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Hawarden Old Castle ( cy, Castell Penarlâg) is a Grade I listed medieval
castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
near
Hawarden Hawarden (; cy, Penarlâg) is a village, community and electoral ward in Flintshire, Wales. It is part of the Deeside conurbation on the Wales-England border and is home to Hawarden Castle. In the 2011 census the ward of the same name ...
, Flintshire, Wales. The castle's origins are indeterminate and the oldest fortifications on this site may date back to the Iron Age, later being used as a Norman Motte-and-bailey castle which was reportedly destroyed and replaced in a short period during the 13th century. The castle played an important role during the Welsh struggle for independence in the 13th century. At Easter 1282, Dafydd ap Gruffudd attacked Hawarden Castle, thereby starting the final Welsh conflict with Norman England, in the course of which Welsh independence was lost.
King Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...
's sense of outrage was such that he designed a punishment for Dafydd harsher than any previous form of capital punishment; Dafydd was
hanged, drawn, and quartered To be hanged, drawn and quartered became a statutory penalty for men convicted of high treason in the Kingdom of England from 1352 under King Edward III (1327–1377), although similar rituals are recorded during the reign of King Henry III ( ...
in Shrewsbury in October 1283. A sense at the wider outrage caused by Dafydd's attack being made at Easter can be read in the account of the Chronicle of Lanercost; ". . . the Welsh nation, unable to pass their lives in peace, broke over their borders on Palm Sunday, carrying fire and sword among the people engaged in procession, and even laid siege o some places – probably referring to Flint and Rhuddlan whose Prince Llywelyn, deceived (more's the pity) by the advice of his brother David, fiercely attacked his lord the King; as we read written about Christ, 'him whom I loved most hath set himself against me.'" In 1294 the castle was captured during the revolt of
Madog ap Llywelyn Madog ap Llywelyn (died after 1312) was the leader of the Welsh revolt of 1294–95 against English rule in Wales and proclaimed "Prince of Wales". The revolt was surpassed in longevity only by the revolt of Owain Glyndŵr in the 15th century. M ...
. After the English Civil War in the 17th century the castle was
slighted Slighting is the deliberate damage of high-status buildings to reduce their value as military, administrative or social structures. This destruction of property sometimes extended to the contents of buildings and the surrounding landscape. It is ...
on the orders of Oliver Cromwell. Its ruins are on the New Hawarden Castle estate and are open to the public on some Sundays, typically the second and fourth Sundays in summertime.


References

* Alan Reid, The Castles of Wales (Letts Guides, 1973).


External links


Visitor Information: Hawarden
Castles in Flintshire Castle ruins in Wales Grade I listed castles in Wales Grade I listed buildings in Flintshire Grade I listed ruins in Wales Scheduled monuments in Flintshire {{Wales-castle-stub