Statute of Wales (first draft)

The first draft of the Statute of Wales, photographed by me at the National Archives last week. This is an earlier, separate document to the official version of the statute that was declared at Rhuddlan in 1284. The burnt edges suggest it suffered during a great fire that destroyed many documents in 1731, and the content is different in some respects to the final version of Rhuddlan.

First, the draft shows that Edward I originally contemplated forming four shires in Gwynedd (‘in Snowdon’), with a sheriff of Aberconwy to administer the cantreds of Arllechwedd and Arfon and the commote of Creuddyn; a sheriff of Criccieth to superintend the cantreds of Lleyn and Dunoding; a sheriff of Merioneth, under whom would be the cantred of Merioneth and the commotes of Penllyn and Edeirnion; and a sheriff of Anglesey, who had the whole island under his charge. This arrangement was never carried out in practice. 

Second, this early version is almost entirely concerned with the legal aspects of the new administration in Wales, but has not a word to say about the central administrative machinery or how the finances were to operate. According to RR Davies in his book ‘Age of Conquest’, this first draft also refers to the civil aspects of Welsh law being retained at the request of the people of Wales; the allusions to consent, however, were struck out from the final version. I personally could see none of this when I took a squint at the document, and it isn’t mentioned in other academic studies of the draft.