Port · The March of Wales · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Cardiff

The borough and port at the mouth of the Taff under Cardiff castle, the caput of Glamorgan, where Robert Curthose died a prisoner in 1134 and from which Ifor Bach kidnapped the earl of Gloucester in 1158.

Attacked in the Welsh rising of 1183-84.

Who holds it

Name
King John as lord of Glamorgan
Title
Lord of the town
Since
See lord_1200
Confidence
medium

Lord in 1200

King John as lord of Glamorgan; his officers hold the castle and the county court.

How things stand that morning

In the king's hand.

Threats

  • Rising of the upland Welsh

Charter

Customs granted by the earls of Gloucester (texts not pinned for 1200).

Council

The lord's officers; burgesses.

Communities

Burgesses; the shire knights of the county court.

Fairs and markets

Market; fairs not pinned.

Militia

Burgesses and the castle garrison.

Walls and castle

Shell keep on the motte inside the Roman fort walls; town bank and ditch.

Trade and crafts

Port of the Vale: grain, cattle, Bristol Channel shipping.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Castle history certain; borough institutions thin.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia: Cardiff Castle
  2. Wikipedia: History of Cardiff

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.