Page:The statutes of Wales (1908).djvu/29

Rh examine this collection of laws, or to determine whether this definite organisation of  was permanent or not. The authoritative edition is that published by the Record Commissioners in 1841, edited by Aneurin Owen, and intituled "Ancient Laws and Institutes of : comprising laws supposed to be enacted by Howel the Good, modified by subsequent regulations under the native princes prior to the conquest by the First; and anomalous laws consisting principally of institutions which by the Statute of Rhuddlan were admitted to continue in force." This collection clearly shows that the people held most tenaciously to their own laws and customs and to their national independence. They would submit neither to the arms nor to the laws of their persistent invaders, and this spirit continued to distinguish the nation for centuries afterwards. The laws and customs collected and promulgated by Howel Dda denote a high standard of legal proficiency, containing, it is true, many barbarisms, but comparing not unfavourably with the contemporary laws of the English; and it is remarkable that there were few alterations to be made when English statesmen began to devise amendments to them.

The systematic subjugation of was attempted by William the Conqueror, when he organized a chain of great Earldoms settled along the border lands and in  This territory was divided into Lordships Marchers, some of them having originated in the submission of their  owners, who had anticipated the success of the Norman power, but the greater part of these Baronies Marchers was acquired by conquest. Royal licences to make war upon the were granted by the Norman Kings to their vassals for services rendered, upon the usual conditions of feudal tenure, and in the Lordships so acquired the system of jurisprudence was dependent upon the will of the Lords, who exercised supreme power. Through these districts, during the Norman period, castles of great strength