Carisbrooke Castle is a historic

motte-and-bailey castle A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy ...

located in the village of Carisbrooke (near Newport),

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

, England. Charles I was imprisoned at the castle in the months prior to his trial.

Early history

The site of Carisbrooke Castle may have been occupied in pre-

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

times. A ruined wall suggests that there was a building there in late Roman times. The ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the ninth century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of ...

'' mentions that

Wihtgar Wihtwara ( or ) were the Early Medieval inhabitants of the Isle of Wight, a island off the south coast of England. Writers such as Bede attribute their origin to Jutes who migrated to the island during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. The ...

, cousin of King Cynric of Wessex, died in AD 544, and was buried there. The

Jutes The Jutes ( ) were one of the Germanic people, Germanic tribes who settled in Great Britain after the end of Roman rule in Britain, departure of the Roman Britain, Romans. According to Bede, they were one of the three most powerful Germanic na ...

may have taken over the fort by the late 7th century. An

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

stronghold occupied the site during the 8th century. Around AD 1000, a wall was built around the hill as a defence against

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

raids.

Later history

From 1100 the castle remained in the possession of

Richard de Redvers Richard de Vernon seigneur de Redvers (or Reviers, Rivers, or Latinised to ''de Ripariis'' ("from the river-banks")) ( 1066 – 8 September 1107), 1st feudal baron of Plympton in Devon, was His origins are obscure, but after acting as ...

' family, and over the next two centuries his descendants improved the castle with stone walls, towers and a keep. In 1293, Countess Isabella de Fortibus, the last Redvers resident, sold the castle to

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 125 ...

. From then on, its governance was entrusted to wardens as representatives of the crown. In 1377, in the reign of

Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward, Prince of Wales (later known as the Black Prince), and Joan, Countess of Kent. R ...

the castle was unsuccessfully attacked by the French. It was reputedly saved by local hero Peter de Heyno who shot the French commander. Anthony Woodville, Lord Scales, later Earl Rivers, obtained a grant of the castle and rights of Lordship in 1467. He was responsible for the addition of the Woodville Gate, now known as the Entrance Gate. Woodville was killed by

Richard III Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...

in 1483, but his brother Edward Woodville was given control of the castle on the accession of Henry VII in 1485. The keep was added to the castle in the reign of Henry I, and in the reign of

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

, when the

Spanish Armada The Spanish Armada (often known as Invincible Armada, or the Enterprise of England, ) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by Alonso de Guzmán, Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aristocrat without previous naval ...

was expected, it was surrounded by additional fortifications by Sir George Carey, who had been appointed Governor of the Isle of Wight in 1583. Carey later commissioned the Italian engineer

Federigo Giambelli Federigo Giambelli (or Gianibelli; also given as Genebelli or Genibelli in contemporary English texts), was an Italian military and civil engineer who worked in Spain, the Spanish Netherlands and England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. ...

(or Genebelli) to make more substantial improvements to the defences. Starting in 1597, Giambelli constructed a modern ''

trace Italienne A bastion fort or ''trace italienne'' (a phrase derived from non-standard French, meaning 'Italian outline') is a fortification in a style developed during the early modern period in response to the ascendancy of gunpowder weapons such as c ...

'' fortification, a squat rampart and

ditch A ditch is a small to moderate trench created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches ...

supported at intervals by powerful

bastion A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...

s, which completely surrounded the old castle and bailey. The new fortification was mostly completed by 1600 at the cost of £4,000. Charles I was imprisoned here for fourteen months before his execution in 1649. Afterwards his two youngest children were confined in the castle, and Princess Elizabeth died there. From 1896 to 1944, it was the home of

Princess Beatrice Princess Beatrice, Mrs Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi (Beatrice Elizabeth Mary; born 8 August 1988) is a member of the British royal family. She is the elder daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York. She is a niece of King Ch ...

, daughter of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

, as Governor of the Isle of Wight. It is now under the control of

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

. The castle is located above, and to the south of, Carisbrooke village centre. In 2007,

opened a holiday flat inside the castle, in converted former staff quarters. The castle received 131,358 visitors during 2019.

Description

Carisbrooke was the strongest castle on the Island; though it is visible from some distance, it does not dominate the countryside like many other castles. There are traces of a

fort underneath the later buildings. Seventy-one steps lead up to the keep. In the centre of the castle enclosure are the domestic buildings; these are mostly of the 13th century, with upper parts of the 16th century. Some are in ruins, but the main rooms were used as the official residence of the governor of the Isle of Wight until the 1940s, and they remain in good repair. The Great Hall, Great Chamber and several smaller rooms are open to the public, and an upper room houses the Isle of Wight Museum. Most rooms are partly furnished. One of the main subjects of the museum is King Charles I. He tried to escape from the castle in 1648 but was unable to get through the bars of his window. The name of the castle is echoed in a very different structure on the other side of the world. A visit to the castle by James Macandrew, one of the founders of the

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

city of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

, led to him naming his estate "Carisbrook". The name of the estate was later used for Dunedin's main sporting venue.

The Main Gate

The gateway tower was erected by Lord Scales who was lord of the castle at the time in 1464.

The Chapel

The chapel is located next to the main gate. In 1904 the chapel of St Nicholas in the castle was reopened and re-

consecrate Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects ( ...

d, having been rebuilt as a national memorial of Charles I. Within the walls is a well deep and another in the centre of the keep is reputed to have been still deeper.

The Well-House

Newport and Carisbrooke - Carisbrooke Castle - 20460301222354

Near the domestic buildings is the well-house with its working donkey wheel. The well is also famous as the hiding place of the Mohune diamond, in the 1898 adventure novel '' Moonfleet'', by J. Meade Falkner.

Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''Blast (British magazine), Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His ...

, who lived on the Isle of Wight as a child, cites the donkey wheel at Carisbrooke as an image for the way machines impose a way of life on human beings ('Inferior Religions', published 1917).

The Constable's Chamber

The Constable's Chamber is a large room located in the castle's medieval section. It was the bedroom of Charles I when he was imprisoned in the castle, and Princess Beatrice used it as a dining room. It is now home to Charles I bed as well as Princess Beatrice's large collection of

stag A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) a ...

and

antelope The term antelope refers to numerous extant or recently extinct species of the ruminant artiodactyl family Bovidae that are indigenous to most of Africa, India, the Middle East, Central Asia, and a small area of Eastern Europe. Antelopes do ...

heads. This room was until recently used as the castle's education centre.

Earthworks

Surrounding the whole castle are large earthworks, designed by the Italian Federigo Gianibelli, and begun in the year before the

. They were finished in the 1590s. The outer gate has the date 1598 and the arms of Elizabeth I.

List of constables of Carisbrooke Castle

References

External links

Carisbrooke Castle official English Heritage information

Carisbrooke Castle Museum official site

'Carisbrooke Castle: island fortress and royal prison'
on Google Arts & Culture

* ttps://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-01-02-0029#BNFN-01-01-02-pb-0075 Benjamin Franklin's description of Carisbrooke from ''Journal of a Voyage, 1726'' {{Authority control Castles on the Isle of Wight English Heritage sites in the Isle of Wight Grade I listed buildings on the Isle of Wight Museums on the Isle of Wight History museums on the Isle of Wight Historic house museums on the Isle of Wight Local museums on the Isle of Wight Motte-and-bailey castles Scheduled monuments in Isle of Wight