Tag: Gwynedd

A Royal guide to … Wales

This excellent documentary was featured on Channel Four during March. It told of Wales’ existence as a Kingdom before the Normans arrived and sought to reinforce their borders and the last Principality was suppressed about a year before the future Edward II was born at his father’s greatest military outpost at Caernarfon. It discussed the… Continue reading A Royal guide to … Wales

The Lordship of Powys. (Part 1)

Powys is an interesting Marcher Lordship in that it was never conquered by the English but descended by inheritance. Of course, the Welsh princes of Powys tended to be quite pro-English. (Perhaps one should really say pro-Anglo-Norman.) This is quite understandable, however shocking it may seem to modern nationalist sentiment. For one thing, Powys was… Continue reading The Lordship of Powys. (Part 1)

Caernarfon Castle, one of Wales’s great historic sites….

The great fortresses built by Edward I to subdue the rebellious Welsh are all spectacular and have survived the centuries. Now they are considered beautiful examples of medieval workmanship and have become great tourist attractions, which isn’t really what old Longshanks ever intended! One of the finest of these fortresses is Caernarfon which is always… Continue reading Caernarfon Castle, one of Wales’s great historic sites….

Was Roland de Velville the son of Henry VII….?

The following article is necessarily filled with supposition, inference and sneaking suspicion. The result of smoke and mirrors, you ask? Well, I think it is all much more substantial than that, as I hope to explain in the coming paragraphs. Today (25th June) in 1545, died a man by the name of Roland de Velville… Continue reading Was Roland de Velville the son of Henry VII….?

Another little boy who went into the Tower and never came out. (As far as we know.)

After the fall of Harlech Castle in February 1409, various members of Owain Glyndwr’s family were taken to the Tower. Among them was his grandson, Lionel ap Edmund (or Lionel Mortimer) the young son of Sir Edmund Mortimer and his wife Catrin ferch Owain. This boy cannot have been older than six at the uttermost,… Continue reading Another little boy who went into the Tower and never came out. (As far as we know.)