Probably in or about the reign

VI.

"well, and nowe speak, for thou standest upon thy "life or death.' 1

Here we have, beyond all doubt, arraignment in the more modern sense, though there is a curious omission of the pleas which had previously been and were afterwards possible, as well as the general issue or plea of "Not Guilty." The prisoner could, of course, plead to the jurisdiction, demur to the indictment on a point of law, plead in abatement of it, as on the ground of misnomer, or plead one of the special pleas in bar-autrefoitz acquit, autrefoitz convict, autrefoitz attaint, or a pardon. He could not, however, enter upon a general explanation such as that of Segrave cited above. In Segrave's position he could have demurred on the ground that what he was charged with having done or omitted to do was neither sedition nor felony, or he could have pleaded "Not Guilty," and afterwards adduced his statement of the facts in support of the plea.

The precise time at which the change was effected can hardly be shown with certainty, but may probably of Henry have been when benefit of clergy ceased to be claimed before trial, and was claimed only after conviction, and in arrest of judgment. This appears to have been in or about the reign of Henry VI. Chief Justice Fortescue, who lived in that reign, throws but little light on the matter, as he merely mentions the juryprocess in a case in which the accused (rettatus, or rectatus) "crimen suum coram judicibus dedicat." It is true that one of the translators has rendered “rettatus" "on his arraignment," but this appears to be only an illustration of the use of a technical term of which the meaning was not understood. The disappearance, however, of the claim of benefit of clergy as declinatory plea before trial may well have coincided with more strict rules affecting the proceedings on arraignment in general.

words

to be noted

There are other words which, like arraign, under- Other went a change of meaning either during the time which when French was spoken in the Courts in England, have changed or after they had been borrowed from the French their and become part of the English language. They will meaning be mentioned in due course in the Glossary, which in the is steadily progressing. It was necessary to comment, Glossary. in the mean time, on the use of the word arraign in the Year Books and elsewhere, both because there appeared to be considerable misapprehension with regard to its meaning and derivations, and because the use of it in the reports appeared to need explanation.

Marches of

In Michaelmas Term1 there again appears a case A case of which has recurred at intervals from the thirteenth Cosinage relating to year of the reign to the nineteenth. Gilbert Talbot the brought a writ of Cosinage against Ralph de Wilynton Wales. and Eleanor his wife demanding, as the reports and records express the names, the castle of Keyr Kenny and the commote of Iskenny. Though evidently in Wales there is nothing in report or record to show in what part of Wales the subject of the demand

was.

commote

It is not for an editor of Year Books to introduce The castle of " Keyr any small matters of genealogy or topography, but Kenny there are some features in this case which are of and the legal and historical importance, and which can hardly of be brought out clearly without an attempt to identify "Iskenny" persons and places. The reports áre, even with the with assistance of the record, hardly intelligible without Carreg explanation.

identified

Cennen
Castle and

There is in the modern Carmarthenshire a river Iskennen in the Cennen (which is in Welsh pronounced Kennen), a modern hundred of Iskennen, and a Carreg Cennen Castle, Carmarand, even were there nothing else to show it, there

1 No. 60. Below, p. 420.

thenshire.

Mistakes in Peer

ages: a

could be but little doubt that the name of the
commote is preserved in the hundred, and that “le
"chastel de Keyr Kenney" the
"the "castrum de Keyr-
"kenny" is Carreg Cennen Castle. The "Keyr” of
the Latin and French may have been written by
mistake, or may possibly represent the Welsh “Caer ”
(a fortress), but the difference does not seem to be
of importance. As will be seen below, the identity
of the "castrum de Keyrkenny" with Carreg Cennen
Castle can be clearly established. Talbot's claim was
that his "consanguineus," described as "Lewelinus
"ap Rees Vaghan," had been seised in his demesne
as of fee of the commote and castle, in time of
peace, in the time of Edward I., and had died
without heir of his body. The fee, as alleged,
resorted from him to his aunt and heir "Wenthana "
(an Englishman's representation in Latin of the
Welsh name Gwenllian), who was the sister of
"Rees Vaghan" his father. The descent was traced
from her to Richard [Talbot] as son and heir, and
from him to the demandant Gilbert.

It is stated in some Baronages and Peerages that Gilbert's grandfather, Gilbert Talbot, married supposed Gwenllian or Gwendoline, daughter of Rhys ap daughter Griffith "Prince of Wales," and in them the descent of Wales, is traced from her to Richard, and from Richard to or of South Wales. Gilbert, who is thus made great-grandson of a Prince of Wales.

of a Prince

Gilbert Talbot, the demandant in the action of Cosinage, however, did not himself claim descent from Rhys ap Griffith, Prince of Wales, or any other Rhys ap Griffith, but, as already shown, from an aunt of Llewelyn ap Rhys Vychan. Moreover, when the statement that his grandmother, Gwenllian, was a daughter of Rhys ap Griffith, Prince of Wales, is traced back to its source, there appears to be no

1 e.g. Dugdale's Baronage of | Dictionary of Peerages, Extinct, England (1675), Vol. I., pp. 325-6; Dormant, and in Abeyance (1831), Burke's General and Heraldic p. 511,

evidence whatever for it. It has been copied from Peerage into Peerage, though sometimes more or less abridged and sometimes amplified. It seems to have had its beginning in a passage in Dugdale's Baronage. Gilbert Talbot, it is there stated, "having married "Guenthlian, or Guendoline, daughter of Rhese ap "Griffith, Prince of Wales, departed this "life in 2 Edward I. [1274] leaving "Richard his son and heir, twenty-four years of

The most curious feature of this statement is, perhaps, that the only reference given in support of it is to the very plea roll which is a part of the case now under consideration,2 and in which there is no mention whatever of Gwenllian's father, or of Rhys ap Griffith, or of any Welsh Prince of Wales. In some of the later Peerages in that, for instance, of Collins, who, however, copies Dugdale's references— Rhys ap Griffith becomes Prince, not of Wales, but of South Wales.3 In Banks's Dormant and Extinct Baronage (1807), Gwenllian becomes "Julian, daughter "and at length heir of Rhese ap Griffith, Prince of "South Wales.' 994 In Burke's Extinct Peerage (1831) she becomes "Guentian, daughter and at length heir "of Rhese ap Griffiths, Prince of Wales," but in his Peerage (1832) she is "Gwendaline, daughter of Rhese "ap Griffith, Prince of South Wales," without any mention of heirship. In "G. E. C.'s" Peerage (1896) she again becomes "Gwendoline, daughter and finally "heir of Rhys ap Griffith, Prince of South Wales."7

6

"at length heir "seem to have been
taken from "tandem hæres” in
Dugdale's pedigree of the Talbots.
(Baronage, Vol. I., facing p. 325.)
5 Burke, Peerages Extinct, &c.,
p. 511.

6 Burke, Peerage and Baronetage, Vol. II., p. 433.

7" G. E. C.," Complete Peerage, Vol. VII, p. 359, note a.

It may be said with truth that there was no Rhys ap Griffith "Prince of Wales" at any time near that of Gilbert Talbot, the grandfather. It has even been said that, in the strict sense of the term, there was no Prince of South Wales during that period. About the year 1114 the whole of Wales, except the extreme North West, and, perhaps, a strip of land extending along the West coast southwards as far as the westernmost part of Carmarthenshire "was divided between Norman and Welsh lords who came to be called Lords Marchers. The subsequent "history of South and Central Wales resolves itself "into the records of quarrels between these lords and "the rise and fall of baronial families." 1

,

The history of these Lords Marchers is very obscure, but they seem to have assumed quasiregal rights within their lordships however small,2 which were not regarded as constituting any part of any principality of Wales. In the year 1354 it was agreed and established that all the lords of the "Marches of Wales shall be perpetually attendant "and annexed to the Crown of England, as they and "their ancestors have been in all previous times, and "not to the Principality of Wales in whosesoever "hands the same Principality may be."3

Position of Among these turbulent barons there had been
Rhys ap
Griffith a Rhys ap Griffith, who was of the blood of the
commonly earlier princes of South Wales, and who at one
Prince of time exercised authority over a considerable portion
South

called

Wales.

of that territory. He made his peace with King Henry II., who appointed him Justiciary of South Wales; and his own fellow-country-men afterwards called him "Arglwydd" or Lord, which may have

1 The Welsh People, by Prof. Rhys and Mr. Brynmor-Jones, p. 300.

2 This was, at any rate, alleged in a plea to an information of Quo Warranto against Thomas Corne

wall, in the reign of Elizabeth. Coke's Booke of Entries, fo. 550. The Statute 27 Hen. VIII., c. 26, is to the like effect.

3 Stat. 28 Edw. III., c. 2.