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Rhuddlan Castle
Rhuddlan Castle ( cy, Castell Rhuddlan; ) is a castle located in Rhuddlan, Denbighshire, Wales. It was erected by Edward I in 1277, following the First Welsh War. Much of the work was overseen by master mason James of Saint George. Rhuddlan, which was not completed until 1282, was built concurrently with Flint Castle, at a time when King Edward I of England was consolidating his conquest of Wales. It was temporarily his residence, and his daughter, Elizabeth, is presumed to have been born there. Construction Rhuddlan was planned as a concentric castle. It has a unique 'diamond' in layout as the gatehouses are positioned at the corners of the square baileys instead of along the sides like at Flint, Harlech or Beaumaris. Records of construction costs show that it was the major piece of building work being carried out by the English during the late 1270s. The inner ward has defensive walls with twin-tower gatehouses. The outer ward is surrounded by a curtain wall that h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denbighshire
Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewydd-Llanelwy) Palaeolithic site has Neanderthal remains of some 225,000 years ago. Castles include Denbigh, Rhuddlan, Rhyl, Prestatyn, Trefnant, Llangollen and Ruthin, Castell Dinas Bran, Bodelwyddan and St Asaph Cathedral. Denbighshire is bounded by coastline to the north and hills to the east, south and west. The River Clwyd follows a broad valley with little industry: crops appear in the Vale of Clwyd and cattle and sheep in the uplands. The coast attracts summer visitors; hikers frequent the Clwydian Range, part of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod takes place each July. Formation The main area was formed on 1 April 1996 under the Local Government (Wale ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Defensive Wall
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates for access to the city. From ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements. Generally, these are referred to as city walls or town walls, although there were also walls, such as the Great Wall of China, Walls of Benin, Hadrian's Wall, Anastasian Wall, and the Atlantic Wall, which extended far beyond the borders of a city and were used to enclose regions or mark territorial boundaries. In mountainous terrain, defensive walls such as ''letzis'' were used in combination with castles to seal valleys from potential attack. Beyond their defensive utility, many walls also had important symbolic functions representing the status and independence of the communities they embraced. Existing ancient walls are almost always masonry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gruffydd Ap Llywelyn
Gruffydd ap Llywelyn ( 5 August 1063) was King of Wales from 1055 to 1063. He had previously been King of Gwynedd and Powys in 1039. He was the son of King Llywelyn ap Seisyll and Angharad daughter of Maredudd ab Owain, and the great-great-grandson of Hywel Dda. Genealogy and early life Gruffydd was the son of Llywelyn ap Seisyll, who had been able to rule both Gwynedd and Powys, and Angharad ferch Maredudd. On Llywelyn's death in 1023, a member of the Aberffraw dynasty, Iago ab Idwal ap Meurig, became ruler of Gwynedd and began his rise to power in Powys. King of Gwynedd and Powys (1039–1055) In 1039, King Iago of Gwynedd was killed (supposedly by his own men), which made Gruffudd King. His son Cynan, was forced into exile in Dublin. Soon after gaining power, he surprised a Mercian army at Rhyd y Groes near Welshpool and defeated it, killing Edwin, brother of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. He then attacked Dyfed, which his father had ruled but was now under Hywel ab Ed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perfeddwlad
Perfeddwlad or Y Berfeddwlad was an historic name for the territories in Wales lying between the River Conwy and the River Dee. comprising the cantrefi of Rhos, Rhufoniog, Dyffryn Clwyd and Tegeingl. Perfeddwlad thus was also known as the Four Cantrefs. Early history For much of its history the area had been known as ''Tegeingl'', after the Celtic tribe ''Deceangli'' which inhabited North East Wales since the Iron Age. This was also the name of the most easterly cantref of the region. As the Kingdom of Gwynedd emerged as the dominant power in North Wales, the area also became known as ''Gwynedd Is Conwy'' (Gwynedd "below" the Conwy River). The name Y Berfeddwlad appears in the High Middle Ages, as the rivalries between Gwynedd, Powys, and the Anglo-Saxon England (and later Normans) intensified. The name is a contraction ofPerfedd andgwlad meaning ''heart-land'' or ''middle-country'' as the area became a centre of conflict. Later history Shortly after the death of Owain, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cantref
A cantref ( ; ; plural cantrefi or cantrefs; also rendered as ''cantred'') was a medieval Welsh land division, particularly important in the administration of Welsh law. Description Land in medieval Wales was divided into ''cantrefi'', which were themselves divided into smaller ''cymydau'' (commotes). The word ''cantref'' is derived from ''cant'' ("a hundred") and ''tref'' ("town" in modern Welsh, but formerly used for much smaller settlements). The ''cantref'' is thought to be the original unit, with the commotes being a later division. ''Cantrefi'' could vary considerably in size: most were divided into two or three commotes, but the largest, the ''Cantref Mawr'' (or "Great Cantref") in Ystrad Tywi (now in Carmarthenshire) was divided into seven commotes. History The antiquity of the ''cantrefi'' is demonstrated by the fact that they often mark the boundary between dialects. Some were originally kingdoms in their own right; others may have been artificial units created later. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gwynedd In The High Middle Ages
The history of Gwynedd in the High Middle Ages is a period in the History of Wales spanning the 11th through the 13th centuries. Gwynedd, located in the north of Wales, eventually became the most dominant of Welsh polities during this period. Contact with continental courts allowed for Gwynedd to transition from a petty kingdom into an increasingly sophisticated principality of seasoned courtiers capable of high level deplomacy and representation; not only with the Angevine kings, but also the king of France and the Papal See. Distinctive achievements in Gwynedd include further development of Medieval Welsh literature, particularly poets known as the '' Beirdd y Tywysogion'' (Welsh for ''Poets of the Princes'') associated with the court of Gwynedd; the reformation of bardic schools; and the continued development of ''Cyfraith Hywel'' (''The Law of Hywel'', or ''Welsh law''). All three of these further contributed to the development of a Welsh national identity in the face of Ang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhuddlan Castle - From The North
Rhuddlan () is a town, community, and electoral ward in the county of Denbighshire, Wales, in the historic county of Flintshire. Its associated urban zone is mainly on the right bank of the Clwyd; it is directly south of seafront town Rhyl. It gave its name to the Welsh district of Rhuddlan from 1974 to 1996. As of the 2001 census, the population was 4,296 decreasing to 3,709 in the 2011 census. Etymology The name of the town is a combination of the Welsh words ' "red" + ' "riverbank". History In AD 921, the Anglo-Saxon king, Edward the Elder, founded a burh named ''Cledematha'' at Rhuddlan. In the following century, before the Norman Conquest and subsequent Norman occupation of lower Gwynedd, the Perfeddwlad, Rhuddlan was the site of a Welsh cantref and served as the seat of government and capital of Gwynedd for the Welsh king Gruffydd ap Llywelyn (ruled 1055 – 1063), whose family may have been the traditional Welsh lords of Rhuddlan for generations. Following the Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhuddlan Castle 14
Rhuddlan () is a town, community, and electoral ward in the county of Denbighshire, Wales, in the historic county of Flintshire. Its associated urban zone is mainly on the right bank of the Clwyd; it is directly south of seafront town Rhyl. It gave its name to the Welsh district of Rhuddlan from 1974 to 1996. As of the 2001 census, the population was 4,296 decreasing to 3,709 in the 2011 census. Etymology The name of the town is a combination of the Welsh words ' "red" + ' "riverbank". History In AD 921, the Anglo-Saxon king, Edward the Elder, founded a burh named ''Cledematha'' at Rhuddlan. In the following century, before the Norman Conquest and subsequent Norman occupation of lower Gwynedd, the Perfeddwlad, Rhuddlan was the site of a Welsh cantref and served as the seat of government and capital of Gwynedd for the Welsh king Gruffydd ap Llywelyn (ruled 1055 – 1063), whose family may have been the traditional Welsh lords of Rhuddlan for generations. Following the Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Llywelyn The Last
Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (c. 1223 – 11 December 1282), sometimes written as Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, also known as Llywelyn the Last ( cy, Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf, lit=Llywelyn, Our Last Leader), was the native Prince of Wales ( la, Princeps Walliae, links=no; cy, Tywysog Cymru, links=no) from 1258 until his death at Cilmeri in 1282. Llywelyn was the son of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Fawr and grandson of Llywelyn the Great, and he was one of the last native and independent princes of Wales before its conquest by Edward I of England and English rule in Wales that followed, until Owain Glyndŵr held the title during the Welsh Revolt of 1400–1415. Genealogy and early life Llywelyn was the second of the four sons of Gruffydd, the eldest son of Llywelyn the Great, and Senana ferch Caradog, the daughter of Caradoc ap Thomas ap Rhodri, Lord of Anglesey. The eldest was Owain Goch ap Gruffydd and Llywelyn had two younger brothers, Dafydd ap Gruffydd and Rhodri ap Gruffydd. Llywelyn is t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forge
A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals, or the workplace (smithy) where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature at which it becomes easier to shape by forging, or to the point at which work hardening no longer occurs. The metal (known as the "workpiece") is transported to and from the forge using tongs, which are also used to hold the workpiece on the smithy's anvil while the smith works it with a hammer. Sometimes, such as when hardening steel or cooling the work so that it may be handled with bare hands, the workpiece is transported to the slack tub, which rapidly cools the workpiece in a large body of water. However, depending on the metal type, it may require an oil quench or a salt brine instead; many metals require more than plain water hardening. The slack tub also provides water to control the fire in the forge. Types Coal/coke/charcoal forge A forge typically uses bituminous coal, indu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices. In older fortifications, such as hillforts, they are usually referred to simply as ditches, although the function is similar. In later periods, moats or water defences may be largely ornamental. They could also act as a sewer. Historical use Ancient Some of the earliest evidence of moats has been uncovered around ancient Egyptian castles. One example is at Buhen, a castle excavated in Nubia. Other evidence of ancient moats is found in the ruins of Babylon, and in reliefs from ancient Egypt, Assyria, and other cultures in the region. Evidence of early moats around settlements has been discovered in many archaeological sites throughout Southeast Asia, including ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Pennant
Thomas Pennant (14 June Old Style, OS 172616 December 1798) was a Welsh natural history, naturalist, traveller, writer and antiquarian. He was born and lived his whole life at his family estate, Downing Hall near Whitford, Flintshire, in Wales. As a naturalist he had a great curiosity, observing the geography, geology, plants, animals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish around him and recording what he saw and heard about. He wrote acclaimed books including ''British Zoology'', the ''History of Quadrupeds'', ''Arctic Zoology'' and ''Indian Zoology'' although he never travelled further afield than continental Europe. He knew and maintained correspondence with many of the scientific figures of his day. His books influenced the writings of Samuel Johnson. As an antiquarian, he amassed a considerable collection of art and other works, largely selected for their scientific interest. Many of these works are now housed at the National Library of Wales. As a traveller he visited Sco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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