the building and carried away the provisions prepared for the king’s reception.
After the Conquest the district conquered by Harold was bestowed on William Fitz Osborne, earl of Hereford, who built Monmouth Castle, and continued the line of defence against the Welsh frontier along the Wye, while a second. line of fortifications along the Usk Valley marked the continued advance of the Normans, who by 1085 had subjugated almost the whole of Gwent. The lordship of Overwent fell to Hamelin de Baladun, who founded the castle and priory of Abergavenny, and from him passed to Brian Fitz Count and later to Walter Fitz Miles, earl of Hereford. The lordship of Netherwent remained for many centuries with the Clare family. Penhow Castle was a stronghold of the family of St Maur or Seymour, from whom are descended the present dukes of Somerset, and Grosmont and Skenfrith Castles of the family of Braose. Gwent still ranked as Welsh territory at the time of the Domesday Survey, but the town of Monmouth, the castle of Caerleon, and the district of Archenfeld, are assessed under Herefordshire, and the three hardwicks of Llanwern, Portskewet and Dinam under Gloucestershire. The Norman lords of the present county held their lands “per baroniam,” so that the king’s writ did not run in them, and the lives and property of the poorer inhabitants were entirely at the mercy of these lords marchers as they were termed. The county still exhibits remains of no less than twenty-five Norman castles. The province of Gwent was formerly divided into four cantrefs, each comprising several commotes. Cantref Uwchcoed, or Upper Gwent, comprised the commotes of Erging and Ewyas, now principally in Herefordshire, and the greater part of the present hundreds of Skenfrith, Abergavenny and Usk; Cantref Iscoed, or Lower or Nether Gwent, comprised the present hundred of Raglan and parts of Caldecote and Usk; Cantref Gwentlwg comprised the present hundred of Wentlwg; while the fourth cantref, Cantref Coch, now forms the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. Leland, writing in the 16th century, describes Gwent as comprising the three divisions of low, middle and high “Venteland,” and at this period it included no less than 24 lordship marches, each governed by its own ancient laws and customs and ruled by its own lord. Under the act of 1536 for the abolition of the marches, these 24 lordships were united to form a shire; Monmouth was constituted the shire town, and the sheriff’s court was ordered to be held alternately at Monmouth and Newport. A commission was also appointed to divide the shire into hundreds, which were made 6 in number: Abergavenny, Caldecote, Raglan, Skenfrith, Usk and Wentlwg, the bounds being subsequently ratified by act of parliament of 1542–1543. No sheriffs were actually appointed for Monmouthshire until 1541, and the legal authority of the lords marchers was not finally abolished until 1689. The act of 1536 did not expressly separate the county from Wales, and it was only gradually that Monmouthshire came to be regarded as an English county, being included in the Oxford circuit for the first time in the reign of Charles II.
Ecclesiastically Monmouthshire has been almost entirely included in the diocese of Llandaff since the foundation of that diocese in the 6th century. Monmouth, however, was in the diocese of Hereford, and a few parishes formed part of the diocese of St Davids, until under the statute of 1836 the whole county was placed under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Llandaff. It contains, wholly or in part, 134 ecclesiastical parishes.
The river fisheries of Monmouthshire have been famed from very early times, Caerleon with seven fisheries in the Wye and the Usk yielding a return of £7, 10s. at the time of the Domesday Survey. Coal is said to have been worked in the reign of Edward I., but the industry lapsed altogether until it received new life from the construction of the canal between Blaenavon and Newport, begun in 1792 and completed in 1795. The first iron-workers at Pontypool were a family of the name of Grant, who were succeeded in 1565 by Mr Richard Hanbury. In 1740, however, Monmouthshire contained only two furnaces, making 900 tons annually. Fifty years later three new furnaces were constructed at Blaenavon, and from that date the industry steadily improved.
By the act of 1536 two knights were to be returned for the shire and one burgess for the borough of Monmouth, but the first returns for the county were made in 1547 and for the borough in 1553. From 1698 the boroughs of Newport and Usk returned one member each. Under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885 the county now returns three members in three divisions.
Antiquities.–Of Norman fortresses in Monmouthshire, either built or taken possession of by the lords of the marches, there are remains of no less than twenty-five. The more interesting and important are: Caldicot, the seat of the De Bohuns, with a round keep of the 13th century, gatehouse and other portions, still partly inhabited; Chepstow, one of the finest examples of the Norman fortress extant, in an imposing situation on a cliff above the Wye; Newport, Abergavenny, the gateway and hall of Grosmont, once the residence of the dukes of Lancaster; and Usk Castle, rebuilt by the Clares in the time of Edward IV. Raglan Castle, begun in the reign of Henry V., is a very extensive ruin, still in good preservation, and of special interest as a very late example of the feudal stronghold. Charles I. resided in it after the battle of Naseby, and in 1646 it was delivered up to the parliamentary forces after a stubborn resistance of ten weeks against Colonel Morgan and General Fairfax.
At the Reformation there were in Monmouth two hospitals and fifteen other religious houses; but of these there are now important remains of only two—Llanthony Abbey and Tintern Abbey, both Cistercian. Llanthony Abbey in the Black Mountains was founded by William de Lacy in 1103, and the church, dating from about 1200, is one of the earliest examples in England of the Pointed style. The ruins consist of portions of the nave, transept, central tower and choir. Tintern Abbey (q.v.), founded by Walter de Clare in 1131, occupies a position of great beauty on the Wye, and is among the finest monastic ruins in England. Of the churches, those chiefly worthy of mention are at Abergavenny, belonging to a Benedictine priory, and containing a number of old tombs; Chepstow, partly Norman, and possessing a richly moulded doorway; St Woolos’ Church, Newport, also Norman; the Norman chapel of St Thomas, Monmouth; Christchurch, principally Norman; Mathern, Early English, with a tablet to Tewdrig, king of Gwent in the 6th century; and Usk, formerly attached to a Benedictine priory.
See Victoria County History, Monmouthshire; William Coxe, An Historical Tour in Monmouthshire, 2 pts. (London, 1801); N. Rogers, Memoirs on Monmouthshire (London, 1708); David Williams, History of Monmouthshire (1796); George Ormerod, Strigulensia. Archaeological Memoirs relating to the District adjacent to the Confluence of the Severn and the Wye; M. E. Bagnall-Oakeley, Account of the Rude Monuments in Monmouthshire (Newport, 1889); J. A. Bradney, A History of Monmouthshire (1904, &c.); also the publications of the Caerleon Antiquarian Association.
MONNIER, MARC (1827–1885), French writer, was born at
Florence on the 7th of December 1827. His father was French,
and his mother a Genevese; he received his early education
in Naples, he then studied in Paris and Geneva, and he completed
his education at Heidelberg and Berlin. He became professor
of comparative literature at Geneva, and eventually vice-rector
of the university. He died at Geneva on the 18th of April
1885. He wrote a series of short, satirical, dramatic sketches
collected as Théâtre de marionettes (1871), and stories, notably
Nouvelles napolitaines (1879), numerous works on Italian history,
a translation of Goethe’s Faust, Genève et ses poètes (1873), &c.
The first volume of his Histoire de la littérature moderne, La
Renaissance, de Dante à Luther (1884), was crowned by the
French Academy.
See E. Rambert, Écrivains nationaux suisses, vol. i. (Geneva, 1874).
MONNIKENDAM, a fishing village of Holland, in the province
of North Holland, on an inlet of the Zuider Zee known as
the Gouw Zee, 12 m. N.N.E. of Amsterdam, with which it is
connected by steam tramway. It was once a flourishing town,
but its quietness now is only disturbed by the advent of the
numerous tourists who visit it in the summer, crossing hence
to the island of Marken. Among the notable buildings are
the weigh-house (17th century), the bell-tower (1591), formerly
attached to the town-hall before this was destroyed in the 18th
century, and the church of St. Nicholas, with its beautiful
massive tower. Mention is made of this church in a document of
1356, but it was not completed until the beginning of the 15th
century. It contains some fine carvings, many interesting
old tombs, and a monument of Jan Nieuwenhuizen, the founder
of the Society for Public Welfare (Tot Nut van het Algemeen)
in 1785.
MONOCHORD (Gr. μονόχορδον, κανών μουσικός): med. Lat.
monochordum), an instrument having a single string, used
