The Impact of the Edwardian Castles in Wales publishes the proceedings of a conference held in 2007 a year that marked the  seventh centenary of the death of King Edward I which set out to  review recent scholarship on castles that he built in north Wales  after two wars, in 1277 and 1282-83 and a Welsh uprising in  1294-95, and to rethink the effect that their building had upon  Wales in the past, present and future.

    

Building upon the seminal work of Arnold Taylor, whose study  of the buildings and documentary evidence has been pivotal to  Edwardian castle studies for more than fifty years, the volume  includes papers which call into question the role of Master James  of St George as the architect of the kings new castles; the role  of Richard the Engineer, the nature of royal accommodation in the  thirteenth century and a detailed look at how households worked,  especially in the kitchen and accounting departments.

    

New approaches to castle studies are encouraging a more  holistic understanding of the Edwardian castles and their context  and to this end papers consider their impact on Welsh society and  its princes in the thirteenth century, notably Llywelyn ab  Iorwerth ( Fawr , the Great) and his grandson, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, prince of Wales. Their symbolism and meaning through  the words of Welsh poets and the mythology behind Caernarfon  Castle are also examined, so too is the role of Welshmen in  Edward Is armies. The wider context is considered with papers on  the Edwardian towns in Wales, the baronial castles in north Wales  and Edward I in Scotland and Gascony. The castles still have  powerful resonance and the Minister for Heritage in the Welsh  Assembly Government considers their role and presentation in  Wales today and in the future. Robert Liddiard concludes that the  volume 'not only takes our knowledge of the Edwardian castles  forward, but also informs the study of castles in the British  Isles'.