Council in the Marches

Royal court with jurisdiction over Wales and the English border counties; established as part of the process of imposing the King's rule over the semi-independent Marcher Lords of the Welsh border regions. The Council in the Marches was formally established in January 1543 in the reign of Henry VIII and was abolished in 1641. Though primarily a judicial court, it acted as a spearhead of Protestantism at the time of the Reformation.

Edward IV had earlier empowered the council of his son Edward, Prince of Wales, to act as a court in 1473. This power was revived to provide a role for Arthur, Prince of Wales, Henry VII's sickly elder son, who died prematurely at the council's headquarters in Ludlow in 1502.