Council of Wales and the Marches

See also the Council of Wales for the advisory council established in 1948.

The Council of Wales and the Marches was an English regional administrative body (similar to the Council of the North) covering all of Wales and the English counties known as the Welsh Marches.

The council was established in the 15th century and initially responsibile for governing the lands held under the Principality of Wales, the lands directly administered by the English crown following the Edwardian Conquest of Wales in the 13th century. Following the full annexation of Wales into England with Laws of Wales acts in the 16h century, the council gained the Welsh Marcher lands to administer as well.

Its headquarters were in Ludlow Castle, and its abolition on 25 July 1689 led to the castle's dereliction.

Presidents of the Council

• John Alcock 1473–1500
• William Smyth 1501–1512
• Godfrey Blyth 1512–1525
• John Vesey 1525–1534
• Rowland Lee 1534–1543
• John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland 1549–1550
• William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke 1550–1553
• Nicholas Heath 1553–1555
• William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke 1555–1558
• Gilbert Bourne 1558–1559
• John Williams, 1st Baron Williams de Thame 1559
• Sir Henry Sidney 1560–1586
• Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke 1586–1601
• Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche 1602–1607
• Ralph Eure, 3rd Baron Eure 1607–1616
• Thomas Gerard, 1st Baron Gerard 1616–1617
• William Compton, 1st Earl of Northampton 1617–1630
• John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater 1631–1642
• Richard Vaughan, 2nd Earl of Carbery 1660–1672
• Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort 1672–1689?
• Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield 1689

Vice-Presidents of the Council

• Sir James Croft 1550–1551
• Hugh Paulet
• John Whitgift in 1577
• Sir Richard Lewkenor 1601?
• Gervase Babington 1605–?

References

• Doyle, James William Edmund (1886). The Official Baronage of England: showing the succession, dignities, and offices of every peer from 1066 to 1885, Vol. III. Longmans, Green & Co.. Retrieved on 2007-01-25. 
• Skeel, Caroline A. J. (January 1915). "The Council of the Marches in the Seventeenth Century". The English Historical Review 30: 19–27. Retrieved on 2007-01-26. 
• Pollard, A. F. (July 1922). "Council, Star Chamber, and Privy Council under the Tudors: I. The Council". The English Historical Review 37: 337–360. Retrieved on 2007-01-26. 
• The Tudor Place. Retrieved on 2007-01-26.
• (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved on 2007-01-26. 

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