ABSTRACT
That the princedom of Wales is an institution fraught with theatrical display is, perhaps, quite apparent to anyone who remembers or has read about Prince Charles's investiture in 1969. A triumph of subtlety, with Charles speaking Welsh in parts, a tribute to the native population, while still calling in English for Wales to look forward without forsaking the traditions and essential aspects of her past'. The early modern period, which is the focus of this essay, is particularly unique, not because it saw subtle and complex shifts in how England and Wales coexisted as neighbours; such shifts are present throughout history and are still unfolding, as this volume's contents attest. As an instrument of the English monarchy, the princedom had a theatrical component from its very inception: not a title conferred at birth, the prince of Wales becomes so at the time of a formal ceremony, and from the English princedom's earliest incarnations, these ceremonies were meaningfully timed.
