Welsh Journals

THE CASTLES OF MAELIENYDD. By E. J. L. COLE. TOURING the Middle Ages the southern part of the ancient principality of Powys was known as Rhwng Gwy a Hafren the land between Wye and Severn-and this territory consisted of the commotes of Ceri, Cymwd Deuddwr, Gwerthrynion, and the cantrefs of Buellt, Elfael and Maelienydd. At the time of the Norman Conquest of England this area was governed by the descendants of Elystan Glodrydd, said to be the founder of the fifth of the Royal Tribes of Wales, but early in the 12th century the encroachments made upon their lands by rapacious Norman marchers such as the Bohuns, Breoses and Mortimers, caused a serious disintegration in the country between Wye and Severn. The house of Elystan became divided against itself, and before the middle of the century the sons of Madog ab Idnerth are found ruling over the two main divisions of their inheritance, or what was left of it Einion Clud over Elfael, aud Cadwallon ap Madog over Maelienydd. It is with Maelienydd and its subsequent fortunes that this paper is principally concerned. We are told (Lloyd, History of Wales, i, 255) that this cantref extended from the Teme to Radnor Forest and the neighbourhood of Llandrindod, and that even from an early period it was split up into three commotes or swydds," Buddugre in the north, Dinieithon in the south, with Rhiwlallt to the east. It is not clear when the first success- ful penetration into Maelienydd was made, but sometime during the reign of Henry I the lord of Wigmore, Hugh Mortimer, seems to have gained a footing in the valleys of the Ithon and the Edw. In 1143 or 1144 we find this Hugh—" Hugh son of Raulf repaired the castle of Gemaron and conquered Maelienydd the second time (Brut y Tywysogion). This is the first historical link between the Mortimers and the land at Maelienydd: their histories are inseparable thereafter. In this brief note about Hugh Mortimer we have also the first reference to the castle of Cymaron, which later became the chief stronghold in the lordship. Dugdale (Monastican, vol. vi), quoting an early Latin MS, says of Hugh's tenure of Maelienydd et ipse Hugo terram illam possedit tota vita sua," but it is doubtful whether Hugh enjoyed a peaceful tenure of his conquests. A year or two later we find him at war with the sons