Lecture meeting on 10th February 2025

Bitter feuds and bloodshed: the 200-year struggle to control Maelienydd

Talk by: Philip Hume

Llandrindodd Wells and the neighbouring Cefnllys Castle are located within the medieval cantref of Maelienydd, which was part of the independent area of Wales known as Rhwng Gwy a Hafren (the land between the Wye and the Severn).

Following the Norman conquest of England in the years after 1066, the powerful Mortimer family became established at Wigmore which bordered with eastern Maelienydd. Thus, Maelienydd became the obvious target for Mortimer expansion into Wales. First captured in the 1090s, the cantref was soon retaken by the native Welsh rulers initiating a bitter, and at times personal, feud that lasted for nearly 200 years with control passing back and forth.

This talk follows on from Philip’s last talk to us in December 2023.

Speaker biography

Philip Hume is the creator and editor of a three volume series of books on the Welsh Marcher Lordships, and author of vol 1, The Welsh Marcher Lordships I: Central and North (Logaston Press, March 2021). He has written On the Trail of the Mortimers’ (Logaston Press, 2016), On the Trail of the Mortimers in the Welsh Marches (Logaston Press, 2022), is a co-author of The Ludlow Castle Heraldic Roll (Logaston Press, 2019), co-editor of The Mortimers of Wigmore 1066 – 1485: Dynasty of Destiny (Logaston Press, 2023), and author of articles in various journals.

Philip is the Chair of the Mortimer History Society.

He has recently started a part-time PhD at Swansea University.

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