Qualla: Montgomery Castle

Montgomery Castle: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Farwestern Photo by Gregg M. Erickson, CC BY 3.0. Henry III turned sixteen on 1 October 1223. Two months earlier, in late summer, the masons had already started cutting the foundations of a new stone castle on a high rock above the upper Severn. The work continued for five years without pause. By 1228 the inner ward was complete: gatehouse, two D-shaped towers, the curtain wall and the apartments crowded inside it. The king who came of age that year would hold the castle for the next four decades, and the treaty he signed under its walls in 1267 would give a Welsh prince a title that no Welshman had ever held outside Wales. Today the curtain wall is largely tumbled and the apartments are foundations in the grass, but the rock still rises over the small town of Montgomery, which the Welsh have always called Trefaldwyn - Baldwin's town.

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Image: Farwestern Photo by Gregg M. Erickson | CC BY 3.0

Montgomery Castle: Two Castles, One Hill

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Derek Harper, CC BY-SA 2.0. The original Montgomery was a motte-and-bailey called Hen Domen, raised by Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, around 1072 a mile northwest of where the stone castle stands today. It was captured by Prince Cadwgan ap Bleddyn in 1093. When Roger's son Robert of Belleme rebell...

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Image: Derek Harper | CC BY-SA 2.0

Montgomery Castle: The Treaty Under the Walls

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User: (WT-shared) Paul. at wts wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 1.0. Montgomery received its Royal Charter in 1227, making it the oldest borough in Wales. Forty years later, in September 1267, Henry III met Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, grandson of Llywelyn the Great, under the castle walls and signed the Treaty of Montgomery. The treaty was a remarkable ...

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Image: User: (WT-shared) Paul. at wts wikivoyage | CC BY-SA 1.0

Montgomery Castle: George Herbert at Home

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fabian Musto, CC BY-SA 2.0. In April 1593 a son was born inside Montgomery Castle to Sir Richard Herbert and Magdalen Newport. He was given the name George. The Herbert family had recently been granted the castle by James I, and they made it their home through the early 17th century. George Herbert grew up ...

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Image: Fabian Musto | CC BY-SA 2.0

Montgomery Castle: Five Hundred Bards

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Richard Law, CC BY-SA 2.0. There is one more story Montgomery carries, even though it almost certainly never happened. The Hungarian poet Janos Arany wrote a ballad in 1857 called The Bards of Wales, retelling a legend that Edward I, after conquering Wales in 1282, hosted a banquet at Montgomery Castle and...

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Image: Richard Law | CC BY-SA 2.0