From the first, Edward’s strategy was clearly intended to regain and hold the territory by means of castles, with fortified market towns as a means of generating income through taxation. The objectives in this buffer zone between the Welsh and English kingdom were both military and commercial. Here, building of two new Royal castles at Flint and Rhuddlan, had been started by the autumn of 1277, and their associated fortified boroughs were evidently already in existence by the spring of the following year when land was allotted to the predominantly English incomers who were being encouraged to come and settle in the town. The coastal areas of Perfeddwlad, potentially of greater strategic and commercial significance, were retained by the English king, who for the next five years pressed on with the development of his reconquered territories, particularly in Tegeingl. The inland areas of Perfeddwlad were granted to Dafydd, Llywelyn’s brother, in reward for his support during the war. Under the terms of a treaty then drawn up, Llywelyn continued to rule west of the Conwy, but the lands to the east were again ceded to the English crown. Rhuddlan was regained by the end of August, and the war was finally brought to a close in November 1277. The royal army advanced from Chester and had established a foothold at Flint by 21 July 1277. The events of 1277 have an important bearing upon not only upon the subsequent history of Flint but precipitated the eventual conquest of Wales as a whole. As a young man Edward had already briefly held and indeed visited the territory during his father’s reign, before it was lost to Llywelyn in 1256, just over twenty years before. Initially, the primary reason for Edward’s creation of a castle and town on a new site bordering the Dee estuary at Flint in 1277 appears to have been to simply to act as a campaign base for the reconquest of Perfeddwlad – the king’s privately-owned territory along the north coast of Wales. During the course of military campaigns in 1276–1277 Edward successfully reconquered many of these lands but by treaty allowed the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd to retain the core territory of Gwynedd in north-west Wales. One of Edward’s earliest concerns was the reconquest of lands in Wales which had formerly belonged to the Crown and the Marcher lords but which had been regained by the Welsh during the reign of his father and his predecessors. Political events early in his reign were to have a profound impact upon the history of Flint and indeed Wales as a whole. Photo: CPAT 08-c-200.Įdward I succeeded his father Henry III to the English throne in 1274. Most of the medieval town has been overlain by later housing. The castle was originally moated with a link to the tidal waters of the estuary. The rectangular plan of the medieval town can just be made out in the centre of the photograph, with the broad run of Church Street leading straight to Flint Castle. Your Community - Flint Archaeology and early history of the townįlint town and castle from the south, with the Dee estuary in the background. The medieval castle, town and countryside Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust - Community Heritage - Flintįlint in the prehistoric, Roman and early medieval periods
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