Editing Swansea (section)

===Medieval Swansea===
The area that would become Swansea was known as the [[Cantref]] Eginog in ancient times, located on the eastern edge of the [[cwmwd]] (commote) of Gwyr, the easternmost cantref of [[Ystrad Tywi]]. This area was noted for its valuable land and was highly contested by the early Welsh kingdoms. During the [[Viking Age]], the mouth of the Tawe became a focus for trade, and a trade post may have been founded sometime between the 9th and 11th centuries.

The settlement remained under Welsh control until the [[Norman invasion of Wales]], when [[Iestyn ap Gwrgant]] ceded the settlement as part of the new [[Gower (Lordship)|Lordship of Gower]] to [[Henry de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Warwick]] in the early 1100s. The Lordship included land around [[Swansea Bay]] as far as the River Tawe, the manor of Kilvey beyond the Tawe, and the peninsula itself.

In the following years, Henry built [[Swansea Castle]] {{circa|1106}}, and minted coins bearing the names ''Swensi'', ''Sweni'' and ''Svenshi'' {{circa|1140}}.<ref>"A hoard of coins found at [[Rhiwbina]] in the north of [[Cardiff]] in 1980 contained ... minted at Swansea ''c.'' 1140 and bore abbreviated forms of the name: SWENSI, SWENS, SVEN, SWENI, SVENSHI." Quoted from ''Place-names in Glamorgan'', Gwynedd O. Pierce, 2002. {{ISBN|1-898937-57-5}}; pg. 182</ref> Swansea was designated chief town of the lordship and received its first [[Municipal charter|borough charter]] sometime between 1158 and 1184 from William de Newburgh, 3rd [[Earl of Warwick]].<ref name="encyclopedia">The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press 2008.</ref> This charter contains the earliest reference in English to ''Sweynesse'' and gave it the status of a [[borough]], granting the townsmen (called [[burgess (title)|burgess]]es) certain rights to develop the area. In 1215 [[John of England|King John]] granted a second charter, in which the name appears as ''Sweyneshe''. A town seal which is believed to date from this period names the town as ''Sweyse''.<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Swansea |volume=26 |page=183}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/GLA/Swansea/Timeline.html | title= Swansea Timeline | publisher= Genuki | year= 2007 | access-date= 29 July 2007 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070705060006/http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/GLA/Swansea/Timeline.html | archive-date= 5 July 2007 | url-status= live }}</ref> Another charter was granted in 1304.