41-692: The Secondary Schools Examinations Council ( SSEC ) was established in England and Wales in 1917. It was succeeded by the Schools Council in 1963. It existed to provide external examinations for secondary schools as recommended by a Consultative Committee reporting to the Board of Education in 1917, these being the School Certificate and Higher School Certificate . The SSEC had "the duty of co-ordinating examinations and of negotiating with professional bodies for
82-451: A Wales criminal justice system . England and Wales are treated as a single unit for some purposes, because the two form the constitutional successor to the former Kingdom of England. The continuance of Scots law was guaranteed under the 1706 Treaty of Union that led to the Acts of Union 1707 , and as a consequence English law—and after 1801 , Irish law —continued to be separate. Following
123-559: A king") as Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester stated — whereas in England fief-holders were directly accountable to the king. The crown's powers in the Marches were normally limited to those periods when the king held a lordship in its own hands, such as when it was forfeited for treason or on the death of the lord without a legitimate heir whereupon the title reverted to the Crown in escheat . At
164-578: A particular case. From this developed the distinctive March law . The Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 followed the conquest of the Principality by Edward I of England . It assumed the lands held by the Princes of Gwynedd under the title " Prince of Wales " as legally part of the lands of the Crown, and established shire counties on the English model over those areas. The Marcher Lords were progressively tied to
205-523: Is a doublet of English mark , and is cognate with German Mark ("boundary"). Cognates are found in the English toponyms " Mercia " and " Mersey ", and in continental place-names containing mark , such as " Denmark ". The term is distantly related to the verb march , both ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *mereg- , "edge" or "boundary". After the decline and fall of the Roman Empire which occupied southern Britain until about AD 410,
246-620: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . England and Wales England and Wales ( Welsh : Cymru a Lloegr ) is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom . It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 . The substantive law of the jurisdiction is English law . The devolved Senedd (Welsh Parliament; Welsh : Senedd Cymru ) – previously named
287-580: Is distinct from those of Northern Ireland and Scotland , and from Commonwealth realms . The national parks of England and Wales have a distinctive legislative framework and history. Welsh Marches The Welsh Marches ( Welsh : Y Mers ) is an imprecisely defined area along the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom . The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods. The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin Marchia Walliae )
328-532: Is no modern legal or official definition of the extent of the Welsh Marches. However, the term the Welsh Marches (or sometimes just the Marches) is commonly used to describe those English counties which lie along the border with Wales, particularly Shropshire and Herefordshire. The term is also sometimes applied to parts of Powys, Monmouthshire and Wrexham. The Welsh Marches Line is a railway line from Newport in
369-491: Is now Cheshire , Shropshire and Herefordshire . As the power of Mercia grew, a string of garrisoned market towns such as Shrewsbury and Hereford defined the borderlands as much as Offa's Dyke , a stronger and longer boundary earthwork erected by order of Offa of Mercia between AD 757 and 796. The Dyke still exists, and can best be seen at Knighton , close to the modern border between England and Wales. Campaigns and raids from Powys led, possibly around about AD 820, to
410-617: The Welsh . The process took a century and was never permanently effective. The term "March of Wales" was first used in the Domesday Book of 1086. Over the next four centuries, Norman lords established mostly small marcher lordships between the Dee and Severn, and further west. Military adventurers went to Wales from Normandy and elsewhere and after raiding an area of Wales, then fortified it and granted land to some of their supporters. One example
451-644: The red dragon of Wales was dropped and replaced with the unicorn of Scotland with the succession of King James I who demoted Wales' status on the coat of arms and on the first adaptation of the Flag of Great Britain . Prior to 1746, it was not clear whether a reference to "England" in legislation included Wales, and so in 1746, Parliament passed the Wales and Berwick Act 1746 . This specified that in all prior and future laws, references to "England" would by default include Wales (and Berwick-upon-Tweed ). The Wales and Berwick Act
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#1733084623703492-710: The 20th century. Examples are the Welsh Language Acts 1967 and 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 . Measures and Acts of the Senedd apply in Wales, but not in England. Following the Government of Wales Act, effective since May 2007, the Senedd can legislate on matters devolved to it. Following a referendum on 3 March 2011 , the Senedd gained direct law-making powers, without
533-597: The English crown following the Edwardian conquest of Wales in the 13th century. By the 16th century, many marcher lordships had passed into the hands of the crown, as the result of the accessions of Henry IV , who was previously Duke of Lancaster , and Edward IV , the heir of the Earls of March ; of the attainder of other lords during the Wars of the Roses ; and of other events. The crown
574-478: The English king whom they were bound to support in times of war, but their lands were exempt from royal taxation and they possessed rights which elsewhere were reserved to the crown, such as the rights to create forests, markets and boroughs. The lordships were geographically compact and jurisdictionally separate one from another, and their privileges differentiated them from English lordships. Marcher lords ruled their lands by their own law— sicut regale ("like unto
615-458: The English kings by the grants of lands and lordships in England, where control was stricter, and where many marcher lords spent most of their time, and through the English kings' dynastic alliances with the great magnates. The Council of Wales and the Marches , administered from Ludlow Castle , was initially established in 1472 by Edward IV of England to govern the lands held under the Principality of Wales which had become directly administered by
656-675: The Great in his Legal Code , c. 893 . However, after the Norman invasion of Wales in the 11th century, English law came to apply in the parts of Wales conquered by the Normans (the Welsh Marches ). In 1283, the English, led by Edward I , with the biggest army brought together in England since the 11th century, conquered the remainder of Wales , then organised as the Principality of Wales . This
697-405: The Marches included all of the historic counties of Cheshire , Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire . The term March is from the 13th-century Middle English marche ("border region, frontier"). The term was borrowed from Old French marche ("limit, boundary"), itself borrowed from a Frankish term derived from Proto-Germanic *markō ("border, area"). The term
738-583: The National Assembly for Wales – was created in 1999 under the Government of Wales Act 1998 and provides a degree of self-government in Wales. The powers of the legislature were expanded by the Government of Wales Act 2006 , which allows it to pass its own laws , and the Act also formally separated the Welsh Government from the Senedd. There is no equivalent body for England , which is directly governed by
779-477: The acceptance of Certificates", with Universities acting as responsible bodies for conducting any of the examinations. This article about an organisation in England is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about an organisation in Wales is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to government in the United Kingdom or its constituent countries
820-519: The area which is now Wales comprised a number of separate Romano-British kingdoms, including Powys in the east. Over the next few centuries, the Angles , Saxons and others gradually conquered and settled in eastern and southern Britain. The kingdom of Mercia , under Penda , became established around Lichfield , and initially established strong alliances with the Welsh kings . However, his successors sought to expand Mercia further westwards into what
861-673: The boundary between Wales and England, particularly the disputed southern stretch where he specified that the River Wye should form the boundary. By the mid-eleventh century, Wales was united under Gruffydd ap Llywelyn of Gwynedd , until his death in 1063. Immediately after the Norman Conquest , King William of England installed three of his most trusted confidants, Hugh d'Avranches , Roger de Montgomerie , and William FitzOsbern , as Earls of Chester, Shrewsbury and Hereford respectively, with responsibilities for containing and subduing
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#1733084623703902-647: The building of Wat's Dyke , a boundary earthwork extending from the Severn valley near Oswestry to the Dee estuary . In the centuries which followed, Offa's Dyke largely remained the frontier between the Welsh and English. Æthelstan , often seen as the first king of a united England, summoned the British kings to a meeting at Hereford in AD 926, and according to William of Malmesbury laid down
943-616: The conquest, the Romans administered this region as a single unit, the province of Britain . Long after the departure of the Romans, the Britons in what became Wales developed their own system of law , first codified by Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good; reigned 942–950) when he was king of most of present-day Wales (compare King of Wales ); in England Anglo-Saxon law was initially codified by Alfred
984-456: The country. By about AD 1100 the March covered the areas which would later become Monmouthshire and much of Flintshire , Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire , Brecknockshire, Glamorgan , Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire . Ultimately, this amounted to about two-thirds of Wales. During the period, the Marches were a frontier society in every sense, and a stamp was set on the region that lasted into
1025-672: The jurisdiction of the marcher lords was abolished in 1536. The acts had the effect of annexing Wales with England and creating a single state and legal jurisdiction , commonly referred to as England and Wales . The powers of the marcher lordships were abolished, and their areas were organised into the new Welsh counties of Denbighshire , Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire , Brecknockshire, Monmouthshire , and Carmarthenshire . The counties of Pembrokeshire and Glamorgan were created by adding other districts to existing lordships. In place of assize courts of England, there were Courts of Great Sessions . These administered English law, in contrast with
1066-463: The law applicable to that business entity. A registered office must be specified as "in Wales" if the company wishes to use a name ending cyfyngedig or cyf , rather than Limited or Ltd. or to avail itself of certain other privileges relating to the official use of the Welsh language. Outside the legal system, the position is mixed. Some organisations combine as "England and Wales", others are separate. The order of precedence in England and Wales
1107-527: The legal system of the Kingdom of England. This was in part to update outdated Welsh laws, but also to control Wales alongside England; through these acts, the Welsh could be seen as equals to the English. This was reflected on both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I 's coat of arms where the dragon represented Wales and the lion represented England. As soon as the Tudor dynasty ended with the death of Elizabeth I , however,
1148-562: The marcher lordships, which had administered Welsh law for their Welsh subjects. Some lordships were added to adjoining English counties: Ludlow , Clun , Caus and part of Montgomery were incorporated into Shropshire; Wigmore , Huntington , Clifford and most of Ewyas were included in Herefordshire; and that part of Chepstow east of the River Wye was included in Gloucestershire . The Council of Wales, based at Ludlow Castle ,
1189-633: The need to consult Westminster. This was the first time in almost 500 years that Wales had its own powers to legislate. Each piece of Welsh legislation is known as an Act of Senedd Cymru . For a company to be incorporated in the United Kingdom, its application for registration with Companies House must state "whether the company's registered office is to be situated in England and Wales (or in Wales), in Scotland or in Northern Ireland", which will determine
1230-667: The parliament and government of the United Kingdom . During the Roman occupation of Britain , the area of present-day England and Wales was administered as a single unit, except for the land to the north of Hadrian's Wall – though the Roman-occupied area varied in extent, and for a time extended to the Antonine/Severan Wall . At that time, most of the native inhabitants of Roman Britain spoke Brythonic languages , and were all regarded as Britons , divided into numerous tribes. After
1271-492: The south of Wales to Shrewsbury, via Abergavenny, Hereford, and Craven Arms . The Marches Way is a long distance footpath which connects Chester in the north of England, via Whitchurch , Shrewsbury , Leominster and Abergavenny to the Welsh capital, Cardiff. The Marches School is a secondary school in Oswestry , Shropshire. The school has several meeting rooms named in Welsh, and has students and staff from both sides of
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1312-479: The south of Wales. Many new towns were established, some such as Chepstow , Monmouth , Ludlow and Newtown becoming successful trading centres, and these tended also to be a focus of English settlement. At the same time, the Welsh continued to attack English soil and supported rebellions against the Normans. The Norman lords each had similar rights to the Welsh princes. Each owed personal allegiance, as subjects, to
1353-714: The time of the Industrial Revolution. Hundreds of small castles were built in the border area in the 12th and 13th centuries, predominantly by Norman lords as assertions of power as well as defences against Welsh raiders and rebels. The area still contains Britain's densest concentration of motte-and-bailey castles. The Marcher lords encouraged immigration from all the Norman-Angevin realms, and encouraged trade from "fair haven" ports like Cardiff . Peasants went to Wales in large numbers: Henry I encouraged Bretons , Flemings , Normans , and English settlers to move into
1394-499: The top of a culturally diverse, intensely feudalised and local society, the Marcher barons combined the authority of feudal lord and vassal of the King among their Normans, and of supplanting the traditional tywysog among their conquered Welsh. However, Welsh law was sometimes used in the Marches in preference to English law, and there were disputes as to which code should be used to decide
1435-407: The two Acts of Union, Parliament can restrict the effect of its laws to part of the realm, and generally the effect of laws, where restricted, was originally applied to one or more of the former kingdoms. Thus, most laws applicable to England also applied to Wales. However, Parliament now passes laws applicable to Wales and not to England (and vice versa), a practice which was rare before the middle of
1476-453: Was Bernard de Neufmarché , responsible for conquering and pacifying the Welsh kingdom of Brycheiniog . The precise dates and means of formation of the lordships varied, as did their size. The March, or Marchia Wallie , was to a greater or lesser extent independent of both the English monarchy and the Principality of Wales or Pura Wallia , which remained based in Gwynedd in the north west of
1517-456: Was also directly responsible for the government of the Principality of Wales, which had its own institutions and was, like England, divided into counties. The jurisdiction of the remaining marcher lords was therefore seen as an anomaly, and their independence from the crown enabled criminals from England to evade justice by moving into the area and claiming "marcher liberties". Under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 introduced under Henry VIII ,
1558-507: Was originally used in the Middle Ages to denote the marches between England and the Principality of Wales , in which Marcher lords had specific rights, exercised to some extent independently of the king of England . In modern usage, "the Marches" is often used to describe those English counties which lie along the border with Wales, particularly Shropshire and Herefordshire , and sometimes adjoining areas of Wales. However, at one time
1599-594: Was reconstituted as the Council of Wales and the Marches , with statutory responsibilities for the whole of Wales together with, initially, Cheshire , Shropshire , Herefordshire , Worcestershire and Gloucestershire . The City of Bristol was exempted in 1562, and Cheshire in 1569. The Council was eventually abolished in 1689, following the " Glorious Revolution " which overthrew James II (VII of Scotland) and established William III (William of Orange ) as king. List of Marcher lordships and successor shires: There
1640-477: Was repealed by the Welsh Language Act 1967 , although the statutory definition of "England" created by that Act still applies for laws passed before 1967. In new legislation since then, what was referred to as "England" is now "England and Wales", while subsequent references to "England" and "Wales" refer to those political divisions. There have been multiple calls from both Welsh academics and politicians for
1681-517: Was then united with the English crown by the Statute of Rhuddlan of 1284. This aimed to replace Welsh criminal law with English law. Welsh law continued to be used for civil cases until the annexation of Wales to England in the 16th century by the Welsh House of Tudor . The Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 then consolidated the administration of all the Welsh territories and incorporated them fully into