Author: Barbara Ann Wigen

Publisher:

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13:

John Edward Lloyd's "History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest" has been revered for the last eight decades as the best secondary source on Medieval Welsh history. It consists of a series of stories about Welsh national heros which Lloyd describes for us in a chronicle of political maneuverings among the Welsh Princelings. This thesis attempts to analyze Lloyd's text by discussing its structure and its heavy emphasis on Wales, the Nation, within the larger context of Lloyd's lifelong professional connections with organizations that promoted Welsh nationalist ideals. By looking at other Welsh histories contemporary to Lloyd's this thesis attempts to evaluate the worthiness of his fame without resorting to irreverence. Just as Lloyd searched Welsh history for details which would prove his point, so have I searched these other texts for clues to the obvious slant toward nationalism in his "History of Wales." I conclude that Lloyd employed English historiographic "models" to set up his History in order to emphasize the development of the Welsh nation in the Middle Ages. I will discuss these "models"--The Great Man theme, the development of Nation-States, and the critique of primary sources -- as they relate to Lloyd, the historian.--Includes text from document.