Tag Archives: edward i

The conqueror’s ruined castle in north Wales

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THESE DAYS WE ARE so preoccupied with the Russian invasion of Ukraine that the English invasion of Wales is not in the forefront of our minds. In the 13th century, King Edward I of England (reigned 1272-1307) decided to conquer Wales. To do this, he built a series of castles from which his armies could enter Wales. One of these was built at Flint on the left bank of the River Dee not far from Chester, from which supplies could be easily carried either by land or by water (sea and river).

The castle at Flint was designed by Richard L’engenour and built between 1277 and 1278. Its form was based on Savoyard models. One of its circular towers was built larger than the others and separated from the rest of the castle – it served as the ‘donjon’ or keep.

Many of those who constructed the castle – English people – stayed on in the area to become the inhabitants of the new fortified, walled town of Flint. They felt safe within the town’s walls, but this sense of security was soon to be disturbed. For in 1294, the Welshman Madog ap Llywelyn led a revolt of the Welsh against their English rulers, and attacked Flint. Rather than letting the town fall into the hands of the Welsh, the Constable of Flint Castle ordered that the town be burned to the ground so that the Welsh rebels would be denied shelter and food.

The castle remained functional until the Civil War, when it, along with other strongholds, was destroyed following orders issued by Oliver Cromwell, soon after 1647.

Today, the impressive ruins are open to the public and well maintained by CADW, a Welsh Government body that looks after sites of historic interest. In 1838, JMW Turner created a watercolour painting showing the castle with a beautiful sunset behind it. We visited it on a rainy day in May 2024. Despite the inclement weather, seeing the castle gave us great pleasure.

A spike in Stamford

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ELEANOR OF CASTILE (1241-1290) was the first wife of King Edward I. They married in 1254. The pair were devoted to each other. She even travelled to the Middle East with her husband, to the battlefields of the Crusade of 1271-1272. When she died of (possibly) a malarial disease, after having survived sixteen pregnancies, at Harby in Nottinghamshire (close to Lincoln), her husband was at her bedside for the last three days of her life.

Her body was embalmed in Lincoln, and then transported ceremoniously to Westminster Abbey – a journey that took several days. At each of the places where her corpse stopped overnight, Edward ordered memorial crosses to be erected. These became known as Eleanor Crosses. They were placed at: Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Hardingstone near Northampton, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St Albans, Waltham, Westcheap, and Charing (now a part of central London, but originally a small hamlet close to the Thames). Of the original crosses, only significantly large remnants of three survive.

The cross at Stamford in Lincolnshire was demolished but a small fragment of it is in the local museum. Not much is certain about where the cross stood in Stamford. It is believed that it might have been destroyed between 1646 and 1660 by zealous Parliamentarians (http://stamfordlocalhistorysociety.org.uk/queen-eleanor%E2%80%99s-cross).

Currently, a tall tapering sculpture – a tall, sharp spike with a circular base – stands on the place that was most likely where the Eleanor Cross stood. It was designed by Wolfgang Buttress (born 1965) – a sculptor from Nottingham. His creation, completed in 2009 and made of local Ketton stone, incorporates the kinds of decorative motifs that might have been on the original cross. It is surrounded by a ring of benches. Both the seats and the spike are studded with circular bronze discs, each of which contains a word from a Japanese haiku, so I have read. Sadly, I did not examine the object closely enough to see them because we were close to the expiry time of our parking space.