Caerleon
Caerleon is a town and community in Newport, Wales. Situated on the River Usk, it lies northeast of Newport city centre, and southeast of Cwmbran. Caerleon is of archaeological importance, being the site of a notable Roman legionary fortress, Isca Augusta, and an Iron Age hillfort. Close to the remains of Isca Augusta are the National Roman Legion Museum and the Roman Baths Museum. The town also has strong historical and literary associations: Geoffrey of Monmouth elevated the significance of Caerleon as a major centre of British history in his Historia Regum Britanniae, and Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote Idylls of the King while staying in Caerleon.
History
Pre-Roman history
The area around Caerleon is of considerable archaeological interest, with a number of important Neolithic sites. By the Iron Age, the area was home to the powerful Silures tribe and appears to have been the centre of a wealthy trading network, both manufacturing and importing La Tène style goods. From the 5th century BC, the town was the location of a great Iron Age hillfort crowning a hill overlooking the River Usk and what would become the Roman port. The hillfort at Lodge Wood Camp is defended by three lines of massive ramparts and ditches, and is the largest fortified enclosure in South Wales.The excavation in 2000 found that the hillfort had been continuously occupied from its founding in the 5th century BC until the construction and occupation of Isca Augusta around 78 AD. There is no evidence that the fort was taken militarily, and the abandonment of the fort may have been part of the terms of peace. The fort was reoccupied during the Roman period and remained in use following the end of Roman rule in Britain, suggesting that some version of the Pre-Roman society survived the occupation.
Roman era
Caerleon is the location of a Roman legionary fortress or castra. It was the headquarters for Legio II Augusta from about 75 to 300 AD, and on the hill above was the site of an Iron Age hillfort. The Romans called the site Isca after the River Usk. The name Caerleon may derive from the Welsh for "fortress of the legion"; around 800 AD it was referred to as Cair Legeion guar Uisc.Image:Roman amphitheatre at Caerleon and the surrounding archaeological features.jpg|right|thumb|A lidar view of the amphitheatre and the surrounding archaeological features.
Substantial excavated Roman remains can be seen, including the military amphitheatre, thermae and barracks occupied by the Roman legion. In August 2011 the remains of a Roman harbour were discovered in Caerleon. According to Gildas, followed by Bede, Roman Caerleon was the site of two early Christian martyrdoms, those of Julius and Aaron. Recent finds suggest Roman occupation of some kind as late as AD 380. Roman remains have also been discovered at The Mynde, itself a distinctive historical site.
Middle Ages
Caerleon features extensively in Medieval Welsh literature and Welsh Mythology, often as a model city against which other settlements are compared. When discussing the disastrous flooding of Cantre'r Gwaelod in the time of Ambrosius Aurelianus, the author of the Triads of the Island of Britain notes that Medieval Caerleon is an exceptional city, "superior to all the towns and fortifications in Cambria".Medieval Caerleon would remain an important administrative and religious centre for the Kingdom of Gwent, and was an early Metropolitan See associated with Saint Dubricius. At the Synod of Brefi in 545 AD, Dubricius is said to have given the See of Caerleon to Saint David, who would later move the seat to Mynyw. Caerleon was also the location of the Synod of Victory, officiated by Saint David around 569 AD.
Another medieval saint, Cadoc, is associated with the church built over the principia. Saint Cadoc's Church, is one of many churches associated with Cadoc's travels, and may have been the location of a monastic cell in the 6th century.
Norman era
A Norman-style motte and bailey castle was built outside the eastern corner of the old Roman fort, possibly by the Welsh Lord of Caerleon, Caradog ap Gruffydd. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded that a small colony of eight carucates of land in the jurisdiction of Caerleon, seemingly just within the Welsh Lordship of Gwynllwg, was held by Turstin FitzRolf, standard bearer to William the Conqueror at Hastings, subject to William d'Ecouis, a magnate of unknown antecedents with lands in Hereford, Norfolk and other counties. Also listed on the manor were three Welshmen with as many ploughs and carucates, who continued their Welsh customs. Caerleon itself may have remained in Welsh hands, or may have changed hands frequently.From the apparent banishment of Turstin by William II, Turstin's lands were transferred in 1088 by Wynebald de Ballon, brother of Hamelin de Ballon who held Abergavenny further up the River Usk. At about the same time, Wynebald's lands may have passed via his daughter to Henry Newmarch, possible illegitimate son of Bernard de Newmarch, In c. 1155 the Welsh Lord of Caerleon, Morgan ab Owain, grandson of King Caradog ap Gruffudd, was recognized by Henry II. Subsequently, Caerleon remained in Welsh hands, subject to occasional battles with the Normans. Caerleon was an important market and port and possibly became a borough by 1171, although no independent charters exist. In 1171 Iorwerth ab Owain and his two sons destroyed the town of Caerleon and burned the castle. Both castle and borough were seized by William Marshal from Morgan ap Hywel in 1217 and Caerleon castle was rebuilt in stone. The remains of many of the old Roman buildings stood to some height until this time and were probably demolished for their building materials.
Glyndŵr Rising
During the Glyndŵr Rising in 1402 Rhys Gethin, general for Owain Glyndŵr, took Caerleon castle by force, together with those of Newport, Cardiff, Llandaff, Abergavenny, Caerphilly and Usk. This was probably the last time Caerleon castle was ruined, though the walls were still standing in 1537 and the castle ruins only finally collapsed in 1739: their most obvious remnant is the Round Tower at the Hanbury Arms public house. The Tower is a Grade II* listed building.English Civil War
Across the Afon Lwyd from Caerleon, in the region of Penrhos Farm, are two Civil War forts. In 1648 Oliver Cromwell's troops camped overnight on Christchurch Hill, overlooking Newport, before their attack on Newport Castle the next day.18th and 19th centuries
The old wooden bridge was destroyed in a storm in 1779 and the present stone bridge was erected in the early 19th century. Until the Victorian development of the downstream docks at Newport Docks, Caerleon acted as the major port on the River Usk. The wharf was located on the right bank, to the west of today's river bridge which marked the limit of navigability for masted ships. A tinplate works and mills were established on the outskirts of the town, in Ponthir, around this time, and Caerleon expanded to become almost joined to Newport. A plaque on the Mynde wall in High Street references the Newport Rising of 1839 in which John Frost of Newport was a prominent figure in the Chartist movement. John Jenkins, owner of Mynde House and owner of Ponthir Tinplate Works, built the wall to keep demonstrators out. The name of the former Drovers' Arms on Goldcroft Common bore witness to the ancient drovers' road on the old road from Malpas. It is thought that the common itself was once the site of a cattle market.Modern histories
An informative and wide-ranging history of Caerleon was published in 1970 by local amateur historian Primrose Hockey MBE, who was a founder member of Caerleon Local History Society. An archive of her local history collection is kept by the Gwent Record Office.In Welsh mythology and literature
Welsh mythology
Caerleon features frequently in various works connected with Welsh mythology and Medieval Welsh literature.In book three of his Historia Regum Britanniæ, Geoffrey of Monmouth gives the founder of the city as Belinus, the mythical King of the Britons. According to Geoffrey, Belinus repaired and founded many cities during a period of great wealth; he named this city "Caerosc", and it became the most important of all the new cities he founded. Geoffrey also states that Belinus' son and heir, Gurguit Barbtruc was buried in Caerleon, which he fortified with walls and ornamented with new buildings.
Caerleon is also associated the legends around Dubricius and Saint David, and was commonly believed to be one of the earliest Metropolitan Sees in the Province of Britannia. In the Prophetiae Merlini, Geoffrey stated that "St David's shall put on the pall of the City of Legions"; and most accounts state that Dubricius gave the see of Caerleon to St David voluntarily. David then translated the bishopric to Mynyw. Indeed in describing St David's death, Geoffrey describes him as "The pious archbishop of Legions, at the city of Menevia."
Arthurian legend
In his 1191 Itinerarium Cambriae, written about a tour of Wales in 1188 to recruit for the Third Crusade, the author Gerald of Wales says of Caerleon, "the Roman ambassadors here received their audience at the court of the great king Arthur."Geoffrey makes Arthur's capital Caerleon and Thomas Malory has Arthur re-crowned there. The still extant amphitheatre at Caerleon has been associated with Arthur's 'Round Table; and has been suggested as a possible source for the legend.
For it was located in a delightful spot in Glamorgan, on the River Usk, not far from the Severn Sea. Abounding in wealth more than other cities, it was suited for such a ceremony. For the noble river I have named flows along it on one side, upon which the kings and princes who would be coming from overseas could be carried by ship. But on the other side, protected by meadow and woods, it was remarkable for royal palaces, so that it imitated Rome in the golden roofs of its buildings... Famous for so many pleasant features, Caerleon was made ready for the announced feast.
Though the huge scale of the ruins, along with Caerleon's importance as an urban centre in early medieval Kingdom of Gwent, may have inspired Geoffrey, the main historical source for Arthur's link with "the camp of the legion" is the list of the twelve battles of Arthur in the 9th-century Historia Brittonum. However the "urbs legionis" mentioned there may be Chester - or even York. "Camelot" first appears in Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot, though Chrétien also mentions Caerleon.
Caerleon also has associations with later Arthurian literature as the birthplace of the writer Arthur Machen who often used it as a location in his work. Alfred Tennyson lodged at The Hanbury Arms while he wrote his Morte d'Arthur. Today Caerleon has a modern statue of a knight, "The Hanbury Knight", in reflecting stainless steel by Belgian sculptor Thierry Lauwers. In Michael Morpurgo's novel Arthur, High King of Britain, Caerleon is the castle where Arthur unknowingly commits incest with his half-sister Morgaine, resulting in the conception of his son Mordred who will later bring about his downfall. Mary Stewart's account of the Arthurian legends also mentions Caerleon as a place where Arthur held court. In that telling, the incest took place at Luguvalium.