Edward I: No castles built

King Edward I of England began having defensive castles constructed around Snowdonia in Wales in 1278.
These castles were based on the latest principles of military architecture.
After Wales had been conquered, Edward had a second batch of castles built.
Suppose King Edward I had no castles constructed.

Caernarfon Castle

Caernarfon Castle was begun in 1283 at the orders of Edward I, to be one of a chain of castles to subdue and control the Welsh.
If King Edward had no castles erected, there might be no Caernarfon Castle.
However, before Edward I's castle was built, a Norman motte and bailey castle had stood on the site. It was raised around the year 1090.

There were wooden castles before then. Castles were a natural evolution of hillforts and the Celtic people definitely knew how to build them.

To me the question lacks logic - Edward I had the castles built to solidify English hold on Wales. Is he no longer bothered about that? Does he decide he can continue to rule through Welsh proxies, even though he just fought a war to reassert control? If the latter, then that's a major change in English-Welsh relations going forward.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

I'm not entirely convinced that LeopoldPhilippe is not a pseudo-random word generator browsing a historical dictionary and spewing PoDs onto the board; has he no opinions of his own?

(Is he in fact a non-Western academic trying to set questions in European history for his students, from a position of almost no background knowledge of the field?)


Anyway, as NAM Rodger points out, the castles that were actually built were basically white elephants. What Welsh revanchism they deterred is hard to estimate, but there was considerable pushing back, several of them were besieged and cut off, and had to be resupplied and supported at great expense and with considerable naval effort.

Supposing Edward I Plantagenet to be a bit more nautically minded, a good reason for him not to build a chain of castles is exactly that; almost everything worth controlling in Wales is on the edges of it anyway, within striking distance of the sea or the English land border,

the forts are going to need sea support, so why not save money (and they were bloody expensive) and build far more modest harbour- protection forts and depend on an english navy royal to police and fleece the Welsh?

Edward III had a head for the sea, Henry V did; ominous names for England's neighbours. Supposing the same sort of taste and talent for expeditionary warfare to have existed a couple of generations earlier, then what?

Beaumaris Castle

It was in 1295 that building started on Beaumaris Castle.
The building began after the Welsh rising under Madog ap Llewellyn had been suppressed.
Lack of funds meant that it was never completed.
If King Edward I had no castles constructed, work would not have begun on Beaumaris Castle. Beaumaris Castle seems frozen at the time of its non-completion.

Conway Castle

The castle and walled town of Conway in North Wales were built by King Edward I in just five years from 1283 to 1288.
If King Edward I had no castles erected, there might be no Conway Castle.

Longshanks was ambitious and clearly imperialistic in his thinking. His goal was a unified Britain under his rule, and largely to bolster his own power vis a vis the French.

I think personally the likelihood of him not subduing the Welsh and later Scottish is unlikely.

god....freyjones said:

Longshanks was ambitious and clearly imperialistic in his thinking. His goal was a unified Britain under his rule, and largely to bolster his own power vis a vis the French.

I think personally the likelihood of him not subduing the Welsh and later Scottish is unlikely.

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If the Maid of Norway had lived, Scotland and the conflicts therein could have been avoided, possibly. If that happens, Edward probably focuses on trying to get to the Crusades.