Wigmore Castle
Encyclopedia
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
which is barely visible from the village of Wigmore in the northwest region of Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
, England.
History
Wigmore Castle was founded after the Norman Conquest, probably c.1070, by William fitzOsbern, 1st Earl of HerefordEarl of Hereford
The title of Earl of Hereford was created six times in the Peerage of England. See also Duke of Hereford, Viscount Hereford. Dates indicate the years the person held the title for.-Earls of Hereford, First Creation :*Swegen Godwinson...
and a close associate of William the Conqueror. It was built on waste ground at a place called Merestun, the settlement by the mere
Mere (lake)
Mere in English refers to a lake that is broad in relation to its depth, e.g. Martin Mere. A significant effect of its shallow depth is that for all or most of the time, it has no thermocline.- Etymology :...
or lake. The land was held at the time of the Conquest by Gunnfrothr or Gunnvarthr, who also held land at Lingen
Lingen
Lingen is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. In 2008 the population was 52,353, and in addition there are about 5,000 people who have registered the city as their secondary residence...
and Brampton Bryan
Brampton Bryan
Brampton Bryan is a small village and civil parish situated in north Herefordshire, England close to the Shropshire and Welsh borders.Brampton Bryan lies mid-way between Leintwardine and Knighton on the A4113 road. The village has had a complex history and its buildings reflect this...
. The associated town
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
of Wigmore below the castle was probably also founded by fitzOsbern, perhaps around the earlier settlement.
There is no evidence for any earlier fortification on the site of the castle, but despite this, Wigmore in Herefordshire has sometimes been mistaken for Wigingamere, a place in East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
(near Newport, Essex
Newport, Essex
Newport is a large village in Essex near Saffron Walden, in which Newport Free Grammar School is located. The village has a population of just over 2,000....
) where Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex...
built a fortification against the Danes in 921.
The form of fitzOsbern's early castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
at Wigmore is unknown, but given the scale of his fortifications at Chepstow
Chepstow
Chepstow is a town in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the River Wye, close to its confluence with the River Severn, and close to the western end of the Severn Bridge on the M48 motorway...
, Monmouth
Monmouth
Monmouth is a town in southeast Wales and traditional county town of the historic county of Monmouthshire. It is situated close to the border with England, where the River Monnow meets the River Wye with bridges over both....
and elsewhere, it is likely to have been substantial and probably covered much the same area as the present castle. In particular, he probably had a natural ravine reshaped to create a deep ditch behind the motte
Motte-and-bailey
A motte-and-bailey is a form of castle, with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised earthwork called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade...
. No evidence of early stone defences has yet been discovered, leading to the conclusion that fitzOsbern's castle was built of timber, but it is just possible that the dense vegetation and thick deposits of debris conceal the foundations of an early stone keep.
FitzOsbern was killed in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
in 1071, and his son Roger de Breteuil
Roger de Breteuil, 2nd Earl of Hereford
Roger de Breteuil, 2nd Earl of Hereford , succeeded to the earldom of Hereford and the English estate of William Fitz-Osbern in 1071.- Disobeying King William :...
took part in the Revolt of the Earls
Revolt of the Earls
The Revolt of the Earls in 1075 was a rebellion of three earls against William I of England . It was the last serious act of resistance against William in the Norman Conquest.-Course:...
in 1075; after the Earl's subsequent defeat, William I seized the castle and gave it to another of his supporters, Ranulph de Mortimer
Ranulph de Mortimer
Ranulph I de Mortimer of Mortemer-sur-Eaulne, was a Marcher Lord from the Montgomery lands in the Welsh Marches. In England, he was Lord of Wigmore in Herefordshire. In Normandy, he was the Seigneur of St. Victor-en-Caux. Ranulph was the founder of the English House of Mortimer of Wigmore...
(or Ralph de Mortimer). From this time on Wigmore became the head of the barony of the Mortimer
Mortimer
Mortimer is a popular English name, used both as a surname and a given name.- Norman origins :The origin of the name is almost certainly Norman, but the details are disputed....
s, later from 1328 Earls of March.
In 1155 the castle was besieged by Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
because Hugh de Mortimer refused to return the Bridgnorth Castle
Bridgnorth Castle
Bridgnorth Castle is in the town of Bridgnorth, Shropshire beside the River Severn .The castle was founded in 1101 by Robert de Belleme, the son of the French Earl, Roger de Montgomery, who succeeded his father to become the Earl of Shrewsbury...
to the crown. Two small earthworks to the east and west of the castle have survived to the present day, and may represent siege-works built for the campaign.
Parts of the walls were built or rebuilt in stone in the late 12th century or early 13th century, and further work was carried out in the 13th century, perhaps when Hugh de Mortimer
Hugh de Mortimer
Hugh de Mortimer was a Norman English medieval baron.- Lineage :The son of Hugh de Mortimer , the son of Ralf de Mortimer, he was Lord of Wigmore Castle, Cleobury Mortimer and at times, Bridgnorth, Bishop's Castle and Maelienydd.- Anarchy :During the Anarchy of King Stephen's reign, Mortimer was...
(1197-1227) was given Royal money for the castle's garrisoning. The works included the curtain wall
Curtain wall (fortification)
A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two bastions of a castle or fortress.In earlier designs of castle the curtain walls were often built to a considerable height and were fronted by a ditch or moat to make assault difficult....
that surrounds the bailey
Motte-and-bailey
A motte-and-bailey is a form of castle, with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised earthwork called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade...
, which still stands to this day at its full height on the east side and the south side between the south tower and the gatehouse
Gatehouse
A gatehouse, in architectural terminology, is a building enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a castle, manor house, fort, town or similar buildings of importance.-History:...
.
The castle was the subject of extensive works in the late 13th or early 14th century, when it was held by Roger Mortimer
Roger Mortimer
Roger Mortimer was the name of several Marcher lords:* Roger Mortimer of Wigmore , married Isabel de Ferriers and became Lord of Maelienydd...
(1231-1282), Edmund Mortimer
Edmund Mortimer
-Members of the Marcher family of Mortimer:*Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Wigmore*Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March, and his second son*Edmund Mortimer, son of the 3rd Earl*Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March...
(1282-1304) and Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March (lived 1287-1330). The walls were raised, the gatehouse remodelled and other buildings were constructed on the site, including a substantial block, possibly a lodgings range, within the inner bailey.
Roger had succeeded his father Edmund in 1304, and strengthened the position of the Mortimer family considerably, acquiring Ludlow Castle
Ludlow Castle
Ludlow Castle is a large, partly ruined, non-inhabited castle which dominates the town of Ludlow in Shropshire, England. It stands on a high point overlooking the River Teme...
and many lands in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
through marriage to the heiress Joan de Geneville. Roger was a leader of the party opposed to Edward II in the 1320s, and c.1325 became the lover of Edward's queen, Isabella of France
Isabella of France
Isabella of France , sometimes described as the She-wolf of France, was Queen consort of England as the wife of Edward II of England. She was the youngest surviving child and only surviving daughter of Philip IV of France and Joan I of Navarre...
. Following Edward's deposition and death in 1327, Mortimer, as the queen's lover and the effective stepfather of the young King Edward III
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...
, became the most important man in the kingdom. In 1328 Mortimer held a tournament near Wigmore, attended by the young king and almost all the magnates of England.
Roger de Mortimer was executed in 1330 by King Edward III, and his lands seized by the crown. Edward III spent several weeks at Wigmore in the summer of 1332. Mortimer's grandson (also named Roger) regained Wigmore and the rest of his lands in 1342. His own son Edmund married Edward III's granddaughter Phillipa. In 1381 their son, Roger, inherited at the age of six and was declared the heir presumptive
Heir Presumptive
An heir presumptive or heiress presumptive is the person provisionally scheduled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir or heiress apparent or of a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question...
should Richard II
Richard II of England
Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...
(Phillipa's cousin) die childless.
Roger de Mortimer was killed in battle in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
in 1398 and when the male line of the Mortimers died out in 1424, the castle passed to Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York
Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York
Richard Plantagenêt, 3rd Duke of York, 6th Earl of March, 4th Earl of Cambridge, and 7th Earl of Ulster, conventionally called Richard of York was a leading English magnate, great-grandson of King Edward III...
through his mother Anne Mortimer, sister of the last Roger Mortimer.
Wigmore castle is said to have been derelict in 1425, but archaeological excavations suggest that building work was carried out there in the mid 15th century. Richard's son Edward, earl of March was almost certainly based at Wigmore Castle before his victory at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross
Battle of Mortimer's Cross
The Battle of Mortimer's Cross was fought on 2 February 1461 near Wigmore, Herefordshire . It was part of the Wars of the Roses....
in 1461. He deposed Henry VI
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
and was crowned as Edward IV
Edward IV of England
Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...
that year.
Throughout the 16th century the castle was managed by the Council of the Marches
Council of the Marches
The Council of Wales and the Marches was a regional administrative body within the Kingdom of England between the 15th and 17th centuries, similar to the Council of the North...
, partly as a prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
, although the castle was already beginning to decay again. John Dee
John Dee
John Dee was a Welsh mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I.John Dee may also refer to:* John Dee , Basketball coach...
saw the records of Wigmore Abbey in an old decayed chapel within the castle in 1574. In 1595 it was given to Sir Gelly Meyrick. In 1601, after Meyrick was executed as a traitor, Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
sold Wigmore Castle to Thomas Harley of Brampton Bryan
Brampton Bryan
Brampton Bryan is a small village and civil parish situated in north Herefordshire, England close to the Shropshire and Welsh borders.Brampton Bryan lies mid-way between Leintwardine and Knighton on the A4113 road. The village has had a complex history and its buildings reflect this...
. His son, Sir Robert Harley, a Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
and Parliamentarian
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
, later inherited the castle. During the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
Harley left the castle in charge of his wife, Lady Brilliana Harley
Brilliana Harley
Brilliana, Lady Harley , née Brilliana Conway, was a celebrated English letter-writer.-Marriage:Conway was born at Brill, near Rotterdam in the Netherlands, while her father Sir Edward Conway was Governor there...
, who had the castle's defences dismantled in order to prevent the Royalists
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
using it against her.
After the Civil War, the castle was left in a state of ruin, and was gradually covered in trees and other vegetation. By the 20th century neglect and the growth of vegetation had left the remains of the castle as a scattering of ruins with features such as tower
Tower
A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....
s, curtain walls
Curtain wall (fortification)
A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two bastions of a castle or fortress.In earlier designs of castle the curtain walls were often built to a considerable height and were fronted by a ditch or moat to make assault difficult....
and the gatehouse
Gatehouse
A gatehouse, in architectural terminology, is a building enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a castle, manor house, fort, town or similar buildings of importance.-History:...
almost indiscernible.
Unusually, because it remained in private hands, Wigmore was not subject to the large scale clearances carried out at most other major historic sites in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In 1995 Wigmore Castle came into the guardianship of English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
, which carried out some conservation work and small-scale excavation, making the site a little more accessible to visitors. Additional site presentation panels were installed in 2008.
Structure and topography
The castle is of great strategic importance as it lies almost halfway between the rivers TemeTeme
Teme may refer to:In geography:* River Teme, located in Wales* Teme River, located in New ZealandIn philosophy:* Teme , a term coined by author Susan Blackmore meaning technological meme.Other:...
and Lugg
Lugg
- Geographical names :* River Lugg in Wales and England* Moreton-on-Lugg, a village in Herefordshire, England- People :* Milton DeLugg , an American composer and arranger* William Lugg , a British actor and singer- Fiction :...
(about 4 km from each) and commands the wide area between them.
Wigmore Castle itself straddles the south-eastern edge of a spur
Spur
A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids and to back up the natural aids . The spur is used in every equestrian discipline...
, with marsh
Marsh
In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....
land (since drained) to its north. The defences of the castle were further strengthened by the construction of ditches across the spur, between which the castle was built. These ditches acted as moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
s with the north-western one running past a mound, which was also fortified. This fortification was originally probably a wooden palisade
Palisade
A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...
, but later a stone keep
Keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...
was constructed in its place.