Unionism in Wales

History

Edward I of England conquered Wales in 1283. The royal ordinance of the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 annexed Wales to England.

Henry VIII of England introduced the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, making the Welsh citizens of the realm, and giving them representation in parliament for the first time. These acts also abolished the Welsh legal system of Hywel Dda, and the Welsh language could not be used for official purposes. The laws also defined the England-Wales border for the first time. The Marcher Lordships and Principality of Wales, divided by conquest, were reunited.

The political union between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland was created through the Act of Union 1707. This united the two previously independent states, which had shared the same monarch in a personal union since 1603, under the Parliament of Great Britain. With the Act of Union 1800, the Kingdom of Ireland united with Great Britain to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. After the partition of Ireland, through which most of Ireland left the United Kingdom in 1922, the state became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The history of the unions is reflected in various stages of the Union Jack, which forms the flag of the United Kingdom. As Wales had been annexed and was deemed a principality, it was not distinguished from England within the national flag.

Devolution

The UK is administered as a unitary state, but in the early 1990s, Labour became committed to devolution for both Scotland and Wales, and in 1997 it was elected with a mandate to hold referendums on a Scottish Parliament and a Welsh Assembly. The proposed assembly won a narrow majority in the 1997 referendum. The political climate was very different from that of 1979, with a new generation of Welsh MPs in Westminster and a broad consensus on the previously divisive issue of the Welsh language. In 1997, a second referendum, following the 1979 referendum, on devolution, saw the Welsh electorate vote narrowly in favour of establishing a National Assembly for Wales by 50.3 per cent, on a 50.2 per cent turnout. In 2011 a referendum was held to determine whether Wales should be devolved further powers. The Welsh electorate voted in favour of further powers by 63.5% to 36.5%.