nvasion. Most of the
older churches of central Brecknockshire and east Carmarthenshire were
founded by or dedicated to members of Brychan's family.

From the middle of the 8th century to the 10th, Brycheiniog proper often
bore the brunt of Mercian attacks, and many of the castles on its
eastern border had their origin in that period. Subsequently, when
Bernard de Newmarch and his Norman followers obtained possession of the
country in the last quarter of the 11th century, these were converted
into regular fortresses. Bernard himself initiated this policy by
building a castle at Talgarth on the Upper Wye, but in 1091 he moved
southwards, defeated the regulus of Brycheiniog, Bleddyn ab Maenarch,
and his brother-in-law Rhys ap Tewdwr, the prince of south-west Wales,
and with materials obtained from the Roman fort of Caer Bannau, built a
castle at Brecon, which he made his _caput baroniae_. Brycheiniog was
then converted into a lordship marcher and passed to the Fitzwalter, de
Breos, the Bohun and the Stafford families in succession, remaining
unaffected by the Statute of Rhuddlan (1282), as it formed part of the
marches, and not of the principality of Wales.

The Irfon valley, near Builth, was, however, the scene of the last
struggle between the English and Llewelyn, who in 1282 fell in a petty
skirmish in that district. The old spirit of independence flickered once
again when Owen Glendower marched to Brecon in 1403. Upon the attainder
of Edward, duke of Buckingham, in 1521, the lordship of Brecon with its
dependencies became vested in the crown. In 1536 it was grouped with a
whole series of petty lordships marcher and the lordship of Builth to
form the county of Brecknock with Brecon as the county town, and the
place for holding the county court. The county returns one member to
parliament, and has done so since 1536; the borough of Brecon, with the
town of Llywel, had also a separate representative from the same date
till 1885, when it became merged in the county.

BREDA, a fortified town in the province of North Brabant, Holland, at
the confluence of the canalized rivers Merk and Aa, 15 m. by rail E.N.E.
of Roozendaal. Pop. (1900) 26,296. It is connected by steam tramway with
Antwerp (30 m. S.S.W.), and with Geertruidenberg in the north, and the
island of Duiveland on the west. The fortress of Breda, which was once
considered impregnable, has been dismantled, but the town is still
protected by extensive lines of