ABSTRACT
It is possible to be a strong advocate of Welsh culture and language without supporting national independence. In 1667, Charles Edwards published the influential Hanes Y ffydd ddi-ffuant (History of the genuine faith), which argued to the contrary that the loss of political independence had been the essential prerequisite to bringing the Welsh people the Gospel in their own language. Culture and religion both benefited from the Act of Union; and both were apparently flourishing three centuries after Henry VIII. In the 1890s, it was a vibrant and expansive Wales that rejected home rule as an irrelevant move which would usher in more problems than it could solve. More recently, concern about the precipitous decline of language and culture has led many to seek political nationhood as the only solution to what may be a terminal crisis.
