THE WOLF. 129 



from paying any acknowledgment to the king of 

 England." 



The amount of the original tribute commuted for 

 this tax of Wolves, the time when that tribute was 

 appointed, and the cause for which it was imposed, 

 are altogether circumstances not very generally under- 

 stood. It is vaguely imagined to have been a de- 

 grading tax paid by the people of Wales to the 

 English monarch, in token of their subjection to his 

 sovereignty as their conqueror. " This," says Powel, 

 " is not the fact ; it arose from a local cause : from one 

 of those cruel dissensions among the native princes 

 which too often disgrace the Welsh annals, and to 

 settle which the weakest never failed to invite the 

 aid of foreign force. 



About the year 953, Owen, the son of Griffith, was 

 slain by the men of Cardigan ; and Athelstane, upon 

 this pretext, entering with an army into Wales, 

 imposed an annual tribute upon certain princes to 

 the amount of ^20 in gold, ^"300 in silver, and 200 

 head of cattle, but which was not observed by these 

 Welsh princes, as appears by the laws of Howel Dha, 

 wherein the levy is appointed. It is there decreed 

 that the Prince of AberfFraw should pay no more to 

 the English king than ^66 tribute, and even this sum 

 was to be contributed to the prince of Aberffraw by 

 the princes of Dinefawr and Powis, upon whom this 

 tax was virtually imposed. The principality of Dine- 

 fawr, it may be observed, included Cardigan, by the 

 men of which district the alleged crime had been 

 committed ; and Powis, which was close to the 



