Why did Edward I build castles in North Wales?
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The ultimate castle at that time, Beaumaris Castle .
Why did Edward I build the “Iron Ring of Castles?
Dr Sam Willis has described Edward I as,” the greatest castle building king this country has ever seen”. He went on to say, "his castles were his Arthurian Camelot, a tool to conquer and then recolonise". Dan Jones has commented, "every Plantagenet king with exception of Richard I has come to Wales and all departed having barely left a footprint. Edward I ended that trend emphatically".
Llwelyn ap Gruffudd became Prince of Wales
Under Edward’s father, Henry III, England was rocked by four years of civil war featuring Simon de Montfort as well as war with the Welsh led by Llwelyn ap Gruffudd. In 1263, Llwelyn had finally captured the royal castles of Dyserth and Deganwy after seven years of warfare and had become more than an irritant to Henry. Temporary truces were now not enough. To rebuild the country, Henry needed a permanent settlement with Wales to prevent any more costly warfare and this meant recognising Llwelyn as the ruler of Wales with a new title, the Prince of Wales. Marc Morris has written "peace with Wales was no longer an option but a necessity.” Under the the Treaty of Montgomery of 1267, Llwelyn achieved many of his goals. He was the first native ruler of Wales to be given this title by an English king. (Llwelyn had given himself the title back in 1258 but now it was official!) This also meant that Llwelyn was allowed to keep all of his recent territorial gains much to the annoyance of English lords that had property on the borders of Wales known as the “Marches.” Further to Llwelyn’s new status, was that all the other Welsh lords had to do “Homage” to him and not Henry. This was an important step in medieval (feudal ) society. Homage was where the “Vassal” (man on the next rung down in society) knelt down, put his hands together in a surrender-like act and the seated lord would clasp the outstretched hands. This symbolised for all to see that the seated lord was above the kneeling vassal. Everyone knew their place and rank in society.
Edward I
Dispute between Llwelyn and the Marcher lords
Soon after the ink in the treaty was dry, Llwelyn moved onto land in Glamorgan that had not been mentioned in the treaty. The following year, the English Lord, Gilbert de Clare, the Earl of Gloucester attempted to get his land back and began building the massive Caerphilly castle for security. In 1270, Henry’s son, Prince Edward, soon to be King Edward I, embarked on a crusade and so Llwelyn decided to modify his territorial gains by destroying the newly built castle. The following year saw the Earl of Gloucester reclaim his land and resume building his castle. From then on other “marcher lords” began to assert their rights to land given to Llwelyn. A furious LLwelyn was supposed to pay regular instalments towards a fee of £16, 666 agreed in the peace treaty but he now stopped. He also refused to pay homage to Edward I, an unforgivable insult to any king but a huge one to Edward I at that time.
Over the next few years, Llwelyn made limp excuses for his refusal despite numerous requests and this put the two men, on the road to war. At Chester, Edward looked humiliated when Llwelyn again failed to turn up despite the king travelling miles to get close to Wales to make it easier. Homage was a non-negotiable duty but Llwelyn was having none of it with his land under attack from the Marcher Lords and his finances in disarray. The Welsh economy, being small and based on limited agriculture, simply could not finance Llwelyn’s debts to the King of England. Llwelyn’s total annual customs revenue amounted to £16 which was a paltry sum compared to Edward’s £10,000!
View from Conwy castle with the remains of the original castle, Degannwy, in the distance.
Plot on Llwelyn’s life and his proposed marriage.
To make matters worse for LLwelyn, there was a plot on his life instigated by his own brother, Dafydd. The assassination failed but the assassins managed to escape to England. Much to Llwelyn’s annoyance, Edward made things worse by refusing to hand them over. The final blow to their relationship was when LLwelyn decided to marry the one person who would anger Edward more than anyone else, Eleanor, the daughter of the late Simon de Montfort. He was the man who attempted to bring the rule of the Plantagenets to an end earlier in the 1260s. To stop this in its tracks, Edward’s men seized Llwelyn’s fiancé whilst she was at sea, en route to from France to Wales and thus prevented the marriage from going ahead.
War
It is easy to think, why did Edward not just go into Wales, defeat the Welsh and seize Llwelyn. The problem for Edward was that Snowdonia, Llwelyn’s base, was virtually impenetrable. The history of warfare in Wales was not good reading for English kings, with the terrain and weather not suiting English strengths. This served to allow LLwelyn to sleep at night and to continue to harass Edward for a better deal. Despite these problems, in 1276, Edward I took the decision to invade Wales. His plan was a three pronged attack from the south, middle and north with huge armies and vast supplies. Edward tried to plan for all possible scenarios, for example he made certain that his army would not be ambushed by clearing trees on either side of a road through a dense forest to the extent of being four times the width of a modern three laned motorway! He even planned for workmen involved in removing the trees to be guarded by crossbowmen and a small group of knights. When Edward got to Conwy, he sent a small army to Anglesey, home to Llwelyn’s granary. Having captured the island, another army of 360 men with scythes gathered in the harvest and thus deprived LLwelyn of food for the winter whilst supplying Edward’s own army!
This sketch map shows Edward’s final castles at Conwy, Caernarfon, Harlech and Beaumaris. It also shows his earlier ones at Flint, Rhuddlan, Aberyswyth and Builth. Hawarden is shown because it was attacked by Dafydd ap Gruffudd and Caerphilly Castle is shown because it was the cause of trouble between Llwelyn and the Earl of Gloucester.
LLwelyn defeated and peace.
LLwelyn had no choice but to give in with the result that he was allowed to hold on to some of his land in the north and keep his title, the Prince Of Wales. This, however, meant very little because he only represented a small region in the north of his country! On Christmas Day LLwelyn did homage to Edward and promised to be obedient. At Rhuddlan, Flint, Builth and Aberystwyth Edward now embarked on turning his temporary wooden defences into stone fortresses. They were to act as symbols of Plantagenet power as well as physical, impenetrable defences. To accompany the castles Edward organised new towns for English settlers who would “set an example to the Welsh on how to conduct themselves” as well as provide a garrison for each castle, supplies and revenue in the form of taxation. Edward believed that the Welsh needed “civilising! They had simple tastes, eating meat and drinking milk unlike the English, who ate bread, a more complicated food requiring planting and processing as well as drinking wine, again a far more complex product. No Welshmen were allowed to live in these towns which were subject to English law. The Welsh were not allowed to trade outside of these towns and so had to enter daily and be controlled by the English.
Peace was also temporarily guaranteed by Edward taking ten hostages, including Eleanor de Montfort. This was short-lived however, with all the hostages being released and Edward even allowing the marriage between Llwelyn and Eleanor to take place albeit in England! Apparently, Edward even paid for the wedding feast.
Caernarfon Castle
War again. The end for LLwelyn.
In March 1282, a disgruntled Dafydd ap Gruffudd attacked Hawarden Castle. This was followed by a widespread revolt that involved attacking castles at Flint, Rhuddlan and Aberystwyth and their associated towns of English settlers. Here houses were looted and destroyed and any settlers who failed to escape, were killed. Llwelyn did not initiate this fight but inevitably was obliged to participate. This time his luck was up and he died in battle. When his dead body was found, his head was removed and sent to London. Daffyd was captured at the foot of Snowdon in early 1283 and in October he was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered with his head to be displayed next to that of his brother in London.
Master James of St George who oversaw the building of Edward’s new castles. This statue is to be found at Beaumaris Castle on thee Isle of Anglesey.
The Iron Ring of Castles
To make certain that the Welsh did not trouble him again, Edward decided to build four “state of the art” castles. These were not simply for defence but historians have suggested they were for colonisation, an English takeover. More towns surrounded by town walls would be associated with the castles and in every case, with access to the sea so that they could be resupplied from boats when a siege was attempted. Even Harlech Castle had access to the sea in the 13th century unlike today where the sea is now a few hundred yards away. To ensure completion, the King recruited Master James of St George from Savoy who had gained a reputation for building castles in the Alps.
Added to this Edward’s son was born in Caernarfon Castle Castle and became the next “Prince of Wales”. Edward was informed that a prince had to be born in Wales and not be able to speak a word of English. A baby cannot speak any word in any language and thus the child met the terms!
Conwy’s town walls
To enhance his dominance and be contemptuous of the Welsh leaders, the Cistercian abbey founded by LLwelyn’s grandfather and the last resting place of Llwelyn’s ancestors was to no longer be associated with Conwy. A new abbey was created several miles away and the bones were disinterred and moved elsewhere. The castle and new town were built over where these ancestral relics once lain. To quote Marc Morris in his book, “Castle”, “with calculated callousness, the king literally erased the memory of Llwelyn’s family from the face of the earth!” Edward also seized all of Llwelyn’s Prince of Wales and royal regalia ie his crown, his orb and his sceptre. Without these it was so much harder for any Welshmen to proclaim themselves Llwellyn’s successor.
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