A fresh approach

For example, in 1559 Sir Robert Dudley and Sir William Cordell, Master of the Rolls, were appointed by the court to arbitrate between three heiresses to Edward Griffith’s landed estate in Caernarfonshire and Anglesey and the male heir in a dispute which had festered for some six years (“Disputes and settlements in Medieval Wales: the role of Arbitration”, English Historical Review No.CCCCXXI October 1991). However, by 7 December 1559 the parties had entered into recognisances binding themselves to “stande, to obey and bide the awarde, order, judgement and dome” of the two arbitrators. Despite their efforts towards “a loving and friendly end”, the arbitrators found the disputants “so precisely addicted and bent to their