Llanilltud

The post-Norman ecclesiastical and political transformation of south-east Wales, recorded in early C12 manuscript. This book explores the ecclesiastical and political transformation of south-east Wales in the later eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Ecclesiastical and administrative reform was one of the defining characteristics of the Norman regime in Britain, and the author argues that a new generation of clergy in South Wales was at the heart of this reforming programme. The focus of this volume is the early twelfth-century Book of Llandaf, one of the most perplexing but exciting historical works from post-Conquest Britain. It has long been viewed as a primary source for the history of early medieval Wales, but here it is presented in a fresh light, as a monument to learning and literature in Norman Wales, produced in the same literary milieu as Geoffrey of Monmouth. As such, the Book of Llandaf provides us with valuable insights into the state of the Norman Church in Wales, and allows us to understand how it thought about its past. JOHN DAVIES is Research Fellow in Scottish History, University of Edinburgh

The most detailed history of the Welsh from Late-Roman Britain to the eve of the Norman Conquest. Integrates the history of religion, language, and literature with the history of events.

An authoritative dictionary of the meanings and derivations of Welsh place-names. The first of its kind in Wales, this volume deals with most of the place-names of Wales as well as prominent features of the landscape. Also includes an invaluable glossary of the place-name elements. First published in November 2007.

This book offers a new assessment of early Christianity in south-west Britain from the fourth to the tenth centuries, a rich period which includes the transition from Roman to native British to Saxon models of church. The book will be based on evidence from archaeological excavations, early texts and recent critical scholarship and cover Wessex, Devon and Cornwall. In the south-west, Wessex provides the greatest evidence of Roman Christianity. The fifth-century Dorset villas of Frampton and Hinton St Mary, with their complex baptistery mosaics, indicate the presence of sophisticated Christian house churches. The fact that these two Roman villas are only 15 miles apart suggests a network of small Christian communities in this region. The author uses evidence from St Patrick’s fifth-century ‘Confessions’ to describe how members of a villa house church lived. Wessex was slowly Christianised: in Gloucestershire, the pagan healing sanctuary at Chedworth provides evidence of later use as a Christian baptistery; at Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire, a baptistery was dug into the mosaic floor of an imposing villa, which may by then have been owned by a bishop. In Somerset a number of recently excavated sites demonstrate the transition from a pagan temple to a Christian church. Beside the pagan temple at Lamyatt, later female burials suggest, unusually, a small monastic group of women. Wells cathedral grew beside the site of a Roman villa’s funeral chapel. In Street, a large oval enclosure indicates the probable site of a ‘Celtic’ monastery. Early Christian cemeteries have been excavated at Shepton Mallet and elsewhere. Lundy Island, off the Devon coast, provides evidence of a Celtic monastery, with its inscribed stones that commemorate early monks. At Exeter, a Saxon anthology includes numerous riddles, one of which describes in detail the production of an illuminated manuscript in a south-western monastery. Oliver Padel’s meticulous documentation of Cornish place-names has demonstrated that, of all the Celtic regions, Cornwall has by far the highest number of dedications to a single, otherwise unknown individual, typically consisting of a small church and a farm by the sea. These small monastic ‘cells’ have hitherto received little attention as a model of church in early British Christianity, and the latter part of the text focuses on various aspects of this model, as lived out in coastal and in upland settlements, on islands, and in relation to larger Breton monasteries. Study of 60 Breton sites has demonstrated possible connections between larger Breton monasteries and smaller Cornish cells.

Mary Magdalene and Her Sister Martha: An Edition and Translation of the Medieval Welsh Lives provides scholarly editions and English translations of the medieval Welsh versions of the legends of Mary Magdalene and Martha. Described by Victor Saxer as medieval best sellers, these hagiographical tales, which described how Mary Magdalene and her sister Martha survived a perilous sea voyage from the holy land and evangelized Provence, were available in many different Latin and vernacular versions and circulated widely in the medieval West. The texts were translated or adapted into Middle Welsh some time before the mid-fourteenth century: the Middle Welsh Life of Mary Magdalene is extant in thirteen manuscripts and the Middle Welsh Life of Martha is preserved in eight of the same manuscripts. Jane Cartwright makes the Middle Welsh versions available to an international audience for the first time and provides a detailed study of the Welsh manuscripts that contain the texts, a comparison between the different manuscripts versions and a discussion of the wider hagiographical context of the texts in Wales. The volume includes transcriptions, editions and translations of the two Lives based on the oldest most complete extant versions found in the Red Book of Talgarth c. 1400, as well as an additional section of text describing Mary Magdalene s life before Christ s crucifixion from the fifteenth-century Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 27ii. The edition is accompanied by a comprehensive glossary which provides translations of all medieval Welsh words that occur in the texts, an analysis of the development and transmission of the legends, as well as a discussion of the relevance and popularity of these two female saints in late medieval Wales: medieval Welsh poetry, church dedications, and holy wells are also considered.

TABLE OF CONTENTS MAP OF ECCLESIASTICAL PARISHES LIST OF PLATES LIST OF FIGURES CHAIRMAN'S PREFACE REPORT, WITH LIST OF MONUMENTS SELECTED BY THE COMMISSIONERS AS ESPECIALLY WORTHY OF PRESERVATION LISTS OF COMMISSIONERS AND STAFF LIST OF ECCLESIASTICAL PARISHES, WITH INCIDENCE OF MONUMENTS LIST OF CIVIL PARISHES, WITH INCIDENCE OF MONUMENTS ABBREVIATED TITLES OF REFERENCES PRESENTATION OF MATERIAL CONVERSION TABLES, METRIC TO IMPERIAL INVENTORY. PART ii: THE IRON AGE AND THE ROMAN OCCUPATION Introductory Note The Physical Background Communications. Iron Age and Roman Hill-forts and Settlements. Iron Age Hill-forts and Related Structures Unenclosed Hut Settlements Roman Remains Forts Other Military Works Roads Civil Sites Appendix: The Glamorgan section of Iter XII and the site of Bomium NAMES OF PLACES IN GLAMORGAN GLOSSARY INDEX OF GRID REFERENCES GENERAL INDEX MAP OF CIVIL PARISHES

Fifty-seven castles founded in Glamorgan by 1217 are here described. These include mottes. castle-ringworks, and presumed Welsh earthworks, all without masonry, as well as sixteen masonry castles ranging from well known sites at Cardiff, Coity, and Ogmore, to the Welsh stone castle now identified at Plas Baglan. Later defensive monuments will be described in part lb. Glamorgan castles occur in unrivalled density, their study enriched by an exceptional range of works on local history and records. County borders embrace the lordships ot'Gower and Glamorgan. Most castles lie in the fertile lowlands where Norman rule was imposed. Welsh independence endured in the uplands until the mid-13th-century conquests of the Clare lords. When they inherited Glamorgan in 1217 Norman rule had survived unbroken in the lowlands from the late-11th century, if not in Gower. Profusely illustrated descriptions incorporate comprehensive historical accounts. The Introductory Survey and Sectional Preambles discuss the evidence, illustrated by maps and diagrams. Significant conclusions emerge: William the Conqueror founded Cardiff in 1081; Glacial drift provides a determinant for the segregation of mottes and castle-ringworks; Roman roads, forts, and river crossings influenced Norman settlement; Early Masonry Castles, rare in Wales, were numerous in Glamorgan. Castle of the lords of Glamorgan are of particular interest, especially Newcastle, which might be attributed to Henry II. These lords included King John (1189-1216) and leading magnates of the realm: Rufus's favourite, Robert Fitzhamon (1093-1107); Robert, earl of Gloucester, base son of Henry I (fa. 1J13-47); and later, the great Clare earls (1217-1314) and Edward II's favourite, Hugh Despenser (1317-26). Content Map of sites treated in this Part (la) of Volume IIII Chairman's Preface Report, with a List of Monuments selected by the Commissioners as most worthy of preservation List of Commissioners and Staff Authorship and Compilation Presentation of Material Introductory Survey I The Division of the material; Parts la and lb Explained II The Geographical Background III The Historical Background (1072-1217) IV The Early Castles Discussed Inventory of the Early Castles Section MO: Mottes without Masonry Section CR: Castle-Ringworks without Masonry Section UW: Unclassified, probably Welsh Castles Section VE: Vanished Early Castles Section MM: Masonry Castles Built Over Mottes Section MR: Masonry Castles built over Castle-ringworks Section EM: Early Masonry Castles Abbreviated Titles of References Map and List of Ecclesiastical Parishes, with incidence of Monuments Map and List of Civil Parishes, with incidence of Monuments Index of National Grid References for sites treated in Part la Glossary: General Glossary: Welsh Terms and Place-name Elements List of Figures, including maps and photographs General Index Alphabetical List of sites treated in Part 1 b of Volume III Map of sites treated in Part lb of Volume III