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CADWALLON AP MADOG REX DE DELVAIN, 1140-1179 AND THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF LOCAL AUTONOMY IN CYNLLIBIWG P M Remfry The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the affairs of the Middle March in the latter part of the twelfth century, in relation to the development of so-called Pura Wallia. It has been a long held and distorted view that independent Wales has primarily consisted of the three major principalities of Gwynedd, Powys and Deheubarth. Here I hope to plant the seed of doubt that the above mentioned prin- cipalities were the entire essence of Wales. They were simply the last survivors of several such embryo states. Those principalities that con- tinued into the thirteenth century have had a greater emphasis placed upon them due to the part they played in the tragedy of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd as well as the vital fact that the thirteenth century was a time of increased literacy, both financial and legal. Consequently the three surviving thirteenth century 'principalities' show up far more in con- temporary records, especially in those of the Exchequer. Those of the other 'principalities' that did not survive correspondingly have few or no such records. However it should be remembered that the area termed Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, or Cynllibiwg (Calcebuef) as it was apparently termed in Domesday,1 has a history just as ancient as its counterparts. So too had Gwent and Glamorgan to name but two, before they were also submerged beneath the Anglo-Norman tide.2 Indeed I hope to show here that at the end of the twelfth century the area betweenthe Severn and the Wye was at its zenith, a golden age cut short, but not ended, by the murder of the greatest native prince who held sway in the precariously positioned lands of the old Welsh king- dom of Cynllibiwg, the land of St Cynllo. The first third of the twelfth century had seen the consolidation of Norman control in central Wales. This was reinforced by the presence of garrisoned feudal castles in the main localities; Fitz John at Painscastle; Neufmarch/Gloucester at Brecon; Tosny at Colwyn; Braose at Buellt and Radnor; Mortimer at Cymaran and Dinieithon; Fitz Alan/Say at Clun and Bryn Amlwg; and Fitz Baldwin at Montgomery. In the uplands and virtually valueless marshes, the native Welsh (the strongest of whom in the Middle March appears to