White Castle (Wales)
| White Castle | ||
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 The main castle from the south |
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| Alternative name (s): | Y Castell Gwyn; Castell Llantilio | |
| Creation time : | 12th Century | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 50 '43.8 " N , 2 ° 54' 2.9" W | |
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White Castle ( Welsh Y Castell Gwyn ) is a ruined castle in Monmouthshire in Wales . The ruin, classified as a Grade I cultural monument and protected as a Scheduled Monument , is the best preserved ruin of the Three Castles located close together on the border between South Wales and England. Originally the castle was called Castell Llantilio. It got its later name from the brightly plastered ring walls. Remnants of the plaster are still visible on the outer walls today.
history
Along with Skenfrith and Grosmont Castle , the castle was one of the so-called Three Castles, which, as a castle triangle on the border between Wales and England, secured the important connection between Hereford and Monmouth in South Wales and whose history is closely linked.
The castle was believed to have been built as a moth by William FitzOsbern during the conquest of South Wales in 1070. William fell fighting in Flanders in 1071 and his son Roger lost his lands to the Crown in 1075. After the castle was in the hands of various barons in the following years, it fell back to the crown in 1138, like Skenfrith and Grosmont Castle. Around 1186, under Constable Ralph de Grosmont, the square stone keep and the stone ring wall of the inner castle were built. King Johann Ohneland awarded the castle to Hubert de Burgh in 1201 . After Hubert was taken prisoner seriously wounded in France in 1205, the king handed the castle over to William de Braose in 1206 . Already in 1208 it fell back to the crown after de Braose's betrayal, in 1215 Reginald de Braose , a son of Williams, was able to conquer it with the help of the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Iorwerth , but in 1219 he had to return it to Hubert de Burgh. Between 1228 and 1230 the castle was briefly owned by John de Braose , a grandson of Williams de Braose, but then fell back to de Burgh. In 1239, de Burgh finally had to give the castle back to the crown. Henry III. handed it over to his eldest son Eduard in 1254 . Whether the main castle was expanded under de Burgh around 1230 or only under Eduard in response to an attack by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd on Abergavenny Castle in 1263 is disputed. During the expansion, the old keep was demolished, the entrance to the castle was relocated and the mighty round towers of the core castle were built. In 1267 Eduard handed the castle over to his younger brother Edmund of Lancaster . The castle remained in the possession of the Earls or Dukes of Lancaster until it fell back to the crown with Heinrich Bolingbroke's accession to the throne in 1399. During the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr , the castle was fought over again between 1404 and 1405, after which it fell into disrepair. As early as 1538 it was considered a ruin. In 1825 the Duchy of Lancaster sold the castle to the Duke of Beaufort . In 1902 the castle was sold to Henry Mather Jackson, who finally handed it over to the state in 1922. Today the ruins are looked after by Cadw and can be visited during the day.
investment
The castle stands on a low hill about 1.5 km northwest of the village of Llantilio Crossenny. In contrast to the two other castles of the Three Castles, the most western White Castle was built primarily for defense and not as a manor. The castle's walls and earthworks enclose three separate sections. The core of the complex is the inner castle surrounded by a walled moat. To the south of the main castle lies a crescent-shaped forework fortified with earth walls and a moat, through which the main entrance to the castle led until the middle of the 13th century. In the north and northwest of the main castle of the vast courtyard of the scale to the 13th century bailey with today's main entrance, which is surrounded by a stone wall with four towers and a dry moat. The unusually large outer bailey was used to provide a safe place for troops to camp. Access to the outer bailey is through a gate secured with double towers on the east side.
The oval main castle is surrounded by a walled moat. The stone ring wall, built around 1186, was reinforced in the 13th century by four more round towers and the gate in the northwest, secured by two double towers. The residential buildings and the kitchen leaned against the east side of the curtain wall, of which only the foundations have been preserved. The size of the living hall was relatively modest, which suggests that the castle was not built as the seat of a Marcher Lord , but primarily as a military base. In the southeast tower of the main castle there was a chapel that was only illuminated by narrow loopholes.
Web links
- Internet presence of the castle near Cadw
- Castles of Wales: White Castle
- Abergavenny: White Castle
- White Castle as a 3D model in SketchUp's 3D warehouse
Individual evidence
- ↑ British Listed Buildings: White Castle Ruins, Llantilio Crossenny. Retrieved October 7, 2013 .
- ↑ Ancient Monuments: White Castle. Retrieved October 7, 2013 .
- ^ Paul Remfry: White Castle and the Dating of the Towers (In: The Castles Studies Group Journal, 24 (2010), p. 223ff). (PDF; 902 kB) Retrieved October 13, 2013 .
- ^ Adrian Pettifer: Welsh castles. A guide by counties . Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge 2000, ISBN 978-0-85115-778-8 , p. 145
- ^ Abergavenny: White Castle. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 14, 2013 ; Retrieved October 7, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ John Newman: The Buildings of Wales: Gwent / Monmouthshire. Yale University Press, New Haven 2000. ISBN 978-0-300-09630-9 , p. 596
- ^ Lise Hull: Understanding the castle ruins of England and Wales: how to interpret the history and meaning of masonry and earthworks . McFarland, Jefferson NC, 2009. ISBN 978-0-7864-5276-7 , p. 132
