Harlech

Here we do get, who says, I hope you include Sir Henry Lee in Elizabeth I epochs.

Elizabeth's champ, master of the armoury, constable of Harlech.

ditchley portrait 1592 at ditchley well i've just finished the spanish armada the last episode went up on sunday yesterday was the spanish armada episode 1588 so if he's more in the later bit of queen elizabeth's reign i will get to it this week i will get to it this week okay i'm gonna do one maybe two more episodes on queen elizabeth the first so it'll be five parts in total mini series on that

Okay, last

Step, step it up, DJ.

Straight out the yard like Captain of Harlech yeah.

My shirt proper red, fresh with my bandana and Tommy Hilfiger pants.

Sticking to the limit like Montana did.

Yeah.

on a previous podcast we're going to go and film what I think is one of the best trips that you can do in Abu Dhabi and Harlech next year and take that train ride we have events that are on the Gower Peninsula we have events in the area around Royal Porthcawl and we also have events up in the north around Conway Bull Bay and what the hell is the fricking island called off the corner Anglesey yeah So we've got Wales covered really from a tour event and from a content point of view next year.

No new golf courses in Wales, as far as I'm aware.

No.

I think that the top five or six courses, I'm not sure many would disagree with.

I think there might be one or two reversed in order, but I think they're well established.

I've got to say that I was at Abu Dhabi and Harlech earlier this year, and I've never seen them better.

You've had a hole-in-one at Abu Dhabi? I've had a hole-in-one at Abu Dhabi, yeah, at the 9th.

Yes, and nowhere is that paradigm shift clearer than in the rugged landscape of Wales.

Take Harlech Castle.

It was commissioned by the English King Edward I and designed by his legendary master mason, James of St. George.

Okay.

It was part of an iron ring of castles meant to completely crush Welsh resistance.

Harlech was built on a massive rock face supplied directly by the sea so it couldn't be starved out and was intended to be an absolute permanent tool of English oppression.

Until it wasn't.

In 1404, the script flipped entirely.

Uh, it, there are two perfect twin towers, uh, joined by what they call a screen wall.

And, uh, if you've ever traveled to Harlech in Wales, uh, I would recommend any visitor to Harlech to observe Harlech Castle.

The towers are identical to Lawrence's Gate.

Now, funnily enough, they turned up in research in the, uh, 13th century, how a mason called Henry of Drogheda was working on the building of Harlech Castle, and they often wonder, was he the same guy-

Yes

... that put the towers [laughs] on Lawrence's Gate?

Two perfect twin towers, uh, joined by what they call a screen wall.

And, uh, if you've ever traveled to Harlech in Wales, uh, I would recommend any visitor to Harlech to observe Harlech Castle.

The towers are identical to Laurence's Gate.

Now, funnily enough, they turned up in research in the, uh, 13th century, how a mason called Henry of Drogheda was working on the building of Harlech Castle, and they often wonder, was he the same guy-

Yes

... that put the towers on [laughs] Laurence's Gate.

In this strong fortress, while England was convulsed with civil war, the child and his mother remained in tolerable security under the protection of his uncle Jasper, and even after Jasper was attainted as a Lancastrian when Edward IV obtained the crown, young Henry being then four years old, both this and other fortresses were some time held out against the conquerors.

But not for many years, for even Harlech surrendered in 1468, and it was the last stronghold that remained in Lancastrian hands.

And it was doubtless in Harlech Castle, though our informant does not give the name of the fortress, that young Henry was at length besieged when the place fell into the hands of the victorious Yorkists, and he found himself a prisoner among strangers.

The winner of Harlech Castle was William, Lord Herbert, who had been created a peer by Edward IV at his coronation in recognition of his staunch devotion to the House of York.

Just after this achievement, he was advanced to the title of Earl of Pembroke, forfeited by the attainder of Henry's uncle Jasper, and that it was into his hands that the young Henry fell by the fortune of war we may look upon as certain, for in his hands we actually find him not long after.

On the 16th of July 1468, the new Earl of Pembroke made his will, in one part of which he says, "I will that Maud, my daughter, be wedded to the Lord Henry of Richmond." He thus exercised the rights of a feudal guardian over an unfortunate lad who was now parted from his own relations.

Harlech Castle, built upon a steep rock overhanging the sea in those days, though a mile of sand has since accumulated between it and the shore, had been supposed impregnable, and must have appeared the safest place in which the young earl could be kept.

It was also the key of the country, and just before its capture, Earl Jasper had been holding many sessions and sizes in King Harry's name throughout Wales.

But even more than the Welsh towns, the Welsh castles remain to this day a monument of Edward's power.

The castle and walls of Conway, where fortress and town alike owed their existence to the conquest, the Carnarvon Castle dominating the Straits of Menai, and the rocky stronghold of Harlech raised far above the waters of Cardigan Bay, are the best memorials of Edward's work in Wales.

It has even been suggested that the well-known type of concentric castle to which these buildings belong was first brought into the West by Edward and based upon his observations in Syria of the mighty strongholds of the Latin Christians of Palestine.

But Edward cannot claim this credit, and his boldest castles in Wales were but copies of the already existing castle of Caerphilly, built a few years earlier by Earl Gilbert of Gloucester.