Sara Elin Roberts – författare

Medieval Wales had a separate system of law to that found in English, and the law has been preserved in several medieval manuscripts. One aspect of the law manuscripts is the large collections of legal triads, basically sentences listing things in threes. This book examines the legal triads, an important part of medieval Welsh law.

2022 Hywel Dda Award (University of Wales Literary Awards)A ground-breaking study of the lawbooks which were created in the changing social and political climate of post-conquest Wales.The Middle Ages in Wales were turbulent, with society and culture in constant flux. Edward I of England's 1282 conquest brought with it major changes to society, governance, power and identity, and thereby to the traditional system of the law. Despite this, in the post-conquest period the development of law in Wales and the March flourished, and many manuscripts and lawbooks were created to meet the needs of those who practised law.This study, the first to fully reappraise the entire corpus of law manuscripts since Aneurin Owen's seminal 1841 edition, begins by considering the background to the creation of the law from the earliest period, particularly from c.1100 onwards, before turning to the "golden age" of lawmaking in thirteenth-century Gwynedd. The nature of the law in south Wales is also examined in full, with a particular focus on later developments, including the different use of legal texts in that region and its fourteenth- and fifteenth-century manuscripts. The author approaches medieval Welsh law, its practice, texts and redactions, in their own contexts, rather than through the lens of later historiography. In particular, she shows that much manuscript material previously considered "additional" or "anomalous" in fact incorporates new legal material and texts written for a particular purpose: thanks to their flexible accommodation of change, adjustment and addition, Welsh lawbooks were not just shaped by, but indeed shaped, medieval Welsh law.

2022 Hywel Dda Award (University of Wales Literary Awards)A ground-breaking study of the lawbooks which were created in the changing social and political climate of post-conquest Wales.The Middle Ages in Wales were turbulent, with society and culture in constant flux. Edward I of England's 1282 conquest brought with it major changes to society, governance, power and identity, and thereby to the traditional system of the law. Despite this, in the post-conquest period the development of law in Wales and the March flourished, and many manuscripts and lawbooks were created to meet the needs of those who practised law.This study, the first to fully reappraise the entire corpus of law manuscripts since Aneurin Owen's seminal 1841 edition, begins by considering the background to the creation of the law from the earliest period, particularly from c.1100 onwards, before turning to the "golden age" of lawmaking in thirteenth-century Gwynedd. The nature of the law in south Wales is also examined in full, with a particular focus on later developments, including the different use of legal texts in that region and its fourteenth- and fifteenth-century manuscripts. The author approaches medieval Welsh law, its practice, texts and redactions, in their own contexts, rather than through the lens of later historiography. In particular, she shows that much manuscript material previously considered "additional" or "anomalous" in fact incorporates new legal material and texts written for a particular purpose: thanks to their flexible accommodation of change, adjustment and addition, Welsh lawbooks were not just shaped by, but indeed shaped, medieval Welsh law.

Llawysgrif Pomffred presents for the first time an edition of an overlooked Welsh law manuscript, Peniarth 259B. This is an important and groundbreaking edition which will contribute to our understanding of the relationship and development of the Welsh law texts. The manuscript contains a law text of the Cyfnerth redaction, seen to be the earliest of the Welsh law redactions, and it also has a lengthy tail of additional material which is largely practical in nature, and seems to reflect the legal situation in the March of Wales, with English and Welsh legal customs being mixed. The manuscript may have been given to a certain Einion ab Adda whilst he was in prison in Pontefract.