Castles of Edward I in Wales: Caernarfon, Conwy and Harlech

The castles of Edward I in Wales are a group of fortresses and walled towns built after the English conquest of the Welsh principality in 1282–1283. Directed by the master mason James of St George, the works at Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech began in 1283, and Beaumaris followed in 1295. Designed to hold down a conquered land and to display royal power, four of them are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and are among the most impressive medieval castles in Europe.

Background: a conquest to secure

Edward I had already fought one war against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales, in 1277. After that campaign he began new royal castles at Flint, Rhuddlan, Builth and Aberystwyth, which could be supplied by sea or river.

The second war, which began with a Welsh revolt in March 1282, ended with Llywelyn’s death and the conquest of Gwynedd. Edward now intended to rule the heartland of Welsh resistance directly. In the spring and summer of 1283 he chose sites for new castles at Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech, each placed on the coast so that ships could bring men and supplies.

The castles were part of a wider plan. Next to Conwy and Caernarfon, Edward created walled towns, known as boroughs, settled with English colonists who received trading privileges. Welsh people were for a long time barred from living in these towns, which became centres of English government and commerce.

Master James of St George

The man in charge of the building works was James of St George, a master mason from Savoy, in the Alps. He took his name from the castle of Saint-Georges-d’Espéranche, which he had worked on for the Count of Savoy. Edward probably met him while travelling through Savoy in 1273 and brought him to Wales in 1278.

As master of the king’s works in Wales, James oversaw design and construction on a vast scale. Some architectural details of the Welsh castles, such as certain types of windows and scaffolding holes, closely resemble those at Savoyard castles, a link established by the historian Arnold Taylor in the twentieth century.

Building the castles

The scale of labour was enormous. Workers were recruited from across England: masons, carpenters, quarrymen, diggers and carters, often required by royal order to come to Wales. Royal accounts show that in some seasons several thousand men were employed at once. In 1296 James reported that about 400 masons, 2,000 lesser workmen and 200 quarrymen were at work on Beaumaris.

Conwy was built between 1283 and about 1287 on a rock beside the river Conwy. Its eight great towers form two wards, and its town walls, about 1.3 kilometres long with 21 towers and three gateways, are among the most complete medieval town defences in Europe. To clear the site, the Cistercian monks of Aberconwy Abbey were moved several miles upriver to Maenan.

Caernarfon, begun in June 1283, was intended as the seat of royal government in north Wales. Its walls are built with bands of coloured stone and its towers are polygonal rather than round. Many historians believe these features deliberately recalled the walls of Constantinople and Roman imperial power; the site lay close to the Roman fort of Segontium, linked in Welsh legend to the emperor Magnus Maximus. Edward’s son, the future Edward II, was born at Caernarfon in April 1284.

Harlech was built between 1283 and about 1289 on a rocky crag above what was then the sea. It is a concentric castle, with an inner ring of high walls enclosed by a lower outer wall, a design that let defenders on both lines fire at attackers. Its massive gatehouse dominates the entrance side.

Beaumaris, on Anglesey, was begun in 1295 after a major Welsh revolt. Built on flat land beside the Menai Strait, it is an almost perfectly symmetrical concentric castle, with a tidal dock for ships. Work slowed as money ran short and stopped in the 1330s, so it was never completed.

Tested in war

The castles were soon put to the test. In 1294 a widespread revolt led by Madog ap Llywelyn caught the English by surprise. Rebels sacked the town of Caernarfon and damaged its unfinished castle, while Harlech, supplied by sea, held out with a small garrison. Edward led a winter campaign and was himself briefly besieged at Conwy before the revolt was crushed in 1295.

More than a century later, during the rising of Owain Glyndŵr, Harlech and Aberystwyth fell to the Welsh in 1404, and Harlech served as Glyndŵr’s headquarters until it was retaken in 1409. In the Wars of the Roses Harlech was held by Lancastrian supporters until 1468, a long siege often linked with the song “Men of Harlech”. Several castles were garrisoned again during the English Civil War in the 1640s.

Life in the castles and boroughs

In peacetime the castles were held by small garrisons, often only a few dozen soldiers, under a royal constable. At Conwy, Caernarfon, Harlech and Beaumaris the constable of the castle also served as mayor of the neighbouring borough, so that military and civic authority lay in the same hands.

Caernarfon became the administrative capital of the new royal lands in north Wales. The king’s justiciar and chamberlain worked there, and taxes and rents from the surrounding counties were collected there. The walled boroughs held markets and fairs, and English burgesses enjoyed trading privileges that Welsh merchants long resented.

After the fifteenth century the castles lost their military importance. Many were neglected and partly stripped of lead and timber. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries they were repaired and conserved as historic monuments, and their restoration helped shape modern ideas of what a medieval castle looks like.

By the numbers

Figures are estimates drawn from surviving accounts and vary between studies.

Legacy

The castles show the best of late medieval military engineering in Britain and influenced castle design for decades. Concentric planning, already seen in crusader strongholds such as Krak des Chevaliers, reached a high point at Harlech and Beaumaris.

They also carry a difficult meaning. To many Welsh people they have long symbolised conquest and colonisation, and the term “iron ring”, used by modern writers for the chain of fortresses, reflects that view. Caernarfon was the setting for the investitures of the Prince of Wales in 1911 and 1969, events that drew both celebration and protest.

In 1986 UNESCO inscribed the “Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd” (Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Conwy and Harlech) on the World Heritage List. Today they are cared for by Cadw and attract large numbers of visitors each year.

Timeline

• 1277: After the first Welsh war, Edward begins Flint, Rhuddlan, Builth and Aberystwyth.
• 1278: Master James of St George arrives to direct the royal works in Wales.
• March 1283: Work begins at Conwy soon after the English capture of the area.
• June 1283: Construction of Caernarfon starts.
• 1283–c. 1289: Harlech Castle is built.
• 1294–1295: Madog ap Llywelyn’s revolt; Caernarfon town is sacked.
• April 1295: Beaumaris Castle is begun on Anglesey.
• 1404–1409: Harlech is held by Owain Glyndŵr.
• 1986: The four castles become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Why it matters

Edward I’s Welsh castles turned a military conquest into lasting control and created some of the finest fortifications of the Middle Ages. They remain both masterpieces of medieval architecture and reminders of how Wales lost its independence.