Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

TENURIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS IN NORTH WALES IN THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES AN understanding of the organisation of society in north Wales in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is largely dependent upon the detailed surveys which were compiled in the early-fourteenth century as a direct consequence of the Edwardian conquest. These surveys are particularly valuable as they sought to provide a retrospective as well as a current assessment of the resources of a locality. One of the most important of these evaluations was the Survey of the Lordship of Denbigh, compiled in 1334.2 The lordship, constituted in 1282,3 comprised an extensive area lying to the east of the river Conway. The main components were the commotes of Is Dulas and Uwch Dulas in the cantref of Rhos, and the commotes of Is Aled, Uwch Aled and Ceinmeirch in the cantref of Rhufoniog. Each commote consisted of a number of townships or trefi, and the lay townships were surveyed in considerable detail in 1334.4 The extentor, Hugh de Buckley, who was naturally anxious to satisfy an administration determined to extract as much revenue as possible, specified various sources of revenue which, although formerly operative, had become obsolescent by 1334. The inclusion of this information enhances the value of the Survey as a source for an understanding of the social framework of this area before the establishment of the lordship. Rhos and Rhufoniog were traditionally associated with the neighbouring cantrefi of Dyffryn Clwyd and Tegeingl, and an apt descriptive term, the Perfeddwlad, was frequently used to refer to this turbulent and coveted region lying between the Conway and the Dee.5 Possession was fiercely contested in the twelfth and thirteenth 1 I am grateful to Messrs. Glanville R. J. Jones and J. Beverley Smith who read the manuscript and offered valuable suggestions; the responsibility for the views expressed and for any errors is entirely mine. I The manuscript copy of the Survey referred to in this article is the one preserved in the Bodleian Library and edited by P. Vinogradoff and F. Morgan (eds.), Survey of the Honour of Denbigh, 1334 (1914). Two other copies survive: B.M., Harleian MS. 3632 and P.R.O., Land Revenue, Miscellaneous Books 232. Figure 1 denotes the location of administrative divisions and economic institutions. Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1281-92, p. 241. 4 The Survey does not refer to townships which were in monastic or episcopal possession and these were largely occupied by bondmen: G. R. J. Jones, 'The Distribution of Bond Settlements in North-West Wales', ante, II (1964), 26. This omission must be borne in mind when the evidence of the Survey is analysed. í A. J. Roderick, 'The four cantreds, a study in administration (to 1282)', Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, X (1939-41), 246-48, provides a narrative of the political history of the Perfeddwlad in these centuries.