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Hermitage Castle
Hermitage Castle is a semi-ruined castle in the border region of Scotland. It is under the care of Historic Scotland. The castle has a reputation, both from its history and its appearance, as one of the most sinister and atmospheric castles in Scotland. History Origins of the name It is thought that the name derives from Old French: – guardhouse. The castle was known as ''the guardhouse of the bloodiest valley in Britain'', and the "Strength of Liddesdale". Hermitage Castle was supposedly built by one Nicholas de Soulis around 1240, in a typical Norman Motte and Bailey pattern. It stayed in his family until approximately 1320 when his descendant, William de Soulis, forfeited it because of suspected witchcraft and the attempted regicide of King Robert I of Scotland. Legend has it that Soulis's tenantry, having suffered unbearable depredations, arrested him, and at the nearby Ninestane Rig (a megalithic circle), had him boiled to death in molten lead. In actuality, he d ...
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Newcastleton
Newcastleton, also called Copshaw Holm, is a village in Liddesdale, the Scottish Borders, a few miles from the border with England, on the Liddel Water. It is within the county of Roxburghshire. It is the site of Hermitage Castle. Newcastleton is east of Langholm, south of Hawick, north of Carlisle and south of Edinburgh. History Newcastleton was built as a result of the land clearances in the 1790s when people were forced to move from Old Castleton village. There has been a folk festival at Newcastleton since 1970. "Copshaw Holm" (another name for the village) is celebrated in the song "Copshawholm Fair", written by David Anderson in 1830, as sung by Willie Scott among others. In 2020, the local community purchased 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) of Langholm Moor for £3.8m from Buccleuch Estates. Amenities A community-owned unmanned fuel station opened after much community fund raising in 2018. The former Townfoot Church (erected in 1803) now houses the Liddesdale Herit ...
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Ninestane Rig
Ninestane Rig ( en, Nine Stone Ridge) is a small stone circle in Scotland near the English border. Located in Roxburghshire, near to Hermitage Castle, it was probably made between 2000 BC and 1250 BC, during the Late Neolithic or early Bronze Age (Bronze Age technology reached the Borders around 1750 BC). It is a scheduled monument (a nationally important archaeological site given special protections) and is part of a group with two other nearby ancient sites, these being Buck Stone standing stone and another standing stone at Greystone Hill. Settlements appear to have developed in the vicinity of these earlier ritual features in late prehistory and probably earlier. The circle (actually slightly oval in form) consists of eight stones fast in the earth (a ninth stone has fallen inwards and lies flat), but six of these are now just stumps of or less. Of the two large standing stones remaining, one is a regular monolith a little under tall and the other, a pointed stone, is a li ...
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Henry VII Of England
Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort, was a descendant of the Lancastrian branch of the House of Plantagenet. Henry's father, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, a half-brother of Henry VI of England and a member of the Welsh Tudors of Penmynydd, died three months before his son Henry was born. During Henry's early years, his uncle Henry VI was fighting against Edward IV, a member of the Yorkist Plantagenet branch. After Edward retook the throne in 1471, Henry Tudor spent 14 years in exile in Brittany. He attained the throne when his forces, supported by France, Scotland, and Wales, defeated Edward IV's brother Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the culmination of the Wars of the Roses. He was the last king of England to win his throne on the field of ba ...
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Archibald, Bell The Cat
Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus (c. 1449October 1513), was a Scottish nobleman, peer, politician, and magnate. Tradition has accorded him the nickname Archibald 'Bell-the-Cat' due to his association with the 1482 rebellion against James III of Scotland. He became one of the most powerful nobleman in Scotland through his influential position on the Scottish Marches, and a willingness to be involved in multiple rebellions in the reigns of James III and James IV of Scotland. Parents and succession Archibald Douglas, eldest son of George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus, head of the Red Douglas line, was born at Tantallon Castle, East Lothian, around 1449. His mother was Isabella Sibbald, daughter of the Master of the Household of James II of Scotland. During the turbulent 1450s, when Archibald was growing up, his father came out in support of James II, thereby pitching himself against many of his own clan, and the Black Douglas line in particular, who were in rebellion agains ...
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James IV Of Scotland
James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauchieburn, following a rebellion in which the younger James was the figurehead of the rebels. James IV is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs. He was responsible for a major expansion of the Scottish royal navy, which included the founding of two royal dockyards and the acquisition or construction of 38 ships, including the ''Michael'', the largest warship of its time.T. Christopher Smout, ''Scotland and the Sea'' (Edinburgh: Rowman and Littlefield, 1992), , p. 45. James was a patron of the arts and took an active interest in the law, literature and science, even personally experimenting in dentistry and bloodletting. With his patronage the printing press came to Scotland, and the Royal College of Surgeons ...
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James Douglas, 9th Earl Of Douglas
James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas, 3rd Earl of Avondale KG (1426–1491) was a Scottish nobleman, last of the 'Black' earls of Douglas. Early life The son of James the Gross, 7th Earl of Douglas, by his wife Lady Beatrice Sinclair, daughter to Henry II Sinclair, Earl of Orkney; Douglas was a twin, the older by a few minutes, the younger being Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray. He succeeded to the earldom on the murder of his brother William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas by King James II and his entourage. He denounced his brother's murderers and took up arms against the king, and he and his brothers attacked Stirling, driving a horse through the town with the safe conduct given to William attached to its tail. He was forced to back down when some allies deserted him. He obtained a papal dispensation to marry his brother's widow, Margaret Douglas, Fair Maid of Galloway, in order to keep the family estates together. It is not entirely clear that this marriage ever took pl ...
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Durham Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham, commonly known as Durham Cathedral and home of the Shrine of St Cuthbert, is a cathedral in the city of Durham, County Durham, England. It is the seat of the Bishop of Durham, the fourth-ranked bishop in the Church of England hierarchy. Building of the present Norman-era cathedral started in 1093, replacing the city's previous 'White Church'. In 1986 the cathedral and Durham Castle were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Durham Cathedral's relics include: Saint Cuthbert's, transported to Durham by Lindisfarne monks in the 800s; Saint Oswald's head and the Venerable Bede's remains. The Durham Dean and Chapter Library contains: sets of early printed books, some of the most complete in England; the pre-Dissolution monastic accounts and three copies of ''Magna Carta''. From 1080 until 1836, the Bishop of Durham held the powers of an Earl Palatine. In order to protect the Anglo-Sc ...
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Stonemasonry
Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. It is one of the oldest activities and professions in human history. Many of the long-lasting, ancient shelters, temples, monuments, artifacts, fortifications, roads, bridges, and entire cities were built of stone. Famous works of stonemasonry include the Egyptian pyramids, the Taj Mahal, Cusco's Incan Wall, Easter Island's statues, Angkor Wat, Borobudur, Tihuanaco, Tenochtitlan, Persepolis, the Parthenon, Stonehenge, the Great Wall of China, and Chartres Cathedral. Definition Masonry is the craft of shaping rough pieces of rock into accurate geometrical shapes, at times simple, but some of considerable complexity, and then arranging the resulting stones, often together with mortar, to form structures. *Quarrymen split sheets of rock, and extract the resulting blocks of stone from the ground. *Sawyers cut these rough blocks into cuboids, to ...
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William Dacre, 2nd Baron Dacre
William Dacre, 2nd Baron Dacre (''ca.'' 1319–1361) was an English peer. In the final months of his life, he was also 3rd Baron Multon of Gilsland. In some sources, he is called William de Dacre. Life Dacre was the son of Ralph Dacre, 1st Baron Dacre (''ca.'' 1290–1339), by his marriage to Margaret de Multon (died 1361), later ''suo jure'' Baroness Multon of Gilsland. Dacre inherited from his father (who commanded the English forces at the Battle of Dornock) the Barony of Dacre and from his mother that of Multon of Gilsland. He married Catherine Neville, daughter of Ralph Neville, 2nd Baron Neville de Raby, but died childless in 1361 and was succeeded in the baronies by his brother Ralph, who was later succeeded by another brother, Hugh. He was summoned to Parliament on 25 November 1350.John Harris Nicolas, ''A synopsis of the peerage of England'', vol. 1 (1825)p. 166/ref> Dacre held the Lancashire manors of Skelmersdale, Whiston, Speke, and Parr, and he obtained a ...
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Alexander Ramsay Of Dalhousie
Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie (c. 1290–1342) (sometimes spelt: ''Dalwolsey'') was a Scottish nobleman and knight who fought for David II, King of Scots in the south of Scotland in the Second War of Scottish Independence and is famous for his 1342 capture of Roxburgh Castle. Life Alexander Ramsay was the eldest of two sons born to Sir William Ramsay of Dalhousie (c. 1235–1320), the other being Sir William Ramsay of Inverleith. Military career Sir Alexander fought with Sir Andrew Murray, Guardian of the Realm, at the Battle of Culblean in the Scottish victory over the English force on 30 November 1335 and later at Boroughmuir, where Guy de Namur, a Flemish ally of England, was defeated and taken captive. He was present at the capture of Leuchars Castle, at St Andrews in 1335. In June 1338 he successfully smuggled supplies to Agnes Randolph, Countess of Dunbar allowing her to successfully defend the castle against the siege by William Montagu, 1st Earl of Salisbury of Eng ...
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Flower Of Chivalry
Sir William Douglas, Lord of Liddesdale (–1353), also known as the Knight of Liddesdale and the Flower of Chivalry, was a Scottish nobleman and soldier active during the Second War of Scottish Independence. Family and early life Douglas' father, James Douglas of Lothian, a minor landowner in the Lothians was a second cousin of the "Good Sir James" Douglas, a hero of the First War of Scottish Independence. At some point, , Douglas succeeded to his small desmesne. Some time later, , he became godfather to his third cousin William, son of Sir Archibald Douglas, and nephew of the "Good Sir James". Douglas was to hold minor positions of state and is not much heard of until 1332. Political context Robert the Bruce died in 1329, while his son David II was still a child. Edward III of England, son of Edward II, had just attained his majority and was known to resent his father's disgrace at the hands of the Scots, and his own supposed humiliation when forced to sign the Treaty of ...
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William Douglas, Lord Of Liddesdale
Sir William Douglas, Lord of Liddesdale (–1353), also known as the Knight of Liddesdale and the Flower of Chivalry, was a Scottish nobleman and soldier active during the Second War of Scottish Independence. Family and early life Douglas' father, James Douglas of Lothian, a minor landowner in the Lothians was a second cousin of the "Good Sir James" Douglas, a hero of the First War of Scottish Independence. At some point, , Douglas succeeded to his small desmesne. Some time later, , he became godfather to his third cousin William, son of Sir Archibald Douglas, and nephew of the "Good Sir James". Douglas was to hold minor positions of state and is not much heard of until 1332. Political context Robert the Bruce died in 1329, while his son David II was still a child. Edward III of England, son of Edward II, had just attained his majority and was known to resent his father's disgrace at the hands of the Scots, and his own supposed humiliation when forced to sign the Tre ...
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