Y Gymraes (literally The Welsh Woman) was a women's magazine founded by the minister and journalist Evan Jones in January 1850 in response to a government report on education in Wales which had strongly criticized the morals of Welsh women. [1] [2]
Y Gymraes (literally The Welsh Woman) was a women's magazine founded by the minister and journalist Evan Jones in January 1850 in response to a government report on education in Wales which had strongly criticized the morals of Welsh women. [1] [2]
In 1846, after a Parliamentary speech by radical MP William Williams, concerns were raised regarding the level of education in Wales. This resulted in an enquiry carried out by three English commissioners appointed by the Privy Council, none of whom had any knowledge of the Welsh language, Nonconformity or elementary education. The commissioners had relied heavily on the information they had received from Anglican clergymen. The findings of the report were immensely detailed and were damning towards not only the state of education in Wales but drew a very critical picture of the Welsh as a people, labelling them as immoral and backwards. [3] Welsh women were said to be licentious and "cut off from civilising influences by the impenetrable Welsh language". The report drew questions over the chastity of the poor and was just as damning to the wealthier women of the country, claiming that English farmers’ daughters were respectable, while their Welsh counterparts were in the "constant habit of being courted in bed". Welsh wives were said to be "most slovenly and improvinent, and as mothers, ignorant and injudicious" knowing "next to nothing of the management of a house". [4] [2]
Published in April 1847 by Ralph Lingen, one of the three commissioners, the report in three blue-covered volumes became known as "The Blue Books" but such was the outcry against it in Wales, that it was soon branded Brad y Llyfrau Gleision or the Treason of the Blue Books . [5]
The report resulted in a concerted effort to ensure that Welsh women would in future be above rebuke. Several Welsh periodicals were launched aimed at upholding the reputation of Welsh speakers, especially the morality of Welsh women. The earliest and one of the most significant was the women's literary magazine Y Gymraes. [4]
The magazine was established by Evan Jones in January 1850 under the patronage of Lady Llanover. [6] He set out to promote higher standards of living for women in Wales, encouraging articles on religion and morality as well as housekeeping. [2] The Welsh-language poet Elen Egryn contributed an introduction in verse to the first issue in which she called for women to rise "above shame and hateful mockery" (goruwch gwarth a dirmyg cas). [7]
Evans was already suffering from poor health in 1850 when he established the magazine. As a result of financial difficulties, publication continued only to the end of 1851. A vain attempt at reviving publication was made by the Congregational minister David Rees (1801–1869), but Jones died in February 1852. [8]
There was to be no further women's magazine in Wales until 1879 when Y Frythones (The Female Briton) was published under the editorship of Sarah Jane Rees. It lasted only until 1891. In 1896, again with the title Y Gymraes (Welsh Woman), [9] another women's magazine edited by Alice Gray Jones was published, continuing until December 1934. [2] [10]
Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg, was a Welsh antiquarian, poet and collector. He was seen as an expert collector of Medieval Welsh literature, but it emerged after his death that he had forged several manuscripts, notably some of the Third Series of Welsh Triads. Even so, he had a lasting impact on Welsh culture, notably in founding the secret society known as the Gorsedd, through which Iolo Morganwg successfully co-opted the 18th-century Eisteddfod revival. The philosophy he spread in his forgeries has had an enormous impact upon neo-Druidism. His bardic name is Welsh for "Iolo of Glamorgan".
Welsh nationalism emphasises and celebrates the distinctiveness of Welsh culture and Wales as a nation or country. Welsh nationalism may also include calls for further autonomy or self-determination, which includes Welsh devolution, meaning increased powers for the Senedd, or full Welsh independence.
The Welsh Not was a token used by teachers at some schools in Wales in the 19th century and early 20th century to discourage children from speaking Welsh at school, by marking out those who were heard speaking the language. Accounts suggest that its form and the nature of its use could vary from place to place, but the most common form was a piece of wood suspended on a string that was put around the child's neck. Terms used historically include Welsh not, Welsh note, Welsh lump, Welsh stick, cwstom, Welsh Mark, and Welsh Ticket.
The Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the State of Education in Wales, commonly referred to in Wales as the "Treason of the Blue Books" or "Treachery of the Blue Books" or just the "Blue Books" are a three-part publication by the British Government in 1847, which caused uproar in Wales for disparaging the Welsh; being particularly scathing in its view of the nonconformity, the Welsh language and the morality of the Welsh people in general. The Welsh sobriquet Brad y Llyfrau Gleision was from the name of a play satirising the reports, and those who gave evidence to the inquiry, which was published seven years after the reports. The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales says that the name "took hold of the public imagination to such an extent that ever since the report has been known by that name".
Fixed surnames were adopted in Wales from the 15th century onwards. Until then, the Welsh had a patronymic naming system.
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1953 to Wales and its people.
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1949 to Wales and its people.
William Ambrose, whose bardic name was Emrys, was a 19th-century Welsh-language poet and preacher. Many sermons of his were published and some of his poems used as hymns.
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1920 to Wales and its people.
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1914 to Wales and its people.
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1850 to Wales and its people.
Sarah Jane Rees, also known by the bardic name "Cranogwen", was a Welsh teacher, poet, editor, master mariner and temperance campaigner. She had two romantic friendships with women, first with Fanny Rees, until her death from tuberculosis, then with Jane Thomas, for most of the rest of Rees's life.
The Coelbren y Beirdd is a script created in the late eighteenth century by the literary forger Edward Williams, best known as Iolo Morganwg.
Women's suffrage in Wales has historically been marginalised due to the prominence of societies and political groups in England which led the reform for women throughout the United Kingdom. Due to differing social structures and a heavily industrialised working-class society, the growth of a national movement in Wales grew but then stuttered in the late nineteenth century in comparison with that of England. Nevertheless, distinct Welsh groups and individuals rose to prominence and were vocal in the rise of suffrage in Wales and the rest of Great Britain.
Evan Jones, also known by his bardic name Ieuan Gwynedd, was an independent minister and journalist. Jones is chiefly remembered for his defence of women following the damning insinuations made in the Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the state of education in Wales, commonly known as the Treason of the Blue Books in Wales. He edited several papers in London and in Wales but it his work on Y Gymraes, which has made him of particular interest to Welsh historians.
Elen Egryn, pen name of ElinEvans, (1807–1876) was a Welsh poet. She was the first woman to have a book published in the Welsh language.
Alice Gray Jones, OBE was a Welsh writer and editor, known by the pseudonym Ceridwen Peris. She was an active temperance campaigner, and a co-founder of the North Wales Women's Temperance Union.
Ellen Hughes (1867–1927) was a Welsh-language writer, temperance reformer and suffragist from Llanengan in North Wales.
Jane Rhiannon Aaron FEA FLSW is a Welsh educator, literary researcher and writer. She was Professor of English at the University of Glamorgan in south Wales, until her retirement in September 2011. She then became an associate member of the Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations at the University of South Wales. Aaron is known for her research and publications on Welsh literature and the writings of Welsh women. She was elected as a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales in 2011.
"Gorhoffedd Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd", sometimes known in English as "Hywel's Boast", has historically been considered a poem by the mid-12th-century prince, warrior and poet Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd. However, some scholars now believe it to be two quite separate poems by Hywel which have become fused together in the process of manuscript transmission. It is his best-known work. In the first half the poet expresses his love of his native Gwynedd – its scenery, its men and women – and boasts of his own prowess in defending them; in the second he praises several Welsh ladies and tells us how many of them are sexual conquests of his. According to the writer Gwyn Williams, "The sharpness and clarity of the North Wales landscape has never been so well caught in words, nor have tenderness and humour been better mingled in the expression of love".