12 JUNE 1869, Page 12

THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. —4-CV.—TnE WELSH M ARCH :-MONMOUTIISIIIRE AND HERE= FORDSIIIRE.-SAXON AND FEUDAL PERIODS.

WE have little that can be called history, and still less that can be called credible history, to record of this portion of the Welsh March during the Saxon period. We have indicated already the general relations of Monmouthshire and Herefordshire respectively to the Anglo-Saxon Principalities and the King of United England. In the legendary history of the early contests between the Britons and Saxons, Monmouthshire or Gwent figures conspicuously. Uther Pendragon and Arthur of the Round Table are represented as specially its sovereigns, and Caerleon, as their capital, is made to rival the magnificence of Rome itself. We have besides in the Welsh chronicles a bare catalogue of names of the succession in the Crown of Gwent from a Morgan, the son of Arthur, to the final extinction of the line in the time of Henry II. How far this list represents real personages cannot now be ascertained. There may have been an Arthur, a petty British prince, whose exploits, real or imaginary, were gradually swollen by the absorption of those of the real Brito-Roman hero Ambrosius, and of the other local champions of the Britons, wherever the struggle between them and their Teutonic invaders waxed warmest and lasted longest. But beyond this possibility, we have no historical evidence of the smallest critical value, for Nennius is virtually put out of court by the silence of Gildas, of whose fragments of history he is the rather untrustworthy amplifier. The mere impossibility of assigning, the real locality of the legendary Arthur's exploits among the many conflicting claim, of North and South Wales, Cornwall and Devon, Somersetshir; Cumberland, &c., sufficiently points to the sources from which his history has been compiled, with the addition of the poetic exaggerations of the romancers of the twelfth century. Few even among the most ardent Cambrian partizans will be found nowadays to advocate the credibility of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and Dr. Guest, who may be assumed as the most able and philosophical of the existing believers in Keltic traditions, though most valuable as a topographical antiquary, has to manipulate his traditionary details, in order to present them to modern readers in a credible form, in a manner much more ingenious than satisfactory. We have mentioned already Harold the Saxon's reduction of Wales to vassalage. It is also recorded that Cauute the Dane entered the land of Gwent in 1034 with a powerful army, and defeated Rytherchap-Testin, Prince of South Wales. In 983 an insurrection taking place among the inhabitants of Gwent against the authority of the Princes of South Wales, Einion, sou of Prince Owen, is said to have been deputed by his father to reduce them to obedience, but to have been murdered by the enraged multitude. Perhaps we may assign the expedition of Harold as the epoch when East Monmouthshire, and the towns of Monmouth, Chepstow, Caerwent, and Caerleou passed into the possession of the Saxons. The Normans succeeding to these conquests, built or strengthened many castles on the frontiers of Monmouthshire, and by degrees gradually occupied the whole county, till in the reign of Henry II. its line of petty kings became extinct.

We have noticed the conquests of Offa the Mercian in Herefordshire. The Britons defeated his army soon after the erection of the dyke on the Mercian side, but were soon compelled to retire, and Offa is said to have erected a palace on an eminence defended by strong entrenchments at Sutton, about three miles north-east from Hereford ; and this palace is said to have been the scene of his treacherous murder of Ethelbert, King of the East Angles. Offa made various donations to the church of Hereford. The actual governors of Saxon Herefordshire—the principality of the Hecanas—seem to have been cadet members of the Royal house of Mercia, ruling as Ealdormen or secondary kings under the supreme rule of the head of the great Mercian confederacy. Herefordshire, as well as Monmouthshire, suffered from the inroads of the Northmen, and passed with the rest of Mercia more than once under their yoke. In the reign of Edward the Elder, while the principality or bishopric of Hereford was under the guardianship of Lady Ethelfleda, the Scandinavians landed a strong army at the mouth of the IV3re, and marching along its banks, took prisoner the Bishop of Archenfield, and received forty pounds from King Edward as the price of his ransom. Proceeding still further, they were attacked by a provincial force collected from Hereford and the neighbouring places, and were defeated with great slaughter. Those who escaped from the field of battle were driven into the Welsh districts and taken prisoners by the Britons. " In 939, the river Wye, which almost bisects the county, was made by Athelstan the boundary," between the British and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms ; " and the antipathy of the two races is well illustrated by the circumstance that whilst the names of parishes and places on the peninsula of the Wye, between Hay and Monmouth, are to a great extent of Welsh• origin, every place on the left bank of the river, within the dyke, is of Saxon derivation or adoption."

In the division of the great Earldoms in the reigns of the last Saxon princes, we find in 1041 Ranig Earl of the Magesaetas, under which name we know Herefordshire to have been included. He appears to have been succeeded by Swegen or Sweyn. " It is quite certain that Herefordshire was detached from the government of Leofric and his successors, during the whole reign of Edward " the Confessor. " It is not quite clear," observes Mr. Freeman, from whom we derive these remarks, " what became of the shire during Swegen's first banish

ment. Something belonging to Swegen, either his earldom or his private estate, was divided, during his absence, between Harold and Beorn. It is, therefore, quite possible that one or other of them may have governed Herefordshire from 1046 to 1050. But it is equally possible that this shire was, during that interval, held by Ralph of Mantes." This latter hypothesis Mr. Freeman thinks the more plausible, from the firm root which the Normans had taken in Herefordshire as early as 1051, " which looks as if

they had been specially favoured in those parts." Earl Ralph, at any rate, seems to have succeeded Swegen on his second banishment in 1051. Of this Earl Ralph we have already spoken fully in our account of Norfolk. He was succeeded in Herefordshire by Harold in 1057. A full-account of the defeat of Earl Ralph by the Welsh in October, 1055, of the sack of Hereford by the mal

content tElfgar and the Welsh Prince, and of the campaign of Harold, may be seen in Mr. Freeman's work on the Norman Conquest. Of the old churches of Monmouthshire some few may be referred to the Saxon period. These resemble " barns, are of small dimen sions, without aisles, and with no distinction of height or breadth between the nave and chancel, and destitute of a steeple." Those assigned to the Norman period "have the chancel narrower and less lofty than the nave, and a small belfry, consisting of two arches for hanging bells, is fixed over the roof at the western end of the church." The custom which has so extensively prevailed in Monmouthshire of whitewashing the churches outside and within, has much detracted from the architectural beauty of the buildings. The monastic buildings of the county, considering its size, are very numerous, and along with its numerous castles mark the ascendancy of an ecclesiastical and lay aristocracy, which must have generally held its possessions simply by the strong hands of its feudal retainers.

In the Domesday survey of Gloucestershire the castle of Estrighoiel is mentioned, with lands between the Wye and the Usk, and other lands in Wales, but there is no enumeration either of the occupiers or of the agricultural population. Under the same county, three Ilardvices and sixty-seven villas in 'Wales are mentioned, but with no notice whatever of inhabitants. Four villas are mentioned as rastata per regent Caraduac. Under Herefordshire, thirty-seven tenants-in-chief are enumerated ; 282 under-tenants ; 1,407 bordarii ; 101 bovarii ; 2,124 rillani ; 691 slaves ; 204 homines ; and a large number of minor subdivisions, the whole enumerated population amounting to 5,368.

Among the landed proprietors in Herefordshire mentioned in Domesday Book, we find the Bishop and Church of Hereford ; the Church of Gloucester ; the Church of St. Guthlac; the Church of Cormeilles ; and the Church of Lyre ; Nigel the Physician ; Ralph de Todenei; Ralph de Mortimer ; Roger de Laci ; Roger de Mucelgros ; Robert Geruon ; Henry de Ferrieres ; William de Scohie.s ; William Fitz-Baderen ; William Fitz-Normau; Turstein, son of Rolf ; Albert de Lorraine ; Alured de Maleberge ; Durand de Gloucester ; Drogo Fitz-Pointz ; Osbern Fitz-Richard ; Gilbert and Ilbert, sons of Turold ; Ansfred de Cormeilles ; Urso de Abetoth ; Grifin ; Rayner ; Carboual ; Stephen ; Madoc, Edric, and Elmer. Of these the Mortimers and Lacys predominated. The chief Anglo-Norman landowners in Monmouthshire were, of course, the neighbouring barons of Gloucestershire. We have already referred to the separate government of the Welsh March. Its rulers were called Marchiones Ma'am, under the Red Book of the Exchequer. These Lords Marchers were generally Barons of Parliament ; and there was also a Lord 1Varden of the Marches, whose jurisdiction appears to have resembled that of our LordsLieutenant. In the reign of Henry Ill., Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, had the custody of the Marches committed to him. The principal families belonging to Herefordshire who held the office of Lords Marchers were the 111ortimers, Cliffords, and Turbervilles. They " had particular laws in their baronies, and all suits between their tenants were commenced and concluded before them ; but if a question arose conceruiug the barony itself or the title to it, the cause was referred to the cognizance of the King's Courts. Their authority was not held under a formal grant from the Crown, but was rather connived at by the Prince, and arose as a wise and necessary measure out of their particular situations. Nor could their privileges be fixed to any determinate precinct, as their possessions varied in extent at different periods and under different circumstances. The lords were entitled to the goods and chattels of all their tenants who died intestate, and a Lord Marcher, under pretence of that custom, !riving seized on the goods of William de Hastings, chevalier, who held of the Crown in capile, the King directed his writ to the Sheriff of Herefordshire, commanding him to summon Thomas de Aston, William de Frome, and David-ap-Howel, to inquire into the matter and certify the same. The Lords Marchers claimed a right of finding silver spears to support their canopy on all coronations, and they exercised that privilege at the coronation of Eleanor, Queen of Henry III." The Lords Marchers appear to have viewed with jealousy all attempts to subjugate Wales, as being likely to reduce or destroy their special and separate jurisdiction ; and it is said that, after the death of Llewellyn, the last Prince of Wales, " a note was found concealed in his sleeve, couched in obscure terms, and with feigned names, from which it might be gathered that several noblemen on the borders of Wales were not well pleased with the King's proceedings."

The Marches, not being included in Edward's division of Wales into counties, " became afterwards the scene of much irregularity and outrage. A Court of Judicature was therefore instituted for that particular district ; and several noblemen and others successively resided at Ludlow Castle, in Shropshire, as Lords-President of the Marches, its all the splendour of royalty, until the dissolution of the Court by Act of Parliament in the first year of the reign of William and Mary. The preamble to the Act stated that the powers of the Lord President had been much abused, and that the institution had become a great grievance to the subject. The superior members of this Court were, besides the Lord President, a Vice:President, a Chief Justice, and a Council, among whom were many of the nobility resident in the counties bordering on the Marches." During the Yorkist and first part of the Tudor periods, prelates usually filled the office of Lord President,—afterwards, generally laymen.