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Castle of the Week 98 - Caerphilly Castle
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Caerphilly Castle is one of the great medieval castles,
little changed from the 14th century. Covering 30 acres,
it’s the largest castle in Britain after Windsor and it
was also the first truly concentric castle to be built in
Britain.
Romans built the first fort at Caerphilly in about 75 AD
with 500 soldiers guarding one of the main legionary roads.
However after the Romans left 50 years later, the site was
unoccupied for a thousand years. It’s believed an
earth & timber castle was built there either by the
Normans or Welsh in the 12th century but no records or
earthworks remain.
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In the late 13th century, the area of Caerphilly was owned by
Gilbert de Clare, a Norman lord. He sided with the English
barons with the future Edward I against Simon de Montfort
and, after de Montfort was killed, took part in a siege of
his castle at Kenilworth. He was very impressed with
Kenilworth’s defences, particularly the moat and lake.
He had 9 months to examine the defences before the siege
ended and he took the ideas back home to Caerphilly where he
got permission from Henry III to start building a castle to
defend the area after a dispute with Llywelyn ap Gruffudd.
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The castle was to be concentric and massive, surrounded by
large water defences. De Clare flooded a valley, making a
lake a third of an acre in size, with the castle built on 3
artificial islands. The eastern island was a great fortified
dam, the westernmost contained a walled redout, both
protecting the central island which housed the main castle
buildings. Llewelyn saw the castle as a direct threat to his
authority and, late in 1270, he attacked and burnt some of
the fortifications down whilst they were still being built.
De Clare continued the building and, when Llewelyn attacked
again in Autumn 1271, he was defeated. In 1277 the outer
gatehouses were finished and other work was carried on over
the next 50 years.
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The concentric arrangement was flexible with rapid access to
any part of the castle by wall passages and walks. The towers
and gatehouses could be shut off and defended separately and
most parts could be enclosed with portcullises. The outer
wall was a low curtain wall with large bastions on the
corners and gatehouses on the east and west sides approached
by drawbridges. After a narrow strip of land came the much
stronger and higher inner curtain wall with circular corner
towers and 2 large strong gatehouses. Lakes on the south and
north side blocked attack from those directions, the dams
being a great achievement in medieval times. The magnificent
great hall and state apartments were on the south side of the
inner ward.
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Seven years later, after Llywelyn was killed, Caerphilly was
used as the administration centre for the de Clare estates in
Glamorgan. Gilbert’s son, also Gilbert, was killed,
childless, at Bannockburn so the castle and lands came under
royal control until their future was decided. In 1316, after
the royal guardians had provoked a Welsh revolt in the area,
Llywelyn Bren led an army of 10,000 men to attack the castle.
A drawbridge was burnt, but otherwise there was no damage to
the castle.
In 1317 the de Clare lands were divided between
Gilbert’s 3 younger sisters. The oldest was married
to Hugh Despenser, a greedy man and a favourite of Edward
II. He wasn’t content with the share he had chosen so
he set out to take the other two portions as well. He was
hated by the March Lords of south Wales because of his
cruelty and, in 1321, they burnt and destroyed much of his
property. However, with the king’s support, the lords
were defeated. He expanded his lands in south Wales until
he controlled all the land between Chepstow & Pembroke.
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In September 1326 a small force, led by Roger Mortimer and
Edward II’s estranged wife, Isabella, landed from
France. The king and Despenser fled to Caerphilly Castle
which was besieged for four months, although Edward and
Despenser had already escaped. It surrendered in 1327 and the
two men were eventually captured, Despenser being executed
and Edward II being forced to abdicate. The castle was
threatened by Owain Glyndwr in the early 15th century and
probably yielded to him.
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That was the end of the castle’s great days and it fell
into ruin. In the late 16th century, a local man was given
permission to use stone from the castle to build his new
house. Others followed. It played some part in the Civil War.
Although the castle itself was unusable, an earthwork redoubt
was built in the north-west. The ‘leaning’ tower
is thought to have started leaning at that time after a
botched effort at demolition by Cromwell’s soldiers. It
still stands 10 degrees from the perperdicular. By the 18th
century the lakes were dry.
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In the 1870s there was a move to protect it from further ruin
and the great hall was re-roofed. In the 1930s, the marquess
of Bute undertook to restore it. He rebuilt many of the
collapsed buildings and walls so that when it was taken over
by the State in 1950, all that was left to do was the
reflooding of the lakes and the restoration of the great
hall.
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Write-up provided by
GillB*. All pictures courtesy of Castle
Xplorer.
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