Beyond the CASTLE WALLS

Sitting on the long-contested Welsh border, Monmouthshire was once a place of violent turmoil. Now it’s all scenic landscapes and bustling market towns – but nine fortresses remain to tell the story

CATHERINE JONES

“Cry ‘God for Harry, England and Saint George!’” Shakespeare’s Henry V famously exhorts his troops before routing the French at the Battle of Agincourt. But while the Bard of Stratford had his warrior king nail his colours firmly to the red cross of England’s patron saint, Henry V was actually Welsh, born in the gatehouse of Monmouth Castle, while his father Henry Bolingbroke was out hunting in the surrounding countryside. The historic town lends its name to the wider county of Monmouthshire, which rose from the ancient Kingdom of Gwent in the Welsh Marches – the border country flanking Offa’s Dyke which for centuries marked the boundary between England and Wales, and from behind which native Britons saw off their Anglo-Saxon neighbours. So embattled was this corner of the sceptred…

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Britain (Digital) - 1 Issue, Britain 2025

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