The year is 978: It is thought that in this year King Edward the Martyr was murdered by his stepmother, Elfrida, at the site of the Old Hall. She plied him with wine and then had him stabbed in the back. And so started the history of Corfe Castle.
The year is 1086: A few years after the Battle of Hastings William the Conqueror swapped a church in Gillingham for the land and the building works of Corfe Castle were begun. It offered a commanding view in all directions, natural defence due to the steep slopes, was fed by a spring and offered flat ground at the top for additional buildings.
The year is 1106 King Henry I had just fought a battle with his older brother, Robert of Normandy and won. He shut Robert in the keep. Royals, nobles, knights and gentry were held as prisoner here and were treated well despite their incarceration. It was common that they would be sold back to their families for a ransom. This is why most men of this ilk were rarely killed on the field of battle; They were worth more alive, in ransom.
The year is 1138: During the reign of King Stephen his cousin, Empress Matilda raised an army against him hoping to wrest the throne of England from him and for herself. One of her staunch supporters, Baldwin de Redvers was besieged here at Corfe Castle by King Stephen. He was short of food and under constant attack by the besieging army.
The year is 1199-1214: King John imprisoned his French Niece, Princess Eleanor of Brittany, here. She survived her incarceration although 22 of her knights did not. They were locked in the dungeon below the Butavant Tower and slowly starved to death in the dark, dank lower depths of the castle.
The year is 1220-1294: Life at Corfe Castle settled into somewhat of a routine. King Henry III and King Edward I made many improvements to the castle and its defences including the South West Gatehouse. Many stone masons and craftsmen worked on the castle and as one walks around the ruin now remnants of their intricate work still exists. The nearby village thrived and grew.
The year is 1572: The last Royal owner of Corfe Castle, Queen Elizabeth I, sold the castle to one of her favourite courtiers, Sir Christopher Hatton. The price? A bargain at only 4,762 pounds. (A fortune back in 1572!)
The year is 1635: Corfe Castle was sold once more, this time to the Lord Chief Justice Sir John Bankes. A little later, during the Civil War between the Parliamentary Forces and King Charles I's, Royalists Sir John Bankes stayed fiercely loyal to the Crown and held Corfe Castle despite all of Dorset being held by the Parliamentary forces at the time.
The year is 1643-1646: Brave Dame Mary Bankes commands Corfe Castle and manages to hold off two sieges during the Civil War. As is often the way treachery from within the castle walls was the reason it fell. Lady Bankes was permitted to leave the castle safely and in recognition of her bravery was given the keys to the castle by the victors. Strange sense of chivalry right?
*The year is 1646-1663: The Castle was partially destroyed (demolished) by order of the Parliament and looting ensued. Many of the poor locals raided it for stone blocks to build houses destroyed during the Civil War. Lady Banke's son, Ralph Bankes tried to recover what he could and later built a new mansion at Kingston Lacy near Winborne. It's there one can view the family's portraits and view the keys to the castle his mother, Lady Bank's was handed.
The year is 1982: Three and a half centuries of Banke's family ownership the castle was handed to the National Trust. The gift included the countryside, coastline, farms and nature reserve at Kingston Lacy also.
The year is 2018, 26th June: Faith and Galen visit Corfe Castle and walk amongst the chaos left by over 1,000 years of turmoil. Immense chunks of castle have been torn away, tumbled down the steep earthwork fortifications and have been carted away and re-purposed as homes in the village. It has left jagged pillars of crumbling battlements and towers leaning at angles no architect or stone mason would accept.
Under the sun the castle resembled a mouth or maybe more accurately a maw wide open to the sky in a silent laugh; The jagged stonework looked like the broken and cracked teeth of one who had been through a bloody and brutal conflict. And yet the castle seemed to smile, or was it a scream of anguish, at all it had witnessed? Today we can visit the castle and walk it's battlements and ramparts imagining what life must have been like for the people who called it home: A prisoner, a soldier, the lord, or visiting king, maybe the commander of the Parliamentary army who cracked this castle or a couple of servants seeking a quite corner to steal a kiss...
It's easy to imagine the thunderous boom of rocks striking the outer walls, let lose by the besieging army's trebuchet war machines. One doesn't have to try too hard to imagine the anguish of those left to starve in the squalor and darkness of the dungeons or the satisfaction of a stonemason as he laid the last block; A life's work. It's easy to imagine it as a working castle, bustling with activity.
I found it to be a sad place to be honest though. It's spectacular of course, amazing in design and that so much was achieved in its building over the years, but yet I found it a sad place. We were there very early, the first one's in today and we had it to ourselves for a little while: Just the scarred and broken stones, the weight of a thousand years of life and death bearing heavily on once sturdy walls and the caress of the slight breeze bringing echo's of the long-dead people who once lived, worked, fought and died in and around the castle.
Thanks for reading.
Faith & Galen x
Dang, I can imagine that it would be a weighty place given all the history that it has witnessed. The pictures are impressive though!
Thanks mate, it’s easy to take pictures wen the camera does all the work. Hope things are well with you.
Isn't it nice that cameras nowadays you can just point and shoot?
Yeah, I'm trying to make progress on a few areas that have been stuck, but I think I made a small breakthrough today. We'll see where it goes. Thanks for asking.
I'm enjoying seeing pics of your trip. Looks like you and Faith are having a great time.
All the best with it then, and for a positive outcome. Yes, having a good time. :)
nice post about travelling it looks like you are travel addict
I’m also addicted to corn chips and hot salsa. :)
Talk about a tactically advantageous location! It would be humbling to be at such a historical site, it’s so hard to fathom a thousand years of history... Thanks for the history lesson you two, love the info and the photos 👌
Our history is so shallow from a time perspective; A couple hundred years at best. Here it dates back thousands of years to the Celts and beyond. It’s very interesting and puts things into perspective.
Shallow as well as filled with holes and blanks for the stuff we DO know.
The history of a place is always more meaningful when you are actually there and imagine being at a different time when the events occurred.
Still, when I see a historic site like that, or a stately home/mansion/castle, the first two thoughts I have are: I wonder how much that would cost today, and I wonder how much it costs to heat that place in the winter?
Just in case a friend asks later, of course.
I reckon it’d take a bit to heat Corfe Castle! :)
Yep, but I'm heavily into "what if", as in "what if it was still there?"
There's still the cost of the real estate. Not that I'm shopping....
I have seen some of the BIG homes in England that would be like trying to heat Bavaria to keep them comfortable!
Most of the ones I’ve been in have massive fireplaces in almost every room. A lot of trees have gone into those fireplaces in an endeavour to keep the occupants warm.
And fireplaces are powerful suctions that put more heat out the chimneys than is used inside. The taller the structure, the higher the chimney, and the stronger the draft. I'll wager that the stately homes actually whistled as air was drawn in through every crack around windows and doors.
I capped our chimney off because of that.
You and Faith are now a part of that history too.
That's so beautiful. Sad, but beautiful. I'm a fan of "dark" though :)
Thanks @lynncoyle1 much appreciated:)
Truly my pleasure @galenkp :)
thanks my friend, useful and very good pic, upvote
Right on!
yes.wink
hi my friend.plz view my new post (comment and vote) thanks wink
1138: What's the ending? Did Baldwin triumph, or was he trapped in this castle and died there?
More for the students of history...
https://steemit.com/money/@harpooninvestor/business-history-trumps-political-history-every-time
The images, beautiful, the story, gory and amazingly rich with history. You missed your vocation as traveling historical, food blogger. Really nice peace mate.
There was a lot of blood and gore in advancing the empires and achieving progress through the ages. I wonder exactly how many people lost their heads and over how many trivial things over that time?
I really enjoyed that
You got a 31.35% upvote from @ocdb courtesy of @galenkp!