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LATER HISTORY: THE CASTLE IN DECAY

ueen Isabella had triumphed and her lover, Roger Mortimer, was richly rewarded. He took the title earl of March, and was created justice of Wales for life in 1328. In the same year, however, the widow of Hugh Despenser the younger, Eleanor de Clare, had the lordship of Glamorgan restored to her. Then, in an episode which cannot be fully explained, in 1329 she was abducted by William, Lord Zouche who was now keeper of Glamorgan. The pair married without royal consent, and they even laid siege to Caerphilly Castle in 1329. The following year witnessed the overthrow of Roger Mortimer and Queen Isabella, and the establishment of firm kingship by Edward III (1327-77). William, Lord Zouche and Eleanor de Clare recovered the lordship of Glamorgan, and in 1337 it passed to the restored heir, Hugh, Lord Despenser.

By the middle of the fourteenth century, much of Caerphilly Castle was almost certainly abandoned both as a front line Military stronghold and as a lordly domestic residence. Hugh Despenser and his successors, Edward (d. 1375) and Thomas (d. 1400), for example, had other more comfortable residences both in Glamorgan and elsewhere in England. Consequently it is difficult to assess Caerphilly's role, if any, in the great Welsh uprising led by the charismatic Owain Glyndwr from 1400 to about 1409. Nevertheless, the castle continued to be maintained, at least in part, for much of the fifteenth century.

In 1416, the lordship of Glamorgan, together with the castle of Caerphilly, passed to Richard Beauchamp, earl of Worcester (d. 1422), through his marriage to the Despenser heiress, Isabel. On his death, Isabel married another member of the Beauchamp family, Richard, earl of Warwick (d. 1439). They were to spend considerable sums on improving the domestic accommodation at Cardiff Castle, which was to serve as their chief residence in Wales, and where the Beauchamp Tower dates to this period. But Earl Richard did not entirely overlook Caerphilly. We know, for example, of extensive repair works which were undertaken in 1428-29, probably to the main outer gate which almost certainly housed the prison. At the same time, on the south dam, Felton's Tower and its sluicegates were also repaired.

In 1449, the inheritance came into the hands of Richard Neville, earl of Warwick (d. 1471), largely through his wife's share of the earlier Despenser heritage. Warwick 'the Kingmaker' was an immensely powerful man, who for long held the balance between the Yorkist and Lancastrian factions in the years of confused conflict known as the Wars of the Roses (1455-87). In 1461 Edward IV (d. 1483) appointed Warwick chief justice and chamberlain of south Wales. Although his principal interests lay elsewhere in the kingdom, it seems most unlikely that Earl Richard would have entirely neglected the defences of Caerphilly during these uncertain years.

In 1485, the battle of Bosworth brought King Henry VII (1485-1509) to the English throne, and in 1486 he granted the lordship of Glamorgan to his uncle, Jasper Tudor, earl of Pembroke (d. 1495). From this time onwards, partial decay and neglect of the once-mighty stronghold at Caerphilly appear to have accelerated. When the traveller and antiquary, John Leland (d. 1552), visited the site about 1539 he found 'ruinus waulles of a wonderful thiknes', with just a single 'toure kept up for prisoners'.

In 1550, Caerphilly passed with the lordship of Glamorgan to William Herbert, who was to be created earl of Pembroke (1551-70). In 1583, his successor, Earl Henry (1570-1601), leased Caerphilly Castle to a neighbouring landowner and sometime sheriff of Glamorgan, Thomas Lewis (d. 1595). In fact, Lewis had provision to make free and unlimited use of the castle stonework to enlarge his own house known as Y Fan (The Van), which lies less than a mile (1km) east of Caerphilly.

It has sometimes been suggested that the Caerphilly defences were deliberately breached by gunpowder, perhaps during the Civil War of 1642-48. Although there is no documentary evidence for this, it is possible that some 'slighting' of the castle walls and towers took place when the earthwork 'redoubt' was built nearby . We cannot be sure if the redoubt was raised by the royalists - though King Charles I (1625-49) was certainly at nearby Ruperra in 1645 - or if it was the work of parliamentarian forces after March 1646.

Much of the damage to castle defences, however, may not have been the result of military action at all. Indeed, the dilapidation could simply have been the result of stone removal by the owners after 1583. Once the sluicegates were neglected, the lakes would have been drained and the embanked islands on which the castle stood would have dried out 'heaved' or slumped. This was clearly the case on the north dam wall where the curtain wall itself has parted company from the towers along its entire length.