Commote facts for kids
A commote (called cwmwd in Welsh) was a special way of dividing land in Medieval Wales. Think of it like a county or a district today. The word cwmwd comes from Welsh words meaning "together" and "home." The English word "commote" comes from this Welsh name.
What Was a Commote?
In medieval Wales, the smallest land unit was a tref, which was a small village or settlement. A larger area, called a cantref, was supposed to have about 100 trefi. A commote was usually a smaller part of a cantref, like half or a third of it.
Commotes and cantrefi were important for organizing how people lived. They helped manage defense and justice. Each commote had a leader, often a relative of the local Prince. This leader had a court in a special village called a maerdref. Here, people who worked the leader's land lived, along with court officials and servants.
Commotes in the Domesday Book
The Domesday Book was a big survey made in 1086 by the Normans in England. It included some commotes that were under Norman control but still followed Welsh laws. The Domesday Book called these areas "commots" instead of "hundreds," which was the name for similar land divisions in England.
The commotes mentioned in the Domesday Book were usually areas that the Normans had recently taken over in Wales. These commotes were taxed and had to provide soldiers. Their taxes were measured in "carucates" (based on oxen), which was different from the "hides" used in England.
Some of the main commotes mentioned in the Domesday Book were:
- Archenfield, Ewias, and commotes in Gwent (in the south).
- Cynllaith, Edeirnion, and Iâl (in areas near Shropshire).
- Englefield, Rhos, and Rhufoniog (in areas near Cheshire).
History of Commotes
After Edward I conquered Wales in the 1200s, English became the official language for legal documents. So, the English word "commote" started to be used instead of cwmwd. However, Welsh people kept using cwmwd in their everyday lives.
By the mid-1200s, commotes became even more important than cantrefi for managing Welsh law. The commote courts handled legal matters. Later, during the rebellion of 1400–1409, Owain Glyndŵr even called representatives from the commotes to his parliaments.
The old boundaries of commotes often matched the areas covered by church deaneries better than the "hundreds" that were created later in the 1500s.
Is and Uwch in Commote Names
Many medieval Welsh commote names included the words is (meaning "lower" or "below") and uwch (meaning "higher" or "above"). These words usually showed that the commote was divided by a natural feature like a river, mountain, or forest.
Interestingly, the main governing center for these commotes was almost always in the "is" part. This suggests that "is" and "uwch" were used for administrative reasons, meaning "nearer" and "farther" from the main authority, rather than just describing how high or low the land was.
For example, a place might be called "Is-something" if it was closer to the main court, and "Uwch-something" if it was farther away. This way of naming also appeared in smaller areas like manors and parishes. This is different from how isaf and uchaf are used in farm names today, which usually mean "lowest" and "highest" in a geographical sense.
Images for kids
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This map shows how Wales was divided into commotes long ago. Some areas were changed by the Normans.
