March Mafia

In 1284 Humphrey Bohun, earl of Hereford, brought a case at law against John Giffard over the land of Isgenen, above the Tywi near Llandeilo. Bohun claimed that he had defeated Rhys Fychan, the Welsh lord of Isgenen, during the war of 1282-3 and ought to have the land. King Edward had granted it to Giffard, who stood high in the king’s favour and was one of his chief enforcers in Wales.

Technically Isgenen had been ‘conquered’ by William Valence and Rhys ap Maredudd, when they led a royal army through the district in the autumn of 1282: the men of the commote had agreed to come into the king’s peace and then immediately enlisted in the army. Valence and Rhys were powerful enough already, and the king chose to grant it to Giffard instead.

Bohun was nervous about the location of Isgenen, which bordered on his own lands. His plea in 1284 failed and Giffard confirmed in the grant. When the war of Rhys ap Maredudd broke out in 1287, the tenants of Isgenen revolted and were put down by Bohun, who could now claim a ‘double right of the sword’ to the commote.

All this kerfuffle was over a minor patch of land: the army payrolls for 1282 contain wages for no more than 60 men of Isgenen, implying a fairly small territory. Yet the honour - or rather the ego - of the Bohuns was at stake, and a disgruntled Marcher knew only one way of resolving disputes. Soon after the defeat of Rhys, Bohun armed his tenants and attacked Giffard’s men of Builth, inflicting ‘homicides, arsons, robberies and other felonies’ agains them.