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Irish Principality
in Wales
In this long contest nothing appears more remarkable
than the lack of grit in the Britons themselves. Even the
simple-minded English dwell on it: "They
then sent to
Angel, bade them send greater help, and bade them to
say the Brito-Welsh's nothingness and the land's excellencies."
1
Three centuries of Roman dominance had
deprived the Briton, originally an excellent fighting man,
of his military virtue. The main fight centered around
the ambitions of the Gael and the Sassenach, and the
"Brito-Welshman" appears as little better than a pawn
in a game between stronger rivals. The chief Brito-
IWelsh resource appears to have been flight. Thus from
460 to 550 a continual stream of British fugitives crossed
over from Britain to Armorica and there established a
smaller Britain that has endured to this day. 2
The Saxons came to England according to the tradi-
tional account, invited to aid the Briton against the Gael
and Pict by Vortigern, whom some consider to have been
an Irish prince ruling the Britons. 3
Three distinct wars
of conquest thus came to be waged simultaneously in the
island. The Irishmen of the north were engaged
in re-
ducing Caledonia, a conquest subsequently completed by
them. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes were successfully
invading Britain from the east. And Irish tribes, chiefly
of Munster stock, were taking possession of Britannia
Secunda and part of Britannia Prima, establishing a
colony or dependency that included present Wales as well
as Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. This last conquest and
settlement have, as I have said, received relatively small
attention from historians, chiefly because their visible
1 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
2 Great Britain is so called in contradistinction to this smaller Britain
(now called Brittany) in France. It is to be noted that the English have
no right to the name Briton, which belongs to the former Celts of the
country, now represented by the Welsh.
3 Rhys, in "The Welsh People," gives reasons for this view.
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