ABSTRACT
The Welsh gentry emerged in the century before the Reformation and the Acts of Union. The Llwyds had for centuries lived in isolated splendour in a characteristically 'ancient seat of a gentleman of Wales', a house little changed for two or three centuries. In a Merionethshire parish like Llanuwchllyn, there were several recognised uchelwyr living in one-hearth houses, and owning property essentially indistinguishable from their yeoman neighbours. The frequency of marriages between the Welsh gentry and rich English houses meant that the new heirs were themselves more likely to be English in language and culture. In Wales, the political history from 1550 to 1640 can almost be described as the Age of the Herberts. In the richer shires, like Glamorgan or Denbighshire, there was an elite gentry community of real substance, together with a hierarchy of middling and lesser squires who formed a broad continuum, extending down to the substantial yeoman farmers.
