an appeal lay to the Lord's court at
Cardiff: generally they owed no definite service to the Lord (except
homage, and sometimes a heriot at death), but on failure of heirs the
estate lapsed to the chief Lord. At Cardiff Castle the Lord had his
chancery, like the royal chancery on a small scale--issuing writs,
recording services and grants of privileges, and legal decisions:
practically the whole of these records have been lost--and our
knowledge of the organisation of the Lordship is mainly derived from
the royal records at times, when owing to minority or escheat, the
Lordship was under royal administration. The Lord of Glamorgan owed
homage, but no service to the king; and (though this was sometimes
disputed by his tenants and the royal lawyers), no appeal lay from his
courts to the king's court. The machinery of government was probably
more complete and elaborate in Glamorgan than in any other Marcher
Lordship.

Caerphilly Castle had not the political importance of Cardiff, but far
surpasses it as a fortress. By the strength and position of
Caerphilly, one may measure the power of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd after
the Barons' War and before the accession of Edward I. The Prince of
Wales had extended his sway down as far as Brecon, and Welshmen
everywhere were looking to him as the restorer of their country's
independence. Among them was the Welsh Lord of Senghenydd, one of the
chief "members" of Glamorgan, and his overlord probably saw reason to
suspect his loyalty. An alliance between him and Llywelyn would open
the lower Taff Valley to the Welsh prince and give him command of the
hill country north of Cardiff. It was on the lands of the lord of
Senghenydd that Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, built Castell
Coch and Caerphilly.

[Illustration: CARDIFF CASTLE. (12th Century)]

[Illustration: CAERPHILLY CASTLE. (13th Century)]

Caerphilly is described by the latest historian of the Art of War as
the grandest specimen of its class; it represents the high-water mark
of mediaeval military architecture in this country, and was the model
of Edward I.'s great castles in the north. It illustrates the
influence of the Crusades on Western Europe, being an instance of the
"concentric" system of defences, of which the walls of Constantinople
afford the most magnificent example, and which the Crusaders adopted
in many of their great fortresses in the East.

Caerphilly Castle consists of three lines of defences, and the way i