Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/344

 2-14 CAEKNAllVUN CASTLE. Ill the 23rd year of Edward's reign (1295) the affairs of Scotland were so nearly settled, that the English monarch had less cause for anxiety in that quarter. He was about to embark on an expedition on the Continent, being involved in a dispute with Phillip IV. of France. His English sub- jects had readily granted him a fifteenth of their moveables, and in his endeavours to enforce a similar tribute from the Welsh, so formidable a revolt broke out simultaneously, in three different parts of the Principality, that he was obliged to suspend the intended embarkation of his forces, and hasten to suppress the outbreak. The leaders do not seem to have acted together by any preconcerted plan. The rising at Caernarvon happened on a fair-day, when a large concourse of the people were assembled from the surrounding districts, and a great number of Englishmen were collected in the town. Under the command of Madoc, one of Prince David's illegitimate sons, the natives slew all the foreigners ; hanging- Roger de Pulesdon, the Constable, they plundered and burnt the town, and took the Castle. The fastnesses of Snowdon were speedily recaptured, and the unprotected plains of Anglesey fell an easy prey before the arms of the insurgents. The king had now been absent from Wales for eleven years, and during the interval large sums had been expended on the Castle ; but the temporary success of the native chieftains placed the monarch in unforeseen difiicultics, and compelled him to visit the country immediately. He had first to regain the power that had so suddenly been wrested from his grasp, and to recommence building the great fortress at Caernarvon, which, if not razed entirely to the ground, must have been rendered useless as a garrison. His tenure of Anglesey, too, would require some protection for the future. These trans- actions will innnediately explain the cause of the royal writ on the Clause llolls of this year addi'essed to the Justice of Chester, ordering him to select a hundred masons and send them immediately to the king's works at Caernarvon, evi- dently to repair the injuries they had recently sustained ; there to do what Edmund, the king's brother, shall direct ; ^ whilst undoubtedly the Castle of Beaumaris owes its origin to the same temporary overthrow of the English power. A little later than this, we have a report from Hugh de Leominster and William de Ilcrefoi-d, in answer to a royal I Close Roll, 2;j E(lv. I., in. 10. Teste Rogc jipiul Liiwtll xi. die Jiinii.