juris was not inconsistent with the retention of Welsh usages in regard to other parts, or as to the holdings of land by inferior tenants in particular lordships."[1] The Commission extended only to a limited portion of Wales, viz., to the four Cantreds of Perfeddwlad, Iâl or Yale, Ystrad Alun (Mold), Montgomeryshire; Cardiganshire, part of Caermarthenshire and the Welsh Border from Chester to Bishop's Castle.
The Statutum Walliæ was not a parliamentary statute. It was the King's Charter "to all his subjects of his land of Snowdon, and of other his lands in Wales." It emanated throughout from his sole authority, and his own seal was affixed thereto. The absolute power of legislation which was assumed by Edward was that which belongs to the Crown after the conquest of an insurgent and independent country, but, although not the result of parliamentary deliberation, it was drawn up by the advice of the nobles of the Kingdom, and is included in the recognized Statutes of the Realm. It remained on the Statute book until it was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act, 1887. It was "the most comprehensive code that any English legislator issued during the Middle Ages."[2]
The Statute of Wales is frequently referred to as the Statute of Rhuddlan, although there was another legislative Act, issued at the same time, by Edward, which is distinguished by the name of the Statute of Rothelan (12 Edward i). This was a royal ordinance, regulating the Exchequer, not requiring parliamentary authority.
The Statute of Wales commences with a preamble reciting what was conceived to be the political condition of the country at that time. It states that Wales, with its inhabitants, had hitherto been subject to the King by feudal right, but that Divine Providence, amongst other gifts, had "wholly and entirely transferred the land of Wales with its
