Wales and the Welsh in the Middle Ages

Wales and the Welsh in the Middle Ages

Author: Ralph A. Griffiths

Publisher: University of Wales Press

Published: 2011-12-15

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 0708324479

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This is a major contribution to the study of medieval Wales by a group of outstanding British historians, writing in honour of one of Wales's most distinguished scholars and the biographer of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. The essays reflect exciting trends in the study of both Wales and the Middle Ages, including church building, chronicle writing, the comparative history of the law, valuable reassessments of town life and the implications of the Edwardian conquest of Wales.


The Principality of Wales in the Later Middle Ages

The Principality of Wales in the Later Middle Ages

Author: Ralph A. Griffiths

Publisher: University of Wales Press

Published: 2018-05-15

Total Pages: 548

ISBN-13: 1786832666

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An original study without rival. Comprehensive in its coverage of government and society. Appreciative reviews of the original edition and shown to be valuable to a range of scholars, writers and others.


The Legal History of Wales

The Legal History of Wales

Author: Thomas Glyn Watkin

Publisher: University of Wales Press

Published: 2012-09-15

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 0708326404

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Watkin provides a history of the various legal systems by which Wales and its people have been governed over the last two millenia, including the civil law of Rome, the laws of the native Welsh people, the canon law of the Church and the English common law. This book shows how in each age the people of Wales have adapted to and adopted the legal traditions which they have encountered and assesses the importance of this inheritance for the future of modern Wales within both Europe and the wider international community.


The Normans in South Wales, 1070–1171

The Normans in South Wales, 1070–1171

Author: Lynn H. Nelson

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2014-02-04

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0292781075

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A frontier has been called "an area inviting entrance." For the Norman invaders of England the Welsh peninsula was such an area. Fertile forested lowlands invited agricultural occupation; a fierce but primitive and disunited native population was scarcely a formidable deterrent. In The Normans in South Wales, Lynn H. Nelson provides a comprehensive history of the century during which the Normans accomplished this occupation. Skillfully he combines facts and statistics gleaned from a variety of original sources—The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Domesday Book, Church records, charters of the kings and of the marcher lords, and more imaginative literary sources such as the chanson de geste and the frontier epic—to give a vivid picture of a century of strife. He describes the fluctuating conflict between Norman invaders in the lowlands and Welsh tribesmen in the highlands; the hard struggle of medieval frontiersmen to take from the new land a profit commensurate with their labors; the development of a Cambro-Norman society distinct and quite different from the Anglo-Norman culture which engendered it; and the attempt of the frontiersman to prevent the Anglo-Norman authorities from taking control of the lands he had won. The turbulent Welsh tribes provided an ever present harassment along the frontier, and Nelson begins his presentation with an account of the failure of the Saxons to control them. He examines the methods adopted by William the Conqueror to cope with the problem—the creation of the great marcher lordships and the subsequent problems in controlling these lordships—and the weakness of some Anglo-Norman kings and the strength of others. By 1171 the conquest of the Welsh frontier was complete; but as Nelson points out, this conquest was strangely limited. The frontier, which extended throughout the lowlands of Wales, stopped at the 600-foot contour line in the mountains. In his final chapter Nelson speculates upon the curious fact that large areas of seemingly inviting moorlands lying above this line remained closed to the Cambro-Norman, and his speculations lead him to some interesting inferences about the nature of the frontier's influence upon the civilization which moves in to occupy it.


War and Society in Medieval Wales 633-1283

War and Society in Medieval Wales 633-1283

Author: Sean Davies

Publisher: University of Wales Press

Published: 2014-11-15

Total Pages: 365

ISBN-13: 178316140X

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The story of Wales from the end of the Roman period to the conquest by Edward I in 1283 is unknown to most, but recent historiography has opened up the source material and allowed for a modern, critical reappraisal. The development of the country is traced within the context of the rest of post-Roman western Europe in a study that is a valuable resource for anyone with an interest in military history and the history of Wales in relation to its neighbours in Britain and on the continent.


Medieval Wales

Medieval Wales

Author: A.D. Carr

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 1995-05-10

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 1349239739

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This volume examines the main themes in Welsh history from the coming of the Normans in the eleventh century and their impact on Welsh society and politics to the fall of the Duke of Buckingham, the last great marcher magnate, in 1521. It also looks at the part played by the leaders of the native Welsh community in the years after the conquest of 1282-3. This is one of the less familiar aspects of the medieval history of the British Isles, but one in which there has been an increasing interest in recent years. Wales lost its independence in 1282. Owain Glyn Dwr led a revolt in the early fifteenth century. Henry Tudor was of Welsh descent and landed in Milford Haven in 1485. These are the most familiar facts about the History of Medieval Wales, and today this history is often presented as nothing more than a romantic story of princes and castles. But there is a great deal more to it. Like every other nation, Wales has a history and identity of its own, and Edward I did not bring that history to an end. Unlike England it was not conquered by the Normans. In the thirteenth century the native princess of Gwynedd tried to create a single Welsh principality, and for a short time came close to success. The fourteenth century was much a period of crisis for Wales as for every other part of Europe and the effect of the Black Death lasted a long time. The fifteenth century saw the leaders of the community move on to a wider political stage. Why did conquest come in 1282? Who was Owain Glyn Dwr and why did he rebel? Why was Henry Tudor's bid for power based in Wales and what gave him credibility there? Dr Carr considers these questions and suggests some possible answers as he examines one of the less familiar areas of British History.


Medieval Wales

Medieval Wales

Author: David Walker

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1990-06-28

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780521311533

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This book provides an introduction to the history of medieval Wales, with particular emphasis on political developments. It traces the growth of Welsh princely power, and the invasion and settlement of Welsh territories by Norman adventurers which resulted in the creation of the marcher lordships and the steady erosion of Welsh princely authority in the south. The subsequent development of a powerful Welsh state under the leadership of the princes of Gwynedd was checked by Edward I in 1277, and thereafter the principality was deliberately overrun and destroyed: the Edwardian castles are symbols of conquest. Despite valiant attempts by local leaders in the thirteenth century, and by a national leader Owain Glyn Dwr early in the fifteenth, the English domination of Wales persisted, even beyond the advent of the Tudor dynasty. This is the first comprehensive short textbook on medieval Wales to be written for school and university students. It will also attract anyone with a general interest in Celtic studies or in the centuries which played such a formative role in the development of the Welsh national character.