A Confederacy of Dunces

No, not this book. I refer to the March Lords along the border of Wales in Norman England in the llth - 13th centuries.  A lot of the time of the Marcher Lords ruled over a local population of Welsh, English, German and French peasants. Were they allies? Were they enemies? A united force against the Welsh or just trying to get by on the borderland of an unruly people who would not be ruled?

Asking such questions grants them as a whole too much self-awareness. Like so many nobles, their main goal was self-perpetuation. And their main agency was oppressing their own people, rather than exerting their will upon other nobles and other peoples.

Wales, 1234 AD

Above, the green lands are those never conquered - pure Wales as she were known. The pink were lands of the Kingdom of England that William had won from Harold at Hastings in 1066. The purple is Chester, which was for a time powerful enough to be considered a Principality and country of its own. By 1246 it was in the possession of the English crown by way of escheat.  The light blue were lands improbably won by Llewellyn the Great for Wales in 1234.

The remaining orange lands were the baronies of the Marcher Lords. They were enpeopled by the indigenous Welsh as well as peasants imported from England, France, and Germany. In those days peasants were a commodity, occasionally to be traded. Germanics particularly ended up throughout Europe, having first migrated and then having been exported in large numbers throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

This is all a great long way to say that it would be a great fun board game or wargames campaign to use the map above or to play a game like Risk or Diplomacy, wouldn't it? I wonder if there is such a game?  EDIT: Here it is!  There is such a game, and it seems to be about as accessible and uncomplcated as Risk.  But. Out of print.

Or maybe from this second map, which is a little clearer but not nearly as colorful. What do you think?

Traditional "Welsh Marches" Counties by Owain

In any case, I think one of these two will be the basis of the "Map of the Realm" for the medieval supplement I'm working on. They give me an idea about the name, too. It should have something to do with (duh) the Welsh and March Lords. Maybe "The Marches on Wales"? It also gives me an idea about the proper time frame. The latest period any of this should commence is about 1237, when the 7th Earl of Chester dies without an heir.