Cardigan

Who holds it

Name

King John, since Maelgwn ap Rhys sold him the castle about 22 July 1199

Title

Lord of the town

Since

See lord_1200

Confidence

high

Lord in 1200

King John, since Maelgwn ap Rhys sold him the castle about 22 July 1199; the constable is not pinned.

How things stand that morning

A royal island in Gruffydd ap Rhys's Ceredigion.

Threats

• Gruffydd ap Rhys

Charter

John's charter given in Poitou on 3 December 1199 (witnessed by William Marshal, the count of Eu and Roger de Lacy, constable of Chester) frees the burgesses of tolls and passage throughout his dominions, except London, for four years from Christmas 1199, as long as they stay faithful: in force on 1 January 1200.

Council

Burgesses under the king's constable.

Communities

Welsh and English burgesses; the priory of St Mary, a cell of Chertsey.

Fairs and markets

Market; fairs not pinned.

Militia

Burgesses and garrison.

Walls and castle

Stone castle of the Lord Rhys (1171).

Trade and crafts

The Teifi port: fish, wool, hides.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The 1199 charter is dated.

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.