VIII. Copy of a Roll of the Expenses of King Edward the First at Rhuddlan Castle, in Wales, in the tenth and eleventh years of his reign, remaining among the Records in the Tower; communicated by Samuel Lysons, Esq. F.R.S. Director: with a Translation, by the Rev. John Brand, M.A. Secretary

Abstract

It was in 1281, in the tenth year of the reign of King Edward the First, that Lewellin, prince of Wales, endeavoured to throw off the English yoke; and commenced a revolt by seizing the castle of Hawarden, in Flintshire; and laying siege to the castles of Flint and Rhuddlan. On the 6th of April, the king being then at Devizes, summoned his barons, and other military tenants, to attend him at Worcester on Whitsunday following, in order to proceed against the Welsh; and afterwards, by a second summons, dated from Hartlebury, near Worcester, called upon them in greater numbers to attend him, properly equipped, at Rothelan, on Sunday, on the morrow of the feast of St. Peter ad Vincula.† Rhuddlan, or as it is called in the records, Rothelan Castle, appears to have been the head quarters of the king during this expedition; and most of his orders, entered on the Rotuli Walliœ, of the tenth and elventh years of his reign, are dated thence. This roll of expences, which was discovered in 1805, among the unsorted records in the White Tower, consists of four membranes, containing the particulars of the sums paid to the carpenters, masons, smiths, and other workmen employed at the Castle, which no doubt had great additions made to it on this occasion. The wages also of archers and sailors, and of mowers and haymakers, are here detailed under separate heads; besides a great variety of articles under the head of necessaries.