Wilton Castle (Herefordshire)

Wilton Castle

Wilton Castle is the ruin of a Norman castle from the 12th century, which is located in the southeast of the English county of Herefordshire on the River Wye , near the small town of Ross-on-Wye . The castle was named after the manor with which it is associated.

history

Wilton Castle

Most of this Herefordshire castle has been preserved up to the level of the battlements . The Longschamps from Wilton produced in their time bailiffs of Normandy , Chancellors of England , sheriffs of Hereford and the Welsh Marches , but also enemies of King John Ohneland .

They were followed by the De Cantilupe and De Gray families , who built a power base in Wales and the Welsh Marches. Matilda de Gray , born De Cantilupe , untruthfully claimed in court in 1292 against King Edward I that the castle was built by her ancestors of the Longchamp family in the days of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066). In fact, the castle cannot have been built before 1154, and the barony never included the Marcher Lord's rights , which Lady Matilda claimed for herself.

The castle was primarily associated with a branch of the Norman De Gray family, the Barons Gray de Wilton , a well-known dynasty of Norman Marcher Lords in the Welch Marches. They owned the castle no later than 1308. The family lost the castle when William Gray was captured by the French in 1558 in the final phase of the defense of the city of Guînes and had to sell his castle in order to be able to raise the ransom.

The castle was eventually destroyed in the English Civil War.

Individual evidence

^ Photo of Wilton Castle near Ross-on-Wye. Geograph.org.uk. Retrieved August 11, 2015.
↑ George Barnett Smith: Gray, William (d.1562) (DNBoo) in Leslie Stephen, Sidney Lee: Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 23. Smith, Elder & Co., London 1890. pp. 213, 215. Retrieved August 11, 2015.

swell

PM Remfry: Wilton Castle, 1066 to 1646 . ISBN 1-899376-35-6
RA Hart: A History of the Manor of Wilton and the Parish of Bridstow, Herefordshire . Ross-on-Wye and District Civic Society, Ross-on-Wye 1994

Web links

Commons : Wilton Caste (Herefordshire) - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

51.916163 -2.596635Coordinates: 51 ° 54 ′ 58.2 " N , 2 ° 35 ′ 47.9" W.

[Geograph-1] Photo of Wilton Castle near Ross-on-Wye. Geograph.org.uk. Retrieved August 11, 2015.

[DNB-2] George Barnett Smith: Gray, William (d.1562) (DNBoo) in Leslie Stephen, Sidney Lee: Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 23. Smith, Elder & Co., London 1890. pp. 213, 215. Retrieved August 11, 2015.