Threave Castle
| Threave Castle | ||
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 Threave Castle |
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| Creation time : | around 1370 | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Geographical location | 54 ° 56 '21.1 " N , 3 ° 58' 10.9" W | |
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Threave Castle (also Thrieve or Treve ) is located on an approximately eight hectare island in the River Dee , about 2.5 km west of the parish of Castle Douglas , Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland . The castle was the ancestral seat of the " Black Douglas " from the late 14th to the middle of the 15th century.
The original name Trief comes from Old Welsh , the language of this region until the 7th century. The word meet in this language means "home".
history
The castle was built around 1370 by Archibald Douglas, 3rd Earl of Douglas , shortly after he was named Lord of Galloway in 1369 . He made the castle his ancestral seat and died here in 1400.
His descendants were closely linked to Scottish history: his son Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas , married Princess Margaret, the daughter of the Scottish King Robert III. His grandson Archibald Douglas († 1439) was appointed as the 5th Earl of Douglas in 1437 to regent the underage King James II .
William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas , married his cousin Margaret to secure Galloway claims for the Douglas family. He was the first to have the fortifications rebuilt in 1447. Earlier buildings inside and outside the walls were demolished and a defensive wall was erected along the island's shore. In 1452 William was personally killed by King James II at Stirling Castle .
Because of this act, William's brother James Douglas , now the 9th Earl, rose. His rebellion failed after the siege of Stirling Castle, however, with the defeat in the Battle of Arkinholm ; the castles of the Douglas' were then systematically besieged. Threave Castle was also besieged for two months in 1455. The castle could have withstood, also because in the meantime the fortifications had been reinforced with a complete castle wall, three corner towers and a gatehouse, an outer moat and an earth wall north of the keep. However, after the payment of bribes and the promise of safe conduct, she was evacuated by the crew.
Threave Castle was annexed by the Crown. 1473 gave Jacob III. his wife Margarethe's castle , which she neither used nor visited. So keepers were installed for the castle. From the following period are known:
- Jacob IV wants to visit the castle. Sir John Dunbar of Mochrum, First Keeper (died in the Battle of Flodden Field ) submits the food, drink and equipment bills to the Lord High Treasurer .
- Robert Maxwell, 4th Lord Maxwell , became the second keeper in 1513 . He received the castle as a hereditary fief in 1526.
- In 1542 Robert Maxwell was captured after the Battle of Solway Moss . He had to hand Threave Castle over to the English. It was not until 1545 that James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran , recaptured the castle for Scotland.
During the Episcopal Wars from 1638 to 1640, the Maxwell clan supported King Charles I of England. A garrison of 100 soldiers defended the castle, was besieged by the Covenanters and had to surrender after 13 weeks. The castle was then partially destroyed, only the keep remained untouched. The castle has remained uninhabited since then.
During the Napoleonic Wars , Threave Castle was once again used for a brief period as a shelter for French prisoners of war before it was handed over to the state by its owner Edward Gordon in 1913.
description
The original tower measures 18.4 × 12.1 meters and was five stories high.
The lowest floor was used as a storage area, and there is also a well and a "prisoner's hole" in it. Access was via a ladder through a trap door from the floor above. The first floor, which could originally only be reached via a drawbridge from the gatehouse, was divided into two parts. The smaller room formed the entrance area, the larger part was used as a kitchen. A stone spiral staircase in the roughly two meter thick walls led from here to the large hall above, which could also be reached from the gatehouse via a second drawbridge. There was a latrine here in the outer wall. The two floors above the great hall had wooden floors, with the third floor having two rooms with their own chimneys (and again a latrine); the premises of the lords of the castle. The top floor is unusual: it has nine windows, no latrine and no fireplace, but an outer door. In peacetime it served as quarters for the servants; in case of siege as accommodation for soldiers. The outer door opened onto a wooden battlement.
The castle today
The remains of the rectangular keep still rise to a remaining height of 21 meters. However, all components made of wood have disappeared. There are no more traces of the roof, battlements or the floors of the two upper floors. Remains of one of the three towers, pieces of the castle wall and the foundation of the gatehouse can still be found outside the keep. Traces of the original pier can be found northwest of the keep.
Today Threave Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument under the administration of Historic Scotland . The castle can only be visited by boat, the crossing to the island is included in the entrance fee. The pier is located in the south of the island and is several hundred meters from the visitor car park.
Trivia
The Scottish proverb "Every man's man had a man and that made Treve fall" alludes to the siege and fall of the castle in 1455. Loosely translated: "The deputy of a deputy never acts like a commanding officer would."
literature
- Martin Coventry: The Castles of Scotland . 4th edition. Polygon, Goblinshead 2006.
- Chris Tabraham: Threave Castle . Historic Scotland, Edinburgh 1993, ISBN 0-7480-0657-5 (reprinted 1999).
Web links
- Threave Castle. Historic Scotland , accessed September 21, 2014 .
- Threave Castle. The Gazetteer for Scotland , accessed September 21, 2014 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tabraham 1993 , p.4
- ↑ Tabraham, 1993 , pp. 7f.
- ↑ Tabraham 1993 , p 9
- ↑ Tabraham, 1993 , pp. 10f.
- ↑ Tabraham, 1993 , pp. 16ff.
- ↑ James Kelly: A complete collection of Scottish proverbs: explained and made intelligible to the English reader . Rodwell & Martin, London 1818, pp. 58 ( online on Google Books [accessed September 21, 2014]).