ABSTRACT
The origins of the United Kingdom as a multinational polity can be traced back at least to the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 when Henry Tudor (a Welsh warlord) defeated King Richard III and seized the throne of England which was to be retained for over a century by his Tudor dynasty. At the behest of his son, Henry VIII, the English Parliament endorsed royal authority over the whole of Wales in an Act of 1536 which laid down the general terms of the Union between England and Wales, and which provided for Wales to send Members to Parliament at Westminster for the first time since the days of Edward II. This paved the way for a subsequent Act in 1543 which provided in some detail for the political assimilation of Wales into the Union with England and divided the principality into twelve Counties.
