 |
La Giraudière Brossac Charente South West France Travel Directory of Wales Wales Travel & Holiday Accommodation |
 |
South West France Partners with Wales
Wales Links with La Giraudiere in South West France
| The LaGiraudiere Travel directory is a directory of quality sites offering information similar to that of La Giraudiere, You have arrived at the Wales Travel page where you will find Travel information and Holiday Accommodation Wales. Wales is a country in northwest Europe, one of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom. Wales is located in the south-west of Great Britain and is bordered by England to the east, the Bristol Channel to the south and the Irish Sea to the west and north, and also by the estuary of the River Dee in the north-east. Wales is the largest principality in the world. |
|
||||||||||||
After
the Roman
withdrawal from Britain in 410, much of the lowlands were over run by
various Germanic tribes. However, Gwynedd, Powys, Dyfed and Seisyllg,
Morgannwg, and Gwent emerged as independent Welsh successor states.
They endured, in part because of favourable geographical features such
as uplands, mountains, and rivers and a resilient society that did not
collapse with the end of the Roman civitas. This tenacious survival by
the Romano-Britons
and their descendants in the western kingdoms was to become the
foundation of what we now know as Wales. With the loss of the lowlands,
England's kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria, and later Wessex,
wrestled with Powys, Gwent, and Gwynedd to define the frontier between
the two peoples. Having lost much of the West Midlands to Mercia in the 6th and early 7th century, a resurgent late 7th century Powys checked Mercian advancement. Aethelbald of Mercia, looking to defend recently acquired lands, had built Wat's Dyke. According to John Davies, this endeavour may have been with Powys king Elisedd ap Gwylog's own agreement, however, for this boundary, extending north from the Severn valley to the Dee estuary, gave Oswestry (Welsh: Croesoswallt) to Powys.[citation needed] King Offa of Mercia seems to have continued this consultative initiative when he created a larger earth work, now known as Offa's Dyke (Welsh: Clawdd Offa). Davies wrote of Cyril Fox's study of Offa's Dyke:
The annals of history record the name of Hastings as the site of the last invasion of Britain by French, well Norman, forces in 1066. True, this was the last successful invasion. However, little is reported about the French invasion of Fishguard, which took place in southwest Wales in 1797, nor of the brave resistance offered by "Jemima Fawr" (Jemima the Great), who single-handedly captured twelve of the invading soldiers.
In 1797, Napoleon Bonaparte was busy conquering in central Europe. In his absence the newly formed French revolutionary government, the Directory, appears to have devised a 'cunning plan' that involved the poor country folk of Britain rallying to the support of their French liberators. Obviously the Directory had recently taken delivery of some newly liberated Brandy!
This article is continued at the bottom of this page ~
|
| The
French invasion force comprising some 1400 troops set sail from Camaret
on February 18, 1797. The man entrusted by the Directory to implement
their 'cunning plan' was an Irish-American septuagenarian, Colonel
William Tate. As Napoleon had apparently reserved the cream of the
Republican army for duties elsewhere in Europe, Colonel Tate's force
comprised of a ragtag collection of soldiers including many newly
released jailbirds. Tate's orders were to land near Bristol, England's
second largest city, and destroy it, then to cross over into Wales and
march north onto Chester and Liverpool. From the outset however all did
not proceed as detailed in the 'cunning plan'. Wind conditions made it
impossible for the four French warships to land anywhere near Bristol,
so Tate moved to 'cunning plan' B, and set a course for Cardigan Bay in
southwest Wales. On Wednesday, February 22, the French warships sailed into Fishguard Bay, to be greeted by canon fire from the local fort. Unbeknown to the French the cannon was being fired as an alarm to the local townsfolk, nervously the ships withdrew and sailed on until they reached a small sandy beach near the village of Llanwnda. Men, arms and gunpowder were unloaded and by 2 am on the morning of Thursday, February 23rd, the last invasion of Britain was completed. The ships returned to France with a special despatch being sent to the Directory in Paris informing them of the successful landing. The French invasion force upon landing appear to have run out of enthusiasm for the 'cunning plan', perhaps a result of those years of prison rations, they seem to have been more interested in the rich food and wine the locals had recently removed from a grounded Portuguese ship. After a looting spree, many of the invaders were too drunk to fight and within two days, the invasion had collapsed, and Tate's force surrendered to a local militia force led by Lord Cawdor on February 25th, 1797. Strange that the surrender agreement drawn up by Tate's officers referred to the British coming at them "with troops of the line to the number of several thousand." No such troops were anywhere near Fishguard, however, hundreds, perhaps thousands of local Welsh women dressed in their traditional scarlet tunics and tall black felt hats had come to witness any fighting between the French and the local men of the militia. Is it possible that at a distance, and after a glass or two, those women could have been mistaken for British army Redcoats? During their two days on British soil the French soldiers must have shaken in their boots at mention of name of "Jemima Fawr" (Jemima the Great). The 47-year-old Jemima Nicholas was the wife of a Fishguard cobbler. When she heard of the invasion, she marched out to Llanwnda, pitchfork in hand and rounded up 12 Frenchmen. She brought them into town and promptly left to look for some more. - Men of Harlech meet your match! |
Wales links to South West France |
| WORLD
TRAVEL DIRECTORY HOME |
HOME LA GIRAUDIERE SOUTH WEST FRANCE |
INDEX OF EUROPEAN PARTNERS | ADVERTISE ON LA GIRAUDIERE SOUTH WEST FRANCE |
ACCOMMODATION SOUTH WEST FRANCE
MAPS OF SOUTH WEST FRANCE ARTICLES ON SOUTH WEST FRANCE GOLF HOLIDAYS FRANCE AIRPORTS IN SOUTH WEST FRANCE HOTELS IN SOUTH WEST FRANCE
CAR HIRE SOUTH WEST FRANCE FERRIES CROSSING FERRY TGV TRAIN TICKETS EUROSTAR
TRAVEL INSURANCE CURRENCY CONVERTER TRAVEL SHOP BROSSAC
CONTACT US LINK TO US NEWSLETTER
WORK ABROAD FRANCE STUDY ABROAD FRANCE SUMMER CAMP SUMMER CAMPS DIRECTORY STUDY ABROAD DIRECTORY France directory TRAVEL DIRECTORY
http://www.lagiraudiere.com/