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Wales in the Early Middle Ages

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Wales in the early Middle Ages covers the time between the Roman departure from Wales c. 383 until the middle of the 11th century. In that time there was a gradual consolidation of power into increasingly hierarchical kingdoms. The end of the early Middle Ages was the time that the Welsh language transitioned from the Primitive Welsh spoken throughout the era into Old Welsh , and the time when the modern England–Wales border would take its near-final form, a line broadly followed by Offa's Dyke , a late eighth-century earthwork . Successful unification into something recognisable as a Welsh state would come in the next era under the descendants of Merfyn Frych .

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113-412: Wales was rural throughout the era, characterised by small settlements called trefi . The local landscape was controlled by a local aristocracy and ruled by a warrior aristocrat. Control was exerted over a piece of land and, by extension, over the people who lived on that land. Many of the people were tenant peasants or slaves, answerable to the aristocrat who controlled the land on which they lived. There

226-423: A different inhumation custom. The records of transactions and legal references provide information on the status of the clergy and its institutions. Landed proprietorship was the basis of support and income for all clerical communities, exploiting agriculture (crops), herding (sheep, pigs, goats), infrastructure (barns, threshing floors), and employing stewards to supervise the labour. Lands that were not adjacent to

339-558: A different interpretation and defines a Rural area as " ... a road or a geographical area that is not an urban traffic area, to which the rural speed limit generally applies. " Rural economics is the study of rural economies . Rural economies include both agricultural and non-agricultural industries, so rural economics has broader concerns than agricultural economics which focus more on food systems . Rural development and finance attempt to solve larger challenges within rural economics. These economic issues are often connected to

452-428: A famine or resource depletion. These are examples of push factors . The same phenomenon can also be brought about simply because of higher wages and educational access available in urban areas; examples of pull factors . Once rural populations fall below a critical mass , the population is too small to support certain businesses, which then also leave or close, in a vicious circle . Even in non-market sectors of

565-507: A fifth of them are employed in the primary production. Since there is a policy of equal living conditions, people see rural areas as equivalent as urban areas. Village renewal is an approach to develop countryside and supports the challenges faced in the process of it. In Britain, there are various definitions of a rural area. "Rural" is defined by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), using population data from

678-452: A harder time accessing land, education and other support systems that help with economic development. Several policies have been tested in both developing and developed economies, including rural electrification and access to other technologies such as internet, gender parity , and improved access to credit and income. In academic studies, rural poverty is often discussed in conjunction with spatial inequality , which in this context refers to

791-440: A king's bondsman ( aillt ) was higher than the equivalent loss to the bondsman of a breyr . Early sources stressed birth and function as the determinators of nobility, and not by the factor of wealth that later became associated with an aristocracy. The populace included a hereditary tenant peasantry who were not slaves or serfs, but were less than free. Gwas ("servant", boy) referred to a dependent in perpetual servitude, but who

904-570: A lasting legacy especially in Dyfed . It is possible that they were invited to settle by the Welsh. There is no evidence of warfare, a bilingual regional heritage suggests peaceful coexistence and intermingling, and the Historia Brittonum written c. 828 notes that a Welsh king had the power to settle foreigners and transfer tracts of land to them. That Roman-era regional rulers were able to exert such power

1017-590: A matter of guess and conjecture. The religious culture of Wales was overwhelmingly Christian in the early Middle Ages. Pastoral care of the laity was necessarily rural in Wales, as it was in other Celtic regions. In Wales the clergy consisted of monks, orders and non-monastic clergy, all appearing in different periods and in different contexts. There were three major orders consisting of bishops ( episcopi ), priests ( presbyteri ) and deacons, as well as several minor ones. Bishops had some temporal authority, but not necessarily in

1130-584: A municipality, and in municipal matters, the Federal District is treated and governs as a single municipality, city-state -like (Brasília, DF). 15% of the French population lives in rural areas, spread over 90% of the country. The government under President Emmanuel Macron launched an action plan in 2019 amid the yellow vests movement in favor of rural areas named the "Agenda Rural". Among many initiatives recommended to redynamize rural areas, energy transition

1243-651: A rural community. Predominantly urban regions have less than 15 percent of their population living in a rural community. Predominantly rural regions are classified as rural metro-adjacent, rural non-metro-adjacent and rural northern, following Philip Ehrensaft and Jennifer Beeman (1992). Rural metro-adjacent regions are predominantly rural census divisions which are adjacent to metropolitan centres while rural non-metro-adjacent regions are those predominantly rural census divisions which are not adjacent to metropolitan centres. Rural northern regions are predominantly rural census divisions that are found either entirely or mostly above

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1356-511: A separate Anglo-Saxon and British approach to Christianity dates back at least to Bede . He portrayed the Synod of Whitby (in 664) as a set-piece battle between competing Celtic and Roman religious interests. While the synod was an important event in the history of England and brought finality to several issues in Anglo-Saxon Britain, Bede probably overemphasised its significance so as to stress

1469-514: A single realm known as Deheubarth . This became the first significant event of his reign. During the year 928 Hywel made a pilgrimage to Rome , becoming the first Welsh prince to undertake such a trip and return, Hywel's wife Elen (death maybe 948 or 951), the daughter of Llywarch (d. 903), and granddaughter of King Hyfaidd of the Kingdom of Dyfed , died the same year. Upon his return he forged very close relations with Æthelstan of England. From

1582-478: A strict measure used by the National Sample Survey in its 63rd round, called monthly per capita expenditure, rural expenditure accounts for 55% of total national monthly expenditure. The rural population currently accounts for one-third of the total Indian FMCG sales. In Japan, rural areas are referred to as "Inaka" which translates literally to "the countryside" or "one's native village". According to

1695-528: A territory that might be held and protected, or expanded or contracted, though the territories themselves were specific pieces of land and not synonyms for the gwlad . Throughout the Middle Ages the Welsh used a variety of words for rulers, with the specific words used varying over time, and with literary sources generally using different terms than annalistic ones. Latin language texts used Latin language terms while vernacular texts used Welsh terms. Not only did

1808-488: A unified state that could oppose this new threat. It was only in the final stages of conquest that Wales finally achieved this unity. It was the threat of invasion and conquest that created the nation of Wales. After the Roman withdrawal, Wales remained a rural landscape, controlled by warlords that formed a local aristocracy. Control was exerted over a piece of land and, by extension, over the people who lived on that land. Many of

1921-473: A wider perspective has created more focus on a broad range of development goals rather than merely creating incentive for agricultural or resource-based businesses. Rural electrification is the process of bringing electrical power to rural and remote areas. Rural communities are suffering from colossal market failures as the national grids fall short of their demand for electricity. As of 2019, 770 million people live without access to electricity – 10.2% of

2034-485: Is a field of sociology traditionally associated with the study of social structure and conflict in rural areas. It is an active academic field in much of the world, originating in the United States in the 1910s with close ties to the national Department of Agriculture and land-grant university colleges of agriculture. Hywel Dda Hywel ap Cadell , commonly known as Hywel Dda , which translates to Howel

2147-441: Is a legacy of Romanisation along the coast of southeastern Wales. In that region are found the remains of villas in the countryside. Caerwent and three small urban sites, along with Carmarthen and Roman Monmouth , are the only "urbanised" Roman sites in Wales. This region was placed under Roman civil administration ( civitates ) in the mid-second century, with the rest of Wales being under military administration throughout

2260-512: Is divided into 402 administrative districts, 295 rural districts and 107 urban districts. As one of the largest agricultural producers in the European Union , more than half of Germany's territory which is almost 19 million hectares, is used for farming, and located in the rural areas. Almost 10% of people in Germany have jobs related to the agricultural, forest and fisheries sectors; approximately

2373-403: Is most appropriate to the warrior aristocracy is clientship and flexibility, and not one of sovereignty or absolute power, nor necessarily of long duration. Prior to the tenth century, power was held on a local level, and the limits of that power varied by region. There were at least two restraints on the limits of power: the combined will of the ruler's people (his "subjects"), and the authority of

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2486-470: Is often based upon the ownership of agricultural land , which also may provide social prestige in village cultures. The majority of rural Pakistani inhabitants livelihoods is based upon the rearing of livestock, which also comprises a significant part of Pakistan's gross domestic product. Some livestock raised by rural Pakistanis include cattle and goats. In New Zealand census areas are classified based on their degree of rurality. However, traffic law has

2599-402: Is one of them. Research is being carried out to assess the impact of new projects in rural areas. In 2018, the government had launched the "Action Cœur de Ville" program to revitalize town centers across the country. 222 towns were selected as part of the five-year program. One of the program's aims is to make the towns attractive so the areas nearby can also benefit from investments. Germany

2712-635: Is quickly fulfilled by the massacre of the Christian monks at Bangor Is Coed by the Northumbrians (c. 615), shortly after the meeting with Saint Augustine. Bede describes the massacre immediately following his delivery of the prophecy. One consequence of the Protestant Reformation and subsequent ethnic and religious discord in Britain and Ireland was the promotion of the idea of a 'Celtic' church that

2825-474: Is recorded after the death of Llywarch in 904, and Hywel's marriage to Llywarch's only surviving heir probably ensured that the kingdom came into his hands. Hywel and Clydog seem to have ruled Seisyllwg together following their father's death and jointly submitted to Edward the Elder of England in 918. However, Clydog died in 920, evidently leaving the whole realm to Hywel. Hywel soon joined Seisyllwg and Dyfed into

2938-567: Is suggested by the Roman tolerance of native hill forts where there was local leadership under local law and custom. Whatever the circumstances, there is nothing known to connect these settlers either to Roman policy, or to the Irish raiders (the Scoti ) of classical Roman accounts. Forts and roads are the most visible physical signs of a past Roman presence, along with the coins and Roman-era Latin inscriptions that are associated with Roman military sites. There

3051-492: Is the population outside settlements with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants and a population density below 400 people per square kilometre. Rural areas in the United States , often referred to as rural America, consists of approximately 97% of the United States ' land area. An estimated 60 million people, or one in five residents (17.9% of the total U.S. population ), live in rural America. Definitions vary from different parts of

3164-507: Is the study of rural economies . Rural economies include both agricultural and non-agricultural industries, so rural economics has broader concerns than agricultural economics which focus more on food systems . Rural development and finance attempt to solve larger challenges within rural economics. These economic issues are often connected to the migration from rural areas due to lack of economic activities and rural poverty . Some interventions have been very successful in some parts of

3277-399: Is used for educational courses and for children and young people's debates. The local health board of south-west Wales , covering an area roughly corresponding to the kingdoms of Dyfed and Seisyllwg of which Hywel was King, also bears his name. Hywel was the son of King Cadell ap Rhodri of Seisyllwg . He had a brother, Clydog ap Cadell , who was probably the younger of the two. Hywel

3390-557: The 2017 census about 64% of Pakistanis live in rural areas. Most rural areas in Pakistan tend to be near cities and are peri-urban areas. This is due to the definition of a rural area in Pakistan being an area that does not come within an urban boundary. Rural areas in Pakistan that are near cities are considered as suburban areas or suburbs . The remote rural villagers of Pakistan commonly live in houses made of bricks, clay or mud. Socioeconomic status among rural Pakistani villagers

3503-730: The Cornish people or the Bretons , who share a similar heritage, culture and language with the Welsh and the Men of the North. Rhys adds that the Bretons sometimes give the simple brô the sense of compatriot. All of the Cymry shared a similar language, culture and heritage. Their histories are stories of warrior kings waging war, and they are intertwined in a way that is independent of physical location, in no way dissimilar to

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3616-646: The Dinefwr branch of the dynasty. He was recorded as King of the Britons in the Annales Cambriæ and the Annals of Ulster . Hywel is highly esteemed among other medieval Welsh rulers. His name is particularly linked with the codification of traditional Welsh law , which were thenceforth known as the Laws of Hywel Dda . The latter part of his name ( Dda , lit. "Good") refers to

3729-452: The Harleian genealogies as the family of the known later kings of Powys, and Selyf's father Cynan ap Brochwel appears in poems attributed to Taliesen , where he is described as leading successful raids throughout Wales. Seventh-century Pengwern is associated with the later Powys through the poems of Canu Heledd , which name sites from Shropshire to Dogfeiling to Newtown in lamenting

3842-626: The Iron Age , especially so in the Roman era. In the Roman era some granite was quarried, as was slate in the north and sandstone in the east and south. Native fauna included large and small mammals, such as the brown bear, wolf, wildcat, rodents, several species of weasel, and shrews, voles and many species of bat. There were many species of birds, fish and shellfish. The early medieval human population has always been considered relatively low in comparison to England , but efforts to reliably quantify it have yet to provide widely acceptable results. Much of

3955-541: The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development defines a "predominantly rural region" as having more than 50% of the population living in rural communities where a " rural community " has a population density less than 150 people per square kilometre. In Canada, the census division has been used to represent "regions" and census consolidated sub-divisions have been used to represent "communities". Intermediate regions have 15 to 49 percent of their population living in

4068-549: The White Land in Dyfed ( Welsh : Tŷ Gwyn ar Daf ) in order to revise and codify the Laws of Wales. The story in the prologues lengthens with time, with more details in the later versions of the prologue. It seems highly unlikely that this meeting actually took place, with the purpose of the prologues being to emphasise the royal and Christian origin and background to the laws, and that in

4181-425: The exploitation of land-intensive natural resources such as agriculture and forestry . However, changes in global production networks and increased urbanization have changed the character of rural areas. Increasingly rural tourism , niche manufacturers, and recreation have replaced resource extraction and agriculture as dominant economic drivers. The need for rural communities to approach development from

4294-476: The panchayat makes all the decisions. There are five people in the panchayat . The National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) defines 'rural' as follows: RBI defines rural areas as those areas with a population of less than 49,000 (tier -3 to tier-6 cities). It is generally said that the rural areas house up to 70% of India's population. Rural India contributes a large chunk to India's GDP by way of agriculture, self-employment, services, construction etc. As per

4407-548: The 'countryside' or a ' village ' in India. It has a very low population density. In rural areas, agriculture is the chief source of livelihood along with fishing , cottage industries , pottery etc. Almost every Indian economic agency today has its own definition of rural India, some of which follow: According to the Planning Commission, a town with a maximum population of 15,000 is considered rural in nature. In these areas

4520-1132: The 'galnes' ( galanas ) that is familiar to Welsh law . Rural area In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities . Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically described as rural, as well as other areas lacking substantial development. Different countries have varying definitions of rural for statistical and administrative purposes. Rural areas have unique economic and social dynamics due to their relationship with land-based industry such as agriculture , forestry , and resource extraction . Rural economics can be subject to boom and bust cycles and vulnerable to extreme weather or natural disasters, such as droughts . These dynamics alongside larger economic forces encouraging urbanization have led to significant demographic declines, called rural flight , where economic incentives encourage younger populations to go to cities for education and access to jobs, leaving older, less educated and less wealthy populations in

4633-447: The Christian church. There is little to explain the meaning of "subject" beyond noting that those under a ruler owed an assessment (effectively, taxes) and military service when demanded, while they were owed protection by the ruler. For much of the early medieval period kings had few functions except military ones. Kings made war and gave judgements (in consultation with local elders) but they did not govern in any sense of that word. From

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4746-498: The Good in English, was a Welsh king who ruled the southern Welsh kingdom of Deheubarth and eventually came to rule most of Wales . He became the sole king of Seisyllwg in 920 and shortly thereafter established Deheubarth, and proceeded to gain control over the entire country from Prestatyn to Pembroke . As a descendant of Rhodri Mawr through his father Cadell , Hywel was a member of

4859-552: The Roman era. The fourth century arrival of Irish settlers intertwined the royal genealogies of Wales and Ireland, with Dyfed's rulers appearing in The Expulsion of the Déisi , Harleian MS. 5389 and Jesus College MS. 20 . Its king Vortiporius was one of the kings condemned by Gildas in his De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae , c. 540. While the better documented southeast shows a long and slow acquisition of property and power by

4972-455: The Roman era. There are a number of borrowings from the Latin lexicon into Welsh , and while there are Latin-derived words with legal meaning in popular usage such as pobl ("people"), the technical words and concepts used in describing Welsh law in the Middle Ages are native Welsh, and not of Roman origin. There is ongoing debate as to the extent of a lasting Roman influence being applicable to

5085-562: The United States government as to what constitutes those areas. In Brazil, there are different notions of "rural area" and "countryside". Rural areas are any place outside a municipality's urban development (buildings, streets) and it is carried by informal usage. Otherwise, countryside ( interior in Portuguese ) are officially defined as all municipalities outside the state/territory capital's metropolitan region. Some states as Mato Grosso do Sul do not have any metropolitan regions, thus all of

5198-487: The Welsh adopt their modern name for themselves, Cymry, meaning "fellow countrymen", and it also saw the demise of all but one of the kindred kingdoms of northern England and southern Scotland at the hands of then-ascendant Northumbria. One king, Hywel Dda ,(translating to 'Howel The Good' in English) came close to uniting Wales as a single nation. He was king of Deheubarth but in 942 he intervened when Idwal Foel of Gwynedd

5311-518: The Welsh and the Brythonic-speaking peoples of northern England and southern Scotland, the peoples of the Hen Ogledd , and emphasises a perception that the Welsh and the "Men of the North" were one people, exclusive of all others. Universal acceptance of the term as the preferred written one came slowly in Wales, eventually supplanting the earlier Brython or Brittones . The term was not applied to

5424-533: The Welsh to join a confederation of all the non-English peoples of Britain and Ireland to fight the Saxons . The poem may be linked to the alliance of Norse and Celtic kingdoms which challenged Æthelstan at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937. No Welsh forces joined this alliance, and this may well have been because of the influence of Hywel. On the other hand, neither did he send troops to support Æthelstan. Hywel and Elen had

5537-566: The arable land is in the south, southeast, southwest, on Anglesey, and along the coast. However, specifying the ancient usage of land is problematic in that there is little surviving evidence on which to base the estimates. Forest clearance has taken place since the Iron Age, and it is not known how the ancient people of Wales determined the best use of the land for their particular circumstances, such as in their preference for wheat, oats, rye or barley depending on rainfall, growing season, temperature and

5650-413: The characteristics of the land on which they lived. Anglesey is the exception, historically producing more grain than any other part of Wales. Animal husbandry included the raising of cattle, pigs, sheep and a lesser number of goats. Oxen were kept for ploughing, asses for beasts of burden and horses for human transport. The importance of sheep was less than in later centuries, as their extensive grazing in

5763-455: The communities homogenously Welsh. Place name and archeological evidence point to Viking/Norse settlement in places such as Swansea, Fishguard and Anglesey, and Saxons settled amongst the Welsh in places such as Presteigne. It was the Norman invasion of England in 1066, which led soon after to incursions into Wales that overcame these rivalries, encouraging Welsh rulers to attempt to develop Wales into

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5876-503: The communities provided income in the form of (in effect) a business of landlordship. Lands under clerical proprietorship were exempt from the fiscal demands of kings and secular lords. They had the power of nawdd (protection, as from legal process) and were noddfa (a " nawdd place" or sanctuary). Clerical power was moral and spiritual, and this was sufficient to enforce recognition of their status and to demand compensation for any infringement on their rights and privileges. The notion of

5989-401: The concept ( urban hierarchy ) can be applied more generally to many services and is explained by central place theory . Rural poverty refers to situations where people living in non-urban regions are in a state or condition of lacking the financial resources and essentials for living. It takes account of factors of rural society , rural economy , and political systems that give rise to

6102-459: The creation and adoption of the modern Welsh name for themselves, Cymry , a word descended from Common Brittonic combrogi , meaning "fellow-countrymen". It appears in Moliant Cadwallon ( In Praise of Cadwallon ), a poem written by Cadwallon ap Cadfan 's bard Afan Ferddig c. 633, and probably came into use a self-description before the seventh century. Historically the word applies to both

6215-426: The custom of attributing it to an eponymous founder ( Glywysing for Glywys , Ceredigion for Ceredig ). The Welsh term for a political entity was gwlad ("country") and it expressed the notion of a "sphere of rule" with a territorial component. The Latin equivalent seems to be regnum , which referred to the "changeable, expandable, contractable sphere of any ruler's power". Rule tended to be defined in relation to

6328-533: The dead king's sister Angharad , became steward of his kingdom. This gave Rhodri no standing to claim the kingship of Seisyllwg himself, but he was able to install his son Cadell as a subject king. Cadell died around 911, and his lands in Seisyllwg appear to have been divided between his two sons Hywel and Clydog. Hywel probably already controlled Dyfed by the time he assumed his father's lands in Ceredigion . No king

6441-464: The demise of Pengwern's king Cynddylan ; but the poem's geography probably reflects the time of its composition, around the ninth or tenth century rather that Cynddylan's own time. The total area of Wales is 20,779 km (8,023 sq mi). Much of the landscape is mountainous with treeless moors and heath , and having large areas with peat deposits. There is approximately 1,200 km (746 mi) of coastline and some 50 offshore islands ,

6554-431: The dynasty of Meurig ap Tewdrig in connection with the kingdoms of Glywysing , Gwent and Ergyng , there is a near-complete absence of information about many other areas. The earliest known name of a king of Ceredigion was Cereticiaun, who died in 807, and none of the mid-Welsh kingdoms can be evidenced before the eighth century. There are mentions of Brycheiniog and Gwrtheyrnion (near Buellt ) in that era, but for

6667-462: The early Middle Ages in Wales, and while the conclusions about Welsh history are important, Wendy Davies has questioned the relevance of the debates themselves by noting that whatever Roman provincial administration might have survived in places, it eventually became a new system appropriate to the time and place, and not a "hangover of archaic practices". The exact origins and extent of the early kingdoms are speculative. The conjectured minor kings of

6780-448: The early Middle Ages was a society with a landed warrior aristocracy, and after c. 500 Welsh politics were dominated by kings with territorial kingdoms. The legitimacy of the kingship was of paramount importance, the legitimate attainment of power was by dynastic inheritance or military proficiency. A king had to be considered effective and be associated with wealth, either his own or by distributing it to others, and those considered to be at

6893-438: The economy, providing services to smaller and more dispersed populations becomes proportionately more expensive for governments, which can lead to closures of state-funded offices and services, which further harm the rural economy. Schools are the archetypal example because they influence the decisions of parents of young children: a village or region without a school will typically lose families to larger towns that have one. But

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7006-427: The eighteenth century or East Asia in the twentieth century , it can occur following the industrialization of primary industries such as agriculture , mining , fishing , and forestry —when fewer people are needed to bring the same amount of output to market—and related secondary industries (refining and processing) are consolidated. Rural exodus can also follow an ecological or human-caused catastrophe such as

7119-533: The era, and their legacy is found in the many place names of Wales that are prefixed by Welsh : llan , meaning a holy enclosure or church. The Welsh kingdoms arose in this period, in which the chieftains clashed with one another in internecine warfare, both in the territory that would become Wales (kingdoms such as Gwynedd) and across the Brittonic kingdoms of northern England and southern Scotland (the Hen Ogledd).This

7232-459: The era. Slaves were in the bottom stratum of society, with hereditary slavery more common than penal slavery . Slaves might form part of the payment in a transaction made between those of higher rank. It was possible for them to buy their freedom, and an example of manumission at Llandeilo Fawr is given in a ninth-century marginalia note of the Lichfield Gospels . Their relative numbers is

7345-470: The expense). If countries are able to overcome these obstacles and reach nationwide electrification, rural communities will be able to reap considerable amounts of economic and social development. Rural flight (also known as rural-to-urban migration, rural depopulation, or rural exodus) is the migratory pattern of people from rural areas into urban areas . It is urbanization seen from the rural perspective. In industrializing economies like Britain in

7458-504: The face of criticism of the laws from outside Wales especially during John Peckham 's period as Archbishop of Canterbury . Nevertheless, his name continued to be associated with Welsh law which remained in active use throughout Wales until the appointed date of implementation of the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 of King Henry VIII of England who asserted his royal descent by blood-line from Rhodri Mawr via Hywel Dda. Opinions vary as to

7571-564: The fact that his laws were just and good. The historian Dafydd Jenkins sees in them compassion rather than punishment, plenty of common sense and recognition of the rights of women. Hywel Dda was a well-educated man even by modern standards, having a good knowledge of Welsh , Latin and English . The office building and original home of the Senedd is named Tŷ Hywel ("Hywel House" or "Hywel's House") in honour of Hywel Dda. The original assembly chamber, now known as Siambr Hywel ("Hywel's Chamber"),

7684-538: The following lines of latitude in each province: Newfoundland and Labrador , 50th; Manitoba , 53rd; Alberta , British Columbia , Ontario , Quebec , and Saskatchewan , 54th. As well, rural northern regions encompass all of the Yukon , Northwest Territories and Nunavut . Statistics Canada defines rural areas by their population counts. This has referred to the population living outside settlements of 1,000 or fewer inhabitants. The current definition states that census rural

7797-477: The global population. Electrification typically begins in cities and towns and gradually extends to rural areas, however, this process often runs into obstacles in developing nations. Expanding the national grid is expensive and countries consistently lack the capital to grow their current infrastructure. Additionally, amortizing capital costs to reduce the unit cost of each hook-up is harder to do in lightly populated areas (yielding higher per capita share of

7910-556: The inequality between urban and rural areas. Both rural poverty and spatial inequality are global phenomena, but like poverty in general, there are higher rates of rural poverty in developing countries than in developed countries . Eradicating rural poverty through effective policies and economic growth is a continuing difficulty for the international community, as it invests in rural development . According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development , 70 percent of

8023-430: The intruding Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia . That era of struggle saw the Welsh adopt their modern name for themselves, Cymry , meaning "fellow countrymen", and it also saw the demise of all but one of the kindred kingdoms of northern England and southern Scotland at the hands of then-ascendant Northumbria . Wales as a nation was defined in opposition to later English settlement and incursions into

8136-557: The island of Great Britain. In the early middle ages, the people of Wales continued to think of themselves as Britons, the people of the whole island, but over the course of time one group of these Britons became isolated by the geography of the western peninsula, bounded by the sea and English neighbours. It was these English neighbours who named the land Wallia, and the people Welsh. The people of Wallia, medieval Wales, remained divided into separate kingdoms that fought with each other as much as they fought their English neighbours. Neither were

8249-401: The kindred Brittonic kingdoms of northern England and southern Scotland (the Hen Ogledd ) and structural and linguistic divergence from the southwestern peninsula British kingdom of Dumnonia known to the Welsh as Cernyw prior to its eventual absorption into Wessex . The seventh and eighth centuries were characterised by ongoing warfare by the northern and eastern Welsh kingdoms against

8362-579: The kingdoms of England and Scotland , and their histories are now mostly a footnote in the histories of those later kingdoms, though vestiges of the Cymry past are occasionally visible. In Scotland the fragmentary remains of the Laws of the Bretts and Scotts show Brythonic influence, and some of these were copied into the Regiam Majestatem , the oldest surviving written digest of Scots law , where can be found

8475-471: The kings condemned by Gildas in his De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae , c. 540. There may also have been sixth-century kingdoms in Rhos , Meirionydd and Dunoding , all associated with Gwynedd. The name of Powys is not certainly used before the ninth century, but its earlier existence (perhaps under a different name) is reasonably inferred by the fact that Selyf ap Cynan (d. 616) and his grandfather are in

8588-457: The largest of which is Anglesey . The present climate is wet and maritime , with warm summers and mild winters, much like the later medieval climate, though there was a significant change to cooler and much wetter conditions in the early part of the era. The southeastern coast was originally a wetland, but reclamation has been ongoing since the Roman era. There are deposits of gold, copper, lead, silver and zinc, and these have been exploited since

8701-570: The latest census , such as the United Kingdom Census 2001 . These definitions have various grades, but the upper point is any local government area with more than 26% of its population living in a rural settlement or market town ("market town" being defined as any settlement which has permission to hold a street market ). A number of measures are in place to protect the British countryside, including green belts . Rural areas are also known as

8814-405: The latter it is difficult to say whether it had either an earlier or a later existence. The early history in the north and east are somewhat better known, with Gwynedd having a semi-legendary origin in the arrival of Cunedda from Manau Gododdin in the fifth century (an inscribed sixth century gravestone records the earliest known mention of the kingdom). Its king Maelgwn Gwynedd was one of

8927-399: The law. Under extraordinary circumstances the genealogical interest could be stretched quite far: for the serious matter of homicide, all of the fifth cousins of a kindred (the seventh generation: the patrilinear descendants of a common great-great-great-great-grandfather) were ultimately liable for satisfying any penalty. The Welsh referred to themselves in terms of their territory and not in

9040-406: The marginalization and economic disadvantage found there. Rural areas, because of their small, spread-out populations, typically have less well maintained infrastructure and a harder time accessing markets, which tend to be concentrated in population centers. Rural communities also face disadvantages in terms of legal and social protections, with women and marginalized communities frequently having

9153-524: The matter). The different communities were pre-eminent within small spheres of influence ( ie , within physical proximity of the communities). The known sites are mostly coastal, situated on good land. There are passing references to monks and monasteries in the sixth century (for example, Gildas said that Maelgwn Gwynedd had originally intended to be a monk). From the seventh century onward there are few references to monks but more frequent references to 'disciples'. Archaeological evidence consists partly of

9266-801: The migration from rural areas due to lack of economic activities and rural poverty . Some interventions have been very successful in some parts of the world, with rural electrification and rural tourism providing anchors for transforming economies in some rural areas. These challenges often create rural-urban income disparities. Rural development is the process of improving the quality of life and economic well-being of people living in rural areas, often relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas. Often, rural regions have experienced rural poverty , poverty greater than urban or suburban economic regions due to lack of access to economic activities, and lack of investments in key infrastructure such as education. Rural development has traditionally centered on

9379-489: The motives for Hywel's close association with the court of Æthelstan. J. E. Lloyd claimed Hywel was an admirer of Wessex , while David Peter Kirby suggests that it may have been the action of a pragmatist who recognised the realities of power in mid-10th century Britain. A Welsh-language poem entitled Armes Prydein , considered by Sir Ifor Williams to have been written in Deheubarth during Hywel's reign, called for

9492-489: The new English king, Edmund . Idwal and his brother Elisedd were both killed in battle in 942 against Edmund's forces. By normal custom Idwal's crown should have passed to his sons , but Hywel intervened. He sent Iago and Ieuaf into exile and established himself as ruler over Gwynedd, which also probably placed him in control of the Kingdom of Powys , which was under the authority of Gwynedd. As such Hywel became king of nearly all of Wales except for Morgannwg and Gwent in

9605-631: The outset Æthelstan's intention was to secure the submission of all other kings in Britain; unusually, Hywel embraced submission to England and used it to his advantage whenever possible. In 934, Hywel supported Æthelstan's invasion of Scotland . Later in his reign, he was able to leverage his close association with Æthelstan and the English crown to great effect in his ambitions within Wales. In 942 Hywel's cousin Idwal Foel , King of Gwynedd , determined to cast off English overlordship and took up arms against

9718-1225: The people in extreme poverty are in rural areas, most of whom are smallholders or agricultural workers whose livelihoods are heavily dependent on agriculture. These food systems are vulnerable to extreme weather, which is expected to affect agricultural systems the world over more as climate change increases . In medicine , rural health or rural medicine is the interdisciplinary study of health and health care delivery in rural environments. The concept of rural health incorporates many fields, including wilderness medicine , geography , midwifery , nursing , sociology , economics , and telehealth or telemedicine . Rural populations often experience health disparities and greater barriers in access to healthcare compared to urban populations. Globally, rural populations face increased burdens of noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, contributing to worse health outcomes and higher mortality rates. Factors contributing to these health disparities include remote geography , increased rates of health risk behaviors, lower population density , decreased health insurance coverage among

9831-515: The people were tenant peasants or slaves, answerable to the aristocrat who controlled the land on which they lived. There was no sense of a coherent tribe of people and everyone, from ruler down to slave, was defined in terms of his or her kindred family (the tud) and individual status (braint). The Roman era had brought Christianity, and the Celtic Britons living in the land that would become Wales, and elsewhere in Britain, were Christian throughout

9944-561: The population, lack of health infrastructure, and work force demographics. People living in rural areas also tend to have less education, lower socioeconomic status , and higher rates of alcohol and smoking when compared to their urban counterparts. Additionally, the rate of poverty is higher in rural populations globally, contributing to health disparities due to an inability to access healthy foods, healthcare, and housing. Because of their unique dynamics, different academic fields have developed to study rural communities. Rural economics

10057-545: The ruined remains of institutions, and in finds of inscriptions and the long cyst burials that are characteristic of post-Roman Christian Britons. These long cyst burials occur in the southern Scottish lowlands, Wales, and the West Country of England. The grave is lined with stones, there are no grave goods, they often have an east-west orientation, and they date from a time before churches were commonly attached to cemeteries. They contrast with Anglo-Saxon burials, which followed

10170-742: The rural areas. Slower economic development results in poorer services like healthcare, education, and infrastructure. This cycle of poverty contributes to why three quarters of the global impoverished live in rural areas according to the Food and Agricultural Organization . Some communities have successfully encouraged economic development in rural areas , with policies such as increased access to electricity or internet . Historically, development policies have focused on larger extractive industries , such as mining and forestry. However, recent approaches more focused on sustainable development take into account economic diversification in these communities. In Canada,

10283-549: The sense of a full diocese. Monasticism is known in Britain in the fifth century though its origins are obscure. The Church seemed episcopally dominated and largely consisting of monasteries. The size of the religious communities is unknown ( Bede and the Welsh Triads suggest they were large, the Lives of the Saints suggest they were small, but these are not considered credible sources on

10396-521: The sense of a tribe. Thus there was Gwenhwys (" Gwent " with a group-identifying suffix) and gwyr Guenti ("men of Gwent") and Broceniauc ("men of Brycheiniog "). Welsh custom contrasted with many Irish and Anglo-Saxon contexts, where the territory was named for the people living there (Connaught for the Connachta, Essex for the East Saxons). This is aside from the origin of a territory's name, such as in

10509-464: The sixth century held small areas within a radius of perhaps 24 km (15 mi), probably near the coast. Throughout the era there was dynastic strengthening in some areas while new kingdoms emerged and then disappeared in others. There is no reason to suppose that every part of Wales was part of kingdom even as late as 700. Dyfed is the same land of the Demetae shown on Ptolemy 's map c. 150 during

10622-435: The sixth to the eleventh centuries the king moved about with an armed, mounted warband, a personal military retinue called a teulu that is described as a "small, swift-moving, and close-knit group". This military elite formed the core of any larger army that might be assembled. The relationships among the king and the members of his warband were personal, and the practice of fosterage strengthened those personal bonds. Power

10735-400: The social stratification that defines an aristocracy are widely found in Welsh literature and law. A man's privilege was assessed in terms of his braint (status), of which there were two kinds (birth and office), and in terms of his superior's importance. Two men might each be an uchelwr (high man), but a king is higher than a breyr (a regional leader), so legal compensation for the loss to

10848-541: The south. A single coin in Hywel's name is known. It was produced by the Chester moneyer Gillys in about 946. As there is only one, it is unlikely that it is the sole survivor of a Welsh coinage and it was probably produced as a gesture by the English to the Welsh king. Following Hywel's death in 949 or 950, his kingdom was soon split into three. Gwynedd was reclaimed by the sons of Idwal Foel, Iago and Ieuaf , while Deheubarth

10961-454: The specific terms vary, the meaning of those specific terms varied over time as well. For example, brenin was one of the terms used for a king in the twelfth century. The earlier, original meaning of brenin was simply a person of status. Kings are sometimes described as overkings, but the definition of what that meant is unclear, whether referring to a king with definite powers, or to ideas of someone considered to have high status. Wales in

11074-621: The state, except its capital is officially countryside. Rio de Janeiro is singular in Brazil and it is de facto a metropolitan state, as circa 70% of its population are located in Greater Rio . In the Federal District it is not applicable and there is no countryside as all of it is treated as the federal capital. Brasília is nominally the capital, but the capitality is shared through all Federal District, because Brazil de facto defines its capital as

11187-486: The terms are used interchangeably. Specific interventions and solutions will depend entirely on the needs of each region in each country, but generally speaking, regional planning at the macro level will seek to: 1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville  ·  Marx ·  Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto ·  Tönnies · Veblen ·  Simmel · Durkheim ·  Addams ·  Mead · Weber ·  Du Bois ·  Mannheim · Elias Rural sociology

11300-528: The top level were required to have wisdom, perfection, and a long reach. Literary sources stressed martial qualities such as military capability, bold horsemanship, leadership, the ability to extend boundaries and to make conquests, along with an association with wealth and generosity. Clerical sources stressed obligations such as respect for Christian principles, providing defence and protection, pursuing thieves and imprisoning offenders, persecuting evildoers, and making judgements. The relationship among people that

11413-467: The unity of the English Church. Bede's characterisation of Saint Augustine 's meeting with seven British bishops and the monks of Bangor Is Coed (in 602–604) portrays the bishop of Canterbury as chosen by Rome to lead in Britain, while portraying the British clergy as being in opposition to Rome. He then adds a prophecy that the British church would be destroyed. His apocryphal prophecy of destruction

11526-515: The uplands did not begin until the thirteenth century. The animals were tended by swineherds and herdsmen, but they were not confined, even in the lowlands. Instead open land was used for feeding, and seasonal transhumance was practised. In addition, bees were kept for the production of honey. The importance of blood relationships, particularly in relation to birth and noble descent, was heavily stressed in medieval Wales. Claims of dynastic legitimacy rested on it, and an extensive patrilinear genealogy

11639-469: The way that the histories of neighboring Gwynedd and Powys are intertwined. Kings of Gwynedd campaigned against Brythonic opponents in the north. Sometimes the kings of different kingdoms acted in concert, as is told in the literary Y Gododdin . Much of the early Welsh poetry and literature was written in the Old North by northern Cymry . All of the northern kingdoms and people were eventually absorbed into

11752-417: The world, with rural electrification and rural tourism providing anchors for transforming economies in some rural areas. These challenges often create rural-urban income disparities. Rural planning is an academic discipline that exists within or alongside the field of urban planning , regional planning or urbanism . The definition of these fields differs between languages and contexts. Sometimes

11865-469: Was also a time of structural and linguistic divergence from the southwestern peninsula British kingdom of Dumnonia known to the Welsh as Cernyw prior to its eventual absorption into Wessex. Cernyw would become Cornwall and their language would become Cornish. The seventh and eighth centuries were characterised by ongoing warfare by the northern and eastern Welsh kingdoms against the intruding Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia. That era of struggle saw

11978-528: Was defeated in battle by Edmund , King of England. He thus took control of Gwynedd and Powys, making him ruler of all Wales except Morgannwg and Gwent. Hywel Dda instituted Welsh law, which was adopted across Wales, even after his kingdom was divided after his death. In the late fourth century there was an influx of settlers from southern Ireland , the Uí Liatháin and Laigin (with Déisi participation uncertain), arriving under unknown circumstances but leaving

12091-433: Was different from and at odds with the 'Roman' church, and that held to certain offensive customs, especially in the dating of Easter , the tonsure , and the liturgy . Scholars have noted the partisan motives and inaccuracy of the characterisation, as has The Catholic Encyclopedia , which also explains that the Britons using the 'Celtic Rite' in the early Middle Ages were in communion with Rome. The early Middle Ages saw

12204-480: Was divided between Hywel's sons. Hywel's name is associated with the laws of medieval Wales, which are commonly known as the Laws of Hywel Dda (Welsh: Cyfraith Hywel ). None of the law manuscripts can be dated to Hywel's time, but Hywel's name is mentioned in the prologues to the laws, and are also known as the Code of Dyfed . These describe how Hywel gathered expert lawyers and priests from each commote in Wales together in

12317-417: Was held at a local level by families who controlled the land and the people who lived on that land. They are differentiated legally by having a higher sarhaed (the penalty for insult) than the general populace, by the records of their transactions (such as land transfers) by their participation in local judgements and administration, and by their consultative role in judgements made by the king. References to

12430-518: Was later reputed to have married Elen ferch Llywarch (893-943), the supposed heiress of King Llywarch ap Hyfaidd of Dyfed , which connection was subsequently used to justify his family's reign over that kingdom. Hywel's father Cadell had been installed as King of Seisyllwg by his father, Rhodri Mawr (Rhodri the Great) of Gwynedd , following the drowning of the last king in the traditional line, Gwgon , in 872. After Gwgon's death, Rhodri, husband to

12543-537: Was no sense of a coherent tribe of people and everyone, from ruler down to slave, was defined in terms of his or her kindred family (the tud ) and individual status ( braint ). Christianity had been introduced in the Roman era , and the Celtic Britons living in and near Wales were Christian throughout the era. The semi-legendary founding of Gwynedd in the fifth century was followed by internecine warfare in Wales and with

12656-472: Was not bound to labour service (i.e., serfdom). Nor can the person be considered a vassal except perhaps as a clerical self-description, as in the 'vassal of a saint'. The early existence of the concept suggests a stratum of bound dependents in the post-Roman era. The proportion of the medieval population that consisted of freemen or free peasant proprietors is undetermined, even for the pre-Conquest period. Slavery existed in Wales as it did elsewhere throughout

12769-429: Was used to assess fines and penalties under Welsh law. Different degrees of blood relationship were important for different circumstances, all based upon the cenedl (kindred). The nuclear family (parents and children) was especially important, while the pencenedl (head of the family within four patrilinear generations) held special status, representing the family in transactions and having certain unique privileges under

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