England were far too good for the home side, ranked 116th in the world by FIFA, who improved in the second period following a woeful opening half but never looked like saving the game after Lampard's seventh minute penalty and Bent's 15th minute strike.
Wales had suffered a big blow with the absence of their best player Gareth Bale, who has a hamstring injury, but even his presence would have been unlikely to change the outcome.
England coach Fabio Capello, as staunch an advocate as anyone in world football of 4-4-2, changed his formation to 4-3-3 with Wilshere, Parker and Lampard playing in midfield and Wayne Rooney, Darren Bent and Ashley Young in attack.
It worked perfectly albeit against inferior opponents.
Capello stressed to reporters after the game that he used that system after studying the way Wales played in their first match under their new coach Gary Speed.
Whether he keeps it for Tuesday's friendly against Ghana, when he will make 11 changes to his lineup, is doubtful.
"I decided on the formation after watching games that Wales played. It is really good because players like Ashley Young are improving a lot. I'm happy with the spirit, we worked together to win back the ball, each player helping the others," he said.
AGE-OLD DEBATE
Wilshere and Parker gave a glimpse of a future freed of the seemingly age-old debate about whether Steven Gerrard and Lampard can play together in midfield or whether Gareth Barry is really the answer to the perennial left-sided problem.
Gerrard, out with injury, clearly still has an England future, as does Lampard, but Barry, 30, was not even on the bench on Saturday and after some fairly anodyne performances for his country, he is unlikely to add to his 45 caps.
Parker, almost single-handedly leading West Ham United's fight against relegation from the Premier League this season, had an outstanding game as the holding midfielder.
He made the most passes on the pitch -- 60 excluding crosses, completing 53 of them for an 88 percent success rate.
Wilshere, as he has done several times for Arsenal this season, gave a polished performance that belied his age and experience and clearly impressed Capello.
Before Saturday, he had only played 53 minutes for England in his two previous appearances but more are likely to come very quickly.
EXCELLENT WILSHERE
"Wilshere's performance during this season has been incredible. The performance of this player has improved so much in such a short time. He played like a player of 28 or 29 with 35 or 40 caps. I hope he will keep on improving, good players always improve," Capello told reporters.
"I spoke to Arsene (Wenger) about him and he agrees. He was excellent again today."
England captain John Terry said Capello's tactics to stop Wales playing their way out of defence worked perfectly, especially after the visitors took an early grip on the game,
"The new system was very positive, the attitude was to get at them and press them very high up the pitch. It stopped them breaking out early," he said.
Wales manager Gary Speed said the early goals sent Wales reeling but they improved after the break.
"I'm disappointed with the first-half performance. We are a developing team and used to getting beat. We have not got that winning mentality at the moment.
"Losing a goal in the first five minutes killed us really. But we were much better in the second half, I was very pleased and proud of the way we played."
Lampard put England ahead from the spot after James Collins tripped his Villa team mate Young to concede the penalty, while striker Bent scored eight minutes later, sweeping home a cross from his club mate Young.
Those goals subdued the atmosphere leaving Welsh fans facing the stark reality that not only have their team got no chance of reaching the finals in Poland and Ukraine next year but hopes of reaching the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 are also slight.
"Thats our aim," said Speed. "I hope we can learn from this and it will help us in getting to the World Cup."
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