Construction
castle in Craster, Northumberland, England, UK
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Dunstanburgh Castle is a 14th-century fortification on the coast of Northumberland in northern England, between the villages of Craster and Embleton. The castle was built by Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster between 1313 and 1322, taking advantage of the site's natural defences and the existing earthworks of an Iron Age fort. Thomas was a leader of a baronial faction opposed to King Edward II, and probably intended Dunstanburgh to act as a secure refuge, should the political situation in southern England deteriorate. The castle also served as a statement of the Earl's wealth and influence and would have invited comparisons with the neighbouring royal castle of Bamburgh. Thomas probably only visited his new castle once, before being captured at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322 as he attempted to flee royal forces for the safety of Dunstanburgh. Thomas was executed, and the castle became the property of the Crown before passing into the Duchy of Lancaster.
Dunstanburgh's defences were expanded in the 1380s by John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, in the light of the threat from Scotland and the peasant uprisings of 1381. The castle was maintained in the 15th century by the Crown, and formed a strategic northern stronghold in the region during the Wars of the Roses, changing hands between the rival Lancastrian and Yorkist factions several times. The fortress never recovered from the sieges of these campaigns, and by the 16th century the Warden of the Scottish Marches described it as having fallen into "wonderfull great decaye". As the Scottish border became more stable, the military utility of the castle steadily diminished, and King James I finally sold the property off into private ownership in 1604. The Grey family owned it for several centuries; increasingly ruinous, it became a popular subject for artists, including Thomas Girtin and J. M. W. Turner, and formed the basis for a poem by Matthew Lewis in 1808.
The castle's ownership changed during the 19th and 20th centuries; by the 1920s its owner Sir Arthur Sutherland could no longer afford to maintain Dunstanburgh, and he placed it under the guardianship of the state in 1930. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, measures were taken to defend the Northumberland coastline from a potential German invasion. The castle was used as an observation post and the site was refortified with trenches, barbed wire, pill boxes and a minefield. In the 21st century, the castle is owned by the National Trust and run by English Heritage. The ruins are protected under UK law as a Grade I listed building and are part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest, forming an important natural environment for birds and amphibians.
Dunstanburgh Castle was built in the centre of a designed medieval landscape, surrounded by three artificial lakes called meres covering a total of 4.25 hectares (10.5 acres). The curtain walls enclose 9.96 acres (4.03 ha), making it the largest castle in Northumberland. The most prominent part of the castle is the Great Gatehouse, a massive three-storey fortification, considered by historians Alastair Oswald and Jeremy Ashbee to be "one of the most imposing structures in any English castle". Rectangular towers protect the walls, including the Lilburn Tower, which looks out towards Bamburgh Castle, and the Egyncleugh Tower, positioned above Queen Margaret's Cove. Three internal complexes of buildings, now ruined, supported the earl's household, the castle constable's household, and the running of the surrounding estates. A harbour was built to the southeast of the castle, of which only a stone quay survives.
The site of Dunstanburgh Castle in north-east Northumberland was probably first occupied in prehistoric times. A promontory fort with earthwork defences was built on the same location at the end of the Iron Age, possibly being occupied from the 3rd century BC into the Roman period. By the 14th century, the defences had been long abandoned, and the land was being used for arable crops. Dunstanburgh formed part of the barony of Embleton, a village that lies inland to the west, traditionally owned by the earls of Lancaster.
The origins and the earliest appearance of the name "Dunstanburgh" are uncertain. Versions of the name, "Dunstanesburghe" and "Donstanburgh" were in use by the time of the castle's construction, however, and Dunstanburgh may stem from a combination of the name of the local village of Dunstan, and the Old English word "burh", meaning fortress.
Dunstanburgh Castle was constructed by Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, between 1313 and 1322. Thomas was an immensely powerful English baron, the second richest man in England after the King, with major land holdings across the kingdom. He had a turbulent relationship with his cousin, King Edward II, and had been a ringleader in the capture and killing of Edward's royal favourite, Piers Gaveston, in 1312.
It is uncertain exactly why Thomas decided to build Dunstanburgh. Although it was located on a strong defensive site, it was some distance from the local settlements and other strategic sites of value. Thomas held some lands in Northumberland, but they were insignificant in comparison to his other estates in the Midlands and Yorkshire, and until 1313 he had paid them little attention.
In the years following Gaveston's death, however, civil conflict in England rarely seemed far away, and it is currently believed that Thomas probably intended to create a secure retreat, a safe distance away from Edward's forces in the south. He also probably hoped to erect a prominent status symbol, illustrating his wealth and authority, and challenging that of the King. He may perhaps also have hoped to create a planned town alongside the castle, possibly intending to relocate the population of Embleton there.
Building work on the castle had commenced by May 1313, with labourers beginning to excavate the moat and starting to construct the castle buildings. Some of the outer walls may have been built by workers from Embleton as part of their feudal dues to Thomas. The operations were overseen by a mason, Master Elias, possibly Elias de Burton, who had been previously involved in the construction of Conwy Castle in North Wales. Iron, Newcastle coal and Scandinavian wood was brought in for use in the project. By the end of the year £184 had been spent, and work continued for several years. A licence to crenellate – a form of royal authorisation for a new castle – was issued by Edward II in 1316, and a castle constable was appointed in 1319, charged with defending both the castle and the surrounding manors of Embleton and Stamford. By 1322 the castle was probably complete.
The resulting castle was huge, protected on one side by the sea cliffs, with a stone curtain wall, a massive gatehouse, and six towers around the outside. A harbour was built on the south side of the fortress, enabling access from the sea. Northumbria was a lawless region in this period, suffering from the activities of thieves and schavaldours, a type of border brigand, many of whom were members of Edward II's household, and the harbour may have represented a safer way to reach the castle than land routes.
Thomas of Lancaster made little use of his new castle; the only time he might have visited it was in 1319 when he was on his way north to join Edward's military campaign against Scotland. Civil war then broke out in 1321 between Edward and his enemies among the barons. After the initial royalist successes, Thomas fled the south of England for Dunstanburgh in 1322, but was intercepted en route by Sir Andrew Harclay, resulting in the Battle of Boroughbridge, in which Thomas was captured; he was later executed.
The castle passed into royal control, and Edward considered it a useful fortress for protection against the threat from Scotland. Initially it was managed by Robert de Emeldon, a merchant from Newcastle, and protected by a garrison of 40 men at arms and 40 light horsemen. Roger Maduit, a politically rehabilitated former member of Thomas's army, was appointed as constable, followed by Sir John de Lilburn, a Northumberland schavaldour in 1323, who was in turn replaced by Roger Heron.
Maduit and the castle's garrison took part in the Battle of Old Byland in North Yorkshire in 1322, and the garrison was subsequently increased to 130 men, predominantly light horsemen, and formed a key part of the northern defences against the Scots. By 1326, the castle was given back to Thomas's brother, Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, with Lilburn returning as its constable, and continued to be of use in defence against the Scottish invasions over the next few decades.
Dunstanburgh Castle was acquired by John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster through his marriage to Henry of Lancaster's granddaughter, Blanche, in 1362. Gaunt was the 3rd son of King Edward III and, as the Duke of Lancaster, was one of the wealthiest men of his generation. He became the Lieutenant of the Scottish Marches and visited his castle in 1380.
Dunstanburgh Castle was not a primary strategic target for Scottish attack, as it was positioned away from the main routes through the region, but it was kept well garrisoned during the Scottish wars. The surrounding manor of Embleton had nonetheless suffered from Scottish raids and Gaunt had concerns over the condition of the castle's defences, ordering the building of additional fortifications around the gatehouse. Part of the surrounding lands around the castle may have been brought into agricultural production at this time, either to feed a growing garrison or to protect the crops against Scottish attacks.
In 1381 the Peasants' Revolt broke out in England, during which Gaunt was targeted by the rebels as an especially hated member of the administration. He found himself stranded in the north of England in the early part of the revolt but considered Dunstanburgh insufficiently secure to function as a safe haven, and was forced to turn to Alnwick Castle instead, which refused to let him in, fearing that his presence would invite a rebel attack.
The experience encouraged Gaunt to further expand Dunstanburgh's defences over the next two years. A wide range of work was carried out under the direction of the constable, Thomas of Ilderton, and the mason Henry of Holme, including blocking up the entrance in the gatehouse to turn it into a keep. In 1384 a Scottish army attacked the castle but they lacked siege equipment and were unable to take the defences. Gaunt lost interest in the property after he gave up his role as the Lieutenant of the Marches. Dunstanburgh Castle remained part of the Duchy of Lancaster, but the duchy was annexed to the Crown when Gaunt's son, Henry IV, took the throne of England in 1399.
The Scottish threat persisted, and in 1402 Dunstanburgh Castle's constable, probably accompanied by its garrison, took part in the Battle of Homildon Hill in north Northumberland. Henry VI inherited the throne in 1422 and during the next few decades, numerous repairs were undertaken to the property's buildings and outer defences, which had fallen into disrepair. The Wars of the Roses, a dynastic conflict between the rival houses of Lancaster and York, broke out in the middle of the 15th century. The castle was initially held by the Lancastrians, and the castle's constable, Sir Ralph Babthorpe, died at the Battle of St Albans in 1455, fighting for the Lancastrian Henry VI.
The castle formed part of a sequence of fortifications protecting the eastern route into Scotland, and in 1461 King Edward IV attempted to break the Lancastrian stranglehold on the region. Sir Ralph Percy, one of the joint constables, defended the castle until September 1461, when he surrendered it to the Yorkists. In 1462, Henry VI's wife, Margaret of Anjou, invaded England with a French army, landing at Bamburgh; Percy then switched sides and declared himself for the Lancastrians.
Another Yorkist army was dispatched north in November under the joint command of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick and John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester, and Sir Ralph Grey. They besieged the castle, which surrendered that Christmas. Percy was left in charge of Dunstanburgh as part of Edward IV's attempts at reconciliation, but the next year he once again switched sides, returning the castle to the Lancastrians. Percy died at the Battle of Hedgeley Moor in 1464, and the Earl of Warwick reoccupied the castle that June following a short siege.
The castle was probably damaged during the wars, but, other than minor repairs in 1470, nothing was spent on repairs and it fell into disrepair. It was used as a base for piracy in 1470, and by the 1520s its roof was robbed for the lead for use at the castle at Wark-upon-Tweed, and further lead and timber were taken for the moot hall in Embleton. By 1538 it was described in a royal report to Henry VIII as "a very ruinous house and of small strength", and it was observed that only the gatehouse was still habitable. Some repairs were carried out to the walls by Sir William Ellerker, the King's receiver, but a 1543 survey showed it to still be in poor condition.
In 1550 the Warden of the Middle and Eastern Marches, Sir Robert Bowes, described Dunstanburgh as being "in wonderfull great decaye". A report in 1584 suggested that it would cost Queen Elizabeth I £1,000 to restore the castle, but argued that it was too far from the Scottish border to be worth repairing. Alice Craster, a wealthy widow, occupied the castle from 1594 to 1597, probably living in the gatehouse, where she carried out restoration work, and farming the surrounding estate. For much of the 16th century, local farmers bought the right to use the outer bailey of the castle to store their cattle in the event of Scottish raids, at the price of six pence a year.
In 1603, the unification of the Scottish and English crowns eliminated any residual need for Dunstanburgh Castle as a royal fortress. The following year, King James I sold the castle to Sir Thomas Windebank, Thomas Billott and William Blake, who in turn sold it onto Sir Ralph Grey, a nearby landowner, the following year. Ralph's son, William Grey, 1st Baron Grey of Werke, was affirmed as the owner of the castle in 1625.
The Grey dynasty maintained their ownership of the castle, which passed into Lady Mary Grey's side of the family following a law case in 1704. The lands around the castle and the outer bailey were used for growing wheat, barley and oats, and the walls were robbed of their stone for other building work. A small settlement, called Nova Scotia or Novia Scotia, was built on the site of the castle's harbour, possibly by Scottish immigrants. Several engravings were published of the castle in the 18th century, including a somewhat inaccurate depiction by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck in 1720, and by Francis Grose and William Hutchinson in 1773 and 1776 respectively.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Dunstanburgh Castle”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.