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Medieval Castles
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| Rhuddlan Castle's imposing towers
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From Flint the king pushed on to build a castle at Rhuddlan. Rhuddlan already had a motte and bailey castle which was presumably used to guard the building of the stone castle.
James of St. George
The master mason, James of St. George, was placed in charge of the building works of Rhuddlan and Flint before it. In the 1260s, James of St.George learned his trade from his father, building castles for Edward's kinsmen, the Counts of Savoy in Switzerland and France. James took his name from St. Georges-d'Esperanche, one of the castles he worked on. Edward probably first met James when he was returning from the crusades in 1273 and visited the Counts of St. Georges-d'Esperanche where James was still in service. Presumably Edward was impressed with the castle and later employed James. After Rhuddlan, James of St. George was in charge of building the other Welsh castles; Conway, Caernarvon, Harlech and Beaumaris. As a master mason, James had considerable status and was paid more than the King paid his household knights.
Concentric Castles
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| Rhuddlan Castle
| Most of the castles were built on a plan that is now referred to as concentric. An inner curtain wall was surrounded by an outer curtain wall that was surrounded by a ditch and then a wooden palisade, creating successive lines of defence. Inner walls were higher than outer walls; this was so that defenders on the inner wall could fire at the enemy over the heads of the defenders on the outer wall. Rhuddlan was based on the concentric plan; it was rectangular with gatehouses on opposite corners.
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