perhaps by sea rovers from the north. In this period of anarchy the native princes of Glamorgan had their principal demesne, not at the camp but a mile to the north at Llystalybont, now merely a thatched farmhouse, while some Saxon invaders threw up within the camp a large moated mound on which the Normans about the beginning of the 12th century built the great shell-keep which is practically all that remains of their original castle. Its builder was probably Robert, earl of Gloucester, who also built Bristol castle. Then or possibly even earlier the old rampart was for two-thirds of its circuit buried under enormous earthworks, the remainder being rebuilt. It was in the keep, and not, as tradition says, in the much later “Black Tower” (also called “Duke Robert’s Tower”), that Robert, duke of Normandy, was imprisoned by order of his brother Henry I. from 1108 until his death in 1134. Considerable additions of later date, in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, are due to the Despensers and to Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, while the present residential part is of various dates ranging from the 15th century down to the last half of the 19th, when a thorough restoration, including the addition of a superbly ornamented clock-tower, was carried out. The original ditch, about 20 yds. wide, still exists on three sides, but it is now converted into a “feeder” for the docks and canal. Geoffrey of Monmouth was at one time chaplain of the castle, where he probably wrote some of his works. The scene of the “sparrow-hawk” tournament, described in Geraint and Enid, one of the Arthurian romances, is laid at Cardiff.
On the conquest of the district by the Normans under Fitz Hamon, Cardiff became the caput of the seigniory of Glamorgan, and the castle the residence of its lords. The castle and lordship descended by heirship, male and female, through the families of De Clare, Despenser, Beauchamp and Neville to Richard III., on whose fall they escheated to the Crown, and were granted later, first to Jasper Tudor, and finally by Edward VI. in 1550 to Sir William Herbert, afterwards created Baron Herbert of Cardiff and earl of Pembroke. Through the daughter and grand-daughter of the 7th earl the castle and estates became the property of the 1st marquess of Bute (who was created Baron Cardiff in 1776), to whose direct descendant they now belong.
The town received its earliest known grant of municipal privileges sometime before 1147 from Fitz Hamon’s successor and son-in-law Robert, earl of Gloucester. In 1284 the inhabitants petitioned the burgesses of Hereford for a certified copy of the customs of the latter town, and these furnished a model for the later demands of the growing community at Cardiff from its lords, while Cardiff in turn furnished the model for the Glamorgan towns such as Neath and Kenfig. In 1324 Edward II. granted a number of exemptions to Cardiff and other towns in South Wales, and this grant was confirmed by Edward III. in 1359, Henry IV. in 1400, Henry VI. in 1452, and Edward IV. in 1465.
Its most important early charter was that granted in 1340 by Hugh le Despenser, whereby the burgesses acquired the right to nominate persons from whom the constable of the castle should select a bailiff and other officers, two ancient fairs, held on the 29th of June and 19th of September, were confirmed, and extensive trading privileges were granted, including the right to form a merchant gild. A charter granted in 1421 by Richard de Beauchamp provided that the town should be governed by twelve elected aldermen, but that the constable of the castle should be mayor. In 1581 Queen Elizabeth granted a confirmatory charter to the mayor and bailiffs direct without reference to the lord of the castle. The town was treated as a borough by prescription until 1608, when James I. confirmed its status by express incorporation, adding also to its rights of self-government, and granting it a third fair (on the 30th of November). In 1687 the town surrendered this charter to James II., who in a substituted one, which, however, was never acted upon, reserved to the Crown the right of removing any member of the corporation from office. The first step towards the modern improvement of the town was taken in 1774, when a special act was obtained for the purpose. Nineteen private acts and provisional orders were obtained during the 19th century.
Among the many early English kings who visited or passed through Cardiff was Henry II., on whom in 1171, outside St Piran’s chapel (which has long since disappeared), was urged the duty of Sunday observance. About 1153, Ivor Bâch (or the Little), a neighbouring Welsh chieftain, seized the castle and for a time held William, earl of Gloucester, and the countess prisoners in the hills. In 1404 Owen Glendower burnt the town, except the quarters of the Friars Minors. In 1645, after the battle of Naseby, Charles I. visited the town, which until then had been mainly Royalist, but about a month later was taken by the Parliamentarians. In 1648, a week after the Royalists had been decisively defeated by Colonel Horton at St Fagan’s, 4 m. west of Cardiff, Cromwell passed through the town on his way to Pembroke.
Outside the north-west angle of the castle, Richard de Clare in 1256 founded a Dominican priory, which was burnt by Glendower in 1404. Though rebuilt, the building fell into decay after the Dissolution. The site was excavated in 1887. Outside the north-east angle a Franciscan friary was founded in 1280 by Gilbert de Clare, which at the Dissolution became the residence of a branch of the Herbert family. Its site was explored in 1896. The only other building of historic interest is the church of St John the Baptist, which is in the Perpendicular style, its fine tower having been built about 1443 by Hart, who also built the towers of Wrexham and St Stephen’s, Bristol. In the Herbert chapel is a fine altar tomb of two brothers of the family. A sculptured stone reredos by W. Goscombe John was erected in 1896. The original church of St Mary’s, at the mouth of the river, was swept away by a tidal wave in 1607: Wordsworth took this as a subject for a sonnet.
In 1555 Rawlins White, a fisherman, was burnt at Cardiff for his Protestantism, and in 1679 two Catholic priests were executed for recusancy. Cardiff was the birthplace of Christopher Love (b. 1618), Puritan author, and of William Erbury, sometime vicar of St Mary’s in the town, who, with his curate, Walter Cradock, were among the founders of Welsh nonconformity.
As to Roman Cardiff see articles by J. Ward in the Archaeologia for 1901 (vol. lvii.), and in Archaeologia Cambrensis for 1908. As to the castle and the Black and Gray Friars see Archaeologia Cambrensis, 3rd series, viii. 251 (reprinted in Clark’s Medieval Military Architecture), 5th series, vi. 97; vii. 283; xvii. 55; 6th series, i. 69. The charters of Cardiff and “Materials for a History of the County Borough from the Earliest Times” were published by order of the corporation in Cardiff Records (5 vols., 1898, sqq.). See also a Handbook of Cardiff and District, prepared for the use of the British Association, 1891; Cardiff, an Illustrated Handbook, 1896; the Annual Report of the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce; the Calendar of the University College. (D. Ll. T.)
CARDIGAN, JAMES THOMAS BRUDENELL, 7th Earl of (1797–1868), English lieutenant-general, son of the 6th earl of Cardigan (the title dating from 1661), was born at Hambleden, Bucks, on the 16th of October 1797. He studied for several terms at Christ Church, Oxford; and in 1818 entered parliament. He entered the army in 1824 as cornet in the 8th Hussars, and was promoted within eight years, by purchase, to be lieutenant-colonel in the 15th Hussars. With this regiment he made himself one of the most unpopular of commanding officers. He gave the reins to his natural overbearing and quarrelsome temper, treating his men with excessive rigour and indulging in unscrupulous licentiousness. Within two years he held 105 courts-martial, and made more than 700 arrests, although the actual strength of his regiment was only 350 men. In consequence of one of his numerous personal quarrels, he left the regiment in 1834; but two years later, at the urgent entreaty of his father, he was appointed to the command of the 11th Hussars. He played the same part as before, and was censured for it; but he was allowed to retain his post, and the discipline and equipment of his regiment, in which he took great pride, and on which he spent large sums of money, received high commendation from the duke of Wellington. He succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father in August 1837. In September 1840 Lord Cardigan fought a duel, on Wimbledon common, with one of his own
