y Gors by the command of the king of England, and after his death the custodians left the castle empty.

Again, under 1104 ( 1102'), we find this entry :

Rickart, son of Baldwin stored the castle of Rhyd y Gors.

Lastly, we are told, under the year 1102 (1100'), that Henry I., to gain over the Welsh chieftain Iorweth son of Bleddyn, promised him—

half of Dyved, as the other half had been given to the son of Baldwin.

Mr. Freeman appears to have thought that the important castle of Rhyd-y-Gors, which had successfully resisted a Welsh attack before 1096, was in north-east Wales; for he wrote that

Earl Roger meanwhile, from his capital at Shrewsbury and his strong outpost at his new British Montgomery, pushed on his dominion into Powys. The king at least approved if he did not at this stage help in the work; the castle of Rhyd-y-Gors was built by William son of Baldwin.

[Note]. Was this William son of that Baldwin from whom Montgomery took its Welsh name? 1

But in the Brut the castle is associated with the valley of the Towy (Tywi'), and Sir James Ramsay is doubtless right in placing it "near the town of Caermarthen."" Moreover, the noteworthy statement that "half of Dyved" had been given to "the son of Baldwin" must refer to the lord of Rhyd-y-Gors; and Dyved (Pembrokeshire) adjoined Caermarthenshire.

It is at this point that a knowledge of Norman

1 William Rufus, II. 97 (where the marginal heading is "North Wales"). * Foundations of England, II. 180.

genealogy comes to our help and enables us to identify those sons of Baldwin by whom the above historians were puzzled. It was, as I have elsewhere observed, the habit of the members of the house of Clare to distinguish themselves only by the Christian names of their fathers. The following pedigree will show clearly the connection of this mighty house with the conquest of South Wales.

It is possible that Richard son of Baldwin, who was in favour with Henry I. in 1102, received from him "half of Dyved" on the forfeiture of Arnulf de Montgomery.

We may perhaps find another hint that the Normans invaded Caermarthenshire from Devon in the fact that a small religious house at St. Clears, in the valley of the Taf, was a cell of St. Martin des Champs, which was also the mother house of the priory at Barnstaple opposite. It It may be worth noting that the peninsula of Gower, lying to the south of Caermarthenshire, was occupied, according to a Welsh authority, by "Saxons from Somerset " under "Harry Beaumont." It is quite true that this Henry (the first earl of Warwick) did obtain possession of it; and he founded there the priory of Llangennith as a cell of St. Taurin of Evreux.1 But I gather from the charter I found at Evreux that he did so earlier than the Brut implies, perhaps even before the Conqueror's death.

To complete these notes on the conquest of South Wales, I may point out that "Rickert son of Ponson," who is found in the Brut y Tywysogion holding Cantref Bychan, with the castle of Llanymddyvri (Llandovery) in 1115 (1113), is no other than the ancestor of the Cliffords, Richard the son of Pons, who held that district-East Caermarthenshire, lying along the east bank of the Towy, between it and Brecon-in 1121 and circa 1127.2

1 See my Calendar of Documents preserved in France, No. 316. 2 See my Ancient Charters (Pipe Roll Society), pp. 8-9, 21. I have proved on the latter page that his wife was a sister of another of the Conquistadores, Miles of Gloucester, Lord of Brecknock. His gifts to Malvern of the church of Llandovery (?) and tithes in the district will be found in the Monasticon, III. 448.

V

Our English Hapsburgs: a Great

Delusion

ROMANTIC in its story, unique in its splendour, the descent of the Feildings, earls of Denbigh, is without a rival in the English Peerage. Their earldom, comparatively ancient (1622) though it be, is, as it were, but a creation of yesterday by the side of that dignity of count of Hapsburg, which they have held for centuries in the male line as members of the proudest and one of the mightiest of the reigning houses of Europe. For it is no mere question of pedigree that is involved in their illustrious descent: the earls, according to Burke's Peerage, were counts of Hapsburg, Lauffenburg and Rheinfelden; an eagle of Austria bears their arms, which are surmounted by the cap of a count of the Empire; and the name of Rudolph, which the heads of the house have borne now for two generations, keeps before our eyes a descent immortalized by the pen of Gibbon.

Nor is it only in Burke's Peerage that this descent was fully recognised.' In Dugdale's Warwickshire

1

So, in Mr. Shirley's well-known Noble and Gentlemen of Eng

and in his Baronage it is accepted as an undoubted fact. It has been recognised, one may say, by the English Crown in the patent of creation for the barony of St. Liz (1664): it is said to have been always recognised by the emperors of Austria themselves, and is at least, as I am credibly informed, admitted by the reigning sovereign. Indeed, I

have seen it stated, on what ought to be good authority, that an earl of Denbigh has been treated by the Imperial Ambassador at Rome "in all respects as a member of the Imperial House," and "as if he was one of the Grand Dukes."

There is no lack of documentary evidence in support of the family claims. In addition to the documents given by Dugdale, many others will be found in the elaborate history of the family, composed for its head in 1670 by the Rev. Nathaniel Wanley, and printed in what is perhaps the best known of our county histories, Nichols' Leicestershire.1

The story, as I have said, is somewhat romantic. Geoffrey, count of Hapsburg, Laufenburg and Rheinfelden (d. 1271), head of the younger line of

land we read :-"The princely extraction of this noble family is well-known; its ancestor Galfridus, or Geoffrey, came into England in the twelfth year of the reign of Henry III, and received large possessions from that monarch. The name is derived from Rin felden in Germany, where, and at Lauffenburg were the patrimonial possessions of the House of Hapsburg.'

1 Vol. IV., Part I., pp. 273-290. It is there stated that there was another similar history of the family executed "before the year 1658," which being sent to London by command of George II., for his inspection, "unfortunately perished by fire."