King of England :
Henry III 1216-72
Background information :
At the start of the 1250's the area was relatively peaceful which had allowed Henry to turn his attention to the Marchers with whom he argued over their 'liberties'. This referred to the lack of any Royal juristiction in the Marcher Lordships which allowed the Barons to do practicaly anything they wanted to with no accountability. Their estates included many areas that they did not pay have to pay taxes on due to their proximity to the Welsh threat. In 1252 the Braose estates were formaly divided between his three daughters, of whom Maud had married Roger Mortimer and delivered Radnor amongst other lands to his estates as part of her dowry. There was alot of argument over this division of territory with various Marchers getting involved. The bad feeling continued long after the event.

In 1254 Henry started alot more trouble when he decided to put his son Prince Edward, later Edward I, in charge of all Crown estates and lands in Wales, which included areas where Marchers were tennants. Edward presided over a regime of heavy taxation of the population including those Marcher tenancies. This, together with harsh and ruthless control stirred the Welsh to seek aid from Llywelyn ap Gruffydd and his brothers to rescue them from this domination. Thus in 1258 Llywelyn started to take Crown territories,initialy to the W with the tacit support of many of the Marcher Lords. But he soon moved into Mortimer territory in the W of Radnorshire. This led to Roger Mortimer obtaining 'murage' grants, which was a local sales tax to fund town defences in New Radnor. During this period Roger Tosny, who had been restored in Painscastle started to encroach on the distracted Mortimer's territory in N Elfael