Cardiff Castle, Glamorgan. 337 Worcester, and Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, The Earl of Worcester married before 14 15-16, and died about 142 1, leaving a daughter, whose descendants became barons Le Despenser in her right, but who did not inherit Cardiff. Countess Isabel's chief works at Cardiff were probably executed after her second marriage, which took place before 1425. Her charter to Cardiff, as Countess of Worcester, in 1423, confirms those of her paternal ancestors. Her son, Henry, Duke of Warwick, succeeded his father in 1439, ^"^^ died in 1446. His heiress, Anne Beauchamp, had but a brief and nominal tenure of the seignory, dying in 1449, an infant of six years. The castle then descended to the representative of another Anne Beauchamp, sister and heiress to the duke. She married Richard Nevile, the great Earl of Salisbury and Warwick, who thus added Cardiff to his already extensive possessions. One of the town charters, dated Cardiff Castle, 12th March, 145 1, was granted by Richard, Earl of Warwick, Lord le Despenser, &c., and Anne his wife. Upon the earl's death, in 147 1, Cardiff Castle fell to Anne, his younger daughter and co-heir by Anne Beauchamp, in whose right her husband Richard, Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard HI., became lord of Cardiff Castle and the seignory, and in the latter capacity granted various charters and confirmations yet extant. Upon the fall and death of Richard, the claims by heirship were set aside and the castle and seignory escheated to the Crown. They were subsequently granted to Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford ; but on his death, in 1495, again became crown property. The seignory, with its "jura regalia" and prerogatives of marchership, was not again revived ; but Henry VH. and his son leased the lordship to Charles Somerset, who was residing at Cardiff in 1 5 1 3 ; and Edward VI. granted or sold the castle of Cardiff, with much of the landed estate and the manorial rights of the old seignory, to William Herbert, the first of the new earls of Pembroke, in whose heirs general the whole has since remained. The history of this long succession of powerful lords, most ot whom set their mark upon the great transactions of their age and country, has invested the castle with something of historical interest ; which, however, can scarcely be extended to the particulars of the building itself, the subject of the present paper. The castle of Cardiff stands upon the broad gravel plain between the rivers Taff and Rhymny, upon the left bank of, and two hundred yards from the former stream, at about the lowest point at which, in ordinary seasons, it is fordable. The position, having a river in front and rear, and the sea close upon the southern flank, is such as would be selected by a com- mander skilled in the art of war, and enclosed in an enemy's country ; and such as, with disciplined troops, would be impregnable. These conditions, the name of the place, and its position upon the well-known "via maritima," are suggestive of a Roman origin ; an opinion, indeed, but moderately supported by scanty discoveries z
