Middleham Castle
Middleham Castle is a ruined castle in Wensleydale in the English county of North Yorkshire .
history
The castle was built from 1190 by Robert Fitzrandolph, 3rd Lord of Middleham and Spennithorne , on the site of an earlier moth . In 1270 it came into the hands of the Neville family , the most famous member of which was Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick , who was known as the kingmaker in the Wars of the Roses . After the death of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York at the Battle of Wakefield in December 1460, his younger sons, George and Richard took over the Earldom of Warwick and both lived at Middleham Castle with the Neville family. Her brother Edward was imprisoned at Middleham Castle for some time after he was captured by Neville in 1469. After Neville's death at the Battle of Barnet in 1471 and Edward's return to the throne, his brother Richard married Anne Neville , Richard Neville's younger daughter, and made Middleham Castle his family home. Their son Edward was also born and later died in Middleham Castle.
Richard followed Eduard as Richard III. to the throne of England, but spent little time at Middleham Castle during his reign, which lasted only two years. After Richard's death in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, the castle remained in royal hands until the reign of Jacob I , when it was sold. During the 17th century it was not inhabited and fell into disrepair. In the English Civil War , a garrison was stationed there, but there were no acts of war. Today the castle ruins are managed by English Heritage , which has listed them as a Grade I Historic Building.
description
The castle is a compact, massive structure and, although now in ruins, most of the walls are intact. The castle consists of a massive, Norman donjon with a rectangular floor plan, which is surrounded by a curtain wall built later . Extensive palace-like residential quarters were added to it later.
The donjon is similar to other large, square donjons, but only had two floors. It is divided on both floors by an inner wall, and turrets at each corner and in the middle of each wall. The ground floor houses two large, originally vaulted bedrooms, and upstairs there are two knight's halls with high windows. As usual, the entrance is reached via an external staircase to the upper floor, and a chapel that was added later guards this entrance. A repaired spiral staircase leads up to the turret on the southeast corner, from where you can enjoy the view over the surrounding city and the country, e.g. B. also on the area of the old Motte in the southwest.
The 13th century curtain wall concentrically surrounds the donjon and makes the castle a compact and effectively defendable building, even if it was built for comfort rather than military purposes. In the 15th century, the Nevilles had an impressive amount of halls and outbuildings built along the curtain wall, making the castle a truly magnificent residence for nobles of their class to live in. Bridges at the level of the upper floor combined these new buildings with the Donjon, and the ceiling of the Knights' Hall was raised, either to clerestory to install, or as space for another bedroom.
You enter the castle through a tower in the northeast corner, which is a 15th century renovation. Only the foundations of the original gatehouse remained, which extend east into the outer courtyard, which has now disappeared. With the exception of this eastern castle wall, the wall ring is quite complete, even if the walls of the residential buildings no longer exist. Some restoration work has been carried out on the castle in modern times, but the lower facades of the donjon are still in fairly poor condition. Windows and doors have crumbled, floors have collapsed and none of the battlements has been preserved. The castle is still an impressive ruin and you can still sense its former strength and grandeur today.
Web links and sources
- Teachers' resource pack . English Heritage
- Middleham Castle . English Heritage.
- Middleham Castle . Images of England.
Koordinaten: 54° 17′ 2,6″ N, 1° 48′ 24,8″ W