Marlborough Castle
Marlborough Castle | |
---|---|
Old Bath Road Near Marlborough in United Kingdom | |
motte of Marlborough Castle (right) within the grounds of the newly established Marlborough College. | |
Coordinates | 51°25′0.0″N 1°44′14.0″W / 51.416667°N 1.737222°W |
Site history | |
In use | 1067 – 1403 |
Materials | wood, stone |
Fate | demolished |
Events | The Anarchy |
Marlborough Castle, locally known and recorded in historical documents as The Mound,
History
Radiocarbon dating of core samples in the early 2010s indicated that the Mound (or motte) dates from 2400 BC. This is close to the dates established for Silbury Hill.[3][4]
In 1067,
William established the neighbouring Savernake Forest as a favourite royal hunting ground, and Marlborough Castle became a royal residence: Henry I spent Easter at Marlborough in 1110,[5] which strongly suggests that it was inhabitable.
During '
The earliest record of royal expenditure on the castle dates from 1175–76 when £43 was spent of building materials to create accommodation for the king.
The castle became more important as an administrative centre during John's reign, and he visited the castle 51 times.[11] During the First Barons' War, the castellan joined the rebels in their struggle against John. William Marshal besieged Marlborough Castle in 1217, by which point John was already dead, and captured it for the royalist cause. According to History of William the Marshall, William Marshal (the father of the William who besieged Marlborough) gave orders to demolish (slight) castles captured from the rebels.[12]
From 1223 to 1224, Eleanor of Brittany, cousin of Henry III and with a better claim to the throne according to primogeniture, was briefly kept there as a state prisoner, during which time the council suggested additional horsemen and crossbowmen. Between 1227 and 1272, Henry III spent the enormous sum of £2,000 on its buildings, particularly the apartments and chambers, and the chapel of St Nicholas.[13]
After the death of Henry III, Marlborough lost favour as a royal residence. From 1273 to 1369 it was used only as a
In 1293 it passed to the eldest daughter of
Marlborough Castle ceased to be used in 1370 and fell into disrepair, but remained Crown property.
Later use
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/Marlborough_Mound_in_Itinerarium_Curiosum_%28cropped%29.png/220px-Marlborough_Mound_in_Itinerarium_Curiosum_%28cropped%29.png)
The castle was in ruins by 1403. A new residence was built on the site by Francis Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Trowbridge (c.1590–1664), who had acquired the site from his elder brother William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset (1588–1660).[15] It was replaced in 1683–84 by the "new house" for his grandson Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, apparently to designs by John Deane, a surveyor of Reading, Berkshire.[16] The house forms the nucleus of the present Marlborough College. In the 18th century it was the beloved residence of Isabella, Countess of Hertford, the patroness of William Shenstone and James Thomson.[17] Stephen Duck, the "thresher poet", described the house during Lady Hertford's time in A description of a Journey to Marlborough....[18]
The house declined into a coaching inn, the Castle Inn, where the Marlborough Club, whose members were Tory gentlemen from Marlborough and the surrounding area, was established in 1774. The club met at the inn until 1842;[2] the house became the nucleus of Marlborough College, founded in 1843.
Preservation
The tree-covered
References
- ^ Marlborough Castle
- ^ a b c 'The borough of Marlborough', A History of the County of Wiltshire 12: Ramsbury and Selkley hundreds; the borough of Marlborough (1983:199–229): accessed 8 May 2010.
- ^ The Mound, Marlborough College website, retrieved 11 August 2016
- ^ Leary, Jim; Marshall, Peter (December 2012). "The Giants of Wessex: the chronology of the three largest mounds in Wiltshire, UK". Antiquity Journal Vol. 86, Issue 334. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
- ^ a b 'Parishes: Preshute', A History of the County of Wiltshire 12: Ramsbury and Selkley hundreds; the borough of Marlborough (1983), pp. 160–184)" accessed 8 May 2010.
- ISBN 978-1-78744-674-8
- ^ Robert B. Patterson, "Anarchy in England, 1135–54: The Theory of the Constitution", Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies 6.3 (Autumn 1974:189–200) p. 199.
- ISBN 978-1-78744-674-8
- ISBN 0-582-48727-7.
- ISBN 978-1-78744-674-8
- ISBN 978-1-78744-674-8
- ISBN 978-1-78744-674-8
- ^ a b Ingamells, Ruth Louise (1992). The Household knights of Edward I (D. Phil. thesis, 2 vols.). Vol. 1. Durham University. pp. 207, 212–3. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
- ^ Marlborough: brief history Archived 5 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Seymour, Sir Francis (c.1590-1664). History of Parliament online. Retrieved 15 March 2019
- ^ Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840, 3rd ed. 1995, s.v. "Deane, John"
- ^ Helen Sard Hughes, The Gentle Hertford: Her Life and Letters (New York), 1940; many letters detail her life at Marlborough, which she preferred to Court.
- ^ Helen Sard Hughes, "Shenstone and the Countess of Hertford" PMLA 46.4 (December 1931: 1113–1127).
- ^ Historic England. "Castle mound (1005634)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
Further reading
- Field, David, Brown, Graham & Crockett, Andrew, "The Marlborough Mount Revisited," in Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 94, 2001.
External links
- The Gatehouse Gazetteer – a bibliography of sources relating to the castle
- History of Marlborough