ries,
notably of St David and St Teilo, who brought the arts of civilization
as well as the doctrines of Christianity to its rude inhabitants. In the
9th century the whole of Ystrad Tywi was annexed to the kingdom of
Roderick the Great (_Rhodri Mawr_), who at his death in 877 bequeathed
the principality of South Wales to his son, Cadell. The royal residence
of the South Welsh princes was now fixed at Dynevor (_Dinefawr_) on the
Towy near Llandilo. Cadell's son, Howell the Good (_Hywel Dda_), was the
first to codify the ancient laws of Wales at his palace of Ty Gwyn Ar
Daf, the White Lodge on the banks of the Taf, near the modern Whitland.
In 1080, during the troubled reign of Rhys ap Tudor, the Normans first
appeared on the shores of Carmarthen Bay, and before the end of King
Henry I.'s reign had constructed the great castles of Kidwelly,
Carmarthen, Laugharne and Llanstephan near the coast. From this period
until the death of Prince Llewelyn (1282) the history of Carmarthenshire
is national rather than local. By the Statutes of Rhuddlan (1284) Edward
I. formed the counties of Cardigan and Carmarthen out of the districts
of Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi, the ancient possessions of the house of
Dinefawr, which were now formally annexed to the English crown. Nearly a
third of the present county, however, still remained under the
jurisdiction of the Lords Marchers, and it was not until the Act 27
Henry VIII. that these districts, including the commots of Kidwelly,
Iscennen and Carnwillion, were added to Edward I.'s original shire. The
prosperity of the new county increased considerably under Edward III.,
who named Carmarthen the chief staple-town in Wales for the wool trade.
The revolt of Owen Glendower had the effect of disturbing the peace of
the county for a time, and the French army, landed at Milford on his
behalf, was warmly received by the people of Carmarthenshire. In the
summer of 1485 Sir Rhys ap Thomas, of Abermarlais and Dinefawr, marched
through the county collecting recruits for Henry of Richmond, for which
service he was created a knight of the Garter and made governor of all
Wales. At the Reformation the removal of the episcopal residence from
distant St David's to Abergwili, a village barely two miles from
Carmarthen, brought the county into close touch with the chief Welsh
diocese, and the new palace at Abergwili will always be associated with
the first Welsh translations of the New Testament and the Prayer Bo