Flint Castle North Wales - Turner - Framed Print - 16"H x 20"W

Flint Castle North Wales - Turner - Framed Print - 16"H x 20"W

Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA  was an English Romanticist landscape painter. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting.

Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is commonly known as "the painter of light" and his work is regarded as a Romantic preface to Impressionism.

Flint Castle located in Flint, Flintshire, was the first of a series of castles built during King Edward I's campaign to conquer Wales.

The site was chosen for its strategic position in North East Wales. The castle was only one day's march from Chester, supplies could be brought along the River Dee and there was by a ford across to England that could be used at low tide.

Building work began in 1277 under Richard L'Engenour, who would later become Mayor of Chester. In November 1280, the Savoyard master mason James of Saint George began overseeing construction at Flint, then moved onto Rhuddlan to oversee its completion.

The castle is based on medieval French or Savoyard models where one of the corner towers is enlarged and isolated. This independent structure served as both corner tower and keep or donjon,. Flint's keep has been compared to the donjon at Aigues-Mortes, France. Edward I would have been familiar with Aigues-Mortes having passed through the fortress on the way to join the Eighth Crusade in 1270.

Flint's design was not repeated in any other castle built by Edward I in North Wales. The layout at Flint remains unique within the British Isles.

Flint was the first castle of what would later become known as Edward I's "Iron Ring".