This castle, in 1833, was partially excavated by Lady C. E. Guest, when a metal seal was discovered in an adjacent field. The legend is, s . inon . fili . howel . gor .; but the names of Einon and Howell are exceedingly common in Glamorgan pedigrees, and the concluding abbreviation, no doubt a distinguishing cognomen, has not been explained, unless it may be read “Goch” or “the Red.” Coins have also been occasionally picked up. Very recently there were found together several silver pennies of Edward I., and one of Alexander I. of Scotland.
The castle at this time is a ruin, only the mere outline of the walls, and the débris of the towers remaining. The keep alone is above ground. The foundations are, however, tolerably perfect, and have been excavated and traced very recently with a view to the annexed plan. There is reason, from the disposition of the rubbish, to infer that the walls and towers were regularly pulled down from the top, and not, as usual in later days, blown up; so that the castle was probably deserted and dismantled at an early period. Mr. Stephens, whose general authority is in this instance strengthened by accurate local knowledge, was of opinion that this castle was never completed; and this may certainly have been the case.
In the course of the recent excavations a few discoveries were made. The oven was before unknown, as were the staircases of the two eastern towers, and the chambers in the wall of the upper story of the keep, and in the western wall. Very many cut stones, parts of door and window-cases, brackets, &c., were dug up, but all were perfectly plain, having only the chamfer moulding.
The brothers Buck engraved a view of Morlais from the north-west in the last century, which shows the keep, and a small part of the curtain, in a much more perfect state than at present.
The details of Morlais, though good, are, as became an obscure castle, so bare of ornament that it is difficult to refer the building to any precise date. Still the general proportions of the openings, the character of the crypt, and, perhaps, the general plan of the building, point with tolerable certainty to the latter period of the early English style, or the close of the thirteenth century, as about the time of its construction.
The history of Morlais is scanty, but it corroborates the internal evidence supplied by its architecture, and connects it with one of the most remarkable legal struggles between the Crown and the lords of the Welsh marches.
It appears from the public records that, towards the middle of the reign of Edward I., a quarrel arose between Gilbert de Clare, the Red Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, Lord of Glamorgan, and Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, Constable of England and Lord of Brecknock. Both were powerful peers, and De Clare, during the quarrel, had married, 29th April, 18 Edward I., 1290, Joan, the king’s daughter, while De Bohun’s wife, Maud de Fienles, was of kin to the queen. De Clare was the elder, and had the wardship of De Bohun.
The cause of quarrel was a castle, which De Clare had built upon his frontier, and, it was said, upon land belonging to De Bohun. That Morlais was the disputed castle is certain from the general tenor of the evidence, and from the mention of Penderyn Church, which is near to no other fortified place to which the particulars given would apply.
The trespass was the subject of a suit at law, and the king in Parliament, eight days before the Purification of the Virgin, 18 Edward I. (25th of January, 1290), gave a formal order to the two earls to abstain from hostilities. This order they disobeyed, and the new offence, of a far more serious nature than the original one, was at once noticed by the king, and the proceedings upon it are recapitulated with great minuteness in the parliamentary record, made on the occasion of the sentence, on the 7th January, 20 Edward I., 1292.
It appeared from the complaint of De Bohun, that De Clare’s retainers, headed by William de Valers, Richard le Fleming, and Stephen de Cappenore, with horse and foot, and the earl’s banner of arms displayed, had made three forays into Brecknock.