WELSH CASTLE BUILDERS: The Savoyard Style

The Edwardian castles of north Wales were built by a Savoyard master mason, but also by many other artisans from Savoy. What is more extraordinary is that the constables of Flint, Rhuddlan, Conwy and Harlech were also Savoyards, the Justiciar and Deputy Justiciar of Caernarfon were Savoyards, and the head of an English army leading the relief of the sieges of Flint and Rhuddlan was a future Count of Savoy. The explanatory story is fundamentally of two men, the builder of castles, Master James of St George and Justiciar Sir Orthon de Grandson, and the relationship of these two men with King Edward I. But it is also the story that begins with the marriage of Alianor de Provence to Edward's father Henry III and the influx of her kinsmen to England, such as Pierre de Savoie. The defining work of Arnold Taylor in exploring the Savoyard history of Welsh castles has here been revisited and expanded upon in a new publication complete with maps, extensive Notes and 16 pages of colour plates and castle plans. 320pp.