The Prince of Wales
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…
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…
Aber Falls
Aber Falls is a waterfall located about two miles south of the village of Abergwyngregyn in Gwynedd. Abergwyngregyn is a village adjacent to where the princes of Wales had a llys, known as Garth Celyn. The waterfall is formed as the Afon Goch (or the red river) plunges 120 feet (37 m) over a sill of igneous rock in the foothills of the Carneddau range. Two tributaries merge here and the enlarged stream is known as Afon Rhaeadr Fawr. Once past the road bridge, heading towards the village and the mouth of the river, it becomes known as Afon Aber. A smaller bridge at the foot of the falls is part of the North Wales Path, a long-distance coastal path between Prestatyn and Bangor. Ancient peoples lived in the area, some remains of which are visible to visitors walking along 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…
Denbigh Castle
Denbigh Castle is located in Gwynedd, south of Rhuddlan and St. Asaph. The castle was built by Henry de Lacy after King Edward’s conquest of Wales in 1282. Like many castles built by the Normans, Denbigh is sited over the top of an ancient settlement and palace of the Kings of Gwynedd. The most recent castle before the Conquest by Edward was held by Dafydd ap Gruffydd, the usually treacherous brother of Llywelyn, who made Denbigh his seat. He built a substantial castle, though all of it was destroyed after 1282. The Welsh referred to it as Dinbych, an abbreviation of Dinas Fechan, meaning “little fortress”. Lacy’s castle was finished by 1294. It was besieged in rebellions by the Welsh led by Madog ap Llywelyn and Owain Glyndwr, and finally ruined by forces of Oliver Cromwell. Still visible today are Read more…
Carndochan Castle
Carndochan Castle was built between 1215 and 1230 by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, otherwise known as Llywelyn Fawr. It is located in Gwynedd, two miles west of Llanuwchllyn. We know very little about Carndochan, other than it was one of the many castles constructed by Llywelyn Fawr to oversee roads in Gwynedd and to protect his herds of cattle. Like Castell y Bere, which was built around the same time, it occupies a strong defensive position with steep crags on three sides. The area was strategically important dating back to Roman times. One fort, Caer Gai, lies beside the main road a mile north of Llanuwchllyn, and roads are thought to have converged on the fort from Bala, Brithdir, and Tomen-y-mur. The castle is described as ‘ruined’, and is basically a pile of rubble. At one time, it had a D-shaped Read more…
Medieval Welsh Armor
Whether or not Welsh wore armor into battle has come up today because a reader of my books reported an ‘error’ in Daughter of Time saying that her ‘reading of history says that the Welsh didn’t wear armor in the Middle Ages’. That simply isn’t true. They did. After I cooled down about the inherent prejudice that comment reflects, I decided a blog post was in order to address the matter. Basically, history is written by the victors, and the English were particularly good at propaganda at a very early point. King Edward I knew very well what he was doing when he plundered Welsh records, took Welsh iconography as his own, and put himself in the lineage of King Arthur (who was, without a doubt, Welsh). Depictions of Welsh people in the Middle Ages are few and far between, Read more…
Llywelyn ap Gruffydd
Llywelyn was the last Prince of Wales, which any reader of my blog should know by now since I obsess about him. But has anyone ever rendered him in crochet form before as has my daughter? Behold! Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was born somewhere around 1225 (amazingly, historians are sure of neither the date nor his true mother–although there are enough hints to conclude that it was Senana, his father’s wife). He was the second son of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. Other sons were Owain, the eldest, Rhodri, who never made a claim for any power in Wales, and Dafydd, who was thirteen years younger. When Llywelyn Fawr, the great Prince of Wales, died in 1240, he left two sons: Gruffydd, who was the eldest but illegitimate and Dafydd, who was younger but born to Llywelyn Fawr’s lawful wife, Joanna, the illegitimate daughter of Read more…
The Welsh Longbow
The Welsh employed the longbow long before any of their conquerors and used to great effect against their enemies for centuries. Bows and arrows have been around since Paleolithic times, with evidence of them as early as 8000-9000 BC in Germany. http://www.newarchaeology.com/articles/history_bow_and_arrows.php Kennewick man, the controversial skeleton found in the banks of the Columbia River inKennewick,Washington dates to roughly 7500 BC. A CT scan revealed a stone, projectile point embedded in his hip. Oetzi the Iceman was found with a quiver of arrows with flint heads and an unfinished yew longbow–taller than he was–in his pack. He dates to 3300 BC. A new find in Norway revealed 4500 year old bows and arrows that are very similar in form and function to those found in the Yukon dating to the same time period. The confirmed first use of the longbow was in 633 AD, in a Read more…
The Brothers Gwynedd
Once there were three brothers: Owain, Llywelyn, and Dafydd … For more information about Llywelyn ap Gruffydd and his rule of Wales, as well as the difficulties posed by the Norman encroachments, see: 11 December 1282 Arwystli The Battle of the Menai Straits Betrayal in the Belfry of Bangor Biography of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd Cymerau Dafydd ap Gruffydd Dafydd ap Llywelyn, Prince of Wales (d. 1246) The Death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd Eleanor (Elinor) de Montfort Family Tree of the Royal House of Wales Gwynedd after 1282 Historiography of the Welsh Conquest King Edward I of England Medieval Planned Communities Memo to Llywelyn ap Gruffydd’s Staff The Rising of 1256 Senana, Mother of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd Simon de Montfort The Statute of Wales (Rhuddlan) Surprise Holy Day Attack! Things Fall Apart Welsh Heraldry Welsh Independence Welsh Independence (again)
Denbigh Castle
The present Denbigh Castle was built by Edward I after 1282 as a way to control the Welsh populace he’d just defeated. The castle was built on the site of a Llys (or seat) of the Welsh Princes dating back several hundred years. Building the new Norman Castle on this site was a deliberate attempt to project the power of the King of England. “Along with over half a mile of town walls, Denbigh Castle is a classic fortress of Edwardian proportions. Edward I’s successful 13th-century campaign in the region was cemented by the creation of an English borough in Denbigh from 1282 onwards. He simply built on top of what was a traditional Welsh stronghold. In so doing, he made sure all traces of Dafydd ap Gruffudd, the previous unlucky incumbent, were removed for ever. Henry de Lacy, one Read more…
Introducing … The Uninvited Guest!
My second Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mystery is now available! It is the winter of 1143 and all is not well in the court of Owain, King of north Wales. His future in-laws are untrustworthy, the Norman lords on his eastern border are restless, and among his wedding guests lurks a cold-blooded killer. Gareth and Gwen have marriage plans of their own, but their love will have to wait while the pair race to separate truth from lies, friends from foes, and unravel the mystery before King Owain—and his new bride—fall victim to their uninvited guest. The Uninvited Guest is available at Amazon for Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Uninvited-Gareth-Medieval-Mystery-ebook/dp/B007B2G3U6/ref=sr_1_10?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1329685937&sr=1-10 And at Smashwords for Apple/Nook/Sony (and international) readers: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/134421 It is coming soon to the other outlets as well as in paper form at Amazon. It can be purchased now in paperback here: https://www.createspace.com/3803889 Read more…
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