There is no trace here of villenage, or of the servile week-work of the Saxon serf. The tribesmen had no manorial lord over them but their chief, and he was their natural and elected tribal head. So, when Wales was finally conquered, the tunc was paid to the Prince of Wales, and no mesne lord was interposed between the tribesman and the Prince.
Thus the freedom of the free tribesman was guarded at every point.
The aillts or taeogs.
Their tyddyns and ploughs.
Turning now to the other class, the aillts or taeogs—who in the Latin translations of the laws are called villani—the key to their position was their non-possession of tribal blood, and therefore of the rights of kindred. They were not free-born Welshmen; though, on the other hand, by no means to be confounded with caeths, or slaves. They must be sworn men of some chieftain or lord, on whose land they were placed, and at whose will and pleasure they were deemed to remain.[237] Each of these taeogs had his tyddyn—his homestead, with corn and cattle yard. In his tyddyn he had cattle of his own. In South Wales several of these taeogs' homesteads were grouped together into what was called a taeog-trev. Further, the arable fields of the 'taeog-trev' were ploughed on the open-field system by the taeogs' [p197] common plough team, to which each contributed oxen.
Equality in the taeog-trev.
But the distinctive feature of the taeog-trev was that an absolute equality ruled, not between brothers or cousins of one household, as in the case of the family land of the free tribesmen, but throughout the whole trev. Family relationships were ignored. All adults in the trev—fathers and sons, and strangers in blood—took equal shares, with the single exception of youngest sons, who lived with their fathers, and had no tyddyn of their own till the parent's death. This principle of equality ruled everything.[238] The common ploughing must not begin till every taeog in the trev had his place appointed in the co-tillage.[239] Nor could there be any escheat of land in the taeog-trev to the lord on failure of heirs; for there was nothing hereditary about the holdings. Succession always fell (except in the case of the youngest son, who took his father's tyddyn) to the whole trev.[240] When there was a death there was a re-division of the whole land, care, however, being taken to disturb the occupation of the actual tyddyns only when absolutely needful.[241]
Per capita no account of blood relationship.
The principle upon which the taeog's rights rested was simply this: where there was no true Welsh blood no family rights were recognised. In the absence of these, equality ruled between individuals; they shared 'per capita,' and not 'per stirpes.'
Their register land.