THEOSOPHY
WALES
Cardiff Castle
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Roman forts
There were three successive Roman forts on the site of
Cardiff Castle, most notably a late 3rd century
structure, some walls of which can still be seen today. One of the gates was
reconstructed in Victorian times.
Medieval castle
Cardiff
Castle was built for Robert Fitzhamon in 1091, on the site of and incorporating
some walls of the previous Roman fort, although it was mostly of timber in the
usual motte and bailey style. His son-in-law, Robert of Gloucester, rebuilt in stone, including the
twelve-sided keep which can still be seen today. Robert, Duke of Normandy who
was imprisoned there by his younger brother, King Henry I from 1106 until 1134.
In 1158 it was the scene for a daring kidnapping carried out by one Ifor Bach
(Ivor the Little). In the Welsh Revolt of 1183, the castle was attacked and
much damaged, but an expected siege nearly a hundred years later, during the
reign of Llywelyn the Last, never emerged. Gilbert de Clare had refortified
many of the defences in readiness.
The Despenser family held the castle throughout the
14th century. In 1317, Llywelyn Bren was imprisoned there for revolting against
the English and executed in a most humiliating manner. Four years later, the
castle was taken by a combined force of marcher lords attempting to overthrow
King Edward II. okDuring Owain Glynd?r's rebellion in the early 1400's his
supporters took the castle in 1404 and set the town alight (a Cardiff pub is named in memory of Glyndwr).
Later it came into the possession of the Beauchamp Earls of Warwick, who built the living quarters along
the western wall including the Octagon
Tower. King Henry VII
gave it to his uncle, Jasper Tudor in 1488. By 1550, the castle was held by the
Herberts who added further embellishments. They held the castle for the King
during the Civil War, but it was eventually taken by Parliamentary forces. In
1776, it passed to the Earl of Bute. The
family made various alterations, including landscaping by Capability Brown.
Victorian mansion
In the early 19th century the castle was enlarged and
refashioned in an early Gothic Revival style for John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd
Marquess of Bute by Henry Holland. But its
transformation began in 1868 when the 3rd Marquess commissioned William Burges
to undertake a massive rebuilding which turned the castle into a 19th century
fantasy of a medieval palace, with a series of rooms that, perhaps, constitute
the highest achievement of later Victorian Gothic Revival design. The coming
together of the Marquess, enormously rich, early Catholic convert and steeped
in a romantic vision of the mediaeval world and Burges, pre-eminent
art-architect, committed Goth and hugely-talented designer forged one of the
great patron/architect relationships and led to a succession of dazzling
architectural triumphs of which Cardiff Castle is the greatest of all.
Rebuilding began with the Clock Tower, planned
1866-1868 and begun in 1869. The towers continue westward, the Tank Tower, the
Guest Tower, the Herbert Tower and the Beauchamp Tower, part Burges, part
Holland, part 15th and 16th century, creating a skyline, best observed from
Bute Park, that echoes Burges' unbuilt design for the Law Courts and presents a
visually-stunning image of a mediaeval city.
Within the Castle, the succession of sumptuous
apartments; the Winter and Summer Smoking Rooms, the Chaucer Room, the Arab
Room, Lord Bute's Bedroom, the Roof Garden, repeatedly illustrates Burges'
supreme skill as an art-architect. Taking complete control of the designing,
the building, the decoration and the furnishing of the apartments, and using
his favoured team of Nicholls, Crace, Lonsdale, Burges created a suite of rooms
in a unique Gothic Revival style that is unrivalled.
Access and events
The castle was later sold to the city of Cardiff by the Bute family in 1947 for £1. It is now a popular tourist
attraction, and houses a regimental museum in addition to the ruins of the old
castle and the Victorian reconstruction. It sits in the expansive grounds of Bute Park.
The castle has hosted a number of rock concerts and
performances and has the capacity to accommodate over 10,000 people. Notable
concerts include the Stereophonics Live at Cardiff Castle
in June 1998 and Green Day in 2000. In 1948 a crowd of 16,000, a record for
British Baseball game, watched Wales
defeat England
in Cardiff Castle grounds. Cardiff Castle
plays host to Cardiff
University's Summer Ball
each year. It is also the site of Wales' largest Mardi Gras held
every August.
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