Either the Welsh realised the hopelessness of their position, or their leaders, in true Dic-Sion-Dafydd style, were too busy enjoying the fruits of co-operation with London. The year 1536 produced no great trauma for the Welsh; all the ingredients for its acceptance had been put in place long before. .
The so-called Act of Union of that year, and its corrected version of 1543 seemed inevitable; it was simply a radical, standardising approach to the problems created by the continuing existence of the Marcher lordships (though very much reduced in effectiveness and power) and the lack of a uniform administrative structure for the whole principality of Wales. More than one historian has pointed out that the union with England had really been achieved by the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284. It was welcomed by many in Wales, the gentry, commercial interests and religious reformers among others, and why not? Didn't it state that "Persons born or to be born in the said Principality. . .of Wales shall have and enjoy and inherit all and singular Freedoms, Liberties, Rights, Privileges and Laws. . .as other the King's subjects have, enjoy or inherit"? .
The Welsh people had now achieved full equality before the law with their English counterparts. The Act opened up opportunities for individual advancement in all walks of life, and Welshmen flocked to London to take full advantage of their chances. Although the document was one of the most important in the whole history of Wales, it was passed without consultation with the Welsh people; there was no agreement on a central Welsh authority or parliament, simply because such an authority did not exist. Its title is "An Act for Laws and Justices to be ministered in Wales in like form as it is in this realm." Its preamble states: "His Highness. . .of the singular love and favour that he bears towards his subjects of this said dominion of Wales, and intending to reduce them to the perfect order, notice and knowledge of the laws of this his Realm, and utterly to extirpate all and singular the sinister usage's and customs differing from the same.