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Although the Normans were ferocious, they were godly in their way and faithful to the papacy which had blessed their attack upon England. They considered control over the Welsh church to be essential to their power in Wales.

They also sought to promote the interests of Rome and to make Wales a full member of the community of Latin Europe. Thus, they suppressed the clasau of the Celtic church and made many of them tributary churches of ecclesiastical centres in England or France. At places like Chepstow and Ewenny, they established monasteries of the Benedictine Order.

The Normans also introduced to Wales the newer orders founded in France: those of Cluny, Tiron, Savigny and Cîteaux. They reorganised the Welsh dioceses and determined their exact boundaries. The four Welsh bishops became subject to the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury and their cathedrals were built in the latest European fashion. The country was divided into parishes and was obliged to accept the discipline of Roman Canon Law.

The Norman invasion coincided with a revival in the European economy and an improvement in the climate. The population grew and boroughs were established. In the March, the boroughs were settled by people on whose loyalty the Normans could rely - generally incomers from England.

This gave rise to the notion that towns were an alien intrusion into Wales; yet in the regions under native rule, semi-urban settlements also developed. In addition, the Normans encouraged foreign settlement in parts of rural Wales - Gower, Pembroke and the Vale of Glamorgan in particular.

Although most marcher lordships were inhabited in the main by the native Welsh, all of them had their Englishries - areas within easy reach of the borough and its castle settled by immigrants.

While the marcher lords were consolidating their hold over much of the southern lowlands and the borders, the Welsh rulers sought to strengthen their power. Madog ap Maredudd (died 1160) was master of Powys, Owain ap Gruffudd (died 1170) of Gwynedd, and Rhys ap Gruffudd (the Lord Rhys, died 1197) of Deheubarth. Rhys also excercised protection over the smaller Welsh dynasties of northern Glamorgan and the uplands between the Wye and Severn valleys.

The rulers sought to learn from the methods of the Normans. They began to build castles and have mounted knights. In particular, they saw virtue in the new monastic orders.

By 1200 all the major Welsh rulers had a monastery of the order of Cîteaux. Cistercian abbeys like Strata Florida and Vale Crucis provided meeting places and burial grounds for the rulers and it is in their stone buildings that most of what has survived of the literature of early medieval Wales was protected.

All the Welsh rulers were obliged to recognise the overlordship of the King of England. This allowed energetic sovereigns like Henry I and Henry II to interfere extensively in the politics of Wales. Thus, side by side with the growing confidence of the Welsh rulers, was the growing power of the English king.

These two aspects were explored by Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales), himself of both Norman and Welsh descent. In his Description of Wales (1193), he devoted one chapter to the ways in which the English king might achieve the total conquest of Wales. In another, he tells the Welsh how they should set about resisting such a conquest.