This volume just arrived. David Stephenson is (imo) the best current historian of medieval Wales, especially the period of the Edwardian conquest and its aftermath.
David argues for a complete re-assessment of this era, from the later years of Edward I up to the Black Death. After 1295 a 'new order' of aristocratic leadership emerged in Wales, which worked in co-operation with the English crown up until the mid-14th century. At that point the relationship started to break down, culminating in the revolt of Owain Glyndwr.
This is a very detailed argument, drawing on close analysis of the record evidence. There are this who will simply refuse to accept it - I know from experience how difficult it can be to have reasonable discussions about Edward I and Wales, and to persuade people to consider new perspectives. That's fine, but I'm not here to offend anyone or get into arguments. If what follows makes you angry, then ignore me. Nobody has to agree with anything, obviously.
To start with, David quotes a passage by his old tutor, the late RR Davies:
"The difference between English and Welsh in fourteenth-century Wales was in part - and we need not mince our words here - that between conqueror and conquered, between a foreign government and commercial elite and an unprivileged native society; between settlers and natives. It was a contrast which permeated many aspects of Welsh life of the period - those of office-holding in church and state, of the redistribution of land in favour of a settler caste, of urban privileges and marketing prohibitions".
This might, in a nutshell, be taken as a fair reflection of the popular understanding of post-Conquest Wales (minus some of the more extreme language). But how true is it, really? We shall find out...
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