The Origins of Saxon England

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In recent years there has been some controversy regarding the origins of Saxon England. From the evidence of the written record, the dominance of the English language, and the distribution of Saxon place-names across the landscape, the assumption throughout most of history was that it came about through a series of invasions. However, in some contemporary scholarship, the use of the word ‘invasion’ or even ‘migration’ has fallen out of favor. Not only is it posited that there was no Saxon invasion at all–justified in part by the fact that we have found no massive battlefields–but that there was not even a migration. The Saxon conquest was, rather, a cultural takeover where the native British people remained living in all the same places throughout Britain, but gave up their language, culture, religion, traditions, and place names in order to adopt Read more…


Basingwerk Abbey

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In 1132, King Madog of Powys brought an order of Benedictine monks to Teigengl, a cantref in Northeast Wales. They settled first at Hen Blas, a former llys of the Princes of Gwynedd, before moving in 1157 to the current location of Basingwerk Abbey. Surviving ruins, which are extensive, include the 12th century chapter house, which is the oldest part of the abbey, a dormitory, the dining hall with its own through to the kitchen, and the outline of the cloister. The church itself is also a significant ruin. The area around Basingwerk was fought over by the kings of Gwynedd and Powys for decades, if not centuries. Particularly after the arrival of the Normans, King Madog of Powys often allied with Earl Ranulf of Chester against King Owain Gwynedd in their contest for control of northeastern Wales. By 1147 Read more…


Ogmore Castle

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Ogmore Castle overlooks a river crossing of the River Ewenny and was one of three castles built to protect the Normans invaders of Glamorgan from the Welsh they were attempting to conquer. The castle was begun by William de Londres in 1106 as a motte and bailey castle. It was then reconstructed in stone shortly thereafter, and further fortified in the 13th century by a stone curtain wall. The oblong keep is credited to William’s son, Maurice, and is possibly the oldest Norman keep in Glamorgan. The castle was protected by a deep, rock-cut ditch, which was dry except when the water level of the River Ewenny rose during high tide. At that time, the flow was regulated by an embedded stone wall that blocked rising waters so that the interior of the castle itself did not flood. Original features Read more…


The Prince of Wales

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What is the actual origin of the Prince of Wales? With the death of Queen Elizabeth, and the ascension of Charles to the throne of England, Charles has designated his son, William, to replace him as the Prince of Wales. Readers of my books will be aware that the reason the Prince of Wales is the son of the English king is because, back in 1284, after King Edward I conquered Wales, he hauled his 8 month pregnant wife to Caernarfon so she could give birth to Edward II in his half-built castle there. Then in 1301 Edward gave this son the title, Prince of Wales. Ever since, the Prince of Wales has been the son of the English king. King Charles himself was invested as the Prince of Wales in 1969 at Caernarfon Castle. Though both Wikipedia and many Read more…


Caer Seion

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Archaeological evidence indicates that Caer Seion was occupied at least as early as the 6th century BC. Like many iron age communities in Wales, it is located at the top of a hill, in this case Conwy Mountain, with a magnificent view of the surrounding countryside, including the mouth of the Conwy River. Caer Seion is unusual in that the main fort contains a smaller, more heavily defended fort, complete with its own distinct defenses and entrance, but with no obvious means of access between the two. Speculation has suggested that it was accessed by ladder or perhaps even a high walkway, like a battlement. The second fort appears to have been occupied starting around the 4th century BC. It does appear that both forts were occupied simultaneously for roughly two hundred years, until the 2nd century. The larger fort Read more…


Chirk Castle

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Chirk Castle was begun in 1295 by Roger Mortimer, a younger son within the powerful Mortimer family. Roger, along with his elder brother, Edmund, were the Marcher lords primarily responsible for luring the last Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, to his death at Cilmeri in 1282. As reward for this service, King Edward gave the land upon which Chirk was later built to Roger and elevated him to 1st Baron Mortimer of Chirk. The castle served as one of King Edward’s Iron Ring of Castles encircling north Wales. Chirk guards the entrance to the Ceiriog Valley and is located very close to Offa’s Dyke. The original construction consisted of a curtain wall with five circular towers, with an offset entrance. Over the centuries, the house continued to be lived in, even after its defenses were no longer necessary. Thus Read more…


Inchmahome Priory

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Inchmahome Priory was founded as an order of Augustinian monks in 1238 by Walter Comyn, the Earl of Menteith on the largest of three islands in Lake Menteith, Scotland. The priory has only ever been reachable by boat. Still visible today are the ruins of the church itself with its processional doorway, choir, and bell tower and the chapter house. The priory was built on the low lying eastern half of the island, while the earl saved the western half for a garden for his own estate. There is evidence that a church existed on the island before the building of the monastery, which hosted many kings and lords of Scotland over the next centuries. The Comyn family was one of the most powerful in Scotland during the 13th century, supporting John Balliol’s claim to the throne and the English Read more…


Clun Castle

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Clun Castle is an 11th century Norman Castle built in Shropshire in the borderlands between England and Wales, known as the March. It was begun by Robert de Say shortly after the Norman conquest of England. The Norman castle replaced a Saxon fortress that had been built by Eadric the Wild, and became an important defensive point in the initial conquest of this region’s Saxons by the Normans. The remains today consist primarily of the shell of what was once an 80 foot keep, dating to the 13th century and located on the north side of the motte. Unusually, this keep is somewhat off center, possibly to allow the foundations greater reach and avoid placing excessive pressure on the motte itself. Each floor had its own large fireplace and five windows. Other remains include a single wall of what may Read more…


King Edward’s Planted Towns

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Welcome to our video about King Edward’s planted towns in North Wales! Planted towns, which in modern words might be called planned towns or planned communities, have been in existence for millenia. The Romans were well known for establishing grid patterns in any new settlement they built, and their street system remains in many British towns. The Anglo-Saxons established planned towns, and as the middle ages progressed, lords and kings at times wanted to establish a town where there hadn’t been one before. The Normans called these bastides. They were usually created for economic purposes, and were designed for the mutual benefit of the king, the landowner, and the new townsfolk to provide an efficient way of marketing surplus food and other goods and supplying a newly established castle. The landowner would charge a rent for a building plot (a Read more…


Castles of the Welsh Princes

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Today I’m going to be talking about the castles of the Welsh kings and princes of Gwynedd. The kingdoms of Wales existed as separate entities long before the arrival of the Normans in 1066. In those days however the Welsh did not build castles so much as administrative centers. Today these are known as llys which means ‘palace’. Only one, Llys Rhosyr on the island of Anglesey, has been excavated. Thus, while the rulers of the different kingdoms did lead armies against each other they were not based on Castle defenses. When the Welsh did build defensive structures, they tended to continue the iron age tradition of building forts, hence the word ‘caer’ which is in so many Welsh place names. These forts were built on high ground, and usually built out of wood rather than stone. A perfect example Read more…


Welsh Resistance in South Wales

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The theme of this video is Welsh Resistance in South Wales. Deheubarth was a kingdom in South and West Wales, one of several along with Gwent and Morgannwg. It was one of the major kingdoms during the age of Welsh independence, beginning with the ascension of Hywel Dda in 934. While certain scholars claim that Deheuabarth was conquered by the Normans in 1093, after which the Welsh were ‘allowed’ to hold certain lands only, that isn’t a perspective that would necessarily be shared by the Welsh themselves. With the coming of the Normans, the subsequent centuries were characterized by conflict. The power of the Kings of Deheubarth, like in Powys and Gwynedd, ebbed and flowed over the decades, in large part depending upon the skills of the leader at the time and the resolve of the Normans they opposed. Starting Read more…


The Lords of Chepstow

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This video focuses on two sites in South Wales established by the Lords of Chepstow: Chepstow Castle and Tintern Abbey Chepstow Castle was begun in 1067 by the first Earl of Hereford, William Fitz Osbern, who was a close friend of William the conqueror. As you can see by the early date at which the first motte and bailey castle was begun, Chepstow was seen as a crucial early castle for control of the March. It is located on the western, or Welsh, bank of the Wye River, and thus for hundreds of years gave the Normans a foothold in Wales. Crucially, though it is in Wales, it can be supplied from the river in the event of a siege. Subsequent Lords of Chepstow included William Marshal, the Earl of Pembroke and Roger Bigod, the Earl of Norfolk, each of Read more…