Commote

A commote (Welsh: cwmwd, sometimes spelt in older documents as cymwd, plural cymydau, less frequently cymydoedd)[1] was a secular division of land in Medieval Wales.

The commotes mentioned in the Domesday Book, in general, represented recent Anglo-Norman advances into Welsh territory.

Although the commotes were assessed for military service and taxation, their obligations were rated in carucates (derived from Latin for cattle or oxen), not in hides as on the English side of the border.

The customs of the commotes are described in the Domesday accounts of the border earldoms of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire.

Melville Richards noted that, in almost every instance where this occurs, the point of central authority was in the "is division" when the commote was named, and he suggested that such commotes were originally named in the sense of 'nearer' and 'farther' based on the location of that central authority—i.e., the terminology is for administrative purposes and not a geographical characterisation.

It should also be borne in mind that the number and organisation of the commotes was different in the earlier Middle Ages; some of the units and divisions listed here are late creations.