Elizabeth de Freville

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Beaudesert Castle

Beaudesert Castle is located in WarwickshireBeaudesert Castle
Location within Warwickshire
General information
Town or city Beaudesert, Warwickshire
Country England
Coordinates 52.292733°N 1.771172°W
Beaudesert Castle was on a high mound overlooking the village of Beaudesert to the east of Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire (grid reference SP15606613). It is a scheduled ancient monument.[1][2]

The remains found on the site show that it was originally an Iron Age fort[3] which gave the mount its ancient name, Donnilee.[4] The hilltop and the surrounding area was "sculpted" to form a motte and bailey fortification with its timber Hall following the Norman conquest.[5] It was followed by the construction of a stone castle. According to sources it was Thurston De Montfort who built the stone castle here in 1140 during the reign of Henry II,[6] and it remained the De Montfort seat for more than a hundred years.[7] Peter de Montfort also resided at the castle. The Earl of Warwick took possession of the De Montfort's land in approximately 1369, and subsequently the castle's importance declined. According to some accounts it was repaired in 1411 but later abandoned.[8] During the early years of the War of the Roses, between York and Lancaster, the castle, which was then unoccupied and had fallen into disrepair, was dismantled, and its heavy timbers were, according to some sources, used for the construction of stately houses at Henley.[9][10] A single stone and earthworks From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tamworth Castle
Tamworth, Staffordshire, United Kingdom

Site history
Built 1080s
Built by Robert le Despencer
Tamworth Castle, a Grade I listed building,[1] is a Norman castle overlooking the mouth of the River Anker into the Tame in the town of Tamworth in Staffordshire, England. Before boundary changes in 1889, however, the castle was within the edge of Warwickshire while most of the town belonged to Staffordshire.[2]

The site served as a residence of the Mercian kings in Anglo Saxon times, but fell into disuse during the Viking invasions. Refortified by the Normans and later enlarged, the building is today one of the best preserved motte-and-bailey castles in England.

History
When Tamworth became the chief residence of Offa, ruler of the expanding Mercian kingdom, he built a palace there from which various charters were issued sedens in palatio regali in Tamoworthige, the first dating from 781. Little trace of its former glory survived the Viking attack in 874 that left the town "for nearly forty years a mass of blackened ruins". Then in 913 Tamworth was rebuilt by Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, who newly fortified the town with an earthen burh. This, however, did little to defend the place when it was again sacked by the Danes in 943.[3]

Over the following centuries there is no more mention of Tamworth as a royal residence, although a mint there struck coins for later Anglo-Saxon kings and eventually for the new Norman monarch, William the Conqueror.[4] The place was then granted to William's steward, Robert Despenser, who built a wooden castle during the 1080s in the typical Norman motte and bailey fashion. Occupying the south western part of the earlier burh, this was the forerunner of the present building.[5]

When Robert died childless, the castle passed to his nieces, one of whom, Matilida, married Robert Marmion. The Marmion family, hereditary champions of the Dukes of Normandy and then of the new Kings of England, held the castle for six generations from c.1100 to 1294.[6] It was during their occupancy that the castle began to be remodelled in stone, although on one occasion it was also in danger of being demolished altogether. Robert Marmion, 3rd Baron Marmion of Tamworth, deserted King John in 1215 during the turmoil of his reign. As a consequence, the king ordered Robert's son Geoffrey to be imprisoned, all of Robert's lands to be confiscated and Tamworth Castle to be demolished.[6] But the fabric had only been partially destroyed by the time of John's death the following year, when Robert's sons were able to regain their father's lands.[6]

Early Norman herringbone masonry on the castle causeway
The last male of the family to own the castle was Philip Marmion. Since he had no legitimate sons, the castle passed on his death (c.1291) to his daughter and, after she died without an heir in 1294, to her niece Joan. As she was the wife of Sir Alexander Freville, Joan's descendants initiated the next dynasty of owners who held the castle until 1423.[6] The male line then came to an end with Baldwin de Freville, whose son died a minor, and the castle passed to the eldest daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Thomas Ferrers of Groby.[6][7]

Numerous additions were made to the castle over the centuries, especially in the Jacobean period, from which time the arms of the Ferrers family and those with whom they intermarried came to dominate the interior. The shell keep contains a 12th-century gate tower and later residential accommodation in an H plan comprising a 13th-century three-storey north range, and a 17th-century Jacobean three-storey south range linked by an oak timbered Great Hall of the 15th century.[1] A notable exterior feature surviving from early times is the herring-bone pattern of masonry laid diagonally at the base of the causeway up to the gate tower.[8]

remain today, along with evidence of two fishponds and some remains of the motte and bailey fortification.[11]