The Wars of the Roses turn Denbigh from a Mortimer inheritance into a repeatedly contested Yorkist and Lancastrian stronghold. After Edmund Mortimer died childless, the property passed to Richard, Duke of York, and a Lancastrian battlefield victory enabled Jasper Tudor to force the garrison's surrender in 1460. Yorkist recovery then put William Herbert, Jasper's rival for the earldom of Pembroke, in charge. Jasper returned in 1468 but could not take the castle, so he burned the interior of the walled town instead. The destruction drove settlement away from the enclosure and effectively converted the abandoned town into an additional defensive zone, with Burgess Gate later serving as the town jail.
Chapter · 16:19-18:04
Wars of the Roses reshape Denbigh
Lancastrian and Yorkist changes of control culminate in Jasper Tudor burning the walled town, leaving its abandoned enclosure as an outer defense for the castle.