The Impact of the Edwardian Castles in Wales

Diane Williams, John R. Kenyon

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2009
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781782973690
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

The Impact of the Edwardian Castles in Wales publishes the proceedings of a conference held in 2007, a year that marked the seventh centenary of the death of King Edward I, which set out to review recent scholarship on castles that he built in north Wales after two wars, in 1277 and 1282-83 and a Welsh uprising in 1294-95, and to rethink the effect that their building had upon Wales in the past, present and future. Building upon the seminal work of Arnold Taylor, whose study of the buildings and documentary evidence has been pivotal to Edwardian castle studies for more than fifty years, the volume includes papers which call into question the role of Master James of St George as the architect of the kings new castles; the role of Richard the Engineer, the nature of royal accommodation in the thirteenth century and a detailed look at how households worked, especially in the kitchen and accounting departments. New approaches to castle studies are encouraging a more holistic understanding of the Edwardian castles and their context and to this end papers consider their impact on Welsh society and its princes in the thirteenth century, notably Llywelyn ab Iorwerth ( Fawr, the Great) and his grandson, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, prince of Wales. Their symbolism and meaning through the words of Welsh poets and the mythology behind Caernarfon Castle are also examined, so too is the role of Welshmen in Edward Is armies. The wider context is considered with papers on the Edwardian towns in Wales, the baronial castles in north Wales and Edward I in Scotland and Gascony. The castles still have powerful resonance and the Minister for Heritage in the Welsh Assembly Government considers their role and presentation in Wales today and in the future. Robert Liddiard concludes that the volume 'not only takes our knowledge of the Edwardian castles forward, but also informs the study of castles in the British Isles'.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Editors’ Preface
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Chapter 1: Edward I and Wales
• Chapter 2: From Llywelyn ap Gruffudd to Edward I: Expansionist Rulers and Welsh Society in Thirteenth-Century Gwynedd
• Chapter 3: Gwynedd Before and After the Conquest
• Chapter 4: The Castles of the Princes of Gwynedd
• Chapter 5: James of St George
• Chapter 6: The Life and Career of Richard the Engineer
• Chapter 7: Builth Castle and Aberystwyth Castle 1277–1307
• Chapter 8: The King’s Accommodation at his Castles
• Chapter 9: Food Supply and Preparation at the Edwardian Castles
• Chapter 10: The Landscapes of Edward’s New Towns: Their Planning and Design
• Chapter 11: The Building Stones of the Edwardian Castles
• Chapter 12: ‘Twr Dewr Gwncwerwr’ (‘A Brave Conqueror’s Tower’): Welsh Poetic Responses to the Edwardian Castles
• Chapter 13: Caernarfon Castle and its Mythology
• Chapter 14: The Conservation and Restoration of Caernarfon Castle 1845–1912
• Chapter 15: Arnold Taylor’s Contribution to the Study of the Edwardian Castles in Wales
• Chapter 16: The Baronial Castles of the Welsh Conquest
• Chapter 17: Edward I’s Building Works in Gascony
• Chapter 18: Welshmen in the Armies of Edward I
• Chapter 19: Scottorum Malleus: Edward I and Scotland
• Chapter 20: A Research Agenda for the Edwardian Castles
• Chapter 21: King Edward I’s Castles in North Wales – Now and Tomorrow
• Index
• Plates