Cyfraith Hywel: Difference between revisions

Welsh law, the law of Wales, was first codified by Hywel Dda ("the Good") in the early 10th century and were significantly more complex than would be found in other areas of Britain and Western Europe for centuries.

The Welsh laws of inheritance before the final Norman Conquest under King Edward I of England in 1282 over Llywelyn ap Gruffydd ("Llywelyn the Last," the final independent Prince of Wales) were significantly different than those practiced in most European countries at the time. Welsh law did not include a dictate of primogeniture and thus wealth was often distributed equally among the all of a man's sons. Welsh law also made no distinction between children born in wedlock and out of wedlock for the purposes of legitimacy. If a child was recognized by his or her father, that child carried the legal rights of any other child of that family. In addition, the Welsh had a complicated system of fosterage, which allowed children to be adopted and raised in families not of their birth regardless of the position of their natural parents. These fosterage arrangements often were pacts of alliance similar to marriage, or they might result from an adoption of a cousin or family friend following the death of a parent.

It is important to note that at this time the Welsh were not agrarian and therefore land ownership and the fractioning of land into smaller and smaller parts over a series of generations did not factor into concerns about inheritance. While this worked well for lay-families, it complicated matters for the nobility. The results of this practice were the source of near constant contention between the Welsh princes as after a king or prince died his sons and even nephews might all vie for political power and control of the territory. A notable exception to the traditional Welsh laws of inheritance was the attempt by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (who's own father was murdered by his brothers following the death of Owain Gwynedd resulting in wars which split a mostly unified Wales) to name his youngest son Davydd (grandson of King John of England by his illegitimate daughter Joan) as heir. Llywelyn recognized that the dis-unity created by this constant struggle for power left the Welsh vulnerable to Norman-English conquest, and after unifying Wales with tenuous oaths of fealty by the princes of the south he sought to protect the country by eliminating this contention.

The position of women under Welsh law also differed significantly to that of their Norman-English contemporaries. Women were not considered to be the property of father and husband in the same way. Women had the right to divorce a husband who brought a mistress under her roof. If a woman was beaten by her husband, she had the right to petition her family to seek retribution in that case. And if a woman were widowed, she had the right to remarry without the "Consent of the King" or her father, or she could equally chose not to remarry. A widowed woman could also hold property if there were no sons to inherit after her husbands death.