Eccleshall Castle is located in Eccleshall, Staffordshire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

(). It was originally built in the 13th century. It is a

Scheduled Ancient 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 and d ...

and a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ire ...

Origins

The land was reputedly granted to St Chad, the medieval

bishop of Lichfield The Bishop of Lichfield is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lichfield in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers 4,516 km2 (1,744 sq. mi.) of the counties of Powys, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and West ...

. In 1200 Bishop

Geoffrey de Muschamp Geoffrey de Muschamp (died 6 October 1208) was a medieval Bishop of Coventry. Muschamp began his ecclesiastical career under Geoffrey, Archbishop of York, who appears to have used his office of chancellor to promote Muschamp to the archdeacon ...

was granted by

King John King John may refer to: Rulers * John, King of England (1166–1216) * John I of Jerusalem (c. 1170–1237) * John Balliol, King of Scotland (c. 1249–1314) * John I of France (15–20 November 1316) * John II of France (1319–1364) * John I o ...

a ‘licence to crenellate’ a castle. As Eccleshall was conveniently situated on the main road between the centres of the Lichfield diocese in Chester, Lichfield and Coventry it was an ideal location as a diocesan base. This original castle was replaced by a larger castle in 1305 by Bishop

Walter Langton Walter Langton (died 1321) of Castle Ashby'Parishes: Castle Ashby', in A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 4, ed. L F Salzman (London, 1937), pp. 230-236/ref> in Northamptonshire, was Bishop of Lichfield, Bishop of Coventry and Li ...

, Chancellor of England.

War of the Roses

At the outbreak of the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought be ...

Margaret of Anjou Margaret of Anjou (french: link=no, Marguerite; 23 March 1430 – 25 August 1482) was Queen of England and nominally Queen of France by marriage to King Henry VI from 1445 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471. Born in the Duchy of Lorrain ...

, Queen consort of Henry VI, took refuge within the castle after the

Battle of Blore Heath The Battle of Blore Heath was a battle in the English Wars of the Roses. It was fought on 23 September 1459, at Blore Heath in Staffordshire. Blore Heath is a sparsely populated area of farmland, two miles east of the town of Market Drayton ...

in 1459. In June 1643 the castle was besieged by Sir William Brereton and his Parliamentary forces encamped around the church. Their guns caused considerable damage to the walls but the castle held out, with Bishop Robert Wright sheltering within. When the Parliamentary forces finally took the castle on August 30 they found that the bishop had died of a heart attack during the siege and most of the defenders were either drunk or had gone into town drinking in the taverns. The castle was slighted to prevent future use as a stronghold but enough of the building, including an unusual nine-sided tower, together with the moat walls and medieval bridge, remained to be used as a prison for Royalist gentry. The castle and its grounds were confiscated and sold, but bought back again by the diocese.

Later history

The present house, still known as Eccleshall Castle, was built amongst the ruins in 1693 by William Lloyd, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, incorporating fragments of the slighted 14th-century structure, and was also occupied by successive bishops of Lichfield.

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

often stayed at the castle as guest of then bishop,

James Cornwallis James Cornwallis (16 September 1701 – 1727) was a Royal Navy officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1722 to 1727 as a supporter of the Whig government of Robert Walpole. Cornwallis was the second son of Charles Cornwalli ...

.''Eccleshall Castle, An Illustrated Guide'', pp.4, 10. In the 18th century the gatehouse was demolished and the moat drained. The last bishop to live there was John Lonsdale, who died in the house in 1867.

Today

The Castle is now in private hands and closed to the public, although the gardens are occasionally opened to raise money for local Eccleshall charities as well as for occasional weddings. It has been the home of the Carter-Motley family for more than a hundred years.

References

External links

English Heritage; Images of England. Photograph and listed building description
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