Mediæval Military Architecture in England, Volume 1 (of 2)

by George Thomas Clark

It is not, however, difficult to divine the causes of the obscurity in which the early history of Caerphilly is involved, and the absence of any historical associations may perhaps be permitted to account for the continued silence of modern writers.

A castle of considerable magnitude had been erected soon after the Norman invasion of Wales, at Cardiff; a position which, from its proximity to the estuary of the Severn, and the mouth of the Taff, from the fertility of its subjacent meadows, from the protection which it reciprocally afforded to, and received from, the people of the town, and from its greater distance from the mountains, and consequent diminished liability to be surprised by their crafty and warlike inhabitants, was invariably the chief residence of the feudal Lords of Glamorgan; and from hence it followed, as a necessary consequence, that Caerphilly, which, from its dangerous proximity, they were obliged to retain in their immediate possession, fell into comparative neglect, and, although very superior in magnitude to Cardiff, was considered only as its dependency in importance.

It was to the Lord of Cardiff that the feudatories of Glamorgan owed suit and service, and it was to the castle court of that place that they were bound annually to repair.

The castle of Cardiff is mentioned as the residence of great Norman barons; it was more than once honoured by a royal guest, and, even at the far later period of the Parliamentary wars, its acquisition was considered of great importance. Caerphilly, on the contrary, is rarely mentioned by the chroniclers, and as a military post ceased to be of importance upon the death of Llewelyn and the reduction and settlement of the Principality by Edward. These considerations will explain the little notice taken by contemporaries of this magnificent fortress, and the consequent dearth of information respecting its fortunes.

Caerphilly stands upon that wide tract of debateable ground between England and Wales, which was so long contested by both nations under the title of “The Marches,” and which, beneath the Normans, had its own customs and its governors, known as the Lords Marchers.

The castle, though in the Marches, is within the Welsh border, being about a mile from the river Rhymny, the boundary between Monmouth and Glamorgan, and, since the reign of Henry VIII., between England and the Principality, in this direction.

The Lordship of Senghenydd, within which the castle is placed, was granted at the conquest of Glamorgan to Einon of Collwyn, a Welsh lord, whose granddaughter, Nest, “verch Madoc ap Cradoc ap Einon,” married Cadivor ap Cydrich, a grandson of Gwaethvoed, and the father of Ivor Bach, who is described as [mesne] Lord of Senghenydd. Griffith, the son of Ivor, married a sister of Rhys, Prince of South Wales, before 1174, when he did homage to Henry II., at Gloucester. By this match the influence of the family, already great, with the Welsh, was much increased and became very great. They dwelt too near Cardiff actually to organise insurrections, but they were always ready to promote them at any favourable opportunity. Many such opportunities occurred during the reign of Henry III., when the Earls of Pembroke wielded the power of the infant lord of Glamorgan, and were continually at war with Henry. Llewelyn, then Prince of Wales, was sometimes in alliance with the earl, and sometimes harassed his rear, descending from the uplands of Caermarthen and Cardiff, and bursting into Monmouthshire across the unguarded pass of Senghenydd. It became the business of Gilbert de Clare, on coming into his lordship, to bar this passage, and this he effectually completed by the construction of Caerphilly. The name of his architect or engineer is unknown to fame, but he was a deacon in his craft, and the earl gave full play to his abilities.

The castle is placed in the midst of a deep and broad hollow, open on the east towards the Rhymny, and divided on the west from the valley of the Taff by the mountain ridge of Mynydd Mayo. North and north-west, at a greater distance, is the concave crest of Mynydd Eglwisilan, and on the south, the long and well-known elevation which separates the hill-country of Glamorgan from the plain, and is intersected by the ravines of the Taff, the Rhymny, and the Ebbw. This ridge is locally known as Cefn Carnau, and, on the road from the castle to the sea, is crowned by the ancient stronghold of Môr-graig. The traveller, who wishes to see Caerphilly to advantage, should descend upon it soon after sunrise in autumn, from one of the surrounding heights, when the grey towers of the castle will be seen rising out of an immense sea of mist.

The whole basin is a part of the Glamorganshire coalfield. The mineral has long been worked on Caerphilly mountain, where it appears on the surface, and the castle is chiefly constructed of the fissile sandstone of the neighbourhood, which appears to have been quarried from a large excavation by the roadside, near Chapel-Martin.

Along the base of the mountains, and extending some way up their skirts, here, as in all the valleys in the neighbourhood, lie vast deposits of gravel and sand, composed in part of the débris of the neighbouring rocks, but chiefly of rolled pebbles, brought down from the northern hills by diluvial agency.