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new castle in Llywelyn's hands, and there can be little doubt that he was its builder. The history of the lordship of Brecon at this period is obscure, rendered worse by odd silences in the chronicles, and complicated by a singular three-handed state of war between Llywelyn, Humphrey de Bohun the younger, Lord of Brecon, and Edward himself. Llywelyn was engaged in conquering the lordship from Humphrey, but had become the ally of Simon de Montfort, to whose following Humphrey belonged; each of the three was thus in some degree the enemy of the other two. Llywelyn had entered Brecon in 1262 as a conqueror, and had attached the whole Welsh population to his cause.3 It takes more than popular fervour, however, to subdue a strong fortress, and it is quite uncertain when Brecon castle submitted to the Welsh; there are other strong castles in the lordship, held by under-tenants, whose position is even more obscure. At least it is plain that Brecon castle and borough were in Llywelyn's hands at the time of the treaty of Montgomery (1267),4 and in 1273 we find them in Welsh keeping, attacked by a younger Humphrey de Bohun and his allies.5 It seems fairly certain that the castle was holding out in 1264, when the Lord Edward took it for the first time, together with Hay and Huntingdon, Bohun strongholds which Llewelyn never captured.6 This looks like a campaign against the Montfortian lord rather than against Llywelyn, whom Edward would probably have preferred to leave alone. In 1265 his capture of the same three castles was part of the English civil war he was fighting, but Llywelyn was now thoroughly concerned in this, and his new castle was destroyed, most likely by English hands. The function of the new castle is plain enough if we suppose Brecon itself to have remained in English hands from 1262 to 1265 it supplied a centre of influence for the prince in his new conquest, to which, and not to beleaguered Brecon, his vassals could render suit and service. On the understanding that Brecon had fallen, it is impossible to explain the building of an extra castle Welsh rulers needed fewer strongholds than English, not more. The identification of the tower on Mynydd Illtud with Llywelyn's new castle seems fairly certain. The "new castle" certainly lay to the west of Brecon that is what ultra Breckoniam would mean to a chronicler living in Sussex; and the west-to-east movement of Edward's forces indicated in the series of captures Brecon-Hay-Huntington supports this view. In the 1260's a new castle is likely to have been a masonry structure, 3 Brut y Tywysogion for 1262. 4 See Edwards, Littere Wallie (Cardiff University Press, 1940) 1. 6 Cal. Close Rolls, 56. 6 Rishanger (Rolh Series, 28, 2) 13 Flores Historiarum (Rolls Series, 95) ii, 486.