Ralph A. Griffiths - Wales and the Welsh in the Middle Ages

J. Beverley Smith

WALES AND THE
WELSH IN THE
MIDDLE AGES

Essays presented to J. Beverley Smith

Edited by

R. A. Griffiths and P. R. Schofield

The Contributors, 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff CF10 4UP.

www.uwp.co.uk

British Library CIP Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-0-7083-2446-2

e-ISBN 978-1-78316-493-6

The rights of the Contributors to be identified as authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Cover image:
Roof of the central tower,
St David's Cathedral,
photograph Henry Slack.

Contents

R. GERAINT GRUFFYDD

HUW PRYCE

DAVID CARPENTER

DAVID STEPHENSON

DANIEL HUWS

MICHAEL PRESTWICH

T. M. CHARLES-EDWARDS

WENDY DAVIES

PHILLIPP SCHOFIELD

A. D. CARR

D. HUW OWEN

CHRISTOPHER DYER

RICHARD SUGGETT

RALPH GRIFFITHS

HUW WALTERS

Beverley Smith retired from the Sir John Williams Chair of Welsh History at Aberystwyth in the early autumn of 1998. Since then he has continued to encourage the study of Waless history and on a yet broader front as Chairman of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales from 1991 to 1999, as general editor of the second volume of the History of Merioneth (with his wife Llinos a notably productive scholarly partnership, this), and as editor since 1974 (and still in post!) of the History and Law section of the Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies/ Studia Celtica. The present volume of essays by some of his friends and colleagues reflects the high regard in which he is held by historians of medieval Britain. It highlights a number of the themes with which his writings have been concerned, notably the political culture of medieval Wales and the interpretation of often exiguous evidence, the social complexities of rural and urban communities and the social implications of legal arrangements, always in a context wider than Wales itself.

As editors, we are grateful to the present contributors and their enthusiastic response to our invitation, in the knowledge that they represent many others who share, or have benefited from, Beverleys interests. We are particularly grateful to R. Geraint Gruffydd for his personal Foreword to the volume. Two of the essays originated in the series of Foundation Lectures which Beverley was instrumental in establishing at Aberystwyth in memory of his mentor, T. Jones Pierce: it is eminently satisfying to be able to include them here.

We are also grateful to Huw Walters of the National Library of Wales for compiling the List of Publications, and to Antony Smith, of Aberystwyth University, for the map of northern Spain. We acknowledge too the advice of Oliver Padel and the assistance of the Councils of Aberystwyth and Swansea Universities.

Figures for chapter 4 between pages 46 and 47

Figures for chapter 12 between pages 190 and 191