Swansea Castle

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Swansea Castle

Swansea Castle was founded by Henry de Beaumont

Henry de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Warwick

Henry de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Warwick was a Norman nobleman. He is also known as Henry de Neubourg or Henry de Newburgh, from the castle of Newburg near Louviers, in Normandy where he was born....
in 1106 as the caput
Caput

The Latin root caput, for "head" or "top", has been borrowed in a variety of English language words, including capital, captain, and decapitate....
of the lordship of Gower.

The original castle

Castle

A castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. The term has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning, but it is usually regarded as being distinct from the general terms fort or fortress in that it describes a residence of a monarch or noble and commands a specific defensive territor...
seems to have been a sub-rectangular/oval enclosure overlooking the River Tawe

River Tawe

The River Tawe is a river in South Wales. It flows in a principally south-westerly direction for some 48 km from its source below Moel Feity in the Old Red Sandstone hills of the western Brecon Beacons to the Bristol Channel at Swansea....
on the east, surrounded on the north, west and south sides by a larger sub-rectangular outer bailey. The inner bailey probably contained a motte but the other view is that it was a ring work. The new castle was attacked by the Welsh

Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
in 1116 but the inner castle held.

After various other unsuccessful attacks the castle fell in 1217 but was restored to the English

England

Llywelyn the Great

Llywelyn the Great , ), full name Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, was a Prince of Kingdom of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually de facto ruler over most of Wales....
and Henry III of England

Henry III of England

Henry III was the son and successor of John of England as King of England, reigning for fifty-six years from 1216 to his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester....
.

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Swansea Castle was founded by Henry de Beaumont

Henry de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Warwick

Castle

River Tawe

Wales

England

Llywelyn the Great

Llywelyn the Great , ), full name Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, was a Prince of Kingdom of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually de facto ruler over most of Wales....
and Henry III of England

Henry III of England

Henry III was the son and successor of John of England as King of England, reigning for fifty-six years from 1216 to his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester....
. Immediately after this the inner castle was probably walled in stone with at least one tower. Later in the 13th century the large outer bailey was also walled. The only visible remains are two sides of a rectangular "new castle" built in the South East corner of the outer bailey in the late 13th/early 14th century. The south face (which ends in a tall garderobe

Garderobe

According to Frank Bottomley , Garderobes were "Properly, not a latrine or privy but a small room or large cupboard, usually adjoining the chamber or solar_ and providing safe-keeping for valuable clothes and other possessions of price: cloth, jewels, spices, plate and money." ...
tower) is capped with an elegant series of arcades

Arcade (architecture)

An arcade is a passage or walkway covered over by a succession of arches or Vault supported by columns. In a Gothic architecture cathedral the arcade is the lowest part of the wall of the nave, supporting the triforium and the clerestory....
at the wall-head, which are similar to structures at the Bishop of Saint David's palaces at Lamphey

Lamphey

Lamphey is a village near the south coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales....
and St David's

St David's

St David's is the smallest City status in the United Kingdom in the United Kingdom, with a population of under 2,000 people. It lies on the River Alun, on Saint David's peninsula in Pembrokeshire, Wales....
.

By then the castle had lost its military importance. It is not known whether it fell to allies of Owain Glyndwr

Owain Glyndwr

Owain Glyndwr , or Owain Glyn Dwr, anglicised by William Shakespeare into Owen Glendower and also sometimes styled Owain IV of Wales by modern historians, was a Wales ruler and the last native Welsh people to hold the title Prince of Wales....
early in the 15th century.

In the 18th and 19th centuries parts of the castle were variously used as a market, a town hall, a drill hall and a prison. Part of the interior of the new castle was demolished early in the 20th century in the construction of a newspaper office. The remains have now been consolidated and opened up to view from the street.

Swansea Castle

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