in 410 During the
Roman occupation of Britain, the area of present-day England and Wales was administered as a single unit, except for the land to the north of
Hadrian's Wall – though the Roman-occupied area varied in extent, and for a time extended to the
Antonine/Severan Wall (situated entirely in modern-day
Scotland). It is thought that at that time most of the native inhabitants of
Roman Britain spoke
Brythonic languages, but they were all regarded as
Britons, divided into numerous tribes. After the conquest, the Romans administered this region as a single unit, the
province of
Britain. Long after the departure of the Romans, the Britons in what became Wales developed their
own system of law, first codified by
Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good; reigned 942–950) when he was king of most of present-day Wales (compare
King of Wales); in England
Anglo-Saxon law was initially codified by
Alfred the Great in his
Legal Code, . However, after the
Norman invasion of Wales in the 11th century,
English law came to apply in the parts of Wales conquered by the
Normans (the
Welsh Marches). In 1283, the English, led by
Edward I, with the biggest army brought together in England since the 11th century,
conquered the remainder of Wales, then organised as the
Principality of Wales. This was then united with the English crown by the
Statute of Rhuddlan of 1284. This aimed to replace Welsh criminal law with English law. Welsh law continued to be used for civil cases until the annexation of Wales to England in the 16th century by the Welsh
House of Tudor. The
Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 then consolidated the administration of all the Welsh territories and incorporated them fully into the legal system of the
Kingdom of England. This was in part to update outdated Welsh laws, but also to control Wales alongside England; through these acts, the Welsh could be seen as equals to the English. This was reflected on both
Henry VIII and
Elizabeth I's coat of arms where the dragon represented Wales and the lion represented England. When the Tudor dynasty ended with the death of
Elizabeth I the
red dragon of Wales was replaced with the
unicorn of Scotland with the succession of
King James I who demoted Wales' status on the coat of arms and on the first adaptation of the
Flag of Great Britain. Prior to 1746, it was not clear whether a reference to "England" in legislation included Wales, and so in 1746, Parliament passed the
Wales and Berwick Act 1746. This specified that in all prior and future laws, references to "England" would by default include Wales (and
Berwick-upon-Tweed). The Wales and Berwick Act was repealed by the
Welsh Language Act 1967, although the statutory definition of "England" created by that Act still applies for laws passed before 1967. In new legislation since then, what was referred to as "England" is now "England and Wales", while subsequent references to "England" and "Wales" refer to those political divisions.
Wales jurisdiction There have been multiple calls from both Welsh academics and politicians for a
Wales criminal justice system. ==Law==