Wales was annexed to England and then formally incorporated by the Laws in Wales Act, viz (quoting Wikipedia, <i>apparently</i> quoting the LiW Act 1535):<p>&gt;&quot;That his said Country or Dominion of Wales shall be, stand and continue for ever from henceforth incorporated, united and annexed to and with this his Realm of England;&quot; &#x2F;&#x2F;<p>So, yes, Wales ceased to be recognised as a principality and instead the lands that formed the area at the time called Wales were, according to Henry VIII, to be referred to only as England. Wasn&#x27;t this also when English was established as the language to be used in legal proceedings?<p>IIRC the Welsh Language Act 1993 was what changed this situation?<p>I&#x27;ve yet to find definitive details of when Wales officially became a country. It&#x27;s always struck me that prior to annexation it was only a loose confederation of principalities and that not all of what we now call &quot;Wales&quot; was not a part of the possessions of the English crown. It seems Wales, perhaps first defined by the invading Romans, was then created as an entity only by the English crown&#x27;s definition of the area in which &quot;Welsh&quot; courts could act.<p>Do you have any input on this?