Beaumaris Castle, in Beaumaris, Anglesey, Wales, was built as part of Edward I's campaign to conquer north Wales after 1282. Plans were probably first made to construct the castle in 1284, but this was delayed due to lack of funds and work only began in 1295 following the Madog ap Llywelyn uprising. A substantial workforce was employed in the initial years under the direction of James of St George. Edward's invasion of Scotland soon diverted funding from the project, however, and work stopped, only recommencing after an invasion scare in 1306. When work finally ceased around 1330 a total of £15,000 had been spent, a huge sum for the period, but the castle remained incomplete.
Gruffudd ap Cynan was King of Gwynedd from 1081 until his death in 1137. In the course of a long and eventful life, he became a key figure in Welsh resistance to Norman rule.
The Kingdom of Gwynedd was a Welsh kingdom and a Roman Empire successor state that emerged in sub-Roman Britain in the 5th century during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.
Newborough is a village in the southern corner of the Isle of Anglesey in Wales. It is a part of the Bro Aberffraw electoral ward; to the northwest is Aberffraw, and to the northeast is Llanfairpwll. There is a church in the village, a primary school, and a public institute. Nearby is the Newborough Warren, a forest, beach, and public nature reserve.
Beaumaris is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, of which it is the former county town. It is located at the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait, the tidal waterway separating Anglesey from the coast of North Wales. At the 2021 census, its population was 1,121. The community includes Llanfaes.
Cynan Dindaethwy or Cynan ap Rhodri was a king of Gwynedd in Wales in the early Middle Ages. Cynan was the son of Rhodri Molwynog and ascended to the throne of Gwynedd upon the death of King Caradog ap Meirion in 798. His epithet refers to the commote of Dindaethwy in the cantref Rhosyr. Unlike later kings of Gwynedd, usually resident at Aberffraw in western Anglesey, Cynan maintained his court at Llanfaes on the southeastern coast. Cynan's reign was marked by a destructive dynastic power struggle with a rival named Hywel ap Caradog, usually supposed to be his brother.
Hywel ap Caradog was King of Gwynedd. He rose to power following a destructive dynastic struggle in which he deposed King Cynan Dindaethwy. During Hywel's reign, Gwynedd's power was largely confined to Anglesey. It was a time of substantial territorial loss to Mercia.
Joan, Lady of Wales and Lady of Snowdon, also known by her Welsh name often written as Siwan was an illegitimate daughter of King John of England, and the wife of Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales, effective ruler of all of Wales. Joan or Siwan in Welsh has been referred to as both "Lady of Wales" and "Princess of Wales".
Penmon is a promontory, village and ecclesiastical parish on the eastern tip of the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, about 3 miles (4.8 km) east of the town of Beaumaris. It is in the community of Llangoed. The name comes from Welsh: pen and Môn, which is the Welsh word for Anglesey. It is the site of a historic monastery and associated 12th-century church. Walls near the well next to the church may be part of the oldest remaining Christian building in Wales. Penmon also has an award-winning beach and the Anglesey Coastal Path follows its shores. Quarries in Penmon have provided stone for many important buildings and structures, including Birmingham Town Hall and the two bridges that cross the Menai Strait. The area is popular with locals and visitors alike for its monuments, tranquillity, bracing air and fine views of Snowdonia to the south across the Menai Strait.
Llywarch ap Llywelyn was an important medieval Welsh poet. He is also known by his bardic name, "Prydydd y Moch".
Anglesey is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms the bulk of the county known as the Isle of Anglesey, which also includes Holy Island and some islets and skerries. The county borders Gwynedd across the Menai Strait to the southeast, and is otherwise surrounded by the Irish Sea. Holyhead is the largest town, and the administrative centre is Llangefni. The county is part of the preserved county of Gwynedd. Anglesey is the northernmost county in Wales.
Culture and Society in Gwynedd during the High Middle Ages refers to a period in the History of Wales spanning the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages. Gwynedd is located in the north of Wales.
The House of Aberffraw was a medieval royal court based in the village it was named after, Aberffraw, Anglesey within the borders of the then Kingdom of Gwynedd. The dynasty was founded in the 9th century by a King in Wales whose descendants founded the Welsh Royal Houses. The other medieval Welsh dynasties were the Royal Houses of Dinefwr, Mathrafal.
Dindaethwy was in medieval times one of two commotes of the cantref of Rhosyr, in the south-east of the Isle of Anglesey. It was between the Menai Strait and Conwy Bay, and the Irish Sea and Red Wharf Bay.
Castell Aberlleiniog is a motte and bailey fortress near the Welsh village of Llangoed on the Isle of Anglesey, built between 1080 and 1099 by Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester. It is about two miles distant from Beaumaris Castle, and was built atop a very steep hill.
St Iestyn's Church, Llaniestyn is a medieval church in Llaniestyn, Anglesey, in Wales. A church is said to have been founded here by St Iestyn in the 7th century, with the earliest parts of the present building dating from the 12th century. The church was extended in the 14th century, with further changes over the coming years. It contains a 12th-century font and a 14th-century memorial stone to Iestyn, from the same workshop as the stone to St Pabo at St Pabo's Church, Llanbabo.
Owain ab Edwin of Tegeingl or Owain the Traitor, was lord of the cantref of Tegeingl in north-east Wales at the end of the 11th century. He was the son of Edwin ap Gronw of Tegeingl, a great-great-grandson of Hywel Dda. He sided with the Normans in their failed invasion of North Wales, and in the 1090s attempted to become ruler of Gwynedd.
Llanfaes Friary was a Franciscan friary in the now vanished medieval town of Llanfaes, close to what is now Beaumaris, in south east Anglesey, Wales. It was founded around 1237 in memory of Joan, wife of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth. The Friary survived the depopulation of the town, but was dissolved in 1538 and most of the buildings dismantled soon afterwards. The land became an estate on which, in 1623, Rowland Whyte built a house which he called Friars. It became one of the many properties of the Bulkeley family, and was substantially rebuilt in 1866. By the 20th century the house and grounds were owned by James Hartley Burton. In 1939 they were requisitioned for wartime use, adapting and repairing flying boats, by Saunders-Roe, who continued after the war with a wide variety of light engineering activities. The industrial uses finally came to an end in the late 1990s. An archaeological dig on the site in 1991 identified substantial buried remains of the friary church and other monastic buildings. The site is a Scheduled monument.
Lavan Sands is an intertidal sandbank found in the Menai Strait between Bangor, Gwynedd and Llanfairfechan, Wales. Totally underwater at high tide, at extreme low tides it measures 5.5-mile (8.9 km) east-west and 3.25-mile (5.23 km) north-south. At the western end is found another sandbank Bangor Flats and just north is the sandbank Dutchman's Bank. At low tide the Lavan Sands make the narrowest part of the Menai Strait, at Beaumaris, a mere 237 m (778 ft). The area is designated as an SSSI due in part to the large numbers of Eurasian oystercatchers that migrate there due to the freshwater streams that flow across it.
