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The Norman invasion coincided with a revival in the European economy and an improvement in the climate.

The population in Wales 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.

Norman incursions introduced new social relationships. In places like the Vale of Glamorgan, the land was organised into a series of knights' fees, each capable of maintaining a mounted warrior and supported by a manorial system sustained by villeins who were often incomers.

The centuries after 1000 also saw changes in native Welsh society, particularly the growth of the concept that a crime is an offence against the ruler rather than against the kin, and the increasing replacement of renders of food and services by payments in money. The growth in the circulation of money indicated the growth of trade, a process which transformed traditional relationships.