The Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 () or the Acts of Union (), were acts of the

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the Great Council of England, great council of Lords Spi ...

under King

Henry VIII of England Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

, causing

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

to be incorporated into the realm of the

Kingdom of England The Kingdom of England was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from the late 9th century, when it was unified from various Heptarchy, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland to f ...

. The legal system of England and the norms of English administration including the use of the English language only were applied to a mainly Welsh-speaking Wales. This created a single

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

and legal

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' and 'speech' or 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, the concept of jurisdiction applies at multiple level ...

, which is now called

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

. Before these acts, Wales had already been

annexed Annexation, in international law, is the forcible acquisition and assertion of legal title over one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. In current international law, it is generally held to ...

by England in 1284 and was excluded from parliamentary representation. Wales was divided between the

Principality of Wales The Principality of Wales () was originally the territory of the native Welsh princes of the House of Aberffraw from 1216 to 1283, encompassing two-thirds of modern Wales during its height of 1267–1277. Following the conquest of Wales by Edwa ...

and many feudal statelets called the

marcher Lord A marcher lord () was a noble appointed by the king of England to guard the border (known as the Welsh Marches) between England and Wales. A marcher lord was the English equivalent of a margrave (in the Holy Roman Empire) or a marquis (in Fra ...

ships which were effectively unified under the laws. The English county system was also extended across all of Wales.

Background

After Henry VIII made himself the head of the Church of England in 1534, Wales was seen as a potential problem which included some ambitious men unhappy with ethnic disadvantage in Wales and frustrated with legal complexities. Wales had also been the landing ground for Henry VII and was close to Catholic Ireland. Chief administrator to the English crown

Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cromwell (; – 28 July 1540) was an English statesman and lawyer who served as List of English chief ministers, chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false cha ...

, brought forward Acts to unify Wales with England. The first of the Acts came in 1536 and was later strengthened by the Act of 1542/43. The Acts aimed to integrate the legal, political and administrative systems of Wales with England and make English the language of the courts in Wales, which was a mainly Welsh speaking country at the time. The preamble of the Acts suggests that legal differences in Wales led to discontent, which the English establishment wished to end. The Acts were the result of a long process of assimilation. Wales had been annexed by England, following the conquest by Edward I, under the Statute of Rhuddlan of 1284.

Acts

The two acts have the long titles ''An Act for Laws and Justice to be ministered in Wales in like Form as it is in this Realm'' and ''An Act for Certain Ordinances in the King's Majesty's Dominion and Principality of Wales''. Together they are known as the Acts of Union. The aim of the acts were to incorporate Wales into what Henry VIII of England saw as part of his Tudor Empire, with himself as sovereign ruler. The acts were not popularly referred to as the "Acts of Union" until 1901, when historian Owen M. Edwards assigned them that name. This name is misleading and the legal short title of each act has since 1948 been "The Laws in Wales Act". They are also often seen cited by the years they received

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...

, 1536 and 1543 respectively, although the official citation uses the preceding years, as each of these acts was passed between 1 January and 25 March, at a time when New Year's Day fell on 25 March. The Laws in Wales Act 1535 was passed in 1536 in the 8th session of Henry VIII's 5th parliament, which began on 4 February 1535/36, and repealed with effect from 21 December 1993. Meanwhile the act of 1542 was passed in 1543 in the second session of Henry VIII's 8th parliament, which began on 22 January 1542/43.

Provisions

The act declared King Henry's intentions, that because of differences in law and language: – and therefore: The Laws in Wales Act 1535 imposed English law and the English language upon the Welsh people and allowed Welsh representation in the English parliament. These Acts also had many effects on the administration of Wales. The marcher lordships were abolished as political units, and five new counties were established on Welsh lands (

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South East Wales, south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the s ...

Brecknockshire Brecknockshire ( or ), also known as the County of Brecknock, Breconshire, or the County of Brecon, was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It was created in 1 ...

Radnorshire Radnorshire () was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974, later becoming a Districts of Wales, district of Powys from 1974 to 1996. It covered a sparsely populat ...

Montgomeryshire Montgomeryshire ( ) was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It was named after its county town, Montgomery, Powys, Montgomery, which in turn was named after ...

and

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, Flintshire to the east, Wrexham to the southeast, Powys to the south, and Gwynedd and Conwy to the west. Rhyl is the largest town, and Ruthi ...

), thus creating a Wales of 13 counties; 34 & 35 Hen. 8 c. 26 Other areas of the lordships were annexed to

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire (; or informally ') is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. ...

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...

Cardiganshire Ceredigion (), historically Cardiganshire (, ), is a county in the west of Wales. It borders Gwynedd across the Dyfi estuary to the north, Powys to the east, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. Ab ...

and

Merionethshire Merionethshire, or Merioneth ( or '), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It was located in the North West Wales, north-west of Wales. Name 'Merioneth' is a ...

; The borders of Wales for administrative/government purposes were established and have remained the same since; this was unintentional as Wales was to be incorporated fully into England, but the status of

was still ambiguous in the view of some people until confirmed by the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

. Each county or shire consisted of fewer than a dozen hundreds corresponding with varying degrees of accuracy to the former

commote A commote (, sometimes spelt in older documents as , plural , less frequently )'' Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru'' (University of Wales Dictionary), p. 643 was a secular division of land in Medieval Wales. The word derives from the prefix ("together" ...

s. Wales elected members to the English (Westminster) Parliament, and the Council of Wales and the Marches was established on a legal basis. Marches in Wales Act 1534 ( 26 Hen. 8 c. 6) The Court of Great Sessions was established, a system peculiar to Wales, with a Sheriff appointed in every county, and other county officers as in England. The courts of the marcher lordships lost the power to try serious criminal cases, all courts in Wales were to be conducted in the English language, not Welsh, 27 Hen. 8 c. 26 s. 17 and the office of justice of the peace was introduced, nine to every county.

Effects

In the Welsh Principality, assimilation had already been greatly implemented and so the 1536 and 1542/43 acts in reality brought some legal consistency across Wales, effectively extending the Principality to the

Welsh Marches The Welsh Marches () is an imprecisely defined area along the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods. The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin ''Marchia W ...

and ending use of Welsh law. The legal simplicity made it easier for the English crown to collect tax in Wales. After the

conquest of Wales by Edward I The conquest of Wales by Edward I took place between 1277 and 1283. It is sometimes referred to as the Edwardian conquest of Wales,Examples of historians using the term include Professor J. E. Lloyd, regarded as the founder of the modern academ ...

, the counties of Anglesey, Caernarfonshire, Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, Flintshire and Merionethshire were added to by the formerly Marcher counties of Brecknockshire, Denbighshire, Glamorgan, Montgomeryshire, Pembrokeshire and Radnorshire. This also formed a legal border with England. Although the poor people of Wales may not have been aware of the laws, the measures were popular with the Welsh gentry who saw the acts as bringing legal equality with English citizens. The acts were also seen by the gentry as reducing the influence of the

marcher lords A marcher lord () was a noble appointed by the king of England to guard the border (known as the Welsh Marches) between England and Wales. A marcher lord was the English equivalent of a margrave (in the Holy Roman Empire) or a marquis (in France ...

. English was made the legal language in Wales to bring it in line with Westminster, despite the monoglot population's retention of Welsh as the majority language.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * Williams, W. Ogwen (1971), "The union of England and Wales". In A. J. Roderick (Ed.), ''Wales through the ages: volume II, Modern Wales, from 1485 to the beginning of the 20th century'', pp. 16–23. Llandybïe : Christopher Davies (Publishers) Ltd. .

External links

* (Full text of the Acts as passed, from

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

scan) *
27 Hen. 8. c. 26
An Act for Laws and Justice to be ministered in Wales in like Form as it is in this Realm *
34 & 35 Hen. 8. c. 26
An Act for certain Ordinances in the King's Majesty's Dominion and Principality of Wales
Digital Reproduction of the Original 1535 Act on the Parliamentary Archives catalogue

Digital Reproduction of the Original 1542 Act on the Parliamentary Archives catalogue
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 Constitutional laws of Wales Legal history of Wales Acts of the Parliament of England 1535 Acts of the Parliament of England 1542 Repealed English legislation Annexation 16th century in Wales 1543 in law 1543 in England 1535 in Wales 1542 in Wales 1543 in Wales England–Wales relations Church in Wales Principality of Wales Early modern history of Wales