ABSTRACT
The rulers of the Welsh princedoms, too, had their castles, but, in defence against a powerful enemy such as the king, they relied very largely on the difficulty and, it must be admitted, the poverty of their country. In the valleys of Snowdonia there are three small stone castles: Dinas Emrys, Dolbadarn and Dolwyddelan; the last stands close to an older site, itself stone-walled. Between Edward I’s victory in 1277 and his own rather criminal outbreak in 1282, Dafydd ap Gruffydd began a castle at Caergwrle or Hope. Like its master, it was part-Welsh, part-English in character; it was never finished, but there were the beginnings of a huge round keep. Heavy concentrations of castles occur where not only was the lord English, but a considerable body of his tenants were Englishmen, settled in manors, some at least of which needed the protection and control which a castle could afford.
