Prince Henry (the future Henry V) burned the great Cistercian abbey of Strata Florida during a punitive campaign in Ceredigion in 1401. The abbey was the spiritual and cultural heart of Deheubarth — the burial place of Welsh princes, keeper of manuscripts, and centre of Welsh literary culture. The burning was partly accidental (soldiers stabled horses in the nave), but represented the brutality of English counter-insurgency in Wales. The surviving arch is one of the most evocative ruins in Wales.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in Britain — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
Research a location near Cardiganshire