Hardyng’s description of Wales, taken from the second version of his chronicle, tells of an imagined terrain that is mountainous and prone to tempests and bad weather. It is an image of Wales that is typical amongst the examined chronicles. The verbose Halle and Holinshed favour broad sweeping statements that leave no doubts as to what the imagined terrain was like. Halle calls Wales a ‘bareine vnfertile and depopulate countrey’ and a few lines later a ‘barraine and hilly countrey’. Holinshed’s account follows Halle almost verbatim (indeed he acknowledges Halle within his text) calling Wales a land of ‘deſart grounds and barren coũtry’. However, for the most part chroniclers report smaller details that when taken as a series of images generate a considered perception of Wales as dominated by mountains, thick wooded forest, soggy marshes and an undeveloped built landscape. These descriptions of Wales are created out of a repertoire of images. In the chronicle narratives of the reign of Henry IV no other location, such as Scotland or France, is provided with such detailed accounts of landscape, and indeed of the weather. This chapter explores the reasons behind the inclusion of various landscape features, both natural and human-made, in the narratives of the revolt and analyses what they contribute to the overall image of Wales. This analysis is crucial to an understanding of the revolt narratives because the environment provides meaning and significance to the events described and the people involved.

All the chroniclers except one, John Rous, use the term ‘Wales’ in their revolt narratives as an integral part of their overall construction of the places and landscapes associated with the revolt. Many refer to ‘Wales’ in their introductory statement in order to denote setting and location, before offering more specific examples of landscape features in later entries.