Patrick Finnan

[Ring Magazine @ringmagazine]

Read the full Ring Magazine story here ⬇️

https://t.co/7RJExV6eah

[Proudofus.uk @ProudofusUK]

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Modern Wales was written down 600 years before it existed.📜 🇬🇧

By a Welshman who vanished into the mountains 🏔️

On 16 September 1400, Owain Glyndŵr raised his banner at Glyndyfrdwy and declared himself Prince of Wales 👑

The Welsh came to him from every valley 🐉

In 1402, he won the Battle of Mynydd Hyddgen ⚔️

By 1404, most of Wales was his 🏰

That year, in Machynlleth, he did something no Welsh prince had ever done. He called a parliament 🏛️

4 envoys from every commote in Wales. Envoys from France 🇫🇷 from Spain 🇪🇸 from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 stood beside them.

Wales had a parliament. And a prince.

2 years later, at Pennal, he wrote to the King of France ✍️ It is called the Pennal Letter. It set out what Wales should be 📜

An independent Welsh church ⛪

2 Welsh universities. One in the north. One in the south 🎓

The Welsh language recognised in law 🐉

Welsh people governing themselves 🏛️

All of it written down. On 31 March 1406.

This is what Wales would become.

The English crown sent army after army ⚔️ Aberystwyth fell in 1408. Harlech fell in 1409.

His wife was taken. His daughter Catrin. His grandchildren. They died in the Tower of London 🏰

By 1412, Glyndŵr was alone. He vanished into the mountains 🏔️

He was never captured. He was never betrayed.

For 600 years, Wales had no parliament. The Welsh language was punished out of children.

But the Pennal Letter survived 📜 Held in the Archives Nationales in Paris 🇫🇷 Waiting.

In 1999, the Welsh had their assembly back 🏛️ In 2020, it was named the Senedd. The parliament of Wales 🐉

The Welsh language is now official. 2 universities for the north and the south 🎓

All that Owain wrote down. 616 years later.

He hadn't failed. He had been early.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

He is one of many.

The Welsh have been writing themselves up for centuries 🐉

Charter by charter. Parliament by parliament 📜🏛️

From one Welsh prince in a stone hall in Machynlleth 👑

Will you help us tell that story to those who need to hear? 👇🙏

👉 https://t.co/rih7iKwnvf 👈

Be part of us. ☝️🇬🇧

Be Proud Of Us. 🙏🇬🇧