alt Hacker NewsI live somewhere that has a lot of castles - there are 3 (possibly 4) within 2km of where I am sitting writing this.
I don't think any of these castles were built directly by kings - although I suspect their construction was either approved by a king or by someone who had delegated authority from a king. NB I can also see a large castle about ~11 km away that was a royal castle (and still has a military garrison).
I suspect that most castles are probably in other people's kingdoms.
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So, you should build your castle in someone else's kingdom iff that kingdom either
1. Has strong norms against castle seizure or abandonment of the king's duties in kingdom upkeep
2. Has a federation of non-king castle owners strong and unified enough to force the former point.
Castle building was in fact a function of the downfall of the carolingian empire that until then kept it under control and only granted the right at strategic locations. Most castles simply made a local lord unfireable by his king since besieging a castle was way too expensive for a regular dispute. The castle building shifted the power to the local realm, starting the feudal period for good.
Castles are thus more like domains where once you take hold of it, even the big powers have a hard time taking it away from you again
I’m guessing you live in Wales if the castles are that densely populated. It has the highest density of castles in the world.
My understanding in many places (France in the Versailles era and the contemporaneous Tokugawa Japan) important families were expected to have some members at court where they could be observed, held accountable (hostage?) etc. That would be a reason to be your own domicile close to the court.
If you are in France or some other central European old Kingdom, the people living in those castles were the ones who either put the king in the throne or had the power to remove him if he started some funny business, so it was their kingdom in a sense. The problem with modern platforms is, as always, how much leverage the users have against the administrators.