Alnwick Castle - Alnwick Northumberland (Pvt)
It is not known for certain how the site of Alnwick Castle was occupied before Norman times. As the Domesday records did not extend as far as Northumberland, there are no clues there and the first record of castle construction comes during the ownership of Yvo de Vescy, between 1096 an 1134. Yvo's only child, Beatrix, married Eustace Fitzjohn, who became Baron of Alnwick and led a life of involvement in state affairs. He supported Empress Matilda against King Stephen and joined forces with David, King of Scotland, surrendering Alnwick Castle to him in 1138. Following the defeat of the combined Scottish and Northumbrian armies at the Battle of Northallerton, Eustace was reconciled to Stephen, who granted him further lands in Yorkshire. He was killed in 1157, on an expedition into Wales, but it was under Eustace that the castle took its present form; a circular keep with towers, surrounding a courtyard with two outer baileys and a perimeter curtain wall. Parts of early twelfth century masonry in the present curtain walls suggest that the area covered by the castle hasn't substantially altered since Norman times.
During the next century, Alnwick was heavily involved in the on-off disputes and raids of the Scottish King, William the Lion (who was captured at Alnwick while riding too close to the castle in the fog) and also King John of England, who visited the castle on several occasions. In 1215, Eustace de Vescy, the then Baron, took part in the Baron's Rebellion against King John and joined forces with Alexander, King of Scotland. The English King came north and burned Alnwick, along with other rebellious castles. The Scots and the English rebels called for aid from the French King Phillip, who landed a force and was joined by Alexander and the Northern Barons. Eustace was killed during the siege of Barnard Castle in 1216.
In 1252, King Henry III of England visited Alnwick on his return from Scotland, but Eustace's grandson, John de Vescy, again joined a rebellion against the English Crown under Simon de Montfort and he fought at the Battle of Lewes and was injured at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. His estates were confiscated, but he organised another revolt and seized Alnwick back by force. Prince Edward besieged the Castle in turn and again John's property and titles were removed. In 1279, after his pardon and restoration, he accompanied Prince Edward on a Crusade to Palestine and died there in 1288. He was succeeded by his brother William, who left no legitimate heir and the estate passed into the guardianship of the bishopric of Durham. It was sold to the Percy family in 1309 and it remains the principal Percy seat to this day.
The Percys were already a powerful and noble family and Henry, 1st Lord Percy of Alnwick had already distinguished himself in the Scottish wars, being granted lands by Edward I and Edward II. However, he followed the dubious loyalty of the de Vascy's of Alnwick and was a principal actor in the capture and summary execution of Piers Gaveston, Edward II's favourite. His estates were confiscated as punishment, but were restored to him later. He fought for the King at Bannockburn, was taken prisoner and ransomed shortly afterwards. It was Henry who undertook the reconstruction and development of Alnwick Castle into the defensive but comfortable residence required by a Northern Lord of the times. The Keep was reconstructed with seven semi-circular towers around an irregular courtyard and the Great Hall and kitchen were built on the east side. Most of the towers in the curtain wall were rebuilt and much of his work remains today, including the Constable's Tower, seen below. Henry died at Alnwick in 1315 and was succeeded by his son Henry.
Henry, 2nd Lord Percy, like his father, fought in the more or less continuous Scottish wars and rebuilt parts of the Castle, including the two octagonal towers on either side of the entrance to the Keep which date from around 1350. He also fought on the Continent under the Black Prince and made money from the ransoms collected after battle. His son, also Henry, also fought in France at the Battle of Crecy in 1346 and he was commissioned to arrange terms for the release of the Scottish King David, captured at Neville's Cross. After Edward III's disastrous raid into Scotland in 1356, the Border areas were again invaded by the Scots and the devastating raids on the countryside continued for years.
The 4th Lord Percy and 1st Earl of Northumberland, Henry, continued the cross-border fighting and besieged Berwick in1378. It was at this bloody siege that his son Henry earned his nickname 'Hotspur', although only twelve years old at the time. In 1399 the Percys again became involved in rebellion and Richard II was deposed and Henry IV put on the throne. Disputes continued however and at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, Hotspur was killed by the King's forces. The disputes rumbled on and Percy Castles at Prudhoe and Warkworth fell to the King. On the Earl's death in1409, a more settled relationship with the English Crown began as the young Earl was already a friend of the Prince of Wales, later Henry V. On Henry V's invasion into France, he trusted Percy sufficiently to make him General Warden of the Marshes. Throughout his life, Henry, like his forefathers, fought with the Scots and then with the Yorkists during the Wars of the Roses. He was killed in the first battle of the struggle for supremacy in 1455 and his battling life was continued by his son the 3rd Earl. The 4th Earl was murdered by the Mob in 1489 after helping to raise an unpopular tax. His son, Henry, 5th Earl, was known as 'The Magnificent' because of his love of display. He preferred the cultured life of the Royal Court to that of Border Warfare, but Alnwick continued to be at the centre of northern politics and conflict. It was from the Castle that the English army marched to the success of the Battle of Flodden in 1513.
Henry, 6th Earl of Northumberland was unfortunate enough to fall in love with Anne Boleyn, but was warned off by Henry VIII. Under orders of the King, he arrested Cardinal Wolsey and was appointed a member of the Commission to try Anne Boleyn, but he avoided this painful task by claiming illness. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry's brothers became involved in the Catholic uprising known as the 'Pilgrimage of Grace' and were executed for treason. Henry left his estates to the Crown, in the hope that after his death and with no heir, the King would relent and grant the estates back to his brother's family. In 1557, the Catholic Queen Mary restored the Earldom to his nephew, Thomas Percy. Thomas carried out various repairs to the Castle, but his fate was unhappy. As he continued to adhere to the Catholic faith, he was under suspicion by Elizabeth I and eventually he became involved with the plot to replace her on the throne with Mary, Queen of Scots. He was in due course captured and was beheaded in York in 1572. His brother, Henry, succeeded to the title, but despite a nominal allegiance to the Protestant faith, he too came to a sticky end, shot through the heart while imprisoned in the Tower of London.
The Percy family's residence at Alnwick declined at this time, but the 9th Earl's cousin continued the disputes with the Crown which characterised the lives of his ancestors. He was involved in the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and was shot. Suspicion naturally fell on the Earl, who was imprisoned in the Tower for seventeen years. He was a learned man, a friend of Sir Walter Raleigh and known as the 'Wizard Earl' on account of his scientific study. The 10th Earl supported Parliament against King Charles I, but strongly opposed his execution and was one of the main supporters of the restitution of the Monarchy under Charles II. A portrait of the 10th Earl by Van Dyck can be seen at Alnwick in the Guard Chamber. The 11th Earl died two years after inheriting the title and left a daughter, Elizabeth who eventually became the wife of the 6th Duke of Somerset. Alnwick had fallen into some disrepair by this time and part of it was being used as a school.
Algernon, son of Elizabeth, lived at Alnwick after part of it had been repaired by his father and the title Earl of Northumberland and ownership of the Percy estates passed to his son-in-law, who became the 1st Duke of Northumberland in 1766. Having changed his name to Percy, Sir Hugh Smithson set about reordering the vast estates and properties he had gained through his wife. As part of his modernisation programme, he employed Robert Adam, who brought the 'Gingerbread' or 'Strawberry Hill' Gothic style to Alnwick, rather than his more celebrated Neo-Classical style. Adam replaced the small, medieval windows with larger, lighter pointed pseudo-Gothic ones. It was also at this time that further stone figures were erected on the battlements at Alnwick, in the style of the existing medieval ones on top of the octagonal keep towers. The 2nd Duke served in the American War of Independence and during his time, the Constable's tower was used as an armoury and forge for the regiment he raised to repel any invasion by Napoleon. The arms presently on display in the entrance hall come from this armoury.
The 3rd Duke, Hugh, was succeeded by his brother, who was a great benefactor of the surrounding country, creating endowments for sailors and building schools and churches, farmhouses and cottages on his estates. His restoration plans for the Castle were not completed during his or his successor's lifetime and it was not until the 6th Duke's time that the main rooms were furnished and rebuilding, including some destruction of Adam's work was accomplished. The appearance of Alnwick today records much of the history of the family who have owned it and mostly lived there for so many years. The Norman mingles with Victorian grandeur and there is a sharp contrast with the outer and inner appearance. There are many beautiful paintings and objects in the rooms open to the public and there are further displays in some of the towers around the outer baileys.
Follow this link for Alnwick Castle's own web site.