Monthly Archives: June 2011

06/30/11

Dinas Ffareon (Dinas Emrys)

Dinas Ffareon is an Iron Age hill fort near Beddgelert which overlooks Lyn Dinas in Snowdonia. It is one of the more remote castles in Wales and “it was here that King Lludd ab Beli buried the two dragons which fought each other, as told in the Welsh epic the Mabinogion.”

Later tales (Nennius’ and Geoffrey of Monmouth’s among them) tell of King Vortigern retreating back into Snowdonia and choosing Dinas Ffareon as the place to build his fort.

Unfortunately for him, each night the ground was shaken such that the fort fell down. The King’s advisors stated that a fartherless child had to be sacrificed in order to stop the fort tumbling. Myrddyn Emrys (Merlin) and Emrys Wledig (Ambrosius Aurelianus) come into the story as well.

“Merlin prophecised that the Red Dragon represented the Britons and the White Dragon the Saxons and that the event meant that the Britons would be victorious over the Saxons. The Celts tended to refer to leaders as dragons (draig) so one could also read it as meaning the leader of the Britons being victorious over the leader of the Saxons, something which came to pass through Uther Pendragon and then Arthur himself.”

http://www.wyrm.org.uk/ukdracs/dinasemrys.html

http://www.caerleon.net/history/geoffrey/Prophecy1.htm

Dinas Ffareon, now Dinas Emrys (renamed, of course, for Merlin), sits atop a rock that is one of the strongest, natural fortifications in Wales.  The remains of the medieval stone fort, possibly built in the 13th century by either Llywelyn Fawr or Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, still top it.  Underneath, stones date to the Iron Age.

Modern archaeology reveals: “Dinas Emrys was occupied to some extent in the late Roman period, but that rough stone banks around its Western end are later. They were poorly built of stone two or three times and took strategic advantage of natural crags. Still less substantial walls were also discovered to the north and south. Broken sherds of Eastern Mediterranean amphorae, Phoenician red slip dishes and a pottery lamp roundel featuring a Chi-Rho symbol indicate that these features do indeed date to the 5th and 6th century.”
http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/archaeology/emrys.html
http://www.castlewales.com/dinas_em.html

06/28/11

King Owain Gwynedd

Owain was born Owain ap Gruffydd around 1100 AD, the second son of Gruffydd ap Cynan.  Owain ruled from 1137 to 1170 AD.   His rule was marked by peace initially, at least with England, as Owain took advantage of the strife in England between Stephen and Maud for the English throne to consolidate his power in Wales.  That conflict lasted for 19 years (http://www.britainexpress.com/wales/history/owain-gwynedd.htm), finally resolving in the rule by Stephen but with the inheritance of the throne upon his death by Maud’s son, Henry.

Owain “married, firstly, Gwladys, the daughter of Llywarch ap Trahaearn; and secondly, Christina, his cousin, the daughter of Goronwy ap Owain ‘the Traitor,’ Lord of Tegeingle, to whom he remained constant despite the active disapproval of the Church.” He had many sons and daughters, not all of whom are documented.  http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/owaingd.html

His first  relationship was with a woman named Pyfog, of Ireland, by whom he had two sons:  Rhun and Hywel.  Rhun, a most favored son, died in 1147.

“As a young man in the 1120s, Owain was largely associated with his elder brother, Cadwallon, in restoring Gwynedd’s prosperity on behalf of their ageing father. Together, they directed the military campaigns which added Meirionydd, Rhos, Rhufoniog and Dyffryn Clwyd to Gwynedd proper. Thus, at his accession to the throne, upon Gruffudd’s death in 1137 – Cadwallon having died five years earlier – the groundwork for an impressive career had already been firmly set.”  http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/owaingd.html

Owain did have to deal with his younger brother, Cadwaladr.  As with Llywelyn ap Gruffydd in the 13th century, Owain, as the second son, was a charismatic and strong ruler (and, apparently, fair).  His younger brother, Cadwaladr, had somewhat less honor and although the two split Gwynedd between them upon their father’s death, in 1143 Cadwaladr was implicated in the murder of Anarawd ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth.  Owain responded by sending his son, Hywel, to strip him of his lands in the north of Ceredigion and banished Cadwaladr to Ireland.

In response, Cadwaladr returned to Wales at the head of an army of mercenaries (this is the subject of Ellis Peter’s 20th Cadfael chronicle, The Summer of the Danes and my work in progress The Good Knight), to the extreme displeasure of his brother.  Cadwaladr was driven into permanent exile in 1155 AD.

Back to King Henry.  He gained power in 1154, ruling as Henry II.  In 1157, he attacked Wales.  His goal, as was generally the case for the English kings, was to force Owain to give up some of the lands he had gained at English expense, particularly in Powys, and to force Wales into the status of ‘dependent’ state, instead of ‘client’ state—an important difference in the eyes of both the Welsh and the English.

Henry II was, for the most part, not successful.  Other than an initial stalemate, Owain continued to rule Wales as he saw fit, and left a consolidated country for his heirs when he died in 1170.  Gwynedd was split among Owain’s many sons.  For problems with the succession, see http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/?p=770

06/26/11

The Thirteen Treasures of Britain

Dyrnwyn, the flaming sword, lost for centuries beneath the earth.

A hamper that feeds a hundred, a knife to serve twenty-four,

A chariot to carry a man on the wind,

A halter to tame any horse he might wish.

The cauldron of the Giant to test the brave,

A whetstone for deadly sharpened swords,

An entertaining chess set,

A crock and a dish, each to fill one’s every wish,

A cup that bestows immortality on those worthy of it,

And the mantle of Arthur.

His healing sword descends;

Our enemies flee our unseen and mighty champion.

–Taliesin, The Thirteen Treasures, The Black Book of Gwynedd

 

When JK Rowling talks about the deathly hallows in the Harry Potter books, she is giving a nod to the Thirteen Treasures, which she didn’t make up, in that their roots lie in the mythology of Britain dating back to the Celts.  In the Deathly Hallows, the treasures are an invisibility cloak, a stone that brings the spirit of someone back from the death (for a time), and a powerful wand.

The original thirteen treasures are tied to the Arthurian legend.  In some sources, Merlin seeks them, in others, Arthur or his men are sent on quests to retrieve them.

“The “Thirteen Treasures of Britain” were famous in early legend. They belonged to gods and heroes, and were current in our island till the end of the divine age, when Merlin, fading out of the world, took them with him into his airy tomb, never to be seen by mortal eyes again. According to tradition, they consisted of a sword, a basket, a drinking-horn, a chariot, a halter, a knife, a cauldron, a whetstone, a garment, a pan, a platter, a chess board, and a mantle, all possessed of [marvelous qualities] . . .

It is these same legendary treasures that reappear, no doubt, in the story of “Kulhwch and Olwen”. The number tallies, for there are thirteen of them . . . That there should be  discrepancies need cause no surprise, for it is not unlikely that there were several different versions of their legend. Everyone had heard of the Thirteen Treasures of Britain. Many, no doubt, disputed as to what they were. Others might ask whence they came. The story of “Kulhwch and Olwen” was composed to tell them. They were won by Arthur and his mighty men.”  http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cml/cml26.htm

From Wikipedia:  “The Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain (Welsh: Tri Thlws ar Ddeg Ynys Prydain) are a series of items in late medieval Welsh tradition. Lists of the items appear in texts dating to the 15th and 16th centuries. Most of the items are placed in the Hen Ogledd or “Old North”, the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and Northern England; some early manuscripts refer to the whole list specifically as treasures “that were in the North”. The number of treasures is always given as thirteen, but some later versions list different items, replacing or combining entries to maintain the number. Later versions also supplement the plain list with explanatory comments about each treasure.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteen_Treasures_of_the_Island_of_Britain

Wikipedia has a list (see link above), and another can be found here:  http://www.tartanplace.com/faery/thirteen.html

and here you can take a quiz about them!:  http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/1089305

06/23/11

Killed by a ref . . . in ancient Rome

I had to repost (and link) to this story of the number of times I’ve listened to my husband shout at the screen while watching soccer.

This is  part of an article about the discover and translation of a tombstone of a Roman gladiator who died in Amisus, on the south coast of the Black Sea in Turkey:

“The tombstone . . . shows an image of a gladiator holding what appear to be two swords, standing above his opponent who is signalling his surrender. The inscription says that the stone marks the spot where a man named Diodorus is buried.

“After breaking my opponent Demetrius I did not kill him immediately,” reads the epitaph. “Fate and the cunning treachery of the summa rudis killed me.”

The summa rudis is a referee, who may have had past experience as a gladiator  . . .

“Demetrius signals surrender, Diodorus doesn’t kill him; he backs off expecting that he’s going to win the fight. . .

The battle appears to be over. However the summa rudis — perhaps interpreting Demetrius’ fall as accidental, or perhaps with some ulterior motive — thought otherwise  . . .

“What the summa rudis has obviously done is stepped in, stopped the fight, allowed Demetrius to get back up again, take back his shield, take back his sword, and then resume the fight.”

This time Diodorus was in trouble, and either he died in the arena or Demetrius inflicted a wound that led to his death shortly thereafter.”

To read the rest of the post: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110620/sc_livescience/romangladiatorsgravestonedescribesfatalfoul

06/21/11

The Summer Solstice

June 21, 2011 is the summer solstice this year, celebrated at Stonehenge and across the globe, for the longest day of the year.  “Sol + stice derives from a combination of Latin words meaning “sun” + “to stand still.” As the days lengthen, the sun rises higher and higher until it seems to stand still in the sky.”  http://www.chiff.com/a/summer-solstice.htm

Within Welsh mythology, there is very little discussion of the solstices or what holidays were celebrated within the celtic/druid year.  This is not the case of Stonehenge, which archaeologists and historians have studied extensively.

“When one stands in the middle of Stonehenge and looks through the entrance of the avenue on the morning of the summer solstice, for example, the Sun will rise above the Heel Stone, which is set on the avenue. If one stands in the entrance and looks into the circle at dusk of that day, the Sun will set between a trilithon.”

http://www.unexplainedstuff.com/Places-of-Mystery-and-Power/Stonehenge.html

There are a couple of stone circles in Wales (more than a couple, but many are ruinous and not properly documented).  One, Bryn Cader Faner, is a small cairn 8,5m (28ft) wide and less than 1m (3ft) high, with fifteen thin slabs leaning out of the mass of the monument like a crown of thorns, near Porthmadog.

http://www.stonepages.com/wales/wales.html

A second is Carn Llechart near Swansea.  It “is one of the largest ring cairns in Wales. It is an unusual circle of 25 stones leaning slightly outwards and surrounding a central burial cist. Aubrey Burl in his “The Stone Circles of British Isles” wrote that such rings were thought to be the first stage of development of stone circles, but that these cairns, however, are almost certainly too late to provide such an ancestry. The reverse seems likely, that the existence of stone circles elsewhere impelled people to place tall stones around the bases of their own round cairns, a fusion of traditions resulting in monuments like spiky coronets. Such cairns may be seen on North and South Uist, and in Wales at Carn Llechart and Bryn Cader Faner.  The circle is 12m (40ft) in diameter, and the central cist has its east side stone and capstone missing. It seems that there is no entry to the circle and no trace of covering mound. A possible date for the site is the 2nd millenium BC.  In the area there are also a Neolithic burial chamber and some Bronze Age cairns.”  (http://www.stonepages.com/wales/wales.html),

Archaeologists are of the opinion that these stone circles have more to do with burial sites than worship, giving them less kinship to Stonehenge than one might think at first.  This site (http://www.geodrome.demon.co.uk/megalith/stone.htm), however, argues strongly for a similar rationale for stone circles in Wales, in which the author has documented the alignment of a number of stone circles.

06/19/11

Mortality Rates

One of the hard things about imagining oneself in the middle ages, or writing a character who lives then, is figuring out the odds of them living at all.  The median lifespan of an individual living in the US was 78.7 years in 2004.  http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met_y=sp_dyn_le00_in&idim=country:USA&dl=en&hl=en&q=life+span+us

I’ve posted before about life expectancy in the Middle ages (http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/?p=453 and http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/?p=115), indicating that among the elite, both men and women–if they survived childhood–couldn’t reasonably expect to live out of their forties.  Some people did, but what were the mechanisms that kept mortality high?

“Mortality rate is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in some population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of deaths per 1000 individuals per year; thus, a mortality rate of 9.5 in a population of 100,000 would mean 950 deaths per year in that entire population, or 0.95% out of the total.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortality_rate

Some of the more immediate causes of early death are war, maternal mortality, and disease.

War:  War wasn’t necessarily more common in the middle ages, if the 20th and 21st centuries are anything to go by.  At the same time, it’s been over 100 years since a war took place within the borders of the United States.   One of the cruelties of war is that if it occurs on farmland and in villages, crops can’t be sown and people starve.  They might not die from battle itself, but they die from its repercussions.  From my reading of the Chronicle of the Princes, war in some measure was nearly constant, up through the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd in 1282 and beyond (because then Welshmen were recruited to fight in Edward’s war against Scotland).

Childbirth:  In fifteenth century in Florence, the best estimate for maternal mortality is 14.4 deaths per 1000 births, which 1.44%–so actually pretty rare.  http://tinyurl.com/43f27bk

This is compared to the U.S. maternal mortality rate of 13 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2004, or .013%http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20427256/ns/health-pregnancy/t/more-us-women-dying-childbirth/

Other sources state:  “Studies by Roger Schofield, B. M. Wilmott Dobbie, and Irvine Loudon estimate that maternal mortality rates between 1400 and 1800 were between 1 and 3 percent. Most often, women died in childbirth due to protracted labor caused by a narrow or deformed pelvis, fetal malpresentation, postpartum hemorrhage, or puerperal fevers. The health risk was renewed at each pregnancy. Since a woman averaged five pregnancies, 10 percent of these women died during or soon after childbirth.”  http://www.faqs.org/childhood/Me-Pa/Obstetrics-and-Midwifery.html

Diseases such as the Black Death:

“Credible death rates  between one quarter and three quarters complicate reaching a Europe—wide  figure. Neither a casual and unscientific averaging of available estimates to  arrive at a probably misleading composite death rate nor a timid placing of  mortality somewhere between one and two thirds is especially illuminating.  Scholars confronting the problem’s complexity before venturing estimates once  favored one third as a reasonable aggregate death rate. Since the early 1970s  demographers have found higher levels of mortality plausible and European  mortality of one half is considered defensible, a figure not too distant from less  fanciful contemporary observations.”  http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/Routt.Black.Death

 

06/16/11

Historical Fantasy in Dark Age Wales

Set in sixth century Wales, Cold My Heart tells the story of Myrddin and Nell, a journeyman knight and a former nun, who share a vision of a terrible future—one which encompasses the death of their King and the loss of their country. . .

Writing historical fantasy set in dark age Wales combines the need for research that goes beyond the world building of epic fantasy, but carries with it similar characteristics since what we know about that era in Wales is very slight. As an author, there’s just some things you have to invent.

In Cold my Heart, I start with the knowledge that the Saxons (in actual fact, a combination of several Germanic groups) did invade Britain after the Romans abandoned the island in 410 AD. King Arthur, if he existed, would have been born around 480 AD, but whether the real Arthur—the living, breathing war leader who defeated the Saxons for a generation—ever existed has never been proven.

The reason for this is the paucity of historical documents from that time period. What we have are three sources:

1) Y Goddodin—a Welsh poem by the 7th century poet, Aneirin, with it’s passing mention of Arthur. The author refers to the battle of Catraeth, fought around AD 600 and describes a warrior who “fed black ravens on the ramparts of a fortress, though he was no Arthur”. http://www.missgien.net/celtic/gododdin/poem.html

2) Gildas, a 6th century British cleric who wrote De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain). He never mentions Arthur, although he states that his own birth was in the year of the siege of Mount Badon. The fact that he does not mention Arthur, and yet is our only historian of the 6th century, is an example of why many historians suspect that King Arthur never existed. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gildas.html

3) Taliesin, a 6th century Welsh poet, who wrote several poems about Arthur. Including the lines: “ . . . before the door of the gate of hell the lamp was burning. And when we went with Arthur, a splendid labour, Except seven, none returned from Caer Vedwyd.” http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/t30.html

From these seeds, the myth of Arthur was created, some believe out of whole cloth, and co-opted by the Normans and the French as a ‘British’ hero. Some say it was to justify the Norman conquest of Britain, some because it was a good story, though not quite medieval enough in its original form. From the Norman/French tales come the addition of the Lancelot-Guinevere-Arthur love triangle, the sword in the stone, Merlin, Arthur’s incestuous relationship with his sister Morgan, and Modred, his son and ultimate downfall.

By 1191, the monks of Glastonbury were claiming knowledge of his grave, and soon after, the link between Arthur and the Holy Grail, which Joseph of Arimathea supposedly brought there. By 1225, monks in France had written The Vulgate Cycle, telling of the holy grail from the death of Jesus Christ to the death of Arthur. This story became the standard version used throughout Europe.

Whether or not King Arthur was a real person is an either/or query. He either was or he wasn’t. Many scholars, researchers, and Arthurophile’s have strong opinions on this topic, both for and against. Because of the paucity of written records (most notably, Gildas fails to mention him), much of the academic work has come down on the side of ‘wasn’t’—or at least if Arthur was a real person, his name was not ‘Arthur’ and he possible wasn’t even a king.

For the purposes of my book Cold My Heart, I choose to believe that Arthur was real, that he was backed into a corner by his duplicitous nephew, Modred, and did not die at Camlann as the Norman/French/Anglo version says, but lived to see his country securely in the hands of a worthy heir. At the same time, the world of Cold My Heart rests in the balance between the historical Wales of 537 AD, and the quasi-medieval Arthurian world that readers have grown to love throughout the ages.

Cold My Heart: A Novel of King Arthur is available at Amazon:  http://tinyurl.com/67v6cfl Amazon UK: http://tinyurl.com/5vxrm67 Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52673

Barnes and Noble: http://tinyurl.com/3nv9bdx Apple: http://tinyurl.com/3wrjx8y

And in paperback: http://tinyurl.com/3cb9bko

06/12/11

Arwystli

Today is a guest post from Brynne Haug, history major at Whitman College and co-conspirator in the study of all things Welsh. Thanks for stopping by!

 

_________

 

Arwystli seems an insignificant place—just a small piece of land in the middle of Wales, bordering on the northern kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys. But Arwystli became instrumental for Wales’s survival in the War of 1282. In February of 1278, when Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, prince of Gwynedd and Wales, faced down King Edward I of England, on the surface he asked only for Arwystli.

 

Although Llywelyn had agreed to cede it to Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn, the lord of Powys, when Gruffudd swore fealty to him in 1263,[1] he later laid claim to it on the grounds that Gruffudd had given up his rights when he betrayed him to the English in 1274.[2] According to Llywelyn, it now legally should return to Gwynedd.

 

More than a little province was at stake. Edward and Llywelyn had clashed before, and their visions of Wales were at odds. Thus the issue became one of Welsh identity, and the validity of Wales’ judicial system was bound up in that; the legitimacy of one claim over another mattered little. Llywelyn ap Gruffudd maintained that because Arwystli lay in Wales, his dispute with Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn of Powys should be resolved in Wales, by Welsh courts. King Edward told Llywelyn that he, as king, would determine when and where the ruling would occur.

 

In a letter of July 1278 to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, he wrote, “Llywelyn shall come before the king’s justices in those parts at days and places that they shall make known to him to do and receive what justice shall dictate.”[3] Edward believed that it was his job—moreover, his right—to determine legal and administrative matters large and small. Llywelyn, on the other hand, wanted autonomy.

 

The dispute at Arwystli, therefore, was not about whether Powys or Gwynedd had claim over a small cantref in central Wales. It became a matter of national identity: a question of whether Welsh law was subject to royal whim, and if Wales deserved to have its legal proceedings—however primitive the English found them—honored and upheld. Gwynedd was the stage on which this drama played out; Llywelyn and Edward were the chief actors. All of Wales, however, had stake in the conclusion. Though it was in its simplest form a matter of pride, a struggle of personal power between Edward and Llywelyn (Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn in defiance of Llywelyn took the English side, arguing for application of English law to the situation because Powys bordered on England), Welsh people did not see it that way.[4]

 

In the earlier conflicts with England, those who had fought had done so for the abstract ideal of “autonomy”; the issues brought up by the initially simple legal dispute of Arwystli inspired fervor against the English, who, if they refused to respect Welsh law and custom, refused to respect Wales.

 

When Llewelyn and his brother Dafydd went to war, they did so with the agreement that they would “stand together for their laws.”[5] While Llywelyn ap Gruffudd could not have predicted the long-lasting ramifications of his decision to dispute Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn’s claim to Arwystli, the choices he made there, in a sense, informed the cohesiveness and strength of identity of his people.

 

——————————————————————————–

 

[1] J. Beverley Smith, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd: Prince Of Wales (Cardiff: University Of Wales Press, 1998), 159.

 

[2] Ibid., 470.

 

[3] Calendar of Various Chancery Rolls A.D. 1277-1326, “Welsh Rolls” (London: His Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1912), 175.

 

[4] J. Beverley Smith, 475-75.

 

[5] R.R. Davies, Conquest, Coexistence, and Change: Wales 1063-1415 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), 348.

06/9/11

Red, Black, and White Books

In Lord of the Rings, Frodo leaves Sam the Red Book of Westmarch, in which to record the goings on of Middle Earth after he is gone. Tolkein himself says that his inspiration for the fictional book was the Red Book of Hergest in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, which he knew well.

In Wales, there were three such books of which we know:
The Red Book of Hergest
The Black Book of Camarthan
The White Book of Rhydderch

The Red Book of Hergest was written between 1375 and 1425 by Hywel Fychan fab Hywel Goch of Fuellt, for his employer, Hopcyn ap Tomas ap Einion of Ynys Tawe. In it are some of the most famous Welsh texts, including the Chronicles of the Princes, The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, The Ruin and Conquest of Britain, the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, and so on. The complete list is here: http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/hindex.html

The Black Book of Camarthen, in the National Library of Wales (Peniarth Manuscript 1), dates to the mid-thirteenth century and is believed to have been the work of a single scribe at the Priory of St. John in Carmarthen. It is one of the first works written wholly in Welsh and comprised mostly of poetry, primarily on the subject of Dark Age (sorry, Brynne) topics. The contents of which are here: http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/bbcindex.html
http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=blackbookofcarmarthen

The White Book of Rhydderch contains much of what is in the other two books, with an emphasis on religious subjects and prose, rather than poetry. The copy in the National Library of Wales dates to around 1350 AD. It is found here: http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/windex.html
http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=whitebookofrhydderchpeniart

As to how old the material in the books actually, it is not clear, or from what earlier books they were copies. Scholars date the version of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi that is in these books to around 1100 AD, given the linguistic characteristics, but that is not to say that the stories aren’t older. Much of the poetry is much older–dating to between 400-700 AD for the Dark Age poets such as Taliesin and Aneurin.

06/7/11

Aberffraw Castle

Aberffraw Castle was the seat of Rhodri Mawr, one of the great kings of Wales, in the early Middle Ages.   Nothing of it remains–it seems to have shared a similar fate with Aber Garth Celyn upon the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd.  We do have information that some of it lasted until 1316 when the last remaining timbers were stripped to repair Beaumaris (or Caerfarnon) Castle, both part of Edward’s ring of iron castles that he built after the conquest of Wales.

My favorite Castles of Wales site doesn’t even have Aberffraw in its database because, quite literally, nothing of it remains.  The book by Paul Davies, ‘Castles of the Welsh Princes’, states only:  ” . . . a modern village sits on top of Aberffraw; the occasional discovery of richly-carved stones hints at the vanished splendour of the great court.”  (p. 19)

‘Aber’ means ‘estuary’ in Welsh, thus the large number of place-names that begin with it.  Aberffraw (which thus means, ‘estuary of the Ffraw River’) Castle was built in the 6th century by Maelgwyn, the King of Gwynedd.  http://www.britainexpress.com/countryside/coast/aberffraw.htm

In archaeolog-ese:  http://homepage.mac.com/philipdavis/Welshsites/966.html

“The probable site of a medieval llys, a princely court partly dismantled in 1317. Excavation, 1973-4 (White 1979) & 1979, with further work 1987-8 (White & Longley 1995), recorded part of a rectilinear enclosure with at least one rounded corner. Its ditch had been recut on at least one occasion. It was traced for 70m north-north-east to south-south-west. Intially thought to represent a Roman military work, refurnished in the early medieval period. The apparently curving corner has suggested the presence of a castle mound (see NPRN 400058). This overall interpretation is supported by a radio-carbon determination of about 27-387AD, however scarsity of Roman material, limited to a single scrap of samian and some uncertain sherds, counts against the presence of a fort. It is possible that this was the site of a later Prehistoric style settlement occupied in the Roman period. The site of the llys is otherwise uncertain (see Johnstone 1997, 63; Longley 1997, 45). Two possibly thirteenth century sculptured heads are known from the village (White 1978). Excavations at the traditional site of the llys, about 650m to the west-south-west recorded only C18 remains (see NPRN 15012/401125). (Coflein–John Wiles 12.07.07)”

The Royal House of Aberffraw is something else entirely, though it derives from the establishment of the royal court there.  Llywelyn Fawr spoke of himself as from the Royal House of Aberffraw as a justification for his rule of Wales in the 13th century.  He could trace his line back to Rhodri Mawr, as the founder of that house in the 10th century.  http://house-of-aberffraw.co.tv/