Kidwelly Castle
| Kidwelly Castle | ||
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 The ruin from the east |
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| Alternative name (s): | Castell Cydweli | |
| Creation time : | 12th Century | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 44 '22.2 " N , 4 ° 18' 20.5" W | |
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Kidwelly Castle ( Welsh Castell Cydweli ) is a ruined castle in Carmarthenshire in Wales . Classified as a Grade I Cultural Monument and a Scheduled Monument , the ruin is considered to be one of the best preserved medieval castles in Wales.
location
The ruin is on the edge of the town of Kidwelly on a ridge that drops steeply to the east to the River Gwendraeth . The river flows into Carmarthen Bay shortly after the castle and is navigable by boat up to the castle, so that the castle could be supplied with supplies via the river in the event of a siege.
history
Contested border castle in the 12th and 13th centuries
After the murder of the Welsh Hywel ap Goronwy , the English King Henry I appointed his lord chancellor and confidante Roger of Salisbury to lord the Welsh Cantref Cydweli in 1106 . Shortly afterwards, Roger began building a ring wall on the site of today's castle to secure his rule , and before 1114 he founded a priory not far from the castle . A settlement was built south of the castle before 1115, the inhabitants of which came from Normandy and England, but also from Flanders .
The castle was owned by Bishop Rogers when, during a Welsh uprising in 1136, a skirmish between a Welsh force led by the Prince of Deheubarth , Gwenllian and an Anglo-Norman force led by Maurice de Londres of Ogmore Castle took place not far from the castle . The Welsh people were defeated, Gwenlillian fell or was executed after the battle. In 1139 Bishop Roger lost the favor of the new King Stephen of Blois , at the latest by this time Kidwelly fell to Maurice de Londres. Probably around 1159, Rhys ap Gruffydd , Prince of Deheubarth and son of the Gwenllian killed in 1136 , conquered several Anglo-Norman castles in South West Wales, including Kidwelly. In 1190 he had construction work carried out on the castle, presumably he had the previous wooden fortifications replaced by a stone curtain wall . After the death of Rhys ap Gruffydd in 1197, succession wars began between his sons, during which the castle was again in the hands of the Anglo-Normans in 1201 at the latest. Maredudd, a son of Rhys ap Gruffydd, was killed in 1201 by followers of William de Londres not far from the castle. 1215 led Llywelyn ap Iorwerth , the prince of Gwynedd , together with Rhys Gryg , a son of Rhys ap Gruffydd, a devastating campaign against the Anglo-Normans in South Wales, in which also Kidwelly Castle was conquered by Rhys Gryg. In 1220, however, Rhys Gryg had to give the castle back to Hawise de Londres , the heiress of the Londres family estates, under pressure from Llywelyn ap Iorwerth . In 1231 the castle was conquered again by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth during a campaign or at least badly damaged. In 1243 Maredudd ap Rhys , a son of Rhys Gryg, had to hand over the reign of Kidwelly back to Hawise de Londres and her husband Patrick de Chaworth . The castle, unlike the neighboring castles Llansteffan and Laugharne Castle, resisted the siege by the Welsh after the crushing defeat of the English in the Battle of Cymerau , but Patrick de Chaworth was killed shortly afterwards in a battle at Cardigan in the fight against the Welsh.
Expansion into a stone fortress
Under the sons of Hawise de Londres and Patrick de Chaworth, Payn and Patrick de Chaworth , the castle was expanded. Payn had participated in Prince Edward's crusade to Palestine . Presumably inspired by the Crusader castles there , he probably began building the inner curtain wall in 1275. After his brother's death in 1279, his brother Patrick continued to expand the fortifications, and the outer curtain wall was probably reinforced under him. This expansion made Kidwelly one of the strongest English castles in Wales, after the new castles of King Edward I in North Wales and Caerphilly Castle in South East Wales. In 1284 Edward I stayed in the castle for several days on his tour of Wales. After the death of Patrick de Chaworth in 1289, the king appointed Maud William de Valence as administrator for Patrick's only one-year-old daughter . William de Valence had already expanded the castles of Pembroke and Goodrich Castle in Herefordshire , and presumably he continued the expansion of Kidwelly, probably beginning with the construction of the palace and the chapel on the east side. After William's death in 1296, the castle fell back to Maud de Chaworth, who had married the king's nephew, Henry of Lancaster, in 1291 .
Administrative headquarters of the Dukes of Lancaster
Henry of Lancaster had the castle expanded, but under him and his descendants, the castle no longer served as a residence, but only as the local administrative center for the extensive holdings of the Lancasters. It is believed that John of Gaunt began rebuilding the main gate around 1388. After the death of John of Gaunt in 1399, King Richard II gave the castle to his half-brother John Holland . In May 1399 the king spent one night at the castle while on his way to Ireland on a campaign. But while the King was in Ireland, the exiled Henry Bolingbroke , son of John of Gaunt , landed in England and took the throne. As part of the Duchy of Lancaster , the castle became the private property of the English kings. Due to the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr against English rule in Wales, which began in 1400, work on the new gatehouse was accelerated. In August 1403, a rebel army under Henry Dwnn , a former administrator of the Kidwelly estate, besieged the castle. While the town of Kidwelly was captured and destroyed, the castle withstood the siege, so the rebels lifted the siege before the onset of winter. Another attack on the castle took place in the summer of 1404, but this attack also failed. After the revolt came to an end, the unfinished gatehouse was continued from 1408 and finally completed in 1422.
In 1485 King Henry VII gave the castle to Rhys ap Thomas , his deputy in South Wales. Presumably around this time, several new buildings were built in the outer courtyard, which would lose its kennel function in the event of a siege. After his grandson Rhys ap Gruffydd FitzUrien was executed as a traitor in 1531, the castle fell back to the Duchy of Lancaster. In the 16th century the castle lost its military importance and increasingly also its function as an administrative center. Although it still served as a place of justice in 1609, it was already in ruins by that time.
The ruin since the 17th century
In 1630 the Vaughan family from Golden Grove near Llandeilo bought the castle. Unlike many other Welsh castles, the castle played no role during the English Civil War . After the British could no longer travel to France and Italy because of the coalition wars, Wales and Kidwelly were visited by travelers. Probably because of the increasing number of visits, John Vaughan had minor security measures carried out in the ruins between 1793 and 1803. Among the visitors in 1795 was William Turner , who made a watercolor of the castle in 1835 based on his sketches from that time. In the 19th century, the Earls of Cawdor inherited the ruins, who carried out further securing work on the outer curtain wall around the middle of the 19th century. In 1927, the Earl of Cawdor handed the ruins over to the State Office of Works . Today the ruins are managed by Cadw and can be visited all year round.
investment
The castle, built of quarry stone , has a D-shaped floor plan, with the straight side being the side that slopes steeply to the east towards the river. This ground plan still follows the first earth wall of the ring wall from the early 12th century. Except for the east side, the complex is surrounded by a pointed V-shaped moat; in the south-east and west, the fortifications of the medieval city bordered the moat. To the right in front of the southern gatehouse, a short wall crosses the moat, which was probably built around 1450 and is the remainder of a gate kennel. In the north there was another forecourt secured by ramparts and ditches.
Gatehouse
The main entrance to the castle is the mighty gatehouse in the south of the complex. The asymmetrical gatehouse was started around 1388 and replaced the older castle gates, no remains of which have survived. Due to the siege during the Owain Glyndwr rebellion, construction was suspended from 1403 to 1408. From 1408 the construction continued, whereby the construction plans were changed and the stair tower, which overlooks the actual gatehouse, was added to the north-west side of the courtyard. In addition, a fire between 1408 and 1415 damaged the building, which was finally completed around 1422.
The three-story gate castle resembles the castle gate of Carmarthen Castle and is one of the last large arched gateways to be built in England and Wales in the Middle Ages. On the outside, the gatehouse has two semicircular towers, between which the arched gateway is secured with a drawbridge and machicolation . While the outside is very defensive, the courtyard facade on the upper floors has large window openings and a stone external staircase leading to the first floor.
On the ground floor, several doors lead from the arched gate passage to the rooms on both sides as well as to two vaults in the two lower levels of the tower, which presumably served as dungeons. The rooms in the west tower probably served as quarters for the gate guard and were comfortably furnished with chimneys and a latrine . In the east tower, next to another guardroom, there is a room with a fear hole in the floor that forms the opening of a bottle-shaped cellar shaft. It is often assumed that this shaft served as a dark, narrow dungeon, but probably the shaft served as a safe and the room on the ground floor, which was equipped with a latrine and fireplace, served as the purser's office. The two upper floors of the gatehouse contained numerous living rooms, which probably served as an apartment for the constable of the castle. On the first floor, next to the room that contained the winch for the drawbridge, there was a kitchen and a living room. The rooms in the towers contained sleeping chambers, some of which were equipped with their own chimneys and latrines. On the second floor there was a spacious private room above the hall, and there were further chambers in the two towers. In total, the mighty gatehouse contained over 20 rooms. A crenellated wreath ran around the roof, which was partly covered with lead.
Outer courtyard
From the gate passage you can reach the outer courtyard, which once served as a kennel in the Middle Ages. On the outer, western side runs the mighty curtain wall, in the middle of the outer courtyard is the square core castle, which is located directly on the east side facing the river. The curtain wall was erected in three construction phases, some of which are clearly visible on the inside of the wall. The oldest, lower part of the wall dates from the late 12th or early 13th century. Towards the end of the 13th century, the wall was considerably enlarged and raised, and its final height, which is still largely preserved today, was achieved in the early 14th century. The outer curtain wall had three semicircular flanking towers on the west side, built in the late 13th century , of which the middle one collapsed. There was another, smaller gatehouse on the north side of the castle. Like the large gatehouse in the south, the gatehouse had two semicircular towers and was also secured with a drawbridge, but only the foundations of the building have been preserved. There was a round tower on the northeast side of the castle, which is also destroyed today. Towards the end of the 15th century, when the military importance of the castle had diminished and it was no longer used as a residence, two large gabled houses were built in the courtyard, the gable sides of which have still been preserved. The exact purpose for which they were used is unknown; they probably served as stables, but perhaps the building in front of the inner courtyard wall also served as a courtroom. Smaller buildings leaning against the curtain wall were built, including a bakery in the north of the facility.
Inner courtyard
In the middle of the outer courtyard is the square inner courtyard. The castle courtyard is surrounded by a curtain wall with four round corner towers, the east side of the courtyard borders the outer curtain wall of the castle. Access is through two simple gates in the south and north walls, secured only by cast holes. The inner courtyard was started by the Chaworth brothers towards the end of the 13th century; the four corner towers and the inner ring wall protruding from the outer wall created a concentric fortress with two successive wall rings. Due to the further increase and reinforcement of the outer ring wall at the beginning of the 14th century, this effect was partially lost again, since attackers could only be fought directly from the four corner towers. The four corner towers are all different, they were raised by one storey at the beginning of the 14th century so that they could continue to defend the outer ring wall. All four towers have spiral staircases that end in a turret on the crenellated roof platforms, the two northern towers had hurdles . The southeast tower was the most homely equipped with several chimneys and latrines and probably served as the lord's residence before the palace was built. After the construction of the hall, its lower two floors served as utility rooms, the two upper floors contained guest rooms. The south-west tower is the only tower with stone vaults that are still preserved today. There was probably a dungeon on the ground floor, while the three upper floors were used as accommodation. The north-west tower has two spiral staircases inside and thus has a kidney-shaped floor plan. In this tower, too, the ground floor was only accessible via the upper floor. The north-east tower contained a storage room accessible from the courtyard on the ground floor and further upscale living rooms and a chapel on the three upper floors. On the first floor it has a door to the outside facing the river, from here a wooden corridor probably led along the outer wall of the palace to the castle chapel and the southeast tower.
On the east side of the inner courtyard are the heavily destroyed ruins of the palace from the late 13th century. The building, located between the two eastern corner towers, contained a living hall above a basement and the lord's private rooms. The well-preserved ruins of the kitchen building in the southwest corner of the castle courtyard also date from the late 13th century. Presumably shortly after the building of the palace, a chapel tower with a polygonal end was built on the outside of the east side between the southeast tower and the palace, which is based on mighty buttresses. The tower contained the new castle chapel over two living rooms on the top floor, a small angular extension contained the sacristy. To protect the palace, a further outer wall was placed in front of the east side between the chapel tower and the north-east tower, which is largely destroyed today.
Others
In front of the southern gatehouse there is a modern memorial stone that commemorates Gwenllian who was killed in 1136. The battlefield outside of Kidwelly is still called Maes Gwenllian (Eng .: Gwenllian's field) today.
In the Monty Python film The Knights of the Coconut , the castle serves as the backdrop at the beginning of the film.
literature
- John Kenyon: Kidwelly Castle . Cadw, Cardiff 2007. ISBN 978-1-85760-256-2
- Thomas Lloyd et al. a .: Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion (Pevsner architectural guides). Yale University Press, New Haven 2006. ISBN 978-0-300-10179-9 . Pp. 203-212
Web links
- Internet presence of the castle near Cadw
- Kidwelly Castle: History
- Castles of Wales: Kidwelly Castle
Individual evidence
- ^ Cadw Listed Building Database Record: Kidwelly Castle. Retrieved April 10, 2014 .
- ↑ Cadw: Kidwelly Castle. Retrieved April 14, 2014 .
- ↑ Kidwelly Castle: History. Retrieved April 14, 2014 .
- ↑ John Kenyon: Kidwelly Castle . Cadw, Cardiff 2007. ISBN 978-1-85760-256-2 . P. 11
- ↑ John Kenyon: Kidwelly Castle . Cadw, Cardiff 2007. ISBN 978-1-85760-256-2 . P. 14
- ↑ Castles of Wales: Kidwelly Castle. Retrieved April 14, 2014 .
- ^ British Film Locations: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). Retrieved April 14, 2014 .