Earl of Leicester, and Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, at which each promised to aid the other in promoting the execution of their respective plans.  The King, who, with the Prince of Wales, was the Earl’s prisoner, was compelled

to renounce his rights, and the Castle was given up to Llewelyn.  On the suppression of de Montfort’s rebellion the Castle reverted to the Crown, and Llewelyn was called upon by the Papal Legate, Ottoboni, to surrender it.  This he at first declined, but being deserted by the Earl, who at the same time, in order to put an end to the conflict, offered to him his daughter Eleanor in marriage agreed afterwards to a treaty by which the Castle was to be destroyed, and Robert de Montalt to be reinstated in the possession of his lands in Hawarden, but to be restrained from restoring the fortification for thirty years.

This stipulation appears to have been violated, for in 1281 the Welsh rebelled, and under David and Llewelyn (who then made up their quarrel), an attack was made by night upon the Castle, then styled Castrum Regis, which was successful.  Roger de Clifford, Justiciary of Chester, was taken prisoner, and the Castle with much bloodshed and cruelty stormed and partly burnt on Palm Sunday.  The outrage was repeated in the next year (Nov. 6th, 1282), when the Justice’s elder son, also Roger Clifford, was slain.  Soon after this Llewelyn died, Wales was entirely subjugated, and David executed as a traitor.

To this period may most probably be assigned the present structure.  A Keep, such as that now standing is not likely to have been successfully assaulted in two successive years; nor does internal evidence favour the idea that it was the actual work taken by the Welsh.  Robert, the last of the Montalts, was a wealthy man, and in all probability it was during his Lordship, between 1297 and 1329, that the Castle, as we now see it, was built.  Though the unusual thickness of the walls of the Keep might be thought more in keeping with the Norman period,

the general details, as already stated, the polygonal mural gallery and interior, and the entrance, evidently parts of the original work, are very decidedly Edwardian.

Of the subsequent history of the Castle, we have unfortunately nothing to record until we come to the Civil War between Charles the First and the Parliament.  On Nov. 11th, 1643, Sir William Brereton, who had declared for the Parliament, appeared with his adherents at Hawarden Castle, where he was welcomed by Robert Ravenscroft and John Aldersey, who had charge of it in the name of the King.  Sir William established himself in the Castle, and harassed the garrison of Chester, which was for the King, by cutting off the supplies of coals, corn and other provisions, which they had formerly drawn from the neighbourhood.  Meanwhile the Archbishop of York, writing from Conway to the Duke of Ormond announced the betrayal of the Castle and appealed for assistance.  In response to this a force from Ireland was landed at Mostyn in the same month, and employed to reduce the fortress, garrisoned by 120 men of Sir Thomas Middleton’s Regiment.  The garrison received by a trumpet a verbal summons to surrender, which gave occasion to a correspondence, followed by a further and more peremptory summons from Captain Thomas Sandford, which ran as follows:—

Gentlemen: I presume you very well know or have heard of my condition and disposition; and that I neither give nor take quarter.  I am now with my Firelocks (who never yet neglected opportunity to correct rebels) ready to use you as I have done the Irish; but loth I am to spill my countrymen’s blood: wherefore by these I advise you to your fealty and obedience towards his Majesty; and show yourselves faithful subjects, by delivering the Castle into my hands for His Majesty’s use—otherwise if you put me to the least trouble or loss of blood to force you, expect no quarter

for man woman or child.  I hear you have some of our late Irish army in your company: they very well know me and that my Firelocks use not to parley.  Be not unadvised, but think of your liberty, for I vow all hopes of relief are taken from you; and our intents are not to starve you but to batter and storm you and then hang you all, and follow the rest of that rebellious crewe.  I am no bread-and-cheese rogue, but as ever a Loyalist, and will ever be while I can write or name

THOMAS SANDFORD,
Nov, 28, 1643.  Captain of Firelocks.

I expect your speedy answer this Tuesday night at Broadlane Hall, where I am now, your near neighbour.

Reinforcements having arrived from Chester, this was followed by a brisk attack on the 3rd December, whereupon the garrison being short of provisions, a white flag was hung out from the walls, and the Castle surrendered on the following day to Sir Michael Emley.  It was held by the Royalists for two years, but after the surrender of Chester, in Feb. 1646, Sir William Neal, the governor, capitulated (after receiving the King’s sanction—then at Oxford—) to Major-General Mytton after a month’s siege.  It was probably during these operations that the specimens of stone and iron cannon balls still remaining were used.

An entry in the Commons’ Journals refers to this last event, dated 16th March, 1645.

Ordered: That Mr. Fogge the Minister shall have the sum of £50 bestowed upon him for his pains in bringing the good news of the taking of the Castle of Hawarden; and that the Committee of Lords and Commons for advance of Moneys at Haberdashers’ Hall do pay the same accordingly.

The Lords’ concurrence to be desired herein.

In the following year there is an Order “That the Castles of Hawarden, Flint, and Ruthland be disgarrisoned

and demolished, all but a tower in Flint Castle, to be reserved for a gaol for the County”; and a confirmation of it follows in the next year, dated 19th July, 1647.

These orders were no doubt forthwith executed, and of Flint and Rhuddlan little now remains.  At Hawarden gunpowder has been used to blow up portions of the Keep.  Sir William Glynne, son of the Chief Justice, twenty or thirty years later, carried further the work of destruction.  Sir John Glynne, too, is said to have made free with the materials of the Castle, and certain it is that a vast amount has been carted away and used up in walls and for other purposes.  His successors, however, have done their utmost to make amends for these ravages, and to preserve the ruins from further injury.  The entrance and the winding stair by which the visitor mounts to the top of the Keep are a restoration skilfully effected not long ago under the direction of Mr. Shaw of Saddleworth.  The view embraces a wide range of country, North, East, and South, extending from Liverpool to the Wrekin: on the West it is bounded by Moel Fammau or Queen Mountain, on the summit of which is seen the remnant of the fallen obelisk raised to commemorate the 50th year of the reign of George III.  Round about lie the Woods and the Park, presenting a happy mixture of wild and pastoral beauty; while close beneath the Old stands the New Castle, affecting in its turreted outline some degree of congruity with its prototype, but much more contrasting with it in its home-like air, and the luxury of its lawns and flower-beds.

Not less striking is the view of the Ruins from below.  Here judgment and taste have combined with great natural advantages of position to produce an exceedingly picturesque effect.  From the flower garden a wide sweep

of lawn, flanked