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able to indicate our assent to his estimation of his historical works by a definitive edition akin to that which we are grateful to have in the present volume. J. B. SMITH Aberystwyth THE CARTULARY OF SHREWSBURY ABBEY. Edited by Una Rees. 2 vols. The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1975. Pp. xxi, 514. £ 8.00. The cartulary of the Benedictine Abbey of Shrewsbury, founded by Earl Hugh of Shrewsbury in 1083, dates from the late thirteenth century. In this fine edition, Dr. Rees provides the results of a meticulous textual and historical study with an introduction and annotation to each charter. The problems of the authenticity of the early baronial charters are care- fully considered and the editor provides sure guidance. These form an important group, but the later charters, many of them recording the gifts of less powerful men, provide most useful evidence, more particularly perhaps for thirteenth-century agrarian conditions. The abbey lands were very largely concentrated in Shropshire itself, and the student who is concerned with such matters as methods of cultivation, assarting and disafforestation will gain much from these volumes. In the neighbourhood of Oswestry the distinctive features of marcher conditions show through. Thus, Fulk fitzWarin's grant of a villa in that area is made free of obligation except for the service of one man at Oswestry when the lord went to war in Wales, an instance of a military organisation which Dr. Rees has examined elsewhere (E. H. R., 63 (1948)). Similarly, the grants of the fitzAlan lords of Oswestry, both in what they bestow and what they withhold, demonstrate the extent of their dominion. Advowsons and access to their market at Oswestry are granted; pleas relating to theft and bloodshed, pleas of the crown, and other pleas which pertain to their regalitas are retained. The contrast between the situation within and without the confines of the county are thus quite graphically revealed. There are, too, occasional reflections of the position of Shrewsbury as a place where major matters of Anglo-Welsh relations were negotiated, often protracted processes which may well have taxed the capacity of the abbey to provide suitable hospitality. One instance deserves brief notice. On 23 September 1267 the abbey and the burgesses reached a concord before king and council at Shrewsbury. The council was assembled there for the negotiations with Prince Llywelyn and just two days later agreement was reached and subsequently embodied in the treaty of Montgomery. So the concord, by providing us with the names of those who were in the king's council at that time, gives us a much fuller indication than we would otherwise have of exactly who were involved in the negotiations which led up to the most important agreement ever made between a king of England and a Welsh prince. This is an incidental boon from a valuable source now made available in a scholarly edition suitably presented in two volumes of fine workmanship which again demonstrate the capabilities of the private press of the National Library of Wales. J. B. SMITH Aberystwyth