Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/135

Castles at the Latter Part of the Twelfth Century. 119 targets, quarrels, arrows, slings, hides to cover the malvoisins, and mining tools. Both castles were stiffly defended, and both were taken. Of Biham no trace remains ; of Bedford a fragment of wall and a mound, reduced almost to a mole- hill, still shows that Henry's work was not done negligently. Towards the end of the reign occurred a still more famous siege, that of Kenilworth. Here, as on the former occasion, Henry commanded in person, and the celebrated " Ban of Kenilworth " shows how complete was his victory. Henry also conducted a campaign in South Wales in which the castles of Monmouth, Usk, Chepstow, Caerleon, and Cardiff played important parts — castles calculated to prove a sharp thorn in the side of an English prince, and to render a uniform and just government impracticable. Henry is not certainly known as the founder of any important English castle, but he added to and restored very many. Skenfrith near Monmouth dates from a little before his time ; but Grosmont and White Castle, the two other members of the great border trilateral, may be of that reign. Henry, no doubt, was a great builder, and very princely in his operations ; but his works as regards castles were chiefly shown in building, repairing, and adorning the walls and windows of the royal lodgings, hails, and chapels in the royal castles, works which were in all cases carried on outside the keep, within the middle or outer wards, and which in most cases have long since been swept away. Henry found his castles built to his hands, and had no opportunity of introducing any specific style or type of military work. White Castle is a mere pen or enclosure, with high walls and mural towers, though its earthworks, probably of earlier date, are on a great scale. Castles of the type known as Edwardian or concentric, though taking their name from Edward L, were, as a chrono- logical fact, introduced in the reign of his father, and Caer- philly, one of the earliest, probably the very earliest, of the concentric type, and curiously enough one of the most com- plete, was constructed by the Lord of Glamorgan in the very last year of Henry's reign. Caerphilly is second only to Windsor in extent, and second to no mediaeval fortress whatever in the skill with which it is laid out, and the natural features of the ground turned to advantage. It was executed, and probably planned, with great rapidity. Its cost must have been enormous, and must have taxed to the utmost the resources of even so wealthy a noble as the Earl of Gloucester and Hertford. The type thus introduced was adopted by Edward I., and is exemplified in the castles of Harlech and Beaumaris.