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26-441: The basic unit of land was the tref , a small basic village or settlement. In theory, 100 trefi made up a cantref (literally, "one hundred settlements"; plural: cantrefi ), and half or a third of a cantref was a cymwd , although in practice the actual numbers varied greatly. Together with the cantrefi , commotes were the geographical divisions through which defence and justice were organised. In charge of

52-581: A commote would be a chieftain probably related to the ruling Prince of the Kingdom. His court would have been situated in a special tref , referred to as a maerdref . Here, the bonded villagers who farmed the chieftain's estate lived, together with the court officials and servants. Commotes were further divided into maenorau or maenolydd . Domesday Book has entries for those commotes that in 1086 were under Norman control, but still subject to Welsh law and custom. However, it refers to them using

78-555: A large vellum manuscript written shortly after 1382, which ranks as one of the most important medieval manuscripts written in the Welsh language . It preserves a collection of Welsh prose and poetry, notably the tales of the Mabinogion and Gogynfeirdd poetry. The manuscript derives its name from the colour of its leather binding and from its association with Hergest Court between the late 15th and early 17th century. The manuscript

104-412: A sense, when the proper sense was to consider sub to be an administrative synonym for Latin cis (meaning "this side of"), and to consider supra to be an administrative synonym for Latin trans (meaning "the other side of"). A number of smaller units, such as manors, parishes and townships, also use the administrative distinction of is and uwch , sometimes in their Latin forms ( e.g. ,

130-399: Is a recurring topic in Welsh literature and Welsh mythology . In one version of the story, Seithenyn , a prince of the kingdom, is a notorious drunk and it was through his negligence that the sea swept through the open floodgates, flooding the land forever. Red Book of Hergest The Red Book of Hergest ( Welsh : Llyfr Coch Hergest ), Oxford, Jesus College , MS 111, is

156-534: Is reported to have owned it in 1634. The manuscript was later found in the collection of Thomas Wilkins (d. 1699), a Welsh clergyman and antiquarian, who may have borrowed it from the Mansels without ever returning it. In 1697, Wilkins was visited by Edward Lhuyd who spent some time copying a manuscript which might well have been the Red Book . In 1701, two years after Wilkin's death, his son Thomas Wilkins

182-528: Is suggested by two odes ( awdlau ), dedicated to Sir Thomas Vaughan ( d.  1483) and his sons, which were written into the manuscript by Welsh poet Lewys Glyn Cothi at Tretower. The Red Book soon passed into the possession of the Vaughans of Hergest Court, near Kington in the Welsh Marches . Sir John Price of Brecon reports to have seen the manuscript in 1550, presumably at Hergest. In

208-471: The " is division" when the commote was named, and he suggested that such commotes were originally named in the sense of 'nearer' and 'farther' based on the location of that central authority— i.e. , the terminology is for administrative purposes and not a geographical characterisation. Richards attributed the use of is and uwch to some confusion in translating Latin sub (meaning "lower") and supra (meaning "upper") into Welsh in too literal

234-600: The Anglo-Norman word "commot" instead of hundred , the word used at the time for the equivalent land division in England . The commotes mentioned in the Domesday Book, in general, represented recent Anglo-Norman advances into Welsh territory. Although the commotes were assessed for military service and taxation, their obligations were rated in carucates (derived from Latin for cattle or oxen), not in hides as on

260-559: The English side of the border. The customs of the commotes are described in the Domesday accounts of the border earldoms of Gloucestershire , Herefordshire , Shropshire and Cheshire . The principal commotes described in Domesday were Archenfield , Ewias , and the commotes of Gwent in the south; Cynllaith , Edeirnion , and Iâl (Shropshire accounts); and Englefield , Rhos and Rhufoniog ( Cheshire accounts). In legal usage,

286-486: The English word 'commote' replaced cwmwd following the Edwardian conquest of Wales in the 13th century, when English was made the official language for all legal documents. The Welsh, most of whom knew not a word of English, naturally continued to use cwmwd and still do so today. In much of Wales, commotes had become more important than cantrefi by the mid-13th century and administration of Welsh law became

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312-566: The Gwynedd section. It should also be borne in mind that the number and organisation of the commotes was different in the earlier Middle Ages; some of the units and divisions listed here are late creations. The original orthography of the manuscript is given here together with the standard modern Welsh equivalents. Cantref A cantref ( / ˈ k æ n t r ɛ v / KAN -trev ; Welsh pronunciation: [ˈkantrɛ(v)] ; plural cantrefi or cantrefs ; also rendered as cantred )

338-454: The Younger donated the manuscript to Jesus College, Oxford . Internal evidence, a note by the latter Wilkins, suggests that Edward Lhuyd then held the manuscript on loan, but that the college was able to retrieve it only 13 years later, after Lhuyd's death. The book was given on 17 February 1701 to Jesus College by Reverend Thomas Wilkins the younger of Llanblethian . The college keeps

364-401: The administration of Welsh law . Each cantref had its own court, which was an assembly of the uchelwyr , the main landowners of the cantref . This would be presided over by the king if he happened to be present, or if he was not present, by his representative. Apart from the judges there would be a clerk, an usher and sometimes two professional pleaders. The cantref court dealt with crimes,

390-707: The commotes being a later division. Cantrefi could vary considerably in size: most were divided into two or three commotes, but the largest, the Cantref Mawr (or "Great Cantref") in Ystrad Tywi (now in Carmarthenshire ) was divided into seven commotes. The antiquity of the cantrefi is demonstrated by the fact that they often mark the boundary between dialects . Some were originally kingdoms in their own right; others may have been artificial units created later. Cantrefi were of particular importance in

416-574: The determination of boundaries, and inheritance. The commote court later took over many of the functions of the cantref court, and in some areas the names of the commotes are much better known than the name of the cantref of which they formed parts. Cantref Coch is associated with the Forest of Dean , Gloucestershire, and defined as the land between the River Severn and the River Wye . It

442-516: The late 1560s, William Salesbury found the manuscript in the possession of Sir Henry Sidney at Ludlow , when Siancyn Gwyn of Llanidloes held it on loan from him. By the early 17th century, the Red Book had passed to the Mansels of Margam , hence back in Glamorgan . It was possibly brought into the marriage between Henry's granddaughter Catherine Sidney and Sir Lewis Mansel , who

468-468: The manor of Clydach in Uwch Nyfer, divided into Sub Clydach and Ultra (Supra) Clydach). This is unrelated to the common use of isaf and uchaf in farm names, where the terms are used in the geographical sense. The Red Book of Hergest (1375–1425) provides a detailed list of commotes in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. The list has some overlaps and is ambiguous in parts, especially in

494-492: The manuscript on deposit at the Bodleian Library . The first part of the manuscript contains prose, including the Mabinogion , for which this is one of the manuscript sources, other tales, historical texts (including a Welsh translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth 's Historia Regum Britanniae ), and various other texts including a series of Triads . The rest of the manuscript contains poetry, especially from

520-602: The medieval books in Welsh, the largest in its dimensions...and the thickest". The manuscript appears to have been retained by Hopcyn's family until the end of the 15th century, when Hopcyn's grandson Hopcyn ap Rhys was held complicit in the rebellion against King Edward IV and consequently saw much of his property forfeited. The Vaughans of Tretower ( Tretŵr ), then in Breconshire , obtained it, probably in 1465 on receiving Hopcyn's forfeited possessions. Ownership

546-403: The names of adjacent medieval Welsh commotes contain is (meaning "lower", or "below" as a preposition) and uwch (originally uch and meaning "higher", or "above" as a preposition), with the dividing line between them being a natural boundary, such as a river, mountain or forest. Melville Richards noted that, in almost every instance where this occurs, the point of central authority was in

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572-582: The period of court poetry known as Poetry of the Princes ( Welsh : Gogynfeirdd or Beirdd y Tywysogion ), including the cycles Canu Llywarch Hen , Canu Urien , and Canu Heledd . It contains also poems by Myrddin Wyllt . The Red Book is similar in content to the White Book of Rhydderch , of which it has at times been supposed to be a copy. Both are now thought, however, to descend from

598-476: The responsibility of the commote court rather than the cantref court. Owain Glyndŵr called representatives from the commotes for his two parliaments during the rising of 1400–1409 . The boundaries of commotes, or in some cases cantrefi, were in many cases subsequently more accurately represented by church rural deaneries than by the hundreds issuing from the 16th century Acts of Union. A considerable number of

624-420: Was a medieval Welsh land division, particularly important in the administration of Welsh law . Land in medieval Wales was divided into cantrefi , which were themselves divided into smaller cymydau (commotes) . The word cantref is derived from cant ("a hundred") and tref ("town" in modern Welsh , but formerly used for much smaller settlements). The cantref is thought to be the original unit, with

650-577: Was traditionally part of the kingdom of Ergyng but would, in later times, be recorded as part of the kingdoms of Gwent and Morgannwg. The Cantref was annexed into the Kingdom of England in 926 by king Æthelstan . Cantre'r Gwaelod is an ancient sunken kingdom said to have occupied a tract of fertile land lying in Cardigan Bay . First mentioned in the Black Book of Carmarthen , the cantref

676-412: Was written between about 1382 and 1410. One of the several copyists responsible for the manuscript has been identified as Hywel Fychan fab Hywel Goch of Buellt . He is known to have worked for Hopcyn ap Tomas ab Einion ( c.   1330–1403) of Ynysforgan , Swansea , and it is possible that the manuscript was compiled for Hopcyn. According to scholar Daniel Huws , it is "by far the heaviest of

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