The Flag of the United Kingdom is pretty unique and interesting.
It’s a combination of the original 3 kingdoms that made up the country:
England and Scotland, who formally united in 1707
after the English throne ran out of offspring a century earlier.
And Ireland, who was attached in 1801,
forming the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland'.
The modern United Kingdom is made up four countries though:
England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales.
So why isn’t Wales on the Union Jack?
How could anyone forget to include a dragon on their flag?
And why does it continue to be excluded today?
Well, I’ve partially answered this for you already:
the Union Jack is made up of the flags of the three kingdoms that
originally made up the country,
and Wales wasn’t included back then, but why?
Well, about 389,000,000 minutes ago
the king of England, who was called Edward the first despite being like, the fourth,
conquered the principality of Wales after a sustained 200 year campaign.
His son, and the future heirs of England, would rule this principality,
while the rest of Wales would be ruled by about 50 English and Welsh nobles,
known as the marcher lords.
In 1536, this system was abolished,
and the 'Country and Dominion of Wales' was established with these borders,
which are still in use today.
These laws formally annexed Wales into the 'Kingdom of England',
but it is a common misconception that these laws made Wales a part of "England",
or that "Wales" ceased to exist
This was not the case, despite how often it is repeated!
All of Wales (except for Monmouthshire) would maintain its own judicial system.
The people of Wales would pay different taxes to those in England,
and many, many acts of Parliament were made explicitly for the 'Country of Wales'.
It was certainly a part of the 'Kingdom of England',
but it is a vast oversimplification to say that Wales ceased to exist.
If you were to ask a Tudor lawmaker what this piece of land was called,
he would not say “England”, he’d tell you it was “The Country (or Dominion) of Wales”,
separate from England proper.
This separation was even represented on the English coat of arms,
which featured the greyhound of Richmond (for Henry Tudor),
and the red dragon of Cadwaladr (for Wales).
However, in 1603 this degree of legal detachment would not be enough
for the new Scottish king of England, James the VI/I
(named after his k/d ratio),
who reigned as both the king of Scotland and of England.
He kicked the Welsh dragon off of the coat of arms and replaced it with the Scottish unicorn,
and just over a hundred years later his granddaughter, Queen Anne,
formally united the two kingdoms of England and Scotland,
with Ireland being pulled in later.
So as we can see, the primary reason that Wales wasn’t included on the Union Jack
in 1707 is that it was legally a part of the 'Kingdom of England',
although again, calling it a part of England proper, or saying that Wales ceased to exist,
is an oversimplification, and would involve ignoring centuries of English law.
The Scottish were not ignorant to this either,
James V was the son of a Tudor and his mother even tried to make him the Prince of Wales,
and James VI enjoyed a good amount of support from the Welsh,
with some claiming him as a fellow Welshman.
But of course, for all intents and purposes, Wales had been annexed into the 'Kingdom of England',
and James VI wasn’t looking to make an exception.
In fact, he even studied how this incorporation into England went,
in order to see what problems might arise when he attempted to incorporated Scotland too.
But regardless, in kicking the Welsh dragon off of the coat of arms,
he robbed them of their last piece of representation.
A trend which has continued into the modern day.
Now, most people just stop there.
They tell you: “well, Wales was annexed,
and James VI just combined these two flags, and that’s why Wales isn’t there”.
But this whole thing happened over 300 years ago,
and Wales still isn’t on the Union Jack!
What are the modern reasons as to why Wales still isn’t included?
Well, it’s not due to a lack of effort.
The ‘College of Arms’ was petitioned five times between 1897 and 1945
to see if they would consider adding the Welsh dragon back to the royal coat of arms,
presumably replacing one of the two Englands.
However, they were rejected for 2 reasons, and I quote:
"Wales has never been a kingdom…
there is no such thing as a Welsh National flag”.
That first part is… not true...
While yes, there was never a political entity called the “Kingdom of Wales”,
there were kingdoms that controlled all of Wales.
King Gruffydd of Gwynedd (a kingdom in North Wales)
conquered the entire country by 1052,
and was even called the “king of Wales” by the English monk John of Worcester,
does he not count?
Two other kings of Gwynedd, Maelgwn and Cadwallon,
are said to have achieved overlordship over all of Wales,
and over all of the Britons respectively.
Do they not count?
Some of you might be thinking: “Well, Wales is a principality, and all of these other 3 were kingdoms,
so it doesn’t have a high enough rank to get on the flag with them”.
But that isn’t really true either.
When king Owain of Gwynedd first gave himself the title
‘Prince of Wales’ in 1165,
he didn’t demote himself.
He had just defeated the English army for the second time,
by leading a coalition of kings from all across Wales.
He even briefly called himself the ‘King of Wales’,
before choosing the much more unique and prestigious ‘Princeps’,
one of the titles held by the early Roman Emperors.
The king of England acknowledged this discrepancy, in fact, he was furious
that Owain was claiming an apparently higher ranking title!
There were dozens and dozens of kings in Wales,
England was ruled by a king, Scotland was ruled by a king,
but Wales, and Rome, had been ruled by a ‘Princeps’.
So why would this count as a demotion?
That second part though… was true,
and it ties into the reason why many Welsh people at the time wanted representation on the Union Jack.
In 1945, famous for being the year of the final petition to the College of Arms
(amongst some other things),
Wales had no national flag, and it hadn’t done for its entire modern existence.
Although the red dragon had been a symbol of the Welsh for centuries,
the modern flag of Wales is a very recent creation,
and it would not become official until 1959,
although it did have decades of popular, yet unofficial use.
The history of the Welsh flag deserves its own video, but to put it simply, this new flag was a compromise.
The College of Arms’s reasoning for rejecting any Welsh representation was very ironic,
saying that the Welsh shouldn’t be included on the Union Jack because they didn’t have their own flag,
while the Welsh were telling them that they wanted to be included precisely because they didn’t have their own flag,
or any of their own representation.
As a compromise, in 1953 the royal badge of Wales was designed…
and you were only allowed to fly it with official permission…
so everyone just flew the unofficial flag instead.
Until finally, in 1959, the modern flag of Wales was officially adopted,
the Welsh would finally have their own representation for the first time in over 350 years.
After this, calls for the inclusion of the Welsh on the Union Jack essentially stopped completely.
The petitions to the College of Arms
were about receiving their own representation
in their own country,
and now the Welsh had it.
There wasn’t really much of an appetite anymore to be included on the Union Jack,
and that continues to this day.
In fact, I’ve met many Welsh people who have said they don’t even want to be included on this flag,
and I’m sure there are plenty of people watching who feel the same way.
So there we have it, the reason why Wales isn’t on the Union Jack.
Even though it had been annexed to the kingdom of England, Wales did not cease to exist.
But it’s representation would soon be taken away by the new Scottish king, James VI,
and his new Union Flag would not make an exception for the Welsh.
Nearly 300 years later, the people of Wales would begin to argue for their own representation,
on either the royal coat of arms, the Union Jack,
or on their own national flag.
The latter of which was finally delivered in 1959,
62 years after the first petition to the College of Arms.
And after that, calls for a Welsh-representing Union Jack began to dry up.
Could this change in the future? Possibly, but it doesn’t seem like it will any time soon.
The Welsh of the early 20th century were seeking representation,
and acknowledgement, and not necessarily by altering the British Flag.
The creation of their own national flag: 'Y Ddraig Goch', satisfied this need,
and no one’s really asked for anything to change since.
But who knows, maybe one day we’ll see the Union Jack adorned with the Welsh dragon,
but for now, it seems like almost everyone is satisfied with the green and white field.
Thank you very much for watching.