King Edward I and his castles in Wales

As history detectives, it is only natural that we would be curious about how people, places and things actually looked in long ago. For times before photography, we must rely on sketches, paintings, and other forms of artwork produced during the period we are studying. Below are two images of King Edward I, the English king who invaded Wales and strengthened his powerful hold over the country by building incredible castles and walled towns. Here are two images of Edward. The first is from a medieval manuscript created in the early 1300's, and the image is of King Edward and his queen,Eleanor of Castile. The second picture is a genealogy of Kings of Britain starting with Edward the Confessor and ending with a small picture of King Edward I. This is actually a page from a medieval manuscript produced in the 1200's. 

Above image of King Edward and Queen Eleanor of Castile from Wikipedia. The image below is from the Bodelian Library at the University of Oxford, displayed on the LUNA web site.

 

Here is a map of the castles King Edward I built in Wales. Go to this web site and find information about why Edward built these castles along the coast (hint: read the second paragraph):

 http://www.timeref.com/castedwd.htm