Glamorgan

The eight boroughs were controlled by four patrons. In 1754 these were: the Duke of Beaufort (Swansea and Loughor); Herbert Mackworth of Gnoll (Neath and Aberavon); Thomas Talbot of Laycock (Kenfig); and Lord Windsor (Cardiff, Cowbridge, and Llantrisant). The dominant interest was that of Lord Windsor, which passed in 1766 to Lord Mountstuart, who had married Windsor’s daughter and heir.

The Cardiff Castle interest was predominant in this period, returning all the Members.Ll. B. John, ‘Parl. Rep. Glam. 1536-1832’ (Cardiff Univ. M.A. thesis, 1934); R. D. Rees, ‘Parl. Rep. S. Wales 1790-1830’ (Reading Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1962), i. 219. It was transmitted by the marriage of the heiress of Viscount Windsor in 1766 to John Stuart, 4th Earl and 1st Marquess of Bute (d. 1814), and he returned three of his sons; the 2nd Marquess returned his brother in 1818.

The eight boroughs were controlled by four Tory patrons, as lords of the respective manors: Swansea and Loughor by the dukes of Beaufort; Neath and Aberavon by the Mackworths of Gnoll; Kenfig by the Mansels of Margam; and Cardiff, Cowbridge and Llantrisant by the Windsors of Cardiff Castle. The dominant interest was Lord Windsor’s, but until his son, Herbert, came of age, and took the seat in 1734, he acquiesced in the nominations of the Mansels, who since 1689 had controlled the representation, with the consent of the other patrons.Ll. B. John, ‘Parl. Rep. Glam. 1536-1832’ (Univ.

Although the earls of Pembroke are said to have controlled most of the Glamorgan boroughs, there is no evidence of a Herbert candidate in any of the elections. In 1660 there was a double return of the Cavalier Herbert Evans, an ambitious young man of royalist sympathies who enjoyed the dominant interest in Neath, and Bussy Mansel, who had been one of the leading figures in South Wales during the Commonwealth.

The political life of south-east Wales in the Elizabethan period was dominated by the earls of Pembroke. By a series of grants between 1547 and the early 156os William Herbert, the 1st Earl, acquired most of the former lordship of Glamorgan, together with the power to fill many important offices. Neither he nor his son Henry (2nd Earl from 1570 to 1601), lived in the area, but they exercised their influence through relatives and allies. Their Glamorganshire possessions included at least six of the county’s medieval boroughs, headed by the shire town of Cardiff.

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.

Situated in south-eastern Glamorganshire, near the mouth of the River Taff, Cardiff flourished during the medieval period as the commercial centre of the lordship of Glamorgan,D.G. Walker, ‘Cardiff’, in Bors. of Medieval Wales ed. R.A. Griffiths, 125-6. but was sacked during Glynd?r rebellion and had not recovered its prosperity by the sixteenth century.W. Rees, Cardiff, 1-15; I.