) seized the English throne in 1485, becoming Henry VII, no change was made to the system of governing Wales. 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 some historians such as S. B. Chrimes 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:

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 Acts were given their short titles by the Statute Law Revision Act 1948, s.5, sch.2.

Effects of the Acts

These Acts also had the following effects on the administration of Wales:

These measures were not unpopular with the Welsh gentry in particular, who recognised that they would give them equality under law with English citizens. The reaction of many 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 particularly 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 amid 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, Commissioners, 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 Affidavits, 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 annotations on the Statute Law Database copy of the act reads that sections 18–21 were repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1887.

References

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