Bolingbroke Castle

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The ruins of Bolingbroke Castle

Bolingbroke Castle is a ruined castle in Bolingbroke in the English county of Lincolnshire .

construction

Reconstruction of the north facade of the castle with the gatehouse

Most of the castle is made of Spilsby green stone, as are a number of nearby churches. The local green stone is a limestone that has proven to be porous, quickly wears out when exposed to weathering, and thus an inferior building material. The castle was laid out as an uneven, polygonal fortification. It is one of the earliest examples of a uniform castle that was designed and built without a donjon . Originally it was surrounded by a water-filled, 31-meter-wide moat . The curtain wall was up to 5 meters thick and was reinforced with five D-shaped towers and a gatehouse with two towers.

Similar to another castle built by Ranulf at the same time in Beeston , Cheshire , Bolingbroke Castle does not have an internal defensive donjon, but instead had thick walls and five D-shaped defensive towers. Similarities in construction can also be seen with the French castle in Boulogne-sur-Mer , which also has no donjon.

history

The area was first fortified by the Saxons in the 6th or 7th century. In the 12th century, the Normans built a moth on a nearby hill above the settlement of Bolingbroke. The current castle was built by Ranulf, Earl of Chester , in 1220 shortly after he returned from his 5th Crusade .

Ranulf died in 1232 without a male heir and so he bequeathed his titles, his land and his castles to his sisters. After the death of Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster in 1361, Bolingbroke was married to John of Gaunt . John's son, '' Henry '', was born at Bolingbroke Castle in 1367 and was consequently called Henry Bolingbroke before he became king in 1399. Blanche of Lancaster , John's wife and Henry's mother, died of the plague in the castle in 1368 .

The castle was in ruins by the 15th and 16th centuries, although repairs were carried out in the Tudor period . In 1636 an investigation came to the conclusion that all the towers were ultimately no longer worth repairing.

At the beginning of the First English Civil War , Bolingbroke Castle was again used as a military fortification and garrison for the royalists . In 1643 the castle was badly damaged in a siege during the Battle of Winceby . In the following year it was recaptured by the Roundheads , but given up again due to defeats elsewhere. In 1652 the castle was razed to prevent any further use. Towers and walls were overturned and sunk in the moat.

The last walls collapsed in 1815.

today

The castle ruins, now a national monument, were excavated in the 1960s and 1970s. It was managed by English Heritage until 1995 , when Heritage Lincolnshire took over . Many of the lower parts of the walls are still visible, as are the first floors of the towers.

In summer, numerous events take place in the castle ruins, e.g. B. Shakespeare performances.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Bolingbroke Castle - a brief history . Archived from the original on June 22, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 13, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / community.lincolnshire.gov.uk
  2. ↑ a b Bolingbroke Castle (354204). In: PastScape. English Heritage , accessed February 13, 2015 .
  3. ^ L. Brown, Henry Summerson: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University, Oxford 2004, Chapter: Henry IV (1367-1413) .
  4. ↑ Bolingbroke Castle to host open air Shakespeare show . June 22, 2012. Retrieved May 6, 2013.

literature

  • R. Allen Brown, HM Colvin, AJ Taylor: The history of the King's Works: the Middle Ages . Volume 2. Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London 1963, pp. 571-572.
  • Francois Matarasse: The English Castle . Cassell, London 1995, ISBN 1-84067-230-7 , p. 224.
  • Bolingbroke Castle. In: Sylvanius Urban: Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review . Volume 130, part 2. John Harris & Son, London 1821. P. 305 ( digitized ).
  • Henry IV (1367-1413). In: AL Brown, Henry Summerson: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004.

Web links

Commons : Bolingbroke Castle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 53 ° 9 ′ 50.9 ″  N , 0 ° 0 ′ 59 ″  E