Welsh Journals

If this interpretation is substantially correct, it reveals a keen and perceptive intelligence on the part of the royal counsellors. Taking full advantage of his commanding position in the political and military sphere alike, Henry III clearly attempted in 1247 to buttress the somewhat vague and imprecise overlordship-which, by long historical precedent, he had hitherto enjoyed, by imposing on the two young princes a new obligation which embraced the most fundamental principle of Ttnglo^Norman feudal tenure. And yet, that obligation was defined in such a way in the Treaty of Woodstock that its eventual fulfilment by Owain and Llywelyn could not readily be interpreted by the majority of the native community over which they ruled as an overt dereliction of the traditional responsibility of a Welsh prince. CERI W. LEWIS University College, Cardiff