there were a certain number of itinerant members who acted as auditors of accounts and commissioners to hold eyres. The chief of the commissioners to whom Emeldon handed over the Principality in 1343 was Richard de Stafford, steward and surveyor of all the Prince's lands, and a member of his council. He paid many subsequent visits to Wales. The Record of Carnarvon gives records of proceedings before him and other justices itinerant in North Wales on writs of Quo warranto in 1348, and it was he who tried and convicted Gruffyth Says for being a follower of Owen Lawgoch in 1371. The most active itinerant councillor in the first years was William de Shareshull. A judge who had sat on both benches, he was appointed one of the guardians of the Principality during the Prince's minority. Between 1343 and 1350 (when he became head of the court of King's Bench) he held several sessions in Wales while the Justices were displaying their banners at Crecy and their deputies were finding troops. A strong man, and of vast political and judicial experience. and amazing energy, he was lent to the Prince to assist in restoring order and respect for law in the Principality. Enormous fines were inflicted by him on the native magnates, details of which appear in the chamberlains' accounts. The absence of any incidents comparable to the murder of Shaldeford in 1345 may be attributed largely to his work in the following years.

An eyre in North or South Wales generally coincided with an audit. Unlike the custom of the royal exchequer, where the sheriff came to Westminster to account, the audit of the accounts of the sheriffs and other ministers in Wales was done locally by members of the Prince's council. In the autumn of 1346 Shareshull was sent to North Wales,' accompanied by Peter de Gildesburgh.

1 T. of R., Books, 144, 7d.

1

The deputy of the justice is to appear before them to report des toutes maneres de fautes dans votre baillie ".1 The sheriffs of Carnarvon and Anglesea are summoned (to Conway) "a rendre votre acompte a notre chamberlain illoeqes en presence des avantdits [Wm. Shareshull and Peter de Gildesburgh] "," who were sent "pur oier les acomptes de noz ministres come pur reformer le pais et autres diveres busoignez ", wide reference terms which illustrate the scope of the duties of these visiting commissioners. Shareshull was one of the justices commissioned to hold sessions in South Wales in 1347,3 in the autumn of the same year he was appointed to try pleas of the forest in North Wales. This commission was extended to deal with all manner of pleas, the justice of North Wales being engaged elsewhere. The Prince was evidently determined to remedy the "defaute de Sessions", which reacted unfavourably on the state of the Principality and his exchequer.

4

The relieving of the justice and his deputy of their more important judicial duties is the most significant change in local government introduced by the Prince. Otherwise, there is no change in the framework of the administration. The sheriffs of Cardigan and Carmarthen are still, at the end of the principate, very small beer compared with their colleagues in the North.

The Shaldeford Incident.

One of Edward II's few successes was the building up of a loyal Welsh official class, of which Sir Gruffydd Llwyd was the most notable member in North Wales and 1 T. of R., Books, 144, 19.

2 Ibid., 28.

3 lbid., 99d, the justice, Bradestone, being overseas. It is interesting to note that these sessions were postponed, Shareshull being summoned to Westminster on the King's business (Ibid., 103 d). 4 Ibid., 112d.

Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd in the South. The fall of Edward of Carnarvon encompassed by Roger Mortimer of Wigmore,' who became Justice of Wales in 1326, completely alienated these Welshmen. Their personal sympathy was with the fallen monarch; their official interests were ruined by the advent to power of the marcher lord. During Edward's struggle with Lancaster and his marcher allies in 1321-2, Sir Gruffydd Llwyd captured Roger Mortimer's castle of Chirk, and contributed materially to the king's victory. In 1327 an attempt seems to have been made to repeat this interference on the part of the loyal Welsh to assist the King against their common enemy, again a Mortimer. The conspiracy to re-establish the king originated in South Wales with Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd, and was supported by Gruffydd Llwyd and other Welsh friends of Edward in North Wales. It appeared so dangerous a movement to William de Shaldeford, Mortimer's deputy justice of North Wales, that the former wrote to his master on September 7th, 1327, warning him of the danger, and hinting, we are told, that it was to Mortimer's interest that there should be no one for these Welshmen to deliver. Edward was murdered on September 21st. Our information about this projected Welsh action is contained in the record of the appeal of Howel ap Gruffydd against Shaldeford, who was accused in 1331, after the fall of Mortimer, of influencing the latter in his decision to put Edward to death. The appeal petered out, technically through Howel's failure, due to illness, to appear to prosecute the appeal on the day appointed. There were two weighty reasons why the English govern

1 Nephew of Roger Mortimer of Chirk, of unhappy memory.

2 J. G. Edwards, Sir Gruffydd Llwyd, E.H.R., 1915, p. 589, et seqq. 3 T. F. Tout," Captivity and Death of Edward of Carnarvon ", which gives the story and a transcript of the case, Coram Rege Rolls, 5 Edw. III, Trinity Term, no. 285, m. 9.

ment did not wish the case to proceed. After the execution of Mortimer and the assumption of power by the young king in 1330 there was no desire on the part of the latter to revive old scandals, and, secondly, there was the racial aspect of the case. Shaldeford was a burgess of Carnarvon ; his sureties were English burgesses of Carnarvon, Conway and Harlech. Howel ap Gruffydd's sureties were all Welsh and included Gruffydd Llwyd. The English burgess of Carnarvon and former head of the English administration of North Wales was indicted by a Welshman whose nationalism was sufficiently robust to protest against having to plead in an English court of law as he was a foreigner born in the Principality of Wales ", and who was supported by the quondam Welsh official class, now "in opposition". English interests in North Wales made it imperative that the case should come to nothing. William de Shaldeford was released and restored to favour. In May, 1331, we find him appointed to "examine into some petitions.by Englishmen dwelling in North Wales, complaining of felonies and oppressions suffered at the hands of Griffin ap Rees, knight". Sir Griffin ap Rees was Sir Gruffydd Llwyd. The accused became judge; the North Welsh magnates remained alienated.

The dozen years between this incident and the taking over of the Principality by the king's son were a period of uneasiness and slack administration. Ordinances for the amending of the state of North Wales made in 13392 reveal the failure to hold regular sessions of justice as laid down in the Statute of Rhuddlan. The outstanding feature of the early years of the Prince's administration was the frequency of eyres held by members of his council. The appointment of his new attorney in North Wales

1 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1330-4, 143.

2 Cal. Close Rolls, 1339-1341, p. 249 et seq.

early in 1345 occasioned the one political "incident" of the first half of our period, his nominee being a burgess of Carnarvon named Henry de Shaldeford. Gruffydd Llwyd was dead,' but the appointment of a Shaldeford to this important post caused the old hatred of 1331 to flare up. The new generation of the native aristocracy of North Wales took speedy action. Conscious, probably, of their many delinquencies which it would be the new official's business to investigate, they declared war on Shaldeford. On St. Valentine's day, on his way from Denbigh to Carnarvon to take up his new duties, he was attacked by Tudor ap Gronow and a band of Welshmen, and killed. The affair took place near the house of Tudor's brother, Howel. They were of the celebrated stock of Penmynydd in Anglesea, which is in the immediate vicinity of Gruffydd Llwyd's seat of Tregarnedd. The Shaldeford family held official positions in Anglesea, Henry being sub-raglot and sub-ringild of Turkelyn commote, and "porcarius" of the manor of Penros, and William, a son of the former deputy-justice, held, in 1343, the vill of Nantmawr in Turkelyn and the raglotry of Conway on the mainland. The proximity of these families had probably kept alive the antagonism.

3

The panic of the English burgesses is revealed in the letters sent to the Prince reporting the affair. They emphasise the racial character and the extent of the conspiracy and the lawlessness of the magnates of North Wales. They appeal to the prince for protection, reminding him of the officials and worthy burgesses who

1 In 1336; Edwards, op. cit., 600.

2 Tudor was raglot of Dyndaethwy in Anglesea in 1343. Ex. Misc. 4/34. E. A. Lewis, Med. Boroughs of Snowdonia, 241, 245. "The island nursery of Welsh nationalism during this period".

3 Ibid.

Cal. Close Rolls, 1346-9, 139.

* Ancient Correspondence, vol. 54, Nos. 36, 40-46.