When Henry died, his son Edward became King. Things began to become tense, firstly, when Llewelyn refused to attend Edward’s coronation. He gave the excuse that he feared for his life. A year later, King Edward travelled all the way to Chester for a meeting with Llewelyn to give him a chance to pay homage. Again, Llewelyn failed to turn up. Edward was very angry with this. The final thing that Llewelyn did to enrage Edward was to become engaged to Eleanor, daughter of Simon de Mountfort, the old enemy of the King. This was seen as a great insult to Edward. After this, war broke out. The decision of the Great council, written in November 1276 was, “It is agreed by the common council of all the aforementioned prelates, barons, and others, that the King shall not hear the aforesaid petition of Llewelyn and shall not admit his excuses… but that he should go against Llewelyn as a rebel and disturber of the peace.”
Edward won the war over Wales (Gwynedd) and Llewelyn was forced to retreat to the mountains. He eventually had to surrender though, and surprisingly, the English still allowed him and his brother to control small parts of Gwynedd. In 1282 though, a second war of independence started. Dafydd started this one and his brother was forced to join him. Edward was well prepared though and he sent in three armies. All were well-trained and included knights, foot soldiers, archers, artillery, engineers and camp followers. The Welsh were no match for all of Edward’s soldiers and Llewelyn was killed in 1282, and Dafydd a year later. Their heads were hung on the tower of London, and to make his victory clear, Edward began building castles all over Wales. A picture I have included at the bottom of this page shows a manuscript depiction of Llewelyn’s death. It may show quite a biased attitude on the behalf of the English, as an Englishman would have drawn it.
There are a lot of reasons for why Edward may have chosen Caernarfon as the place to build one of his most magnificent castles. It was a good place strategically for Edward to build an English castle. The River Seiont is right next to the castle, making it easy for Edward to bring in supplies. There was the rich agriculture of Anglesey right next to him, and the Menai allowed quick access between N. Wales and the West Coast. It was the perfect place to base an English invasion of Wales. Edward managed to create a centre of English influence that had previously had a very anti-English feel to it.
But there were also historical reasons for why Edward may have wanted to build his castle there. The castle was built ‘around a preserved Norman ‘Mottle’ and close to the Roman fort of Segontium’, says a source written in a CADW booklet. Some Historians believe that Edward was on a great ego trip at the time and was obsessed with total power. He may have wanted to try and give the impression that he was the true heir and successor of both the Norman conquerors and of Imperial Rome. Segontium lay in ruins just under a mile from where Edward was building Caernarfon at the time. Overall, it would have been a great power image for Edward. It is also written in the same source that the fact that Edward built Caernarfon around the Norman ‘Mottle’, and so close to Segontium, “ostentatiously embodied Edward’s claim to be both the successor of the Norman conquerors and the true heir of Imperial Rome”. This source backs up my point that Edward wanted to be as powerful as the Norman conquerors and the Emperors of Rome.