ABSTRACT
In the Middle Ages the Welsh Marches were a frontier zone between people who spoke different languages, had different cultures, and lived by a different legal system. This was a lawless and violent area where the Marcher lords fought their private wars and the king of England's justice did not go. The Marcher lord had the liberty to build castles, hear all pleas, collect fines and ransoms, operate prisons and gallows, authorise and run markets and fairs, issue coins, and control weights and measures. All roads and rivers and any seaboard in his territory belonged to the Marcher lord who was the representative of a powerful group in local society.
