Lecture meeting on 11th December 2023
‘The King’s Writ does not run here’ – The Welsh Marcher Lordships
Talk by: Philip Hume
The medieval Marcher Lordships were a region between England and Wales that, legally and administratively, didn’t belong fully to either. Within each of the 50 lordships, the Marcher Lord had unique regal-like powers with their own laws, judicial powers, and access to resources and armies.
This talk explores the origins and development of the Marcher Lordships in the context of the 200-year struggle for control of Wales, with particular reference to the Marcher Lordships of Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, the lands between the Wye and the Severn that now form much of modern Radnorshire.
Cefnllys became the administrative centre of the Mortimer’s Marcher lordship of Maelienydd
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 Secretary of the Mortimer History Society.