Author: historicalragbag

Advent Calendar of Castles: December 9th: Lindisfarne Castle

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This is the first and only in this series that is not strictly speaking a medieval castle, but it is such an interesting castle that I have decided to include it anyway. It stands on the tidal island of Lindisfarne close to the stunning Lindisfarne Priory, which I have included a photo of for anyone who is pining for a medieval site. I will write about that at a later date.

Lindisfarne Castle was an Elizabethan fort originally. It was built to protect the Lindisfarne Island harbour which at the time was the last deep water port before the Scottish border. Building began in c. 1570 and a significant quantity of the stone came from Lindisfarne Priory, so part of the castle is technically medieval. Prior to this under Henry VIII the rock on which the castle stands had been fortified to an extent, but it wasn’t a castle.

It didn’t really see any significant battle apart from briefly in the Jacobite wars, but it was consistently garrisoned for 300 years which shows just how important it was seen to be to national security.

The guns and soldiers were removed in 1893 and after it had been used for nothing in particular for a while it was bought by Edward Hudson, who was the founder of the Country Life Magazine. He commissioned his friend Edward Luytens to turn it into a comfortable holiday home, but to retain its character, and this is the building that remains today. The castle was sold a number of times and came into National Trust hands in 1970.

 

References:

Site visit 2012

National trust brochures on the castle

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lindisfarne-castle/features/the-castle-peeling-back-the-layers

The photos are all mine.

Advent Calendar of Castles: December 8th: Middleham Castle

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Middleham castle is best known as the home of Richard III. However it is also a fascinating castle in its own right. As so much has been written about Richard III and his tenure there, I’m going to focus on the earlier years of the castle.

The first castle on this site wasn’t actually exactly where the present day castle stands. It would have been a typical motte and bailey Norman castle, built of earth and timber, and would have stood on the high ground just to the south west of where Middleham stands to today. The castle was constructed in c. 1086 and was in the hands of Ribald who was the brother of Aland Lord of Richmond who was probably responsible for the nearby Richmond castle.  The motte is believed to have stood at about 12 meters high and to be been surrounded by a ditch 6 m wide. You can still see the remains of the motte and ditch today (the final photo above).

At some point early in the 12th century the original castle was abandoned and the castle you can see today was begun in stone. It is unknown which descendant of Ribald built the stone keep, which is the middle of today’s Middleham, but it probably dates to sometime between 1170 and 1180. This would mean that it was most likely built by his grandson Robert FitzRanulph. The great keep was very modern for its time with a great hall, great chamber, privy chamber, chapel, two small chambers up the top and a large basement, which would have included a kitchen. Middleham’s keep is different to other contemporary keeps as it houses several functions that would have usually been housed in outer buildings in the bailey of the castle.

Middleham passed out of the FitzRanulph family in 1270 when the heiress married Robert Neville. Through Robert Neville Middleham passed ultimately to Richard Neville Earl of Warwick, known as the King maker and a key player in the War of the Roses. The War of the Roses were an intense and complex conlfiict, but this is not the place to explain in detail. After Richard Neville’s death in at the Battle of Barnet in 1471 the castle came to Richard Duke of Gloucester, who became Richard III.

References:

Site visit 2012

English Heritage Middleham Castle Guidebook: 9781850744092

For Richard III and Middleham http://richardiii-ipup.org.uk/riii/44

The photos are all mine

Advent Calendar of Castles: 7th of December: Helmsley Castle

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helmsley3helmsley-2helmsley1The original castle at Helmsley was built in the early 12th century by Walter Espec who also founded the spectacular Rievaulx abbey which you can see nearby. The original castle would have most likely been a wooden and earth structure. It was built in stone later in the 12th century, and the de Roos family modernised it. The earth works you see today date largely from the original castle and are unusual in that they are surviving medieval ring works, as in they literally ring the castle and continue to do so today.

The exceptionally tall east tower was built by Robert de Roos at the end of the 12th century, although it was added to in the 14th century to make it taller and more of a status symbol. Also in the 14th century the rooms on the first floor were probably converted into a private chamber, possibly for the use of the visiting Edward III.  The castle passed briefly into the hands of Richard III, when he was Duke of Gloucester, when the de Roos family sold it to him in 1478. When he died at Bosworth in 1485 Henry VII gave it back to the de Roos.

Helmsley faced its greatest challenge during the civil war when it was held for King Charles and endured a three month siege. Ultimately Crowell’s men were victorious and they blew up the east tower, literately splitting it in half. This is the state it remains in today. The east tower is only part of the castle as more domestic buildings have been added as the years went past.

The castle came into the hands of the Duncombe family and they lived there until the 18th century when they abandoned it. During the 18th and 19th century they used the remaining buildings for a manor court and social functions, including renting part of it to the local lawn tennis club. The castle came into the hands of the State in 1915.

 

References:

Site visit 2012

http://www.yorkshire.com/view/attractions/helmsley/helmsley-castle-660807

https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1009963

The photos are all mine

 

Advent Calendar of Castles: December 5th: Pickering Castle

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Pickering Castle was established by William the Conqueror in c. 1070. It was built in response to the northern revolts against his rule. William’s stamping of authority on the north is known was the Harrying of the North. Such an innocuous name sounds like it was a minor irritation, however this couldn’t be further from the truth. William the Conqueror led a brutal pillaging of the north, killing people and destroying crops and food. Tens of thousands of people starved to death in the aftermath.

The original castle would have been earth and timber and the motte on which it was built still stands today. The rebuilding of the castle in stone began around 1180 and continued into the 13th century under successive kings. Within the walls there is also a chapel dedicated to St Nicholas which dates to roughly 1227. Until the mid 16th century the castle would have had a resident chaplain.

By the early 14th century the castle has passed into the hands of Thomas Earl of Lancaster, the grandson of Henry III. He married heiress Alice de Lacey and using her money introduced more stone buildings, including building a new hall for the family to live in, within the walls of the castle. In the mid 14th century Edward II ordered the outer walls to be built in stone, including stone towers as part of the walls. He used the castle for raising horses. He established a stud at the castle and often used it as a hunting lodge.

By the time of the civil war the castle had fallen too much into disrepair to be used for defence and in the 17th century parts of the castle were used as a court house. The castle came into the hands of English Heritage in 1926.

References:

Site visit 2012.

http://www.britainexpress.com/counties/yorkshire/castles/pickering.htm

The Harrying of the North: http://www.historyextra.com/article/bbc-history-magazine/battle-of-hastings-aftermath-consequences-harrying-of-the-north

 

The photos are all mine.

 

 

 

 

 

Advent Calendar of Castles: December 4th: York Castle

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The castle you see in the photos is all that remains of York’s once much larger castle. The current structure, known as Clifford’s Tower, was built in the 13th century and served as the heart of government in York and was also used to house the royal treasury. That is not to say that there was not a castle on the site prior to the construction of Clifford’s Tower. A wood and earth Norman tower was built on this site in the 11th century and suffered much damage and rebuilding during these tumultuous times, but it probably survived largely intact until the 12th century. The castle was then the setting for one of the most infamous incidents in York’s history. In 1190 tensions between the York Jewish community and the largely Christian population came to a head and roughly 150 Jews were given protective custody in the wooden castle that stood on the current site of Clifford’s Tower. Something went terribly wrong though and the royal officials found themselves shut out of the castle. They summoned reinforcements to retake the castle and these reinforcements joined with a local mob. The mob and the reinforcements were soon out of control and the Jews in the castle were besieged. On the 16th of March the Jews inside realized there was no way out and they committed suicide and set the tower alight rather than face the wrath of the mob. According to some accounts some Jews did survive and came out under an amnesty to then be massacred by the mob.

The tower burnt down but it was rebuilt, in wood and stone, but it wasn’t until the mid 13th century that the tower you see today was constructed. Henry III ordered a new stone tower to be built in roughly 1245 to help deal with the threat of the Scots. The tower was finished by the end of the 13th century and would have likely stood surrounded by a moat of some description and an outer bailey and walls were added in the 14th century. Over the years the tower and castle acted largely as an administrative centre rather than a royal residence. The first recorded use of the name “Clifford’s Tower’ dates to the mid 16th century but it is possible that the name comes from the rebel Roger de Clifford who was executed in 1322 and whose body was displayed on a gibbet at the castle.

 

References:

Site visit 2012

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/cliffords-tower-york/history/

 

The photos are all mine.

 

Advent Calendar of Castles: December 2nd Lincoln Castle.

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Lincoln Castle was begun by William the Conqueror in c.1068 making it one of the first Norman castles built. It was part of the Conqueror’s plan of the domination of England through a network of castles. It was through castles like Lincoln that he administered and controlled his new territory. Lincoln Castle stands on the site of an old roman fort and when it was built 166 Saxon houses were demolished to make way for it.

In the early medieval period Lincoln castle was the site of two decisive battles. The first was in 1141 during the time period known as the Period of Anarchy (1136-1154). King Stephen and the Empress Matilda were fighting for control of the country. It was a time which the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle described as “people openly said that Christ slept, and his saints.” In 1141 the Earl of Chester and his brother William of Roumare had rebelled against King Stephen and taken Lincoln Castle by deceit. Oderic Vitalis’ version says that they sent their wives in on the pretext of a friendly visit and the Earl arrived to collect the women with only three knights and then, “Once inside the castle they suddenly snatched crowbars and weapons which lay to hand and violently expelled the king’s guards. Then William burst in with a force of armed knights, according to a pre‑arranged plan, and in this way the two brothers took control of the castle and the whole city.”

Regardless of how they took the castle they held it and King Stephen arrived to besiege the castle. The Earl of Chester escaped and alerted Robert of Gloucester, Empress Matilda’s brother and the head of her campaign for the crown. Gloucester arrived in Lincoln with an army and there was a pitched and bloody battle, unusual in a war that was mainly looting and skirmishes, Gloucester’s forces were victorious and King Stephen was captured.

The other key battle at Lincoln was in 1217. It was so bloodless that it was soon known as the Fair of Lincoln. William Marshal headed forces fighting for the newly crowned Henry III. Marshal was the young Henry’s regent. They were fighting the remains of the barons who had forced King John to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. The majority of barons had returned to the royal fold after King John’s death, but there were a few hold outs who were still supporting Prince Louis of France as their candidate for king. Prince Louis’ forces were besieging Lincoln which was held by the remarkable Nicola de la Haye (who I hope to write more about later), Marshal’s forces came to relieve the siege. They had help from the inside the castle and the battle was a route. Prince Louis’ forces were demolished and the battle was pretty much the end of the baronial revolt, though it was the Battle of Sandwich and paying off Louis that got rid of him completely.

Outside of these two key battles Lincoln continued to be both a prison and court for centuries to come. It is also the location of one of the only four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta as well as a copy of the 1217 Charter of the Forest.

References

Site visit 2012

Lincoln castle information leaflets.

https://www.lincolncastle.com/content/history

Anglo Saxon Chronicle: http://www.britannia.com/history/docs/1137.html

Battle of Lincoln 1141: http://deremilitari.org/2014/03/the-battle-of-lincoln-1141-from-five-sources/

The Fair of Lincoln 1217: Tout, T.F, ‘The Fair of Lincoln in the ‘Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal’, The English Historical Review, 18, 1903, pp. 240-265.

The photos are all mine.

 

Advent Calendar of Castles December 1st: Castle Rising

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This year for christmas I’m running an advent calendar of medieval castles. Each day I’ll post three photos of a castle and some information. Today I’m starting with Castle Rising in Norfolk just out of Kings Lynn.

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William d’Albini the Earl of Arundel began having the castle built in c. 1138. It was most likely built for his new wife, who was the widow of Henry I, Adeliza of Louvain. The keep itself was probably envisioned as self-contained accommodation for the lord and his family.  It is curiously domestic in scale, but the massive earthworks make it clear that defence was at least considered. The uppermost levels of the keep were likely added at a later date and this included re-roofing and adding an extra room at the top of the keep. As well as the keep, in the grounds behind the earth works, there are the remains of a Norman church. It most likely predates the castle and would have been replaced by the current parish church in the town of Rising around the time the castle was built.

The d’ Albini family died out in the 13th century and Castle Rising passed into the Montalt family. The Montalt family died out in the 14th century and Castle Rising came into royal hands. It was after this that the castle entered what is probably its best known phase when it became the residence of Queen Isabella, known as the she wolf of England. She was the Queen of Edward II and many argue she had a role in his murder. It has been argued that Castle Rising was her prison, but it is also just as possible that it was the residence she chose in exile. There were certainly buildings erected for her in the grounds of the castle

Castle Rising ultimately came into the hands of the Howard family who still own and manage it today.

 

References:

Site visit 2012

http://www.castle-rising-history.co.uk/castlecameo.html

http://www.castlerising.co.uk/thecastle.html

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/castle-rising-castle/

The photos are all mine