Ancient Britain and
Aulus Plautius. Before and during the
Roman occupation of
Britain, all the native inhabitants of the island (other than the Pictish/Caledonian tribes of what is now northern Scotland—and also excepting the
Lloegyr of greater south-east Britain) spoke
Brythonic languages, a sub-family of the
Insular Celtic languages, and were regarded as
Britons. The topographical contrast between the mountainous western areas and the generally lower-lying areas to the east is reflected in the nature of ancient settlements, with the majority of
hillforts in Britain found in this western area.
Roman era During the Roman occupation, the tribes of Wales (
Ordovices,
Deceangli,
Demetae, and especially the
Silures) were noted by Roman authors as fiercely resisting any occupation. As such the border area became a centre of military activity, with legions based at
Deva (
Chester),
Viroconium (
Wroxeter), and
Isca Augusta (
Caerleon). In most of Wales, the militaristic nature of the occupation was in stark contrast to that of southeast Britain. As such, by the
end of Roman rule, there would have been a cultural border, between the highly Romanised
Romano-British in the east, and the more independent and tribal kingdoms to the west. This western area was, however,
largely Christian, and a number of
successor states attempted to continue Roman practices. The most successful of these were the
Kingdom of Gwynedd in the northwest, the
Kingdom of Gwent and
Glywysing in the southeast, the
Kingdom of Dyfed in the southwest and the
Kingdom of Powys in the east. Powys roughly coincided with the territory of the Celtic
Cornovii tribe whose
civitas or administrative centre during the Roman period was at
Viroconium. Gwynedd, at the height of its power, extended as far east as the Dee estuary. Gradually, from the 5th century onwards,
pagan tribes from the east, including the
Angles and
Saxons, conquered eastern and southern Britain, which later became England. In the south, the Welsh
kingdom of Gwent broadly covered the same area as the pre-Roman
Silures, traditionally the area between the rivers
Usk,
Wye and the Severn estuary. It was centred at different times on
Venta (
Caerwent), from which it derived its name, and
Isca Augusta (Caerleon). Gwent generally allied with, and at various times was joined with, the smaller Welsh kingdom of
Ergyng, centred in present-day southern Herefordshire west of the Wye (and deriving its name from the Roman town of
Ariconium); and the larger kingdom of
Glywysing in modern
Glamorgan. The name Glywysing may indicate that it was founded by a British native of
Glevum (
Gloucester).
Medieval era The
Battle of Mons Badonicus, , could have been fought near
Bath between the British, the victors, and Anglo-Saxons attempting to reach the Severn estuary, but its date and location are very uncertain and it may equally well have taken place in
Somerset or
Dorset. However, it is more certain that the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of
Wessex emerged in the 6th and 7th centuries in the upper
Thames valley,
Cotswolds and
Hampshire areas. In 577, the
Battle of Deorham in the southern Cotswolds was won by the Anglo-Saxons, and led to Wessex extending its control to the Severn estuary and the cities of Gloucester,
Cirencester, and Bath. This severed the land link between the Britons of Wales and
those of the south west peninsula. By about 600, however, the area of modern Gloucestershire east of the Severn, as well as most of
Worcestershire, was controlled by another group, the
Hwicce, who may have arisen from intermarriage between Anglo-Saxon and British leading families, possibly the successors to the pre-Roman
Dobunni. The Hwicce came increasingly under Mercian hegemony. At the
Battle of Chester in 616, the forces of Powys and other allied Brythonic kingdoms were defeated by the
Northumbrians under
Æthelfrith. This divided the Britons of Wales from those in
Northern England, including
Lancashire, Cumbria, and
south west Scotland, an area which became known as "" or "the Old North". Within a few decades, the Welsh became engaged in further defensive warfare against the increasingly powerful kingdom of
Mercia, based at
Tamworth in what became the
West Midlands of England.
Shrewsbury, was conquered by
Oswiu of Northumbria in 656 when he had become overlord of the Mercians. Powys then withdrew from the lowland areas now in southern
Cheshire,
Shropshire and
Herefordshire, which became known to Welsh poets as "The Paradise of Powys".
Offa's Dyke near
Clun in Shropshire After
Ine of Wessex abdicated in 726,
Æthelbald of Mercia established Mercia's hegemony over the Anglo-Saxons south of the
Humber. However, campaigns by Powys against Mercia led to the building of
Wat's Dyke, an earthwork boundary extending from the
Severn valley near Oswestry to the Dee at
Basingwerk in what became
Flintshire, perhaps to protect recently acquired lands.
Offa's Dyke is a massive linear earthwork, up to wide (including its surrounding ditch) and high. It is much larger and longer than Wat's Dyke, and runs roughly parallel to it. The earthwork was generally dug with the displaced soil piled into a bank on the Mercian (eastern) side, providing an open view into Wales and suggesting that it was built by Mercia to guard against attacks or raids from Powys. The late 9th-century writer
Asser wrote that Offa
"terrified all the neighbouring kings and provinces around him, and ... had a great dyke built between Wales and Mercia from sea to sea". In the mid-20th century, Sir
Cyril Fox completed a major survey of the Dyke and stated that it ran from the Dee to the Severn, as Asser suggested, but with gaps, especially in the Herefordshire area, where natural barriers of strong rivers or dense forests provided sufficient defence. More recent research by David Hill and Margaret Worthington concluded that there is little evidence for the Dyke stretching "from sea to sea", but that the earthwork built by Offa stretched some between
Rushock Hill near
Kington in Herefordshire, and
Treuddyn in Flintshire. Earthworks in the far north and south, including sections overlooking the
Wye valley and east of the Wye at
Beachley, may in their view have been built for different purposes at different times, although their conclusions are themselves disputed.
Wat's Dyke Offa's Dyke largely remained the frontier between the Welsh and English in later centuries. By the 9th century, the expanding power of Mercia led to it gaining control over Ergyng and nearby
Hereford. The system of
shires which was later to form the basis of local administration throughout England and eventually Wales originated in Wessex, where it became established during the 8th century. Wessex and Mercia gradually established an occasionally unstable alliance, with Wessex gaining the upper hand. According to Asser, the southern Welsh kings, including Hywel ap Rhys of Glywysing, commended themselves to
Alfred the Great of Wessex in about 885. Alfred's son
Edward the Elder also secured homage from the Welsh, although sporadic border unrest continued. In the early 10th century, a document known as
The Ordinance Concerning the Dunsaete records procedures for dealing with disputes between the English and the Welsh, and implies that areas west of the Wye in
Archenfield were still culturally Welsh. It stated that the English should only cross into the Welsh side, and vice versa, in the presence of an appointed man who had the responsibility of making sure that the foreigner was safely escorted back to the crossing point. In 926, Edward's successor
Athelstan, "King of the English", summoned the Welsh kings including
Hywel Dda of
Deheubarth to a meeting at Hereford, and according to
William of Malmesbury laid down the boundary between England and Wales, particularly the disputed southern stretch where he specified that the eastern bank of the Wye should form the boundary. By the mid-eleventh century, most of Wales had become united under the king of
Gwynedd,
Gruffudd ap Llywelyn. In 1055, he marched on Hereford and sacked the city. He also seized
Morgannwg and the Kingdom of Gwent, together with substantial territories east of Offa's Dyke, and raided as far as Chester and
Leominster. The
Domesday Book records the extent of English penetration into Wales and suggests that Offa's Dyke still approximately represented the boundary between England and Wales. However, during the
anarchy of Stephen various Welsh princes were able to occupy lands beyond it, including
Whittington, Shropshire (see
Whittington Castle) and
Maelor Saesneg, hitherto in England. These lands were brought under English lordship by
Henry II of England, but became
Marcher lordships, and so part of Wales. This involved a loss of direct rule by the English crown. Over the next four centuries, Norman lords established mostly small lordships, at times numbering over 150, between the Dee and Severn and further west. The precise dates and means of formation of the lordships varied, as did their size. Hundreds of small castles, mostly of the
motte and bailey type, were built in the border area in the 12th and 13th centuries, predominantly by Norman lords as assertions of power as well as defences against Welsh raiders and rebels. Many new towns were established across the area, some such as Chepstow,
Monmouth,
Ludlow and
Newtown becoming successful trading centres, and these tended to be a focus of English settlement. However, the Welsh continued to attack English soil and supported rebellions against the Normans. The
Marches, or
Marchia Wallia, were to a greater or lesser extent independent of both the English monarchy and the
Principality of Wales, which remained based in Gwynedd in the north west of the country. By the early 12th century, they covered the areas which would later become
Monmouthshire and much of
Flintshire, Montgomeryshire,
Radnorshire, Brecknockshire,
Glamorgan, Carmarthenshire and
Pembrokeshire. Some of the lordships, such as Oswestry,
Whittington,
Clun, and
Wigmore had been part of England at the time of Domesday, while others such as
the Lordship of Powys were Welsh principalities that passed by marriage into the hands of Norman barons. In ecclesiastical terms, the ancient
dioceses of
Bangor and
St. Asaph in the north, and
St. David's and
Llandaff in the south, collectively defined an area which included both the Principality and the March, and coincided closely with later definitions of Wales. At this point, the boundary between England and Wales, which has existed ever since, was effectively fixed. In the border areas, five new counties were created: Denbighshire, Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire, Brecknockshire and Monmouthshire; and Flintshire gained some additional territory. However, several of the marcher lordships were incorporated in whole or in part into English counties. The lordships of Ludlow, Clun,
Caus and part of Montgomery were incorporated into Shropshire; and
Wigmore,
Huntington,
Clifford and most of
Ewyas were included in Herefordshire. According to John Davies: However, when
local government legislation was introduced, no change was made. • Due to outrage over plans for county reforms in 1971, the civil parish of
Brilley was given the chance to vote on whether to join Wales or stay in England. They decided to remain in England. • In 2008, residents of the village of
Audlem, Cheshire, from the border, "voted" to become part of Wales with 80 for the change and 44 In opposition in what was originally a joke ballot. Some residents sought to make a case for securing Welsh benefits such as free hospital parking and prescriptions. • A triangle of water to the south of
Flat Holm Is administered by Bristol County Despite being within Wales additionally
Denny Island and parts of the welsh grounds are within England yet administered by
Monmouthshire County
Monmouthshire Although Monmouthshire was included in the 16th century legislation, it was treated anomalously, with the result that its legal status as a Welsh county fell into some ambiguity and doubt until the 20th century. It was omitted from the second Act of Union, which established the
Court of Great Sessions, and like English shires it was given two
Knights of the Shire, rather than one as elsewhere in Wales. However, in ecclesiastical terms, almost all of the county remained within the
Diocese of Llandaff, and most of its residents at the time spoke
Welsh. In the late 17th century under
Charles II it was added to the Oxford circuit of the
English Assizes, following which, according to the
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, it gradually "came to be regarded as an English county". Under that interpretation, the boundary between England and Wales passed down the
Rhymney valley, along Monmouthshire's western borders with Brecknockshire and Glamorgan, so including
Newport, and other industrialised parts of what would now generally be considered to be
South Wales, within England. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica unambiguously described the county as part of England, but noted that "whenever an act [...] is intended to apply to [Wales] alone, then Wales is always coupled with Monmouthshire". Some legislation and UK government decisions, such as the establishment of a "Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire" in 1908, referred to "Wales and Monmouthshire", so that it was treated as one with Wales rather than as a legal part of Wales. The county's status continued to be a matter of debate in Parliament, especially as Welsh nationalism and devolution climbed the political agenda in the 20th century. In 1921 the area was included within the
Church in Wales. The
Welsh Office, established in 1965, included Monmouthshire within its remit, and in 1969
George Thomas,
Secretary of State for Wales, proposed to fully incorporate Monmouthshire into Wales. The issue was finally clarified in law by the
Local Government Act 1972, The legal boundary between England and Wales therefore passes along Monmouthshire's eastern boundaries with
Herefordshire and
Gloucestershire, essentially along the
River Monnow and
River Wye. ==The border today==