county · British Isles

Lordship of Glamorgan

1093 CE – 1536 CE (approx.) · capital Cardiff

The largest of the Welsh marcher lordships, seized from the last Welsh king of Morgannwg by Robert Fitzhamon and ruled from Cardiff Castle.

Origins

Around 1093 Robert Fitzhamon overthrew Iestyn ap Gwrgant of the Kingdom of Morgannwg and built a castle at Cardiff inside the old Roman fort. He granted manors in the fertile Vale of Glamorgan to his knights, while Welsh lords kept the uplands.

Glamorgan was a marcher lordship, held outside the ordinary English shire system with its own courts and military power. Through inheritance it passed to the earls of Gloucester, notably the Clare family, who built the vast Caerphilly Castle in the 1260s against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. It later passed to the Despensers, Beauchamps and Nevilles.

The Laws in Wales Act of 1536 abolished the marcher lordships, and Glamorgan became a shire of the Kingdom of England, with Cardiff its county town.

Cite this page

APA: The Epoch Institute. (2026). Lordship of Glamorgan. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/lordship-of-glamorgan
MLA: “Lordship of Glamorgan.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/lordship-of-glamorgan. Accessed .
Chicago: The Epoch Institute. “Lordship of Glamorgan.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/lordship-of-glamorgan.
Harvard: The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Lordship of Glamorgan’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/lordship-of-glamorgan (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻