Duchy of Cornwall

Duchy of Cornwall

From 1282 until to 1536 Wales was divided into three parts: the Principality of North Wales; the Principality of South Wales (both of which were owmed by the Crown); and the marcher lordships. The first fell to the Crown following the defeat of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1282 whilst the acquisition of the principality of South Wales was piecemeal, haphazard and protracted. The acquisition of the marcher lordships was also a very lengthy process.

Only two lordships are represented in this archive: Bromfield and Yale and the earldom of the March. The earldom of March, which included the constituent lordships of Denbigh, Montgomery, Ceri and Cydewain came to the Crown as a consequence of the death of Edmund Mortimer, the 5th Earl without male heirs in 1425. The earldom was inherited by his nephew, Richard Plantagenet, duke of York, whose son Edward became King of England in 1461.

The lordship of Bromfield and Yale did not come into the hands of the Crown until 1483. Until 1415 it belonged to the Fitzalans, earls of Arundel. Following the death of Thomas Fitzalan in that year the estate was divided between his three sisters, thus passing to the Mowbrays dukes of Norfolk, the Beauchammps, lords Bergavenny and the Lenthalls. By 1451, the Lenthall portion had passed to John Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, and George Neville, Lord Bergavenny. The Mowbray inheritance was surrendered to the Crown, and the Lord Bergavenny portion had passed to the Crown by 1483.

In December 1484 the entire lordship was granted to Sir William Stanley. Stanley was however executed in 1495 and the lordship was forfeited to the Crown. By 1536 and the so called Second Act of Union, practically all the marcher lordships were in the possession of the Crown. The 1536 Act abolished them all and their jurisdiction.

The Crown's holdings in Wales dwindled over the centuries so that by the 1980s only two or three farms survived in its possession.