{"id":466,"date":"2024-02-23T13:11:04","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T13:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/castle.nicuilie.eu\/?p=466"},"modified":"2024-02-23T13:22:42","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T13:22:42","slug":"beaumaris-castle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wansait.com\/tranzit\/en\/beaumaris-castle\/02\/","title":{"rendered":"Beaumaris Castle (in Wales) – All about"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gwynedd, a castle of King Edward I , on Isle of Anglesey; a perfect example of a concentrically planned castle.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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This unusual, yet magnificent building, located in the county town of Anglesey was the last Welsh castle of Edward I. In keeping with it’s ‘fairytale’ appearance, even the name ‘Beaumaris’ is derived from the French for beautiful marsh – \u2018le beau marais’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beaumaris, begun in 1295, was the last and largest of the castles to be built by King Edward I in Wales. Raised on an entirely new site, without earlier buildings to fetter its designer\u2019s creative genius, it is possibly the most sophisticated example of medieval military architecture in Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is undoubtedly the ultimate \u201cconcentric\u201d castle, built with an almost geometric symmetry. Conceived as an integral whole, a high inner ring of defenses is surrounded by a lower outer circuit of walls, combining an almost unprecedented level of strength and firepower. Before the age of cannon, the attacker would surely have been faced with an impregnable fortress. Yet, ironically, the work of construction was never fully completed, and the castle saw little action apart from the Civil War in the 17th century.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The castle owes its unique design to the King’s architect, Master James of St. George. So, construction started in 1295, and spanned over approximately 35 years, yet despite the enormous amount of money and labour that went into the building of it, the castle was never completed. Most of the structural remains on this extensive site today have changed little since the 1330’s. Beaumaris was never subject to wilful destruction, and the deterioration to lead-work and timber is merely as a result of lack of restoration over the years. The uniform topography of the marshy land adjacent to the Menai Straight, allowed Master James to design the castle with perfect symmetry and, in keeping with that period, Beaumaris has no keep or central tower.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A castle was almost certainly planned when King Edward visited Anglesey in 1283 and designated the Welsh town of Llanfaes to be its seat of government. At the time, resources were already stretched and any such scheme was postponed. Then, in 1294-95, the Welsh rose in revolt under Madog ap Llywelyn. The rebels were crushed after an arduous winter campaign, and the decision was taken to proceed with a new castle in April 1295. The extent of English power is demonstrated by the fact that the entire native population of Llanfaes was forced to move to a newly established settlement, named Newborough. The castle itself was begun on the \u201cfair marsh,\u201d and was given the Norman-French name Beau Mareys. Building progressed at an astonishing speed, with some 2,600 men engaged in the work during the first year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Although the defence strategies were never really called upon, the major consideration in the original construction of the castle was security. All residential accommodation was situated either within the Inner ward, or in adjacent towers. Encompassing the Inner Ward were four defence barriers – a curtain wall (up to sixteen feet thick), an Outer Ward with an area of open ground to its exterior, a lower octagonal-shaped outer curtain, and a surrounding moat, water for which was provided by tidal flow from the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beaumaris Castle – One of the round towers in the curtain wall. Entrance to the Inner Ward resembles a well-thought out obstacle course, with fourteen defence barriers to overcome. There’s a drawbridge over the moat, murder slots, and a robust door located at the \u2018Gate next the Sea’ on the outer curtain wall, followed by two further barriers: the door to the barbican, and the barbican itself. On reaching the main gatehouse, several more murder slots, portcullises, outward-opening doors and spy-holes are encountered. The curtain wall of the Inner Ward has a tower on each corner, plus a middle tower on the East and West walls, and a two-turreted North Gatehouse and South Gatehouse, neither of which were completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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