The Castle of Kings

KING OF THE CASTLE

Stephen Gregory has conducted more than 3,000 guided tours of Caernarfon Castle – the fortress that saw the investiture of the former Prince of Wales back in 1969…

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King Charles III was invested as Prince of Wales in Caernarfon Castle on 1st July 1969

Late afternoon in October... I’m sitting on the quayside of the river Seiont, beneath the beetling walls of Caernarfon Castle.

There’s a blackbird singing on the King’s Gate. On the Eagle Tower the flags have been flying at half-mast, for the passing

of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday 8th September, peacefully at Balmoral Castle, in the highlands of Scotland.

A few years have passed since I last set foot inside Caernarfon Castle, but throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s I

conducted more than 3,000 guided tours of its towers and

battlements, its long dark corridors and stately rooms. And on all of those tours I’ve described the castle’s enduring and special relationship with the Princes of Wales.

The great castles of the English King Edward I were built along the coast of North Wales as his forces overpowered Welsh resistance in the 1280s. After years of bitter conflict

with the English, the last of the native princes of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the grandson of Llywelyn the Great, had been killed in an ambush in Powys... and King Edward initiated one of history’s most expensive and formidable projects of castle building, which would see his mighty fortresses constructed at Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech and Beaumaris, as well as other sites – a so-called ring of steel manned by garrisons of his troops. The story goes that King Edward arranged for his pregnant queen, Eleanor of Castile, to make an arduous journey through the forests of North Wales in order to arrive at Caernarfon in time to deliver a son... a significant and poignant reminder

to the native Welsh that their princes had been defeated and replaced by an English prince. The king had promised a prince born in Wales, who would not speak a word of English...

Sure enough, Queen Eleanor made it to Caernarfon and delivered a boy, on 25th April 1284. On my tours of the castle

I would take a small group of punters into a room on the first floor of the Eagle Tower, where a modern stained glass

window showing the ostrich feathers of the Prince of Wales and his motto Ich Dien – I serve – purports to mark the spot as the birthplace of the prince who would be King Edward’s heir to the throne and become King Edward II.

The tourists, impressed by the historical significance of the

room, would take their photos of the stained glass window, and then I would tell them that the room couldn’t possibly be the birthplace of that particular royal child. Work had only started on the foundations of Caernarfon Castle in the previous summer of 1283, so it would have been nothing much more than a great sprawling muddy building site when Queen Eleanor arrived. Yes, she delivered a son and heir to her husband at Caernarfon in April 1284, but within the confines

of a wooden shed on the site –uncomfortable for the Queen

Prince William has a strong connection with North Wales thanks to the time he spent serving for the RAF on Anglesey.

after her difficult journey –

so that King Edward could announce a new dynasty of princes had begun at Caernarfon, the very seat of his newlywon power. And of course the new prince, born in Wales, couldn’t speak a word of English.

There was a period in the early 1400s when Owain Glyndwr

declared himself to be Prince of Wales, during the Welsh War of Independence... but since then we have had two modern investitures within the walls of Caernarfon Castle, carefully stage-managed and rehearsed to echo King Edward’s political master-stroke in the 13th Century.

On the 13th July 1911, another Edward, the future King Edward VIII (who would later abdicate in order to marry Mrs Wallis Simpson) was invested as Prince of Wales at Caernarfon. His

father, King George V, bestowed on his young son a sword, a coronet, a ring, a golden rod and a kingly mantle, and the boy uttered his oath of allegiance to the English throne – vowing that he would forever be the monarch’s ‘liege man of life and limb and of earthly worship...’

Poignant and powerful words indeed, for this was the very oath of allegiance which Llywelyn ap Gruffudd had refused to take in 1282, a refusal which cost him his head. By all accounts, and indeed the day was captured on film, the

investiture of 1911 was a grand and spectacular affair. David Lloyd George, who was the MP for Caernarfon and Constable of Caernarfon Castle, had been energetic in organising the event, attended by the royal family and the great and good of that time, including Prime Minister Asquith and Winston Churchill. The story goes that, years later, on his abdication and exile, the then King Edward VIII illegally took the investiture coronet away with him and it was never seen again... and so, for the more recent investiture in 1969, the young Prince Charles had to have a new coronet especially made for him.

Yes, it was 1st July 1969 when Charles was invested as Prince of Wales in Caernarfon Castle, a title bestowed on him by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. Charles also declared his allegiance, in the words of his recent predecessor and indeed the first of the English

princes some 700 years previously.

Now, in 2022, even while the flags were still fluttering at

half-mast at Caernarfon Castle, indeed within a few days Credit: Isaaack / Shutterstock.com of becoming the new king, Charles III has passed the title of Prince of Wales to his eldest son and the heir to the throne, Prince William. And, even before the funeral of his mother, King Charles has let it be known that there might not be an investiture of the new Prince of Wales in Caernarfon Castle – an announcement that has been greeted with dismay and disappointment by some local people and welcomed by others. And yet Caernarfon’s historic connection with the princes of Wales will remain uniquely strong, unshaken, unbroken.

Visitors to the castle will know that an English prince was born somewhere in the town, long ago in 1284. They will

stand on the balcony of the Queen’s Gate, in the footsteps of the princes who were invested there in 1911 and 1969. They will climb to the highest point of the Eagle Tower, place their hands on the weather-beaten remains of a stone eagle which symbolised the authority which King Edward I wielded over Wales at the end of the 13th Century, and at the same time they will gaze down onto the slate plinth where the English princes were crowned in modern times. An historic link enduring more than 700 years...

It’s a lovely evening in October. There’s a golden autumnal sunset over the Menai Strait. The blackbird has stopped singing, leaving his favourite perch with a chattering alarm call. A noisy mob of jackdaws has displaced him. And soon the gulls will return to their roosts on the castle walls, as night falls. All things must pass. The day thou gavest, Lord, has ended...

Our Queen has passed, who served so long and so faithfully, and she will forever be fondly remembered. Long live the King! And the princes of Wales... . n

Stephen Gregory’s first novel, The Cormorant, which he wrote in Snowdonia 35 years ago, has been published several times in both the UK and the USA, and translated into German, Polish and Italian. The new edition, which is available from Parthian Books, is its tenth publication.