[2] However, Welsh identity remained strong, and recently there has been an increasing awareness and acknowledgement of Wales' cultural and historical separateness from England, which is reflected politically.
By the time the Roman legions left in the early 5th century, the Britons (Brythons) had started to come under attack, leading to mass migrations of Angles, Jutes, Saxons and other Germanic peoples from the European mainland, who set up their own kingdoms and settled in what became England.
The native Britons established independent kingdoms such as Gwynedd, Powys, Gwent, and (under Irish influence) Dyfed in the more mountainous and remote west.
[4] By the 11th century, if not earlier, Wales – with its own distinct legal system, though only intermittently unified as a political entity – had developed a national identity as Cymru, or "Land of the compatriots" (Cymry), in contrast to the Saeson or Saxons.
Following Edward I's invasion in 1282, the Statute of Rhuddlan annexed Llywelyn's Principality of Wales – but not the whole country – to the kingdom of England, and the Welsh longbowmen became one of the numerous groups of foreign mercenaries serving with the English army.
English settlers were sent to live in the newly created borough towns which developed in the shadow of Edward I's castles, particularly in the south and east.
[9] The second of the Acts of Union (1542) established the Court of Great Sessions to deal with major misdemeanours in Wales: of the 217 judges who sat on its benches in its 288 years of existence, only 30 were Welshmen and it is unlikely that more than a handful of the latter – members of the higher gentry – actually spoke Welsh.
A flood of anti-Welsh pamphlets were printed in the 17th century, such as Wallography by William Richards (1682), which wishes the speedy demise of the Welsh language: The native gibberish is usually prattled throughout the whole of Taphydom except in their market towns, whose inhabitants being a little raised do begin to despise it.
'Tis usually cashiered out of gentlemen's houses ... so that (if the stars prove lucky) there may be some glimmering hopes that the British language may be quite extinct and may be Englished out of Wales.
Around the same time, English and Scottish industrialists began establishing iron works and other heavy industry in the coalfield of south Wales.
By attracting labour from the rural areas, this produced new urban concentrations of Welsh speakers, and helped build the culture of the South Wales Valleys communities.
The Merthyr Rising of 1831 was a protest against exploitation by the mine owners which began a period of unrest, including the "Rebecca Riots" and the Chartist movement, and a process of radical thinking.
For example, The Times newspaper wrote in 1866: "Wales... is a small country, unfavourably situated for commercial purposes, with an indifferent soil, and inhabited by an unenterprising people.
At the same time, rural areas close to England became more depopulated and anglicised, as many people moved to the growing English cities in the north west and Midlands.
"[21] In the early 20th century, Welsh politicians such as David Lloyd George (prime minister from 1916 to 1922), and later Aneurin Bevan (architect of the NHS) rose to UK-wide prominence.
Believing that they would need access to an increased water supply, they chose the Tryweryn Valley, near Bala, even though the development would require flooding the village of Capel Celyn.
A. Gill (born in Scotland to English parents) who in The Sunday Times in 1997 described the Welsh as "loquacious, dissemblers, immoral liars, stunted, bigoted, dark, ugly, pugnacious little trolls.
[25] Television personality Anne Robinson (born in England of Irish origin) appeared on the comedy show Room 101 in 2001 and made derisive comments about Welsh people, such as "what are they for?"
"[26] The North Wales Police have also investigated allegations of anti-Welsh racism made against Tony Blair and columnist Cristina Odone.
[27] Writer Neal Ascherson commented that: "Southern views of the Scots over the last hundred years have been faintly sceptical – "chippy, lacking in humour, slow to unbend" – but on the whole affectionate.
"[28] Former BBC presenter Jeremy Clarkson is well known for his comments about other countries and regularly expresses anti-Welsh prejudice, e.g. "It's entirely unfair that some people are born fat or ugly or dyslexic or disabled or ginger or small or Welsh.
They turned up instead with cheese in their bellies and mooched about for 80 minutes, seemingly not at all bothered that we've got to spend the next 12 months listening to the sheepsters droning on about their natural superiority and brilliance.
I’d rather live in France than Wales; I’d rather eat a snail than a daffodil; I’d certainly rather drink French fizzy wine; and I’d much rather sleep with Carole Bouquet than Charlotte Church.
"[32] In October 2010, Rod Liddle, in The Spectator magazine, described Welsh people as "miserable, seaweed munching, sheep-bothering pinch-faced hill-tribes" while calling for the closure of S4C as part of the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review.
"[34] Llew Smith then Labour MP for Blaenau Gwent, gave a Commons speech critical of Welsh nationalism claiming (for example) that Nationalists resisted evacuation of children from English cities during WWII.
[38] The vice-president of Plaid Cymru, Gwilym ab Ioan, was forced to resign when he said that Wales had become a "dumping ground for oddballs, social misfits and society drop-outs" from England.