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The
impregnability of Harlech to attack was proven when a
Welsh force led by Madog ap Llywelyn was held off by 37
men in 1294. Despite being completely cut off by land, the castle was
able to be supplied from the nearby sea with shipments from Ireland. Harlech was, however, not
insusceptible to
siege. Harlech was taken in 1404 by Owain Glyndwr but
only by starving the diseased garrison into surrendering.
Tradition suggests that Owain had himself formally crowned prince of
Wales during his relatively brief tenure at Harlech. Another long
siege five years later led by Harry of
Monmouth, Prince of Wales (and later King Henry V) forced
Owain to give up his headquarters at Harlech, resulted in
the capture of his wife and four children, and ended his
rebellion and career. Harlech played an important role in the War of the
Roses. It gave shelter to the wife of King Henry VI, Margaret of
Anjou, in 1460, and was held for the Lancastrians by a Welsh constable
from 1461-8. John Warkworth wrote "Kyng Edward [IV] was possessed
of alle Englonde, excepte a castelle in Northe Wales called Harlake"
Edward empowered Sir William Herbert of Raglan to capture Harlech in
1468. Herbert laid siege with a force to 7,000 to 10,000 men, but
it took almost a month for the constable's force of 50 men (at the end)
to surrender. Harlech was the last castle to
surrender to Cromwell in early 1647, thus signaling the end of phase one
of the English Civil War. The Parliamentarians rendered the castle
untenable, but an order to demolish was happily ignored. Though
bereft of its floors and roofs, the main structure survived very well.
It gradually garnered the attention of various artists, and with repairs
carried out in both the 19th and 20th centuries, it's become a popular
tourist stop.
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