Tag: Cyfraith Hywel

• The Marcher Lords, the Private Warlords Who Invented Border Brutality

  

  There is a particular kind of violence that flourishes on borders. Not the open violence of battlefield armies, marching under banners and accountable, at least in theory, to a crown or parliament. But the private violence of semi-autonomous men, installed at the edge of a realm, given licence to do what the centre cannot openly…

  Antony David Davies

  15/02/2026

  History

  Anglo-Welsh border, Border brutality, Borderlands, British history, Caerphilly Castle, Castles, Colonialism, Conquest of Wales, Cyfraith Hywel, de Braose, Edward I, england, Feudalism, Frontier societies, Historical geography, History, Hywel Dda, Ludlow Castle, Marcher Lords, Massacre of Abergavenny, Medieval Britain, Medieval politics, Medieval Wales, Medieval warfare, medieval-history, Mortimer family, Norman conquest, Power and violence, State power, travel, Wales, Wales and England, Welsh castles, Welsh history, Welsh identity, Welsh law, Welsh Marches