This chapter focuses on narrative texts from Wales largely comprising annals, chronicles and histories composed from the twelfth to the fifteenth century and situates these in their cultural, political and social contexts. After identifying key themes of the historical culture evidenced, for example, by poetry, prose tales and genealogy, the discussion highlights the significance of Geoffrey of Monmouth in the development of medieval Welsh historical writing and compares his work with other Latin histories from twelfth-century Wales. It then considers the vernacular chronicles known as Brut y Tywysogion (The History of the Princes) whose coverage extends from the late seventh century to the eve of the Edwardian conquest of 1282. While based on Welsh-Latin chronicles, these were intended as a continuation of Geoffrey, and from the fourteenth century are associated in some manuscripts with Welsh translations both of his History and of Dares Phrygius’ account of the Trojan War.

Brut y Tywysogion is a source of fundamental importance to medieval Welsh and British history, but discussion of the chronicle in and of itself has been relatively limited. This paper will first discuss the nature of the chronicle, or more accurately the family of closely related chronicles that can be grouped under the title Brut y Tywysogion. The aim is to establish that the chronicle often preserves many features of older source material, and that consequently there is little basis for seeing the entirety of the work as the product of expansion and literary elaboration on the part of a late thirteenth-century compiler, as was the opinion of the Brut's editor, Thomas Jones. This will then enable close consideration of a distinctive section of the chronicle narrating the first quarter of the twelfth century. It has been argued elsewhere that this section is derived from a near contemporary account written before 1127. Discussion of the text's depiction of contemporary Welsh and English kingship will demonstrate that the ambiguous political sympathies of its author place him firmly in the complex and divided world of Wales in the early twelfth century. Comparison with his contemporaries as historians will also illustrate how this work fits into the context of twelfth-century historical writing more generally.

Brut y Tywysogion, often translated as the Chronicle of the Princes but more accurately the History of the Princes, is the name given to three closely related chronicles in Middle Welsh. The generally accepted explanation for their interrelationship is that they are three independent translations derived from a Brut y Tywysogion is a source of fundamental importance to medieval Welsh and British history, but discussion of the chronicle in and of itself has been relatively limited. This paper will first discuss the nature of the chronicle, or more accurately the family of closely related chronicles that can be grouped under the title Brut y Tywysogion. The aim is to establish that the chronicle often preserves many features of older source material, and that consequently there is little basis for seeing the entirety of the work as the product of expansion and literary elaboration on the part of a late thirteenth-century compiler, as was the opinion of the Brut's editor, Thomas Jones.