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43-465: Cyfeiliog ( Welsh pronunciation: [kəˈvɛiljɔɡ] ) was a medieval commote in the cantref of Cynan of the Kingdom of Powys . Cynan also contained the commote of Mawddwy . Other sources refer to Cyfeiliog as a cantref in its own right, possibly as a result of Cynan being renamed for the largest commote within it. The largest modern town in the old Cyfeiliog area is Machynlleth . It bordered

86-703: A Welsh nobleman, Owain Glyndŵr (or Owen Glendower ), led the most serious revolt against English rule. None of these rebellions succeeded and by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 Wales was effectively incorporated into the Kingdom of England . There was an unforeseen constitutional impact for England. The financial cost of the conquest was heavy. Including the construction of the new castles, Edward spent around £173,000 to achieve it. (In comparison, Edward's annual revenue at this time averaged around £40,000. ) Additionally,

129-523: A mixture of directly controlled royal land and pliant English protectorates. Edward's victory was comprehensive and it represented a major redistribution of power and territory in Wales in Edward's favour. Edward now enjoyed a degree of direct control in the native Welsh areas which no previous English king had achieved. War broke out again in 1282, as a result of a rebellion by Llywelyn's brother Dafydd, who

172-500: A national struggle enjoying wide support among the Welsh, who were provoked particularly by Edward's attempts to impose English law on the Welsh. Edward, however, soon began to see it as a war of conquest rather than just a punitive expedition to put down a rebellion. The English launched a three-pronged attack, with Edward leading his army into North Wales along much the same route as in 1277, Roger Mortimer operating in mid-Wales and

215-413: 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. ,

258-480: A series of imposing castles was built, using a distinctive design and the most advanced defensive features of the day, to form a "ring of stone" around north Wales. Among the major buildings were the castles of Beaumaris , Caernarfon , Conwy and Harlech . For generations, sheriffs in Wales in charge of "administering royal law" were mostly English . Some Welsh laws were kept, but the remaining Welsh legal code could be superseded by an English noble official or

301-473: 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 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,

344-522: Is sometimes referred to as the Edwardian conquest of Wales , to distinguish it from the earlier (but partial) Norman conquest of Wales . In two campaigns, in 1277 and 1282–83, respectively, Edward I of England first greatly reduced the territory of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd ("Llywelyn the Last"), and then completely overran it, as well as the other remaining Welsh principalities. By the 13th century, Wales

387-662: The Earl of Gloucester advancing with a substantial army in the south. Initially the Welsh were successful. In June 1282, Gloucester was defeated at the Battle of Llandeilo Fawr . Edward replaced him with William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke who raided in the south as far as Aberystwyth but failed to engage with a Welsh army. Edward then suffered a set-back in mid-Wales when his commander there, Roger Mortimer, died in October. On 6 November, while John Peckham , Archbishop of Canterbury,

430-421: The Earl of Lincoln who received the lordship of Denbigh . But additionally, Edward's Welsh allies received back their own lands, but on a feudal basis; for instance, Owain ap Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn , of the princely house of Powys Wenwynwyn , received his ancestral lands as the lordship of Powys and became known as Owen de la Pole (or "Poole"). Lands retained under direct royal control were organised under

473-621: The Marcher Lords , such as Gilbert de Clare , Roger Mortimer and Humphrey de Bohun continued. Henry III died in 1272 and was succeeded by his son, Edward I . Whereas Henry's ineffectiveness had led to the collapse of royal authority in England during his reign, Edward was a vigorous and forceful ruler and an able military leader. In 1274, tension between Llywelyn and Edward increased when Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn of Powys and Llywelyn's younger brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd defected to

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516-564: The Statute of Rhuddlan of 1284, which declared that they were "annexed and united" to the English crown, although they did not become part of the Kingdom of England . They were the King's personal fief and in 1301, they were bestowed on Edward's son, Edward of Caernarfon (the future Edward II), with the title "Prince of Wales" and thereafter the lands and title became the customary endowment of

559-472: 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

602-557: The English and sought Edward's protection. The continuing conflict with the Marcher Lords, particularly over Roger Mortimer's new castle at Cefnllys , and Edward's harbouring of defectors led Llewelyn to refuse Edward's demand to come to Chester in 1275 to do homage to him, as required by the Treaty of Montgomery . For Edward, a further provocation came from Llywelyn's planned marriage to Eleanor , daughter of Simon de Montfort ,

645-430: 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

688-489: 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. Conquest of Wales by Edward I The conquest of Wales by Edward I took place between 1277 and 1283. It

731-567: The Treaty of Aberconwy in November 1277, Llywelyn was left only with the western part of Gwynedd, though he was allowed to retain the title of Prince of Wales. Eastern Gwynedd was split between Edward and Llywelyn's brother Dafydd, with the remainder of the lands that had been tributary to him becoming effectively Edward's. As a result of both territorial expropriation and the submission of the ruling families, Deheubarth, Powys and mid-Wales became

774-513: The areas it advanced through. A fleet from the Cinque ports provided naval support. Llywelyn soon realised his position was hopeless and quickly surrendered. The campaign never came to a major battle. However, Edward decided to negotiate a settlement rather than attempt total conquest. It may be that he was running short of men and supplies by November 1277 and, in any case, complete conquest of Llywelyn's territories had not been his objective. By

817-460: 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 the Anglo-Norman word "commot" instead of hundred ,

860-407: The cantrefi of Penllyn in the north, Caereinion in the east and Arwystli in the south-east. Its border in the north-east was with the cantref of Meirionydd in the Kingdom of Gwynedd , and its south-east border was with the cantref of Penweddig in the Kingdom of Ceredigion . After the death of Madog ap Maredudd – the last prince of the whole of Powys – and his eldest son and heir in 1160,

903-455: 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,

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946-538: The end of the 11th century, the Welsh began pushing back the Norman advance. Over the following century the Welsh recovery fluctuated and the English kings, notably Henry II , several times sought to conquer or establish suzerainty over the native Welsh principalities. Nevertheless, by the end of the 12th century the Marcher lordships were reduced to the south and south-east of the country. The principality of Gwynedd

989-443: The heir to the throne. The Statute of Rhuddlan divided the territory under royal control into six shire counties on the English model, administered by royal officials. The Statute also enforced the adoption of English common law in Wales, albeit with some local variation. Welsh law continued to be used in some civil cases such as land inheritance, though with changes; for example, illegitimate sons could no longer claim part of

1032-567: The inheritance, which Welsh law had allowed them to do. The rest of Wales continued to be constituted as the March of Wales under the rule of Marcher Lords , as before, from the 1290s Edward began intervening in the affairs of the March to a much greater extent. From 1277, and particularly after 1283, Edward embarked on a policy of English colonisation and settlement of Wales, creating new towns like Flint , Aberystwyth and Rhuddlan . Outside of

1075-577: The kingdom was divided up between his surviving sons Gruffydd Maelor , Owain Fychan and Owain Brogyntyn , his nephew Owain Cyfeiliog and his half-brother Iorwerth Goch . Cyfeiliog was inherited by Owain Cyfeiliog. He joined the Welsh alliance under Owain Gwynedd to resist the invasion of Henry II in 1165, but he changed his allegiance later and gradually gained control over a much larger area in

1118-435: The leader of a rebellion against the crown during the reign of Edward's father. In November 1276, Edward declared war on Llywelyn. However, his objective was to put down a recalcitrant vassal rather than to begin a war of conquest. Early in 1277, before the main royal army had been mustered, Edward deployed, in south and mid-Wales, a mixture of forces comprising paid troops, some of the marcher lords' retainers and knights of

1161-471: 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

1204-403: 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

1247-458: The principality). However, from 1256 a resurgent Gwynedd under Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (who became known as "Llywelyn the Last") resumed the war with Henry and took back Perfeddwlad. By the Treaty of Montgomery of 1267, peace was restored and, in return for doing homage to the English king, Llywelyn was recognised as Prince of Wales and his re-conquest of Perfeddwlad was accepted by Henry. However, sporadic warfare between Llywelyn and some of

1290-426: 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

1333-502: The royal household. They met with considerable success as many of the native Welsh rulers, resentful of Llywelyn's overlordship, surrendered and joined the English. In July 1277, Edward launched a punitive expedition into North Wales with his own army of 15,500—of whom 9,000 were Welshmen from the south—raised through a traditional feudal summons . From Chester the army marched into Gwynedd, camping first at Flint and then Rhuddlan and Deganwy , most likely causing significant damage to

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1376-640: The south and the king's advance into the north was too much for the Welsh forces. The conquest of Gwynedd was completed with the capture in June 1283 of Dafydd, who had succeeded his brother as prince the previous December. Dafydd was taken to Shrewsbury and executed as a traitor the following autumn. Edward divided the territory of the Welsh principalities between himself (that is, retained under direct royal control) and his supporters through feudal grants, which in practice became new Marcher lordships. The lordships created were mainly grants to Anglo-Normans such as

1419-424: The south of Powys, in particular by acquiring the territories of Iorwerth Goch and Owain Fychan. He passed his territories to his son Gwenwynwyn in 1195 and they became known as Powys Wenwynwyn . Commote 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

1462-552: The territories would not be effectively incorporated into the Kingdom of England until the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 , Edward's conquest marked the end of Welsh independence. Following a series of invasions beginning shortly after their conquest of England in 1066, the Normans seized much of Wales and established quasi-independent Marcher lordships , owing allegiance to the English crown. However, Welsh principalities such as Gwynedd , Powys and Deheubarth survived and from

1505-502: The towns, Welsh peasants were evicted from key areas and their land resettled by English peasants: for example, in the Lordship of Denbigh 10,000 acres were occupied by English settlers by 1334. Edward's main concern following his victory was to ensure the military security of his new territories and the stone castle was to be the primary means for achieving this. Under the supervision of James of Saint George , Edward's master-builder,

1548-494: The use of English law. Rebellions continued to occur in Wales sporadically. These included revolts in 1287–88, and more seriously, in 1294 under Madog ap Llywelyn , a distant relative of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and in 1316–1318 by Llywelyn Bren , Lord of Senghenydd . In the 1370s, Owain Lawgoch the last representative in the male line of the ruling house of Gwynedd planned two invasions of Wales with French support. In 1400,

1591-535: 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 the English side of the border. The customs of

1634-502: Was conducting peace negotiations, Luke de Tany , Edward's commander in Anglesey , decided to carry out a surprise attack. Shortly after Tany and his men had crossed over a pontoon bridge they had built to the mainland, they were ambushed by the Welsh and suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Moel-y-don . However, the war turned in Edward's favour when Llywelyn unexpectedly marched out of North Wales towards Builth in mid-Wales. He

1677-468: Was discontented with the reward he had received from Edward in 1277. Dafydd launched a series of attacks co-ordinated with the Welsh rulers in Deheubarth and North Powys , who had been Llywelyn's vassals until 1277 and were now Edward's vassals. Llywelyn and the other Welsh leaders, including those in the south, joined in and it soon assumed a very different character from the 1277 campaign. It became

1720-490: Was divided between native Welsh principalities and the territories of the Anglo-Norman Marcher lords . The leading principality was Gwynedd , whose princes had gained control of the greater part of the country, making the other remaining Welsh princes their vassals, and had taken the title Prince of Wales . Although English monarchs had made several attempts to seize control of the native Welsh territories, it

1763-525: Was lured into a trap and killed at the Battle of Orewin Bridge on 11 December 1282. Taking advantage of this fortuitous event, Edward raised a new army and boldly marched into Snowdonia in January 1283 and captured Dolwyddelan Castle in the heartland of the Welsh resistance. At the same time de Valence in the south advanced from Cardigan into Meirionnydd . The combination of de Valence's pressure from

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1806-420: Was not until Edward's war of conquest against Llywelyn, the last native prince of Wales, that this was achieved on a lasting basis. Most of the conquered territory was retained as a royal fief, and these lands later became, by custom, the territorial endowment of the heir to the English throne with the title Prince of Wales . The remainder would be granted to Edward's supporters as new Marcher lordships. Although

1849-412: Was the dominant power in Wales in the first half of the 13th century, with Powys and Deheubarth becoming tributary states . Gwynedd's princes now assumed the title " Prince of Wales ". But war with England in 1241 and 1245, followed by a dynastic dispute in the succession to the throne, weakened Gwynedd and allowed Henry III to seize Perfeddwlad (also known as the "Four Cantrefs", the eastern part of

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