The Norman Conquest of 1066 was almost as epoch-making in the history of Wales as it was in that of England. In Wales its effects were as decisive, though very different, as they were in the neighbouring country. In England the first and most important result was the unification of the whole country under a strong central government vested in the person of the king. Prior to the Conquest there had been a steady movement in the direction of unity; and at different times, under a particularly strong monarch, it had almost been achieved. But such unity was at best precarious; and the great earls of Wessex, Mercia, and Northumbria were, to all intents and purposes, independent princes. William the Conqueror, partly from design, partly by accident, broke up these mighty earldoms. This was the beginning of a long struggle between the king and the great feudatories, a struggle which ended with {63} victory for monarchy and centralization. England in consequence became definitely and for ever one country, with one ruler and one law. This unity is precisely what Wales failed to achieve, and the failure is the greatest tragedy in its history. Before the Norman Conquest Wales had been divided into three great divisions--Gwynedd, Powys, and Deheubarth; and although the rulers of the other two divisions yielded a grudging theoretical homage to the lord of Gwynedd, he exercised in practice no authority over them. With the coming of the Normans the supreme test had arrived. The Welsh people were presented, as so many other nations have been presented before and since, with two alternatives: they might sink all differences in the presence of alien enemies, and by forming themselves into one powerful State successfully resist invasion and so preserve their independence; or, in the alternative, remain divided and consequently prove an easy prey to their foes. Before this test the Welsh people failed. The princes showed that they set greater store upon their own glory and dignity than upon the safety of the country as a whole; and time and again they refused to lay aside their rivalries and jealousies in order to present a united {64} front to the enemy. A love of liberty and independence had been born, and they were to inspire a desperate resistance against overwhelming odds on several occasions; but the one condition absolutely essential if independence was to be preserved the Welsh princes were not willing to accept. And so the people of Wales, turning their backs upon this splendid opportunity, began to tread that long road of political failure and futility which made them ultimately a mere appanage of England, and which, but for the efforts of bards and men of letters in the creation of a precious national literature, would have led inevitably to the total extinction of the Welsh nation.