ABSTRACT
The second hereditary title below that of king to penetrate England came by a very curious route. The title ‘prince’ (Lat. princeps; Wel. tywysog) was the particular contribution of the Welsh to the English hierarchy of ranks. Wales in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries was ruled over by a collection of kings called in Latin rex, and in regular Welsh usage from the twelfth century onwards brenin, rhi. The nature of Welsh kingship need not concern us here, except for the observation that Welsh kingship was intended by its holders to be real kingship (they used the same Latin title as the English king, rex, and affected some regal trappings, though not a crown or sceptre). A native Welsh sensitivity to status was evident at an early period. The vernacular had a host of words for ‘ruler’. The greatest rulers might be hailed as gwledig, mynawg or rhwyfadur; these would be the reges over the greater realms, rulers of lesser kings who would be called teyrn, rhi, brenin or unben.1 But all would be converted in Latin to reges, or more rarely reguli. In the middle of the twelfth century, however, all degrees of kingship were slowly dropped by Welsh rulers (if not their poets), and the title of ‘prince’ taken up instead.
