In the second half of the thirteenth century the nations of Britain found their voice. Their speech is defiant, and angry enough to warn their own princes never to betray their homeland to the English. . In 1282, in the northern Welsh kingdom of Gwynedd, a proclamation drawn up by the 'lords of Snowdonia' declared: 'the people of Snowdon assert that even if their own prince should give overlordship of them to the King [of England] they themselves would refuse to do homage of any foreigner