Chartley Castle

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Chartley Castle ruins
Chartley Castle ruins

Chartley Castle is a ruined castle north of the village of Stowe-by-Chartley between Stafford and Uttoxeter in the English county of Staffordshire . The remains of the castle and the associated earthworks have been a Scheduled Monument since 1925 . The castle ruin itself was designated a historical building II * by English Heritage . Grade listed.

history

One of the early Earls of Chester had a moth erected here around 1100 as a safe place to stay on the way to places like Tutbury . Ranulf de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester , who died in 1232, had the castle rebuilt in stone in 1220. Then she fell by marriage to William de Ferrers , the Earl of Derby . It then remained in the possession of the Ferrers family for over 200 years and fell to her husband Walter Devereux in 1453 via the Ferrers heiress Anne . Walter Devereux was made Baron Ferrers of Chartley in 1462 and died at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 . The castle was then abandoned as a residence and Chartley Manor , one with a ditch provided, wooden mansion , built in the vicinity. Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in this mansion. It burned down in 1781. Today's Chartley Manor was called Chartley Manor Farm until the 1980s .

description

To this day there are still significant remains of the former castle, e.g. B. a rare, cylindrical donjon , a curtain wall which is flanked by two semicircular towers, a gatehouse with two towers and an angular tower. A report made in the 19th century mentions five towers with an outer diameter of between 10.6 meters and 12.5 meters, and the donjon with an outer diameter of 15.2 meters. One author noted similarities in the ground plan with the castle of Montlhéry near Paris , which Ranulf de Blondeville knew well. MW Thompson pointed out numerous architectural similarities between Chartley Castle, Bolingbroke Castle and Beeston Castle , all of which are said to have been built under De Blondeville.

Maria Stuart in the manor house

When Chartley Manor belonged to Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, it became one of the last prisons for Mary Queen of Scots. Her jailer, Amias Paulet , came over from Tutbury Castle in September 1585 to see the manor house and saw that the house was just big enough to house his and the Queen's household. Chartley Manor was preferred to various alternatives because the house had a deep moat, even if it was narrow in places. The moat also made it safer because the queen's laundry could be washed without her servants leaving the house. Paulet wrote that the fact that "the mansion was so low and surrounded by water" seemed unpleasant to Mary Queen of Scots.

Paulet was preparing to move the Queen over the 12 miles from Tutbury Castle to Chartley Manor before Christmas 1585, avoiding the busy market town of Uttoxeter. Mary Queen of Scots spent almost a year at Chartley Manor. In August 1586, Francis Walsingham made plans to arrest the Queen and abduct her from Chartley Manor while tricking Paulet into taking her out to hunt, capturing senior members of her household and taking away her papers. Many of her servants would be held at Chartley and Mary Queen of Scots would be moved to another house. As a member of the Babington conspiracy , Maria Stuart was imprisoned on August 11, 1586 when she was riding with Bastian Pagez , her doctor Dominique Bourgoing and others and they were surprised by armed soldiers who took them to Tixall .

Walsingham wrote to Paulet on August 25th from Windsor Castle that Queen Elizabeth I had ordered that Mary Queen of Scots should not leave Tixall. But that day Paulet brought Mary Queen of Scots back to Chartley Manor. On September 25, 1586, Mary Queen of Scots was taken to the strong fortress of Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire , where she was beheaded on February 8, 1587.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chartley Castle, Chartley Old Hall and associated water control systems including garden remains . Historic England. English Heritage. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
  2. ↑ Staffordshire HER . Heritage Gateway. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
  3. ^ William White: History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire . 1834. p. 684.
  4. ↑ Alex Scrivener: Chartley Earthworks and Castle in British Archaeological Association Journal . Issue 2 (1896). Pp. 53-59.
  5. ↑ Francois Matarasso: The English Castle . Cassell Books, London 1995. ISBN 978-1-84067-230-5 . P. 224 ff.
  6. ^ MW Thompson: The Origins of Bolingbroke Castle, Lincolnshire in Medieval Archeology . Issue 10 (1966). Pp. 152-158.
  7. ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland . Volume 8 (1914). Pp. 102, 109-110.
  8. ↑ Maria Stuart was sensitive to a damp environment.
  9. ^ John Morris (editor): Letter Book of Amias Paulet . 1874. p. 105.
  10. ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland . Volume 8 (1914). P. 170.
  11. ↑ John Guy: Queen of Scots: The True Story . 2005. pp. 469-480.
  12. ^ Régis de Chantelauze (editor): Marie Stuart, son procès et son exécution: d'après le journal inédit de Bourgoing, son médecin, la correspondance d'Amyas Paulet, son geôlier et autres documents nouveaux . Plon, 1876.
  13. ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland . Volume 8 (1914). Pp. 607-608, 626, 628, 632.
  14. ^ Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587) . Luminarium Encyclopedia Project. Retrieved February 16, 2016.

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Web links

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

Coordinates: 52 ° 51 ′ 14.4 "  N , 1 ° 59 ′ 11.7"  W.