The lordship of Montgomery had come to the crown as part of the earldom of March, on the attainder of the 3rd Duke of York in 1459. In 7504 Charles Somerset, Lord Herbert, later 1st Earl of Worcester, was named steward of the lordship and constable of the castle, and six years later Somerset’s appointment was renewed in survivorship with his son Henry.
In 1223 Henry III decided to build a new castle at Montgomery with a satellite town to protect the Severn valley against the Welsh. The borough’s charter of 1227 modelled on that for Hereford was confirmed and modified throughout the middle ages and again in 1536 when the town’s government was vested in two bailiffs elected annually and assisted by several lesser municipal officers. The castle and town walls were repaired during Bishop Lee’s presidency of the council in the marches and when Leland visited the town he praised Lee’s work.
Pembrokeshire was a poor, sparsely populated county, largely dependent on farming and coastal trading. In the absence of much timber its inhabitants used sea-coal for fuel, shipping some as far afield as Bristol and Cork. After its settlement under the Norman kings, the county with an earl of its own had resisted the efforts of successive Welsh princes to reconquer it and had preserved its English character. On the death of Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford, in 1495 the earldom of Pembroke passed to the crown and its estates were held in turn by Prince Arthur and the future Henry VIII.
Glamorgan was one of the wealthiest areas in Wales. Although not well suited to farming, the county was rich in coal and iron, and its long coastline with many good harbours on the Bristol Channel made delivery from the mines easy to most destinations. The prosperity of several of its ports was threatened by silting and an Act (I Mary st. 3, c.11) obtained during Mary’s second Parliament was meant to remedy this. At the Union the old county was consolidated and enlarged, and the 2nd Earl of Worcester confirmed in his post as justice of Glamorgan.
Cardiff was the shire town of Glamorgan, the chief market for the region and a thriving port with about 260 burgage tenements. Almost certainly of Norman foundation it had received a charter early in the 12th century which had been confirmed and modified repeatedly until 1497. It was governed by the constable of the castle as ex officio mayor assisted by two bailiffs and 12 aldermen. Borough records are extant for the period.
Merioneth was an isolated county, far from the headquarters of the council in the marches. With a coastline lacking good anchorages, with infertile soil and a mountainous hinterland, the county went in for cattle breeding and iron production, but general poverty and brigandage hindered the development of either interest. The determined effort of Lewis ab Owen to restore order in Mawddwy failed with his own murder in 1555. The poverty of the region presumably explains why Merioneth alone of the Welsh counties was not provided with a parliamentary borough under the Act of Union.
Until the Union the small county of Flint had been partially dependent on the county palatine of Chester, and the ties between the two remained close throughout the century. After the 3rd Earl of Derby, who was lord of Caergwrle or Hope and other property in the shire, the most influential families were the Hanmers, Mostyns and Salusburys. Of the six knights for Flintshire all but George Wood belonged to, or were allied to, this interknit group of gentle families.
The castle, town and borough of Flint were founded by Edward I on the Dee estuary at the conquest of Wales, and had thenceforth remained the centre of government in north-east Wales. The constable of the castle was originally ex officio mayor, but was so often an absentee that the mayoralty was usually exercised by a local man, in 1553 Thomas Salusbury. The Edwardian charter vesting municipal administration in two bailiffs elected annually by the burgesses was confirmed repeatedly throughout the middle ages and again by Mary in 1555.
Denbighshire was one of the four new shires in Wales created in 1536, being formed by a fusion of the lordships of Denbigh and Ruthin in Gwynedd with those of Bromfield-and-Yale and Chirk in Powys. Under the Act of Union it was laid down that meetings of the county court should alternate between Denbigh, the ‘head and shire town’ in the west, and Wrexham in the east. The Salusbury family of Lleweni more or less controlled the county until the accession of Elizabeth.
After the conquest of Wales the castle at Denbigh was rebuilt by Henry, 3rd Earl of Lincoln, on the orders of Edward I. The earl established the borough by charter in 1283, modifying its privileges seven years later: with each burgage went property in Lleweni. The lordship passed by marriage to Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, and after his fall it formed part, successively, of the earldoms of Winchester, March and Salisbury, coming to the crown in the mid 15th century.
