Dolforwyn Castle
Dolforwyn is a medieval castle built by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the last prince of Wales, between 1273 and 1277 for a recorded cost of £174. It is located in Powys above the village of Abermule with commanding views of the Severn Valley. It was constructed in order to counter the power of the Mortimer family, whose castle of Montgomery is two miles to the northeast near the current Wales/England border. Dolforwyn castle was designed more as an outpost of Llywelyn’s domains rather than as a luxurious seat, as was the case with some other of Llywelyn’s castles, like Criccieth or Castell y Bere. It covered an area 240 feet by 90 feet, and consisted of two wards divided by a rock cut ditch. A rectangular keep sat at the southwest end with a circular tower on the northeast. These were Read more…
Kenilworth Castle
It is thought that a castle has stood at Kenilworth in Warwickshire, since Saxon times. It is likely that the original structure was destroyed in the early 11th century during the wars between the Saxon King of England, Edmund, and Canute, King of the Danes. 100 years later, in 1129, the Norman King Henry I gave the land upon which Kenilworth now stands to his Chamberlain, a Norman noble named Geoffrey de Clinton, who at the time was both Treasurer and Chief Justice of England. Shortly afterwards, Geoffrey founded an Augustinian priory and built the current castle. This new original structure probably started out as a modest motte-and-bailey timber castle and even today the large earth mound that formed the base of the motte can clearly be seen. The castle itself is built of red sandstone and represents five centuries Read more…
Llansteffan Castle
Llansteffan is located on the south coast of Wales, It was built by the Normans as part of their conquest of South Wales. The site itself has been occupied since the Iron Age, since it provides commanding views of the Tywi estuary. Even today the original earthwork fortifications can still be seen, and they were incorporated into the defenses of the later Norman construction. As it exists today, the castle is very much a ruin, consisting of a curtain wall and towers, all dating to the 12th and 13th centuries. After the Normans completed their conquest of Wales, it fell into ruin and by 1367 was what Wikipedia describes as “a poor state”. I was excited to visit the castle because some of the people who fought over the castle, both Norman and Welsh, appear in my Gareth and Gwen 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…
Prince of Wales
Why is the Prince of Wales the son of the English king? And why are there so many people claiming to be the ‘true’ Prince of Wales running about? And why were the rulers called ‘prince’ instead of ‘king’? Like most of Europe, before the Norman conquest of England, all of Britain was divided up into many small kingdoms. At some point after 900 AD, the Saxons in England consolidated all their smaller kingdoms into one with one king, which is why there was a single throne later for William the Conqueror to lay claim to. At that point, Wales was still divided into a dozen small kingdoms, each with a king, not a prince. It was only in 1200 that Llywelyn Fawr conquered most of the country and in order to get recognized by the King of England and Read more…
Penrhyn Castle
Penrhyn Castle is located just to the east of Bangor, on a promontory overlooking the Menai Strait. It was originally a medieval fortified manor house, founded by Ednyfed Fychan, who was the seneschal to the Kingdom of Gwynedd and served Llywelyn the Great and his son Dafydd ap Llywelyn. That original construction was destroyed in the building of the Neo-Norman folly that can be seen today. The present castle was begun in 1822 by George Day Dawkins-Penrhyn, who’d inherited the estate from his cousin, the first Baron Penrhyn. The Penrhyn fortune was built initially on the backs of nearly 1000 slaves who worked sugar plantations in Jamaica and then, after the abolition of slavery in 1833, through the exploitation of generations of Welsh slate miners. By the late 19th century, over three thousand men worked the Penrhyn mine, the largest Read more…
Domen Ddreiniog
Domen Ddreiniog, known in the medieval period as Tal-y-bont, lies northeast of the village of Tywyn and southwest of Castell-y-bere on the bank of the Afon Dysynni, near what historically was its lowest crossing point. This site has been documented as one of the 22 Welsh llysoedd of Gwynedd, though the mound that is visible today has been linked with other motte and Bailey Castles built by the Norman, Robert of Rhuddlan, in his attempt to conquer all of Gwynedd in the late 11th century. After his death, the Welsh retook the area and held it continually until the final conquest of Gwynedd in 1282 It is known that Llywelyn ap Gruffydd himself addressed a letter from the site in 1275, and King Edward I of England visited in 1295. The motte that is visible today is steep sided and Read more…
Castell Buellt (Builth Wells)
Buellt is located in Builth Wells between the Rivers Irfon and Wye. It is a medieval fortress constructed by King Edward I and was the first of his Iron Ring of Castles built to control Wales. Buellt derives from old Welsh, ‘bu’ and ‘gellt’, meaning effectively an ox pasture. It was then anglicized to Builth. The Welsh kingdom of Buellt is mentioned in Welsh annals, and the site of the current castle was a seat of kings long before the Normans came. The first motte and bailey castle was built here by Philip de Braose, in his attempt to control the region. Control of the castle went back and forth between the Welsh and the Normans until Edward conquered the area completely in 1277. Construction of the current stone castle began in May of 1277 and continued until 1282. Upon Read more…
Kilchurn Castle
Kilchurn castle is a medieval castle first built in the middle of the 15th century by the Campbells of Glenorchy. It is located on the northeastern end of Loch Awe in Scotland. From the 1400s, the Campbells were one of the most powerful clans in the Scottlish Highlands. For the next 150 years, they grew in power until they controlled most of the area, with Kilchurn being an important seat. By the 1700s, however, the Campbells were walking a line between support of the Protestant king William and the Catholic Jacobites. The Campbell fortunes went into a steep decline after the English takeover of Scotland, and by 1770, the castle was abandoned. The castle was initially built as a five-story tower house, but was expanded in subsequent years to include a curtain wall that encompassed more structures, including a dining Read more…
Conwy Castle
Conwy Castle was begun in March 1283 as part of Edward’s Iron Ring of Castles and mostly completed by 1289 to the tune of 15,000 pounds (over ten million today). The previous castle in the area was at Deganwy, which is visible from Conwy’s walls but was destroyed during the wars with King Henry and not rebuilt. Edward built the castle on the western side of the Conwy River as a foothold in the heart of Gwynedd in order to control an important river crossing. To build the castle and town Edward destroyed the monastery of Aberconwy, patronized by the Welsh princes. He also destroyed Llywelyn’s llys (palace). Like many castles of the iron ring, Conwy consisted of a castle and planted town of English settlers, all surrounded by massive stone walls with 8 great towers in a relatively compact Read more…
Medieval Planned Communities
When Edward I conquered Wales, he did more than build castles. He also built townships. These were villages associated with one of his castles. In most cases, he imported English people to live in them, ousting the native Welsh. Caernarfon, Rhuddlan, Conwy, Flint, Harlech and Beaumaris were among these combined castles/villages. “The strategy of building Welsh Medieval Castles was combined with King Edward’s ambition to build and integrate fortified towns with the great castles. These purpose-built townships were designed to predominantly house the English conquerors. The towns were defended by the city walls and, of course, the castles. The Constable of the castle would often perform a dual role as Mayor of the town. Not only did the English have control over the local Welsh population they also had control of commerce and finance. The townships were established as trading 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…
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