History of Cardiff - The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages

In 1091, Robert Fitzhamon the Lord of Glamorgan, began work on the castle keep within the walls of the old Roman fort and by 1111, Cardiff town walls had also been built and this was recorded by Caradoc of Llancarfan in his book Brut y Tywysogion (English: Chronicle of the Princes). Cardiff Castle has been at the heart of the city ever since. Soon a little town grew up in the shadow of the castle, made up primarily of settlers from England. Cardiff had a population of between 1,500 and 2,000 in the Middle Ages, a relatively normal size for a Welsh town in this period. Robert Fitzhamon died in 1107, later his daughter Mabel, married Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, the illegitimate son of King Henry I of England. He built the first stone keep in Cardiff Castle, and he used it to imprison Robert II, Duke of Normandy from 1126 until his death in 1134, by order of King Henry I, who was the Duke's younger brother. During the same period Ralph "Prepositus de Kardi" ("Provost of Cardiff") took up office as the first Mayor of Cardiff. During this period after the Noman conquest they usually referred the leading figure by the Latin name of prepositus (English: provost) meaning "leading man". Robert (Earl of Gloucester) died in 1147 and was succeeded by his son William, 2nd Earl of Gloucester who died without male heir in 1183. The lordship of Cardiff then passed to Prince John, later King John through his marriage to Isabel, Countess of Gloucester, William's daughter. John divorced Isabel but retained the lordship until her second marriage; to Geoffrey FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville, 2nd Earl of Essex in 1214 until 1216 when the lordship passed to Gilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford.

Between 1158 and 1316 Cardiff was attacked on several occasions. Amongst the various attackers of the castle were Ifor Bach, who captured the Earl of Gloucester who at the time held the castle. Morgan ap Maredudd apparently attacked the settlement during the revolt of Madog ap Llywelyn in 1294. In 1316 Llywelyn Bren, Ifor Bach's great-grandson, also attacked Cardiff Castle as part of a revolt. He was illegally executed in the town in 1318 on the order of Hugh Despenser the Younger.

By the end of the 13th century, Cardiff was the only town in Wales with a population exceeding 2,000, but it was relatively small compared to most other notable towns in the Kingdom of England. Cardiff had an established port in the Middle Ages and by 1327, it was declared a Staple port. The town had weekly markets and after 1340, Cardiff also had 2 annual fairs, which drew traders from all around Glamorgan.

In 1404, Owain Glyndŵr burned Cardiff and took Cardiff Castle. As the town was still very small, most of the buildings were made of wood and the town was reduced to ashes. However, the town was rebuilt not long after and began to flourish once again.