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 to ...

located in the village of

Carisbrooke Carisbrooke is a village on the south western outskirts of Newport, Isle of Wight and is best known as the site of Carisbrooke Castle. It also has a medieval parish church. St Mary's Church (overlooking Carisbrooke High Street with views to the ...

(near Newport),

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

, England.

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

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 ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

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 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...

'' mentions that

Wihtgar The Wihtwara were one of the tribes of Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon Britain. Their territory was a Tribal chief, tribal kingdom located on the Isle of Wight before it was conquered by the Kingdom of Wessex in the late seventh century. The tribe's n ...

, cousin of King

Cynric of Wessex Cynric () was King of Wessex from 534 to 560. Everything known about him comes from the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. There, he is stated to have been the son of Cerdic, who is considered the founder of the kingdom of Wessex. However, the 'Genealogic ...

, died in AD 544, and was buried there. The

Jutes The Jutes (), Iuti, or Iutæ ( da, Jyder, non, Jótar, ang, Ēotas) were one of the Germanic tribes who settled in Great Britain after the departure of the Romans. According to Bede, they were one of the three most powerful Germanic nations ...

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

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

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

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to 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 se ...

raids.

Later history

From 1100 the castle remained in the possession of

Richard de Redvers Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

' 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, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...

. 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 the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father died ...

the castle was unsuccessfully attacked by the French. It was reputedly saved by local hero

Peter de Heyno Peter de Heyno was the Lord of Stenbury, Isle of Wight under Edward III. In 1377 a raiding force of French and Castilians invaded the Isle of Wight and burnt Yarmouth and Newtown which he had to defend. They laid siege to Carisbrooke Castle dur ...

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 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...

in 1483, but his brother

Edward Woodville Sir Edward Woodville (died 1488) was a member of the Woodville family during the Wars of the Roses. He survived the reign of Richard III in which several of his relatives were executed in a power struggle after the death of his brother-in-law ...

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 Henry I may refer to: 876–1366 * Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936) * Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955) * Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018) * Henry I of France (1008–1060) * Henry I the Long, Margrave of the No ...

, and in the reign of

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

, when the

Spanish Armada The Spanish Armada (a.k.a. the Enterprise of England, es, Grande y Felicísima Armada, links=no, lit=Great and Most Fortunate Navy) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aris ...

was expected, it was surrounded by additional fortifications by

Sir George Carey George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon KG (1547 – 9 September 1603) was the eldest son of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon and Anne Morgan. His father was first cousin to Elizabeth I of England. In 1560, at the age of 13, George matriculated at ...

, who had been appointed

Governor of the Isle of Wight Below is a list of those who have held the office of Governor of the Isle of Wight in England. Lord Mottistone was the last lord lieutenant to hold the title governor, from 1992 to 1995; since then there has been no governor appointed. Governors ...

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, literally meaning ''Italian outline'') is a fortification in a style that evolved during the early modern period of gunpowder when the cannon came to domin ...

'' fortification, a squat rampart and

ditch A ditch is a small to moderate divot 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 ar ...

supported at intervals by powerful

bastion A bastion or bulwark 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 fi ...

s, which completely surrounded the old castle and bailey. The new fortification was mostly completed by 1600 at the cost of £4,000. The Bowling Green, Carisbrooke Castle - geograph

The Bowling Green, Carisbrooke Castle - geograph

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 Charle ...

, 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 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

, as

. 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, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. The castle is located above, and to the south of,

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 James Macandrew (1819(?) – 25 February 1887) was a New Zealand ship-owner and politician. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1853 to 1887 and as the last Superintendent of Otago Province. Early life Macandrew was born in Scotland, prob ...

, one of the founders of the

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

city of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, 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 Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

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

Near the domestic buildings is the well-house with its working donkey wheel. As it is still operated by donkeys, the wheel is a great attraction and creates long queues. The well is also famous as the hiding place of the Mohune diamond, in the 1898 adventure novel '' Moonfleet'', by

J. Meade Falkner John Meade Falkner (8 May 1858 – 22 July 1932) was an English novelist and poet, best known for his 1898 novel '' Moonfleet''. An extremely successful businessman, he became chairman of the arms manufacturer Armstrong Whitworth durin ...

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,'' the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His novels include ''Tarr'' ( ...

, 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 Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

and

antelope The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mammals ...

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

Earthworks

Surrounding the whole castle are large

earthworks Earthworks may refer to: Construction *Earthworks (archaeology), human-made constructions that modify the land contour * Earthworks (engineering), civil engineering works created by moving or processing quantities of soil *Earthworks (military), m ...

, 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