jointure. It is singular that we hear nothing of any lands belonging to herself. Her husband was lord of both Maelors; and the Fens Wood, where the Moss now is, had been in 1198 part of the inheritance of the Princes of Powys, though it was then in Salop. In marrying Emma Audley he had allied himself to his next neighbour, and to one of the most powerful families on the border. Henry de Aldithley, the first who took the name, is supposed by Dugdale to have been of the Verdon family, inasmuch as he received the inheritance of Aldithley from Nicolas de Verdon, who died 15 Henry III, leaving only a daughter to succeed him; and because he bore the same arms as Verdon, fretté with large canton in the dexter chief, and thereon a cross paté.' Henry de Aldithley was Constable of the castles of Salop and Bruges in 16 Henry III, and in the August following had special licence to build a castle upon his own land called Radcliffe in co. Salop, since called Red Castle by reason of that high rock whereon it was placed. He founded the Abbey of Hilton, co. Stafford, near his castle of Heleigh, and married Bertred, daughter of Ralf de Meisnilwarin, by whom he left issue James and Emma. The former did homage 31 Henry III, and was in great favour with Richard Earl of Cornwall, and was with him at Aquisgrave on Ascension Day 1257, when he was crowned King of Almaine. In the following Michaelmas he returned to England with Henry, son to the same King of Almaine, and, hearing that the Welsh in his absence had made divers incursions upon his lands lying upon the confines of Wales, and exercised much cruelty there by fire and sword, he hastened thither, and, entering these territories, retaliated the like to them, having brought from beyond sea with him certain troops of Almaine horse, which routed the Welsh on the first encounter. He was engaged in Border wars until 51 Henry III, and in the following year went on

1 Dugdale does not mention the colours.

pilgrimage to St. James's, in Galicia, and in 54 Henry III to the Holy Land. He died in 56 Henry III, 1272, having broken his neck. He was succeeded by his son and heir, James, who died 1 Edward I, and after him there were seven barons, ending with a Nicholas de Aldithley, who died childless at the age of fifty-six, 15 Richard II. His inheritance passed to John Touchet, then twenty years of age, who was son of his elder sister Joan, and was summoned to Parliament by the title of Baron Audley.

After the death of her husband, innumerable difficulties seem to have beset Emma Audley, and, though some of them may have been of her own making, still the relative positions of King Edward and Llewelyn II, of the King's bailiffs and any great Welsh family upon the Border, must have made her position a difficult one, even though backed by the aid of her own. nephews, the Audleys. We soon find that Roger Mortimer and Walter de Hopton were assigned to hear the complaints of Emma who had been the wife of Gryffyth of Brumfield, and the following Inquisition was taken, 5 Edward I [13th July 1277], before Gunceline de Badlesmere, Justice of Chester :

"Emma quæ fuit uxor Griffini filii Madoci: De quibusdam maneriis quæ ipsa tenuit de dono predicti Griffini habenda ad totam vitam suam, à quorum seisinâ Ballivi Regis de Brumfeld ipsam ejecerunt. Griffin' de Brumfd, quando Emmam filiam Hen. de Auldithley duxit in uxorem dedit eidem Emmæ decem libratas redditus de Meyler Seysnek, et partem dominicarum de Overton ad terminum vitæ suæ, et eadem Emma per ballivum suum jura omnia expleta dicti manerii cepit ad opus suum proprium toto tempore vitæ dicti Griffini viri sui ...

'Requisiti si illud manerium de Mayler Saysnek collatum fuit eidem nomine feoffamenti vel dotis ?

"Jurati dicunt quod per feoffamentum dicti Griffini et per chartam suam quam porrexit ibidem

"Requisiti qualiter et quomodo dicta Emma venit ad manerium de Overton

"Dicunt quod dictum manerium fuit eschaeta dicti Griffini per mortem Howel fratris ejus, et postquam idem Griffinus inde

habuit bonam et pacificam seisinam manerium prædictum dedit dictæ Emmæ uxori suæ.

"Requisiti si nomine dotis vel feoffamenti

"Dicunt quod per feoffamentum et per quandam chartam quam porrexit ibidem quæ illud idem testatur simul cum confirmatione heredum dicti Griffini quam eidem Emmæ fecerunt post mortem dicti Griffini, et cum confirmatione Llewelini tunc Principis Walliæ, qui omnes donationes confirmavit.

"Requisiti qualiter et quomodo,

"Dicunt quod consuetudo Walliæ est qa unusquisque Walensis ad voluntatem suam dare potest uxori suæ terras et tenementa sua ante sponsales vel post, prout sibi cederit voluntati.

Requisiti si per Ballivos Domini Regis dicta Emma ejecta fuit de terris et tenementis predictis vel per alios,

"Dicunt quod post mortem dicti Griffini eadem Emma stetit in seisina de omnibus terris et tenementis predictis usque guerram inceptam inter Angliam et Walliam, et ex tunc eo quod dicta Emma fuit ad fidem domini Regis in Angliâ dictus Llewelinus ipsam de omnibus terris et tenementis predictis ejecit, et dictas terras et tenementa reddidit Madoco filio Madoci." (Cestr.)

As the war referred to broke out in 1277, 5 Edward I, and this Inquisition, taken in that year, proves that she was then dispossessed of her lands in both Maelors, we have a date beyond which she was not resident at Emral. It was probably at this date also that the family of le Brun, or Brunett, were chased over the Border by Llewelyn, and that the invading army of Edward burnt and cut down the Fens Wood, now a turf moss.

In 1278 Emma died, and an Inquisition taken at that time is as follows: "Inq. p. m. 6 Edw. I. Emma uxor Griffini fil Madoci Overton Maner. Eiton maner. Mayler Sasenek terr., etc., Wallia." This does not agree with the account_given by Caradoc of Llancarvan, under date 1158 [anticipating his story, which refers to 1274-78], that "Emma, seeing two of her sons disinherited and done away, and the fourth dead without issue, and doubting lest Gruffydh, her only surviving child, could not long continue, she conveyed her estate to the Audleys, her own kin, who, getting possession of it, took the same from the King, from

That

whom it came to the house of Derby," etc. Madoc, her eldest son, was living in 1277 appears from the finding of the jurors, that "Llewelyn had made over to him the lands, etc., which he took from Emma": that he was dead before December 10, 1278, appears from Rotuli Wallenses, 6 Edward I, when, by letters patent dated at Shrewsbury, the "King grants the custody of all the lands of which Madoc de Brumfeld had died seised in demesne as of fee, and the issues and profits thereof to Griffin, son of Ierworth, the said Griffin to account for the same to Anian, then Bishop of St. Asaph, and to Margaret the widow of the said Madoc, for the sustentation of the two sons and heirs of the said Madoc." Emma's next son, Llewelyn, seems to have been dispossessed of his lands; the third, Owen, was Rector of Blanckebir (Bangor) on January 11th, 1283 (see Joseph Morris's MSS.). Hugh Lleyn states that "Owen got for his share the half of Kynllaith and Bangor, whilst waiting for a bishopric, because he was a distinguished scholar, and he died young". A sum of money had also been allowed out of the revenues of the benefice for his education. In Bishop Gastrell's Notitia we are told that "the Rectory of Bangor Monachorum is appendant to the "Manor of Maylor, and that there is an ancient grant made by the Lord of Maylor of the Advowson of this Church about 18 Edward I, 1290." Owen was therefore dead at that date. It would be of great interest to know if the ancient grant is still in existence, who the nominee was, and by whom he was appointed; for the "Lord of Maylor" might be Edward II, Prince of Wales, or his bailiff, Robert de Crevecœur, or the Firmarius Manerii, Adam de Creting, or, as some think, John, Earl Warren, who received, in 1281, Dinas Brân, with other possessions in Bromfield, of the princely house of Maelor, including Eyton Park, which, being in Bangor parish, might give the impression that he was patron of the living. This was probably not the case, and the coffin-lids of the Warenn family

which Pennant speaks of in 1778 would simply show that Bangor was then, as now, the parish church of Eyton, though in a different county. The fourth son of Emma, Gruffydh, received a portion of the paternal inheritance, holding it "at the King's pleasure": he was the ancestor of Owen Glyndwr. For further particulars of this family the reader is referred to Canon Bridgeman's Princes of South Wales, pp. 250-2, and to Powys Fadog, vol. i, p. 172.

It does not appear where Emma was buried. The mention of Blanckebir is an interesting confirmation of St. Bede's name, "Bancornaburgh", as also is "Bonum", for "Bovium", among a list of places claimed by Margaret, widow of Madoc ap Gruffydd, which Gruffydd Vychan, son of Gruffydd, unjustly detained (Ayloffe's Ancient Kalendars). Immediately upon the death of Emma, Edward I puts Robert de Crevequer into possession of the manor of Overton, with the terra de Maelor Saesneg, including all fees and advowsons.

We must bear in mind that with the death of Emma and conquest of Wales the Norman interest, as recorded in Domesday Book, was revived, but new arrangements were made by Edward I. The whole of English Maelor, which had been divided between Cestrescire and Salopesscire, was now, with Englefield, Hopedale, and Ruthelan, formed into the new county of Flint (A.D. 1284). Edward's son, the young Prince of Wales, was its lord, as of the rest of Wales, and also Earl of Chester. The Queen's bridge in Overton and Queen's ford in Worthenbury are supposed to preserve the tradition of the route along which the

1 Statuta Walliæ, 12 Edward I. "Vice-Comes de Flynt, sub quo cantreda de Englefend, terra de Meylor Seysnek et terra de Hope, et tota terra conjuncta castro nostro et ville de Rothelan usque ad villam Cestriæ de cetero intendat sub nobis Justiciario nostro Cestriæ, et de exitibus ejusdem Commoti ad eorundem comitatum, tot. et al. respondeat ad saccrarium nostrum Cestriæ."

2 A little below this ford, at the east end of the Doles, a bridge was built by the late Sir R. Puleston about 1845.