Peveril Castle

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Peveril Castle from Cave Dale , with Lose Hill in the background

Peveril Castle (also Castleton Castle or Peak Castle ) is a ruined castle from the Middle Ages above the village of Castleton in the English county of Derbyshire . The castle was the seat of the Honor of Peverel and was built sometime between the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and the first written mention in the Domesday Book of 1086 for William Peverel , who owned lands in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire as the king's feudal man . The nearby town of Castleton benefited from the castle that served as the seat of the Peak nobility . The village became an economic center of the area. Today's ruins overlook the Hope Valley and the Cave Dale .

William Pevererel the Younger inherited his father's property, but it was confiscated by King Henry II in 1155 . While the castle was in his possession, Heinrich visited it three times, in 1157, 1158 and 1164; in the first year King Malcolm IV of Scotland was a guest there. During the revolt of 1173-1174 , the garrison of the castle was reinforced by a porter and two guards to a troop of 20 knights, which Peveril Castle shared with the castles in Bolsover and Nottingham . The Earls of Derby could claim the property of the Peverels by marriage, and in 1199 William Ferrers , the 4th Earl, paid 2000 marks for the Lordship of the Peak , although the castle remained under the control of the Crown. The occasion when Peveril Castle came closest to a military conflict was in 1216, when Johann Ohneland gave the castle to William de Ferrers as a fief but the castellan refused to give up control. Although both of them supported the king, he allowed the earl to use force against the castellan. However, he subsequently gave up, although there is no evidence that the castle was attacked.

In 1223 the castle fell back to the crown. In the 13th century there was construction work on the castle, which had reached its final shape around 1300. Towards the end of the 14th century, the barony was bestowed on John of Gaunt , the Duke of Lancaster . He had little use for the castle and ordered that parts of it be torn down and the building materials used elsewhere. So began the decline. From the time of John of Gaunt to the present day, the estate and ruins have been owned by the Duchy of Lancaster . Peveril Castle also lost its importance as an administrative location and in 1609 it was described as "very ruinous and useless". In the 19th century Sir Walter Scott mentioned the castle in his novella Peveril of the Peak . Today the property is under the management of English Heritage and is located in a national park . Peveril Castle is a Scheduled Monument and has been listed as a Grade I Historic Building.

history

Peveril Castle watches over the western end of the Hope Valley on a limestone cliff, in the midst of an ancient landscape. On the north side is Mam Tor , a Bronze Age fort and 3 kilometers to the east is the Roman Fort Navio near Brough and Shatton . The valley formed a natural traffic route and was particularly important because of valuable natural resources in the area, particularly lead .

From the Norman Conquest

Little Hope Castle is halfway down the valley. The castle's builder, William Peverel, was a follower of William the Conqueror and was rewarded for his allegiance in the conquest of England. Its first explicit mention in England says that William the Conqueror, who was about to subdue the Midlands and Northern England, gave him the new Nottingham Castle as a fief in 1068 . An unsubstantiated legend claims that Peveril was Wilhelm's illegitimate son. According to the Domesday Book of 1086, Peveril had become a powerful landowner who owned estates in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The exact year of construction of Peveril Castle is not known, although construction must have started before 1086 as it is mentioned in the Domesday Book, one of 48 castles on the list and the only one in Derbyshire. It says the castle is on Pechesers which can be translated into English as Peak's Tail or Peak's Ass . While the earliest Norman castles were usually built in wood, Peveril Castle seems to have been built in stone.

The Donjon of Peveril Castle dates from the 12th century

William Peveril had royal estates such as Hope District , and while he owned his own estates, he relied on the king's continued benevolence to maintain his power in this way. In the year 1100 the new king, Henry I , gave him "his Fronhof im Peak" as a fief. This means that the Peak became an independent lordship under Peveril's control, making the castle an important administrative center in the area, allowing taxes to be collected. Nearby Castleton benefited from the castle's new role and began to grow as the Lordship's new economic heart. William Peveril died in 1114 and his son, William Peveril the Younger, succeeded him. In the civil war called Anarchy , which was fought between King Stephen and Empress Matilda , Peveril found himself on the losing side and his property suffered after being captured at the Battle of Lincoln in 1141 . In 1153, Peveril was accused of trying to poison Ranulph de Gernon . In the same year, the future King Henry II charged Peveril with "looting and treason" and threatened to confiscate his lands and hand them over to the Earl of Chester. Two years later, Heinrich, who was now king, carried out his threat. At that time, however, the Earl of Chester was already dead and so the king kept the lands himself. When Peveril Castle was under royal control, it became the administrative center of the Forest of the High Peak .

William Peveril the Younger died after 1155 and his only male descendant had died before him. So the husband of William Peveril's daughter Margaret claimed the confiscated lands on behalf of the family. Margaret had married Robert de Ferrers, 2nd Earl of Derby . King Henry II visited Peveril Castle three times during his reign. On his first visit in 1157 he hosted King Malcolm IV of Scotland , who paid homage to King Henry after he had to cede Cumberland and Westmorland to the English. Heinrich II also returned to the castle in 1158 and 1164. When a group of barons led by Henry's sons Henry the Younger , Gottfried, Duke of Brittany , and Prince Richard , who would later become Richard the Lionheart, took part in the 1173-1174 revolt against the king's reign, the king invested £ 116 under construction on the castles of Peveril and Bolsover in Derbyshire. The garrison was also increased. Peveril Castle used to be guarded by two guards and a porter, but they were reinforced by a force led by 20 knights who Peveril Castle shared with the castles of Bolsover and Nottingham during the revolt. After the revolt was completed in 1174, further steps were taken to improve the fortifications of Peveril Castle, and the Pipe Rolls (records of royal expenditure) show that from 1175 to 1177 the sum of £ 184 for the construction of the keep was issued . Stone construction was expensive, and the keep of Peveril Castle became small; contemporary medium-sized stone castles, such as Orford Castle, could cost thousands of pounds at the time. The average income of Henry II during his reign is estimated at £ 10,000 a year. With few documents remaining, it is not clear when each part of the castle was built, and archaeological research into the age of the masonry has not yielded any results. Heinrich II died in 1189 and his son Richard the Lionheart inherited him. Soon after his coronation, Richard the Lionheart bestowed the Lordship of the Peak including the castle on his brother Johann Ohneland . While Richard was on a crusade , Johann rebelled and upon his return Richard confiscated the lordship again.

Johann became king in 1199 after Richard's death. William de Ferrers, 4th Earl of Derby , maintained the Earls of Derby's claim to the Peveril estate. He paid Johann 2000 marks for the Lordship of the Peak but the crown kept Peveril Castle and Bolsover Castle in their possession. In 1216 Johann Ohneland finally left the two castles to the Ferrers in order to secure their support in the face of a nationwide rebellion. But the castellan Brian de Lisle refused to hand over the castles. Although Lisle and Ferrers both supported King John, the latter allowed Ferrers to use force to get the castles back.

Henry III.

The situation was still chaotic when Henry III. became king after the death of his father in 1216. Although Bolsover Castle fell into the hands of Ferrers' forces after a siege in 1217, there is no evidence that Peveril Castle was ever attacked, and so it is likely that Brian de Lisle and William de Ferrers negotiated his surrender. Ferrers held the lordship only until the young king was of legal age. When the time came, he was reluctant to give the property to Henry III. after initial hesitation did so in 1223. Contemporary pipe roll records have survived, but they do not provide any information about how the money was used. Hence, it is not clear how much was spent on preservation and how much was spent on rebuilding. Richard Eales , who wrote the 2006 English Heritage Guide, says, however, that there were two periods when Peveril Castle was built as more money than usual was invested: £ 54 in 1204–1207 and £ 67 in the years 1210–1212. Medieval historian Sidney Painter (1902-1960) believed that around 1200 there were only seven magnates in England whose annual income exceeded £ 400 and a knight could easily live on £ 10-20 a year.

Map of the area from The Growth of the English House by John Alfred Gotch 1909

The rest of the 13th century was relatively peaceful and records show that Peveril Castle was maintained by the Crown. In 1235 the north wall and bridge were repaired in anticipation of a royal visit. After extensive work in 1250–1252 (spending £ 60), 1272–1275 (spending £ 40) and 1288–1290 (spending £ 151) it is believed that the castle's buildings were completed by 1300. King Henry gave Peveril Castle to Prince Edward (later King Edward I ) along with County Palatine in Chester and the royal estates in Wales and Ireland. Some of these lands, including Peveril Castle, became part of Eleanor of Castile's widow's provision , which she would own in case her husband, Prince Edward, died before her. Back then, the Lordship of the Peak was worth £ 300 a year. After the outbreak of the Second Barons' War in 1264, Peveril Castle was occupied by Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby . Simon de Montfort urged King Henry III to let him have Peveril Castle, but after Montfort's death in 1265, the crown was returned. The castle was again assigned to Eleonore's widow's pension and, after she died earlier than her husband, the lordship fell back to the crown. The lordship's income was used to entertain members of the royal family such as Edward II's wife , Isabelle of France , and their children, as well as royal favorites such as Piers Gaveston . In 1331 Edward III. the Lordship of his wife Philippa von Hainaut . In 1345 it was given to John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey . After the transfer back to the Crown, the property fell to John of Gaunt , the third surviving son of King Edward III, in part in exchange for the Earldom of Richmond .

The Lancaster House

The time of John of Gaunt's ownership of the castle marked the beginning of the decline of Peveril Castle. Gaunt was the richest nobleman in England and owned various castles. Since Peveril Castle was relatively unimportant to him, he decided not to pay anything for his maintenance and in 1374 he even ordered the lead to be removed from the roofs and used in the construction of Pontefract Castle . Peveril Castle fell to his son Henry Bolingbroke , later King Henry IV , after Gaunt's death , and remained under royal control, administered by the Duchy of Lancaster . In the late 15th century, Peveril Castle continued to decline as its administrative functions were relocated. Other castles under the administration of the duchy were repaired in 1480, not so Peveril Castle. An assessment carried out for the duchy in 1561 showed that Peveril Castle had fallen into disrepair, so it was subsequently abandoned along with Donnington Castle . The castle housed local judicial authorities until 1600. Another assessment from 1609 found that Peveril Castle was "very ruinous and no longer usable". At some point later, the castle was still used as a stable for animals.

today

With the introduction of the railroad in the 19th century, the area became a tourist attraction. The Duchy of Lancaster carried out maintenance repairs to the castle to ensure that it did not deteriorate further. Mainly rubble was removed and mortar tapes filled. Sir Walter Scott's 1823 novella Peveril of the Peak , set in the 17th century, described the castle ruins.

In 1932 the Duchy of Lancaster handed over the management of the castle to the Office of Works , but remained the owner. Today English Heritage , the successor to the Office of Works , takes care of the property. The surrounding landscape was protected as a national park in 1951. The castle is a Scheduled Monument , which means that it is a "nationally important" historical structure and archaeological site that is protected from unauthorized changes. It was also listed as a historical building of the first degree in 1985 and recognized as an internationally important building. The castle has been named "perhaps the most beautiful medieval landmark in the Peak District" and architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner noted that it was "by far the most important castle in the county - in fact the only one that matters".

Peveril Castle over Castleton

layout

Peveril Castle floor plan
Museum reconstruction of Peveril Castle

Peveril Castle is roughly triangular in shape, about 90 mx 65 m in size. It is built on a hilltop over the Hope Valley. The terrain drops steeply from the outer walls of the castle and forms a steep rock face towards the southeast. The winding ascent from the north provides the best access to the castle. The place where the castle was built is not only easy to defend, but also makes the castle a symbol of the power of its builder that can be seen from afar. The castle was supplied from the nearby village of Castleton . The castle overlooks the Hope Valley downstream, the Treak Cliff , Mam Tor, Black Tor, and Lose Hill . The gatehouse on the east side provided the entrance to the castle . Its construction was simple, 7 m wide and with a 2.5 m long passage. Little of it has survived to this day. But earlier drawings contain details of the shape from which one can see that the building must have been built in the 12th century, perhaps at the time of Henry II or Johann Ohneland.

The curtain wall around the castle bears witness to the many construction phases of Peveril Castle. It shows masonry from Norman times - recognizable by the use of Opus spicatum - to repair work from modern times. The walls carried passageways that were about 5 m above the surrounding area near the gatehouse. In the 12th century, a tower that towered over the north wall by less than 2 m was placed on top of it. Eales thinks that this must have been "of little military use compared to the outstanding towers of later castles," which enabled the defenders to develop enfilades along the base of the wall. The terrain inside the castle slopes from west to east. Collecting drinking water was certainly important to the garrison, but it is not known exactly where they got their water from.

Inside the donjon
The lavatory on the south-east facade of the donjon

The southern curtain wall is a modern replacement along the course of the medieval wall. There are remains of two round or semicircular towers protruding from the wall. One of them is at least so well preserved to this day that one can see the use of Roman tiles in the construction, probably from the Roman Fort Navio , about 3 km away. It is not certain when the towers were built, but it is believed that they date from the 13th century. Foundations indicate the location of the building leaning against the south wall, presumably it was the old knight's hall and a chapel. A chapel in the castle is mentioned in a document from 1246; the remains of the easternmost building on the south wall should indicate the location of the chapel, as they are roughly oriented in an east-west direction. Foundations at the western end of the north wall show the location of a large building; According to its size, it is assumed that it was a knight's hall, in which the owner of the castle dined and entertained his high-ranking guests. It is not clear when the new knight's hall was built, which presumably replaced the old knight's hall on the south side of the castle. In a document from 1251, however, an "old knight's hall" was mentioned, so that one can assume that a new knight's hall must have already existed at this time. The kitchen and pantry are likely to have been to the east of the knight's hall, but little of it has survived to this day. There were also buildings on the west side of the curtain, probably sleeping quarters for high-ranking personalities. Although the main access to Peveril Castle was from the north, there was also a gate on the west side. A bridge spanned the gorge and connected the castle with a fence on the other side. However, no excavations took place there, so the exact form of the enclosure is not known. Its purpose also leaves room for speculation; it can either have been a specially constructed outer bailey or just a storage room with stables.

The keep fills the south corner of Peveril Castle. Its construction began around 1176, initiated by King Heinrich II. Its floor plan is square and measures less than 12 m × 12 m. The parapet is on one side 15 m above the foundation, on the other only about 10.5 m, as the ground is uneven. The Peveril Castle keep is small compared to other contemporary royal keepers such as those found in the Peveril Castle. B. in Dover or Scarborough finds. Today its exterior is rough, but originally its facades were smooth. The south-east side, where the donjon is protected from looting by the steep slope, gives an impression of what it might have looked like. In a projection on the south facade of the keep one was garderobe housed. As is usual with Norman donjons, the one in Peveril Castle was also entered through the first floor via an external staircase. On this entrance floor there was probably a large reception room and the ground floor was used as a warehouse. A narrow staircase in the east corner provided access to the ground floor and the wall around the top of the donjon.

Peveril's Donjon rises above the curtain wall

Individual evidence

  1. ^ DJ Cathcart King: Castellarium Anglicanicum: An Index and Bibliography of the Castles in England, Wales and the Islands . Volume I. Kraus International Publications, New York 1983, ISBN 0-527-50110-7 , p. 110.
  2. ↑ a b c Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , p. 30.
  3. ↑ Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , pp. 19, 21.
  4. ↑ Oliver Creighton: Castles and Landscapes . Continuum, London 2002, ISBN 0-8264-5896-3 , p. 101.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , p. 20.
  6. ↑ CG Harfield: A hand-list of Castles Recorded in the Domesday Book in English Historical Review . No. 106 (1991), p. 384.
  7. ↑ CG Harfield: A hand-list of Castles Recorded in the Domesday Book in English Historical Review . No. 106 (1991), p. 376.
  8. ^ A b Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , pp. 20-22.
  9. ↑ a b c Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , p. 22.
  10. ↑ Oliver Creighton: Castles and Landscapes . Continuum, London 2002, ISBN 0-8264-5896-3 , pp. 91-92.
  11. ^ A b Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , p. 23.
  12. ↑ Lisa Hull: Understanding the Castles Ruins of England and Wales: How to Interpret the History and Meaning of Masonry and Earthworks . McFarland & Co., 2008, ISBN 978-0-7864-3457-2 , p. 109.
  13. ↑ Tom McNeill: English Heritage Book of Castles . English Heritage , BT Batsford, London 1992, ISBN 0-7134-7025-9 , pp. 41-42.
  14. ^ Reginald Brown: Allen Brown's English Castles . The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 1954 2004, ISBN 1-84383-069-8 , p. 109.
  15. ^ A b Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , p. 24.
  16. ^ Reginald Brown: Allen Brown's English Castles . The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 1954 2004, ISBN 1-84383-069-8 , pp. 109-110.
  17. ↑ Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , pp. 26-27.
  18. ↑ Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , pp. 27-28.
  19. ↑ Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , p. 28.
  20. ↑ Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , p. 29.
  21. ^ John Goodall: The English Castle 1066-1650 . Yale University Press, London 2011, ISBN 978-0-300-11058-6 , pp. 450-451.
  22. ^ A b Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , pp. 30-32.
  23. ↑ a b Peveril Castle. In: Pastscape. English Heritage , accessed June 23, 2015 .
  24. ^ David Brown: Walter Scott and the Historical Imagination . Routledge, 1979, ISBN 0-7100-0301-3 , p. 187.
  25. ^ Peveril Castle Curtain Walls and Fragmentary Foundations . Historic England. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  26. ↑ Frequently asked questions. In: Images of England. English Heritage , accessed June 23, 2015 .
  27. ^ Roy Milward, Adrian Robinson: The Peak District . Taylor & Francis, 1975, ISBN 0-413-31550-9 , p. 233.
  28. ↑ a b Nikolaus Pevsner, Elizabeth Williamson: Derbyshire in Nikolaus Pevsner (ed.): The Buildings of England . Volume 8. 2nd edition. Penguin Books, 1953 1978, ISBN 0-14-071008-6 , p. 298.
  29. ↑ Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , p. 8.
  30. ↑ Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , p. 5.
  31. ^ A b Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , p. 9.
  32. ^ A b Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , p. 7.
  33. ↑ Stephen Friar: The Sutton Companion to Castles . Sutton Publishing, Stroud 2003, ISBN 0-7509-3994-X , p. 86.
  34. ↑ Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , pp. 7-9.
  35. ^ A b Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , p. 16.
  36. ↑ Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , pp. 16-17.
  37. ↑ Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , p. 10.
  38. ↑ Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , pp. 11-12.
  39. ^ A b Richard Eales: Peveril Castle . English Heritage, London 2006, ISBN 1-85074-982-5 , pp. 12-15.

literature

  • Great Britain. Department of the Environment: Peveril Castle . HMSO, 1979, ISBN 0-11-671466-2 .

Web links

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

Coordinates: 53 ° 20 ′ 24.4 "  N , 1 ° 46 ′ 37.6"  W.