Marcher Historical Event #1

 Today marks a significant day in the history of the Marcher Lords or at least it was significant in the opinion of those involved which is surely what matters.  The population of Poland probably couldn't care less.  

For those less steeped in English historical romances than my mother the Welsh Marches were a series of border territories set up along the English/Welsh border by William the Conqueror.  The Welsh had a history of raiding across said border (insofar as it actually existed).  Additionally various of the Welsh princes had frequently had alliances or at least good relationships with some of the Saxon lords in England which made them less than sympathetic when William turned up from Normandy and conquered the place an event which was terrible for the Saxon nobility (although very convenient for Varangian recruitment officers).

Having better things to do (he said) than spend the rest of his life in low level border warfare William selected some of the more obnoxiously violent of his vassals (which to be fair was most of them) and gave them territories along the border along with certain rights that the kings normally kept to themselves.  Thus empowered these "Marcher Lords" were expected to beat in the heads of any Welsh that showed themselves across the border.  If the Welsh didn't cross the border the Marcher Lords were empowered to export the head beating to Wales.

In the fullness of time a fair chunk of Wales wound up under the control of said Marcher Lords although as with the Saxons before them they sometimes discovered advantages in making common cause with their technical enemy (the Welsh) when their technical overlord (the King) got a little too keen about enforcing his authority.  

A typical example of this attitude can be found in the case of one William de Braose who was executed on this day in 1230 AD.  William was a Marcher Lord who had been captured in battle against Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Gwynedd and had to pay a huge ransom to secure his release.  Subsequent to that he entered into an alliance with said Llywelyn which was sealed with a marriage between William's daughter and Llywelyn's son.  What the English king might have thought about one of his vassals forming a marriage alliance with one of his most powerful enemies in Wales went unrecorded.

As it so happened the English King didn't need to worry.  Celebration of the upcoming nuptials was brought to a halt when Llywelyn found William in bed with his wife.  Llywelyn had William dragged out to a nearby tree and hanged him.  The marriage still went ahead though, absent one prominent guest.  This is what passed for politics in the thirteenth century.  I think we can all agree that we are fortunate we live in more civilised and better organised times.