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Architects, Advisers and Design at Edward I’s Castles in Wales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Nicola Coldstream
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Extract

The concentration of military architecture in north Wales from Flint in the east to Anglesey in the west is unsurpassed anywhere in Great Britain. Some of the castles are attributable to the wars fought between the princes of Wales and Edward I of England in 1277, 1282 and 1294/5. Others were built several decades earlier, by both the Welsh and the English. Of these, some were slighted and left in disrepair after Edward’s conquest, but the English took over and modified some others, notably Castell-y-Bere, Criccieth and Dolwyddelan. This article is primarily concerned not with them, but with the castles built de novo around Snowdonia by Edward after his various campaigns: Flint and Rhuddlan founded from 1277, Conway, Caernarfon and Harlech from 1283, and Beaumaris from 1295. Their location reflects the outcome of the wars, with Flint and Rhuddlan founded in the east after Llywelyn ap Gruffudd had retreated into Snowdonia; Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech closer to Snowdon after Llywelyn’s defeat and death; and Beaumaris on Anglesey after the Welsh uprising of 1294/5. These castles are judged to be the apogee of military architecture in the late thirteenth century. Imposing and stylish, they represent all that was required in a fortified castle at that time: a visible, formidable presence that dominated its surroundings; defensive strength in walls, mural towers, and gatehouses equipped with multiple portcullises and murder holes; and domestic apartments suited to the administrative and judicial duties that the constable would dispense in peacetime.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 46 , 2003 , pp. 19 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2003

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References

Notes

1 The castles of the princes of Wales include Castell-y-Bere, Criccieth, Dolwyddelan, Dolbadarn and Ewloe. Degannwy, originally a Welsh castle, was rebuilt by Henry III.

2 Edward also built castles at Builth and Aberystwyth in mid-Wales. They will not be considered here.

3 King’s Works, pp. 293-408.

4 Taylor, A. J., ‘Master James of St. George’, English Historical Review, 65 (1950), pp. 433-57CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also note 5, below.

5 These articles, published in many different journals between 1950 and 1977, have been collected in Studies. Unless otherwise stated, all references to Taylor’s work will be to that volume, which is continuously paginated. Individual articles cited are: ‘Castle-Building in Thirteenth-Century Wales and Savoy’, The Albert Reckitt Memorial Lecture, 1977. Proceedings of the British Academy, 63 (1977), pp. 265-92 (Studies, pp. 1-28); ‘The Castle of St. Georges-d’Espéranche’, Antiquaries Journal, 33 (1953), pp. 33-47 (Studies, pp. 29-44); ‘Master James of St. George’, English Historical Review, 65 (1950), pp. 433-57 (Studies, pp. 64-98); ‘Castle-Building in Wales in the Later Thirteenth Century: the Prelude to Construction’, in Studies in Building History: Essays in Recognition of the Work of B. H. St. J. O’Neil, ed. Jope, E. M. (London, 1961), pp. 104-33Google Scholar (Studies, pp. 99-128); ‘The Date of Caernarvon Castle’, Antiquity, 26 (1952), pp. 25-34 (Studies, pp. 129-38); ‘Who was “John Pennardd, Leader of the Men of Gwynedd”?’, English Historical Review, 90 (1976), pp. 79-97 (Studies, pp. 209-30); ‘Stephen de Pencestre’s Account as Constable of Dover Castle for the Years Michaelmas 1272-Michaelmas 1274’, in Collectanea Historka: Essays in Memory of Stuart Rigold, ed. Detsicas, A. (Gloucester, 1981), pp. 114-22Google Scholar (Studies, pp. 249-56).

6 Studies, p. 79.

7 Harvey, J. H., Henry Yevele c. 132o to 1400. The Life of an English Architect (London, 1944)Google Scholar.

8 E.g. Murray, S., Building Troyes Cathedral. The Late Gothic Campaigns (Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1987)Google Scholar; R. Goy, , The House of Gold. Building a Palace in Medieval Venice (Cambridge, 1992)Google Scholar.

9 King’s Works, pp. 293, 309; Prestwich, p. 208.

10 Taylor, A., Rhuddlan Castle, 3rd edn (Cardiff, 1982)Google Scholar; A. Taylor, , Harlech Castle, 3rd edn (Cardiff, 1997)Google Scholar; Taylor, A., Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls, 5th edn (Cardiff, 2001)Google Scholar; Taylor, A., Conwy Castle and Town Walls, 4th edn (Cardiff, 1998)Google Scholar; Renn, D. and Avent, R., Flint Castle Ewloe Castle, rev. edn (Cardiff, 2001)Google Scholar; Phillips, A., Beaumaris Castle (Cardiff, 1961)Google Scholar.

11 Studies, pp. 3-4.

12 Studies, p. 41.

13 Studies, pp. 12-14.

14 Studies, p. 9.

15 Studies, pp. 11, 93-96.

16 Prestwich, pp. 83-84.

17 Studies, p. 64.

18 Studies, pp. 67, 71.

19 Studies, p. 68.

20 Studies, pp. 72-73.

21 Renn, p. 98 and fig. 17.

22 Studies, p. 40.

23 Curnow, P., ‘Some developments in military architecture c. 1200: Le Coudray-Salbart’, Proceedings of the Battle Abbey Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies, 2 (1979), pp. 42–62 Google Scholar; Knight, J., ‘The Road to Harlech: aspects of some early thirteenth-century Welsh castles’, in Castles in Wales and the Marches. Essays in honour of D. J. Cathcart King, ed. Kenyon, J. and Avent, R. (Cardiff, 1987), pp. 75–88 Google Scholar; Mesqui, J., Châteaux forts et fortifications en France (Paris, 1997), pp. 138-41Google Scholar,153-54.

24 Studies, p. 8.

25 Mesqui, Châteaux forts, pp. 15-16; Prestwich, p. 211.

26 Avent, R., ‘The Late 12th-century Gatehouse at Chepstow Castle’, Château Gaillard, 20 (2002), pp. 27–40 Google Scholar; Goodall, J., ‘Dover Castle and the great siege of 1216’, Chateau Gaillard, 19 (1998), pp. 97–99 Google Scholar.

27 See above, note 23.

28 Knight, ‘The Road to Harlech’, above, n. 23. Knight’s suggestion (p. 83) that the quadrangular plan with a strengthened tower travelled from France to Savoy and came to Wales with Master James direct from Savoy rather than from parts of France that were well known to the English is an ingenious attempt to conform to Taylor’s influential views. Alcock, L., ‘Excavations at Degannwy Castle, Caernarvonshire, 1961-6’, Archaeological Journal, 124 (1967), pp. 192-96CrossRefGoogle Scholar and fig. 2.

29 Renn; see also Renn, D., Caerphilly Castle (Cardiff, 1989)Google Scholar.

30 King’s Works, pp. 720-22.

31 Studies, p. 6.

32 Pevsner, N., An Outline of European Architecture, 7th edn (London, 1973), p. 15 Google Scholar.

33 King’s Works, p. 293.

34 Pevsner, N., ‘Terms of Architectural Planning in the Middle Ages’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 5 (1942), pp. 232-37CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 Studies, p. 115; King’s Works, pp. 344-45.

36 Shelby, L. R., ‘The Role of the Master Mason in Medieval English Building’, Speculum, 39 (1966), pp. 387–403 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Studies, p. 5.

38 Studies, pp. 5 n. 2, 68 n. 4,115,127 n. 90,253 n. 23; King’s Works, pp. 1035-37; English Medieval Architects, p. 21.

39 English Medieval Architects, pp. 23-25; King’s Works, passim; Colvin, H. (ed.), The Building Accounts of King Henry III (Oxford, 1971), pp. 416-22Google Scholar.

40 Renn, p. 98 and fig. 18.

41 Renn, pp. 100-01.

42 Renn, n. 21, pl. XVII.

43 Renn, Caerphilly Castle, pp. 16-19; 34-35.

44 Studies, p. 65.

45 King’s Works, fig. 25.

46 Studies, pp. 12-13,16-17,19-20.

47 Studies, pp. 12-13,19-20; King’s Works, pp. 1038-39.

48 English Medieval Architects, pp. 136-37.

49 Maddison, J. M., ‘Decorated Architecture in the North-West Midlands — an investigation of the work of provincial masons and their sources’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Manchester, 1978)Google Scholar.

50 English Medieval Architects, p. 137.

51 Studies, p. 68 and n. 4; English Medieval Architects, pp. 178-80, under Lenginour.

52 Studies, pp. 74,116-17.

53 King’s Works, p. 393.

54 Studies, p. 116; Tout, T. F., Chapters in the Administrative History of Medieval England, 11 (Manchester, 1920), p. 156 Google Scholar; Prestwich, p. 138. The knights were mostly bannerets, men of higher status.

55 Studies, pp. 11, 24.

56 Studies, p. 12.

57 Otherwise known as Bonvillars. Studies, pp. 213, 216, 221-22; Prestwich, p. 151.

58 Studies, p. 224.

59 Prestwich, p. 209.

60 The Treasurers were Joseph de Chauncy, Richard Ware and John Kirby; the Keepers, Thomas Bek and William Louth; the Stewards, Hugh FitzOtho, Robert Fitzjohn, and John de Montalt: Prestwich, pp. 138-39, 145, 234-35.

61 Prestwich, p. 142; Tout, , Chapters, III, pp. 19–20 Google Scholar, 141.

62 Maddison, Decorated Architecture in the North-West Midlands, pp. 72,104.

63 Prestwich, p. 209.

64 Ibid.

65 Otherwise known as Tiptoft. Studies, p. 29.

66 Studies, p. 180; Kenyon, J., Kidwelly Castle, rev. edn (Cardiff, 1990), pp. 28–34 Google Scholar.

67 Prestwich, pp. 170-75.

68 Studies, pp. 79-81.

69 Studies, p. 71.

70 Studies, pp. 137; King’s Works, p. 391.

71 King’s Works, p. 371 and n. 2.

72 Morris, R., ‘The Architecture of Arthurian Enthusiasm: Castle Symbolism in the Reigns of Edward I and His Successors’, in Armies, Chivalry and Warfare in Medieval Britain and France, ed. Strickland, M., Proceedings of the 1995 Harlaxton Symposium (Stamford, 1998), pp. 63–81 Google Scholar.

73 As late as 1987, however, Taylor argued that Caernarfon was deliberately chosen as Edward’s birthplace, citing evidence that the lower floors of the Eagle tower were built unusually fast to be ready in time. See A. Taylor, ‘The Beaumaris Castle building acount of 1295-1298’, in Castles in Wales and the Marches, ed. Kenyon and Avent, p. 126.

74 King’s Works, pp. 369-71; Studies, p. 41.

75 Taylor, A., Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls, 5th edn (Cardiff, 2001), pp. 31–32 Google Scholar. I thank Jeremy Ashbee for drawing my attention to the heads on the earlier towers.

76 Studies, pp. 15-16.

77 King’s Works, p. 319; Studies, p. 27.