Category Archives: Castles

The formation of the northern borders -part deux.

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Carlisle Castle

The kingdom of Northumbria did not enter Norman rule placidly but Gospatric, who was related to Malcolm Canmore was eventually stripped of his power and died in Scotland. The Scottish king had given him Dunbar Castle and his eldest son became the Earl of Dunbar. Another, Dolphin, ruled Carlisle on Malcolm’s behalf.

We had arrived at the Treaty of Abernethy in 1072.

1079 The Normans invade Scotland to remind Malcolm not to keep raiding Northumbria and to reinforce the Treaty of Abernethy.

1092 William II, better known as William Rufus, drives Dolphin out of Carlisle. Malcolm doesn’t immediately respond to this.

13 November 1093 Malcom III killed with his eldest son by Margaret of Wessex at the Battle of Alnwick on his way home from a spot of light raiding. It is said that Margaret died from a broken heart three days later. Malcolm’s brother Donald Bane took the throne as Donald III but was driven from it six months later by Duncan – who had been handed to William the Conqueror as a hostage at the signing of the Treaty of Abernethy. Rufus accepted Duncan II’s homage – however, despite the political expedient, it wasn’t long before Donald regained the throne. The turmoil in Scotland was matched by the dispute in England between William Rufus and his elder brother Robert Curthose who was Duke of Normandy but who wanted his brother’s crown as well.

1095 Duncan II murdered.

1097 Edgar, the fourth son of Malcolm, takes the Scottish throne. He has received English support.

1100 William Rufus killed in a hunting accident in the New Forest. His brother Henry ascends the throne as Henry I and marries Edith of Scotland – the daughter of Malcolm III and Margaret of Wessex. As well as helping to secure his northern border, it also helps to stabilise his throne. Edith changes her name to Maud when she marries.

1107 Edgar dies and his younger brother, Alexander the Fierce, became king in his stead – with the approval of King Henry I. This accord was cemented by Alexander’s marriage to Sybilla of Normandy who was one of Henry’s illegitimate daughters.

Henry is able to cement his control of the north and establish lordships to rule Cumbria and the borders on his behalf – e.g the de Hottons of Hutton.

1124 Alexander died without children and was succeeded by his brother David who becomes King David I.

King Henry I died on 1 December 1135. He had wanted his only legitimate child, the Empress Matilda, to rule after him but despite having made his barons agree to the plan, its actually his nephew Stephen of Blois who nabs the crown. In 1138 a civil war known as the Anarchy erupts between supporters of Stephen and Matilda.

King David I had already seized the opportunity to extend his kingdom south once more on the pretext of supporting Matilda’s claim. The local militia and baronial retinues of Yorkshire and the North Midlands  fight back against the Scottish incursion to the West and south. In Northumbria the castles at Bamburgh and Wark  hold out against the Scots

January 1136 Treaty of Durham – King Stephen cedes Cumberland to the Scots – Carlisle is part of Scotland once more. The earldom of Huntingdon and its associated land is transferred to David’s son Henry.

22 August 1138 •The Battle of the Standard on the Great North Road – north of Northallerton. The Scots are defeated but retreat in good order they regrouped in Carlisle. There is another meeting and another treaty at Durham. Cumberland would remain part of Scotland for the next 20 years and Northumberland was ceded to Earl of Huntingdon as a fief.

It was King David I who built the first stone castle at Carlisle and where he died on 24 May 1153. He had extended his rule to both the north and the south and through the Second Treaty of Durham he was an independent king who did not have to take oaths of vassalage to the English… which brings us to the end of the Norman period.

The Plantagenets in the form of King Henry II, son of Empress Matilda and Geoffrey of Anjou, ascended the throne in 1154. Obviously Henry had other plans for the north but for the time being Scotland held the upper hand in the matter of the borders.

The evolution of border reiving

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By Forman Armorial (produced for Mary, Queen of Scots) – This image is available from the National Library of Scotland under the sequence number or Shelfmark ID Adv.MS.31.4.2, fol.5r., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1409450

Given the borders gave us the words blackmail and bereaved it’s perhaps not surprising that the culture of the borders was on occasion lawless or that people who lived in the marches may not have regarded themselves either as Scottish or English – ties of kinship were much more important than nationality.

Let’s begin with the geography of the post-Roman world. The kingdom of Benicia was established by 547AD. When it unted with Deira in 603AD – ok, I’m underplaying it – there’s a marriage followed by a series of assassinations – the kingdom of Northumbria was formed.

By the ninth century Northumbria was one of England’s dominant kingdoms while the concept of Cumberland only really appeared as a political entity from the tenth century onwards. Saxons, Vikings, various wars, rebellions and the incorporation of Cumberland into the kingdom of Strathclyde by Malcolm I are all recorded in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle and bring me to the start of my chronology. I am not tackling King Edwin or the various political manoeuvrings of the heptarchy in this post. Let’s just stick with the borders for the time being.

1005 Malcolm II crowned king of Alba. He allied himself to Owain Foel of Strathclyde.

1006 Siege of Durham – results in the defeat of Malcolm by Uhtred of Bamburgh who later became both the earl of Bamburgh and York.

1018 Battle of Carham – the Northumbrians defeated and an eastern border between England and Scotland created.

1031 King Cnut invades Alba.

1034 Malcolm II dies. His grandson Duncan inherits the throne. At this time Scotland – which holds Cumbria on the west side of the country, possibly now extends so far south as the River Lune in Lancashire.

27 July 1054 The Battle of Dunsinane Wood also called the Battle of the Seven Sleepers. This was fought between the forces of King Macbeth, who is another of Malcom II’s grandsons, and Siward, Earl of Northumbria and his nephew, Malcolm Canmore, the son of King Duncan. Macbeth, who killed Duncan in 1040, was defeated. Malcolm remains in Scotland continuing his war with Macbeth. Siward returned to Northumbria…and as an aside Siward was rather hoping for a Scottish monarch on the throne who would support his claim to the kingdom of Cumbria.

1055 Siward, Earl of Northumbria died. He had gained control of Northumbria through judicious marriage and political manoeuvring. He supported Cnut, Harthacnut and then Edward the Confessor. He is replaced by Tostig Godwinson, a brother of Harold Godwinson (he of arrow in the eye fame). It was not a popular choice.

1058 Malcolm III (Canmore) began raiding Northumberland. Peace is eventually agreed but there are a successive series of raids resulting in the taking of slaves, cattle and tribute.

1065 Tostig booted out of Northumbria by its people who are fed up with his heavy-handedness. Morcar, the younger brother of the Earl of Mercia, is appointed in his place. It does not sweeten Tostig’s relationship with his brother Harold. Malcolm III welcomed Tostig into Scotland.

1066 Tostig returns from exile with the army of Harold Hardrada, King of Norway who is making his claim to the throne of England.

25 September 1066. Hardrada and Tostig are killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge outside York.

So far so good but in 1067, Copsi, who was Tostig’s man, submits to William the Conqueror and is sent to York as the new Earl of Northumbria. It’s a promotion which lasts five weeks before the Northumbrians murder him. Osulf, son of Eadulf, and a member of one of the region’s leading families – chase Copsi to a church near Ouseburn. Osulf sets the church on fire. Fleeing once more, Copsi was captured and beheaded. Osulf becomes earl but is murdered in his turn.

1068 Gospatric who is a relative of Uhtred of Bamburgh and Malcolm Canmore pays William the Conqueror to become Earl of Benicia He then joined in with a rebellion against the king fermented by Edwin, Earl of Mercia and his brother Morcar. Gospatric fled to Scotland and the north endured a harrying.

1069 Malcolm III takes his army south as far as Wearmouth. Gospatric submits to William the Conqueror and is sent to make was in Cumbria which is part of Malcolm’s kingdom.

Malcolm welcomes Saxon refugees from the Royal House of Wessex, including Margaret – who he married- which improves his claim to territory in the south, especially as he gave his sons English rather than Scottish names. Malcolm recognised that the Conqueror’s grasp on Northumberland was weak and was making a political play for the territory.

1072 Treaty of Abernethy. Terms agreed between Malcolm and William the Conqueror who had an army as well as a network of fortifications at Warwick, Nottingham and York which secured the south and the Midlands. According to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, Canmore became William’s man and gave him his son, Duncan, as surety. It wasn’t long before Malcolm was raiding again and Northumbrians revolting against Norman rule.

1080 another Norman army heads north, this time under the command of Robert Curthose, William’s eldest son. A new accord is reached and things went quiet for ten years or so.

Which is a good place to stop, because although it doesn’t take me to the end of the Norman period there have been a fair few dates in this post, several murders and some very dodgy dealings.

When is Watling Street not Watling Street? – answer when you’re visiting Rome’s northern most town on Hadrian’s Wall

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Vicar’s Pele, St Andrew’s Churchyard, Corbridge

I’m currently working on the Stuarts so am enjoying a break in sunny Scotland – a continuation, if you will, of the Mary Queen of Scots world tour upon which I intermittently indulge. So yesterday we joined some camels for breakfast off the A66 before heading in the direction of Hadrian’s Wall. There was a pause at Corbridge so that I can re-photo the Vicar’s Pele in the churchyard of St Andrew’s. Once upon a time, the vicar during time of trouble between England and Scotland the vicar would shut himself into the defensive building and hope for the best. It was built in the fourteenth century just at the point when the wars of independence were warming up. Its builders used dressed stone from Coriosopitum Roman camp known locally as Coria and by the modern world as Corbridge.

So far so good but I must admit to being slightly bewildered to seeing the street name Watling Street. For a moment I thought I’d got things very badly wrong over the years. I thought the famous Roman Road started in Kent made its way to St Albans and then cut across country towards Wroxeter. By the ninth century it was effectively the border between the Saxons and Scandinavian ruled Danelaw. So why does a short stretch of Watling Street suddenly turn up in Corbridge in Northumberland?

The answer is that the Romans did not build a small extension to the road in Northumberland. Dere Street Stretches from York north into Scotland (quite some way beyond Hadrian’s Wall) up to the Antonine Wall. Error arose because of the written record. The Antonine Itinerary which was created during the Roman period and which was reproduced by the Anglo-Saxons between the seventh and tenth centuries is a good example of the way confusion could arise. It was basically a road map of the Roman Empire with a British section. The second route listed in the British part of the itinerary misidentified a route between York and Carlisle as Watling Street. And by the Middle Ages short stretches of Roman Roads were being called Watling Street whether it was accurate or not. You can find a Watling Street from Catterick to York; from Knaresborough to Ilkley; there’s an example in Preston; and of course – the proudly named section of Dere Street in Corbridge.

And yes – we stopped off in a very misty and damp Corbridge Roman town to have a look at the Corbridge hoard which was buried during the second century AD and which was rediscovered in 1964. The Roman segmented armour is the star turn of the hoard which is thought to have been buried for safekeeping by a smith but there are also leather and textile artefacts. Until its discovery no one quite knew how the armour was manufactured. The museum also boasts a dodecahedron, an artefact that is something of a mystery because no one has yet established what its purpose was.

Then it was on to Otterburn, the site of the battle in 1388 between the Scots and the English – for an account look at Froissart but don’t expect to find a photograph of the site here. By the time we arrived it was like wondering around inside a very damp cloud and I fully expected to become lost. We stopped at the mill shop to see if I could find a waterproof that actually is waterproof and I was pleased to find a field full of tenterhooks so it wasn’t all in vain.

Tenterhooks at Otterburn Mill

Thankfully we made our way to our overnight accommodation without mishap and were shown to the ‘wobbly room’ which proved an apt description of the floor. Much to my delight I was staying in a pele tower – something I’ve always wanted to do. This particular one, at Clennell, was a bit like the little doll in the middle of a set of Russian dolls. Like the Vicar’s Pele it was built during the fourteenth century. It may have evolved into something slightly more comfortable by 1567 but the emphasis would still have been on defence. A new range was added in the seventeenth century around the original building and then more additions were made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries – actually perhaps I should have described the hall as being a bit like a many layered onion. In any event I was delighted by the whole thing.

Clennell Hall, pele tower.

From the unstitched coif via Cresswell Crags towards the motte and bailey constructions of the Anarchy

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Its been a busy week and this is a bit of a different post from my usual one. As some of you are aware I’m taking part in the Unstitched coif project to stitch a 17th century coif. My first official blog on the topic is here: http://blackworkembroidery.org/2023/06/06/getting-started/ for those of you who would like to see my progress to date. Suffice to say I need to speed up. Other participants are blogging as well and its absolutely fascinating to see how one pattern can produce so many different results.

Inevitably I couldn’t help taking a dip into the history of embroidery. Tudors used brass or bronze needles – but steel needles started to be used more widely during the reign of Elizabeth I. They were a Spanish import – not something to be mentioned in the same breath as the Armada perhaps. Clearly they were expensive items. Some needles continued to be made from bone because they could be made at home – which made me think about my recent trip to Cresswell Crags and the Stone Age needle excavated there which I have included at the start of this post. It certainly makes me appreciate the relative cost of needles today and their availability. I would perhaps be taking a different approach to needlework if the instruction began – ‘first make your needle.’

And that just leaves the mottes and baileys. No, nothing to do with embroidery. I’m working my way through the history of Derbyshire having completed most of the first draft. I am now at the end of the reworked Norman section – i.e. the Anarchy between Stephen and Matilda- before handing it over to He Who Is Occasionally Obeyed for proof reading and difficult questions! I’m trying to work out what to include in the text about the Anarchy before moving into the next chapter. The difficulty lies in the fact that adulterine castles from the period often had a limited shelf life, the castle at Bakewell being a case in point. The original castle at Bolsover was a twelfth century creation of the Peveril family, not that a lot remains. (NB there is a lovely 17th century little castle!) Its possible that the castle at Pilsbury dates from the Anarchy but the evidence is inconclusive and I’ve already written about it in the context of the Norman Conquest.

My next castle stop will be a return journey to Peveril, with King Henry II in control, and then its a question of identifying suitable fortified manors for an entry in the medieval section – Codnor Castle has definite appeal being sited on a motte and bailey. Its half way between a castle and a manor and has similarities with Wingfield Manor. Codnor was held by Richard, 2nd Lord Grey and his son John who was a military commander for Edward III. Perhaps a map would help me to decide what to include as I need to have a balance of locations from around the county.

I think I need a new category – covering posts like this…what is the word that means ‘and everything else’?

Norman castles in Derbyshire…

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Peveril Castle

Peveril Castle in Castleton springs to mind as does Duffield Castle which was razed to the ground thanks to an earl of Derby rebelling against King Henry III once too often. Peveril was one of the earliest post conquest castles to be constructed but what stands to day reflects the improvements of King Henry II after the confiscated it from the Peveril family.

No one could accuse Derbyshire of having an important castle within its boundaries, which raises interesting questions about Derby as a Norman administrative centre although it did apparently have some form of early castle as its remains can be found on Speed’s map of 1610 at Cockpit Hill. It has probably got much to do with the fact that the Normans linked Derbyshire to Nottinghamshire, providing only one sheriff for the two counties. William Peveril was the castellan for Nottingham Castle as well as holding the royal forest in the Peak on the king’s behalf.

There was a fortification at Bolsover as well but today we think of the seventeenth century ‘play’ castle built by William Cavendish, Earl of Newcastle rather than a motte and bailey castle designed to dominate the locals and control the area. Sir Charles Cavendish, William’s father, began to change the appearance of the old medieval castle in 1608. The so-called ‘Little Castle’ stands on the footprint of the original building.

And then there’s Codnor but that was built at the beginning of the thirteenth century while the motte at Bakewell, which looks more like a pimple on the hillside, is twelfth century dating from the Anarchy when Stephen and Matilda were taking lumps out of one another and the barony were busy turning to brigandage.

Further reading reveals that there are more Norman fortifications in the county than I first realised:

  1. Pilsbury Castle guarding the Dove Valley.
  2. It is suggested that the fortifications at Pilsbury and Hartington, at Banktop, may have been complimentary structures. All that remains at Hartington is a large mound with a flat top.
  3. Crowdecote is just down the road from Hartington and Pilsbury – there’s not much left and quite why the Normans wanted three forts to guard the crossing of the Dove and its associated trackways is another matter entirely. The manors were all in the hands of Henry de Ferrers who may have built a fortification to ensure he kept his territory. It’s also possible that they were thrown up during the troubles of the Anarchy – in which case Hartington and environs must have been rather dangerous to one’s health on occasion. Crowdecote doesn’t get a mention in Domesday but there were some Saxon pottery finds there.
  4. Camp Green at Hathersage, next to the church, was excavated during the 1970s and revealed itself to be a ringwork enclosure however lack of dating evidence means that it was unclear whether the Normans got to work with their shovels or whether earlier inhabitants of the Peak created a defensive position here. Based on analysis of many other similar sites Hodges argues it was the Normans.
  5. Harthill near Youlgrave may be a Norman construction but it’s also been argued that its Iron Age in origin. Certainly, that’s what I always understood it to be!
  6. Hassop Moss near Glossop has similar dating problems and may well be part of a rather grand hunting lodge dating from a later period.
  7. Hope had a Saxon Royal manor which seems to have been fortified.
  8. There’s another platform for a fortification at Stony Middleton on the optimistically named Castle Hill. Dating it is difficult – it could be British, Roman, or Norman and there were pot shards found there dating the for thirteenth and fourteen centuries. Interestingly the site is near to a lead mine which certainly explains the presence of the fortification.
  9. Tissington has a potential ringwork near its church but the problem is that there was rather a lot of earthwork activity during the English Civil War so its difficult to tell whether the remains are a Civil War redoubt or something olde being repurposed.

It may be the case that the Norman ringworks in the Peak District were built quickly to control some very grumpy farmers whose land had just been ‘harried’ by the Normans in the winter of 1069-1070. It has also been suggested that this was land which was agriculturally viable and needed to be protected. Not that it’s always clear who did the building or when it happened – it certainly demonstrates the importance of dating evidence.

Exciting as all this may be, Derbyshire’s castles are hardly on the same scale as the corresponding structures further north or the castles of the marches of Wales but in its turn it demonstrates that in the aftermath of the conquest matters settled themselves down and it was only during times of civil conflict that people felt the need to sling up a conical mound to perch on. There are, of course, many fortified manors in the region – some of them rather lovely, including Haddon Hall but that’s a slightly different story.

Creighton, O. H. Castles and Landscapes

Hodges, R (1980) ‘Excavations at Camp Green Hathersage (1976-77)’ Journal of the Derbyshire Archeological Society, Vol 100, pp25-34

http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/home.html

The Rising of the North – a quick run through.

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The rebellion took place in the autumn of 1569 -in all the crisis lasted for three months, possibly prompting William Cecil to say ‘I told you so!’ when the council considered that it was Mary’s presence in England that triggered the uprising.

The North had a reputation for recusancy – or Catholicism. In 1536 as the smaller monastic houses were being shut the Pilgrims of the North rebelled under a banner bearing the five wounds of Christ. The following year Bigod’s Rebellion was similarly associated with a demand for Henry VIII to return to Catholicism, restore the Mass and bring back the monasteries. The Rebellion of 1537 gave Henry the excuse to punish the rebels of the previous year. He sent an army north, imposed martial law and had 100s of rebels hanged virtually on their own doorsteps.

In 1569, the desire to place Mary Queen of Scots on the throne and restore the country to Catholicism wasn’t the only reason for the rebellion. Oh no – not by a long chalk.

  1. The northern earls were somewhat rattled by the administrative interference coming from London. They were not keen on William Cecil. Men like Northumberland and Norfolk also felt frozen out of power by Elizabeth’s choice of advisers.
  2. For reasons best known to themselves a group of powerful men including Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester and the Earl of Arundel decided that in order to cancel out the threat posed by Mary that she should marry an English nobleman, convert to Protestantism and then the English could help rule Scotland and everything would be simply wonderful. No one quite plucked up the nerve to tell Elizabeth this cunning plan or that the proposed groom was Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk (think vain and ambitious and you’ll be in the right ball park).

The plot when it first began was not a Catholic plot! Mary’s half brother James Stewart, Earl of Moray is for the plan to begin with but after he’s had a think about it decided that he doesn’t really want Mary back in Scotland whatever her faith might be, and certainly not with Norfolk at her side. For the English earls loyal to Elizabeth who came up with the idea this was a killer blow – the game, which was never a good one if the truth was told, was over by the start of the autumn. Besides which they still haven’t told Elizabeth about their plan to marry Mary off to one of themselves …and no one wanted that particular job. So they probably all heaved a sigh of relief.

However, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk had also had some thinking time and he rather fancied a crown of some description…and besides which he resented William Cecil who he regarded as having too much power, which he thought ought more rightfully to have belonged to him….so asked the northern earls for support to marry Mary.

Robert Dudley, the queen’s favourite, recognising that things were getting out of hand told Elizabeth in September 1569 that Norfolk intended to marry Mary without the consent of the privy council – which was treason. Norfolk had also left court without royal permission. By October Howard, who really wasn’t rebel material and hadn’t done any serious planning before he asked his northern pals to lend a hand, was back in London and begging for mercy. Elizabeth had him sent to the Tower.

In the north, the Earls of Westmorland and Northumberland, who were both Catholics, were still plotting but not, it appears, actually doing very much. In reality although they had an alternative to Elizabeth in the form of Mary they really weren’t very organised and were a bit vague about their aims. They were hauled up in front of the president of the Council of the North who cleared them of any wrongdoing and sent them on their way.

In London, Elizabeth wasn’t so convinced about the loyalty of the two men, so decided that she wanted a little chat with Northumberland and Westmorland. Not to put too fine a point on it, the earls panicked. Not wanting to end up in the Tower with Norfolk the two terrified men finally…rebelled, raising about 4,600 men from among their tenantry and kinship networks. They marched south. One of their key demands was that Cecil had to go – And the second was that they wanted the Religious Settlement of 1559 overturned so that the Mass could be restored.

On 14 November, 1569, Westmorland and Northumberland captured Durham; restored it to Catholicism, threw out the Protestant hymn books, and celebrated the Mass. They also called on all Catholics to take up arms in the defence of the true faith. Fortunately for Elizabeth most of England’s Catholics ignored the demand. Even though Barnard Castle and the port at Hartlepool fell to the rebels – the whole affair was really rather restricted.

It should be noted that James Pilkington was made Bishop of Durham in 1561 and had imposed Protestantism on his diocese despite the fact that the locals really weren’t that keen on the idea. His attitude helped rubbed the earls up the wrong way and added to the opinion that London was interfering in the way things were done in the north.

In London there was some difficulty raising a force to resist the rebels. Finally the Earl of Sussex (who wasn’t a fan of Robert Dudley) was appointed Lord Lieutenant of the North, put an army together and headed north to restore order. Elizabeth had Mary moved for safe keeping to Coventry and by December it was all over. Mary Queen of Scots and King Philip II of Spain hadn’t backed the rebels and neither had the majority of the kingdom. Recognising that the game was up the earls fled to Scotland.

Elizabeth registered her irritation by having at least 400 rebels executed for treason. The Earl of Westmorland spent the rest of his life in exile and the Earl of Northumberland was executed in 1572 when he was captured and given back to the English.

It was the only armed rebellion of Elizabeth’s reign – discounting the Earl of Essex’s failed uprising at the end of her life. The lack of support at the time is an indicator of her popularity. Her response to the rebels indicated that she was a chip off the old block and not to be trifled with. And laws were passed that made any further Catholic threat punishable as treason. She also appointed Robert Dudley’s brother-in-law Henry Hastings 3rd Earl of Huntingdon as the President of the Council of the North after Sussex (who held the post from 1569 until his death in 1572.) Huntingdon was an active Puritan who spent the next 23 years keeping the north in check.

Raglan Castle and the Herberts

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Raglan in Gwent was, apparently, one of the last medieval castles to be constructed in England and Wales. The site was granted by Strongbow de Clare to his man Walter Bloet. The Bloets continued to hold Raglan until the fourteenth century at which point it was transmitted to the Berkeley family when Elizabeth Bloet ‘ The Lady of Raglan’ inherited her father’s estates. Sir James Berkeley died and Elizabeth married for a second time to Sir William ap Thomas – and he’s responsible for the building as it stands today. And that takes us slap bang into the fifteenth century and the Wars of the Roses.

By 1441 ap Thomas was steward for the Lordship of Abergavenny which is, of course, associated with the Neville family. He was also Richard of York’s steward in Wales – Richard was Lord of Usk by descent from Lady Elizabeth de Burgh making him a descendent of William Marshal and Isabel de Clare. William’s service to Richard let to him being called the ‘Blue Knight of Gwent’. Anyway, that aside after Elizabeth Bloet died William ap Thomas became a tenant to his Berkeley step-son. James Berkeley. In 1432 William purchased Raglan from the Berkeley family which comes as a relief because I was a bit concerned I was going to have to untangle the Berkeley family tree and its various feuds. Just a quick reminder Berkeley Castle is on the opposite side of the River Severn.

When William died in 1445 his son also named William adopted the name Herbert – I think it was because it was chosen because of a Norman ancestor but I’m not totally sure – given that he would have been styled William ap William or Gwilym ap Gwilym. In 1461 William Herbert was with Richard of York’s son Edward at Mortimer’s Cross where he commanded the left flank. In July Edward, now King Edward IV, awarded Herbert a barony and he replaced Jasper Tudor as Earl of Pembroke and gained wardship of Henry Tudor. Essentially William was Jasper’s main Welsh rival during the Wars of the Roses which may be a bit of a simplification but it helps make sense of the politics. The plan was for Henry to marry one of Herbert’s daughters – Maud who eventually married into the Percy family. But having served the Yorkists loyally Herbert fell foul of the Earl of Warwick when he rebelled against King Edward IV in 1469. William and his brother Richard were executed in the aftermath the Battle of Edgecote Moor. William’s eldest son, another William, was married to Mary Woodville a sister of Edward IV’s queen Elizabeth Woodville.

Usk Castle

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Usk lays on the edge of Norman Gwent and the Welsh kingdom of Caerleon. Orders for the motte and bailey Norman castle to be built there were given by Roger FitzWilliam, the son of William FitzOsbern the first lord of Striguil and the Conqueror’s standard-bearer. Unfortunately Roger got himself tangled up in the 1075 rebellion against King William and lost his estates which were taken back into crown hands until King Henry I gave the lordship away to Walter de Clare who also became the Lord of Striguil, Netherwent or Chepstow depending on what you want to call it.

After Walter’s death the Welsh reclaimed Usk Castle and it was only regained by the de Clare family briefly in 1170. Strongbow gave orders for a stone keep to be built in place of the wooden motte but it availed the Normans little as it was back in Welsh hands by 1174 – Strongbow being occupied in Ireland and Henry II being occupied by his family revolting.

The castle was back in Norman hands by 1185 – as was the priory down in the town which Strongbow had founded on the site of the Roman fortress of Burrium. The Crown held the castle for Strongbow’s daughter Isabel de Clare who was a sole heiress. In 1189 very shortly after Richard I became king William Marshal claimed her as his bride and Usk became part of his responsibility. In about 1212 he upgraded the fortifications with the so-called garrison tower which was round and built on French principles into the curtain wall. He also added some more comfortable domestic buildings including a solar and chamber – which Isabel may well have appreciated when she visited the castle.

After the death of William and all five of his and Isabel’s sons Usk passed into the hands of Richard de Clare the 6th Earl of Gloucester by right of his mother Isabel Marshal (yes a dispensation for the marriage between Isabel and Gilbert de Clare 4th Earl of Hertford was required.). The de Clares continued the building programme in 1289 when the North Tower was added to the castle but the new grand domestic dwellings were not completed before the death of Gilbert de Clare, 8th Earl of Gloucester in 1314 at Bannockburn.

Usk fell to the portion of the 8th earl’s youngest sister Elizabeth de Burgh who was married at the time to Edward II’s favourite Roger Damory. They continued the building work in the castle to make it more comfortable. Unfortunately in 1321 the whole edifice was given to Edward’s favourite Hugh Despenser the Younger whilst Elizabeth and her children were imprisoned at Barking Abbey. Following Despenser’s execution the castle was returned to Elizabeth in 1326. Just to round things off the castle eventually ended up in the hands of the Mortimer family through marriage. Eventually the castle passed from the Mortimers, by female inheritance, into the hands of Richard Duke of York (the one who gave battle in vain at Wakefield) – turning the castle into a royal property thanks to his sons Edward IV and Richard III. In time it passed into the hands of Prince Arthur (Henry VII’s eldest son) and then into the property portfolio of Katherine Parr.

The castle was a ruin by 1587 and being used as a quarry for dressed stone.

Misericords

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A ledge provided by a hinged seat in choir stalls for clerics to lean on during services. Translates from the French meaning of ‘mercy seat’. Ripon has 32 of them which were created at the end of the 15th century. I particularly like the bagpipe playing pig, Jonah emerging from a very sharp toothed whale, the lady (I think) in a wheel barrow and the mermaid.

Sheriff Hutton, the Nevilles and a case of follow the lady.

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Sheriff Hutton Castle

The castle at Sheriff Hutton, a few miles from York, was not always in the hands of the Neville family. It lay originally in the hands of the Lord of Bulmer who became the Sheriff of York during the reign of King Stephen. The family was also responsible for the building of Brancepth Castle. Sheriff Hutton passed out of the possession of the Bulmer family in 1166 and into the hands of the Neville family when Emma de Bulmer became its sole heiress after the death of her brother William. It is believed – though I will have to check more thoroughly- that the bull element of the Neville family crest is a reference to the Bulmer family.

A generation later Emma’s daughter, Isabella, became heiress in her turn after her brother Henry died without any heirs. She was married to a member of the FitzMaldred family which held Raby. When Isabella’s son inherited his parents property which included Raby castle he changed his name to Neville – becoming the first Neville owner of Raby Castle. Marriage also saw the Neville family acquire Middleham Castle.

The stone castle at Sheriff Hutton was built by John Neville during the fourteenth century and in 1377 he attained a charter to hold a regular market. John’s son Ralph became the first Earl of Westmorland. In 1425 land holdings which had been built up across Yorkshire and Durham by the Nevilles thanks to several centuries of judicious marriages was split. The earldom of Westmorland was inherited by Ralph’s eldest son from his first marriage whilst the Yorkshire properties were retained by his eldest son, Richard, from his second marriage to Joan Beaufort, the youngest of the four Beaufort children born to John of Gaunt and his long term mistress (not to mention third wife) Katherine Swynford.

The Neville Bull

Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury by right of his wife, lost his life at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460. The Yorkshire estates were inherited by his son, Richard Neville, the Kingmaker, once Edward IV ascended to the throne after the Battle of Towton the following year. He retained his Yorkshire castle inheritance until he was killed at the Battle of Barnet fighting against the Yorkists. The properties then passed by right of his younger daughter Anne Neville in the the hands of her husband, Richard Duke of Gloucester whose power base in the north was based on the old Neville affinity. Edward IV had no wish to hold the castles as Crown property. Richard was his loyal lieutenant in the north.

Senior, Janet, Sheriff Hutton and its Lords, (Leeds: Rosalba Press, 2000)

‘Parishes: Sheriff Hutton’, in A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 2, ed. William Page (London, 1923), pp. 172-187. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/north/vol2/pp172-187 [accessed 21 January 2022].