Читать книгу Walking in Carmarthenshire онлайн

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When the Romans departed, South Wales returned to the same structure of small, independent kingdoms as in the Iron Age, with the Demetae taking control of Carmarthenshire, enlarging the town of Moridunum and using it as their capital, thus making it the oldest, continually inhabited settlement in Wales. The town eventually became known as Caerfyrddin, anglicized into Carmarthen, which subsequently gave its name to the county.

During the fifth and sixth centuries, Carmarthenshire’s inhabitants became more civilised and were also introduced to doctrines of Christianity, thanks to a group of hard working Celtic missionaries, notably St David and St Teilo. In the ninth and 10th centuries, the influx of Irish from the west and British from the east began to test the tribal boundaries and in AD920, Hywel Dda, the prince of South Wales, scrapped old kingdoms and created four new ones, Gwent, Gwynedd, Powys and Deheubarth, the latter including the region of Carmarthenshire.

In 1080 the Normans first appeared on the shores of Carmarthen Bay and following numerous skirmishes, conquered Deheubarth in 1093. By the end of King Henry I’s reign, in 1135, the great castles of Kidwelly, Carmarthen, Laugharne and Llanstephan had been constructed. Although the former kingdom of Deheubarth briefly re-emerged in the 12th century under Maredudd ap Gruffydd and the Lord Rhys, the Normans soon re-exerted control and Deheubarth ceased to exist as a kingdom after 1234. By the Statutes of Rhuddlan (1284), Edward I formed the counties of Cardigan and Carmarthen and in the ensuing years, the prosperity of the new county increased considerably, resulting in Edward III naming Carmarthen as the foremost town in Wales for the wool trade.