Borough

Situated within view of the coast of Kent, Calais under English rule was a town of strategic, diplomatic and commercial importance. The later Plantagenet and Tudor monarchs thought of Calais and its pale, an area amounting to about 150 square miles, as a prestigious barbican to their kingdom and a bridgehead for the reconquest of France. Its part in the Crecy and Agincourt campaigns made it an object of veneration, contemporaries describing it as a jewel. No sovereign could contemplate its loss.

Tournai capitulated to Henry VIII on 23 Sept. 1513 after a short siege. Before departing the King named as governor Sir Edward Poynings, who with a council modelled on that for Calais was to rule the city in conjunction with the existing civic government for a year and a half: Poynings was succeeded by the 4th Lord Mountjoy, and Mountjoy in 1517 by Sir Richard Jerningham. There were four civic councils.

By the mid 13th century the town of Old Radnor had been superseded by that of New Radnor, some two miles away. The borough is said to have had a charter destroyed in 1401 during Owain Glyn Dwr’s uprising but no new one was issued until 1562. In the early 16th century, when the lordship of the borough belonged to the crown as part of the earldom of March, authority was vested in a bailiff and common council. Made the shire town at the Union, New Radnor alternated with Rhayader as the meeting place of the county court until 1543 and with Presteigne for the rest of the period.

The lordship, castle and borough of Haverfordwest, situated at the head of the Cleddau estuary, belonged to the crown. The town perhaps owed its origin to Gilbert de Clare (1110-17) but its first known charter is that of William Marshall (1189-1219). Marshall’s charter was confirmed and modified repeatedly throughout the middle ages and again in 1532, 1547 and 1554. By the early 16th century authority was vested in a mayor and a self-perpetuating council of Twenty-Four, assisted by several municipal officers sworn in before the chancellor of the lordship.

Although Pembroke had been the administrative centre for the earldom of that name since the 12th century, it was not declared the shire town at the Union. The King rejected the proposal by Bishop Barlow of St. David’s that Haverfordwest should be so designated on the score of its geographical convenience, but it was there that the county court usually met. Henry VII, who had been born at Pembroke, had incorporated it in 1485 as the mayor, bailiffs and burgesses, thus making it the first corporate borough in Wales.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The castle and borough of Cardigan, situated in the south-west of the county, belonged to the crown. A document of 1199, sometimes said to be a borough charter, was a release from various dues for four years: this was renewed in 1230. The first extant charter, that of 1284, was confirmed and amplified throughout the middle ages and again in 1527. By the 16th century authority was vested in a mayor and two bailiffs assisted by a common council and several municipal officers: the coroner for the town was appointed by the chamberlain of South Wales.