Cambria is the first printed history of Wales. The book is a translation of medieval chronicles regarding Wales, such as the Brut y Tywysogion (Chronicle of Princes) and the thirteenth-century English chronicle Chronica Majora. A manuscript was completed by the Welsh cartographer and antiquary Humphrey Llwyd in 1559 but he died before it was published. Llwyd’s work was initially taken up by John Dee before he left England to travel Europe. In 1573, the work was passed to David Powel, a Church of Wales minister from Denbighshire, who set about its completion. With the assistance of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Powel expanded the history well beyond Llwyds’ manuscript and the book was published in 1584 under the title The Historie of Cambria, now called Wales.

The book was important in preserving Welsh history and culture after the Reformation. However, not all the material included in it was factual. The history repeated popular and legendary stories from Welsh history such as the reputed discovery in 1170 of the Americas by Prince Madoc, the son of Owain ap Gryffydd, King of Gwynedd. This story was used by writers including Richard Hakluyt and John Dee to petition Elizabeth I to contest Spanish colonial claims in the region and to establish an overseas empire.