Aberystwyth was both a coastal border town between northern and southern Wales and a critical Welsh port. Those roles explain why English rulers repeatedly sought to control it and why French envoys could reach it for Glyndŵr's treaty. From the twelfth through fourteenth centuries, a ruler secured such a strategic point by building a castle and placing troops inside it. Loyalty could come from trust or from the garrison's dependence on its patron.
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Castle and garrison as strategic control
Aberystwyth shows how a castle and dependable garrison converted control of a coastal border point and port into durable political power.