Castle Magick: 03/01/2011

Sunday

Bridge to Arundel

There are several theories about the meaning of the name 'Arundel'. One is that the upper reaches of the Arun, away from the sea, was once known as the Arnus, from the Brythonic word Arno, meaning run or go. So Arundel would mean Arno-dell or the dell of the flowing river. Another theory is that due to the preponderance of hoarhound on the slopes of the Arun near the town, Arundel would mean hoarhound-dell. A third explanation is that the town takes its name from the French word for swallow, hirondelle, a bird which is on the town's crest. The name was spelled Arundell until 1733, when the final l was dropped. A new theory (Theo Vennemann) relates the 'Arun' part to Basque aran 'valley' (substratic reduplication or tautology), like the placename Arendal in Norway and Sweden. However, it seems rather more likely that the Scandinavian placenames derive from Old Norse arnardalr 'eagle dell' or arindalr 'dwelling dell'. Similarly, the name of Arundel could just as well derive from Old English earndæl or ærndæl, meaning 'eagle dell' and 'dwelling dell' respectively

Saturday

Moonlight on the Chapel Ruins

Corfe Castle is a village and a parish in Dorset whose skyline is dominated by the skeletal remains of Corfe Castle, which is the essence of the village. The civil parish faces both the English Channel and Poole Harbour, which includes part of the sandy heathland to the north of the castle, and the Jurassic Coast to the South.

There is evidence in the village of a civilization that existed in 6000 BC; as well as Celtic habitation circa 1300 BC; and of course, the Romans circa AD 50. There is a legend which Tomas Hardy recorded concerning the disappearance of an entire Roman legion, with of course, only its ghost remaining; leading to the conclusion that a massive battle must have taken place between the Celts and the Romans which later resulted in the demise of the Celts. Early in the fifth century, after the Romans left, the Vikings and the Saxons occupied this area until AD 1090 when the Norman Conquest occurred. Today, as you leave Corfe Castle towards Church Knowle village, you may want to stop at Cromwell's Battery, also known as The Rings. This fortification, or Battery, was a ring and bailey castle. The higher, inner ring was a stronghold. The bailey was the storage and working area surrounded by fences. The rings are believed to be the site of a siege castle built by King Stephen in 1139 AD in an unsuccessful attempt to regain control of Corfe Castle when he claimed the throne form the House of Blois and Civil War ensued.

Friday

Leeds Castle Gate House

Leeds Castle consists of two huge piles of buildings which with a strong gate-house and barbican form four distinct forts, capable of separate defence should any one or other fall into the hands of an enemy. Three causeways, each with its drawbridge, gate, and portcullis, lead to the smallest island or inner barbican, a fortified mill contributing to the defences. A stone bridge connects this island with the main island. There stands the Constable's Tower, and a stone wall surrounds the island and within is the modern mansion. The Maiden's Tower and the Water Tower defend the island on the south. A two-storeyed building on arches now connects the main island with the Tower of the Gloriette, which has a curious old bell with the Virgin and Child, St. George and the Dragon, and the Crucifixion depicted on it, and an ancient clock.

The Smuggler's Den

Hold it there laddie. There's luggers hoverin' at the Cove and the gobblers are out.... A Stinkibus is better than a noose I says. Us smugsmiths need to know that much to save our skin.... Look quick laddie! There's a cutter behind! Row for your life or it's the devil for both of us!"

Smugglers, also known as owlers, free traders and smugsmiths, were the scourge of the coastline 300 years ago. Matters got way out of hand in the 18th Century, when taxes were upped in a bid to fund foreign wars. Corruption cropped up on both sides of the law, with all kinds of chicanery resulting. Pitched battles became common scenes on the English coast, and conscientious officers often faced insuperable odds, with country folk closing ranks to protect the 'smugsmiths'. As it was, entire villages often became involved in the trade - the folk from the Scilly Isles nigh on depended on it. However, there were times when gangs went too far even for their own men. Whilst some smugglers might claim that they were just trying to make a living within the spirit of free trade, contraband goods attracted their fair share of rogues and rascals too

Thursday

At Camp By Warwick Castle

The reign of Edward III saw the great Chivalric Age and Warwick was the scene of many tournaments, feasts, banquets and processions. History also saw the start of the Hundred Years War between England and France. Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick, commanded troops at the battle of Crecy and Poitiers. The glorious Age of Chivalry was also marred by the Black Death and the Peasants Revolt (the first of all revolutions). Richard de Beauchamp, the 13th Earl of Warwick, served in France as Captain of Calais and supervised the trial of Joan of Arc.

Richard Neville, the 16th Earl of Warwick, was a Yorkist, and when he helped Edward IV the son of the Duke of York, to become king he became very powerful. He then argued with the King and was branded a traitor. Warwick then changes allegiances and turns Lancastrian when he defeats Edward IV and restores Henry VI to power! He is given the name 'Warwick the Kingmaker'. Warwick the Kingmaker loses his life at the Battle of Barnet when Edward IV defeats and kills him. The following Earls of Warwick are branded as traitors and executed, temporarily ending the title of the Earl of Warwick...

Richard III took ownership of Warwick Castle until he fell in the Battle of Bosworth Field to Henry Tudor. The Tudor Kings also keep Warwick Castle to themselves ensuring the power and influence of the nobility is contained!

The History of Warwick castle enters another period of murder, executions, treachery and intrigue starting with the short reign of King Henry VIII's son Edward V. John Dudley is created the Earl of Warwick, Chancellor of England and Duke of Northumberland which makes him the most powerful noble in England. The young King was sick and Dudley realises that if the King dies, and either of his sisters take the crown, that Dudley will lose his power and probably his head. John Dudley plots with the Earl of Suffolk and arranges the marriage of his son, Guildford Dudley, to the Suffolk's daughter, Lady Jane Grey. The young king dies and Lady Jane Grey, John Dudley's daughter-in-law is pronounced Queen of England. She only reigns for nine days and the rightful Queen Mary takes the crown. The powerful John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, was beheaded for treason. The earldom of Warwick is granted to the Rich family but Warwick Castle is passed to Sir Fulke Greville. A poet and courtier Sir Fulke Greville was murdered and his ghost is said to haunt Warwick Castle.

Medieval School Gate

Medieval Education in England was the preserve of the rich. Education in Medieval England had to be paid for and medieval peasants could not have hoped to have afforded the fees. When William I conquered England in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings, he took over a country where very few were educated – including the wealthy. The most educated people were those who worked in the church but many who worked in the monasteries had taken a vow of isolation and their work remained isolated with them.

As Medieval England developed so did the need for a more educated population - especially in the developing world of merchant trade. Important trading towns set up what became known as grammar schools and it was not unusual for a wealthy local merchant to have funded such a school. Latin grammar formed a major part of the daily curriculum – hence the title of the schools. Latin was also the language used by merchants as they traded in Europe. Very few Dutch merchants spoke English – but they could speak Latin. Very few English merchants spoke Dutch or Spanish, but they could speak Latin. Hence why European merchants used the language. Any merchant who wished to trade in Europe effectively could not have hoped to have done so without knowledge of Latin. These merchants ensured the survival of their firms by ensuring that their sons were equally conversant in the language – hence the establishment of grammar schools.

All lessons taught in a grammar school were in Latin. Lessons were taught in a way that boys had to learn information off by heart. Whether they understood what they had learned was a separate issue! Books were extremely expensive in Medieval England and no school could hope to kit out their pupils with books.

By 1500, many large towns had a grammar school. One of the oldest was in the important market town of Maidstone in Kent. Schools then were very small. Many had just one room for all the boys and one teacher who invariably had a religious background. The teacher would teach the older boys who were then responsible for teaching the younger ones.

Lessons frequently started at sunrise and finished at sunset. This meant that in the spring/summer months, school could last for many hours. The opposite was true for the winter. Discipline was very strict. Mistakes in lessons were punished with the birch (or the threat of it) In theory pupils would never make the same mistake again after being birched, as the memory of the pain inflicted was too strong.

For those who excelled at a grammar school, university beckoned. Medieval England saw the founding of both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Both universities were renowned seats of learning – though both universities had a reputation for exuberant student behaviour at this time.

The sons of the peasants could only be educated if the lord of the manor had given his permission. Any family caught having a son educated without permission was heavily fined. Historians today feel that this policy was simply an extension of those in authority trying to keep peasants in their place, as an educated peasant/villein might prove to be a threat to his master as he might start to question the way things were done.

Very few girls went to what could be describes as a school. Girls from noble families were taught at home or in the house of another nobleman. Some girls from rich families went abroad to be educated. Regardless of where they went, the basis of their education was the same – how to keep a household going so that their husband was well kept. Girls might learn to play a musical instrument and to sing. But the philosophy of their education remained the same – how to keep a successful household for your husband.

Wednesday

The Keep at Corfe Castle

Corfe Castle has dominated the skyline of the Isle of Purbeck for the past thousand years. From its inception, it was designed to protect from invasion from the coast, with its passage through the Purbeck Hills from Swanage to Wareham. Corfe Castle was a ring and bailey castle built in early Norman times during the era of William the Conqueror. Prior to the Normans, there was a fortification on this site, and there may have been a Roman military presence here as well. William the Conqueror rebuilt the fortification with stone to insure its durability for use as a royal fortress. (Purbeck Stone is considered the finest limestone in England). In the 13th century King John improved the castle defences and also erected a hall, a chapel and some domestic buildings. Following that, Henry III had additional walls, towers and gatehouses constructed.

Ironically, although fortified to be impregnable, the skeletal ruins that stand today were destroyed from within. This fascinating ruin, which attracts millions of visitors, was caused by a "turncoat" during the civil war, who gave entry into the castle from the inside, thereby allowing Cromwell's army to enter the castle to destroy everything in their path. Today, the skeletal remains reveal evidence of a stronghold that predated the Norman Conquest, and the site of the assassination of Edward the Martyr in March 978. The surviving structure of the later castle dates to the 11th century.

Cromwell's army fought the most remarkable Lady Bankes, a Royalist, who cared for the castle while her husband, Sir John was called away by Charles I, earning her the name "Brave Dame Mary" as well as the respect of the Parliamentary commander; who was so impressed with her courage that he allowed her to leave the castle with her garrison and the keys to the castle once the Roundheads finally persuaded her to surrender.

Door to The Monastery Garden

St Benedict, the founder of the Benedictine monastic order, more than any man, inspired the cloister life of the sixth century in Western Europe. He at once ordered that “ all the necessaries “ for the support of monks should be supplied within the walls, and among these “necessaries” water and gardens stood in the first rank: of course these gardens were for herbs and vegetables. We can only guess how far the establishments founded by St. Benedict himself, and especially the mother-cloister, were able to comply with his demands. The mention of a tower, and a portico, where St. Benedict lived with his pupils, makes us think of pictures of a Roman villa; but in any case the Benedictines, whose rule enjoined work in the garden, were the men who handed down the practice of horticulture right through the Middle Ages.

Those Orders which were not influenced by the Benedictine Rule, and forbade the monks to do farm work, still seem to have thought a garden indispensable. The Spaniard Isidorus in his Rule makes a special point of having a garden within the cloister, attached to the wall and entered by the back door, so that the monks should be able to work there and not have occasion to go outside. There was a certain tradition in the old Roman provinces about the cultivation of the choicer kinds of fruit, and it is hard to say how long it survived the storms of the Middle Ages, whether the monks are to be connected with this tradition, or if they started afresh on their own account, as is doubtless what did actually happen in the case of the German nations farther east. It is well worth noting that in Norway even to this day none but the finest and choicest fruit-trees are found on the site of an old monastery.

Arundel Castle

Arundel Castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England is a restored medieval castle. It was founded by Roger de Montgomery on Christmas Day 1067. Roger became the first to hold the earldom of Arundel by the graces of William the Conqueror. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War and then restored in the 18th and 19th centuries. From the 11th century onward, the castle has served as a hereditary stately home and has been in the family of the Duke of Norfolk for over 400 years. It is still the principal seat of the Norfolk family.

Arundel Seen Through A Country Glade

Apart from the occasional reversion to the Crown, Arundel Castle has descended directly from 1138 to the present day, carried by female heiresses from the d'Albinis to the Fitzalans in the 13th century and then from the Fitzalans to the Howards in the 16th century and it has been the seat of the Dukes of Norfolk and their ancestors for over 850 years. From the 15th to the 17th centuries the Howards were at the forefront of English history, from the Wars of the Roses, through the Tudor period to the Civil War. Among the famous members of the Howard family are the 2nd Duke of Norfolk (1443-1524), the victor of Flodden, Lord Howard of Effingham, who with Sir Francis Drake repelled the Armada in 1588, the Earl of Surrey, the Tudor poet and courtier, and the 3rd Duke of Norfolk (1473-1554), uncle of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, both of whom became wives of King Henry VIII (1491-1547).

Tuesday

The Bridge across the Moat at Leeds Castle

The first building on the site was a Saxon manor which was replaced in 1119 by Robert de Crevecoer. In 1278 the castle was transformed in to royal palace for King Edward I when a barbican with drawbridge, gateway and portcullis was added.

During the rein of Henry VIII the castle was again transformed for his first wife Catherine of Aragon and was the place where his daughter, Elizabeth I was imprisoned before being made Queen.

The Culpeper family were resident in the castle at the time of the Civil War and because they were parliamentarian sympathizers the castle did not sustain any damage.

Set in 500 acres of parkland and beautiful gardens the renovated castle is accessed via a stone bridge across a moat. The site comprises of a medieval gatehouse, a Tudor tower, an elevated French gloriette or garden building and a two storey 19th century house extending out into the moat at the rear.

The Fort on the Hilltop at Devil's Dyke

The Devil was angry at the conversion of Sussex, one of the last counties to be converted from Paganism, and especially at the way churches were being built in every Sussex village. So he decided to dig right through the South Downs, a range of hills along the south of Britain. He swore that he would dig all the way through the hills to let the sea flood Sussex in a single night and drown the new Christians. He started inland near the village of Poynings and dug furiously sending huge clods of earth everywhere. One became Chanctonbury hill, another Cissbury hill, another Rackham Hill and yet another Mount Caburn.

Towards midnight, the noise he was making disturbed an old woman, who looked out to see what was happening. When she realized what the Devil was doing, she lit a candle and set it on her windowsill, holding up a metal sieve in front of it to create a dimly glowing globe. The Devil could barely believe that the sun had already risen, but the old woman had woken her rooster who let out a loud crowing and Satan fled believing that the morning had already come. Some say, that as he fled out over the English Channel, a great lump of earth fell from his cloven hoof, and that became the Isle of Wight; others say that he bounded northwards into Surrey, where his heavy landing formed the hollow called the Devil's Punch Bowl.

Devil's Dyke is a V-shaped valley on the South Downs Way in southern England, near Brighton and Hove. It is part of the Southern England Chalk Formation. Devil's Dyke is on the way to Brighton and is a big hill at the side of the road. It is a misconception common amongst local residents of Brighton that the valley was formed by some kind of glacial action, the myth of a 'glacier' being a misunderstanding of accounts such as this one from the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Timothy Carder (1990):
"In reality the 300-foot-deep valley was carved by tremendous amounts of water running off the Downs during the last Ice Age when large amounts of snow thawed and the frozen chalk prevented any further absorption; erosion was aided by the freeze-thaw cycle and the valley was deepened by the 'sludging' of the saturated chalk."
The Devil's Dyke V-shaped dry valley is the result of solifluction and river erosion. More than fourteen thousand years ago, the area experienced an intensely cold climate (but not glacial conditions). Snowfields capped the South Downs. Permafrost conditions meant that the chalk was permanently frozen. In summer, the snowfields melted and saturated the top layer of soil, because the water could not permeate the frozen chalk underneath. Waterlogged material situated above the permafrost slid down the gradient, removing material by friction, exposing deeper layers of frozen chalk. When the Ice Age ended, the snowfields covering the South Downs melted, and rivers formed across Sussex. The Devil's Dyke valley was completed by one such river.
The hills surrounding the valley offer views of the South Downs, The Weald, and – on a clear day – the Isle of Wight. It is the site of ramparts, all that remain of an Iron Age hillfort.

Warwick Castle on the Avon

Avon is an anglicisation of the Welsh word 'afon' for river. So "River Avon" literally means "River River"!

As there are other River Avons in England, the river that passes through Warwickshire is known as the Avon, Warwickshire Avon or Shakespeare's Avon.

The source of the Avon is near the village of Welford in Northamptonshire, it then flows 85 miles in a south-westerly direction until it joins the River Severn at Tewkesbury. It has a catchment area of 1,032 square miles. The river passes through many towns and villages which have developed along its banks, these include Welford, Rugby, Wolston, Leamington Spa, Warwick, Stratford-upon-Avon, Welford-on-Avon, Bidford-on-Avon, Evesham, Pershore, and finally Tewkesbury. Along its course the river forms part of the border between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, and it has been dammed to create the Stanford Reservoir. Its tributaries include the Rivers Leam, Stour, Sowe, Dene, Arrow, Swift, Alne, Isbourne, Sherbourne and Swilgate as well as many minor streams and brooks.

Enjoying the river - throughout Warwickshire there are many places where you can enjoy the beauty of the River Avon, be this by rowing boat, canal boat or simply a walk along its banks.

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