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The Lords of Gower
For centuries, the lord of Gower, with his chief castle at nearby Swansea, also owned Oystermouth. In the twelfth century this meant mainly the family of the first Earl of Warwick, but in 1203 King John gave Gower to William de Braose. The de Braose family, notably John and two more Williams, ruled Gower until the 1320s. WH Jones, the historian of Swansea, summed them up like this: "The de Braoses were a licentious clan of freebooters, who appear to have been so habituated to duplicity and chicanery as to render it impossible to be straightforward and honest in their dealings with their neighbours" They were often good leaders in war, but the first William seems to have been particularly unprincipled and the last William addicted to underhand scheming. His daughter, Alina, married John de Mowbray, taking the lordship, including Oystermouth castle, into his hands (there is a tradition that Alina spent some time at Oystermouth at about the time its chapel tower was built).
The de Mowbrays lost Gower for a long spell to the Beauchamp family due to a legal decision. In 1461 it passed to the Herberts and afterwards the Somerset family, who became Marquises of Worcester and eventually Dukes of Beaufort. In 1927 the Duke transferred Oystermouth castle to Swansea Corporation. It is currently the responsibility of the Leisure Services Department of Swansea City Council, but the Friends of Oystermouth castle, founded in 1989 supervise public access.
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