Tynemouth Castle
Tynemouth Castle is a castle on a rocky promontory (called Bel drag ) on the pier of Tynemouth in the English county of Tyne and Wear . The moated towers, gatehouse and donjon are on the same site as the ruins of an old Benedictine priory where the early kings of Northumbria were buried. The coat of arms of the city of Tynemouth contains three crowns, a reminder that three kings are buried in the priory.
Origins of the priory
Little is known about the property's early history. Some Roman stones have been found there, but there is no definitive evidence of a Roman settlement at this point. The priory was founded in the early 7th century, presumably by Edwin of Northumbria . In 651 Oswine , King of Deira, was murdered by the soldiers of Oswius of Bernicia and his body was then taken to Tynemouth for burial. He was venerated as a saint soon after his death and his grave became a place of pilgrimage. He was the first of the three kings to be buried at Tynemouth.
In 792, Osred , who was King of Northumbria from 789-790 and then deposed, was assassinated. He was also buried in the priory. The third king to be buried at Tynemouth was Malcolm III. , King of Scotland who died at the Battle of Alnwick in 1093 . The king's body was transported north during the reign of his son Alexander to be buried again in Dunfermline Abbey or possibly in Iona .
Attack by the Danes
In 800 the Danes plundered the Tynemouth Priory. The monks then reinforced the fortifications sufficiently to repel another attack by the Danes in 832. In 865, however, the church and monastery were destroyed in another attack by the Danes. The nuns of St. Hilda, who had sought protection in the monastery, were also massacred. Also in 870 the priory was plundered again by the Danes and finally completely destroyed in 875. Only the small parish church of St. Mary remained.
Reign of the Normans
Earl Toste made Tynemouth his fortress in the reign of Edward the Confessor . At that time the priory had already been abandoned and the grave of St. Oswin was forgotten. According to legend, Saint Oswin Edmund appeared, a novice who lived there as a hermit. The saint showed Edmund where his body was and so the grave was rediscovered in 1065. Toste fell at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 and was unable to restore the monastery as he had intended.
In 1074 Waltheof II, Earl of Northumbria , the last of the Anglo-Saxon nobles, gave the church to the monks of Jarrow as a fief, together with the corpse of St. Oswin, which was transferred there for a certain time. In 1090, Robert de Mowbray , the Earl of Northumberland, decided to re-establish the Tynemouth Priory, but he found himself at odds with William de St-Calais , Bishop of Durham . So he placed the new priory under the jurisdiction of St Albans . In 1090 monks were sent from St Albans to occupy the new monastery. But when the Abbot of St Albans was visiting in 1093, Prior Thurgot of Durham met him and protested against the misappropriation of the rights of Durham.
In 1093 Malcolm III fell. from Scotland entered England and was killed by Robert de Mowbray at the Battle of Alnwick. Malcolm's body was interred in Tynemouth Priory and remained there for a while. It is thought, however, that he was later exhumed and reburied in Dunfermline Abbey in Scotland. In 1095 Robert de Mowbray sought refuge in Tynemouth Castle after rebellion against William II . Wilhelm besieged the castle and captured it after two months. Mowbray managed to escape to Bamburgh Castle but later returned to Tynemouth. The castle was conquered again, Mowbray was taken from there and imprisoned for treason for life. In 1110 a new church was completed on the property.
The castle
It is thought that at the time of Mowbray's capture in 1095 there was already a castle at this point, made up of earthen walls and a wooden post. In 1296 the Prior of Tynemouth received royal permission to surround the monastery with stone walls, which he did. In 1390 a gatehouse and barbican were added on the land side of the castle. A large part of the structure of the priory and the gatehouse and the 975 meter long walls of the castle have been preserved to this day.
Edward II
In 1312 King Edward II found refuge at Tynemouth Castle with his favorite Piers Gaveston before escaping by sea to Scarborough Castle . These events were dramatized by Christopher Marlowe in his play Edward II , published in 1594. Act 2, scene 2 of the play takes place "in front of Tynemouth Castle", act 2, scene 3 "at Tynemouth Castle" and act 2, scene 4 "in Tynemouth Castle". Tynemouth Priory was also the resting place of Edward's illegitimate son, Adam FitzRoy . FitzRoy accompanied his father in the attacks on Scotland in 1322 and died on September 18, 1322 of unknown reason. He was buried on September 30, 1322 in the Tynemouth Priory; his father paid for the silk cloth and gold thread that was spread over his body.
reformation
In 1538 the monastery of Tynemouth was dissolved by Robert Blakeney , the last prior. At that time, 15 monks and 3 novices lived there in addition to the prior. The priory and the adjacent lands were taken over by Henry VIII and given to Sir Thomas Hilton as a fief. The monastery buildings were demolished, only the church and the prior's house remained. The castle itself remained in royal hands. From 1545, following the advice of the civil engineer Richard Lee and the Italian military engineers Gian Tommaso Scala and Antonio da Bergamo, new artillery fortifications were built. The medieval castle walls were provided with new loopholes. Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland , was born at Tynemouth Castle in 1564 when his father, the 8th Earl, was governor of the castle.
Another story
The church remained in use as a parish church until 1668. Then a new church was built nearby. The ruins of the old church have been preserved to this day. Below is a small chapel (6 meters × 4 meters) called the Prayer Chamber of St. Mary or Percy Chapel . Its particularly beautiful furnishings include a ceiling painting with a number of coats of arms and other symbols, colorful glass windows on the side and a small rose window in the east wall above the altar.
In 1665 a lighthouse was built on the headland (with stones from the abandoned priory) inside the castle wall as a navigation mark for ships entering the Tyne . In 1775 this lighthouse was replaced by a newer one. The lighthouse was initially coal-fired. In 1802 an oil lamp was installed instead , and in 1871 a red rotating light. The lighthouse, which Trinity House bought in 1841 , remained in operation until 1895. Then it was replaced by St. Mary's Lighthouse on Whitley Bay north of it. The old lighthouse was demolished in 1898.
At the end of the 19th century the castle served as a barracks, with a number of new buildings being added. Many of them were removed after a fire in 1936. During World War II , the castle played a role as a coastal fortification to protect the Tyne Estuary. Today it is managed by English Heritage and can be visited for a small entrance fee. The restored sections of the coastal fortification are open to the public. This also includes a guard room and the main store where visitors can see how to safely handle and protect ammunition.
Originally the headland was completely enclosed with a curtain wall with towers, but the north and east parts of the castle wall collapsed into the sea and most of the south wall was demolished. The western castle wall and the gatehouse are well preserved. Recently, modern buildings have been built for Her Majesty's Coastguard . However, the new Coast Guard Station, built in 1980 and opened by Prince Charles , closed in 2001.
panorama
Individual references and comments
- ^ FD Blackley: Adam, the bastard son of Edward II in Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research . Edition XXXVII. Pp. 76-77.
- ^ Howard Colvin (editor): The History of the King's Works . Volume 4, Part 2. 1982. pp. 682-688.
- ↑ In earlier centuries there was a light for the sailors on the tower of the priory.
- ^ Robin Jones: Lighthouses of the North East Coast . Halsgrove, Wellington (Somerset) 2014.
swell
- GL Dodds: Historic Sites of Northumberland & Newcastle upon Tyne . Albion Press, 2000. ISBN 0-9525122-1-1 .
Web links
- Tynemouth Priory and Castle . English Heritage.
- Tynemouth Castle and Priory NorthOfTheTyne.co.uk.
- Sketch map from 1720
Coordinates: 55 ° 1 ′ 3 " N , 1 ° 25 ′ 8" W