Caernarfon Town Walls
This is a 360 degree video of the Caernarfon town walls! You can use your mouse/finger to move around the video as you watch it. After King Edward conquered Wales in 1282, he wanted to control the country and its people more than just militarily and politically. He also wanted to control it socially and economically. To do that, first he built his iron ring of castles, of which Caernarfon Castle was meant to be the central jewel, and then he established walled towns, populated by English settlers, through which all commerce in the country had to take place. In order to build the towns, the native Welsh were evicted, and because Welsh people were not allowed inside the walls, the language of commerce and government was English or French, not Welsh. The Caernarfon town walls were built in stone, Read more…
Flint Castle
Flint Castle is located in far north eastern Wales on the Dee Estuary, one of the first castles built by King Edward I in 1277 at the end of the first Welsh war as part of his conquest of Wales. Like its brother castles throughout north Wales, Edward saw Flint as a foothold for his conquest, which was to be cultural as well as military. To that end, he established an English town at Flint, associated with and protected by the castle. Even today, it’s possible to discern the medieval street system he established. The castle was mostly completed by 1282, at which point Prince Dafydd, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd’s younger brother, whose castle of Caergwrlie is nearby, rose in rebellion and besieged it. After the final defeat of Wales six months later, Flint was rebuilt. During the rebellion of Madog Read more…
Castell Caergwrle
Castell Caergwrle is located on the English/Welsh border in Flintshire. The castle was built by Dafydd ap Gruffydd on land given to him by King Edward after the war of 1277 as a reward for serving him and betraying his brother, Llywelyn. Caergwrle was built on an ancient site that had been occupied since before Roman times. The first reference to the medieval castle states that Edward had sent 100 marks to Daffyd on 12 November 1278 to either start building or repair a castle that is already there. Then, in 1282, after Dafydd rebelled against Edward and started the war anew, the king sent Reginald de Grey to take the castle. But when forces arrived on 16 June, they discovered Dafydd had already retreated and abandoned the location, to the point of filling in the well. Grey immediately set Read more…
An Iron Ring of Castles
An Iron Ring of Castles is in many ways just like it sounds: a series of castles built around Wales to control the populace after the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the last Prince of Wales. In the 1270s and 1280s primarily, Edward I began the construction of this ring. The castles were focused in the north, in Gwynedd, since that region had always been a hotbed of Welsh resistance and resentment of English authority, and it was there that he built some of the most impressive monuments to his victory. http://www.castlewales.com/edward1.html He began in the northeast with three castles: Hawarden, Flint, and Rhuddlan, all built before the 1282 war. Hawarden was the first castle attacked by Dafydd ap Gruffydd on Palm Sunday, 1282, when he started what became the final war with England. Edward began Flint in 1277, bringing Read more…
Betrayal in the Belfry of Bangor
“And there was effected the betrayal of Llywelyn in the belfry of Bangor by his own men.”—Brut y Tywysogyon, Peniarth manuscript 20. (Chronicle of the Princes) This comment is sandwiched between the description of the defeat of the English at the Menai Strait on November 6th, and the death of Llywelyn on December 11th. It is only found in the manuscript kept at the National Library of Wales, not the incomplete version at Oxford, which ends with the firing of Aberystwyth Castle on Palm Sunday (April, 1282). Here is the full record for the year 1282: “In this year Gruffydd ap Maredudd and Rhys Fychan ap Rhys ap Maelgwn took the castle and town of Aberystwyth. And Rhys gained possession of the cantref of Penweddig and Gruffydd the commot of Mefenydd. On Palm Sunday took place the breach between Llywelyn ap Gruffydd and Edward Read more…
Gwynedd after 1282
After the Treaty of Aberconwy in 1277 AD, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was reduced to lordship over a small area of land in Gwynedd, mostly west of the Conwy River. Over the course of the 1282 war, he took back much of what he’d lost. He was killed, however, on 11 December 1282, and all of Wales ultimately fell the forces of Edward I. The map at right shows: Green: Gwynedd, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd’s principality Blue: Territories of Dafydd ap Gruffydd Pink: Territories ceded forever to the English Crown This defeat of the native Welsh forces led by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd and then briefly after Llywelyn’s death by his brother, Dafydd, resulted in a much divided Wales. On the top of the hierarchy, instead of native rulers, were English (mostly) absentee landowners. Within the Marche and portions of southern Read more…
What is the significance of ‘After Cilmeri’?
Today is the 731st anniversary of the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd in a field at Cilmeri, Wales. It has been over 700 years since Llywelyn ap Gruffydd’s death on 11 December 1282. J. Beverley Smith writes: “Intimations of treachery, of breach of faith, are so often conveyed darkly, and no chronicle, nor any other source, provides the unequivocal testimony which might enable us to unravel the threads in the various accounts of the tragic happening in the vicinity of Builth. It was alleged at the time, or shortly afterwards, in the most explicit statement we have, that the prince’s decision to venture into the area was influenced by one of the sons of his old adversary, Roger Mortimer. The Hagnaby chroinicler, an important source for the events of the day on which Llywelyn died, was quite definite: Roger Mortimer, Read more…
Buellt Castle
Buellt Castle (Builth Wells for the English) was the seat from which the Mortimers lured Llywelyn ap Gruffydd to his death near Cilmeri on 11 December 1282. It was a major Edwardian Castle of its time, but all of the stone work as disappeared. “Builth is nothing more than a series of earthworks – nothing visible remains to give testimony to the structure which once stood at the site. By 1183, documents record a clash here between the Welsh and Normans, and much of what we see reflects this original motte and bailey fortification. During the next 90 years, the castle saw repeated conflict and changed hands between the Welsh and English on several occasions. By the 1240’s masonry structures were established at Builth; however, it was as the result of Edward I’s initial campaign against the Welsh in 1277 Read more…
Rhuddlan Castle (s)
Rhuddlan Castle was begun by Edward I in 1277, immediately after he defeated Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. In fact, Llywelyn made his submission to Edward in the bailey of the old castle, after which Edward immediately had it torn down. “Rhuddlan first appears in recorded history in the last years of the eighth century, when there was no town of Rhyl and the shore road from Prestatyn to Abergele did not exist. Instead, the Clwyd and the marshes off its estuary, now reclaimed and drained and cultivated, formed a natural barrier athwart the coastal approach to the mountainous heart of North Wales. The settlement of Rhuddlan is likely to have owed its origin to the presence at this point, from very early times, of the lowest fording-place on the river, from which a track led across the marsh to Vaynol Read more…
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