Cyfraith Hywel

[2] It was passed down orally by jurists and bards and, according to tradition, only first codified during the reign of Hywel Dda in the mid-10th century.

The earliest surviving manuscripts, however, are in Latin, date from the early 13th century, and show marked regional differences.

Notable features of Welsh law include the collective responsibility of kindreds (cenedl) for their members; the gavelkind inheritance of land among all and only male descendants; a status-based system of blood money (galanas); slavery and serfdom; the inability of foreigners to naturalise earlier than the fourth generation; and very lax treatment of divorce and legitimacy that scandalized the non-native clergy.

The introduction to the Book of Blegywryd is a typical example: Hywel the Good, son of Cadell, by the grace of God, king of all Wales... summoned to him from every commote of his kingdom six men who were practised in authority and jurisprudence... to the place called the White House on the Taf in Dyfed.

... And at the end of Lent the king selected from that assembly the twelve most skilled laymen of his men and the one most skilled scholar who was called Master Blegywryd, to form and interpret for him and for his kingdom, laws and usages...[4]As each of the manuscripts dates from centuries later than Hywel's time, this statement cannot be used to date the event described above.

Professor Huw Pryce has demonstrated that some of the prologues were developed in response to attacks on Welsh law by Church men and Nobles who wished to gain rights more akin to those enjoyed by Ecclesiastics and the aristocracy in England.

However, none of them counted as a "foreigner" and, even if they moved from one Welsh "kingdom" (gwlad) to another, they did not suffer that status but were considered fully native.

The total of the agweddi depended on the woman's status by birth, regardless of the actual size of the common pool of property.

The poet says that after his death his estate was inherited by four women who had originally been brought to Aeddon's court as captives after a raid and had found favour with him.

However, it only applied to the upper classes: any serf who struck a free man was liable to have the offending limb removed.

[23] Aiding and abetting – including witnessing a killing and failing to protect the victim or receiving stolen property – was also punished with dirwy fines.

Although Hywel's commission generally recorded the traditions of the country, one modification they made was to end the right of nobles to trial by combat, finding it unjust.

[24] Harris notes that although these members are all given equal value, it seems there is some underlying notion that some are perhaps more essential than others (at least in the Iorwerth and LATIN A texts) with hearing being more important than any of the other senses.

[7] Harris argues that these similar percentages reflect the co-existence of two legal systems in Wales; the Welsh and the English.

[citation needed] On the death of a landowner (priodawr) his immovable estate (land) passed in joint tenancy (cytir) to his sons, similar to the gavelkind system of Kent.

A landowner's right to convey land was restricted; it was only allowed under certain circumstances with the consent of his kindred and coheirs (laudatio parentum).

This naturally weakened the position of the new king and that weakness, along with the long free and separate traditions of the various Welsh gwledydd, then permitted disputes and civil wars among the family appanages.

[31] Further, by the time of Hywel, the kingdoms normally taken as independent – Deheubarth, Powys, &c. – were nominally subordinate to the elder line of the family in Gwynedd and bound to display that with annual gifts.

By law, the principal homestead (and presumably the realm) were to go to the king's eldest son, so long as this potential successor was not damaged in any limb, blind, deaf, or mentally retarded,[32] and of sufficient age.

If the eldest son were ineligible for whatever reason, his brothers, uncles, and first and second cousins were all considered legitimate substitutes.

[32] Likewise, even when the eldest son did inherit, other descendants of his great-grandfather were considered legitimate rulers and not usurpers if they were able to wrest control away from him.

Finally, although surviving editions of Hywel's law explicitly forbid inheritance by or through female members of the royal family,[32] Hywel's line itself derived from lords of Man who had (allegedly) married into the dynasties of Gwynedd and Powys and there are numerous examples through the 11th century of kings asserting their legitimacy on account of royal mothers, despite surviving underage representatives of the male line of succession.

It is a compilation of the rules for dealing with the "Three Columns of Law", namely cases of homicide, theft and fire, and "The Value of Wild and Tame".

If it is killed within the nine paces, it is worth twenty-four pence[33]Values are also given for trees, equipment and parts of the human body.

[39] Llywelyn stated: Each province under the empire of the lord king has its own laws and customs according to the peculiarities and uses of those parts where it is situated, as do the Gascons in Gascony, the Scots in Scotland, the Irish in Ireland and the English in England; and this conduces rather to the glory of the Crown of the lord king than to its degradation.

Peckham had presumably consulted the Peniarth 28 manuscript which was apparently held in the library at St. Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury at this time.

[42] Nearly two hundred years after Welsh law ceased to be used for criminal cases, the poet Dafydd ab Edmwnd (fl.

1450–80) wrote an elegy for his friend, the harpist Siôn Eos, who had accidentally killed a man in a tavern brawl in Chirk.

[45] Even in the 17th century in some parts of Wales there were unofficial meetings where points of dispute were decided in the presence of arbiters using principles laid down in Welsh law.

[47] Contemporary Welsh Law is a term applied to the body of primary and secondary legislation generated by the Senedd, according to devolved authority granted in the Government of Wales Act 2006.