Historic counties of Wales
The historic counties of Wales (Welsh: siroedd hynafol) were the thirteen sub-divisions used in Wales from 1535 up to their abolition in 1974 when they were replaced by eight larger administrative counties (which in turn were replaced with the current twenty-two). They were used for various functions for several hundred years, with some dating to 1282, but for administrative purposes have been superseded by contemporary sub-national divisions, some of which bear some limited similarity to the historic entities in name and extent.
Source: Wikipedia — Historic counties of Wales (CC BY-SA 4.0)