ABSTRACT
For Wales, the mid-seventeenth century emerges as a true heroic age, of martyrs who would long be commemorated by their respective followers. These years established the vocabulary of Welsh politics for centuries to come. Charles received vast quantities of money from the Earl of Worcester, commonly regarded as the wealthiest subject in the kingdom. The second civil war was important less for its military events than for its impact on national politics. Merionethshire had the distinction of being the last place in the British Isles where it was seriously proposed to burn heretics at the stake, with Quakers as the intended victims. The mid-century crisis is important because of its influence on later religious loyalties. All the recorded centres of Quaker activity in south Wales were exactly the oldest Puritan congregations, where members had had longest to consider and debate ideas like Liberty and the Spirit: Cardiff and Swansea were such centers, as was Llanfaches itself.
