kimkat0356k The
Welsh Shires: A Study In Constitutional
History. T. F. Tout, M.A. Y Cymmrodor, The Magazine Of The Honourable Society
Of Cymmrodorion. Vol. IX. 1888. Tudalennau 201-226.
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Y Cymmrodor. Vol. IX. "Cared doeth
yr Encilion.” Part 2. THE WELSH SHIRES: A
STUDY IN CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. (1) By T. F. TOUT, M.A.,
Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford,and Professor of History in St. David's
College, Lampeter. The history of the Welsh shires is the history of the
connexion between England and Wales. The shiring of Wales was the gradual
result of the introduction of English laws and English institutions. As in
Ireland and Scotland, the establishnient of the shire-system was the first
result of the extension of English influence. It is impossible, then, for the
shires of Celtic Britain to stand in the same iotimate relation to the early
history and inner life of those districts as the real shires of England
proper stand to old English history. They are " departments",
administrative districts, established for convenience, rather than organic
divisions of land and people. They cannot compare in interest with such
districts as Sussex or Kent, which correspond to original kingdoms; or
divisions like the West Saxon shires, which go back to the primitive tribal
divisions of the Gewissas. They have hardly the interest even of the Mercian
shires of 1 This paper is an
enlargement and re-arrangement of a lecture read before the Society of
Cymmrodorion on March 7th, 1888. VOL. IX. P |
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202 TME WELSH SHIRES:
the Midlands,
which, however artificial in their origin, have become real by the force of
an eventful history of nearly a thousand years. Yet the Welsh shires are
quite as interesting as the shires of Scotland, and even more so than those of
Ireland. They mark no mere English conquest: for the shire was ever the unit
of hieher self-government, the outcome of free ancl representative
institutions. The gradual establishment of the Welsh shires marlcs the
incorporation of England and Wales into a single nation, rather than the
subjection of the smaller to the greater people. If England put an end to the
power of Welsh kings and princes, and of Norman Marcher lords, the
institution of the Welsh counties restored some measure of local
self-government and of local life and sentiment. For artificial as many Welsh
counties doubtless are in their origin, others correspond closely-enough to
the old native divisions of the land. In some cases the names, in other cases
tlie limits, were those of the old kingdoms, cantreds, commots. Some at least
represent real dialectic and physical distinctions that are almost
fundamental. Even around the most artificial of the Welsh shires have now
gathered the associations of hundreds of years, which have created local
feelings and local ties, hardly less strong than those of the English
counties themselves. They are at least sufficiently well established to make
it no popular work to carve and mangle their ancient limits to gratify a pedantic
love of uniformity, or ignorant thirst for change. In attempting to put
together the chief facts bearing ön the history of Welsh shires, I do not propose
to discuss BÌmply the history of the twelve pv thirteen counties that now are
called Welsh. The modern boundary between what we call " England"
and what we call " Wales", is, as every historian knows, no older
than the reign of Henry VIII, and did not fchen, and does not now, correspond
with any precision to the limits of the two races. Of course I shall have |
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A STUDY IN
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 203 mainly to deal
with the " Welsh shires" in the narrower sense; but the exact
delimitation of the border shires must also be dealt with. The introduction
of the shire-system into any district which, after the establishment of the
West Saxon monarchy of Britain, has any claim to be called "
Welsh", must be discussed if the subject is to be fully clealt with. I exclude,
however, the " Strathclyde W r elsh" and the "West Welsh",
and take the " Welsh" in the sense in which we now use the word, to
include those regions which the victories of ./Ethelfrith and Ceawlin cut off
from direct relations with their brethren to the north and south. I shall
speak first of how parts of Wales became by the eleventh century incorporated
with English shires without losing all claim to be called Welsh. I shall next
speak of the establishment of shires in Wales itself — of the old Palatine
counties that resulted from the Norman conquest of South Wales; of the counties
which Edward I established, or tried to establish, even before he became king
and conqueror of Gwynedd; of the shires of Gwynedcl, and the dependent shire
of Flint, which owed their existence to the Edwardian conquest; of the
completion of the shire system by Henry VIII; of the new shires which he
established, and the old shires which he remodelled; and of his assimilation
of the county system of Wales to that of England. This, with a few words as to
the counties of towns, will complete a sketch which the limits of a paper
must necessarily leave very imperfect. The clefeat of Gruffydd ab Llewelyn by
Harold, the son of Godwine, led to a great extension westwards of the liinits
of England. The Norman conquest continued further the work of the great
English King. The Domesday Survey enables us to realise in detail how much of
modern Wales, p2 |
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204 THE WELSH
SHIRES: what large districts inhabited by Welshmen, were then included within
the Eogiish border shires. The great Palatine county of Cheshire, whose earls
exercised within their earldom all the sovereign rights of the king, and who
were subjected to the crown by the simple tie of homage and fealty alone —
the county of Cheshire included at the time of the Domcsday Bool 1 all the
modern Flintshire and the greater part of the modern Denbighshire. In the
sarne way the towns of Eadnor and Monmouth are described as part of
Herefordshire. The district between the Wye and the Usk was similarly
attached to Gloucestershire, including the places so well known as Chepstow, Caerleon,
Caldicot, and Portshewet. One Norman is mentioned as holding " six
carucates of land beyond the Usk". 2 Eut as this region was not
regularly divided into hundreds and lordships, it was, in a way, an appendage
to Gloucestershire, rather than an integral part of the shire itself. But
none of these shires was distinctively or exclusively Welsh; though the
influence of Welsh custom can be largely traced within their limits, and in
Herefordshire, Welshmen, " living according to Welsh law", 3 are
specially recognised as among the inhabitants of the county. ' Freeman,
Norman Conquest, vol. ii, note SS., collects, and comments on, the record of
Domesday Book on this subject. 2 Domesday, vol. i, fol. 1 62. 3 Domesday,
vol. i, fol. 1856: " tres Walenses lcge Walensi viventes." "
Herefordshire," says Sir II. Ellis, " appears at the time of the
Conqueror to have been estimated almost as a Welsh county" (Introduction
and I mìpxes to Domesday, vol. i, pp. 37-38). It was not unfrequently called
"in Wales", e.g., Pipe Rolls, 2, 3, and 4 Henry II, p. 143, Eecord
Ed.: " W. de Hereford reddit compotum de firma de Here /ordscira in
Waliis." There are also constant references to Welsh tenants, paying
rents often in kind, in Shropshire. |
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A STUDY IN CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 205 II. The oldest of the exclusively Welsh shires of to-day are the result of the Norman conquest of South Wales in the reigns of William Rufus and Henry I. A swarm of Norman warriors, greedy for adventure, plunder, and conquest, poured themselves over the borders, and, after a desperate struggle, got into their possession nearly all that was worth getting in Southern and Eastern Wales. They had little connexion with the king, and fought primarily for their own hands; but when they had conquered a district they were content to hold it as a fief of the English crown, provided that they were allowed to exercise within its limits a jurisdiction hardly less than regal over their subjects. These lordships Marcher, or Border lordships, were very numerous, and were organised much on the moclel of similar feudal lorclships in England. Such were the lordships of Gower, of Brecon, of Montgomery, of Bromfielcl, of Denbighland, and of Chirk. But among the series, two Marcher states were so large and so important as to be organised upon the same lines as an English county. These were the earlclom of Pembroke and the lordship of Glamorgan. Pembrokeshire and Glamorganshire are, then, the oldest Welsh shires, ancl it is but natural that they shoulcl still contain the largest English element in Wales. But they were not in their early days shires of the same free type as the shires of England continued to be, despite the great developments of feudalism. They were counties ìn the stricter sense, subject, that is, to the feudal jurisdiction of their count or earl. Their sheriff was a real vicecomes or deputy of the Count. They were Palatine counties of the Cheshire type, and their lords exercised within them most of the rights of sovereignty. They stood to the old English shires as the manor stood to the old English township, or as the soken or |
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206 THE WELSH
SHIEES: the honour stoocl to the old English hundred. But though there was
not the theoretic basis of freedom, their institutions were based on the
model of the free shire. There were the local courts, however fully they were
feudalised,however fully membership of them was conditioned by the possession
of landed estates. Though the law of the lord was Norman, there were many
manors where the Welsh tenants still held their lands by the old Welsh
tenures. But their organisation was throughout military. They were studded with
castles to keep in check the Welshmen from the hills. They were limited in
extent by the limitations of the feudal rights of their lords. They were also
no larger than could be defended with ease. Both occupied much narrower
boundaries than the niodern shires of the same name. The history of
Pembrokeshire is fairly simple, though we know little about the details. The
greater part of Dyved had been conquered by various Norman chieftains, and
the establishment of a Flemish, or English, colony during the reign of Henry
I in the lands round Milford Haven (which had perhaps already witnessed a
Danish settlement) drove the natives out of all the plain country into the
hills of Preselly and the wild dìstricts to the north-east. At the beginning
of King Stephen's reign, Gilbert of Clare, who was also lord of Chepstow and
Nether Gwent, ruled over the castle of Pembroke and all the region south of
Milford Haven and the Cleddau — with the exception of the episcopal manor of
Lamphey. In 1138, this Gilbert of Clare was made Earl of Pembroke by King
Stephen. 1 Now, an earl was in French a count, and an earldom was consiHpu'iitly
a county. For in those days an earldom was not siinply a title of honour, but
involved a real official position in the county from which the bearer of the dignity
took his name. Thus, in 1138, the lordship of Pem- 1 Ordericns Yitalis, xiii,
37. |
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A STUDY IN
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 207 broke became the county Palatine of Pembrolce. 1
It was, then, tbe first regularly organised shire in Wales. It was the fault
of the circurastances of the age aud place that the civil was subordinated to
the military aspect — that the first Welsh county was in fact only a great
lordship Marcher. Its earls soon won for themselves and their dominion a more
than local fame. Earl Gilbert's son was the faraous Strongbow, the first and
most successful of the Norman conquerors of Ireland in the reign of Henry II.
His daughter Isabel brought the Pembroke inheritance to William Marshal, the
wise regent who saved England from the foreign priests and the foreign
soldiers that had profited by the tyranny of King John; the ruler who
preserved the infant Henry III from the consecpiences of his father's wiclceclness.
But to go through the deeds of the long line of earls of Pembroke would be
almost to write a history of medifeval England. It is enough to say that the
dignity passed from one family to another, until it finally fell into the
hands of the crown. Henry VIII gave the earldom to Anne Boleyn, with the
title of Marchioness. When the sanie monarch afterwards conferred the earldom
on the Herberts, it had ceased to be much more than a titular dignity. We
must, however, be clear that the mediseval county of Pembrolce was less
extensive than even the English-speaking part of the Pembrokeshire of to-day.
It clid not include Lamphey. Haverfordwest, Walwyn's Castle, Slebech, and Narberth
were outside its narrow bounds. Dewsland was 1 The Anglo-Norman poem on the
Conquest of Ireland, attributed erroneously to M. Regan, speaks, under the
year 1171, of Pembrokeshire by that name: " Tant cum li reis (Henry II)
unt sur la mer A Penbrocscìre pur passer" (line 2497-8, Ed. Michel). Giraldus
Cambrensis speaks, in about 1172, of the Sheriff of Pembrokeshire
("vicecomes provinciae de Penbroc");— De Rebusasegestis^ Opera i,
p. 24. |
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208 THE \V T ELSH
SHIRES: ruled by the Bishops of St. David's. Eemmes was a separate lordship.
Its territories seem to have been about the same as those of the ancient
rural deanery of Pembrohe or the hundred of Castlemartin. 1 Glamorganshire
comes next after Pembroheshire. This county owes its origin to the famous
conquest of the Vale of Glamorgan by Robert Fitzhamon and his twelve hnights,
which has been told us with such particularity in the well-known South Welsh
legend or romance. But though the legend has perhaps no better origin than
the brains of pedigree-mongers, 2 and though authentic history is strangely silent
as to this, the greatest of Fitzhanion's exploits, we can prove from its
results the fact of his conquest. Like Strongbow, Fitzhamon left only a
daughter, and she became the wife of the bravest and ablest of Henry I's
bastard- sons, Robert, to whom she brought as her portion both her father's original
lordship of Gloucester and his new Welsh possession of Glamorgan. King Henry
made Robert Earl of Gloucester, and the Earl showed his gratitude to his
parent by manfully upholdiug the cause of his sister Matilda, the Empress,
against the partisans of King Stephen. Robert of Gloucester should always be
remembered in Wales as the patron of the little knot of learned men who
revealed to European admiration the rich stores of Celtic legend and romance,
of which the Arthurian cycle is the highest embodiment. From his time onwards
the fortunes of Glamorgan almost eonstantly followed those of the great
Gloucester earldom, which in the thirteenth century, under the Clares,
becanie the most famous 1 There is a long account of Pembroke'shire in 1 003
in MS. Harl., No. 6250. Ch. 24: " that Pembrokeshire waa in ancient tyme
a Countye Palatyne and noe paite of the principallitie of Wales", may be
specially nferied to. I quote from a transcript made for Bishop Burgess, now
in the library of St. David's College. 2 It is first found in two gixteenth
century compilations— Powel's Ilistory of Cambria, and the "
Gwentian" Bmi y Tywysoyion. |
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A STUDY IN
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 209 and important of English noble houses. It owed no
small share of its weight to the prowess of the hardy Welsh warriors that it
could draw to its aid from its great Welsh lordship. There is this difference
between Glamorgan and Pembroke, that while the latter was, as we saw,
formally erected into an earldom, the former was never described by a higher
title than that of a lordship. Yet its territories were extensive, considerably
more extensive than those of the old county of Pembroke. They were not,
indeed, so large as the modern Glamorganshîre. The lordship of Gower was
quite distinct from it; and the fact that Gower, including Swansea, remains to
this day a part of the diocese of St. David's is an interesting illustration
of its former complete independence of the lords of Cardiff. Even some
districts in the vale were outside the lordship of Glamorgan, while the
solitary uplands with their then desolate valleys, which now are black with the
smoke of countless worlcs and swarming with an industrious population, were
in the hands of native chieftains that cared but little even for the mighty
Clares. But it is not its extent rnerely that justifies us in describing the
lordship of Glamorgan as a county. Though its lords were never styled Earls
of Glamorgan, it mav well have been because thev had already an earl's title
from their Gloucester inheritance. The oroanisation of Glamorgan was as much
that of a Palatine o o county as that of Pembroke, or of Durham, or of
Chester itself. From his seat of government at Cardiff, the lord of Glamorgan
exercised an almost regal sway over his Welsh and English tenants. The very
bishopric of LlandafT he claimed to have in his gift, and the custody of the
lands of the see during a vacancy he asserted to be his because he had all
royal rights in his province. Even Edward I, though insisting on the king's
right to the custody of the temporalities of the vacant bishopric, found it
prudent to surrender the exercise of that right to Earl Gilbert of Gloucester
for |
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210 THE WELSH
SHIRES: his life. 1 Froni the days of Fitzhamon onwards, the official who
acted under the lord of Glamorgau was the mcecomes or sheriff. The court of
the lordship that met at Cardití' is always described as a county-court or
" comitatus". From the twelfth century onwards the district was
often described as Glamorganshire. It is regarded as an old county in the Act
of Henry VIII, which completed the Welsh shire-system.* 2 III. During the latter
part of the twelfth century the princes of Gwynedd attained great importance,
and before the middle of the thirteenth were recognised as princes of nearly
all the parts of "Wales outside the lordships Marcher. Ceredigion and
the Vale of Towy, which had been almost entirely in Norman hands, were to a
large extent reconquered by them, though a few great towns and castles, such
as Carmarthen, remained in English hands. A new pcriod of English 1 The
passages bearing on this point are collected in Haddan and Stubbs' Councüs,
vol. i, pp. 466-8, 590-596, and 610-014. 2 I have collected some early
examples of the county organisation of the lordship of Glamorgan. In the
Ilìstory and Carlulary of ISt. I'eter's, Gloucester, published in the Rolls
Series, there is a reference in vol. i, p. 347, to the " vicecomes
Glamorganscirse", as well as the " comitatus [county court and
county] de Cardiff"; cf. ii, 10, for a writ of llobert of Gloucester to
the " vicecomes de Glammorgan", cf. ii, 18; ii, 135. In ib., ii,
20, the "comitatus de Glammorgan" is referred to in a charter of
Gilbert of Clare. The " totus comitatus de Kairdiff " witnesses iu
1146 a charter of Earl William, the son of Earl Robert {U>., ii, 139).
"Manerium de Treygof quod est in comitatu de Glamorgan" (t'i., ii,
223). In 1242 Abbot Robert of Tewkesbury and others were sent to inqnire into
some riots, "qui convocato comitatu apud Cardiff pacificaverunt
dissidentes." Theaccount goes on toupeak of wliat was done "in
pleno comitatu", and of the "vicecomes Glamorgensis ('• Annals of
Tewkesbury", in Annales Monastici, vol. i, pp. 124- 125, Rolls Series).
But fche earliesl reference to the " vicecomcs de CardifE" is in
the Liber Landavensis^ pp. 27 28, under the year 1126, whcn Robert of
Gloucestci' was still alive. For the best account of early Glamorgan and its
lords, see Mr. G. T. Clark's papers in the ArchcBological Joumal } since
(1883 reprinted separately, on " The Land of Morjían." |
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A STUDY IN
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 211 aggression begins with tlie grant by Henry III of
the Palatine county of Chester, together with what is called loosely "Wales"
(i.c, the royal possessions in Wales), 1 to his eldest son Edward, afterwards
Edward I. Edward, or his advisers, at once determined to meet the power of
the Welsh princes by extending the range of English laws and English
institutions. In 1256 Edward made a defìnite attempt to establish shires in
those parts of the country in which he had any power. We may suspect that he
attempted to extend the old jurisdiction of the county court of Cheshire over
north-east Wales. We cannot but believe that he now set up a rudimentary
county organisation in those southern and detached parts of the Principality
where the power of Llewelyn ab Gruffydd was weak, and the tradition of the
Marcher rule recent. Carmarthen, which was in his hands, was the natural seat
for the new courts and the new officers. But, while Edward was organising his
shires and hundreds, the Welsh met in council and declared that they would do
nothing against the laws of their fatherland. 2 They had in the second Llewelyn
a vigorous and active leader. The quarrels between King Henry and his barons
distracted Edward's attention, ancl the energetic support which Llewelyn gave
Simon de Montfort connected the cause of Wales with that of the baronial
leaders. Even after Montfort had fallen at Evesham there was no peace on the
Welsh border until the treaty of 1267 acknowledged Llewelyn Prince of all
Wales, 3 saying nothing about Edward's attempted counties. Yet, after the 1
"Tota terra quam habuit rex in Wallia" (Annals of Tewhesbury, in
Annales Monastici, vol. i, p. 158). 2 "Et cum postea comitatus et
hundredos ordinaret (i.e., Edwardus), Walenses habito consilio, confidenter
responderunt quod nihil pro eo contra leges paternas facerent" (Annals
of Dunstable, in Annales Monastici, iii, 20; cf. Pearson, Hist. of Eng., ii,
216). The men of Kerry, however, petitioned Henry " quatenus .... leges
terrarum vestrarum ubique per Walliam et per Marchiam nobis concedere velitis"
(Shirley, Royal Letters, ii, 353, Rolls Series). 3 Rymer's Foedera, vol. i,
p. 474, Record Edition. |
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212 - THE WELSH
SHIRES: canipaign of 1277 had diminished the power and prestige of Llewelyn,
the aggression of the Justice of Chester on the four cantreds of Perfeddwlad
suggests that those regions were now regarded, as in Domesday, as part of
Cheshire; x while, even hefore this, some sort of shire-system seems to have
heen established or revived in the southem districts of the Principality of
Llewelyn, 2 which it is hard not to consider as the permanent result of
Edward's attempt in 1256. So early as 1270 Pain de Chaworth was ordered to do
homage toEdmund, Edward's brother, " for the lands which he holds of the
castles and counties of Cardigan and Carmarthen." 3 So early as 1275 the
Welsh of Elvetand Derllys were ordered to suhmit to the jurisdiction of the county
court of Carmarthen. 4 In 1280 the "counties" of Carmarthen and
Cardigan were granted to a certain- Bogo of Knovill, the King's Justice of
West Wales. 5 But the lcing's 1 The complaints of Davydd, Llewelyn's brother
(printed in Reyistrum Epistolarum J. Pechham, vol. ii, pp. 445-47), and the
complaints of the Men of Rhos (ib., ii, 447-51), are full of the aggressions of
the Justice of Chester and of their grievance at being made to take their
suits to the county court of Chester. 2 The Principality meant in the Middle
Ages not all Wales, but the districts subject to the Welsh Princes of the
house of Gwynedd. The Marcher lordships were not part of the Piincipality, f
or they were subject to the Crown directly. This use of the term Principality
continued even after its annexation to the Crown in 1282. It is definitely
recognised by an Act of 1354 (28 E. III, cap. ii, in Statutes of the Realm,
vol. i, p. 345): "Item, acorde est et establi que touz les Seigneurs de
la Marche de Gales soient perpetuelement entendentz et annexes a la corone
Dangleterre, corae ils et leur auncesters ount este de tout temps avant ces
heures, rt noun pas a la Principalte de Gales, en qi mains que meisme la
Principalte soit ou devendia apres ces heures." 3 Thirty-first Report
ofthe Deputy-h ■ /> r ofthe Public Records, p. 1 1. 4 Carmarlhen Charters, p. 47.
6 Carmarthen Charters, p. 10. This comes from the Rotulus Wallice <>l s
li.lward I; but I refer to Messrs. Daniel-Tyssen and Alcwyn Erans' handy
collection of Carmarthen documents [Carmar- |
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A STUDY IN
CONSTITL'TIONAL HISTOItY. 213 directions for the holding of the county courts
of Cardigan and Carmarthen, in the same year, refer to the ancient customs of
these courts in the days of King Henry III. 1 Again, the sons of Maredudd ab
Owain, who held lands in Geneu 'r Glyn and Creuddyn, in northern Ceredigion,
complain that the king had disinherited them, and deprived them of all Welsh and
Welsh laws, and of access to the county court of Carmarthen. They also
complained that the king's justices in his county of Cardigan had otherwise
injured them and deprived them of their jurisdictions, and that fear of
imprisonment prevented any Welshmen in the county coming between Englishmen.
2 All these trifling instances point to an organised shire- system in the two
southern counties of the " Principality" even before the crowning
disaster of 1282 deprived Wales of its last native ruler, and annexed his
Principality to the English crown. Their permanent organisation and formal
recosmition were due to the famous statute of Wales which Edward issued at
Ehuddlan in 1284. IV. The Statute of Wales (12 Edward I) 3 was an elaborate
and skilful provision for the government of the old , dominions of Líewelyn,
which had now fallen into the royal hands. It did not affect the lordships
Marcher in any way, for they had been previously subject, not to the lords of
Snowdon, then, Spurrell, 1878), as more accessible than the rare and
expensive edition of the Welsh Rolls for part of Edward's reign which was privately
printed by the late Sir Thomas Phillipps (p. 19). 1 Rotulus Wallice, 8 Edward
I, p. 18: " Volumus quod omnes sectatores comitatus de Cardigan qui
antiquitus ternpore Domìni Henrici fratris [obviously a misprint for patris]
nostri, sectam facere consueverunt," etc.; cf. " ubi comitatus ille
(sc. de Raermardyn), temporitas retroactis, semper teneri consuevit per diem
Jovis," etc. (ìb., p. 18). 2 Reg. Epistolarum J. Peclcham, ii, 453. 3
Given in full, withan English translation, in Statutes of the Realm, vol. i,
pp. 55-68. |
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214 THE WELSH
SHIRES: but immediately to the English kings. The districts more immecliately
subject to Llewelyn were divided into three shires — Carnarvonshire,
Merionethshire, ancl the county of Anglesey. These were under the general
government of the Justice of Snowdon, who resided in the new castle of
Carnarvon, which thus became the capital of North Wales. This gave a sort of
unity of organisation to the three ancient shires of Gwynedd; but in each
county a separate staff of officers was also established. A sheriff,
appointed for life, presided over the county court, which met as in England, and
seems to have had the same constitution and the same powers. Coroners, to
look after the crown pleas, were also instituted in each county, as well as
bailiffs in every commot. The minute directions for the holding of the county
courts which are given in the statute are our best evidence of the extent of
the powers of the English shire-moots also at the end of the thirteenth
century. 1 It has been said by a modern writer that these Welsh counties bear
to the English counties of our time some such relation as the Territory of
the United States bears to the fully organised State. 2 But there is nothing
in the statute that malces any difference between them and ordinary English
shires, though admittedly thej'' were no part of England. Doubtless the
disturbed state of the country, and the recent circumstances of the Conquest,
gave the royal ofhcials more power than similar offìcials could obtain in an
English shire. But their theoretical power was tempered by their practical
weahness. It is to Edward's credit as a far-sighted statesman that he did
what he could to establish local self-government in his new possession. It is
also worthy of remark that the administration fell almost from the tirst into
Welsh hands. Within fifty years the sheriffs of Merioneth included men with
such thoroughly 1 Stubbs, Constitutionaì History, vol. ii, p. 117. 2 Pearson,
Hist. of Eng., vol. ii, p. 332. |
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A STUDY IN
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 215 Welsh names as Gruffydd ap Davydd and Ievan ab
Hywel. Among the early sheriífs of Carnarvon was Gruffydd ap Pdiys. Gruffydd
ah Owen, Madog Llwyd, and Eineon ab Evan were among the fìrst sheriffs of
Anglesey. 1 Edward's conservative hent was also seen in his direction that
the new counties should consist of an aggregation of old cantreds and commots
(cymmwds). Anglesey's insular position would always give it a unity of its
own. But it was wise policy that built up the other shires out of the immemorial
territorial divisions of the Cymry. 2 Under the Sheriff of Carnarvon were put
the cantred of Arvon, the cantred of Arllechwedd, the commot of Creuddyn, the
cantred of Lleyn, and the commot of Eivionydd. Under the Sheriff of Merioneth
were the cantred of Merioneth, the commot of Ardudwy, the commot of Penllyn,
and the commot of Edeyrnion. Such were the three ancient shires of Gwynedd,
whose limits still remain with but very little alteration for the last six
hundred years. Besides these three shires, the Statute of AYales also
established, or perhaps we ought rather to say legalised, the already
existing counties of Carmarthen and Cardigan. These districts were continued
under the Justice of West Wales, and included the southern districts of Llewelyn's
principality. Carmarthen now became the capital of the south, and there the
Sheriff of Carmarthenshire held his court. The Sheriff of Cardiganshire is
described as the Sheriff of Cardigan or " Lampadar". Most writers
have jumped to the conclusion that " Lampadar" is "
Lampeter"; 3 1 Breese, Ralendars of Gwynedd, pp. 34, 48, 68. 2 Mr.
Palmer shows that even the lordships Marcher were generally built out of
commots or groups of commots (Ancient Tenures of Land ììi the Marches of
North Wales, p. 93). In the same way the maenols and maerdrefs became English
manors (/6., p. 95). 3 The mistake is made by the translators of the statute
in Statutes cf the Realm, and I have carelessly copied it in a short article
on the Welsh counties in Low and Pulling's Dictionary of English Hislory. |
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216 THE WELSH
SHIRES: but " Lampadar", in the very imperfect Welsh spelling of
the English lawyers, really means "Llanbadarn". And Llanbadarn in
most mediieval legal documents does not signify the old Welsh village round
the great church of the holy Padarn, but what is sometimes called more fully
the " new town of Llanbadarn", that grew up round the famous castle
at the confluence of the Ystwyth and the sea. So Sheriff of Cardigan or
Lampadar means Sheriff of Cardigan or Aberystwith. But the county court seems
often to have met for convenience' sake at Carmarthen. Both Carmarthenshire
and Cardiganshire were, in their original form, much smaller than the modern
counties. In particular was the jurisdiction of the Sheriff of Carmarthen limited
by the liberties of the adjacent lords Marcher. For example, tlie districts
subject to the lords of the castles of Llandovery, Newcastle Emlyn, and Ridwelly
were outside the limits of the shire. 1 So also was the ecclesiastical
franchise of Abergwili at the very gates of the capital of South Wales. But
Cardiganshire was much nearer its present bounds, 2 and to this is due
perhaps the strong local feeling and distinct type of character which we
associate still with that county. Moreover, it corresponded roughly with the ancient
principality of Ceredigion, though that state was larger, it would seem, than
even the modern county. But alone among Welsh shires Cardiganshire can trace
back its history to the primitive states of Wales. The original Arvon and
Meirionydd were but small parts of the shires that subsequently received from
them their names. Morganwg is put out of relation to Glamorganshire by the
conquest of Fitzhamon, and the ancient state of Morganwg was never really Mr.
Wylie, in his generally excellent fíistory of Henry IV, rather confuses some
steps of the war against Glendower by constantly mixing up Llanbadarn and
Lampeter from the very same cause. 1 Btat. 27 Hen. VIII, cap. 26, sec. 13. 2
lb., sec. 15. |
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A STÜDY IN
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 217 conterminous with the moclern county. But the men
of Ceredigion had learnt to act together in successfully repelling Norman
invasion and Norman conquest. They alone were able to set some limits to the
Marchers' yoke, and keep in South Wales a region that, to the last, paid
allegiance to the native princes of the Cymry. Cardiganshire stands to its neishbour
shires as Kent or Sussex stands to the artificial counties of the Midlands. Besides
the five shires which Edward I constituted out of the dominions of Llewelyn,
a sixth shire, now commonly regarded as Welsh, was also established by him.
This was Flintshire. I have already pointed out how all the modern Flintshire
was included in Cheshire at the time of the Domesday Boolc, and how that
earldom extended as far as the Clwyd. But the great national movement of the
thirteenth century hacl pushed back the boundaries of Cheshire almost to the
gates of Chester, and, in 1267, Henry III recognised the claims of Llewelyn
ab Gruffydd to the four cantreds of the Perfeddwlad. 1 These were Bhos,
Ehuvoniog, Dyffryn Clwyd, and Tegeingl or Englefield. Edward I had
subsequently surrendered the more eastern parts of Flintshire to Davydd,
Llewelyn's brother, and had retained nothing but a few castles. Now, however,
the western districts of Perfedclwlad were put into the hands of lords
Marchers, while a Sheriff of Flint was appointed with jurisdiction over the
Cantred of Englefield, the land of Maelor Saesneg, the land of Hope, and all
the land joined to the town and castle of Bhuddlan up to the walls of
Chester. But the Sheriff of Flint was subject to the Justice of Chester, and
the county of Flint remained all through the middle ages in a sort of half
dependence upon the county of Chester. As the lawyers said, " Comitatus
de Flint pertinet ad gladium Cestriae" — that is, Flintshire is a 1
Rymer's Foedera, vol. i, p, 474. VOL. IX. Q |
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218 THE WELSH
SHIRES: possession of the Earls of Chester, though the earldom, like the Principality
of Wales, went henceforwards to the king's eldest son. The records of
Flintshire were preserved along with those of Cheshire, in Chester city. 1
The same offìcials were commonly appointed to exercise jurisdiction in the
two counties. Flint, then, is an anomalous and erratic shire. It is, however,
noteworthy that Edward's scheme for the settlement of Wales should have
included the separation of the specifically Welsh portion of the Chester
Palatinate from that more distinctively English. It would have been easier
and more natural to have restored its old identity with Cheshire. Welshmen at
least will not complain that Edward allowed it a separate, if precarious,
existence. Thus Edwarcl I made all the Principality shireground, though the
Marches, which we must always remember were not part of the Principality,
remained as before. But there was one function which the new shires of the
Principality did not share with the English counties. This was the right of
electing in their county courts hnights of the shire to represent their
communities in Parliament. I do not think that the reason for this was that
Edward wished to keep the Welsh down, or that he desired to treat them as a
conquered people. In 1284 the Commons had hardly yet become a necessary part
of the national council. When their position was fixed, towards the end of
Edward's reign, he had restored to the Principality some sort of separate
existence by creating his son Edward Prince of Wales. This was in 1301. The consequence
was that Wales was not regarded as an integral part of Edward's realm, and it
was therefore thought unnecessary to summon its representatives to
Parliament. The counties palatine of Chester and Durham were in exactly the same
position, and for exactly the same cause sent no 1 First Report of the Deputy
Reeper of the Public Records, p. 78 et seq., and the authorities there
referred to. |
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A STUDY IN
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 219 members to the English Parliament. 1 The
thoroughly English lordships Marcher were treated in just the same way as the
three thoroughly Welsh shires of Gwynedd. Yet on two occasions the shire
communities of Wales were called upon to discharge the highest function still
entrusted to local courts. In 1322 forty-eight representatives from Wales appeared
in the famous Parliament of York that consummated the triumph of Edward II
and the Despensers, 2 and enunciated for the first time the great principle
that all legislative changes required the assent of the three estates. Again,
in 1327, the forty-eight representatives of Wales appeared in the Parliament
that deposed Edward II and recognised his son as king in his stead. But these
sound precedents were not followed, and no more Welsh members sat in
Parliament until more than two hundred years later. Thus the Welsh shire-courts
remained in an inferior position to those of England. and the inferiority was
accentuated by the savage penal code and drastic disqualifications imposed on
native Welshmen after the suppression of the revolt of Owen Glendower, V. We
have now seen how Wales became divided into the Principality and into the
Marches; how the Principality had been made shire ground; but how the
Marchers remained with their separate organisation. The result was that Wales
was badly governed, and in a state of anarchy. 8 There was no unity or vigour
of organisation. It was reserved for 1 Cheshire fîrst returned Members of
Parliament in the reign of Henry VIII, but it was not until the reign of
Charles II that Durham was admitted to the same right. The famous Bishop
Cosin struggled yigorously against such an acknowledgment of the limits of
his power. 2 Rolls of Parliament, i, 456. 3 Sir John Wynn's History of the
Gwydyr Family; Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Autobiography, especially in Mr. S.
L. Lee's sumptuous edition with his valuable notes and appendices; and the
letters of Q 2 |
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220 THE WELSH
SHIRES: Henry VIII to complete the process which macle Wales one with itself,
and one with England. The task was the easier as the great majority of the
lordships Marcher had now fallen into the king's hands. In a series of great
statutes, he incorporated England and Wales into a single whole, with equal
rights and similar laws. This union of England and Wales involved the
extension of the shire-system to all Wales. 1 The palatine jurisdiction of
the Marcher was abolished, and the lord of a March reduced to the humbler position
of the lord of an English manor. The lordships Marcher were either
incorporated into existing shires or aggregated into new ones. The boundaries
of the existing counties, English and Welsh, were adjusted. The old shires of
Edward I, and the older palatinates, were, like the new shires, fully
assimilated to those of England. Above all, they received the right of
returning representatives to the Parliament at Westminster. 2 Many lordships
Marcher hitherto reputed in Wales were annexed to the English border
counties, whose western limits were thus finally fixed. The lordships of
Ellesmere, Bishop Rowland Lee, sumraarised in Gairdner's Letters and Papers
of the Reign of Henry VIII, may be referred to as illustrating the then state
of Wales. 1 The following passage from a letter of Bishop Lee, then President
of Wales, to Cromwell, throws light on some aspects of Welsh life: " I
have been lately informed that the king wished to make Wales shire ground,
and to have justices of the peace and of gaol delivery as in England. But
this will often simply be setting one thief to try another thief"; also,
" very few Welshmen in Wales above Brecknock have £10 a year in land,
and their discretion less than their land." The proof that the policy is
wrong is the condition of Merionethshire and Cardiganshire, "for though
they be shire ground, they are as í 11 as the worst parts of Wales."
(Gairdner's letters and Papers of the lieign of Henry VIII, vol. x, No. 453.)
2 The chief Welsh Statutes of Henry VIII's reign were 27 H. VIII, c. 4, c. 5,
and c. 6; 27 H. VIII, c. 26; 28 H. VIII, c. 3; 34 and 35 H. VIII, c. 2G; aad
35 H. VIII, c. 11. |
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A STUDY IN
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 221 Oswestry, Whittington, Cherbury, Down, and others
were annexed to Shropshire. 1 The lordships of Wigraore, Eardisley, Ewyas
Lacy and Ewyas Harold, and others became a part of Herefordshire.' 2
Wollaston, Tidenham, and other lordships in the Marches of Wales were joined
to Gloucestershire. 3 The ancient palatine counties of Glamorgan and Pembroke
now received their present limits, and lost their palatine character. Among
the separate jurisdictions now absorbed in the " shire of Glamorgan and
Morganog" were Gower, Neath, Llandaff, Glyn Rhondda, Miskin, and the
other upland regions. It was provided that all the above " shall be
henceforward reputed and known by the name of the shire of Glamorgan only and
by no other name". 4 In the same way Haverfordwest, Cilgerran, Dewsland,
Eosemarket, Narberth, and the other lordships that make up the modern shire
were annexed to the county of Pembroke. 5 The other lordships Marcher of the
south were joined to the old Welsh shires of Cardigan and Carmarthen. The
lordships of Tregaron, Geneu'r Glyn, Llanddewi Brevi completed the present
limits of Cardiganshire. 6 The lordships of Llandovery, Abermarlais, Kidwelly,
New T castle, and Abergwili swelled out the scanty bounds of the old
Carmarthenshire. 7 The little lordships of Llanstephan and Laugharne were at
first added to Pembrokeshire, but they were transferred by a subsequent
statute, passed in 1542, to Carmarthenshire. 8 A little later it was necessary
for Henry VIII to forbid the old practice that had grown up of holding the
sessions of Cardiganshire at Carmarthen. The rest of South Wales was by the
Act of 1536 cut up into new shires. A whole series of petty lordships Mar- 1
27 Hen. VIII, cap. 26, sec. 9. 2 Ib., sec. 10. 3 Ib., sec.ll. 4 Ib., sec. 12.
5 Ib., sec. 14. 6 Ib., sec. 15. 7 Ib., sec. 13. s 34 and 35 H. YIII, cap. 26,
sec. 57. |
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222 THE WELSH
SHIRES: cher, were grouped together with the old " honour of Brecon'' to
form the new county of Brecon, of which Brecon was appointed to be the shire
town, and the place for the nieeting of the county court. 1 Another large
group of little lordships was combined to make the new county of Badnorshire,
with New Eadnor for its shire town, and that place and Ehayader for the
alternate sessions of its county court. 2 The "residue of the lordships
Marcher within the Dominion of Wales" — I quote the words of the Act —
were erected into the new shire of Monmouth. 3 Monmouth was made its shire
town, and the county court was directed to be held at Monmouth and Newport
alternately. But while the old shires of South Wales, with Eadnorshire and
Breconshire, went for justice to the local Welsh judges who sat at Carmarthen
and at Brecon — where also w y ere courts of the chancery and courts of
exchequer for the same counties — the Act put Monmouthshire under the
exclusivejurisdictionof courts of chancery and exchequer at Westminster. And
the sheriff and other offìcers of the county were directed to " do everything
as their fellows were bound to do in every shire of England". An Act of
1542* speaks of Monmouthshire as separate from the " twelve shires of
Wales" which were established by the Act of 1536, and shows — as does
the Act which gave Monmouthshire two members of Parliament while it only gave
the twelve shires one apiece — that some sort of distinction between
Monmouthshire and the other Welsh shires was intended. 5 The inclusion of the
county in the Oxford circuit, during the reign of Charles II, while the;<
twelve shires" remained under the Welsh judicial system 1 21 H. VIII,
cap. 26, scc. 4. 2 Ib., sec. 5. 3 Ib., sec. 3. * 34 and 35 H. VIII, cap. 26,
sec. 1. 6 Compare 35 H. VIII, c. 11, which spcaks of " thc twelvc shircs
of W;ilcs aud the county of Monuiouth." |
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A STÜDY IN
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 223 until the reigu of William IV, completed the
separation. 1 It is often discussed whether or not Monmouthshire is a Welsh
county. The answer is both Yes and No. It is Welsh in the sense that it was
created out of Welsh lands, and that its inhabitants are largely Welsh by
stock, if not always in tongue. But in these senses a good deal of
Herefordshire and some parts of Shropshire, and even a part of Gloucestershire,
are Welsh. It is not Welsh inasmuch as the only legal distinction between
England and Wales after 1536 was the separate Welsh judicial system, in which
it was not included. But now that that has been abolished, the legal
distinctions between "England" and "Wales" are so minute,
that the legal aspect of the question is of verbal rather than of real
importance. Still, as a matter of law, Monmouthshire is not in Wales. We nmst
now look at the result of Henry VIII's legislation in North Wales. The three
old shires of Gwynedd — Anglesey, Carnarvonshire, and Merionethshire —
remained as they did before, except that the lordship Marcher of Mawddwy was
annexed to the latter county. 2 Two new shires were created out of the
lordships Marcher of North-Eastern Wales. The lordships of Denbighland,
Euthin, Bromfield, Yale, Chirk, and Hopedale were erected into the county of Denbigh.
3 Denbigh was made the shire town, and the county court was directed to be
held at Denbigh and Wrexham altemately. A few years later these limits were
altered by the transference of Hope, St. Asaph, and that portion of Hawarden
parish which was outside the old FJintshire of Edward I to the county of
Flint; which thus had its scanty bounds slightly enlarged to its present
extent. 4 Mont- 1 For the results of this system see Spencer Walpole's llist.
of England, iii, 31-32. 2 27 H. VIII, cap. 26; sec. 16. s b., scc. 7. 4 33 H.
VIII, cap. 13. |
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224 THE WELSH
SHIRES: gomeryshire was the other new county. It was composed of a large
number of lordships Marcher, of which Montgomery, Cyfeiliog, Cedewein, Arwystli,
and Powysland were the most important. The shire-town was Montgomery. 1 The
county court was to meet here and at Machynlleth. As for the two new shires
in the south an exchequer and chancery were established at Brecon, so for the
two new shires of the north an exchequer and chancery were created at
Denbigh. The establishment of a commission of the peace for each of the
thirteen shires; their division into hundreds; the limitation of the sheriff
s offlce to a year's duration, were, with the institution of a eounty
representation of one member for each of the twelve shires, the steps that completed
the assimilation of the English and Welsh shire-system. 2 The introduction of
equal laws and strong yet popular government soon put an end to the anarchy
of media3val Wales. By the reign of Elizabeth the twelve shires of Wales had
assumed their modern aspect of peacefulness and tranquillity. Though the
establishment of the shire-system involved in a sense the introduction of
English laws and English methods of government, it prepared the way for the
great revival of Welsh national life that marked the closing years of the
sixteenth century. VI. The shire-system of Wales was thus completed. But there
are two counties of South Wales of which we have hitherto talcen no account.
In spealdng of English or Welsh counties we generally leave out of sight the
counties of cities and boroughs, that are nevertheless almost as much counties
in the eye of the law as the sixty local shires. Children are taught in their
geography books that the city 1 27 H. VIII, cap. 26, sec. 6. * Ibid., sec.
20, 22. |
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A STUDY IN
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 225 of Norwicli is in Norfolk, and that Bristol is in
Gloucestershire; though, as a matter of fact, these cities are only surrounded
by these shires, and constitute separate counties in themselves. There are
two such " counties of boroughs" in South Wales. In 1542 the sanie
Act that transferred Laugharne and Llanstephan from Carmarthenshire to
Pembrokeshire took Haverfordwest out of the latter county, and ŵrected
it into the county of the borough of HaYerfordwest. 1 In the reign of James
I, Carmarthen town was similarly dissociated from Carmarthenshire and
constituted into " the county of the borough of Carmarthen". It is
a strildug commentary on recent Welsh history that three hundred years ago
these two towns, now so insignificant, were the most important in Wales. My
task is now done. I have tried to show how the Welsh shires came into
existence; from what sources they were derived; how far they involved the
introduction of English institutions, and how far the idea of local
self-government inherent in them made it possible to reconcile Welsh national
spirit with the forms of English institutions. I might have continued my task
further. I might have shown how, in modern times, the shire has gradually
ceased to be a unit of popular government, though remaining the unit of higher
local government. I might have shown how the modern system has dissociated
the election of the knight of the shire from the shire-court; how the
shire-court itself has become entirely obsolete. It is no part of the duty of
the historian to play the prophet. If it were, I might have speculated how
far we may hope that the promised restoration of local self-government to the
shires may reanimate the ẁeakest 1 34 and 35 H. VIII, c. 26, sec. 61. |
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226 THE WELSH
SHIRES. members of the British Constitution. The study of constitutional
history is of paramount importance, but, as the Bishop of Chester himself
says, it can hardly be made interesting, or even approached, without an
effort. But our study of the remote origin and history of a living
institution like the shire has at least the result of keeping our history
practical, while making our politics scientific. May it help us to approach
political problems with instructed yet» unbiassed minds. May it teach us that
the roots of the present lie deep in the past. May it make us realise the unity
and the continuity of our national life. |
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