Wales has been called by many historians the land of castles. Not just of the few crannogs, and the hundreds of hillforts it has, but the stone fortifications, and motte and baileys introduced by the Normans.
Click here to Find a Cottage in Wales
The first castles in the area close to Wales came in the era just before the Norman Conquest when Norman mercenaries were able to be built in this land, trying to defend England away from an invasion by Welsh soldiers in the era just before 1066, as revenge for England taking so much land before, and invading eevry so often,
In 1066 the Normans conquerred England. They then rushed rebellions in that land, and built castles, across that land, knocking down buildinsg for the purpose, and taking over. Building motte and baileys, and taking over this land.
They managed to steal Cumbria off Scotland, but were unable to advanmce any further there,. The Normans of course wanted to own more land, but could not take Wales yet.
They placed marcher lords in the Welsh borders who would be allowed to defened off raids from Welsh princes, and strike into Wales to take more land.
The lords every so often tried to take land from the country of Wales.
Wales at this time was split into many princedoms, who led the land of slaves,and peasants, and long houses, and hamelts, and farms, and very few towns. Sometimes the Welsh princes united, in wars of conflicts between family members, every so often all were united under a overlord, Princes like Hywel Dda, but more often than not they split to many states again, Throughout this era the Emglish kings claimed overlorship even of Welsh overlords, and Welsh princes calaimed to be independant.
Early on many states surrendered to the marcher barons. South Wales, saw the flat lowlands of Gwent and Glamorgan taken by the Southern border barons. North Wales, saw Flintshire's lowlands, and more taken. Castles were built and small amounts of colonists, taken into these areas. By the 1090s, the castles were built on the west coast, so all of Wales was ready to be taken, establishing even a castle on Pembroke, and another in Caernarfon. In 1093 castles were even built on Anglesey. This seemed to establish control,.Then in 1094 a Marcher lord, in the North died, Then this saw Welsh leaders act, and free some leaders, they freed a castle in Anglesey in an attack, Montgomery and more were taken. Some Welsh raiders raided into Shropshire, The Normans revitalised and started attcaking the best most defendable Welsh state Gwynedd. Welsh forces psuhed theri forces up into Snowdonia, so the Norman army could not beat them, then eth forces came down again, and so survived. This defeat of the Normans, saw the Welh in Dyfed revolt, al of Wales except Glamorgan rebelled,
the only bastions of Norman power were the more well buolt castles which survived some attacks. This inspired the Kings of England to build more castles. The Norman catsles were able to seize arable land, and send forces around patrolloing.
It is felt that the Norman tactic of crushing the enemy army, and taking it's wealth did not work in Wales, so they needed to fall back on castles.
So the Normans used piecemeal takes of land, and builduing castles to start growing in holds over Wales again. The castkes even secutred from raids, and raids against the Welsh, even sucesful raids faltered when having to pass Norman castles on the way back.
By 1100 the Normans were holding most lands below 600 metres high in Wales, but not those in the west or centrakl North.
In the early 11thC, certain Welsh lords were able to make deals with the Norman king's as odf their civil wars to lead parts of Wales, with them building castles. although castles were less able top ocontrol upland areas. tyhe English king's needed to stop attacks, from the Welsh retaking tehri lands, so allowed peace with it, then by the 1115 era, peace saw eth Welsh start building castles. so low dozens were built by the Welsh against 100s by the English.
During more English civil wars this saw in the early mid 12thC the Welsh take more land. these were pushed back till more crisis in England which saw the Welsh re-establish thesmelves again, and survive off a large invasion jkust liek in the 1090s.
To cut a long story this was what happend to the 1260s, with in that era, a Englsih civil war just like another before, hel;ping a Welsh pribce unite all Welsh areas under his rule or comman, even wanting to take Glamorgan, calling himself, a title later stolen the, prince of wales.
The Welsh leadersof Gwynedd were now stronmgest and survived, rebelling aftyer some wars.
But the English kings realised the only way they could control Wales was via castles, and in the 1290s, after a huge army took much of Wales in 1277, cutting off grain and such tro Welsh areas. they started building castles that were huge, the best in Britain. such as Conwy Castle and Caernarfon castle,. so even when a quick revolt occurred in 1282 across Wales, the Welsh ation was unable to unleashen the castles shackles, and so lost. and again in 1294-5. So esentialy the klarge English armies were uinable to takle Wales in themselves castles were needed.
In Scotland Robert the Bruce destroyed many castles to help stop any chjnace of English conquest.
In the revolt of Owain Glyndwr almost all Wales was taken, in massive revolts, even serfs and students supported it. But the catles were the only places to hold out, and the Welsh revolt failed.
In the civil war of the 1650s the castles were used by both sides at time,s Cromwell destroyed many as he saw them as being able to be used in civl wars and a harmful effect on the nation.
In effect castles helped to conquer Wales. The uplands were less easy to take but found it hard to survive without lowland wealth and such.
I suppose serfdom, and such
are more importanmt than nationalism, but that is that, Wales was linked with
left wing movements later as Welsh national identity survived, against hopes ofsome
of the heirs of the rightist forces that took it. And 1997 Wales got a devolved
assembly after a tight referendum result.
Here are some more sites,
A link to 100s more of our great websites
The Top 10 largest Welsh towns and cities
The Highland Clearances and it's full terribleness
A Site telling the story of the fall of Rome, and how it affected Britain
A site on the Belgian Congo, and how the king of that land killed 10s of millions of Congolese
Why the French Revolution was good
A site on St David, the Patron Saint of Wales and the Stuff he did.
A Multiple Choice Quiz on Welsh History
A List of which Welsh football teams have won the most trophies
The Importance of Castles in Welsh History
The most evil regimes of the 19th Century
What were the nicest regimes ever
The Best regimes ever in terms of achievers
Worst 17th Century regimes ever
A site stating what have been the world's largest empires ever
What would happen in a war between these sides
What were the most evil regimes ever
A list stating what were the worst 1990s regimes
What were the worst 16th Century regimes ever
What were the worst 15th Century regimes ever
What were the worst 2000s regimes
A site stating the 10 largest majority English speaking lands, as their main tongue in the world
History of Monmouthsire, and argument that it is Welsh
A site on space, and the records to do with this subject
A site on a time traveling revolutionary
A Random Gazzeter of some places
The world's 10 most powerful countries in 2008
My Worst regimes of the 20th century essay
My worst regimes of the 20th century stats
Our History Lounge - Where you can peruse many fascinating historical articles.