The invasion and colonisation of Wales

Model answer

A is Conwy Castle and B is Beaumaris Castle.

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After the Treaty of Aberconwy in November 1277, Edward took over the Four Cantrefs, the land between the River Conwy and the Dee. Much of it was run by royal officials under the Justice of Chester, and they began to replace Welsh customs with English ones. The Welsh were summoned to English-style courts, fined and made to pay new dues, which they saw as an attack on their own laws. When Reginald de Grey became Justice of Chester in 1281 his harsh rule made matters worse. So the settlement itself created resentment among ordinary Welsh people.

At first relations between Edward and Llywelyn seemed good: in October 1278 Edward attended Llywelyn's wedding to Eleanor de Montfort at Worcester. However, Llywelyn then began a lawsuit to win back Arwystli from his rival Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn. The case dragged on in the royal courts for years, with arguments about whether Welsh or English law should be used. Llywelyn came to believe that Edward would never give him justice, which turned his resentment against the king himself.

Dafydd ap Gruffudd was also angry. He had fought for Edward in 1277 but felt he had been poorly rewarded with only two cantrefs, and he quarrelled with de Grey over his rights. Welsh lords in Ceredigion and the south complained that royal officials were taking their lands. These grievances among very different groups were later collected by Archbishop Pecham, showing how widespread they were.

Finally, on Palm Sunday in March 1282, Dafydd attacked Hawarden Castle. Attacks followed on Flint and Rhuddlan, and in the south Aberystwyth was captured. Llywelyn joined the rising, and the tensions of five years turned into a full war.

Model answer

Edward's castles were built in stages that followed his wars. In 1277 work began at Flint, Rhuddlan, Builth and Aberystwyth; after the conquest of Gwynedd, Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech were begun in 1283; and Beaumaris was started in 1295 after Madog ap Llywelyn's revolt. Each new castle was a response to a new military need.

The building was organised by Master James of St George, a master mason from Savoy who was in charge of the king's works in Wales from about 1278. He designed or directed most of the castles, using up-to-date ideas such as the concentric design at Harlech and Beaumaris, where a lower outer wall surrounded a higher inner one. Because one expert controlled the whole programme, the castles were built quickly and to a high standard: Conwy castle and its town walls were largely finished in about four or five years.

Edward could only build on this scale because he could command huge numbers of workers. Sheriffs across England were ordered to send masons, carpenters, diggers and other craftsmen. The table shows that in 1296 Beaumaris alone needed 400 masons, 2,000 less skilled workmen, 200 quarrymen and 30 smiths. Materials such as stone, timber, lead and coal were moved by 100 carts, 60 wagons and 30 boats. Most castles were built on the coast or on rivers so that materials and supplies could come by sea; at Rhuddlan the River Clwyd was even straightened into a new channel about 3 km long so that ships could reach the castle.

The cost was enormous, perhaps about £80,000-100,000 for all the castles. Money often ran short: the letter of 1296 complained that the workers' pay was badly in arrears. As a result, Beaumaris and Caernarfon were never finished, and work on them stopped around 1330.

Model answer

Edward's settlement was harsh in many ways, especially for the ruling family of Gwynedd and for Welsh people who lived near the new castles and towns. However, for many ordinary Welsh people in the countryside it brought more continuity than change, so I agree only in part.

The settlement was undoubtedly harsh on the princes and on Welsh independence. Dafydd was executed at Shrewsbury in October 1283, Llywelyn's baby daughter Gwenllian was confined in Sempringham Priory for life, and the relic of the princes, the Croes Naid, was taken to England. The Statute of Rhuddlan of 1284 annexed the principality to the English Crown and set up English-style counties under English officials such as the Justice of North Wales at Caernarfon. English criminal law replaced Welsh law for serious crimes. The Welsh had lost their own rulers.

The settlement was also harsh because it was a colonial one. Huge castles were begun at Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech in 1283, each with a walled borough for English settlers who were given trading privileges, while the Welsh were excluded from living in them. Whole Welsh communities were moved: the monks of Aberconwy Abbey, burial place of Llywelyn the Great, were moved to Maenan to make way for Conwy, and later the people of Llanfaes were moved to Newborough when Beaumaris was built. In north-east Wales new Marcher lordships were given to English lords - Henry de Lacy at Denbigh, Reginald de Grey at Ruthin - and at Denbigh English settlers took the best land while Welsh tenants were moved to poorer land. Heavy taxation in the early 1290s and the call-up of Welshmen to fight in Gascony led to Madog ap Llywelyn's revolt in 1294.

On the other hand, Edward did not try to destroy Welsh society. The Statute of Rhuddlan kept Welsh law and custom for most civil cases, such as disputes over land and debts, and Welsh inheritance customs largely survived. Welshmen continued to serve as local officials in the commotes. Welsh lords who had supported Edward, such as Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn of Powys, kept their lands. Many of the dues ordinary people paid were the same as those they had paid to the princes, whose own rule had been heavy - Llywelyn's taxes had made him unpopular. For most Welsh farmers, daily life went on much as before.

Overall, the settlement was harsh on the Welsh as a people with their own rulers and on the communities pushed aside for castles, towns and English settlers, and it made the Welsh feel like second-class subjects in their own land, as the revolt of 1294-95 shows. But it was not harsh in every way: by keeping Welsh civil law and local customs, Edward created a settlement that most Welsh people could live with, which is why it lasted until 1536. It was harsh in its aims and symbols, but more moderate in everyday government.