Wales

The last princes

Wales has its own tradition of law-making. In the 10th century Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good) is believed to have codified Welsh law.^[1] In 1258 Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, ruler of Gwynedd in the north-west, made the other native princes transfer their homage from the English king to him, and declared himself Prince of Wales. Henry III recognised the title in the peace of Montgomery in 1267.^[9]

Llywelyn refused from 1273 to 1277 to meet his obligations as a vassal of the new king, Edward I. He was defeated in the war of 1277, and the peace of Aberconway left him only Gwynedd west of the River Conwy.^[9] In 1282 his brother Dafydd attacked Hawarden on Palm Sunday, starting a general war. Llywelyn was killed near Builth on 11 December 1282, which the Dictionary of Welsh Biography says virtually brought Welsh political independence to an end.^[9] Dafydd held out until June 1283, and on 3 October 1283 he was executed as a traitor at Shrewsbury.^[10]

Edward began building castles at Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech and Beaumaris in the old principality of Gwynedd in 1283; UNESCO calls them colonisation and defence works.^[11] In 1284, at Rhuddlan Castle, he laid down the law under which Wales was governed for about the next 250 years, the Statute of Rhuddlan. His son Edward, born at Caernarfon, was named Prince of Wales in 1301.^[12] The last great rebellion, led by Owain Glyndŵr from 1400 to about 1415, held early parliaments at Machynlleth and Harlech.^[1]

Annexed to England

Under Henry VIII, the Laws in Wales Acts of 1535 and 1542 annexed Wales to the Kingdom of England. They extended English law to Wales and made English the language of the law, but set up separate courts for Wales, the Court of Great Sessions. Wales got 26, later 27, members in the English Parliament.^[1] The 1535 Act opens by declaring Wales “incorporated with England” and divides the lordships of the Welsh Marches into shires;^[13] the 1542 Act divided Wales into twelve counties.^[14]

The Wales and Berwick Act 1746 went further, providing that references in Acts of Parliament to England included Wales.^[15][1] The Court of Great Sessions was abolished in 1830, removing the last recognisable distinctive feature of law in Wales.^[1]

Wales on its own again

In 1881 the Sunday Closing Act became the first law Parliament passed for Wales alone. Cymru Fydd (Young Wales) was founded in 1886 to campaign for home rule. A Welsh Board for Education followed in 1907, and the Anglican Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920.^[1] In the 1950s the Parliament for Wales campaign, led by Lady Megan Lloyd George, presented a petition with 250,000 signatures.^[1]

Wales had no capital. Cardiff petitioned King George VI for capital status in 1949, and in a 1955 vote 134 of Wales’s 161 local authorities backed it. On 20 December 1955 the government said in a written answer that it would recognise Cardiff as the capital, adding that no formal measures were needed.^[2]

After the 1964 general election Labour created a Secretary of State for Wales, and the Welsh Office opened in 1965. That year the Welsh-speaking village of Capel Celyn was flooded for a reservoir to supply Liverpool, authorised by an Act of Parliament that bypassed Welsh planning authorities; the Senedd calls it deeply controversial.^[1]

“the Government are prepared to recognize Cardiff as the capital of the Principality. No formal measures are necessary to give effect to this decision.”^[2]

The language in law

The Welsh Language Act 1967 let anyone speak Welsh in legal proceedings in Wales and allowed official forms in Welsh. It also said that Wales should be distinguished from England in future laws: Acts passed after 1967 no longer read “England” as including Wales.^[15] The Welsh Language Act 1993 set up a Welsh Language Board and required public bodies to plan for treating English and Welsh “on a basis of equality” in public business and the courts in Wales.^[16] It also repealed the 16th-century Laws in Wales Acts.^[1]

A Measure passed by the National Assembly in December 2010 and approved in February 2011 gave Welsh official status in Wales. It replaced the Welsh Language Board with a Welsh Language Commissioner.^[7]

The census in Wales has asked about Welsh since 1891. In 2021, 538,300 people aged three and over, 17.8%, said they could speak it, down from 562,000 (19.0%) in 2011 and the lowest share ever recorded.^[6][17] Welsh is strongest in the north-west: 64.4% in Gwynedd and 55.8% on Anglesey, against 6.2% in Blaenau Gwent. A national milestone aims for a million Welsh speakers by 2050.^[6]

No in 1979, yes in 1997

In 1973 the Kilbrandon Commission recommended elected bodies for Wales and Scotland.^[1] On 1 March 1979 Welsh voters were asked whether the Wales Act 1978, which would have created an assembly, should be put into effect. 79.7% said no and 20.3% yes, only 11.8% of the electorate, far short of the 40% the Act required. None of the eight counties voted yes.^[5]

Devolution was dormant in the 1980s, but low Conservative support in Wales under a Conservative UK government, and the growing number of unelected bodies running Welsh public services, revived demands for a Welsh institution.^[1] On 18 September 1997, 559,419 people (50.3%) voted for an assembly and 552,698 (49.7%) against, on a turnout of 50.1%.^[5] The majority was 6,721 votes.^[1] Eleven of Wales’s 22 areas voted yes and eleven no. Only 25.2% of the electorate voted yes, so the assembly would have failed under the 1979 rule.^[5]

From assembly to parliament

The Government of Wales Act 1998 created the National Assembly for Wales, or Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru, as a single corporate body.^[18] It was elected in 1999 with 60 members.^[4] At first it could make only secondary legislation, in areas such as agriculture, education and housing, and combining government and scrutiny in one body proved problematic.^[1] The Government of Wales Act 2006 set up a separate Welsh Assembly Government led by a First Minister,^[19] and from 2007 the Assembly could make some laws of its own.^[1]

On 3 March 2011 voters were asked whether the Assembly should be able to make laws on all matters in its 20 subject areas. 63.5% said yes, on a turnout of 35.6%; 21 of the 22 local authorities voted yes, all but Monmouthshire.^[20] A Wales Act in 2014 added tax and borrowing powers, and partial control of income tax followed in 2018–19.^[1]

The Wales Act 2017 declared the Assembly and the Welsh Government a permanent part of the UK’s constitution, abolishable only after a referendum in Wales.^[21] It also redrew the Assembly’s powers: an Assembly Act is outside its competence where it relates to matters reserved to Westminster, which are listed in a schedule.^[21] An Act of the Assembly in January 2020 renamed it Senedd Cymru or the Welsh Parliament, and gave the vote in its elections to 16- and 17-year-olds and qualifying foreign citizens.^[3][1]

“it is declared that the Assembly and the Welsh Government are not to be abolished except on the basis of a decision of the people of Wales voting in a referendum.”^[21]

96 members and a new government

The Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024 replaced the 60-member Senedd with 16 constituencies electing six members each.^[22] Parties put up lists of up to eight candidates, voters choose a party or an independent, and seats go to candidates in the order of the party’s list.^[22] The Institute for Government calls this a closed-list proportional system, using the D’Hondt formula, under which voters cannot choose between a party’s candidates.^[4]

At the first election under it, on 7 May 2026, Plaid Cymru won 43 of the 96 seats with 35.4% of the vote, short of the 49 needed for a majority. Reform UK won 34 seats with 29.3%, Labour 9, the Conservatives 7, the Greens 2 and the Liberal Democrats 1.^[4][23] Turnout was 51.6%, the highest at any Senedd election.^[24] It was the first time Labour was not the largest party, and First Minister Eluned Morgan lost her seat.^[4]

On 12 May 2026 the Senedd chose Plaid Cymru’s leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, as first minister with 45 votes, from Plaid and the two Green members, and he was sworn in the same day.^[4][8] He leads a minority Plaid government.^[4]