Glamorgan

Who he is

Name

King John

Title

Lord of Glamorgan (custody of the Gloucester inheritance)

Since

1189, by his marriage to Isabella of Gloucester; after the annulment (1199) he keeps her in wardship and her lands in his hand

Born

24 December 1166

Family

See the england realm record (ese). Isabella of Gloucester, his former wife, is the heiress; her nephew Amaury, count of Evreux, will be given the title of earl of Gloucester.

Confidence

high

Wikipedia (Isabella, Countess of Gloucester; Lordship of Glamorgan).

Overlord

None (the king himself)

What it holds

• Cardiff castle, the county court of Glamorgan and the borough of Cardiff
• The lord's boroughs and castles of Kenfig and Neath, and the demesne of Tir Iarll (Llangynwyd)
• Newport castle and borough and the lowland of Gwynllwg (Wentloog)
• The service of the member lordships of the Vale: Coity (Turberville), Ogmore (Londres), Llanblethian (St Quintin), Penmark (Umfraville), Dinas Powys (Somery), St Fagans (le Sore), Barry (de Barri) and others (holders on 1 January 1200 not pinned except Ogmore)
• Overlordship of the Welsh commotes: Senghenydd (Senghenydd), Afan (Afan), Meisgyn and Glynrhondda (lords not pinned)
• Patronage of Tewkesbury's Welsh estates, Ewenny, Margam and Neath abbeys; the see of Llandaff (Bishop Henry of Abergavenny, from 1193)

How it was acquired

Marriage in 1189; kept after the annulment.

Allies and rivals

The shire knights of the Vale; Hywel ab Iorwerth of Caerleon, who defended Glamorgan for the crown in 1184-85; the Welsh upland lords, who rose in 1183-85.

How things stand that morning

In the king's hand, governed by his officers at Cardiff (the sheriff of Glamorgan that winter is not pinned).

Wealth

The Vale's grain and manors, the boroughs of Cardiff, Kenfig and Newport, the port of Cardiff, the courts of the county.

Military

Cardiff castle (the shell keep on the motte where Robert Curthose died in 1134), Kenfig, Neath, Newport and the castles of the member lords.

Threats

• A rising of the upland Welsh, as in 1183-85

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. 1200 (date not pinned)Amaury de Montfort, count of Evreux, Isabella's nephew, is given the title of earl of Gloucester; how much of the inheritance goes with it is not pinned.Depends on: John's settlement with Amaury, linked to Evreux passing to Philip at Le Goulet (22 May 1200) Stopped by: No Le Goulet settlement

Later, on the likely course

1. Later in the reign (dates not pinned)Glamorgan is found in the custody first of William de Braose and then of Falkes de Breaute.Depends on: John's grants Stopped by: Play

Places of note

• Cardiff castle: Caput and county court
• Newport castle: Castle of Gwynllwg
• Kenfig: Lord's castle and borough
• Neath castle: Lord's castle on the Neath

Where the sources disagree

• The date of the annulment is a GM ruling in the main notes; the campaign's Church notes say it was pronounced by John's own Norman and Aquitanian bishops. Wikipedia's Isabella article says only that by spring 1200 John had leave to annul. This record treats it as done before 1 January 1200, as the campaign notes do.

Evidence: John's lordship is certain; his officers in Glamorgan for 1199-1200 are not named in what we could check.

On the map: The upland edge of the Vale is traced along the hills north of the Ely and Ewenny; the Welsh commotes are drawn in their own records.

Primary sources for March of Wales

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Wales, Anonymous (St Davids and other Welsh houses) (10th to 13th centuries; the B and C texts continue to 1286 and 1288). Short Latin annals whose later versions are kept at St Davids and Cistercian houses. Read online
• Chronicle of Roger of Howden, Roger of Howden (about 1192 to 1201). The fullest single narrative for the year. Read online
• Chronicle of the Princes, Anonymous (Welsh translation of a lost Latin chronicle kept at Strata Florida) (Latin original to about 1282, compiled from contemporary annals; Welsh versions about 1300 and later). The native Welsh record of the year. Read online
• Monastic Annals (Margam, Tewkesbury, Burton, Winchester, Waverley, Dunstable, Bermondsey, Worcester, Osney) (12th to 14th centuries). Nine sets of house annals, each with a short entry for 1200. Read online
• The History of William Marshal, Anonymous (a poet called John, writing for the Marshal family) (about 1224 to 1226). A knight's view of the Angevin succession: the council at Vaudreuil in April 1199 where the Marshal and Hubert Walter argued for John over Arthur, the Marshal's crossing to secure England, John's coronation, and the Marshal's part in Normandy in 1199 and 1200 as holder of Longueville and Orbec and a go-between with Philip. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
• The Charter Rolls of King John (1199 to 1216, at the royal chancery). The enrolled charters of John's first years, beginning with his accession in 1199: confirmations to towns, bishoprics and abbeys, grants of land and office, and the great grants to men like William Marshal and the king's new allies in Poitou. Read online
• The Great Rolls of the Pipe for 1199 and Michaelmas 1200 (1199 and 1200, at the Exchequer). The audited accounts of every sheriff and farmer for the Exchequer year ending Michaelmas 1200: county farms, the scutage of 1199, the carucage of 1200, debts of magnates and towns, wardships, and the fines offered to the new king.

3 more in the sources library for The British Isles.