Beaumaris and The Bard
- Jul 15, 2022
- 6 min read
Location: Beaumaris is situated on the Isle of Anglesey in North-West Wales
Constructed: Building began by Edward I in summer 1295 following the rebelling of Madog ap Llywelyn. Construction slowed in 1296, ceasing in 1330 with the castle remaining unfinished.
Fancy visiting? Open 7 days a week, managed by CADW, admission charges apply.
Guidebook in hand…
In my mind, it makes no sense to begin by providing you all with the military history of the castle as we understand it today. Since the nineteenth century extensive historical and archaeological research has been carried out at castles sites. My objective here is to uncover how people in the nineteenth century understood and used the fortresses of the UK.
Antiquarianism and romantic era travel were often synonymous, with early travellers (often wealthy well-educated men) conducting extensive research of the sites they visited before, during and after their tours. As the Victorian era dawned, and railway networks exploded across the country, cheaper, safer and faster travel allowed a wider variety of people to explore regions once inaccessible to them. The vast majority of travellers in the nineteenth century were not history experts, let alone Welsh history experts, and they relied on guidebooks to provide them with the information. I thought, then, how much more helpful and fun would it be to take snippets of histories featured within a popular pocket guidebook of the Victorian period, et voila:
Black’s Picturesque Guide to… Beaumaris
“It was built by Edward I. about the year 1295, some time after he had founded the castles of Carnarvon and Conway. He changed the name of this place from Bornover to Beau-marais, a French term, corresponding with its pleasant situation in low ground. He formed around the castle a fosse which was filled from the sea, and cut a canal to enable vessels to discharge their lading beneath the walls.
It was given by Henry IV., soon after his accession, to Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, for his life. In 1643, Thomas Bulkeley, soon afterwards raised to the peerage was appointed constable of the castle.
It was held for King Charles I. against the Parliament, but in 1646 surrendered to Gen. Mytton. By Charles II., Lord Bulkeley was reinstated as constable.
It is now the property of Sir R. Bulkeley, who has laid out walks around the ruins, ornamented with plantations and shrubberies, to which the public have access.”[1]
Nineteenth Century Beaumaris
Partially owing to its off the beaten track geography, the town of Beaumaris in the nineteenth century was reserved for wealthy visitors. It had no train station and prior to the construction of the Menai Bridge was accessible either by a ferry boat from Bangor or a steam packet from Liverpool. Under the patronage of the Bulkeley family of Baron Hill (see the map), Beaumaris offered its well-to-do guests hotels, sea-bathing, and acres of pleasure grounds with the castle at its heart.
Beaumaris just wasn't as cool as Edward I's other castles in Wales. Few travellers omitted the castles of Conwy and Caernarfon from their itineraries, but Beaumaris crops up less frequently and receptions of the fortress often failed to meet the picturesque standards tourists demanded, for example...
Catherine Hutton, travelling through Wales with her father in 1800 remarked:
“The castle of Beaumaris is reckoned less beautiful than those of Conwy and Caernarvon. Its towers are round, and not so lofty, and the elegant turrets are wanting; but it is more regular than either. It has a singular and massive appearance, and much would have been said of it, if the peerless castles of Conwy and Caernarvon had not been its neighbours. It is also less known.”[2]
Comparing the situation, architecture, and ruinous state of Edward I’s castles was one of the main touristic pursuits I find, and seems heavily influenced by the picturesque movement. Now, I’m not sure if this happened across the board at castles in the UK, time will tell, but I find very few accounts which don’t make comparisons between this group of castles.
Recreation is the word that best describes Beaumaris Castle’s role in the growing tourist industry of nineteenth-century North Wales. Alongside its bowling green and tennis courts, the castle served as a frequent venue for concerts and even the 1832 Eisteddfod which the then Princess Victoria attended.
On 24th June 1865, the North Wales Chronicle newspaper included the following letter:
“Sir, - Are you fond of a quiet game of rackets or croquet, or a sly pic-nic… if you are, sir, allow me to recommend you to Beaumaris castle as a capital spot for holding one or the other; the visitor here appears separated from the outer world; all is so quiet.
How time has changed the state of things; this is said to be the spot where resounding the heartrending shrikes of the cruelly-massacred Welsh bards, and afterwards from within its thick walls the merry laughter of the garrison.”[3]
Now about those 'heartrending shrikes of the cruelly-massacred Welsh bards'…
As part of my thesis I have written thousands and thousands of words on The Bard, and I still don’t believe I have conveyed the importance of this legend and Thomas Grey’s subsequent poem on the shaping of castle receptions and Anglo-Welsh relationships and identities.
Basically, the story goes that after conquering Wales Edward I ordered the execution of all the Welsh bards who were fanning the flames of rebellion through music. This legend stems from a nobleman who was unable to trace his ancestry through bardic verse and therefore concluded that the bards must have been silenced. This is where the poet Thomas Grey comes into it, he learnt of this legend in the mid-18th century and composed his poem The Bard: A Pindaric Ode, which caused quite the stir and retained a prominent hold over the English traveller’s imagination for the following century! Set out as a story, the last surviving bard confronts Edward’s army ‘o’er old Conway’s foaming flood.’ Prophesising the future, he tells of the failures of Edward’s successors and their downfall at the hands of the Welsh Tudors under whose authority poetry flourishes, through Shakespeare and others. Upon learning of the future continuation of his trade ‘he plung’d to endless night.’[4]
Wait, what does all this have to do with Beaumaris Castle?
Richard Llwyd, born in Beaumaris in 1752, came from a humble background. After entering domestic service, he worked his way up becoming the secretary of Mr Griffith of Caerhun Hall.
Becoming an expert in Welsh history, he had many prominent acquaintances, including Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Owen Jones, and William Owen Pughe. Above all, Llwyd is chiefly recognised for his poem Beaumaris Bay, which places Wales’ history of conquest at its centre:
“Here earth is loaded with a mass of wall
The proud insulting badge of Cambria’s fall,
By haughty Edward rais’d; and every stone
Records a sign, a murder, or a groan.”[5]
Years after the poem’s composition, Llwyd published a 67 page long notes in which he refers to ‘the extirpation of the Bards.’ For Llwyd, the history of the castles of Edward I were ‘a series of irritation and oppression, with a view to forfeiture.’[6] As I said, this legend particularly captured the imagination of Beaumaris visitors, and anyone reading John Hicklin's Excursions in North Wales in 1847 would have been informed that its Castle was ‘the scene of the massacre of the bards by Edward the First, who does not appear to have felt secure in his newly-acquired dominions so long as this influential order remained to raise the song and string in the lyre to the deeds of patriotic resistance.’[7]
Castle Ownership…
During the 19th c, Beaumaris Castle was owned by ‘one of the most powerful families in North Wales’ – the Bulkeleys of Anglesey.
Residing in Baron Hill, above the town of Beaumaris (the fancy manor house in the background of images 2 and 3 – now in ruins), the Bulkeley’s presence on the island stretches back to at least 1450. Since the time of the Queen Elizabeth I (whom one Bulkeley befriended) the family have played a role in subsequent major events in British history, not least the Civil War and the Jacobite Rising.
The 10th Baronet, Sir Richard Williams-Bulkeley (1801-1875) was a Whig and Liberal politician, who inherited the peerage and the castle through his half uncle. Since 1832 the public have had access to the castle, which passed to governmental control in 1925.[8]
Links
Images
1888 OS Map. Historic Wales. RCAHMW.
Beaumaris Castle, 1852, NLW
Digital copy of an album print showing of tennis courts at Beaumaris Castle.
William Jones. Richard Llwyd, ‘Bard of Snowdon’ (1752-1835) 1835. Peoples Collection Wales.
Further information
Thomas Grey’s the Bard
Richard Llwyd’s Beaumaris Bay
CADW Beaumaris Castle
Footnotes
[1] A & Ch. Black. Black's Picturesque Guide to North Wales. (Edinburgh, 1874). Internet Archive. P.70 https://archive.org/details/blackspicturesqu00edin/page/n93/mode/2up [2] 'Catherine Hutton’s Tour of Wales: 1800 ' edited with an introduction by Mary-Ann Constantine in Curious Travellers Digital Editions. Letter 26, Sept 12, 1800.
[3] Beaumaris and its neighbourhood. The North Wales Chronicle and Advertiser for the Principality. National Library of Wales. Welsh Newspapers Online. 24th June 1865. P.3
[4] Thomas Grey. The Bard. A Pindaric Ode. 1754-1757 Thomas Grey Archive. https://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=bapo
[5] Elizabeth Edwards. ‘Richard Llwyd. Beaumaris Bay, A Poem (extract).’ English-Language Poetry From Wales. (Cardiff, 2013). P.182
[6] Richard Llwyd. Beaumaris Bay: The Shoresof the Menai, and the Interior of Snowdonia; Scenery unrivalled in its comprehensive variety, the interesting objects which it includes, and the sublime prominence of its features. (Chester, 1832). Pp. 5, 14 [7] John Hicklin. Excursions in North Wales: A Complete Guide to the Tourist through that Romantic Country; containing descriptions of its picturesque beauties, historical antiquities and modern wonders. (London, 1847). P.57
[8] Thomas Richards. ‘Bulkeley Family, Anglesey, etc.’ Dictionary of Welsh Biography. 1959. https://biography.wales/article/s-BULK-ELE-1400. And CADW. Full Report for Listed Buildings. Beaumaris Castle. 5574 (13/07/2005) https://cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net/reports/listedbuilding/FullReport?lang=en&id=5574
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