Kirby Muxloe Castle
Kirby Muxloe Castle , also known as Kirby Castle , is an unfinished 15th century manor house in Kirby Muxloe in the English county of Leicestershire .
Its construction began in 1480 at the behest of William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings , during the Wars of the Roses . The baron already owned a mansion on this site, which he wanted to completely rebuild. The foundations of this first mansion can still be seen today as ruins in the courtyard of the new mansion. He wanted to create a fortified residence with a rectangular floor plan, enclosed by walls, towers and a moat . But work on the house stopped with his execution for treason on the orders of King Richard III. set in 1483. The house was never completed. Parts of the mansion were initially inhabited by the rest of the Hastings family, but by the 16th century the property was abandoned and left to decay.
history
The old manor house on this site can be traced back to the 13th century. The Pakeman family once lived there . Sir Simon Pakeman was landlord and Knight of the Shire in Parliament. The manor changed hands in 1364 when Robert de Herle , who died without male heirs , left his lands to his sister Margaret's son , Ralph Hastings of Wistow . Ralph's father was Sir Ralph Hastings of Wistow and had married Margaret Herle , the daughter of the then landlord, a few years earlier.
Ralph Hastings is listed in the Duchy of Lancaster Records as one of John O'Gaunts most trusted generals. He had three sons. The eldest, another Ralph Hastings , became heir to the manor when his father died in 1398. However, he was involved in the Scrope Rebellion and was executed. The middle son, Richard Hastings , held the manor in Kirby Muxloe until his death in 1436. The youngest brother, Leonard Hastings , then inherited it. He was appointed sheriff of Leicestershire and Warwickshire in 1453 . His son was William Hastings, born in 1431 .
Through his father's business in Leicester, William Hastings became friends with Edward, the future King Edward IV. He inherited his father's lands when he died in 1455. Eduard came to the English throne in 1461, William was given the title of Baron Hastings and received rich awards and gifts. In 1474, William Hastings received the King's permission to plant 1,200 acres at Ashby-de-la-Zouch , 810 acres at Bagworth and 810 acres at Kirby Muxloe. He was no longer a tenant in Kirby Muxloe, as he had acquired the manorial rights from the Villiers family a few months before the enclosure permit was obtained. He then also applied for a royal fortification permit (English: "License to Crenellate") for the manor house in Kirby Muxloe, which allowed him to carry out his construction plans. Work on the mansion began in 1480.
While there are records from the Middle Ages of the cost of building castles and mansions, these are mostly royal records. It was not until the late Middle Ages that there were significant records of building activity on noble castles; Kirby Muxloe is one of those cases. It was noted that the mansion builder was John Cowper , who was paid eight pence a day for overseeing the stone work, as opposed to the chief mason, Anthony Docheman , who was paid only ten pence a week.
In 1483, after the death of Edward IV, King Edward V came to the English throne, but his reign was short-lived. Eduard V, along with his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York , was one of the princes in the Tower who disappeared after being locked in the Tower of London (ostensibly for their own safety) . Responsibility for their death becomes general to Richard III. attributed to who succeeded Edward V on the throne.
Unfortunately for William Hastings, things changed dramatically on June 13, 1483, while the council met in the Tower of London: Richard III. accused, with the assistance of the Dukes of Buckingham and other councilors, of conspiracy against his life. The other accused conspirators were jailed, but Hastings was immediately beheaded in the courtyard. Work on Kirby Muxloe's mansion stopped immediately and so it was never completed. However, parts of the manor house were already finished enough for remaining family members to move in. In the 16th century, however, the property was abandoned and left to decay.
In 1630 the manor was sold by the Hastings family; then there was a farm on the site. But in 1911 the Ministry of Works took over the property and had repairs carried out.
Today the unfinished house is under the management of English Heritage and has been listed as a historical building of the first degree. Extensive restoration work has recently been carried out on the manor house. It is open to the public on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from May 1st to August 31st.
description
The mansion is mostly made of brick , a new, expensive and modern material at the time. Such a lavish construction was due in part to the immense power and wealth that William Hastings acquired in serving King Edward IV. The red bricks were molded on or next to the property and fired in an oven. The mansion also had a new type of defense detail at the time: loopholes for gun posts.
Only the gatehouse and the western tower have survived to this day. The gatehouse is partially complete up to the first floor. Its facade is decorated with a pattern of black bricks in the red brick masonry. The initials “WH” and the Hastings coat of arms, a ship, can be seen above the entrance, as can the lower half of a possible figure. Octagonal turrets can be seen in the ground plan of the gatehouse. There are two rooms on the ground floor on either side of the entrance that have brick vaulted ceilings. They were supposed to serve as a porter's lodge and guard room; they had windows facing the courtyard and large open fireplaces. The porter's lodge now serves as a visitor reception room. There are also spiral stairs to the first floor; this was never completed and has no roof, but the portcullis and drawbridge were to be incorporated there. Presumably another floor was planned for the gatehouse. In the octagonal turrets, which point outwards towards the ditch, there are round loopholes with viewing slits above, behind which cannons should be set up. Two of them are below the water level of today's trench, which only made sense if the trench was originally dry. The loopholes therefore appear more as a show detail than a real defense device.
The west wing was the only part of the mansion that was completely completed. It has three floors of living rooms, each with a washing facility. Today there are no longer any ceilings inside, but a spiral staircase gives access to the anteroom on the second floor.
The planned hall and the north wing were to contain the most important living spaces that have been preserved from the old house. The foundations of the outer walls for the dining areas, the beverage store and access to both are visible. The kitchens and the rest of the original mansion have disappeared under what is now the ground.
The trenches are 18 meters wide and a wooden drawbridge spans them and gives access to the gatehouse. A small stream feeds the moat. Two dams were built; the first to divert the water from the main stream and the second to control the water level in the ditch. A contactor was built into the last one so that the moat can be emptied. A conical wooden part covered with leather, parts of which had been found in the trench when it was cleaned during the restoration, was used to close the gate.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Visitors' Information . English Heritage.
- ↑ a b Plantagenet Somerset Fry: The David & Charles Book of Castles . David & Charles, Newton Abbott 1980. ISBN 0-7153-7976-3 . P. 249.
- ↑ a b c d e f Kirby Muxloe Castle . Retrieved June 27, 2016.
- ↑ a b c d LeicestershireVillages.com: Rise of the House of Hastings . Retrieved June 27, 2016.
- ^ Reginald Allen Brown: Allen Brown's English Castles . The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2004 (1954). ISBN 1-84383-069-8 . Pp. 117-118.
- ↑ Kirkby Muxloe Castle . Historic England. English Heritage. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
literature
- TH Fosbrooke: A short description of the original building accounts of Kirby Muxloe Castle (PDF) pp. 87-90. 1913-1914.
- F. Hewitt, J. Langham: Kirby Muxloe Castle (PDF) pp. 108-114. 1913-1914.
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 38 ′ 11.8 " N , 1 ° 13 ′ 37.9" W.