In 1277, King Edward I of England defeated Llywelyn ap Gryffydd, the last Welsh Prince of Wales, bringing together the two countries under one crown, which has been an extraordinarily successful union for both countries for nearly three-quarters of a millennium. In a new “anti-racist guidance,” however, from a body which has charged itself with identifying statues and monuments that supposedly “glorify colonialism and slavery,” Edward I’s Welsh castles are now deemed “problematic”—the word woke historians use to describe anything they dislike.
The massive and splendid Welsh castles of Conway, Beaumaris, Caernarvon, and Harlech were built to defend the new union of England and Wales, which they did very successfully. They were the first to be built with thin arrow-slits and on concentric patterns, ideas learnt from the Crusades. As the Welsh swiftly adapted to the union, from which they benefitted enormously over the next seven centuries, the castles often became administrative hubs, which explains why they are in such fine condition today.
How dare the Welsh not thank the English for their lovely castles. They’ll be wanting their own language next.