Georgia Henley

This project examines politically-motivated reinterpretations of the Welsh past by aristocratic families in the Anglo-Welsh borderlands involved in the conquest and colonization of Wales c.1250-1450. It draws together an unprecedented range of literary texts in Welsh, French, Latin, and English, several of which are edited and translated for the first time. It argues that Anglo-Welsh families reinterpreted Welsh history narratives in order to leverage political influence in the region, and doing so, reshaped the lines of transmission that drew Welsh texts into England. The project overturns the idea that English literary culture erased Wales, rather, Wales exerted a continuous pull on the English historical imagination that culminated in the Tudor accession to the English throne in 1485.