Welsh Journals

WELSH JACOBITISM.1 By HERBERT M. VAUGHAN, M.A., F.S.A. IN dealing with the story of Jacobitism in Wales, we must be careful to bear in mind that the national aspect of the movement must be kept apart from its more personal side. "One swallow does not make a summer and the names of one or two prominent Welshmen in the 'Fifteen and the 'Forty-five do not of themselves prove that Jacobitism flourished strongly in the hearts and ideals of the Welsh people. I shall try, so far as I can, for the evidence is scanty, to show how the Legitimism, which was undoubtedly strong in Wales at the date of the flight of James the Second in 1688, declined during the half-century or so between that date and the invasion of Charles-Edward, in 1745, and to show also how and why Wales was so little affected or upset, at least outwardly, by that romantic episode.2 During the period of the Civil Wars we are made aware how markedly prominent were the loyalty and devotion of the Cymry as a whole-land owners, clergy and peasantry -to the cause of Church and Crown. It was in the friendly counties of the Principality that the war was fought to a finish, so that Harlech castle was the last 1 Read before the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion at King's College in the Strand, on Thursday, the 10th of March, 1921. Chair- man Sir Evan D. Jones, Bart., M.P. 2 The present paper is largely founded on the Essay on The Welsh Jacobites by myself under the name of Rhosyn Gwyn which won the Prize at the National Eisteddfod, held in London in 1909.