In this series:
- Hedingham Castle Fact Sheet with Virtual Tour Link.
- Hedingham Castle 1485-1562 with Virtual Tour Link.
- A brief history of the Earls of Oxford and Castle Hedingham.
King Henry I granted the land at Hedingham to Aubrey
(Alberic) de Vere about 1106, the year
King ‘Henry I made him Lord Great Chamberlain of England,… to hold “to himself
and his heirs, with all dignities and privileges thereunto belonging.”’[1] Prior to the invasion of William the
Conqueror (King William I), in 1066, Hedingham was possessed by Uluuinus, a
Saxon of great note.[2]
Aubrey crowned the top of the central hill with a timber fortification.[1]
The hill is surrounded by a ditch likely corresponding initially
to a moat. The summit of the hill is 27
feet above the bottom of an encircling ditch on the N. side, 34 feet on the W.
side, and 38 feet on the S. side.[3] The ditch is about 90 feet wide.
The keep was enclosed in an inner bailey. An outer bailey lay to the N.E. and originally
had a draw bridge connecting it with the inner bailey.[3] A gateway
tower rose where the bridge was lowered from the foot of the inner bailey.[4]
Aubrey II, son of Aubrey I, built the present keep between 1130-40,
after having returned from serving in the first crusade.[5]
The keep measures 58ft. 3ins. north to south and 52ft. 6ins.
east to west.[6]
The external walls are 11ft. thick, excepting the eastern,
which is 12ft. 6ins.[3] They are constructed of flint rubble set in
limestone mortar and faced, on the exterior, with thick slabs of oolite limestone
from Barnack, Northamptonshire, some 60 miles distant.[7]
The total height is 85 ft.[3]
The modern entrance to the keep is on the first floor by way of a
stone stair, discharging through the W. wall, where a fore-building used to
stand.[8] The floor is entirely occupied by the great hall
or audience chamber, of dimensions 38ft. 3ins. by 31ft. and 27ft.[9],
spanned by a Norman arch 21ft. high at the bottom at the center of the room and
a ceiling 28ft. high.[10]
The angle turrets, like the main walls of the keep, were
originally crowned by battlements but these
have been pulled down in order to scavenge the stone, thus depriving the keep of
about nine feet of its original height. Behind this parapet, which was 2ft.
thick, was a broad paved walk about five and a half feet wide which, passing
through arched openings in the return faces of the turrets, enabled a sentry to
follow a continuous walk.[11]
The son of Aubrey II was a Crusader like his father, but,
unlike him, was a partizan of the Empress Matilda, who, after his father’s
death, confirmed him in his English possessions and granted him the reversion
of the Oxford earldom, which his male descendants continued to hold until the death
of the eighteenth earl in 1625.[5]
A chest was purchased from a local tradesman by the
Conservative member of Parliament, and then owner of Hedingham Castle, Mr. Lewis
Ashurst Majendie (d. 1885), and placed in the banqueting hall of the Castle. It
was supposed by antiquaries to have been the muniment chest of the De Vere Earls.[12] In the chest would have been many if not all
of the family’s most valuable papers.
The keep was pressed into military service as a signaling station
during World War I. The inhabitants set
fire to the lead roof destroying it entirely. The interior of the entire keep was gutted, in
consequence. It is said that valuable furniture
and many family possessions stored for safety in the basement chambers were incinerated. The fate of the muniment chest is not
clear.
Thankfully, the De Vere family
muster rolls for the soldiers it provided King Henry V, for the Agincourt
campaign, headed by senior pikeman, Edmund Folstolf, as well as many other of
the family’s valuable papers, were in safe keeping elsewhere in various historical
collections.[13]
[1]
Tipping, H. Avery. English Homes,
Period 1, Volume 1. 2.
[2]
Ranger, H. Castle Hedingham: Its
History & Associations. 7.
[3] An
Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Essex, Volume 1, pp 47-61. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/essex/vol1/pp47-61
[4] Armyne,
Israel. 1592 Survey. Gentleman’s Magazine Library (1893). English Topography, Part IV. 128.
Tipping, 1.
[5] Tipping,
2.
[6]
Ibid. 5.
[7]
Various. See bibliography.
[8]
The first floor by the British and European term refers to what Americans call
the “second floor”. It refers to the first
floor above the ground.
[9]
Tipping, 8.
[10] Ranger,
18.
[11] Tipping,
9
[12]
Ranger, 15.
[13]
See my Edward de Vere was Shakespeare: at long last the proof. 159. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1543136257/
Citing Nicolas, Sir Harris, History
of the battle of Agincourt, and of the expedition of Henry V. (London: Johnson and Co., 1832). 339.
- The King's Esnecce. January 13, 2019. “It comes as no surprise, then, that when Maud’s son, Henry Plantagenet, Count or Duke of most of the western territories of France, and, by terms of the treaty, heir to Stephen, next rose to the throne as Henry II, he was quick to arrange for the safest possible means of transit across the channel.”
- Connections: Henry II, Toulouse, 1159. November 27, 2018. “Once he became Chancellor, Becket never looked back. He abandoned his duties as Archdeacon and preaching duties attached to his other positions. He outfitted a lavish household and lived like a secular lord.”
- Medieval Scavagers: First, what they were not. November 18, 2018. ‘The fact that the professor quoted Riley — regardless that neither he nor Riley were able to give a single citation to support their claim — began a now venerated commonplace that Medieval “Scavagers” began by collecting the English tax called the “Scavage”.’
- Check out the Medieval Topics Article Index for many more articles about this fascinating time.
- Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
1 comment:
We may take special note of that senior pikeman--Folstolf!--known to Henry V!
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