eldest son, Edward, who had been born at Carnarvon, Prince of Wales, and granted the Principality lands to him, thereby separating the newly conquered territory from the Crown of England, at the same time retaining it in the hands of the royal family and using it as a means of training the heir to the throne in the work of government. Despite a few casual references to Edward II's son as Prince of Wales,' it can be safely assumed that Edward of Carnarvon did not make his son a Prince. The next Prince of Wales was Edward of Carnarvon's grandson, known to posterity as the Black Prince. The charter of his creation as Prince of Wales is dated May 12th, 1343. Wales had been conquered by two agencies-Lords Marcher and royal expeditions. The territories Edward III was in a position to grant to his son were those finally subdued by royal effort, together with the lordships escheated to the Crown through the extinction of the ancient houses. They are enumerated in the charter.2

1 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vol. xiv, Pt. 1, No. 518. "A note of the creation of the Prince of Wales. . . . Prince Edward, son unto Ed. 2 was (as some write) created Prince of Wales, Erll of Chester and Duke of Guyen by a Parliament holden at York. But it appeareth not by the Records in ye Tower that he was made Prince of Wales.... Palgrave, Antient Kalendars and Inventories of the Treasury of the Exchequer, I, p. 101 (translated). Memorandum that the chancellor delivered to the Treasurer and Chamberlains of the Exchequer on the 27th day of November [20 Edward III] the two silver seals which the said King's ministers used in the parts of Wales during the time when the said King was Prince of Wales, for safe keeping in the King's treasury." Cal. Close Rolls, 1343-6, p. 671, has a similar entry of this delivery, but omits any reference to "the time when he was Prince of Wales". Diplomatic Docs. (Exchequer), No. 6. May 8th, 1334," Recital by John Duke of Brittany of letters of Edward, Prince of Wales, dated the Sunday before Christmas, 1325, whereby John late Duke of Brittany leases to the Prince his honour of Richmond in England".

2 Charter Roll, 17 Edw. III, m. 19. Printed in The Report on the Dignity of a Peer, vol. V, p. 43.

Invested according to custom with a coronet on his head and a gold ring on his finger and a silver rod at the Parliament held after Easter, 1343, the Prince receives a grant of the principality "with all our lordships and lands in North Wales, West Wales and South Wales, and our lordship castle town and county of Carnarvon, the lordship castle and town of Conway, of Criccieth, Beaumaris and Harlech, the lordships and counties of Anglesea and Merioneth, the lordship castle town and county of Carmarthen, the lordship castle and town of Llanbadarn Fawr, the lordship and stewardship (senescalcia) of Cantref mawr, the lordship castle town and county of Cardigan, the lordships castles and towns of Emlyn, Builth, Haverford and Montgomery, and all lordships lands and tenements formerly belonging to Rees ap Mereduk" (of Dryslwyn), with all the rights including the voidances of bishoprics, the advowsons of cathedral and other livings, tam ad predictum principatum quam ad nos in dictis partibus spectantibus ".

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William de Emeldon, one of the king's clerks, was appointed' at the end of June to proceed to Wales to take into the King's hands the lands and appurtenances of the Principality of Wales and to deliver them to the Prince, and, secondly, to survey all defects in the castles and manors, and in the armour and victuals and other things which are also to be delivered to the Prince, and to make indentures with the Prince or his attorneys of such defects and of the price of the victuals and to deliver the parts of the indentures remaining with him to the treasurer and chamberlain at the exchequer ". Emeldon did his work well. He deposited at the exchequer two rolls of great historical value. One is a survey, as ordered in the letters patent quoted above, of the fabric and stores

1 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1343-5, p. 56.

of the castles of the Principality. Although not generally known, it is by far the best and most detailed account we possess of the state of the Welsh castles in the Middle Ages. War had recently been declared with France, and the authorities made the handing-over to the Prince an occasion for a thorough stock-taking of the defences of Wales. The other roll compiled and left at the exchequer by Emeldon is better known. It is called "The Fealty Roll of the Black Prince". With Emeldon there went to Wales four commissioners appointed by the young Prince to receive possession of the Principality from the King's clerk. Although their tour of the Principality lasted less than four weeks, and must have entailed much hard riding, their duties were performed so conscientiously and their activities so fully recorded that no better picture exists of the machinery of government than the one drawn in this roll. Emeldon and the Prince's four commissioners, the chief of whom was Richard de Stafford, steward of all the Prince's lands and one of his council, came to St. Asaph on July 31st, where the bishop, David ap Blethin, took the oath of fealty to the Prince, for the King had granted to the Prince the presentations to the Welsh bishoprics. The next day they were at Conway, over at Beaumaris on the 3rd, in Carnarvon on the 5th, at Criccieth on the 7th, and at Harlech on the 9th of August. These five towns, "the mediæval boroughs of Snowdonia", founded by Edward I, were the centres of the English interests in North Wales. The constables of the castles were also the mayor of the boroughs, and they, the bailiffs of the towns and the burgesses, all of whom

1 P.R.O., Miscellanea of the Exchequer, 4/42.

2 P.R.O., Miscellanea of the Exchequer, 4/34. Printed in Arch. Cambren., 1877, Supplementary vol. I. Arch. Cambren., 1873, 157

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were English,' appeared before the commissioners, took their oath of allegiance to their new lord and did fealty. The burgesses were asked what aid they would grant to mark the Prince's accession, and for the repair of the castles, where Emeldon was busy collecting the results of the stock-taking done by the constables in the previous month. At Beaumaris we find that John de Warwick, constable and mayor, is also sheriff of Anglesea; John de Upton, constable and mayor of Conway, is also sheriff of Carnarvon. Carnarvon is the administrative and judicial centre of Gwynedd. Here was performed the ceremony of the delivery of a new seal of office by the commissioners to John de Pyrye, chamberlain of the exchequer of Carnarvon, in the presence of the Bishop of Bangor and the assembled county. This very important seal will be mentioned later. At Harlech, Howel ap Gron' is described as Sheriff of Merioneth. This is an error. He was doubtless under-sheriff to Walter de Mauny, who had been granted the offices of the sheriff of the county with the fee-farm of Harlech and Bala for life in 1341. On Tuesday, August 12th, they arrived at Llanbadarn Fawr, where the deputy constable and the bailiffs took their oaths of office, and the burgesses of the town did fealty. We note that Aberystwyth did not run to a mayor at this time, and that the burgesses are mainly of Welsh origin.

On the following day they were at Emlyn, one of the lordships and not shire ground, at Cardigan on the 14th, and came, via Haverford, to Carmarthen on the 17th, where the new seal of the chamberlain of South Wales was delivered. Hitherto their tour had been devoid of untoward incident, but at Builth, where, after an arduous

1 "It would have seemed as fitting to have a Welshman as burgess in one of the castle boroughs of North Wales as it would to have a Scot at Berwick or a Frenchman at Calais."

ride from Dryslwyn, they arrived on August 21st, they met with rebuff. The deputy constable, ignoring the King's writ to appear before Emeldon on that date, absented himself and ordered David Goch, the porter of the castle, to permit neither Emeldon nor the Prince's commissioners to enter. The hot and dusty and indignant party without the gate seem to have effected an easy entry into the castle, however, and the only damage done was to the dignity of the travellers. David Goch, the porter, was taken into custody and Emeldon, having seized the castle into the King's hands, delivered the castle and lordship of Builth to Stafford and his colleagues, who in turn committed them to the deputy of the Justice of South Wales, at whose request, we are relieved to read, the unfortunate David Goch was released from prison, the late rude deputy constable, Owayn ap Ieuan, was attached, and Richard de la Bere, whose nationality was a guarantee against a repetition of this regrettable incident, was put in charge.

Sir Richard de Stafford and his fellow commissioners terminated their labours at Montgomery, where the constable of the castle (described as the "key of the principality of Wales ") and the steward of the lordship took their oath of office. The account of the taking over of the Principality lands and Emeldon's digest of the surveys of the castles, together with the superseded seals of the two chamberlains, were deposited in the exchequer.

They found North Wales divided in orderly fashion, according to the Statute of Rhuddlan, into commotes and shires, with the commote officers responsible to the sheriffs and the sheriffs combining their office with the keeping of a castle and the mayoralty of a borough. In South Wales they found a much less regular state of things; in "Carmarthenshire" a double county, English and Welsh, each 1 Cal. Close Rolls, 1360-4, p. 81.

D