Powis Castle
Powis Castle is a medieval castle, fortress and grand country house near Welshpool, in Powys, Wales. The seat of the Herbert family, earls of Powis, the castle is known for its formal gardens and for its interiors, the former having been described as "the most important", and the latter "the most magnificent", in the country. The castle and gardens are under the care of the National Trust. Powis Castle is a Grade I listed building, while its gardens have their own Grade I listing on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
The present castle was built in the 13th century. Unusually for a castle on the Marches, it was constructed by a Welsh prince, Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, rather than by a Norman baron. Gruffydd was prince of the ancient Kingdom of Powys and maintained an alliance with the English king Edward I during the struggles of the later 13th century. He was able to secure the position of his son, Owain, although the kingdom itself was abolished by the Parliament of Shrewsbury in 1283. After his father's death, Owain was raised to the peerage as Owen de la Pole, 1st Lord of Powis. Following his own death, and the death of his only son, he was succeeded by his daughter, Hawys Gadarn, "the Lady of Powis". Hawys married Sir John Charlton in 1309.
In the late 16th century the castle was purchased by Sir Edward Herbert, a younger son of William Herbert, 1st earl of Pembroke, beginning a connection between the family and the castle that continues today. The Herberts remained Roman Catholic until the 18th century and, although rising in the peerage to earls, marquesses and Jacobite dukes of Powis, suffered periods of imprisonment and exile. Despite these setbacks, they were able in the late 17th and early 18th centuries to transform Powis from a border fortress into an aristocratic country house, and surround it with one of the very few extant examples of a British Baroque garden.
In 1784 Henrietta Herbert married Edward Clive, eldest son of Clive of India, a match which replenished the much-depleted Herbert family fortune. In the early 20th century, George Herbert, 4th Earl of Powis, redeveloped the castle with the assistance of the architect George Frederick Bodley. Herbert’s wife, Violet, undertook work of equal importance in the garden, seeking to turn it into "one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, in England and Wales". On the 4th Earl's death in 1952, his wife and his sons having predeceased him, the castle passed into the care of the National Trust.
History
First castles at Welshpool: 1111–1286
Unlike the castles at Conwy, Caernarfon, Harlech and nearby Montgomery, which were built by the English to subdue the Welsh, the castles at Welshpool were built by the Welsh princes of Powys Wenwynwyn as their dynastic seat. In addition to the current site, two motte-and-bailey castles and a set of earthworks are located nearby. The names Trallwg/Tallwm and Pola are used interchangeably in early primary sources, and it is unclear which of these sites is being referred to.The earliest reference dates from 1111, when Cadwgan ap Bleddyn is mentioned as having planned to construct a castle at Trallwng Llywelyn, the oldest record of a native Welsh castle. Domen Castell, a motte-and-bailey near the modern railway station, is considered the most likely site of Cadwgan's castle, although it is uncertain whether it was completed as he was assassinated the same year. The first documentary account of an extant castle at Welshpool is a description of the successful 1196 siege by an English army, although the castle was retaken by the Welsh within the year.
The earliest castle at the current site may have been a timber building constructed by Owain Cyfeiliog or his son, Gwenwynwyn. The present masonry structure contains 13th-century fabric, most likely the work of Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn – although historians are uncertain when this took place. In 1274, Gruffydd's "first castle" at Welshpool was destroyed by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd as punishment for his involvement in a scheme to assassinate Llywelyn. The castle was documented again in 1286, when it was listed amongst Gruffydd's possessions as "la Pole Castr". A detailed examination of Powis Castle's extant masonry carried out between 1987 and 1989 revealed early stonework incorporated into the later structure, putatively the remains of an early stone shell keep. At the end of Edward I's conquest of Wales in 1282–83, the king permitted Gruffydd to rebuild his castle at Welshpool as a reward for his loyalty.
Early history: 1286–1644
In 1286, four years after the conquest of Wales, Gruffydd's son, Owain ap Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn became the last hereditary prince of Powys when he renounced his royal title, and was granted the barony of de la Pole,. The ancient Kingdom of Powys had once included the counties of Montgomeryshire, much of Denbighshire, parts of Radnorshire and large areas of Shropshire, but by the 13th century had been reduced to two independent principalities – Powys Wenwynwyn and Powys Fadog – roughly equivalent to Montgomeryshire and South Denbighshire, respectively; Welshpool had become the capital of Powys Wenwynwyn, of which Owain had been heir. On the death of Owain, the castle passed to his daughter Hawys, who married Sir John Charlton. The Charltons continued to live at Powis until the fifteenth century when two daughters, Joyce Tiptoft and Joan Grey inherited the castle and estates. Both were equally divided, each daughter and her husband living in a portion of the castle.In 1578 an illegitimate son of the last Baron Grey of Powis, began leasing the lordship and castle to a distant relative – Sir Edward Herbert, second son of Sir William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke. Edward eventually bought the castle outright in 1587, beginning the connection between the Herberts and Powis Castle which continues today. Sir Edward's wife was a Roman Catholic and the family's allegiance to Rome and to the Stuart kings was to shape its destiny for over a century. Sir Edward began the transformation of Powis from a border fortress into an Elizabethan country house. The major remaining element of his work is the Long Gallery.
Herbert's descendent William Herbert, 1st Baron Powis, was a supporter of Charles I, and was granted the barony of Powis in 1629. His loyalty during the English Civil War cost him his castle and his estates. On 22 October 1644 Powis Castle was captured by Parliamentary troops and was not returned to the family until the restoration of Charles II in 1660.
The Herberts: 1660–1800
On the restoration, the Herberts returned to Powis, and in 1674 William Herbert was created Earl of Powis. The state bedroom was installed in about 1665 and further improvements, including the construction of the Great Staircase followed in the 1670s. These developments were most probably carried out under the direction of William Winde, who may also have designed the terraced gardens. His employer, although restored to his estates, and raised in the peerage, was barred by his Catholic faith from high office under Charles II. On the accession of the King's brother, James in 1685, Herbert became one of the new king's chief ministers, and was again advanced in the peerage becoming Marquess of Powis in 1687, but fell at the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and followed James into exile in France. William III granted the castle to his nephew, William Nassau de Zuylestein, 1st Earl of Rochford. Herbert died, still in exile, in 1696.Despite their 30-year exile, the Herberts were able to continue with developments at the castle and even to live there on an irregular basis, the Baroque water garden below the castle being completed at this time. Their fortunes were also materially improved by the discovery of a lucrative lead mine on their Welsh estates. The second Marquess, also William, was reinstated in 1722. On the death of his son, the third Marquess in 1748, the marquessate became extinct, while the castle and estates passed to a relative, Henry Herbert, of Oakly Park in Shropshire, who was made 1st Earl of Powis by George II. Herbert married Barbara, the fifteen-year-old granddaughter of the 2nd Marquess, in 1751. Their eldest son, George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis, died unmarried and the earldom of the second creation became extinct. Powis was much neglected during his tenure. John Byng, 5th Viscount Torrington, a diarist and traveller who chronicled his journeys into Wales in the 1780s and 1790s, described the castle in 1784, "In the gardens not even the fruit is attended to; the balustrades and terraces are falling down, and the horses graze on the parterres!!!" The castle itself was in no better condition, a visitor in 1774 describing it as "in Neglect and Ruin". Nonetheless, the potential of the site was recognised. George Lyttelton, the politician, poet and essayist, recorded his impressions in 1756, "About £3,000 laid out upon Powis Castle would make it the most august place in the Kingdom."
The Clives and Herberts: 1801–1952
In 1784, Henry Herbert's daughter, Henrietta, married Edward Clive, the eldest son of Clive of India. Clive had followed his father to India, and served as Governor of Madras. Henrietta's brother died in 1801, whereupon the title lapsed; in 1804, her husband was created first Earl of Powis. The Clive fortune paid for long overdue repairs to the castle, which were carried out by Sir Robert Smirke. Their son, Edward, inherited his late uncle's Powis estates on his 21st birthday, taking the surname Herbert in compliance with his uncle's will. Edward Herbert served in a range of administrations as an Anti-Catholic Tory, his speeches in the House of Commons being "cautious and pertinent, although marred by dull delivery". He died in 1848, following a shooting accident at Powis in which he was fatally injured by his second son. No further major changes were made to the Powis estate during his time, or in the long tenure of his eldest son Edward Herbert, 3rd Earl of Powis, although the castle was well maintained. In honour of his great-grandfather, the earl was offered the viceroyalty of India by Benjamin Disraeli but declined, writing "Not worth considering. Powis" on the envelope containing the invitation.The final alterations to Powis Castle were undertaken at the beginning of the 20th century by George Frederick Bodley for George Charles Herbert, 4th Earl of Powis. The rooms designed by Bodley remain his only extant decorative scheme; the longevity of the 4th Earl, the deaths of his heirs, and his bequest of the castle to the National Trust saw the early 20th-century remodelling remain largely unaltered. The 4th earl's wife, Violet, undertook the final transformation of the gardens of Powis Castle, which she felt had the potential to be "the most beautiful in England and Wales". The Countess died following a car accident in 1929, and Lord Powis outlived both his sons, who died on active service, Percy from wounds received at the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and Mervyn in a plane crash in 1943. On his own death in 1952, he bequeathed the castle and gardens to the National Trust.