Cymru/Wales

Just wrote this in response to the suggestion that basically 'Wales' as a concept didn't exist until Victorian times. The Welsh border was always defined by others. Before the Romans we had tribal groups, after them - kingdoms. The Welsh lived to the west of the Germanics with a boundary that decreased as they expanded, our border moved as they moved. By the 8th century the Mercians had successfully interned us, no more wars in Northumbria, we were shut in behind Offa's Dyke, the front door closed on our fraternal Britons, barring the roads to Strathclyde, Cornwall & Brittany. From then on to all intents and purposes Gwynedd; Deheubarth; Powys; Glamorgan & Gwent made up Wales, the land of the Welsh, with each kingdom vying for overall control. Interesting to note that a chronicle of 1043 notes that a king of Glamorgan died in his old age, whilst between 949 & 1066 at least 35 Welsh rulers died by violence. In the 11th century we were finally united by Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, "the shield & defender of the Welsh", our last 'High King' and the first to reach into "every corner of Wales", as per usual he was killed by his fellow countrymen, in 1O63 fighting against Harold the Saxon, who was himself to be killed 3 years later by the Norman William the Bastard.  Wales existed and Castles were built on an acknowledged frontier. Under William ll (Rufus) barons were allowed to scavenge, to build castles, settle and to make their own laws, so that for 100s of years Cymru/Wales had two legal systems: one of the Norman Marcher Lords, where the kings writ could not be served, another, the Welsh laws of the princes of an independent Wales or 'Pura Wallia', but also of the native lords of the hills & valleys of Glamorgan & Gwent; this all came to an end when Henry Vlll paradoxically redrew the border whilst getting rid of the country by subsuming it into England in 1534-36.