Glamorgan was one of the wealthiest areas in Wales. Although not well suited to farming, the county was rich in coal and iron, and its long coastline with many good harbours on the Bristol Channel made delivery from the mines easy to most destinations. The prosperity of several of its ports was threatened by silting and an Act (I Mary st. 3, c.11) obtained during Mary’s second Parliament was meant to remedy this. At the Union the old county was consolidated and enlarged, and the 2nd Earl of Worcester confirmed in his post as justice of Glamorgan. By the 1540s the supremacy enjoyed by the earl and his father before him was passing to his kinsman William Herbert I, himself ennobled in 1551 as Earl of Pembroke, and the hold over the county by Pembroke and his kinsmen scarcely weakened at Mary’s accession even though he had been close to the Duke of Northumberland. His brother George was the first knight for Glamorgan and those who followed were near relatives. Despite the hopes of Sir George Herbert the highly coveted chamberlainship of South Wales was given by Mary to Sir Rhys Mansell, and the return of Mansell’s two youthful and untested sons early in the reign reflected this success. Sir George Herbert’s quarrel with the Mansells over the cargo from a wreck in 1557 briefly divided the families but did no lasting damage. Apart from the Mansells all the knights were men with experience stretching far beyond the shire: several were known at court and Sir Edward Carne on the Continent. John Bassett may have been solicitor to the council in the marches when returned, and Sir Edward Carne and Sir George Herbert were members of the council during their careers.2

Elections took place at Cardiff castle. Indentures survive for the Parliament of 1542 and for the six held between 1553 and 1558, although rarely in good condition. The indentures are in English, save those for November 1554 and 1558. The contracting parties are the sheriff of Glamorganshire and the freeholders, varying in number between 20 and 30 when named, or in 1555 ten named gentlemen and ‘others freeholders’.3