Montgomery Castle
| Montgomery Castle | ||
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 The former access to the inner courtyard |
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| Alternative name (s): | Castell Trefaldwyn | |
| Creation time : | from 1223 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Place: | Montgomery (Wales) | |
| Geographical location | 52 ° 33 '47.2 " N , 3 ° 8' 55" W | |
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Montgomery Castle ( Welsh Castell Trefaldwyn ) is the ruin of a hilltop castle in Powys in Wales . The ruin, classified as a Grade I cultural monument and protected as a Scheduled Monument , is located on a rock above the city of Montgomery .
history
The first Norman castle
A first castle was built during the Norman conquest of Wales by Roger de Montgomerie between 1071 and 1074. Known as Hen Domen , the castle was about 1,500 m northwest of the present castle and served to control an important ford over the Severn . After the rebellion of Roger's son Robert of Bellême , King Henry I gave the castle to Baldwin de Boulers in 1102 . After him, the castle received its Welsh name Trefaldwyn ( English Baldwins Town ). The de Boulers family, later also called Bowdler , held the castle as the center of a small rule of the Welsh Marches until 1215, when the castle was conquered and destroyed by Prince Llywelyn from Iorwerth in the wars against King Johann Ohneland . After 1223, the old castle was rebuilt as an outpost of the new royal castle until it was abandoned and fell into disrepair after the conquest of Wales by King Edward I around 1300.
Construction of the royal castle
After a successful campaign against Prince Llywelyn from Iorwerth , the royal justiciar Hubert de Burgh ordered the construction of a new royal castle to secure the English-Welsh border in August 1223. On October 1st, 1223, on the 16th birthday of the young King Heinrich III. , construction officially began. In addition to the castle, the fortified settlement of Montgomery was built, which was awarded a Royal Charter in 1227 . This makes it the oldest borough in Wales. The first fortifications of the castle were provisionally made of wood, but these were quickly replaced by stone walls. The inner courtyard with the gatehouse was built by 1228, in that year the castle was handed over to Hubert de Burgh , who had been promoted to Earl of Kent . The castle already withstood a Welsh attack under Lord Llywelyn earlier this year . After the attack, the expansion of the castle began by adding the middle and outer courtyards. The walls and gatehouse of the central courtyard were completed by 1253.
Contested border fortress
In the Anglo-Welsh War from 1231 to 1234 , a Welsh force was surprised and defeated in an ambush not far from the castle in May 1231. In revenge, another Welsh force raided the town in June and burned it down while the castle could not be captured. After Hubert de Burgh was overthrown in 1232, the castle fell back under royal administration. Another Welsh attack followed in September 1233, in this case the well tower was damaged, which was subsequently repaired. At the beginning of 1244, during the war of Lord Dafydd ap Llywelyn, a new Welsh attack followed, in which the town was again burned down. In February 1245, however, the town's citizens were able to defeat a Welsh force within sight of the castle walls. After the defeat of Prince Dafydd it came from 1256 under the new Welsh Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd again to war against the English supremacy , the city was burned again in March 1257. Again the castle withstood the Welsh attack, although in January and then again in May parts of the castle crew were attacked and gutted during forays into Wales. During the Second War of the Barons , in the summer of 1264, a troop of the Marcher Lord Roger Mortimer of Wigmore sought refuge in the castle from a force of opposing English barons, supported by Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd.
From the Treaty of Montgomery to the Conquest of Wales
In September 1267, the seal of the peace treaty took place in the castle, the legate Ottobono Fieschi for King Heinrich III. negotiated with Lord Llywelyn, known as the Treaty of Montgomery . The actual negotiations took place in Shrewsbury , in the castle only the homage of the Welsh prince before the English king and the subsequent celebrations took place. Despite the peace treaty, there was further fighting between the Welsh and the English Marcher Lords over the next few years. Not far from the castle was the Welsh Dolforwyn Castle , which is why Montgomery was further expanded. The kitchen and the brewery in the inner courtyard were built during this construction period. During King Edward I's second campaign to conquer Wales , the castle was the assembly point of the English army, which advanced against Builth Wells in December 1282 and there killed Prince Llywelyn in one skirmish. During the Welsh uprising from 1294 to 1295 , a part of the English army of the Earl of Warwick gathered in front of the castle in early 1295 , which was then able to defeat part of the rebels in the battle of Maes Madog . After the suppression of the Welsh uprising, the castle lost its military importance. It was neglected and used primarily as a prison.
Later story
In the 14th century the castle came into the possession of the Mortimer family. During the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr , the rebels were again able to conquer and loot the city in 1402, but the castle withstood the attack. After the annexation of Wales under Henry VIII , under Rowland Lee , who as Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield was also chairman of the Council of the Marches from 1534 to 1543 , new residential buildings were built in the inner and middle courtyard. From 1622 was Sir Edward Herbert by John and Samuel Scampion an elaborately designed, three-winged mansion of brick and half-timbered building in the central courtyard. During the English Civil War in 1643 a royal garrison occupied the castle, after which the castle was conquered in the summer of 1644 by parliamentary troops under Thomas Myddelton. In September 1644 the battle of Montgomery broke out between royal troops under John Byron and parliamentary troops under John Meldrum and Thomas Mytton , which ended with a clear victory for the parliamentary troops . After the end of the civil war, parliament ordered the complete demolition of the castle in 1649 . The new mansion was also destroyed. In the next centuries the ruin served as a quarry. In 1800 a large part of the existing walls collapsed.
Today the ruins are looked after by Cadw and can be visited.
investment
The sparse ruins of the once mighty castle lie to the west of the city on the summit of the so-called Castle Hill , a basalt rock that slopes steeply on three sides. After the destruction in 1649, only the foundation walls of large parts of the castle have been preserved. Presumably Hubert de Burgh , who had already defended Chinon Castle in France and Dover Castle during sieges and also had the Welsh castles Skenfrith , Grosmont and White Castle built or rebuilt, himself designed the plans for the construction of Montgomery Castle. The inner courtyard, later also called donjon , was surrounded by a high curtain wall and protected by a strongly fortified gatehouse with two D-shaped defense towers . The residential buildings were attached to the inner wall. The inner castle was separated from the middle courtyard and the small outer courtyard in front of it by a moat dug into the stone. Edward Herbert's mansion was located on three sides in the middle courtyard in the 17th century.
literature
- Paul Martin Remfry: Montgomery Castle, a royal fortress of King Henry III . Castle Studies Research & Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-899376-49-6
Web links
- Cadw: Montgomery Castle
- Visit Wales: Montgomery Castle
- Castles99.ukprint.com: Montgomery Castle
- Castles of Wales: Montgomery Castle
Individual evidence
- ^ British Listed Buildings: Montgomery Castle, Montgomery. Retrieved November 26, 2015 .
- ^ Owens College Historical Essays, Longman, Green & Co, London 1902, p. 125
- ^ Gareth Elwyn Jones: Modern Wales. A concise history. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1997. ISBN 0-521-46945-7 , p. 90
- ^ BCW Project: Mid-Wales & the Battle of Montgomery, 1644. Retrieved November 28, 2015 .