Berwick Castle - Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Northumberland
Once one of the most important of border castles, very little now remains of the medieval castle fought over by successive Scottish and English kings at Berwick. The castle and surrounding town changed its ruler with regularity during the centuries of conflict between the two countries and was besieged, taken, damaged and re-fortified many times.
When David I of Scotland came to the throne in 1124, Berwick was under his rule and was a prosperous port and burgh with a royal castle and its own mint. When his successor, William the Lion, was captured at Alnwick in 1174, Berwick, along with Edinburgh and Roxburgh castles, was forfeited to the English Crown. Richard I sold it back to raise funds for the Crusades, but his brother King John laid the castle waste in 1216 in a show of strength against the rebellious northern English lords, who had declared allegiance to Scotland.
Edward I came to Berwick to adjudicate over the various claimants of the Scottish throne in 1291 but returned with an army in 1296 when John Balliol was rejected by Robert Bruce, among others. The castle was quickly taken and the townspeople suffered huge casualties. Berwick became Edward's military base for his invasion of Scotland and as such, the castle and town's defenses were repaired and reinforced. Between 1297 and 1298, the White Wall leading from the castle to the river was built and this is still visible.
By March 1306, the situation had worsened and the Countess of Buchan was held at Berwick Castle for four years, suspended in a cage for her part in the coronation of Robert Bruce. The Scots finally took Berwick in 1318 and built a new wall between the castle and the town, as well as strengthening the main castle gate. King Robert not only repaired and strengthened the defenses, but also redecorated - documents survive for the payment of a merchant from Bruges for paint colours for the King's chamber at the castle.
By the 1330's the castle was once again under siege and was eventually retaken by Edward III of England. It was at this time that the town's defenses were improved by the stone wall, which replaced the older turf wall. There were 19 towers and five gates in the wall, parts of which still survive, some having been subsumed into the later Elizabethan fortifications. Such extensive defenses were expensive to maintain however and numerous reports lament their poor state of repair and the sums spent on them.
There was a gradual shift away from the castle as royal residence and the town defenses took priority. The stone was quarried away for use elsewhere and eventually the bulk of the castle disappeared, with the final indignity of the railway running through the middle of it in the the nineteenth century. The White Wall and Constable's Tower are the only parts still visible, the latter only by peering over a wall into private grounds.
As part of the rich history of Berwick, the castle forms only one point of interest in a walk around the Fortifications. From medieval military power centred in the castle to the early military Barracks of 1721, Berwick has much to interest the visitor. Its strategically important position on the fluctuating border meant it was always at the forefront of the power struggle between the thrones of Scotland and England and also between the kings and lords of each country.