Charles Oman, Castles (1926), reproduced courtesy of www.fromoldbooks.org
Harlech Castle is located in Harlech, Gwynedd, Wales.
War broke out between Wales and England on 22 March 1282. The Welsh leader, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, died later that year, but his brother Dafydd ap Gruffudd continued to fight. Dolwyddelan Castle was captured by the English in January 1283 and this opened up access to the Conwy valley. After Castell y Bere fell to English forces two months later, 560 soldiers marched on Harlech, led by Sir Otto de Grandison. Work then began on building a castle at Harlech.
Like many of the castles in the area, Harlech was designed by Master James of St. George. The castle took seven years to build, and cost an estimated £8,190. After its completion, James was appointed Constable of the Castle, a position that he held for over three years.
All the royal castles of Edward's second Welsh campaign were sited so that they could be kept supplied at all times, often from the sea. Harlech is now inland but was not in medieval times as the sea used to come to the foot of the cliffs.
The castle is built to a concentric plan, with one line of defences enclosed by another. The outer walls are shorter and thinner than the inner walls, and have no towers defending them apart from the small gatehouse.
The inner ward is roughly square, with a large round tower at each corner. Domestic buildings, including the great hall, are built against the inside of the inner walls.
Since the surrounding cliffs made it practically impossible to attack the castle except from the east, this side is faced by the imposing gatehouse. The gateway is flanked by two massive "D-shaped" towers, and defended by a series of doors, portcullises and murder-holes. There are large windows on the inner face of the gatehouse. The west wall of the inner ward also has large windows – it forms one wall of the great hall.
Outer ditches at Harlech were cut into the rock. In the height of construction, in 1286, the workforce was 546 general labourers, 115 quarry men, 30 blacksmiths, 22 carpenters and 227 stonemasons. Like many of Edward's castles, Harlech was originally designed to be attached to a fortified borough.
Harlech Castle is notable for an unusual feature: the "way from the sea". Edward's forces were in danger from land-based attack, but he enjoyed total supremacy on water. Many of his castles included sally ports which allowed re-supply from rivers or the sea, but Harlech's is far more elaborate. Here, a fortified stairway hugs the rock and runs almost 200 feet (61 m) down to the sea at the foot of the cliffs. Today, the sea has retreated several miles, making it difficult to envisage the original setting.
James of St. George's "Way to the Sea" was a success In 1294, Madoc ap Llywelyn, cousin to Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, began an uprising against English rule that spread quickly through Wales. Several English-held towns were razed and Harlech (along with Criccieth Castle and Aberystwyth Castle) were besieged that winter. At Harlech, the "Way to the Sea" helped the defenders survive until the siege was lifted the following spring.
In 1404, the castle fell to Owain Glyndŵr after a long siege when starvation reduced the garrison to just twenty-one men. Harlech became Owain’s residence and family home and military headquarters for four years. He held his second parliament in Harlech in August 1405. Four years later, after another long siege of eight months, Harlech Castle was retaken in 1409 by Prince Henry (later Henry V) and a force of 1000 men under John Talbot, during which Edmund Mortimer starved to death and Glyndŵr's wife, Margaret Hanmer, two of his daughters and four grandchildren were captured.
In the Wars of the Roses in the first part of the reign of Edward IV of England (1461–1470), Harlech was held by its Welsh constable Dafydd ap Ieuan as a Lancastrian stronghold. Following the Battle of Northampton, Margaret of Anjou and the infant Henry VII of England fled to Scotland via Harlech. Following the defeat of the Lancastrians at the Battle of Towton, Edward controlled the country and Harlech became last major stronghold under Lancastrian control.
Sir Richard Tunstall arrived as reinforcement to the Lancastrians in the latter half of the siege in 1465. In 1468 it was the last Lancastrian fortress to surrender; it was able to withstand the seven-year siege through its being provisioned from the sea. It is the longest known siege in the history of the British Isles. According to tradition his famous siege inspired the song "Men of Harlech". The castle was also briefly occupied during the insurrection of 1498.
Harlech Castle shown on a map of 1610
During the English Civil War the castle was the last royalist fortress to hold out against the Parliamentary forces. The surrender, on 16 March 1647, over a year after King Charles had himself been captured, marked the end of the first phase of the war. The parliamentarians slighted the castle after its fall, which accounts for its present condition