The Penal Laws against Wales were a set of laws, passed by the English Parliament in 1402. They were designed to establish English dominance in Wales during the Welsh Revolt/Glyndŵr Rising (1400–1415), led by Owain Glyndŵr.
These laws banned the Welsh from obtaining senior public office, the bearing of arms or buying property in English towns. All public assembly was forbidden, and education of Welsh children was restricted. Englishmen who married Welsh women also came under these laws.
There were three acts passed by the English Parliament in 1402 : the Wales Act, the Wales and Welshmen Act & the Welshmen Act.
The laws were NOT ended by the Laws in Wales Acts (1535 and 1542) – BUT were finally repealed by the last parliament called by James I ( The Happy Parliament ) in 1624 – 17 years after the English laws against the Scots had been repealed : Stats 4 & 5 James I, c.1; 21 James 1, cc. 10, 28 section 1 ; listed in Statutes of the Realm ( London 1819 ) vol iv, pp 1134 – 7, 1219, 1239 ( from note 10, page 6 : British Consciousness and Identity – The Making of Britain 1533–1707 – eds Brendan Bradshaw and Peter Roberts – Cambridge University Press 1998 – http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam034/97033420.pdf )
Famous quotes containing the words penal, laws and/or wales:
“Him the Almighty Power
Hurld headlong flaming from th’ Ethereal Skie
With hideous ruine and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,
Who durst defie th’ Omnipotent to Arms.
Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race
That hoard, and sleep, and feed,”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“I just come and talk to the plants, really—very important to talk to them, they respond I find.”
—Charles, Prince Of Wales (b. 1948)