Brecon, Lordship of
The first steps in the conquest of Brycheiniog may have been taken under the direction of William fitz Osbern, earl of Hereford (d.1071). Certainly the establishment of Clifford castle by fitz Osbern opened the way into Brycheiniog, and Orderic Vitalis gave him the credit for starting things moving, but there is no evidence either way. There was however little progress for 20 years, (reflecting the general feebleness of the Norman drive on the southern front at this time); in part this was doubtless because of the powerful influence of Rhys ap Tewdwr of Deheubarth.
The key figure in the conquest was Bernard de Neufmarché . By 1088 he was established in Glasbury, and for the next five years he and his supporters probed the defences of Brycheiniog. The decisive battle was fought in Easter week 1093 (17-23 April) when Rhys ap Tewdwr was called in to help defend the kingdom and he was killed in battle with "the Normans who were living in Brycheiniog" near where the Honddu falls into the Usk. The death of Rhys left the way open for the Normans to expand into Brycheiniog and elsewhere, which they did, creating the lordship of Brecon.
Bernard was the first lord of Brecon and established his castle at Aberhonddu (which the Normans renamed Brecon), where he founded a priory church and a small borough and bestowed on Battle Abbey the means of establishing a cell there. Brecon was protected by a series of mottes and Bernard's knights established their own castles: at Bronllys and Hay, which guarded the approach from Herefordshire; at Tretower and Crickhowell which controlled the route to Abergavenny and Gwent; and at Aberyscir and Trecastell which defended western Brecon against Cantref Bychan.
The Normans moved into the rich lands and river valleys (the Great Forest of Brecon was slowly impregnated with small castles and hunting lodges); the native Welsh remained in the uplands and north of Brecon the native dynasty was able to establish a base.
Trouble was not long in coming. During 1094-98 there broke out a major reaction to the Normans in Wales: the unrest began in Gwynedd and consolidated in west Wales, and eventually it spread to Brecon in 1096. Here, Gruffydd ap Idnerth and his brother Ifor defeated a force of Normans from Glamorgan at Aber Lech, three miles north-east of Ystradgynlais, but significantly the castles did not fall and the Normans were able to keep control of the lordship.
In 1125 the lordship passed into the hands of Miles of Gloucester, who had married Bernard de Neufmarché's daughter Sibyl, when Bernard died without male issue c.1125: Miles inherited in right of his wife. In 1141 Miles was made earl of Hereford and he and his family controlled a large block of territory which also included the lordship of Abergavenny.
The accession of King Stephen in 1135 saw a major revolt against Anglo-Norman rule, which was to mark the end of the first phase of the conquest; and one of the first outbreaks was caused by one Hywel ap Maredudd, a Welsh chief who had retained some authority in western Brycheiniog. He gathered an army and moved on Gower, where he won a victory on 1 January 1136. (At this time Richard fitz Gilbert, lord of Ceredigion, refused to recognize the volatile state of the Marches and insisted on travelling the road from Abergavenny to Brecon without an escort; the story goes that when he reached the woods of Coed Grwyne he was ambushed by the Welsh of Gwent and killed near Crickhowell in 1136.) Miles of Gloucester was able to keep his hold on the lordship throughout the anarchy, but Hywel ap Maredudd was able to cause much destruction all the same.
Miles died in 1143 and his son Roger succeeded to the earldom. He died in 1155 and Brecon and Upper Gwent passed to his brother Walter; when Walter died soon after Brecon went to the third brother, Henry. Henry was killed in a fight in Gwent and so another brother, Mahel, the fourth son of Miles, inherited. But in 1165 Mahel too died childless (he was killed in a fire at Walter Clifford's castle of Bronllys when a stone from the keep landed on his head) and the inheritance of Miles of Gloucester was divided between his three daughters. One of these, Bertha, had married William II de Braose, and now she brought him the lordships of Brecon and Abergavenny. They stayed with the Braose family until 1208 when the family suffered eclipse at the hands of King John and their lands were confiscated to the Crown. Reginald de Braose was however able to take advantage of the civil war which erupted towards the end of John's reign to recover the family lordships (even if he wasn't, strictly speaking, the true heir: that was his nephew John de Braose who had been imprisoned by the king after the family's fall from favour in 1208 and was not released until 1218, when he was unable to recover his inheritance).
Reginald de Braose married Gwladus, a daughter of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth of Gwynedd: when Reginald came to terms with the new king, Henry III, Llywelyn attacked his Welsh lordships including Brecon.
Reginald died in 1228 and was succeeded by his son, William V de Braose. When Llywelyn had him hanged in 1230 he left no sons but four daughters, among whom the inheritance was divided. Brecon went to Eleanor and her husband Humphrey de Bohun.
During his campaign of 1231 Llywelyn attacked and burned Brecon, among other towns, and again in December 1233 he reduced it to ashes, but failed to take the castle. The Welsh leaders of upland Brecon gravitated towards him but with his death in 1240 the Bohuns were able to regain the initiative there.
The lordship of Brecon was nominally to remain with the Bohuns until the male line died out in 1373, except for a brief period 1322-26. For much of the thirteenth century, however, their power in the lordship was weak, for it was heavily under the influence of the princes of Gwynedd. Although there was a resident Anglo-Norman gentry, outside their manors and estates their hold was more tenuous and many uplands were still under native rule; even lowlands away from the boroughs were still "overwhelmingly Welsh". Indeed, during the period 1262-77 Brecon lordship was held firmly by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd: for in 1262 he captured the Mortimer castle of Cefnllys and in the aftermath he was able to expel Humphrey de Bohun and finally move on Brecon ("the whole of the Welshry of Brecon and Blaenllynfi rushed to join him"). He soon overran the lordship and so extended his borders as far as Ysrad Yw, only a few miles from Abergavenny, by March 1263.
In 1264, as a result of the baronial war then in progress, Brecon was granted to Roger Mortimer, "but to capture it and hold against Llywelyn was beyond even his powers".
Llywelyn kept his hold on the lordship even though his English allies were defeated at Evesham in 1265, and Roger Mortimer was defeated on 15 May 1266 when he attempted to occupy it. He narrowly escaped with his life. Under the treaty of Montgomery in 1267 Llywelyn was recognized as lord of Brecon (among other titles).
But the young Humphrey de Bohun, heir to the earldom of Hereford, wanted it back, and in the years following 1273 he took up arms to try to recover it. He raided the province, and began enticing Llywelyn's vassals away from their allegiance to him. He was joined in this by Reginald fitz Peter of Dinas and Blaenllynfi, and his vassal Hugh Turbeville of Crickhowell. In 1274 the king's envoys arranged a truce between the two sides. But although the Crown claimed to be neutral in fact it treated Bohun as the rightful lord of Brecon, a trend which increased as the royal quarrel with Llywelyn grew. Llywelyn was able to hang on to the lordship, however, until he was swept away by the Edwardian invasion of 1277: when Humphrey de Bohun (earl of Hereford as of 24 September 1275) was finally able to recover it.
The Bohuns were able to establish an accord with the leading Welsh dynasty of the lordship, the family of Einion Sais, which acted as a channel between the lords and the native Welsh, to the advantage of both.
Following his victory at the battle of Boroughbridge in 1322 Edward II claimed Brecon (together with Hay and Huntingdon) from the earl of Hereford's estates; indeed the earl of Hereford's disloyalty was taken out on his lordship of Brecon which was stripped of timber by royal forces, local Welsh leaders were imprisoned, and the tenantry were fined 3,000 sheep; but when the king was overthrown in 1326 the lands were restored. [G.R.]
[R.R. Davies, Lloyd, Walker]
The key figure in the conquest was Bernard de Neufmarché . By 1088 he was established in Glasbury, and for the next five years he and his supporters probed the defences of Brycheiniog. The decisive battle was fought in Easter week 1093 (17-23 April) when Rhys ap Tewdwr was called in to help defend the kingdom and he was killed in battle with "the Normans who were living in Brycheiniog" near where the Honddu falls into the Usk. The death of Rhys left the way open for the Normans to expand into Brycheiniog and elsewhere, which they did, creating the lordship of Brecon.
Bernard was the first lord of Brecon and established his castle at Aberhonddu (which the Normans renamed Brecon), where he founded a priory church and a small borough and bestowed on Battle Abbey the means of establishing a cell there. Brecon was protected by a series of mottes and Bernard's knights established their own castles: at Bronllys and Hay, which guarded the approach from Herefordshire; at Tretower and Crickhowell which controlled the route to Abergavenny and Gwent; and at Aberyscir and Trecastell which defended western Brecon against Cantref Bychan.
The Normans moved into the rich lands and river valleys (the Great Forest of Brecon was slowly impregnated with small castles and hunting lodges); the native Welsh remained in the uplands and north of Brecon the native dynasty was able to establish a base.
Trouble was not long in coming. During 1094-98 there broke out a major reaction to the Normans in Wales: the unrest began in Gwynedd and consolidated in west Wales, and eventually it spread to Brecon in 1096. Here, Gruffydd ap Idnerth and his brother Ifor defeated a force of Normans from Glamorgan at Aber Lech, three miles north-east of Ystradgynlais, but significantly the castles did not fall and the Normans were able to keep control of the lordship.
In 1125 the lordship passed into the hands of Miles of Gloucester, who had married Bernard de Neufmarché's daughter Sibyl, when Bernard died without male issue c.1125: Miles inherited in right of his wife. In 1141 Miles was made earl of Hereford and he and his family controlled a large block of territory which also included the lordship of Abergavenny.
The accession of King Stephen in 1135 saw a major revolt against Anglo-Norman rule, which was to mark the end of the first phase of the conquest; and one of the first outbreaks was caused by one Hywel ap Maredudd, a Welsh chief who had retained some authority in western Brycheiniog. He gathered an army and moved on Gower, where he won a victory on 1 January 1136. (At this time Richard fitz Gilbert, lord of Ceredigion, refused to recognize the volatile state of the Marches and insisted on travelling the road from Abergavenny to Brecon without an escort; the story goes that when he reached the woods of Coed Grwyne he was ambushed by the Welsh of Gwent and killed near Crickhowell in 1136.) Miles of Gloucester was able to keep his hold on the lordship throughout the anarchy, but Hywel ap Maredudd was able to cause much destruction all the same.
Miles died in 1143 and his son Roger succeeded to the earldom. He died in 1155 and Brecon and Upper Gwent passed to his brother Walter; when Walter died soon after Brecon went to the third brother, Henry. Henry was killed in a fight in Gwent and so another brother, Mahel, the fourth son of Miles, inherited. But in 1165 Mahel too died childless (he was killed in a fire at Walter Clifford's castle of Bronllys when a stone from the keep landed on his head) and the inheritance of Miles of Gloucester was divided between his three daughters. One of these, Bertha, had married William II de Braose, and now she brought him the lordships of Brecon and Abergavenny. They stayed with the Braose family until 1208 when the family suffered eclipse at the hands of King John and their lands were confiscated to the Crown. Reginald de Braose was however able to take advantage of the civil war which erupted towards the end of John's reign to recover the family lordships (even if he wasn't, strictly speaking, the true heir: that was his nephew John de Braose who had been imprisoned by the king after the family's fall from favour in 1208 and was not released until 1218, when he was unable to recover his inheritance).
Reginald de Braose married Gwladus, a daughter of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth of Gwynedd: when Reginald came to terms with the new king, Henry III, Llywelyn attacked his Welsh lordships including Brecon.
Reginald died in 1228 and was succeeded by his son, William V de Braose. When Llywelyn had him hanged in 1230 he left no sons but four daughters, among whom the inheritance was divided. Brecon went to Eleanor and her husband Humphrey de Bohun.
During his campaign of 1231 Llywelyn attacked and burned Brecon, among other towns, and again in December 1233 he reduced it to ashes, but failed to take the castle. The Welsh leaders of upland Brecon gravitated towards him but with his death in 1240 the Bohuns were able to regain the initiative there.
The lordship of Brecon was nominally to remain with the Bohuns until the male line died out in 1373, except for a brief period 1322-26. For much of the thirteenth century, however, their power in the lordship was weak, for it was heavily under the influence of the princes of Gwynedd. Although there was a resident Anglo-Norman gentry, outside their manors and estates their hold was more tenuous and many uplands were still under native rule; even lowlands away from the boroughs were still "overwhelmingly Welsh". Indeed, during the period 1262-77 Brecon lordship was held firmly by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd: for in 1262 he captured the Mortimer castle of Cefnllys and in the aftermath he was able to expel Humphrey de Bohun and finally move on Brecon ("the whole of the Welshry of Brecon and Blaenllynfi rushed to join him"). He soon overran the lordship and so extended his borders as far as Ysrad Yw, only a few miles from Abergavenny, by March 1263.
In 1264, as a result of the baronial war then in progress, Brecon was granted to Roger Mortimer, "but to capture it and hold against Llywelyn was beyond even his powers".
Llywelyn kept his hold on the lordship even though his English allies were defeated at Evesham in 1265, and Roger Mortimer was defeated on 15 May 1266 when he attempted to occupy it. He narrowly escaped with his life. Under the treaty of Montgomery in 1267 Llywelyn was recognized as lord of Brecon (among other titles).
But the young Humphrey de Bohun, heir to the earldom of Hereford, wanted it back, and in the years following 1273 he took up arms to try to recover it. He raided the province, and began enticing Llywelyn's vassals away from their allegiance to him. He was joined in this by Reginald fitz Peter of Dinas and Blaenllynfi, and his vassal Hugh Turbeville of Crickhowell. In 1274 the king's envoys arranged a truce between the two sides. But although the Crown claimed to be neutral in fact it treated Bohun as the rightful lord of Brecon, a trend which increased as the royal quarrel with Llywelyn grew. Llywelyn was able to hang on to the lordship, however, until he was swept away by the Edwardian invasion of 1277: when Humphrey de Bohun (earl of Hereford as of 24 September 1275) was finally able to recover it.
The Bohuns were able to establish an accord with the leading Welsh dynasty of the lordship, the family of Einion Sais, which acted as a channel between the lords and the native Welsh, to the advantage of both.
Following his victory at the battle of Boroughbridge in 1322 Edward II claimed Brecon (together with Hay and Huntingdon) from the earl of Hereford's estates; indeed the earl of Hereford's disloyalty was taken out on his lordship of Brecon which was stripped of timber by royal forces, local Welsh leaders were imprisoned, and the tenantry were fined 3,000 sheep; but when the king was overthrown in 1326 the lands were restored. [G.R.]
[R.R. Davies, Lloyd, Walker]
Brecon: Newton
Home of the Games family. Built in 1582 by Sir John Games, descendant of Sir David Gam who was knighted at Agincourt. The house is the earliest Welsh example of a "double-pile" plan of the Elizabethan period. The pyramidal roof and chimneys are of late C17 date.
[Houses of the Welsh Countryside: Annals & Antiquities, Haslam, photocopies held on Enquiry file 21/4L]
Brecon: Shire Hall
Built between 1839-1843 in the Greek revival style with stately Doric portico at a cost of £12,000. The architects were T.H. Wyatt and David Brandon and the building is very much in the style of similar municipal buildings springing up at the time (e.g Hereford).
From then on the building was very much the headquarters for the official life of the county, with Petty and Quarter Sessions, and the Assizes held there. The Brecknock Poor Law Union and the Brecon Rural District Council also held meetings there. The building now houses the Brecknock Museum and the courtroom has been restored. For more information on the museum click here.
[Haslam; B]
From then on the building was very much the headquarters for the official life of the county, with Petty and Quarter Sessions, and the Assizes held there. The Brecknock Poor Law Union and the Brecon Rural District Council also held meetings there. The building now houses the Brecknock Museum and the courtroom has been restored. For more information on the museum click here.
[Haslam; B]