with a steward, and in "Cardiganshire the county of Cardigan consisting only of one commote, that of Iscoed, and two seneschalcies, Is and Uch Aeron. In the South the chief officials were stewards and bailiffs itinerant and constables of the castles, the sheriffs having no territorial duties, being probably little more than the Justice's clerks in the counties.

The Prince's Central Administration.

The reference to the new seals delivered to the Chamberlains of North and South Wales leads us to an examination of his secretarial arrangements. We are at once confronted with the curious fact that for the first twenty years of his principate there is no reference in the surviving records of his administration to a great seal or a chancellor. Edward of Carnarvon when prince was provided with both. His chancery was fixed in London ;2 the keeper of his wardrobe, William of Blyborough, became his first chancellor and keeper of his great seal.3 The highest dignitary in the Lancastrian household was the duke's chancellor, at the same time his councillor-inchief, and a similar position was held by the chancellor of the Bishop of Durham.5 It is surprising, therefore, that the Black Prince did not, from the beginning, conform with the royal pattern, which was copied by the other great households in the country. When he became Prince of Aquitaine in 1362 we read of his great seal and his chancellor, John de Stretley, but it is probable that

1 See J. G. Edwards, Early History of the Counties of Carmarthen and Cardigan, E.H.R., xxxi (1916). 90-98.

2 Tout, Chapters in Med. Admin. Hist., ii, 170. 4 Armitage-Smith, John of Gaunt, 216.

5 Lapsley, The Palatinate of Durham, ch. iii, 9.

3 Ibid., 181, note 3.

• Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1361-64, 290, and 1364-7, 284. Stretley was also constable of Bordeaux. C.P.R., 1367-70,161.

the latter's activities were confined to Gascony, and did not affect Wales.

4

Our information about the seals used by the Prince comes mainly from his letters to his officials. Registers of these letters were kept, of which a few survive.1 In the earliest register of letters sent between July, 1346, and January, 1348, to ministers of his various estates in Wales, Chester, Cornwall, etc., there is no attempt to classify them according to the form of the letter. In the later registers there is a division, but on regional lines. One volume contains "notes" of letters relating to the earldom of Chester, another consists exclusively of Cornish business, and the third relates to the Prince's English manors of Berkhampstead, Kennington, etc.5 They begin in 1351 and cover some fifteen years, and in form are larger than the earlier and general volume, and are of parchment. There exists a fragment of a North Wales register, covering some of these years. It is of parchment, and, before mutilation, was probably of the same size. Nothing remains of a South Wales register. The letters entered in these books were issued under the "privy seal ", sometimes referred to merely as the seal". When the Prince went overseas he took with him his privy seal, leaving "another privy seal” at Westminster, in his exchequer, in his treasurer's keeping.

66

1 Treasury of Receipt, Books, 144, 278-280.

2 Ibid., 144. Written on paper.

3 Treasury of Receipt, Books, 279. 4 Ibid., 278.

Bound up in Ancient Correspondence, vol. 58 (no. 35).

6

Ibid., 280.

For a detailed study of the Prince's seals, see Mrs. Sharp's Chancery of the Black Prince before 1362 in Essays in Mediaval History presented to Thomas Frederick Tout.

8 The enrolment of three letters to the Prince's Receiver, dated "devant Caleys" in Dec., 1346, is followed by a memorandum "Iste tres littere renovate fuerunt sub sigillo alio privato domini quod

The local arrangements at Carnarvon, Carmarthen and Chester help to explain why the Prince had neither chancellor nor chancery before 1362. At each of these centres he had a chamberlain as head of the local chancery and exchequer. The first register contains many letters under the Prince's privy seal to the chamberlain of Carnarvon instructing him to issue letters patent of appointment under the seal in his keeping. For all practical purposes, then, the chamberlain's seal at Carnarvon was the Prince's great seal; the seal in the keeping of the chamberlain at Carmarthen was similarly his great seal for South Wales. We noticed that when in 1343 John de Pyrye was chamberlain of both North and South Wales there were two seals delivered into his keeping. His holding of both offices did not unite the chanceries.

The custody of this important seal was not the most important of the chamberlain's duties. The chamberlains at the exchequers of Carnarvon and Carmarthen were the fiscal heads of North and South Wales. The sheriffs and the other accounting officers in North Wales, including the bailiffs of the boroughs and the receiver of Montgomery, rendered their accounts at Carnarvon, and likewise the stewards, the bailiffs of the commotes and other lands of the Prince in South Wales at Carmarthen. They paid the wages of the constables of the castles and other officials, and, on occasion, the wages of the Welsh fuerat in custodia domini Petri de Gildesburgh", T. of R., Books, 144, 33, one of these letters was an order to pay £40 to "Sir John de Hale, gardein de notre prive seal". This suggests that the latter went with the Prince to "keep" the seal in France.

1 At Westminster, too, his exchequer housed his secretariat.

2 T. of R., Books, 144, 57, contains a letters' appointment of a collector of horngeld, and the foll. note, "This commission and three others to Merionyth were sealed under the privy seal because... the chamberlain had not the seal of his office with him in London and the business demanded haste",

.....

soldiers before they set out for the port of embarkation. The surplus, if any, was sent to the Prince's receiver at Westminster.

The chamberlain's colleague at Carnarvon, the justice of Snowdon, was the creation of the Statute of Rhuddlan, and the official responsible for the government of North Wales according to the Statute. The justice at the beginning of our period was Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, who received Mortimer's castle of Chirk and this appointment in 1334. The salary attached to the office was the considerable one of £100 yearly, paid out of the issues of North Wales. This large salary was really a source of weakness to the administration, as there was a temptation to grant the office as an off-set against loans made to the Crown or the Prince for the conduct of the war. Arundel was possessed of vast wealth; at one time Edward III owed him £20,000. He was present at Crecy and the naval engagements, and was frequently employed on diplomatic business. The work was done in North Wales, and almost to the same extent in the South, by deputies, who received £40 yearly, paid out of the issues of their bailiwicks.

The title of Justice does not describe adequately the duties of these officers or their deputies. They were really justiciars, political as well as judicial heads of their province. Our records of the activities of these deputy justices tend, rather, to emphasise their general administrative duties. Of their strictly judicial work we have but scant record. We find them busy summoning, inspecting and despatching the Welsh levies, and keeping a watchful eye

2

1 See Dict. Nat. Biog., s.n., Fitalan, Richard.

2 The Ministers' Accounts give us the profits of the sessions. Record of Carnarvon, pp. 1-116, is an extent of Carnarvon and Anglesea taken before John de Delves, Arundel's deputy, and a jury.

on the defences of the Principality, and the Prince's interests generally. Their judicial functions, which they were too busy, in fact, to perform, were taken over in a large measure by special officers sent down by the Prince, members of his council.

The Prince's Council.

The Prince was of course too young in 1343 to choose his own advisers. His council as first constituted was nominated by the King and composed of experienced royal officials and councillors. There is no record of subsequent interference by the King in the choice of the Prince's councillors. Justices of the bench, barons of the exchequer and king's clerks were lent to assist in the government of the Prince's palatinates, not for the purpose of controlling and supervising his policy, as was Edward I's motive in nominating the officials of Edward of Carnarvon. John of Gaunt may have been the favourite son, but we can trace no serious differences or conflict of interests between Edward III and the Black Prince, at least not until the sad closing years of the reign. Minor disputes there were, such as the rival claims to the patronage of St. David's, but the ruling passion of both father and son was war, and the Prince's loyalty was unquestionable. As far as can be ascertained, he had, when of age, a free hand in the government of his domains.

There was no one to claim a hereditary place in his council. Its personnel at any particular date would be difficult to ascertain. The keeper of his seal was a member, and his receiver-general. In addition to these officials who stayed at Westminster or moved with the Prince,

1 Letters and Papers of Hen. VIII, vol. xiv, pt. i, 518, is a list purporting to give the names of his councillors "on his return from beyond sea". Fifteen names are given, most of which are familiar.