FLINT, an ancient borough town and the capital of the shire, is situated
upon the banks of the navigable estuary of the river Dee, and was
anciently an important military position and valuable maritime situation.
It was probably a Roman citadel or encampment, afterwards adopted by the
ancient British as being happily circumstanced both for commerce and
secure habitation; and, lastly, selected by the conqueror of Wales,
Edward the First, as an appropriate site for the erection and
establishment of a vast military depôt. The borough was erected in the
year 1283, and is contributory with Holywell, Rhuddlan, Caerwys,
Caergwrle, and St. Asaph in returning one member to parliament. The
decay of trade here, and the vast increase of commercial prosperity in
the vicinity of Mold, in addition to its more central position, have
occasioned the transfer of the great sessions from Flint to that town.
Here, however, all prisoners are confined, and the county jail, an
admired and clever design by Turner, stands in a healthy elevated
position within the courtyard, of the ancient castle. Provision has been
made in the interior for the infliction of that most cruel of all species
of earthly punishments, solitary confinement; but the habitual morality
of the Cambrians has superseded the necessity of its operation, and the
constitution of Britain, which disclaims all species of torture, must
assuredly shrink from this, the most merciless of all. The following
inscription, which is engraven on a tablet above the principal gate, was
written by the learned and accomplished Mr. Pennant:—
“In the twenty-fifth year of his Majesty, George the Third, in the
Sheriffalty of Thomas Hanmer, Bart. this prison was erected, instead
of the ancient loathsome place of confinement, in pity to the misery
of even the most guilty, to alleviate the sufferings of lesser
offenders, or of the innocent themselves, whom the chances of human
life may bring within these walls. Done at the expense of the
country: aided by the subscriptions of several of the gentry, who, in
the midst of most distressful days, voluntarily took upon themselves
part of the burden, in compassion to such of their countrymen on whom
fortune had been less bounteous of her favours.”
The castle, build by Edward the First, and the outer walls of which are
still entire, is placed upon a freestone rock jutting into the river Dee,
in a north-east direction from the town, with which it was originally
connected by a drawbridge falling against the barbacan, a fine remain of
the Norman style, but now nearly demolished. The first design consisted
of a square building, flanked at three corners by massive towers, with a
keep or citadel, called the double tower, removed a little distance from
the remaining angle of the square. This must have been an inaccessible
prison before the invention of gunpowder; it was approached from the
castle court by a drawbridge, and was formed by concentric walls six feet
in thickness, the intermural gallery being eight feet wide, and
encircling a central apartment of about twenty feet in diameter.
The foundation of Flint Castle is attributed by all chroniclers to Edward
the First, and dated in 1275. About six years after its completion it
was surprised, and nearly wrested from Edward, in a sudden insurrection
of the Welsh, and was only relieved by the greatest activity and courage
on the part of the English king. The reception of Piers Gaveston, in the
year 1302, was the next historic event of consequence that occurred here,
this was followed by the appointment of the Black Prince as governor,
A.D. 1335. In the year 1385 Flint Castle, with some lands of the Lord
Audley, were granted, by Richard the Second, to De Vere, Earl of Oxford,
whom he farther honoured by creating Earl of Dublin and Lord Chief
Justice of Chester. On the attainder of De Vere, Percy, Earl of
Northumberland, extorted a grant of this castle from his unsuspecting
monarch, where he afterwards basely betrayed him into the hands of his
rival Bolingbroke.
Richard was in Ireland when he received an invitation from the
treacherous Percy to meet his rival, who professed his only objects to be
the restoration of his property, inquiry into the death of his uncle, and
that the kingdom should be allowed a parliament. To all which reasonable
requests the king consented; and passing over to Conway, and thence, at
the pressing solicitation of the false Northumberland who accompanied
him, advancing towards Flint, he met, in the recesses of the hills at
Penmaen Rhôs, a party of soldiers assembled. At length, perceiving that
treachery was meant, he attempted to turn his horse round, but Percy
springing forward, grasped the bridle, and in this forcible manner
conducted him to Rhuddlan Castle, where they dined, and thence to Flint.
Stowe details the interview at Flint between Richard and Lancaster in the
following circumstantial manner: “The Duke of Lancaster entered the
castle all armed, his helmet excepted; King Richard came down to meet
him, and the Duke, as soon as he saw the king, fell on his knees, and
coming nearer unto him, he kneeled a second time, with his hat in his
hand; and the king then put off his hoode, and spoke first. ‘Fair cousin
of Lancaster, you are right wellcome.’ The duke, bowing low to the
ground, answered, ‘My lord, I am come before you sent for me, the reason
why I will shewe you. The common fame among your people is such, that ye
have for the space of twenty, or two and twenty, years ruled them very
rigorously: but, if it please our lord, I will helpe you to govern
better.’ The king answered, ‘Fair cousin of Lancaster, sith it pleaseth
you, it pleaseth me well!’ The duke then, with a high sharp voyce, bad
bring forth the king’s horses, and two little naggs, not worth fourtie
franks, were brought forthe; the king was set on the one, and the Earl of
Salisbury on the other; and thus the duke brought them from Flint to
Chester; from whence, after one night’s rest, they were conveyed to
London.”
In the civil wars of Charles the First’s reign this fortress was
garrisoned for the king, having been repaired at the expense of Sir Roger
Mostyn, the governor. It was closely invested in 1643, by Colonel
Brereton and Sir Thomas Myddleton, and held out until compelled to
surrender from want of food and ammunition, having obtained from the
enemy the most honourable conditions. The royalists a second time crept
into possession, and defended themselves for a while, but yielded at last
to the disciplined forces of General Mytton. In the month of December,
1646, the castles of Flint, Hawarden, and several others in the
principality, were dismantled by the orders of parliament.