Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

THE WELSH GENTRY AND THE IMAGE OF THE 'CAMBRO-BRITON', c. 1603-25* In the preface to his Welsh translation of part of James Fs Basilikon Doron (1604), an extensive address counselling his son and heir, Henry, prince of Wales, the Pembrokeshire cleric Robert Holland referred to The Genealogy of the High and Mighty Monarch, James King of Great Brittayne which he inspired the antiquary, George Owen Harry, to compile in the same year, tracing the new king's ancestry to ancient British antecedents. Whilst praising the honourable lineage of the new king, Holland recalled James's illustrious heritage: by which work [i.e. The Genealogy} our desire is aswel to let your Maiestie see what interest this Nation hath in you, being so oft & that of both sides descended fro[m] the Kings, Princes, & greate nobles of our cou[n]try, besides the right we clayme in you now as you are our dread soueraigne King & gouernor, who[m] God preserue and continue long among vs: And also the right & interest which the same good God hath giuen your Maiestie in vs the people of this land, after so long a separation of the Kingdomes of England and Scotland, and so many diuisions of Locrinus and Cambers partes But hee [i.e. God] gaue tokens againe of his loue, beginning in your highnes Ancestors by litle and litle to reconcile and ioyne together though he did not fully vnite the whole, until he had brought in Brutus right heire (your Highnes) one lyneally descended of him I am indebted to Mr Brian James, formerly keeper of the Salisbury Library, and Dr E. Wyn James, of the Department of Welsh, at the University of Wales, Cardiff, for reading earlier drafts of this study and for their valuable comments and suggestions. R. Holland, Basilikon Doron by King James I: Fragment of a Welsh Translation by Robert Holland, ed. J. Ballinger (Cardiff, 1931), A4.