Wales and its History

 Throughout medieval times Gwynedd seemed to be the most powerful of Welsh kingdoms, there were times when Deheubarth took the crown , for example hywel dda and Rhys ap Gruffydd but for the vast majority of times it was Gwynedd. Why though? Was the population of Gwynedd higher than the other kingdoms, so they had bigger armies?  Rhodri Mawr gwynedd Hywel Dda Maredudd ab Owain Llywelyn ap Seisyll Gwynedd, Powys, and Deheubarth Bleddyn ap Cynfyn Gwynedd 1063–1075 Powys 1063–1075 Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Gwynedd 1039–1063 Powys 1039–1063 Deheubarth 1055–1063

Laws of Hywel also known as Welsh law,  Was the legal system which applied to all of Wales throughout the Middle Ages until it was abolished by the Acts of Union in 1536, where Wales was annexed by England.  Here is The introduction to the Book of Blegywryd version of the laws "Hywel the Good, son of Cadell, by the grace of God, king of all Wales... summoned to him from every commote of his kingdom six men who were practised in authority and jurisprudence... to the place called the White House on the Taf in Dyfed. ... And at the end of  Lent  the king selected from that assembly the twelve most skilled laymen of his men and the one most skilled scholar who was called Master Blegywryd, to form and interpret for him and for his kingdom, laws and usages." The Iorwerth versions, produced in Gwynedd, have exactly the same attribution of the law to Hywel and the council at Whitland as do the southern versions. It is more likely that Hywel's name was used to lend some form of “a

  This small vignette from the St. Alban’s Chronicle (MS 6, f. 167v) purports to show the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, last native Prince of Wales, on 11 December 1282.  Although the image shows a formal execution scene with a priest in attendance, the text of the Chronicle relates that Llywelyn was killed in an ambush or scuffle:  And when  Ƿ e prince Lewellin his bro Ƿ er  Ƿ at wist he was sore abashed for he had no power to may[n]teyn werre  And  Ƿ en he fled & wend wele to haue scapid but Thomas mortymer in a morning w t  v. knightes met hym alone & hym clipped round about & toke hym and smote of his hed and it presented to  Ƿ e king. And  Ƿ us was Lewellyn hedid & he & his heires disherit for eu[er]more be rightfull Jugement. (f.169).

Abergavenny massacre Sometime in the 1160s Henry Fitzmiles, the Norman Lord of Abergavenny, was killed fighting against the forces of Sytsylt ap Dyferwald, a native Welsh ruler of the area, in 1172 The same Welshman besieged and captured the Norman castle at Abergavenny but was soon returned to the Normans. With Henry dead there was no male heir to take over the de Balun lands so these passed to the evil Norman lord William de Braose, a court favourite of King John of England, a man who was said to be the most vicious of all the Marcher lords. At Christmas 1175 de Braose invited Sytsylt, his son Geoffrey and all of the leading chieftains from Powys and Gwent to a feast at Abergavenny Castle. The intention, he declared, was to meet and spend the Christmas period in each other's company, They would feast and celebrate and make a lasting reconciliation following the death of Henry Fitzmiles. Unsuspecting, Sytsylt accepted the invitation, happy to bring peace to the land, but Willi

According to the laws of hawl dda the royal court consisted of... The king,   the queen, the heir.  Twenty-four, officers of the court,  sixteen are the king's officers   eight the queen's officers.     Captain of the household troops,    priest of the household,      the steward   the chief falconer,      the court justice,     the chief groom      the chamberlain.  the groom of the rein,   the porter,   the bakeress,  the laundress.  There are others, but those are the main ones, each person has a duty that is expected of them, along with benefits of the position etc, we will ignore all this and just look at some cool laws. 

The same people who like to put the Welsh down and try to discredit everything about Welsh history by dismissing anything Welsh people can be proud of as "nationalist fantasy", also often come up with the words "Welsh fought each other more than anyone else".  So to see if this was true I went through my 77 pages of Welsh wars, battles, sieges, skirmishes, raids etc and counted them.  This is what I found. Welsh vs Saxons =   57 17% Welsh vs Normans = 118 37% Welsh vs Vikings = 45 14% Welsh vs Welsh = 56 17 Nobody could tell me when the Normans become English, so I simply called them Normans up to the Glyndŵr rising  Welsh vs English   = 41 12% Total  317 Total Battles that wasn't Welsh vs Welsh   272 Here are the dates. Welsh vs saxons   616 620 - 626 630  630  633 633 642  655  658 658 682   720   722  728  735 743  753   760  765  769 776   778 784 784  795 796   798  816  818 818 820   822   828  830  849 853   865   870   873  877