Molmutine Laws - Iolo Morganwg's Triads

Iolo Morganwg's Triads

At the end of the 18th century or beginning of the 19th, antiquarian forgerer Iolo Morganwg claimed to have found a long list of Welsh triads giving the laws. They include.

'There are three tests of civil liberty; equality of rights; equality of taxation; freedom to come and go.

'Three things are indispensable to a true union of nations; sameness of laws, rights and language.

'There are three things free to all Britons; the forest, the unworked mine, the right of hunting.

'There are three property birthrights of every Briton; five British acres of land for a home, the right of suffrage in the enacting of the laws, the male at twenty-one, the female on her marriage.

'There are three things which every Briton may legally be compelled to attend; the worship of God, military service, the courts of law.

'There are three things free to every man, Briton or foreigner, the refusal of which no law will justify; water from spring, river or well; firing from a decayed tree, a block of stone not in use.

'There are three classes which are exempt from bearing arms; bards, judges, graduates in law or religion. These represent God and His peace, and no weapon must ever be found in their hands.

'There are three persons who have a right of public maintenance; the old, the babe, the foreigner who can not speak the British tongue.'

'There are three things free to a country and its borders; the roads, the rivers and the places of worship. These are under the protection of God and His peace.' (In this law originated the term 'The King's Highway.')