The March of Wales

Who rules

Name

William de Braose, William Marshal, Roger Mortimer, Walter de Lacy, William FitzAlan and the lesser Marcher lords; King John for Glamorgan, Gower, Carmarthen, Cardigan and the Three Castles

Title

No single ruler: the Marcher lords, each sovereign in his lordship, under the English king's overlordship

Since

Conquest from 1067 onward

Born

Not applicable

Family

See the lords' records.

Confidence

high

Standard accounts of the March (Davies, Lordship and Society in the March of Wales).

Overlord

King John

What the realm holds

• Marcher lordships: see Braose, Marshal, Mortimer, Lacy, FitzAlan, Clifford, Ewyas Harold, Monmouth, Caldicot, Kidwelly, Cemais, Haverfordwest, Montgomery, Whittington
• Royal lordships: Glamorgan, Royal castles in Wales
• Welsh lords inside the March: Caerleon, Senghenydd, Afan

How it was acquired

Conquest.

Allies and rivals

The Marcher lords are bound by marriage: Braose's daughters married Gruffydd ap Rhys, Walter de Lacy and (later) Hugh Mortimer; Marshal is heir to Strongbow. They compete for royal favour and Welsh land.

The realm that morning

The lords hold their castles. The fighting edges are the middle March (Elfael and Maelienydd), Ceredigion and the Tywi, and the new frontier at Mold. William de Braose is the king's leading man in Wales. Gwent Uwch Coed (upper Gwent) has no native lord on record for 1200: its dynasty, Seisyll ap Dyfnwal and his son Geoffrey, was killed at Abergavenny at Christmas 1175, and the land is shared between Braose's Abergavenny, the king's Three Castles, Monmouth and the Marshal's Usk; only Hywel ab Iorwerth of Caerleon survives as a Welsh lord in Gwent.

Wealth

Borough rents and tolls, Welsh dues (cattle renders, the commorth), the courts, the wool of the Flemish and English settlers of Pembroke and Gower.

Military

Castles everywhere; the lords' knights, archers of Gwent (famous for the bow, by Gerald's account) and Welsh footmen hired from their own Welshries.

Threats

• A league of the Welsh princes
• Royal claims to Marcher lands (Gower, Glamorgan)
• Debts to the crown

Officers

No officer of the March as such. The justiciar Geoffrey FitzPeter (since July 1198) commands royal armies in Wales, as at Painscastle in August 1198; the sheriffs of Shropshire (William FitzAlan) and Herefordshire (Walter de Clifford or FitzPeter, not pinned), and Gloucestershire (esw) keep the border castles; constables keep Carmarthen, Cardigan, Swansea and the Three Castles (names not pinned). See King's officers (March).

Court winter 1199 in 1200

King John is overseas that winter (his charter for Cardigan was given in Poitou on 3 December 1199; his movements are the ese researcher's).

Treaties and truces

Gwenwynwyn's peace with John (1199); Maelgwn's Cardigan bargain (1199); none with Llywelyn until July 1201.

Coinage

English silver; no Marcher mint in 1200.

Rome and interdict

The sees of Llandaff (Bishop Henry, from 1193) and St Davids (vacant) lie in the March; Hereford (vacant since 24 December 1198) on its edge.

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. 28 April 1200Henry de Bohun becomes earl of Hereford.Depends on: John's favour Stopped by: A quarrel
2. 11 April 1200Whittington granted to Meurig ap Roger; Fulk FitzWarin's rising follows (by April 1201).Depends on: John's choice Stopped by: A grant to Fulk
3. 1200Giles de Braose becomes bishop of Hereford (consecrated 24 September).Depends on: Election Stopped by: Papal quash

Later, on the likely course

1. 12 January 1201William de Braose receives the honour of Limerick (January 1201).Depends on: John's favour Stopped by: As above
2. 11 July 1201Treaty between the king's council and Llywelyn.Depends on: John's war in France Stopped by: Welsh war

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The constitutional shape of the March is well studied; the officers of winter 1199-1200 are thinly recorded.

Primary sources for this realm

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.
• The Rolls of Offerings and Fines of King John's Reign (1199 to 1216, at the royal chancery). The record of what men offered the new king for his favour: fines for lands, wardships, marriages, offices, pardons and the king's goodwill, from the first months of the reign. Read online
• The Journey through Wales; The Description of Wales, Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) (Itinerarium 1191, revised to about 1214; Descriptio 1194). The standing description of Wales a decade before 1200: the cantrefs and their lords, the castles of the March, the bishoprics, the Welsh way of fighting and living, and Gerald's advice on how the Welsh might be conquered and how they might resist. Read online
• Courtiers' Trifles, Walter Map (about 1181 to 1193). Nothing on 1200 itself. Read online