Rivalling Britain’s secular lordships, the medieval religious hierarchy also controlled huge parcels of land and built great palaces and formidable castles to house themselves and perpetuate their position within a region. For example, the Bishops of St. Davids, who were the most powerful and prosperous ecclesiastical lords in West Wales, functioned as secular lords in their own right. Imbued by the English king with the proper legal authority, the bishops held courts, filled prisons, and maintained a gallows. As mobile bishops, they kept residences and facilities throughout southwestern Wales, as at Llawhadcn, where they located their administrative center at the barony’s castle, and at Lamphey, a manor hubbed by its own bishops’ palace. Featuring a twin-towered gatehouse, a towered curtain wall, a steepsided encompassing ditch, and a dungeon, Llawhaden Castle was as much a fortified residence as any of its secidar counterparts.
Further east at Cardiff, the Bishops of Llandaff also constructed a castle that overlooked the River Taff and served largely to provide defensive strength for the neighboring Llandaff Cathedral, just a few hundred yards to the north. From Llandaff Castle, the bisliops could watch over the activity' in the cathedral’s precinct. 'I’hc twin-towered castle gatehouse contained a prison in the eastern tower and guardrooms and living chambers in the western tower. Inside the gate passage, an arrowslit, porteidlis, and heavy timber doors safeguarded the clerics and their staff.
World History
