Built on a rocky promontory above the River Conwy between 1287-1292, Conwy Castle today is but the largest attraction in one of Britain s most charming walled towns.
Tin iU T7K Grea. ASTL NORT
T^'IV^Hftf Stone fortresses across Wales is as imposing today as it; ' 'was 700 years ago / r • \ A •
I'l'ROACHING CONWY CASTLE from its all of Wales to the Hnglish king Hdward 1, and got him- overflow parking lot, your view is self killed in the process. blocked hy a high railroad embank- After Hdward Longshanks had received Llywelyn's ment with a long pedestrian tunnel head from his killers, he huilt fnur great castles in the beneath it. This turns out to he a good heart of l.lywclyn's principality: Conwy, Harlech, thing. Now the castle can simply Caernarfon and Beaumaris. They were among the largest spring upon you, its massive southern wall bathed in and most sophisticated castles ever built. Alight. It rises as a black monolith flanked by giant tow- ers, emerging organically from bedrock that erupts from the greensward. From this view, you can get some of the Northwest Wales is dramatically feeling that a l.ith-century Welshman might have felt mountainous, and at Conwy these when he first saw this castle in its glory. You can under- mountains extend to the sea's edge. The stand what the Ktiglish king Hdwnrd I "Longshanks'' north flowing Conwy River marks the wanted it to be when he built it in 1287. eastern border of the mountains, a wide It's a terror weapon. tidal slash that has long been a barrier Two centuries before F.dward built Conwy, Duke to trade and conquest; behind it, the princes of Gwynedd William of Normandy invaded Hngland to become King had long been safe. Mostly, the Conwy River is edged by William I "The Conqueror," muds and marshes, but at and his Norman vassals seized Conwy a hard mountain ridge- Knglish and Welsh estates alike. line runs straight to the river In Wiiles, these new Norman The CASTLE and disappears under its lords took over estates primari- waters. This is the narrowest ly in the south and along the point at the river's mouth, and borders ("marches") with WAS a Noble the only practical crossing for England. These "Marcher miles. It was here, in 1283, that Lords" came and went, some- RESIDENCE Kdward's men started work on times enlarging tht;ir lands, the first of the four castles. sometimes getting their clocks Lip through the 1950s, this cleaned by the natives. In the eastern approach to Conwy 12U)s there was a great deal of presented one of the finest clock-cleaning, as rebellious views in Britain. The castle English bartins forced King BASE rises straight out of the water, a John to sign the Magna tlarta, looming hulk framed by mas- then got him involved in a protracted civil war that sive bare cliffs, with a charming walled town hugging its would lead to his death in 1216. In the confusion, a downstream side. Thomas Tclford's delicate 1826 sus- resurgent Welsh nobility had the chance to get some of pension bridge links it with the eastern shore, a graceful their own back. span whose castellated towers complement the castle. Past Welsh revolts had failed, dissolving into The railroad crosses behind Telford's bridge on an 1848 internecine conflicts that were easily exploited whenever tubular structure whose castellated piers are larger and the English monarchy managed to get its act together. ciunkier than Tclford's, but still attractive. The castle, the This time it would be different. The prince who ruled town and the two bridges made for a stunning set Wales' mountainous northwest, an unconquered region piece—but Telford's S-foot-wide bridge could not handle known then and now as Gwynedd (pronounced gwin- the traffic, and a new bridge opened beside it in 1958. netb), became the unchallenged leader of unconquered It's not an ugly bridge, hut some of the grandeur is gone. Wales. Llyweiyn ap Iorwerth, known as "Llywelyn the Like all true castles, Conwy was both an aristocratic Great," used diplomacy and war to unify the Welsh residence and a military base. It had to meet the daily nobles under him and take lands from the Marcher needs of a fine lord and his lady, it had to house a bunch lords. In 1218 King John's successor, Henry III (then 11 of rough soldiers and it had to withstand the most bru- years old), acknowledged Llywelyn as "Prince of tal and prolonged attacks. These needs converged to Wales." Skillful politics and carefully considered warfare serve one overarching goal: to project power, both prac- kept the title and lands intact, to be inherited by his son tically and psychologically. As a military base, the castle Dafydd, then his grandson Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, could completely control a 20-mile radius with just a "LIvwclyn the I ast." It was iJywclvn the Last who lost small force of mounted knights, and it could defend Itself
38 • BRITISH HERITAGE MARCH 2008 so well that only the most powerful would dare chal- encloses and protects the sea approach at the bottom of lenge it. As a noble residence, it demonstrated the over- the cliff, then a stunning inner wall (a "curtain wall" in whelming power, prestige and wealth of its owner. In this castle parlance, as it seems to hang like a curtain case, its owner was Edward I, the richest and most pow- between the towers) rising 35 feet above its leveled plat- erful lord of them all, and the era's greatest warrior. form on the knoll's top. Conwy wasn't just meant to awe; it was meant to scare Inside, it has a single large inner bailey, with one of the the living daylights out of anyone who dared challenge most massive gatehouses in Britain, providing housing its power. for its lord and its garrison, as well as protection from Bear in mind that Edward started Conwy Castle after attack. It worked; in 1294,37 men held off a determined he had killed Llywelyn and won all of Wales for himself. attack and long siege by Welsh insurrectionists. Today, Although anti-insurgency operations would continue for its mountainous location makes it an impressive and another 13 years, Edward didn't need a castle on this romantic sight, even though two miles of sand deposits scale to fight insurgents. He needed it to sciirc them. To now separate this former headland from the sea. gain the site, Edward demolished a palace of Llywelyn's Castles such as Harlech and Conwy were not only for- and a monastery In which Llywelyn the Great was eign intrusions in Wales, they were foreign to all Britain. buried. Eight mammoth cylindrical towers bulge out Castles evolved on the Continent during the 9th century from the walls, each one seven stories high and 30 feet in along the Rhone and Rhine rivers, from hill forts built diameter, set so close together that the castle appears to using a design that placed wood palisade walls around a be little more than a collec- large enclosed area ("outer tion of towers. Outside, bailey"), then a wood tower more walls enclosed—and on a high spot protected by its enclose to this day—a siz- own inner palisade, which able town, first populated formed an inner bailey wholly by English colonists around the tower. intent on profiting from the During the 10th century, newly conquered lands. All French warriors discovered this construction was plas- that they could throw up one tered and whitewashed, a of these compounds any- gleaming intrusion from an where, in just a few weeks, by enemy state. impressing the conquered And it was al! ludicrously locals as a slave labor force. expensive. Built in just five From inside, they could send years, Conwy Castle con- parties of mounted knights sumed an amount of money equal to the English govern- out to protect or oppress the countryside and be back in ment's entire tax receipts for a year. It was not only phys- time for dinner. ically and technologically beyond anything Gwynedd Really successful castles would later be rebuilt in could have produced, it required more wealth than the stone. By the 13th century, the palisades had become principality could have hoped to produce in a century. thick curtain walls hung l>etween high towers, and the No one could hope to succeed against anyone powerful inner tower on a mound ("motte") had evolved into the enough to build such a castle; at Conwy, no one even Great Tower (or donjon in Erench). tried. And Edward built three more castles nearby, just The Normans brought castles to both England and like it. Wales as instruments of occupation and intimidation. By the late 12th century, the Gwynedd princes had started ARLEt:n. Amazingly, Edward started building castles to protect themselves from the Normans, Harlech at the same time as Conwy, and some of these survive. finishing it in 1289. Its purpose was The small castle at Dolbadarn, in the shadow of straightforward; it anchored the Wales' largest mountain. Mount Snowdon, is just down southwest corner of Gwynedd, just the road from Caernarfon. Built by Llywelyn the Great, as Conwy anchored its northeast. it features a round 50-foot great tower that commands a HThis squarish castle occupies the top of a tall, rocky out- wide view of the surrounding peaks. A modest castle set crop that, at the time, rose as a near-cliff 200 feet out of in great natural beauty, it makes for an evocative visit, the sea. the more so after having seen one of Edward's massive It's even larger than Conwy, with a lower wall that castles at Conwy, Harlech or nearby Caernarfon.
MARCH 2008 BRITISH HERITAGE • 39 AKRNARFON. Biggest and greatest of Conwy: a lower bailey for the garrison and service build- them all, Caernarfon (pronounced kyre- ings, and an upper bailey tor the royal family. The walls NAR-vonn) sits on the coast halfway are especially thick, and you can walk nearly around the between Conwy and Harlech. It was castle in two interior tunnels as well as along the para- meant from the first to be a palace as pet. Two of the towers hold exhibits—one on the Prince well as a castle, and Edward pulled out of Wales that includes the slate throne upon which Call the stops. Like Harlech and Conwy, Caernarfon sits Prince Charles sat so many decades ago, the other on the on the sea with tidal access to medieval ships; unlike the castle's history. The old walled town is aiso worth a visit, others, it occupies flat land on a peninsula then nearly with the lane along the inside of the east wall. Hole hi surrounded by water. The castle stretches the length of The Wall Lane, being particularly scenic. three football fields along the harbor, with an unbroken curtain wall 36 feet high. Edward deliberately made the wall and its massive KALiMARis. The fourth of Edward's great projecting towers to look like the walls of ancienr castles was a bit of a historical footnote. Roman Constantinople (which he had seen on crusade), Squat and square, this castle (whose name with different kinds of rocks forming long, colored means "fair marsh") occupies low land on stripes around the walls. This turned out to be an the northeast coast of the island of inspired piece of propaganda, as the Welsh had long Anglesey, just across the Menai Strait from since embraced the tall tales of Gregory of Monmouth's BBangor. In Edward's day this was the main ferry to History of the Kings of Britain, in which Caernarfon had Anglesey, and travelers used it to reach the Holyhcad boat featured as the site of a widespread Welsh empire during to Ireland, just as they do now. Edward started Beaumaris the Roman era. Edward declared Caernarfon to be the much later than the others, and despite 37 years of off- scat of his new Welsh government, just as the Welsh and-on work, it was never close to completion. believed it had served as the seat of a Welsh empire in the Beaumaris was an afterthought, the result of the days of King Arthur. As at Conwy, Edward extended the Revolt of 1294 that saw Harlech resist and Caernarfon castle walls to enclose a sizable town of English fall. The rebels quickly took over Anglesey colonists, from which Welshmen were banned for the and executed its chief official, the sheriff^a Each ol King Edward's next 200 years. particular friend of Edward's. Edward four caslles in North To punch up the propaganda value of Caernarfon, reacted with typical forccfulness and feroc- Wales was designed Edward and his family were in residence in 1284, only ity, launching a devastating campaign in the not only locanquer Ihe the second year of construction, so that his wife Eleanor dead of winter that caught the rebels by Welsh, hut lo terrorize could give hirth there. The child became known as surprise and routed them. At that point, them. Today, they offer Edward of Caernarfon, and in 1301 Edward Edward realized that he'd better have a cas- a Iriendly greeting to Longshanks bestowed the title of Prince of Wales upon tie on Anglesey. visitors (rom atound his son. Edward of Caernarfon went on to rule England Modern Beaumaris gets its squat appear- the world, as Edward II, and the expected heir to the throne has ance from the fact it was never completed. been declared the Prince of Wales ever since. It is a square, symmetrical castle, surrounded by a flood- Despite these royal aspirations for Caernarfon, it was ed moat. Inside the moat is an octagonal outer curtain never completed. In the Welsh revolt of 1294, which wall with LS towers, intentionally built rather low to Harlech survived so handily, Caernarfon village was cap- catch crossfire from the much higher inner walls. About tured immediately; the rebels simply walked through the 60 feet hehind this is the main castle, with 35-foot cur- unfinished castle gate. They destroyed both castle and tain walls, six large towers and two huge gatehouses set town pretty thoroughly, and it took mammoth expendi- opposite each other. These towers and gatehouses were ture to rebuild the battered town and castle and complete meant to match Harlech in size and scale, but none was the defenses. When the money ran out again, several completed, and no tower ever came close to full height. internal buildings and tower interiors were left per- Brilliant and brutal, Edward Longshanks had one manently unfinished. goal: to unify Britain under the English monarchy, as (he Modern Caernarfon Castle sits on the southern edge believed) Arthur had unified it eight centuries before. of a sprawling town, once rich on slate and now rather That he was the new Arthur, and fully capable of build- down at the heels. Its stonework remains almost com- ing a whole series of massively oppressive Camelots, he pletely intact, and at high tide its magnificent curtain wanted no one in Wales to doubt. Today, his four great- walls reflect in the still waters of the harbor. Inside it est castles may have long lust their power to terrorize, forms nearly a figure eight with the same sort of plan as but they retain their power to awe. ^
40 • BRITISH HERITAGE MARCH 2008 Beaumaris Castle