Lordship of Denbigh

The Crown Estate also conducts the annual Lordship of Denbigh Estray Court which continues to exercise a historic jurisdiction over the area's stray sheep.

The Marcher lords exercised effectively independent power in their territories and had only a nominal feudal allegiance to the king of England.

Following the final defeat of the last Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, in 1282, Edward I distributed the territories of the former principality between himself and his supporters.

The majority of the territory became a personal fief of the crown and, in 1301, was granted to his son, the future Edward II, as a revived Principality of Wales.

In 1284, Edward granted the cantreds of Rhos and Rhufuniog and the commote of Dinmael to Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln as the lordship of Denbigh.

[5] Several discrete English communities were formed within the lordship, concentrated in the two commotes of Ceinmerch and Isaled, where, by 1334, 10,000 acres were occupied by the settlers.

[7] In 1331, Edward III granted it to William Montagu, 1st Earl of Salisbury as a reward for his assistance in overthrowing Mortimer.

[7] To make good his title to the lordship, Montagu had to pay substantial compensation to Lancaster's widow and the Despenser family.

[8] From the Mortimer Earls of March the lordship passed in 1425 to Richard, Duke of York, the Yorkist claimant to the crown during the Wars of the Roses.

The Laws in Wales Acts ended the special position of the Marcher Lords and effectively abolished their independent jurisdictions.

[9]Although the Laws in Wales Acts had not been modified – and the claim to have the same rights as a Marcher Lordship could not therefore be legally possible – Leicester had such political power that he could make this a reality in practice.

The Crown Estate in Denbighshire now comprises exclusively common land, together with the coastline,[15] and includes areas of the lordship such as parts of the Denbigh Moors (known in Welsh as Mynydd Hiraethog).

Once a year, usually a Saturday in July, an Estray Court convenes allowing commoners the opportunity to claim their lost sheep.