Aberedw Castle
In my “After Cilmeri” series, Aberedw Castle is in the hands of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, when the Normans take it in Prince of Time. David and Ieuan are held there until Bronwen and Lili devise their escape. The Aberedw castle depicted in the video appears to be the second, later one, after a search of the internet. As it is, it is a spectacular ruin of stone masonry and far larger than many of the castles we’ve seen that have been built on mottes. One story of the end of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd has him spending his last night here. Aberedw is on the eastern side of the Usk and 10 miles east of Cilmeri, so the other story that he stayed at Abbey Cwm Hir feels more accurate to me, but there is no definitive proof one way or Read more…
Criccieth Castle
Criccieth Castle was built by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llywelyn Fawr) before 1239. “Apparently, Criccieth’s castle was built at the beginning of the 13th century, a rather late date for initiating a castle at a particular site in Wales. The earliest mention of a stronghold on the craggy outcrop is to be found in the Welsh chronicles, the Brut y Tywysogyon, in the year 1239, when Gruffydd ap Llywelyn (son of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, or “the Great”) was imprisoned in the castle by his half-brother, Dafydd. Most likely, Llywelyn the Great began the stone fortress just a few years before his sons’ quarrel.” http://www.castlewales.com/criccth.html Llywelyn kept Gruffydd here and then upon Llywelyn’s death, so did Dafydd, Llywelyn’s son and Gruffydd’s half-brother. Gruffydd was transferred to the Tower of London as part of a deal with the King of England, as a Read more…
Dolwyddelan Castle
The site of Dolwyddelan Castle has been on a major thoroughfare through Wales for millenia. Before the present castle was built by Llywelyn Fawr (Llywelyn ap Iorwerth) early in the 13th century, an older castle sat on a knoll on the valley floor below it. http://www.castlewales.com/dolw.html Before that castle, a major Roman road through Snowdonia passed just to the east, connecting Tomen y Mur with the small fort of Bryn y Gefeilliau and the larger fort of Canovium (Caerhun). (See Roman Roads: https://www.sarahwoodbury.com/roman-roads/) and the Sarn Helen (named also for Elan, the wife of Macsen Wledig or Magnus Maximus, emperor of Rome). https://www.sarahwoodbury.com/sarn-helen/ The present Dolwyddelan Castle has been heavily restored, in keeping with it’s position as the birthplace of Llywelyn Fawr, even if that even really occured a quarter of a mile southeast of the present castle. The newer 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…
A Medieval Siege
A medieval siege was a far more common form of warfare than a fight on an open battlefield. Sieges had the element of surprise and required fewer men than battle too, such that a ruler could beseige a castle with his enemy inside, while freeing other forces to wage war elsewhere. The goal in beseiging a castle was not to destroy it, but to take it, since castles were pawns in the great game of controlling land. They were usually heavily fortified and defended, so a beseiger had several options when he was on the outside looking in: 1) to starve/wait them out 2) harassment and trickery 3) a straight assault Often, attackers employed all three tactics at various times. The defenders, on the other hand, hoped and prayed for relief. As Saladin says in Kingdom of Heaven “One cannot Read more…
Better Know a Castle*: Abergavenny
On Christmas Day in 1175, William de Braose, a Marcher lord (the 4th Lord of Bramber), summoned Seisyll ap Dyfnwal, Seisyll’s eldest son, Geoffrey, and a number of other local leading Welshmen from Gwent to Abergavenny Castle to hear a royal proclamation. He then murdered them all. This was justified in William’s mind because of a prior killing of his uncle by Seisyll (or so he suspected, though apparently had no proof). “De Braose and his men then mounted horses and galloped the few miles to Seisyll’s home where they caught and murdered his younger son, Cadwalladr a boy of seven years of age and captured his wife, whose exact fate is uncertain.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seisill_ap_Dyfnwal Other sons, not in attendance that day, got their revenge by burning Abergavenny in 1182. Gerald of Wales “alludes to the horrible event in the history of Abergavenny Read more…
Medieval Siege Weapons
Within the world of medieval warfare, there were multiple kinds of siege weapons: ballistas, battering rams, trebuchets, and catapults. ‘Catapult’ can be used as a more general term for all throwing siege weapons: “Catapults are siege engines using an arm to hurl a projectile a great distance. Any machine that hurls an object can be considered a catapult, but the term is generally understood to mean medieval siege weapons. The name is derived from the Greek ‘to hurl a missle’. Originally, “catapult” referred to a stone-thrower, while “ballista” referred to a dart-thrower, but the two terms swapped meaning sometime in the fourth century AD. Catapults were usually assembled at the site of a siege, and an army carried few or no pieces of it with them because wood was easily available on site. Catapults can be classified according to the Read more…
Working Archaeology in Wales
Archaeologists are always working on new projects in Wales. A shortage of workers and funding inhibit the work, but the Dyfed Archaeological Trust conducted seven different digs, mostly using volunteer labor, in 2010. A look at their page is a good review of what ‘real’ archaeology is like: lots of digging, frustration, and grunt work, interspersed with occasional finds. http://www.cambria.org.uk/ They worked on: Fan Barrow Excavation 2010 Capel y Groes 2010 Pantybutler Round Barrows 2010 Tir y Dail Castle, Ammanford Dig Diary July 2010 Upper Newton Roman Villa at Wolfscastle, Pembrokeshire – Dig Diary 2010 Wernfawr Dig Diary 2010 Nevern Castle Summer Excavation 2010 Nevern Castle Spring Excavation 2010 Each of these is a fascinating study in luck and circumstance (and hard work). There are four archaeological trusts in Wales (Dyfed, Gwynedd, Glamorgan-Gwen, and Clwyd-Powys), found here: http://www.archwilio.org.uk/ Gwynedd’s digs Read more…
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