Welsh Ballads of the French Revolution 1793-1815

Welsh Ballads of the French Revolution provides for the first time an edition, with parallel English translations, of Welsh-language ballads composed in reaction to the momentous events of the Revolution in France and the two decades of war which followed.Ballad writers were first spurred to respond in 1793, when the French monarchs were executed, France declared war upon Britain, and paranoia regarding the possible threat of internal revolt in Britain reached a crisis point.As the decade proceeded, ballads were sung in thanks for the victory of British forces and local people against an invasion of Pembrokeshire by French troops, and in reaction to key naval battles and to the extensive mobilization of militia and volunteer forces.Scholars working on the British response to the Revolution have showed increasing interest in exploring the contents of ballads and songs.The ballad in particular is seen as a vital source of information, since it represents ordinary people's awareness of th