Pauli Iovii Novocomensis opera quotquot extant omnia

that they are entirely free of hooded priests, lawyers, wolves, and foxes.

The region of Cornwall—called Cornuvallia by others—looks toward the borders of Kent from the West, in a huge and gradually tapering stretch of land, but with some provinces lying between, extended like a threatening horn toward the Armorican shore. On its extreme promontory, which was once Ocrium, the temple of the divine Michael is seen along with a town. It is distant eleven degrees from the western line, while the Antarctic pole rises exactly at fifty-one degrees for it. There are those who call it Cornwall Cornuvallia Cornwall because, as we have said, it tends toward Gaul like an extended horn; I, however, would have thought it was named from the Cornavii, a most ancient people. The most famous of the cities, not far from the sea, is considered to be Exeter, named from the River Exe which flows past it. From there, a great quantity of iron, lead, and tin is exported by the voyages of merchants; for vessels made from Cornish tin are compared to silver in brightness and hardness for the use of tables.

But Wales, in the antiquity of its British blood—from which Henry VII, born in the town of Pembroke, brought back the most ancient blood of Arthur to the royal seat—is divided into three regions: Dumbera, Berfrone, and Malfabrene likely referring to the three regions of Deheubarth, Gwynedd, and Powys. In Dumbera, Carmarthen, a town of ancient nobility, excels; it was once the royal seat of the Welsh Princes. It administers laws to all of Wales, with the most ancient laws preserved there, which they even now use, as free people by the concession of the Kings. It is scarcely one hundred stades distant from the very safe port of Milford, from where the crossing is shortest to Waterford in Ireland. I would have believed Carmarthen to be the Maridunum of Ptolemy, given the location of the region and the echoing of the name. Not far from it, veins of gold and silver are found in the field of Comostylfo. But the Welsh are suspicious of the masters of the mines and the workers, because they envy those riches for the English, which they themselves, with their fierce spirits, despise and reject. They pay an annual tribute to the Kings which never exceeds the sum of forty thousand gold pieces.

In Wales, five episcopal cities are counted, if Hereford on the River Lugg is attributed to Wales. The city of Saint David’s stands out on the extreme promontory of Wales, from where to the opposite head of the Eastern Ocean, which they once called Ocelum and today call Yarmouth, the total width of the whole island is measured at two hundred and fifty thousand paces. Toward the North, however, Bangor, enclosed by two rivers, holds the second dignity, and it looks toward the nearby island of Anglesey, which was snatched away into the deep through such violent tides of the Ocean, devouring the margins of Wales, when a few centuries earlier it was joined to the continent by a long bridge, as it appears; so that some think Anglesey is not the Mona that was conquered by Julius Agricola, who swam across with his army. The remaining two are episcopal, Asaph and Llandaff, but not equally noble.

Furthermore, the region of Wales that is flat and turned toward the South is most fertile in crops, but further from the sea, so that the Welsh, the most warlike of all, when they are called to war by edict, send six thousand cavalry to the Kings, and fourteen thousand foot soldiers—archers and spearmen—and an equal number of soldiers is left at home for the uncertain turns of battles. For the Kings do not guard the Welsh shores with fixed garrisons without reason, as they remember that landings have most often been made on that coast by the fleets of enemies. Therefore, as it is the first of the provinces—both in the honor of its ancient lineage, and in the opportunity of its coast, and in the number and excellence of its soldiers—it is granted to the sons of the Kings to be held and governed by their command, up to the certain hope of the kingdom, since from the Principality of Wales