Welsh Journals

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WALES AND SCOTLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES A superficial reading of the medieval history of Wales and Scotland might easily suggest that the two countries had almost no mutual relationship significant enough to leave more than a few traces in chronicle and record. Deeper investigation of the sources, however, shows that the position was neither as simple nor as negative as might be indicated by the conspicuous absence of 'Scotland' from the indices to Welsh, and of 'Wales' from the indices to Scottish, historical works. Geographically, Scotland faces east and west rather than north and south, and in any case only a very small portion of the coast of Scotland looks towards Wales, although we must remember that between 1266 and the middle decades of the fourteenth century the Isle of Man belonged de facto as well as dejure to the Scottish realm. Although a division between north and south (usually along the line of lower Clyde and Firth of Forth) has been an abiding factor in Scottish history, it is arguable that an even more important, certainly an equally permanent, factor has been the division between east and west, or to be more precise between an 'Atlantic' zone and a 'North Sea' zone. Similarly, although the division between north and south has been and still is a factor of fundamental significance in Welsh history it is surely true that there have existed over lengthy periods more subtle and complex divisions and differences in Wales, between the west (approximately the pura Wallia of medieval English administrators) and the east, composed largely of Marcher lordships. Without pushing the comparison to extremes, it may further be pointed out that the division between 'Welsh Wales' and 'Marcher Wales' has approximated to a north and west versus a south and east division, rather as in Scotland the most strongly Celtic-speaking area has been historically the north and west (Atlantic) zone, while the English- speaking area has been the south and east (North Sea) zone. Moreover, a large part of modern Pembrokeshire-as far west as one may reach in Wales-has since the twelfth century gone with the south-east, or less specifically Welsh, part of the country, while in Scotland the extreme north-east comer of Caithness, as well as the Northern Isles (added to the Scottish kingdom in 1468-69), have gone with the 'south-east' zone of Germanic speech.