James of St George and the Castles of the Welsh Wars

Notwithstanding the fact that this book is published by Pen & Sword Military, this book is not a military history. It is an architectural history, it is not a history of the individual castles featured in the book and certainly in no sense a history of the Welsh Wars.The object of the book is an attempt to identify the Master Mason responsible for the physical design & construction of the castles described in the book. Due to the lack of available documentation evidence (save in the case of Master St James) the author is forced to rely upon stylistic comparisons. Such analysis is inherently weak because of the co-ownership of many of the castles and the fact that the nobility would no doubt visit each other’s castles and copy designs when they came to build or renovate their own castles.In my view, the object of the book is not one of interest for the general reader. The book could have benefited by an analysis of the time required to build the individual castles, the skills, man hours and cost of the castles.On the positive side, the book covers a wide range of castles & is no way limited to the famous 4 Edwardian castles of north Wales. Having introduced the work of St James in Savoy, the book covers castles throughout Wales both Royal and Baronial & also the limited Involvement of Edward I in Scotland. There are excellent plans of all the castles described and the photographs are outstanding and justify the purchase of the book.Conclusion- I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to those with an interest in castles.For the history of the individual castles and in particular for reconstruction drawings of Welsh castles, I would recommend any reader to the excellent guides published by Cadw. For the history of the Welsh wars, a good starting point would be Edward I, A Great and Terrible King and the Forging of Britain by Marc Morris.

This is a great book. Its extremely comprehensive, discussing the context in which Edward I's Welsh castles were built and looking, not only at those great monuments but also at those of contemporaries. That includes the Welsh themselves, the Marcher lords and also delves into the Continent. Edward's castle-building and -influencing in Scotland is also dealt with. The historical background sets it all in perspective, and the photographs actually illustrate the text instead of just looking pretty. Highly recommended.

fine