We drove into central Wales. Years ago I became fascinated by 'Llewellyn the Great' & 'Llewellyn the Last'. I decided to reread the book (Alexander enjoyed it too) and find physical traces of this history. Thus we arrived at Castell-y-Bere..

Llywelyn ap Gruffydd or Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf (c. 1223 – 11 December 1282)—meaning Llywelyn, Our Last Leader—was the last prince of an independent Wales before its conquest by Edward I of England. He is sometimes called Llywelyn III of Gwynedd or Llywelyn II of Wales.
Llywelyn was the second of the four sons of Gruffydd, the eldest son of Llywelyn the Great.
Besides an elder brother (Owain Goch ap Gruffydd ), Llywelyn had two younger brothers, Dafydd ap Gruffydd and Rhodri ap Gruffydd.
Llywelyn and Owain came to terms with King Henry and achieved a truce in 1247. The terms they were forced to accept restricted them to Gwynedd Uwch Conwy, the part of Gwynedd west of the River Conwy.
When Dafydd ap Gruffudd came of age, King Henry accepted his homage and announced his intention of giving him a part of the already much reduced Gwynedd. Llywelyn refused to accept this, and Owain and Dafydd formed an alliance against him. This led to the Battle of Bryn Derwin in June 1255. Llywelyn defeated Owain and Dafydd and captured them, thereby becoming sole ruler of Gwynedd Uwch Conwy.
In 1263, Llywelyn's brother Dafydd went over to King Henry.
In England, Simon de Montfort (the Younger) defeated the king's supporters at the Battle of Lewes in 1264, capturing the king and Prince Edward. Llywelyn began negotiations with de Montfort, and in 1265 offered him the sum of 30,000 marks in exchange for a permanent peace, in which Llywelyn's right to rule Wales would be acknowledged.
De Montfort died at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. After Simon de Montfort's death, Llywelyn launched a fast campaign in order to rapidly gain a bargaining position before King Henry had fully recovered. Llywelyn opened negotiations with the king, and was eventually recognised as Prince of Wales by King Henry in the Treaty of Montgomery in 1267.
Following the death of King Henry in late 1272, with the new King Edward I of England away from the kingdom, the rule fell on three men, one of whom, Roger Mortimer was one of Llywelyn's rivals in the marches.
However, Llywelyn's territorial ambitions gradually made him unpopular with some of the minor Welsh leaders, particularly the princes of south Wales. Llywelyn was also finding it difficult to raise the annual sums required under the terms of this treaty, and ceased making payments.
Llywelyn also made an enemy of King Edward by continuing to ally himself with the family of Simon de Montfort, even though their power was now greatly reduced. Llywelyn sought to marry Eleanor de Montfort, Simon de Montfort's daughter. They were married by proxy in 1275, but King Edward took exception to the marriage, in part because Eleanor was part of his own royal family; her mother was Eleanor of England, daughter of King John and princess of the House of Plantagenet. When Eleanor sailed from France to meet Llywelyn, Edward hired pirates to seize her ship and she was imprisoned at Windsor Castle until Llywelyn made certain concessions.
In 1276, Edward declared Llywelyn a rebel and in 1277 gathered an enormous army to march against him.
Edward was supported by Dafydd ap Gruffydd and Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, and many of the lesser Welsh princes who had supported Llywelyn now hastened to make peace with Edward. By the summer of 1277, Edward's forces had reached the River Conwy and encamped at Deganwy, while another force had captured Anglesey and taken possession of the harvest there. This deprived Llywelyn and his men of food, forcing them to seek terms.

Llywelyn was forced to acknowledge the English King as his own sovereign; initially he had refused, but after the events of 1276, Llywelyn was stripped of all but a small portion of his lands. He went to meet Edward, and found Eleanor lodged with the royal family at Worcester; after Llywelyn gave in to the king's assorted demands, Edward gave them permission to be married at Worcester Cathedral. By all accounts, the marriage was a genuine love match; Llywelyn is not known to have fathered any illegitimate children, which is extremely unusual for the Welsh royalty.

On or about 19 June 1282, his wife Eleanor de Montfort died in giving birth to a daughter Gwenllian.
By early 1282 many of the lesser princes who had supported Edward against Llywelyn in 1277 were becoming disillusioned with the exactions of the royal officers. On Palm Sunday that year Dafydd ap Gruffydd attacked the English at Hawarden castle, and then laid siege to Rhuddlan. The revolt quickly spread to other parts of Wales. Llywelyn, according to a letter he sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury John Peckham, had not been involved in the planning of the revolt. However he felt obliged to support his brother, and a war began for which the Welsh were ill-prepared.

Events followed a similar pattern to 1277, with Edward's forces capturing Gwynedd Is Conwy and again capturing Anglesey and taking the harvest.
Llywelyn now left Dafydd to lead the defence of Gwynedd and took a force southwards to try to rally support in mid and south Wales and open up an important second front. During the Battle of Orewin Bridge at Builth Wells he was killed while separated from his army; Llywelyn was tricked into leaving the bulk of his army and was then attacked and killed.
[Wikipedia, more...]

I greatly enjoyed the books on this subject by Susan Penman: "Here be Dragons", "Falls the Shadow" & "the Reckoning".

Steering towards Dover, we intended to visit the castle at Chilham. Unfortunately, the castle was no longer open for the public. The pub was...

Chilham is a parish in the English county of Kent. Visited by tourists worldwide, it is known for its beauty.
Chilham has been a location for a number of films and television dramas. In particular it hosted the 1944 film by Michael Powell and Emeric Presburger, A Canterbury Tale (1944).
There are two pubs, the Woolpack and the White Horse.
The Church is a Norman structure and it is believed that Thomas Becket was buried in the churchyard. In 2009, Chilham was the location for filming of Emma, an adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Emma. The programme will be broadcast by the BBC in autumn 2009.

The church had a fundraiser going on so we enjoyed some tea and biscuits among the gravestones...

We visited another castle, Knole Castle and did some plane spotting at London-Gatwick Int'l Airport.
It had been a busy trip (16 visits to aviation related subjects and 7 castles), seen plenty, met up with friends and returned with a good bounty of books (loads!).
The ferry could not dock at Dover because of poblems with a docking system and instead diverted to Calais, ending this trip on a slightly adventurous note.