Two Lectures on Welsh history

Two very different periods of Welsh history come under the spotlight of two lectures at Bangor University on November 7 and 12th.

The Age of the Princes is the topic for the lecture on Friday 7 November 2014, at 6.30. Dr David Stephenson will be discussing ‘Empires in Wales: from Gruffudd ap Llywelyn to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd’ in the J.E. Lloyd Lecture, which is open to all and takes place in the University’s Main Arts Lecture Theatre.

This lecture will examine the growth of the supremacies in Wales built up by some great Welsh leaders in the Age of the Princes –the 11th to 13th centuries: how those Welsh empires were sustained and how they provoked opposition – not just from the English kings, but from leaders and communities within Wales.

As Dr David Stephenson explains:
 ‘Today we praise leaders like Llywelyn the Great and Llywelyn the Last for constructing a principality covering much of Wales – in effect a Welsh state. Their poets hailed them as great rulers, as emperors. But there’s another and darker side to their achievement: they were often obliged to use methods that provoked the hostility of communities throughout Wales, and that turned out to be fatal to their ambitions. It is that tragic tension that I want to explore in this lecture.’

Dr David Stephenson is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology at Bangor University. He has published widely on the history of medieval Wales, including his seminal volume The Governance of Gwynedd (1984), and the second edition under the title Power in Medieval Gwynedd: Governance and the Welsh Princes (University of Wales Press, 2014).

As we mark the centenary of the start of the First World War, Sir Deian Hopkin  discusses “Memory and History : Remembering the First World War in Wales” for the annual Archives & Special Collections Lecture which takes place in the University’s Main Arts Lecture Theatre at 6.00 on Wednesday 12 November 2014.

Sir Deian Hopkin was formerly the Vice Chancellor of the London South Bank University and since 2011 has been President of the National Library of Wales. He is also a special advisor to the Welsh Government relating to commemorating the First World War.

Publication date: 4 November 2014