Wigmore Castle

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Wigmore Castle ruins

Wigmore Castle is a ruined castle near the village of Wigmore in the English county of Herefordshire .

history

Wigmore Castle was built soon after the Norman conquest of England , probably around 1070, on behalf of William FitzOsbern , 1st Earl of Hereford and close ally of William the Conqueror . It was built on worthless land in a place called Merestun , a settlement on a mere or lake. At the time of the conquest of England, the land belonged to a certain Gunnforthr or Gunnvarthr , who also owned land in the villages of Lingen and Brampton Bryan . The associated settlement of Wigmore was probably also founded by FitzOsbern, possibly on the site of an earlier settlement.

The exact shape of FitzOsbern's castle at Wigmore is not known, but, similar to the fortifications at Chepstow , Monmouth and elsewhere, it was arguably strong and probably covered the same area as the current castle ruins. In this case FitzOsbern was a natural ravine remodel so that he has a deep ditch behind the mound of Motte was formed. No evidence of any stone defenses has yet been found, leading to the conclusion that FitzOsbern's castle was built of wood, but it is also possible that the thick vegetation and thick layers of rubble obscure the foundations of an early, stone donjon .

Reconstruction of Wigmore Castle

FitzOsbern fell in Flanders in 1071 and his son Roger de Breteuil took part in the count's revolt in 1075 . After the earl's final defeat, King William the Conqueror confiscated the castle and lent it to another of his supporters, Ranulph de Mortimer . From that time Wigmore Castle was the center of the Mortimers ' barony , from 1328 Earls of March .

In 1155 the castle was besieged by King Henry II because Hugh de Mortimer refused to return Bridgnorth Castle to the Crown. Two small earthworks east and west of the castle ruins have been preserved to this day and could represent siege works from that time.

Portions of the walls were rebuilt or rebuilt in stone in the late 12th or early 13th century, and further work was carried out later in the 13th century, presumably when Hugh de Mortimer (1197-1227) received fresh money from the royal family for one Garrison of the castle received. In the course of this work, a curtain wall was built around the motte, which is still preserved in full on the east and south sides between the south tower and the gatehouse .

Extensive work was carried out on the castle again at the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century. At that time it belonged to Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer (1231-1282), Edmund Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer (reign 1282-1304), and Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March (1287-1330). The walls were raised, the gatehouse rebuilt and other buildings erected on the site such as B. a large block, probably as a residential building, in the inner courtyard.

Roger de Mortimer succeeded his father Edmund in 1304 and strengthened the family position considerably by gaining Ludlow Castle and many lands in Ireland through his marriage to Joan de Geneville . Roger de Mortimer was the leader of the party against King Edward II in the 1320s and became the lover of his Queen Isabelle de France around 1325 . After King Edward's deposition and death in 1327, De Mortimer was the queen's lover and effective stepfather to the young King Edward III. the most important man in the state. In 1328 De Mortimer held a tournament at Wigmore Castle in which the young king and almost all of England's magnates took part.

Wigmore Castle in the 1910s

Roger de Mortimer was born in 1330 at the behest of King Edward III. executed and his lands incorporated into the Crown. Edward III. spent several weeks at Wigmore Castle in the summer of 1332. Mortimer's grandson, also Roger de Mortimer , received Wigmore Castle and the rest of the lands back from the Crown in 1342. His son Edmund de Mortimer married the granddaughter of King Edward III, Phillipa . In 1381 their son Roger de Mortimer inherited the castle at the age of 6 and was declared a marriage presumptive in the event that King Richard II (Phillipa's cousin) should die without children.

Roger de Mortimer fell on the battlefield in Ireland in 1398, and when the male line of the De Mortimers died out in 1424, Wigmore Castle fell to Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York , through his mother, Anne de Mortimer , sister of the last Roger de Mortimer .

Wigmore Castle is believed to have been in ruins in 1425, but excavations suggest that construction was still going on there in the mid-15th century. Richard Plantagenet's son, Edward, Earl of March , was fairly safe at Wigmore Castle before his victory at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross in 1461. He deposed King Henry IV and was crowned king as Edward IV in the same year .

Throughout the 16th century, the castle was administered by the Council of Wales and the Marches and at times served as a prison, even when it was already in disrepair. John Dee saw the Wigmore Abbey records in 1574 in an old, derelict chapel in the castle. In 1595 Sir Gelli Meyrick received the castle. In 1601, after the execution of Sir Meyrick as a traitor, Queen Elizabeth I sold Wigmore Castle to Thomas Harley of Brampton Bryan . His son, Sir Robert Harley , a Puritan and MP, later inherited the castle. During the English Civil War , Harley left the castle to his wife, Lady Brilliana Harley , who had the defenses torn down so that the royalists could not use them against them.

After the civil war, the castle remained in ruins and was slowly overgrown by trees and other vegetation. In the 20th century, the overgrown vegetation and neglect had left the remains of the castle as scattered ruins, with details such as towers, curtains and the gatehouse almost indistinguishable.

Since Wigmore Castle remained in private hands, there was no large-scale deforestation there, as was the case with other major monuments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 1995 Wigmore Castle came under the management of English Heritage . The government organization had some conservation work and small-scale excavations carried out, making the property a little more accessible to visitors. In 2008, explanatory boards were also set up.

Topography and structure

The castle was of great strategic importance as it is almost halfway between the Teme and Lugg rivers (about 4 km away from both). From here the area between the rivers could be monitored.

Wigmore Castle is on the southeastern edge of a spur ; north of it lies marshland , which is now drained. The fortifications of the castle were reinforced by the construction of trenches through the spur between which the castle was built. The trenches served as moats , with the northwestern one running through a mound that was also fortified. This fortification was originally a wooden palisade , but later a stone donjon was built instead .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BL Cotton Nero: A IV. F. P. 59.
  2. ↑ Edward III. 1330-1334. Pp. 320-326, 332, 334, 352-353.
  3. ↑ Cal. IPM. Volume 22. Hen VI. No. 510. pp. 475-476
  4. ↑ John Strype: Annals of the Reformation . Volume II. Part II. Oxford 1824. 562 No. XLV. Letter from John Dee to Cecil dated October 3, 1574.
  5. ^ Dictionary of National Biography . 1885-1900. Volume 37. Entry: `` MEYRICK, Sir Gelly ''. Retrieved December 12, 2016.

swell

  • PM Remfry: The Mortimers of Wigmore, 1066 to 1181 . Part 1: Wigmore Castle . ISBN 1-899376-14-3 .
  • PM Remfry: Wigmore Castle Tourist Guide and the Family of Mortimer . ISBN 1-899376-76-3 .

literature

  • Norman Redhead: Wigmore Castle - a restisivity survey of the outer bailey in Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club . No. 3. Issue 46, p. 431.

Web links

Commons : Wigmore Castle  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 52 ° 19 ′ 3.7 ″  N , 2 ° 52 ′ 17 ″  W.