Harlech Castle
| Harlech Castle | ||
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 Harlech Castle, general view |
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| Creation time : | 13th Century | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Geographical location | 52 ° 51 '36 " N , 4 ° 6' 33" W | |
| Height: | 61 m above sea level NN | |
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Harlech Castle is a ruined castle in Gwynedd in Wales . The ruin, classified as a Grade I cultural monument and protected as a Scheduled Monument , is an outstanding example of European military architecture of the late 13th and early 14th centuries and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site .
location
The castle is located above the Morfa Harlech marshland on a 61 m high cliff, the Harlech Dome, falling steeply on three sides , in the middle of the town of Harlech . In the Middle Ages, the cliff presumably bordered Tremadog Bay . A staircase led from the castle to a dock by the sea, so that the castle could be supplied by ships in an emergency. Today the sea is about a kilometer away.
history
Castle to rule conquered Wales
After the conquest of the Welsh Castell y Bere during the second campaign of King Edward I against the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd , the English troops under Otton de Grandson reached Tremadog Bay in April 1283 and immediately began building the castle on the dominant cliff above the sea. The castle was part of the "iron ring" of castles between Flint and Aberystwyth that were built along the coast of Snowdonia , the center of Welsh resistance to the English conquest. Over the next six years, an army of artisans and laborers under the supervision of the royal builder James of St. George built the castle. At the height of the construction work in 1286, almost 950 men were busy with the construction, so that the castle was completed by 1289. From 1290 to 1293, James of St. George was himself constable of the castle. To the east of the castle was the Borough Harlech, populated by English colonists . During the Welsh uprising of 1294 , the crew was able to repel the siege by Madog ap Llywelyn because they could be supplied with supplies from ships from Ireland. After the revolt, the access to the sea at the foot of the cliff was reinforced, and in 1322 the ramp leading to the gate was replaced by a bridge secured by two gate towers.
Owain Glyndŵr's residence
The castle played a key role during the Owain Glyndŵr rebellion . The revolt broke out in 1400 and soon spread across much of Wales. After a long siege, the sparsely occupied castle finally had to surrender to the rebellious Welsh soldiers in 1404, when a French fleet blocked the castle from the sea and thus cut off supplies. Owain Glyndŵr used the castle as his residence and his headquarters. Presumably one of his two parliamentary meetings took place here. Only after another long siege, in which Owain's son-in-law Edmund Mortimer died, the English under Harry of Monmouth , who later became King Henry V , were able to recapture the castle in early 1409.
Last base of the Lancastrians during the Wars of the Roses
During the Wars of the Roses , Queen Margaret of Anjou fled to Harlech Castle with her son Edward after their defeat at the Battle of Northampton in 1460. Jasper Tudor added to the castle's garrison after the defeat of Towton in 1461, and after 1462 the castle was the last Lancastrian stronghold in Wales and was defended by a garrison led by Dafyd ap Eynon and Richard Tunstall . The crew resisted attacks and offers by the Yorkists to surrender the castle, and they themselves raided and raided North Wales. After Jasper Tudor returned to Harlech in June 1468 and undertook a raid as far as Denbigh with a troop under his leadership , King Edward IV commissioned William Herbert to conquer the castle. Herbert gathered a 9,000-strong army on the Welsh border. While his brother Richard Herbert advanced with part of the force from the north and defeated the Tudor troops, William Herbert marched up from the south. Both armies devastated the area around the castle and united in front of the castle, so that the starved crew finally surrendered on August 14, 1468, after Jasper Tudor had fled from the castle. While the Welshman Dafyd ap Eynon was pardoned by the victors, Tunstall and the other Englishmen were taken to London and imprisoned in the Tower , where some of them were executed. In December 1468, the king finally pardoned the remaining soldiers in the garrison. Jasper Tudor had escaped the castle's enclosure. This siege from 1461 to 1468 is believed to be the longest castle siege in Great Britain.
From the end of the Middle Ages until today
After the Wars of the Roses, the castle lost its military importance and was only used as a guilty prison . During the English Civil War , a royalist garrison occupied the castle, which is why it was the last royal castle in Wales to be captured by parliamentary troops in 1647. After that the castle slowly fell into disrepair. In 1914 the ruins were handed over to the Office of Works , which had the ruins secured and restored after the First World War. In 1969 the ruins were handed over to the Secretary of State for Wales . In 1986 the ruins were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, along with the castles and city walls of Caernarfon and Conwy and Beaumaris Castle . Today the ruin is looked after by Cadw and can be visited all year round.
investment
The medieval complex from the late 13th century is structurally almost unchanged. While the cliff slopes steeply to the north, west and south, the castle was separated from the town to the east by a moat carved into the rock to the east and south. The city itself was laid out at a sufficient distance in front of the castle so that besiegers had no cover.
The actual castle consists of a double, roughly square wall ring. Due to the location, access could only be made from the east side. Of the two gate towers secured by drawbridges that protect the access over the moat, only the foundation walls have been preserved. The outer, lower curtain wall is only badly damaged. It runs close to the inner wall; its gate is secured by two small round towers.
The inner ring wall, almost completely preserved with battlements, has four round corner towers that only slightly protrude from the high wall. The endangered east side is made thicker than the other sides and up to 4 m thick. The mighty gatehouse on the east side is flanked by two semicircular towers; surprisingly, the chapel located between the two towers on the first floor has a large outside window. The non-arched gate passage on the ground floor was secured by three cast holes and several gates, and the passage could also be defended by loopholes from the adjoining guard rooms. The first floor presumably housed the constable's living quarters, while the second floor housed guest rooms reserved for the king or other high-ranking visitors. To the inner courtyard, the gatehouse has two slender stair towers and an external staircase leading to the upper floor. In addition, the upper floors have several large windows facing the inner courtyard, which is why the gatehouse, unlike Beaumaris or Caerphilly Castle, did not also have the function of a keep .
The inner courtyard is surprisingly small, as a large part of the area was taken up by the buildings attached to the inner wall. Of these, however, only the foundation walls are partially preserved. In the western part of the was Palas with the living room and the kitchen. As the hall bordered the particularly steep west side, it had several large windows in the outer wall. The chapel and bakery were built on the north wall, and on the south wall was a granary and a wooden hall that had originally served as the residence of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. The hall was dismantled as a symbol of the English victory in Ystumgwern , 6 km away , and rebuilt in the castle. The corner towers, which have been preserved without roofs and false ceilings, contained additional accommodation.
The outer curtain wall has an exit gate secured by two small semicircular towers on the north side, another small tower is on the south side. At the southwest corner of the outer wall begins the staircase leading to the foot of the cliff with 137 steps, which was additionally secured halfway up by a gate with a drawbridge. Around the foot of the cliff runs another wall, which is now heavily damaged, through which a gate led directly to the sea in the Middle Ages.
Others
The mythical Welsh King Bran the Blessed is said to have seen the Irish King Matholwch from the Harlech Dome when he came to him by ship to ask for the hand of his sister Branweg .
The long-standing siege of the castle during the Wars of the Roses is traditionally considered to be the origin of the song Men of Harlech . The song was written a few years after the castle was conquered and is popular with rugby fans in America and Wales as a military march and battle song.
literature
- Adrian Pettifer: Welsh Castles. A Guide by Counties. Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge 2000, ISBN 0-85115-778-5 , pp. 115-119.
Web links
- Internet presence of the castle near Cadw
- UNESCO World Heritage (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ British listed Buildings: Harlech Castle, Harlech. In: britishlistedbuildings.co.uk. Retrieved July 29, 2018 .
- ↑ Ancient Monuments: Harlech Castle. In: ancientmonuments.uk. Retrieved July 29, 2018 .
- ↑ UNESCO: Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd. In: unesco.org. Retrieved March 31, 2014 .
- ^ John A. Wagner: Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, CA. 2001, ISBN 1-85109-358-3 , p. 107 f.
- ↑ Cadw: Harlech Castle. In: cadw.gov.wales. Retrieved July 29, 2018 .
- ^ Adrian Pettifer: Welsh Castles. A Guide by Counties. Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge 2000, ISBN 0-85115-778-5 , p. 115.
- ↑ Geraint Roberts: Welsh castles. Y Lolfa Cyf., Talybont, Ceredigion 2001, ISBN 0-86243-550-1 , p. 59.
- ↑ British listed Buildings: Castles of Wales: Men of Harlech. In: castlewales.com. Retrieved March 31, 2014 .