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A bovate was a measure of land which could be ploughed in one year by one eighth of a plough team with eight oxen, or in other words the measure of land representing one eighth of a carucate. The term is used in the Domesday Book for places under the Danelaw. The word is derived from the Latin word bs, meaning ox.
The carucate was a unit of assessment for tax found in most of the Danelaw counties of England. The word derives from caruca, Latin for a plough. It is analogous to the hide, the measurement of land for tax assessment used outside the Danelaw counties. In the Domesday Book the carucate was nominaly 120 acres (490,000 m²), based on the area a plough team of eight oxen could till in a year. A carucate was sub-divided into bovates and these were based on the area a single oxen could till in a year, they were therefore one eighth of a carucate. The tax levied on each "carucate" of land came to be known as "carucage".
A cottar, or cottars, is the Scots term for a peasant farmer formerly in the Scottish highlands. Cotters occupied cottages and cultivated small plots of land. The word cotter is often employed to translate the cotarius of Domesday Book, a class whose exact status has been the subject of some discussion, and is still a matter of doubt. According to Domesday, the cotarii were comparatively few, numbering less than seven thousand, and were scattered unevenly throughout England, being principally in the southern counties; they were occupied either in cultivating a small plot of land, or in working on the holdings of the villani. Like the villani, among whom they were frequently classed, their economic condition may be described as free in relation to every one except their lord. A cottar is also a term for a tenant renting land from a farmer or landlord.
Note 1 villeins
A peasant who, under the feudal system of land tenure that prevailed in Europe in the middle Ages, gave dues and services to a lord in exchange for land. Villeins were not slaves, and were named as freemen and freewomen in medieval documents, but they were not free. They and their land and possessions belonged to the lord of the manor. They were not free to leave the manor, and they were subject to a large number of obligations required by the lord, including work on the lord's demesne two or three days a week, additional work at harvest, and the payment of manorial dues. In many places they also had to pay for the right to brew ale, bake bread, and grind corn at the lord's mill.
(Demesne land under feudalism kept by the lord for his own use and occupation as distinguished from that granted to tenants. Initially the demesne lands were worked by the serfs in payment of the feudal debt.)
Note 2 Monies
Where they talk £, s, d, is the old monetary system of £ = Pounds, s = Shillings, d = Pence
Note 3 Brut y Tywysogion (Chronicle of the Princes)
Brut y Tywysogion is an annalistic chronicle that serves as a continuation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae. It has survived as several Welsh translations of an original Latin version, which has not itself survived. The most important versions are the one in Peniarth MS. 20 and the slightly less complete one in the Red Book of Hergest. The version known as "Brenhinedd y Saeson" (Kings of the English) combines material from the Welsh annals with materials from an English source.
The Peniarth MS. 20 version begins in 681 with a record of the death of Cadwaladr and ends in 1332. The entries for the earlier years are brief; usually records of deaths and events such as eclipses, plagues or earthquakes, but later entries give much more detail. The main focus is on the rulers of the kingdoms of Gwynedd, Powys and Deheubarth, but ecclesiastical events are also mentioned, such as the bringing of the date of celebrating Easter in the Welsh church into line with Rome by "Elbodius" (Elfodd), Bishop of Bangor, in 768. Events in England, Ireland, Scotland and sometimes France are also briefly chronicled.
The original monastic annals are thought to have been written at Strata Florida Abbey, but may have been kept at the old abbey at Llanbadarn in the 11th century. Annals from other abbeys were also used in the composition. At least one of the Welsh translations is also thought to have been written at Strata Florida Abbey near Tregaron just south of Aberystwyth.
Note 4
Climacteric a. critical; forming a turning-point or crisis; n. turning-point, especially in life of individual, generally reckoned at 21, 35, 49, 63 and 81 years of age; 'change of life', menopause. Grand climacteric, 63rd or 81st year of life.
Note 5
Coed Helen is the area to the west of Caernarfon Castle on the other side of the river
rhingyll eg. 11. -(i)aid, -au, -od.
(a) sergeant (in police, army, &c.); sergeant, court official responsible for maintaining order and enforcing the commands of the authorities, tipstaff, apparitor, summoner, muezzin, crier, silentiary; beadle, subordinate officer of a commote, tax-collector; officer, bailiff, messenger, servant.
An extract from The Hawlfraint Prifysgol Cymru
Copyright University of Wales 2006
Ty = House, Home or Dwelling.
Hir = Long, Tall or Lengthy
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