The Welsh Marches is an imprecisely defined area along and around the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods. The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin Marchia Walliae) was originally used in the Middle Ages to denote a more precisely defined territory: the marches between England and the Principality of Wales, in which Marcher lords had specific rights, exercised to some extent independently of the king of England.