Hamelin de Balun, a Norman lord, had…

Hamelin de Balun, a Norman lord, had constucted Abergavenny Castle in about 1087.

Protected by a ditch and palisade, the motte was surmounted by a wooden keep.

A stone keep was built soon after 1100 to replace the wooden structure, and a wooden hall was built on its western side.

Henry Fitzmiles, the son of Miles de Gloucester, First Earl of Hereford and lord of Abergavenny, had been killed in the 1160s, reputedly by Seisyll ap Dyfnwal of Castell Arnallt.

Without a male heir, Henry Fitzmiles' estate and the lordship, which included lands in upper Gwent and Brecknockshire, as well as the Castle, had passed to his daughter Bertha's husband, William de Braose.

De Braose has rebuilt parts of the castle and constructed the curtain wall, parts of which still remain.

The castle becomes the scene of an infamous massacre when, over Christmas 1175, De Braose calls Seisyll and his son Geoffrey to his castle, together with other leaders from Gwent, supposedly as an act of reconciliation.

De Braose then has the men killed in the castle's great hall, in retribution for the death of Henry Fitzmiles.

His action, including taking the men's land, results in sanctions; William is "retired" from public life and the castle passes to his son, William.