Conclusion

Summary

This book has shown that one of the most distinctive features of the monumental culture of south Wales is its chronological development, from burgeoning growth up to the middle of the fourteenth century, in which it demonstrates a common trajectory with contemporary trends in England, to collapse, stagnation and limited recovery prior to the Reformation. In this, it departs from English patterns to a considerable degree, as the English monumental industry recovered from crisis and regained its buoyancy during the fifteenth century and beyond. The reasons for this contrast are far from straightforward, and while they must to a great extent reflect Wales's early-fifteenth-century set-backs, there is clearly more to it than this. The investigation into the production of south Wales's monuments has demonstrated that it was tied up to a certain extent with the failure of native production. But whatever the causes of this phenomenon, it is clear that we must now introduce to our current picture of the increasing democracy of monumental commemoration at the tail-end of the Middle Ages a few caveats and more subtlety.

The south Welsh picture has an extra layer of complexity owing to the region's ethnic make-up, which is likely to have been a contributory factor to the way in which monuments are located across the region. While the basic facts of population density, transport availability and suitable terrain inevitably determined where monuments are likely to be found, the geographical distribution of Welsh monuments was also dictated to a certain extent by the observed preference for them, especially in their effigial form, among the non-Welsh settler population. This preference may also play a part in the reasons why south Wales seems to have a disproportionately large percentage (in relation to its mostly rural medieval character) of monuments in urban locations. These conclusions can only be carried so far however. The unavoidable fact that the huge bulk of cross slabs must remain anonymous, as well as the hints from Brecon Priory and Cardiff Greyfriars that the Welsh certainly did have monuments in urban churches, simply raises more questions about why monuments are sited where they are.