In the meantime Brutus had consummated his marriage with his wife Ignoge. By her he had three sons called Locrinus, Kamber and Albanactus, all of whom were to become famous. When their father finally died, in the twenty-third year after his landing, these three sons buried him inside the walls of the town which he had founded. They divided the kingdom of Britain between them in such a way that each succeeded to Brutus in one particular district. Locrinus, who was the first-born, inherited the part of the island which was afterwards called Loegria after him. Kamber received the region which is on the further bank of the River Severn, the part which is now known as Wales but which was for a long time after his death called Kambria from his name. As a result the people of that country still call themselves Kambri today in the Welsh tongue. Albanactus, the youngest, took the region which is nowadays called Scotland in our language. He called it Albany, after his own name. [II.1]

The three main divisions of the island of Britain, according to Geoffrey, are all derived from the names of the sons of Brutus: KAMBRIA, later Wales, is named for Kamber, the second son. Tatlock points out that Geoffrey uses both Latin forms for Wales, Kambria and Gualia (p.62). In Welsh, forms used in the twelfth century include Cymru and Prydain.

Of the many subdivions of Wales, Geoffrey uses only DEMETIA and VENEDOTIA (Dyfed and Gwynedd) (p. 62).

Geoffrey suggests, at the end of the Historia, that the shift to the Latinate Gualo forms has an etymological origin:

As the foreign element around them became more and more powerful, they were given the name of Welsh instead of Britons: this word deriving either from their leader Gualo, or from their Queen Galaes, or else from their being so barbarous. [XII.19]

Kambria appears early in the Historia in relation to the legendary king and lawgiver Dunvallo Molmutius and his sons:

Some time later a certain young man called Dunvallo Molmutius came into prominence because of his personal courage. The son of Cloten King of Cornwall, he excelled all the other kings of Britain by his good looks and his bravery. Almost as soon as he had succeeded to the kingship of Cornwall after his father's death, he attacked Pinner, King of Loegria, and killed him in a pitched battle. As a result Rudaucus, King of Kambria, and Staterius, King of Albany, met to make an alliance with each other.... As Dunvallo's men charged forward, the two Kings were killed and many others with them. [II.17]

Belinus and Brennius, the two sons of Dunvallo, each of whom was determined to inherit the kingship, now began a great war of attrition against each other.... at length their friends intervened to make peace between them. These friends decided that the kingdom should be divided between the two of them in such a way that Belinus should be crowned King of the island and hold Loegria, Kambria and Cornwall, he being the elder.... [III.1]

Later, Kambria appears in the ecclesiastical organization of Britain after the conversion of the island to Christianity:

Loegria itself was placed under the Metropolitan of London, together with Cornwall. The Severn divides these last two provinces from Kambria or Wales, which last was placed under the City of Legions. [IV.19]

The website for The Church in Wales includes a diocesan map and history for the Welsh dioceses.

Wales' role as a refuge appears first when Vortigern flees there (twice); see DINAS EMRYS for more detail:

Next they took York, Lincoln and Winchester, ravaging the neighbouring countryside and attacking the peasantry, just as wolves attack sheep which the shepherds have forsaken. When Vortigern saw this horrible devastation, he fled to certain parts of Wales, not knowing what he could do against this accursed people. [VI.16]

Aurelius Ambrosius had been so grieved by the betrayal of his father that he felt no other action of any sort could be contemplated until he avenged him. In order to carry out his design, he marched his army into Kambria and made for the castle of Genoreu, for it was there that Vortigern had fled in his search for a safe refuge. [VIII.2]

The association between Merlin and the tradition of Welsh prophecy makes it hardly surprising that Kambria should appear in Merlin's prophecies, in a distinctly nationalist context:

The mountains of Armorica shall erupt and Armorica itself shall be crowned with Brutus' diadem. Kambria shall be filled with joy and the Cornish oaks shall flourish. The island shall be called by the name of Brutus and the title given to it by the foreigners shall be done away with. [VII.3]

The Daneian Forest shall be wakened from its sleep and, bursting into human speech, it shall shout: "Kambria, come here! Bring Cornwall at your side! Say to Winchester: 'The earth will swallow you up. Move the see of your shepherd to where the ships come in to harbour. Then make sure that the limbs which remain follow the head!'" [VII.4]

A Mountain Ox shall put on a Wolf's head and grind its teeth white in the Severn's workshop. The Ox will collect round itself the flocks of Albany and those of Wales; and this company will drain the Thames dry as it drinks. [VII.4]

The National Library of Wales has digitized the manuscript known as The Book of Taliesin: it contains the famous Welsh nationalist prophecy Armes Prydein Fawr.

Wales also appears in various contexts in the Arthurian section of the Historia.

As soon as this was known, a force of armed men was assembled and Utherpendragon set off for Kambria to fight [Gillomanius and Paschent]. [VIII.14]

Arthur also told Hoel that there was a third pool in the parts of Wales which are near the Severn. The local people call in Lin Ligua. When the sea flows into this pool, it is swallowed up as though in a bottomless pit; and, as the pool swallows the waters, it is never filled in such a way as to overflow the edges of its banks. When the tide ebbs away, however, the pool belches forth the waters which it has swallowed, as high in the air as a mountain, and with them it then splashes and floods its banks. Meanwhile, if the people of all that region should come near, with their faces turned towards it, thus letting the spray of the waters fall upon their clothing, it is only with difficulty, if, indeed, at all, that they have the strength to avoid being swallowed up by the pool. If, however, they turn their backs, their being sprinkled has no danger for them, even if they stand on the very brink. [IX.7]

This account seems to be drawn from chapter 69 of the Historia Brittonum, an account of Llyn Lliwan and the phenomenon of the tidal surge known as the Severn Bore (see the map entry for SEVERN).

Gormund then fought Keredic and chased him over the Severn into Wales. Next he ravaged the fields, set fire to all the neighbouring cities, and gave free vent to his fury until he had burnt almost all the land in the island, from one sea to another.... Once this inhuman tyrant Gormund, with his countless thousands of Africans, had destroyed almost all the island... he handed over a considerable part of it, called Loegria, to the Saxons, whose treason had been the cause of his landing. Such Britons as remained sought refuge in the western parts of the kingdom: that is, in Cornwall and Wales. From there they continued to make fierce attacks upon their enemies. When the two Archbishops, Theonus of London and Tadioceus of York, saw that all the churches under their jurisdiction were razed to the ground, they fled with such priests as remained alive after such a calamity to the shelter of the forests of Wales. They took with them the relics of their saints.... [XI.8, 10]

Wales appears one last time as a refuge:

For eleven years Britain remained deserted by all its inhabitants, except for a few whom death had spared in certain parts of Wales.... [The Saxons] landed in parts of Northumbria and occupied the waste lands from Albany to Cornwall. There was no local inhabitant left alive to stop them, except for a few little pockets of Britons who had stayed behind, living precariously in Wales, in the remote recesses of the woods. From that time on the power of the Britons came to an end in the islands, and the Angles began to reign. [XII.16]