Coventry Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Caesar's Tower is all that was left of Coventry Castle. Next to it St. Mary's Guildhall, which was built on the foundations of the castle.

Coventry Castle was a castle in the city of Coventry in the English administrative division of West Midlands . The moth was demolished in the late 12th century and created on part of the St Mary's Guildhall site .

history

construction

Ranulph de Gernon, 2nd Earl of Chester , had the castle built in the early 12th century. Their military use was documented for the first time during the Civil War of Anarchy , when Robert Marmion, 1st Baron Marmion of Tamworth , a supporter of King Stephen , chased the monks from the neighboring Marian monastery and turned it into a fortress. He involved the earl in a battle in the course of which he was killed.

In 1147 the royalists withdrew to their defensive positions when Ranulph de Gernon besieged the castle and tried to win it back after he had handed it over to King Stephen. The surrender had been forced by King Stephen when he captured De Gernon earlier that year, forcing him to surrender all of his castles. After relieving the siege, King Stephen had the castle demolished, but it was probably later repaired as it is described as a strong fortress in 1182.

Tudor period

In November 1569, Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in Caesar's Tower . At that time there was St Mary's Guildhall in place of the castle. It is not known in which room she was held. One room in Caesar's Tower is called the "Mary Queen of Scots Room" and was originally thought to have been her prison as it looks like a cell, but it is more likely that she had to stay in the "Old Mayoress's Parlor".

today

Today Caesar's Tower still exists as part of St Mary's Guildhall, probably the only remnant of the former Coventry Castle. It was rebuilt after being destroyed by bombs in World War II . The Treasury is on the ground floor of the tower and above it is the Mary Queen of Scots Room .

The Cathedral Lanes Shopping Center was built on part of the former castle grounds .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Coventry Castle . Historic England. Pastscape. English Heritage. Retrieved February 29, 2016.
  2. ^ A b Charles Taylor: Coventry Castle . Retrieved February 29, 2016.
  3. ^ D. McGrory: A History of Coventry . 2003. p. 31.
  4. ^ D. McGrory: A History of Coventry . 2003, p. 34.
  5. ^ A b A Brief History of St Mary's Guildhall - Early History . St Mary's Guildhall. Retrieved February 29, 2016.
  6. ↑ St Mary's Hall . Historic England. Retrieved February 29, 2016.

swell

  • David J. Cathcart King: Catellarium Anglicanum: An Index and Bibliography of the Castles in England, Wales and the Islands . Volume I: Anglesey - Montgomery . Kraus International Publications, 1983.

literature

  • Plantagenet Somerset Fry: The David & Charles Book of Castles , David & Charles, Newton Abbott 1980. ISBN 0-7153-7976-3

Coordinates: 52 ° 24 ′ 26.8 "  N , 1 ° 30 ′ 28.6"  W.