A Brief History of Wales Trivia Quiz

Answer: 600-100 BC

"Who exactly were the Celts?" is a question which vexes historians on a daily basis. The first written evidence suggests that they were seen in the region North of the Alps around 1000-600 BC, known collectively as "the Keltoi" - but as a wandering race, they were chased to the nether regions of Western Europe - there are traces of them around the coasts of Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Lowlands - before finally settling in what we know these days as the United Kingdom, Ireland and Brittany (in France).

But if they were chased out of the Alps for being wandering tribes, where did they come from before that?

Answer: 35 years

Many is the story told of the Romans' attempts to conquer Wales - one of the most notable is of the Legions, under Paulinus in 61AD, turning up on the coast near what we now call Caernarfon, and being faced apparently by thousands of ghosts on the opposing shore, latter day Anglesey. The Legions were spooked by this, Paulinus tore up his orders from the Emperor Nero, and promptly turned his army back the way they'd come.

Having returned to London, Paulinus was ordered for a second time, on peril of his life, to go back and capture Anglesey. Having crossed the water (what we now know as the Menai Straits), the Romans confronted the "ghosts" on the beach - who were in fact pacifist Celtic Druids, with their heads daubed with lime, who put up no resistance to the Roman swords, and were promptly annihilated where they stood.

This was a strategically important capture for the Romans, as the Druids on Anglesey were seen as the spiritual leaders of the Celtic tribes - they also controlled the shipping of gold to and from the Northern parts of Britain.

Various strongholds in Wales continued to resist control for a further 17 years, though, and it was only under Agricola, in 78AD, that the conquest of Wales was finally regarded as being complete.

Answer: Offa's Dyke

Offa was the King of Mercia in the late 8th century, and had the dyke built primarily to delineate the extent of his lands. It's interesting that in Welsh the dyke is called "Clawdd Offa" - Offa's fence, or hedge. The engineering was pretty simple - a huge trench dug out, with the earth piled up on one side - as much as 70 feet wide and 8 feet tall in some places to this day - which would give the impression of it being a dyke on one side, and a huge hedge or fence on the other.

Answer: The Normans

The Normans established themselves in Britain following the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Although they managed to "colonize" most of England fairly easily, they found Wales a much tougher proposition to control - due to the rugged terrain of most of the country, the Welsh princes were able to harrass the Norman settlers using guerilla tactics, before retreating to their virtually impregnable Welsh hills. Nevertheless, numerous Norman strongholds were established, mainly on lower ground, and the remains of many of their castles provide tourists to Wales a huge amount of historical insight to this day.

Some of the better known surviving Norman castles in Wales can be seen at Cardiff, Caerphilly, Chepstow, Pembroke, Abergavenny and Kidwelly.

Answer: Llewellyn ap Gruffydd

Llewellyn ap Gruffydd was also known as "Llewellyn ein Llyw Olaf" which literally means "Llewellyn our last steering wheel, or leader". He was also known as Llewellyn III of Gwynedd, or Llewellyn II of Wales - Llewellyn I being his grandfather, Llewellyn the Great.

Owain Glyndwr came along a hundred years or so later - but never actually succeeded in uniting the whole of Wales. David Lloyd George was a 20th century Welsh Prime Minister of Britain, and Samuel Brain founded one of Wales' best known breweries!

Answer: Owain Glyndwr

Owain Glyndwr (or Owen Glendower in the anglicized form) was the scourge of the English for many years at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries. He managed to unite the various factions within Wales for the first time in over 100 years, and his armies were constantly harrying the occupying forces of the English Kings Richard II and Henry IV. However, Glyndwr is known to have received most of his education in England, before becoming on of Richard II's knights, and distinguishing himself in battle under the English colours on numerous occasions.

What precisely made him turn his back on England, return to Wales and lead the Welsh forces against the English? No one is quite sure, but he did this successfully enough to merit an important part in Shakespeare's play "Henry IV", where he is referred to as being "not in the role of common men".

Answer: Henry Tudor

Henry Tudor (or Harri Tudur, as he was christened) was born in Pembroke Castle in 1457. After defeating Richard III of England at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, he became Henry VIIth of England, the first king of the Tudor Dynasty.

He was the father of Henry VIIIth - who passed some of the sternest "anti Welsh" legislation in British history, ironically!

Barry John is a Welsh rugby player who became known as "The King" after his triumphs with the British Lions rugby team in New Zealand in 1971, and Richard Llewellyn, though sharing the name of Wales' last two recognized kings, and known for writing the very Welsh novel "How Green was My Valley" in 1939, was actually English!

Answer: Griffith Jones, Llanddowror

Griffith Jones (1683/4-1761) was a Church of England minister appointed to the parish of Llanddowror in Carmarthenshire in 1716. Wanting to spread the word of God, and realizing that the vast majority of his parishioners didn't speak a word of English, he started his "Circulating Schools" in 1731 that taught children to read and write about the church through the medium of Welsh. Over the next 30 years or so, these circulating schools spread throughout most of rural Wales, and is seen as one of the most significant historical reasons behind the survival of the Welsh language to this day.

Tom Jones of Pontypridd is better known as a popular singer, Stephen Jones of Llanelli is a rugby player, and the Reverend Eli Jenkins is the parish priest of Dylan Thomas' "Under Milk Wood", set in the unlikely village of Llareggub. When asked what town "Llareggub" was based on, Thomas is believed to have enigmatically replied that he didn't know - and if you read the name backwards, you may find a clue to Dylan Thomas' inspiration!

Answer: David Lloyd George

Much has been written about Lloyd George's political and private life - much of it unrepeatable on FT! A colourful, charismatic and often controversial figure, he was undoubtedly one of the most powerful and influential political figures in Britain in the first three decades of the 20th century. As well as being the first Welsh Prime Minister of Britain, he has been the only one to 2008 - and to this date, he was also the last Liberal Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Neil Kinnock from Bedwellty in the South Wales valleys was leader of the Labour Party at two unsuccessful General Elections (1987 and 1992), James Callaghan was the Labour MP for Cardiff South from 1945 to 1987, which included his years as Prime Minister (1976-1979), but he wasn't Welsh, and David Gray is best known as a popular singer - though he did spend most of his childhood in Pembrokeshire, in West Wales.

Answer: S4C

Prior to 1982, responsibility for providing Welsh language television was split between the BBC and ITV/HTV. For over 20 years, there had been a history of very public campaigning to establish a channel dedicated to Welsh language programming, and this was realized in November of 1982 with the launch of S4C - Sianel 4 Cymru.