Chartley Castle lies in ruins to the north of the village of Stowe-by-Chartley in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

, between

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...

and

Uttoxeter Uttoxeter ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the East Staffordshire borough of Staffordshire, England. It is near to the Derbyshire county border. The town is from Burton upon Trent via the A50 and the A38, from Stafford via the A51 ...

().

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legit ...

, was imprisoned on the estate in 1585. The remains of the castle and associated earthworks are a

Scheduled Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

, the site having been protected since 1925. The castle itself is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The

motte and bailey 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 ...

castle was built by one of the early Earls of Chester, about 1100, as a safe stop-over for their journeys to places such as Tutbury. It was rebuilt in 1220 by

Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester and 1st Earl of Lincoln (1170 – 26 October 1232), known in some references as the 4th Earl of Chester (in the second lineage of the title after the original family line was broken after the 2nd Earl) ...

, who died in 1232. It then passed by marriage to William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby. It remained in the Ferrers family for more than 200 years, and in 1453, passed to Walter Devereux, through his wife Anne de Ferrers, the Ferrers heiress. Through his wife, Walter also became ''

jure uxoris ''Jure uxoris'' (a Latin phrase meaning "by right of (his) wife"), citing . describes a title of nobility used by a man because his wife holds the office or title '' suo jure'' ("in her own right"). Similarly, the husband of an heiress could beco ...

'' Baron Ferrers of Chartley in 1461, and was killed at the

Battle of Bosworth The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field ( ) was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 ...

in 1485. The castle was then abandoned as a residence, and Chartley Manor, a moated and battlemented timber mansion, was built nearby.

was a prisoner in this manor house. It was destroyed by fire in 1781. What is now known as Chartley Manor was in fact known as "Chartley Manor Farm" until the 1980s.

Description

Substantial remains are still present today, including a rare cylindrical

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 residen ...

, a curtain wall flanked by two half-round towers, a twin-towered

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the most ...

and an angled tower. A survey conducted in the nineteenth century identified five towers ranging from 35 to 41 feet external diameter, and the keep, 50 feet in diameter. One author has noted similarities of the plan to the Château de Montlhéry near Paris, which Ranulph de Blondeville may have been familiar with. M.W. Thompson noted numerous architectural similarities between Chartley, Bolingbroke Castle, Lincolnshire and also

Beeston Castle Beeston Castle is a former Castle, Royal castle in Beeston, Cheshire, Beeston, Cheshire, England (), perched on a rocky sandstone crag above the Cheshire Plain. It was built in the 1220s by Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester (1170–123 ...

in Cheshire, all thought to have been built under de Blondeville.

Mary, Queen of Scots at the manor

When Chartley Manor belonged to

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (; 10 November 1565 – 25 February 1601) was an English nobleman and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during th ...

it became one of the last places of imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots. Her jailor Amias Paulet came from

Tutbury Castle Tutbury Castle is a largely ruined medieval castle at Tutbury, Staffordshire, England, in the ownership of the Duchy of Lancaster and hence currently of King Charles III. It is a scheduled monument and a Grade I listed building. People who have ...

to view the manor in September 1585 and saw the house was just big enough to accommodate both his and the queen's households, "somewhat straitly." Chartley manor was preferred over alternatives because the house had a deep moat, though the moat was quite narrow in places. The moat also helped security because the queen's laundry could be washed without her maids leaving the house. Paulet wrote that the way the Manor was "found to stand so low and environed with water" was not likely to please Mary (she being sensitive to damp environments).

Revealing the Babington plot

Paulet prepared to move the queen the twelve miles from Tutbury before Christmas 1585, and decided to avoid going through the busy market town of

. Mary spent almost a year at Chartley. Mary's health improved, and in June she was carried to watch duck-hunting in the ponds around the house. In August 1586,

Francis Walsingham Sir Francis Walsingham ( – 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her " spymaster". Born to a well-connected family of gentry, Wa ...

made a plan to arrest Mary and move her from Chartley by having Paulet pretend to take her hunting, while the leading members of her household were arrested and her papers seized. Many of servants would be kept at Chartley and she would be taken to another house. Acting on the

Babington Plot The Babington Plot was a plan in 1586 to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, a Protestantism, Protestant, and put Mary, Queen of Scots, her Catholic Church, Catholic cousin, on the English throne. It led to Mary's execution, a result of a letter s ...

, Mary was arrested on 11 August 1586 while out riding and hunting with a crossbow, with her secretaries Claude Nau and Gilbert Curle, Bastian Pagez, her doctor Dominique Bourgoing and others. They were surprised by armed soldiers who took them to Tixall. Walsingham wrote to Paulet from

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...

on 25 August that Elizabeth ordered that Mary should not leave Tixall. However, on that day, Paulet brought Mary back to Chartley. Claude Nau, Gilbert Curle, and the cipher clerk Jérôme Pasquier were arrested and questioned about Mary's involvement in the

. On 25 September 1586 Mary was removed to the strong castle of Fotheringay in

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

where she was beheaded on 8 February 1587.Luminarium Encyclopedia: Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587)
/ref>

References

External links