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Standing on the hardd lech (fine rock) from which the town of Harlech took its name, the castle was begun during the invading English King Edward I’s second campaign in North Wales in 1283 and completed within a few years as part of Edward’s “Iron Ring” of fortifications to subdue the Welsh in the North.
The architect of the concentric bastion was Master James of St George who had built notable castles in Savoy on the border between France and Italy and whom Edward had brought from the continent.
In 1404 the Castle was captured by Owain Glyndwr during the national uprising of the Welsh. Harlech became Glyndŵr's official residence and court and the place to which he summoned parliaments of his supporters. The castle was recaptured by the English in 1409 under the command of Harry of Monmouth, the future King Henry V. Sixty years later Harlech was one of the last Lancastrian strongholds during the Wars of the Roses.
During the Civil War the castle was the last Royalist stronghold to fall to the Parliamentarians on 16 March 1647.