Bowes Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bowes Castle keep

Bowes Castle was a medieval castle in the village of Bowes in the English county of County Durham . The first, wooden castle was built on the site of the former Roman military camp Lavatrae and replaced by a more stable stone building from 1170 to 1174 by order of Henry II . The village was built along with the castle. Bowes Castle withstood the Scottish attacks in the Revolt of 1173-1174 , but was sacked by rebels in 1322. In the turmoil of the English Civil War , the castle, which had already been ruined, was largely demolished. The ruin is now managed by English Heritage as a tourist attraction.

history

Roman times

The camp at Lavatrae was a waypoint on the northern branch of the Roman equivalent of Watling Street in the section connecting Luguvalium ( Carlisle ) with Eboracum ( York ) and places further south. It dominated the Stainforth Pass through the Pennines .

12th Century

Bowes Castle was built in the ruins of the Roman military camp. The route was one of the few highland crossings linking England and Scotland and remained strategically important until the Middle Ages. The castle grounds are in the Honor of Richmond , lands that traditionally belonged to the Counts of Brittany in the early Middle Ages . But the land itself was a labor court belonging to the crown.

Around 1136, Alan de Bretagne , the Count of Brittany, had a wooden castle built in the northwest corner of the old military camp. The use of the older Roman fortifications in Bowes was the same as in the nearby castles of Brough Castle and Malton Castle . Bowes Castle inherited Alan's son, Conan , and when the latter died, King Henry II claimed it .

The royal concerns about security prompted Henry II to invest heavily in the expansion of the castle from 1171 to 1174. It was uncommon for a new royal castle to be built in this part of England in the 12th century, and Henry appears to have been driven to do so by the military threat from Scotland before and during the revolt of 1173 and 1174. Henry invested nearly £ 600 in the castle from 1170 to 1187, most of it in the first few years, to have the old fort rebuilt under the supervision of the Count of Brittany's local tenants, Torfin, Osbert and Stephen of Barningham .

Floor plan of the donjon

The newly built castle had a hall donjon of unusual construction for English castles. This three-story stone building was 24.6 m long, 18 m wide and 15 m high. Inside, the donjon was divided into a long hall and a solar room (the owners' private room). The light came through rounded windows. The architecture of the Donjon was similar to a number of nearby castles, especially those in Middleham and Outhgill . A moat formed an inner ring of defense around the donjon and the walls of the old fort formed a larger, outer ring of defense. A mill, an important part of every castle at the time, was built on the Greta River and supplied the garrison with flour. The village of Bowes was built after the castle, complete with a church and market square. This form of planned village is also unusual for England.

In England, the Great Revolt against King Henry's rule was led by a coalition of rebellious nobles, supported by the King of Scotland and other European allies. King William I pushed south from Scotland in 1173 and Bowes Castle was destroyed in the attacks. The following year repair work was carried out on the castle in anticipation of further attacks, e.g. B. Repairs to the chamber and the gates and the construction of a bulwark around the donjon. In the following year, King Wilhelm besieged the castle directly, but had to withdraw when relief forces arrived under the leadership of King Henry's illegitimate son Geoffrey , then Bishop of Lincoln .

13th and 14th centuries

Ruin of Bowes Castle in an illustration from 1785

Henry II successfully suppressed the Great Revolt and had Wilhelm I imprisoned until a peace treaty was negotiated, which extended Henry's sphere of influence northwards into Scotland. In the years that followed, security in the north of England improved significantly. King John Ohneland placed Bowes Castle under the control of Robert de Vieuxpont , an important administrator in the north in 1203 , who held it until 1228. King John stayed there himself in 1206 and 1212, and the castle also briefly served as the residence of his niece Eleanor of Brittany , who was placed under the protection of Vieuxpont. King Henry III briefly gave the castle to William de Blockley and Gilbert de Kirketon before it was given to Peter I of Brittany and then to William de Valence in 1232 . In 1241 Peter II , the Count of Savoy , was defeated Earl of Richmond and the King then gave him Bowes Castle.

The castle remained in the hands of the Earls of Richmond until 1322, but during that time it fell into disrepair. King Edward II then gave Bowes Castle to John de Scargill instead , and the Earl of Richmond's local tenants rebelled and attacked the castle. The steward of the castle was absent at the time and the attackers burned the hall down, drank four tuns of wine and stole the weapons, rods and other goods. The conflict with Scotland led to further attacks on the castle and the surrounding manor. The adjacent fields were then abandoned and in 1340 the castle was in ruins and the manor was no longer worth anything.

Later time

In 1361 the crown reclaimed Bowes Castle, which was still in ruins. Between 1444 and 1471 it was under the control of the Neville family , powerful regional landowners, before falling back to the Crown. King James I sold the castle in the early 17th century and the remaining fortifications were demolished in the mid-17th century after the English Civil War .

In the 21st century, the castle ruins are managed by English Heritage and serve as a tourist attraction. The ruins of the donjon have survived almost completely to this day and are considered a historical building of the first degree and a scheduled monument .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Oliver Hamilton Creighton: Castles and Landscapes: Power, Community and Fortification in Medieval England . Equinox, London 2005. ISBN 978-1-904768-67-8 . P. 40.
  2. ^ A b Norman JG Pounds : The Medieval Castle in England and Wales: A Political and Social History . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1994, ISBN 0-521-45828-5 , pp. 179 (English, 357 pages, [ limited preview in Google Book Search]).
  3. ^ A b c Robert Liddiard (Ed.): Anglo-Norman Castles . Boydell Press, Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester, NY 2003, ISBN 0-85115-904-4 , The Origins of the Honor of Richmond and its Castles, pp. 101 (English, 414 pages, limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Katy Kenyon: Barnard Castle, Egglestone Abbey, Bowes Castle . English Heritage, London 1999. ISBN 1-85074-720-2 . P. 36.
  5. ↑ Bowes Castle . National Monuments Record. English Heritage. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
  6. ↑ a b c d Adrian Pettifer: English Castles: A Guide by Counties . Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge 2002, ISBN 0-85115-782-3 , pp. 288 (English, 384 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).
  7. ^ Norman JG Pounds : The Medieval Castle in England and Wales: A Political and Social History . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1994, ISBN 0-521-45828-5 , pp. 181 (English, 357 pages, [ limited preview in Google Book Search]).
  8. ^ R. Allen Brown: English Castles . In: Batsford paperbacks . 1st edition. tape 21 . Batsford, London 1962, OCLC 1392314 , pp. 119 (English, 207 pp., Limited preview in Google Book Search).
  9. ^ Robert Liddiard (ed.): Anglo-Norman Castles . Boydell Press, Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester, NY 2003, ISBN 0-85115-904-4 , The Origins of the Honor of Richmond and its Castles, pp. 102 (English, 414 pp., Limited preview in Google Book Search).
  10. ↑ It is impossible to accurately compare 12th century prices and incomes with today's prices and incomes. At that time £ 600 was about four times the average annual income of a baron.
  11. ^ Norman JG Pounds : The Medieval Castle in England and Wales: A Political and Social History . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1994, ISBN 0-521-45828-5 , pp. 147 (English, 357 pages, [ limited preview in Google Book Search]).
  12. ↑ a b c James D. Mackenzie: The Castles of England, Their Story and Structure, by Sir James D. Mackenzie, ... Volume 2 . W. Heinemann, London 1897, OCLC 457809960 , p. 211 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  13. ^ John Goodall: The English Castle, 1066-1650 . In: The Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art . Yale University Press, New Haven 2011, ISBN 978-0-300-11058-6 , pp. 139 (English, 548 p., Limited preview in Google book search).
  14. ^ R. Allen Brown: English Castles . In: Batsford paperbacks . 1st edition. tape 21 . Batsford, London 1962, OCLC 1392314 , pp. 43 (English, 207 pp., Limited preview in Google Book Search).
  15. ^ Adrian Pettifer: English Castles: A Guide by Counties . Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge 2002, ISBN 0-85115-782-3 , pp. 288–289 (English, 384 pages, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  16. ↑ Oliver Hamilton Creighton: Castles and Landscapes: Power, Community and Fortification in Medieval England . Equinox, London 2005. ISBN 978-1-904768-67-8 . P. 204.
  17. ↑ a b c d e f g h Parishes: Bowes, A History of the County of York North Riding . Volume 1. 1914. pp. 42-49. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  18. ^ A b c d History and Research: Bowes Castle . English Heritage. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  19. ^ A b Adrian Pettifer: English Castles: A Guide by Counties . Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge 2002, ISBN 0-85115-782-3 , pp. 289 (English, 384 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).
  20. ^ Adrian Pettifer: English Castles: A Guide by Counties . Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge 2002, ISBN 0-85115-782-3 , pp. 265 (English, 384 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).
  21. ↑ Bowes Castle . Gatehouse Gazetteer . Retrieved February 24, 2015.

Web links

Commons : Bowes Castle  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 54 ° 31 ′ 0.5 ″  N , 2 ° 0 ′ 49 ″  W.