page_title: Wrexham
section_title: Medieval
hierarchical_section_title: Wrexham / History / Medieval
caption_attribution_description: English: Original photograph taken by John Haynes, October 2005, of Kings Mill, Wrexham
context_page_description: Wrexham is a large town and the administrative centre of the Wrexham County Borough in North Wales, United Kingdom. Wrexham is situated between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley alongside the neighbouring county of Cheshire. Historically part of Denbighshire, the town became part of Clwyd in 1974 and since 1996 has been the principal centre of Wrexham County Borough.
  Wrexham has historically been one of the primary settlements of Wales. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 65,692, making it the fourth largest urban area in Wales and largest in north Wales. The town comprises the local government communities of Acton, Caia Park, Offa and Rhosddu. A wider urban area extends into villages like Coedpoeth, Gwersyllt, and Rhosllanerchrugog.
  Wrexham was likely founded prior to the 11th century and in the Middle Ages developed as a regional centre for trade and administration. The market town became the most populous settlement in Wales in the 17th century and was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution from the 18th century.
context_section_description: The Battle of Chester circa 615/616 marked the beginning of a long struggle between the Welsh and English for territory in this part of Wales. During the 8th century, the Anglo-Saxon royal house of Mercia pushed their frontiers westwards and established the earth boundaries of Wat's Dyke and Offa's Dyke to the west of the present town.
  During this first period of Mercian advance in the 8th century, the settlement of Wrexham was likely founded on the flat ground above the meadows of the River Gwenfro.  The name Wrexham probably comes from the old English for Wryhtel's river meadow. Alternatively, the name may have described a settlement of the Wreocensæte people, who were possibly a continuation of the Cornovii tribe of Roman Britain. The settlement may have originally been named 'Caer Fantell' in Welsh but by the 13th century was recorded in Welsh as 'Gwrexham' or 'Gregsam'.
  The Mercians fought over north-east Wales during the 8th to 10th centuries but the Welsh re-conquered the Wrexham area during the 11th century. Following the Welsh reconquest, Wrexham formed an integral part of the Powys lordship of Maelor and so does not appear in the Domesday Book of 1086. The first recorded reference to the town in 1161 is to a castle at 'Wristlesham'.
  
  Stability under the princes of Powys Fadog enabled Wrexham to develop as a trading town and administrative centre of one of the two commotes making up the Lordship. In 1202, Madoc ap Gruffydd Maelor, Lord of Dinas Brân, granted some of his demesne lands in ‘Wrechcessham’ to the  abbey of Valle Crucis and in 1220 the earliest reference to a church in Wrexham is made.
  Following the loss of Welsh independence on the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1282, Wrexham became part of the semi-independent Marcher lordship of Bromfield and Yale. Wrexham increased in importance throughout the Middle Ages as the lordship's administrative centre, and the town's position made it a suitable centre for the exchange of the produce of the Dee valley and Denbighshire uplands, whilst iron and lead were also mined locally.
  From 1327 onwards, the town is referred to as a villa mercatoria (market town) and became a celebrated centre for Welsh craftsmen. The town was particularly well-known in the 14th and 15th centuries for the manufacture of Welsh bucklers, as illustrated by the mention in the 1547 Inventory of King Henry VIII of 'wreckesham Buckelers'. In 1391 Wrexham was wealthy enough for a bard, jester, juggler, dancer and goldsmith to earn their living there.  
  The traditional pattern of Welsh life - law, administration, customs and language - remained undisturbed through the Middle Ages and the pattern was for English incomers to be rapidly assimilated into Welsh society, for instance adopting Welsh patronymics. 
  The local Welsh gentry and peasants backed the uprising led by Owain Glyndŵr in the early 15th century. Local poet Guto'r Glyn (c. 1412 – c. 1493) heralded Siôn ap Madog, the great-nephew of Owain Glyndŵr, as 'Alecsander i Wrecsam' (an Alexander for Wrexham) and the poet Hywel Dafi addresses Siôn's heir as 'Gwregys am ais Gwregsam wyt' (the armour around Wrexham's ribs).
caption: The 'King's Mills', believed to have origins in the 14th century[12][5]
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