ABSTRACT
The Welsh in France offer a gruesomely effective strategy for dealing with the linguistic remains of the conquered, violently excising the tongues of their native wives to effect a double silencing. This chapter begins with the textual residue of the Welshwoman's voice in Henry IV: Owen Glendower speaks to her in Welsh, and she answers him in the same. Shakespeare's second tetralogy puts the contested languages of Camden and Speed's account of the Welsh in France into the mouths of women: the unnamed Welshwoman in Henry IV and the French princess Katherine in Henry V. Incorporating Wales and France into the history plays' version of England requires a triumph of the English language over Welsh and French, but these women continue to speak on the stage. The chapter demonstrates the extent to which the Welsh and their language were imagined as compatible with the English crown.
