Eye Castle is a
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 (castle), bailey, surrounded by a protective Rampart (fortification ...
medieval castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
with a prominent
Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Victorian fashion
** Victorian literature ...
addition in the town of
Eye
Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conv ...
,
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
. Built shortly after the
Norman conquest of England
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, Duchy of Brittany, Breton, County of Flanders, Flemish, and Kingdom of France, French troops, ...
in 1066, the castle was sacked and largely destroyed in 1265. Sir
Edward Kerrison built a stone house on the motte in 1844: the house later decayed into ruin, becoming known as Kerrison's Folly in subsequent years.
History
11th–13th centuries
Eye Castle is a
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 (castle), bailey, surrounded by a protective Rampart (fortification ...
castle, built during the reign of
William I
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087 ...
by
William Malet, who died fighting
Hereward the Wake
Hereward the Wake (Traditional pronunciation /ˈhɛ.rɛ.ward/, modern pronunciation /ˈhɛ.rɪ.wəd/) (1035 – 1072) (also known as Hereward the Outlaw or Hereward the Exile) was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman and a leader of local resista ...
in 1071. The Malet family also controlled the surrounding
Honour of Eye
In the kingdom of England, a feudal barony or barony by tenure was the highest degree of feudal land tenure, namely ''per baroniam'' (Latin for "by barony"), under which the land-holder owed the service of being one of the king's barons. The ...
, a significant collection of estates centring on the castle, and the
park
A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...
of Eye. The castle motte is in diameter and high, with the bailey approximately wide. The castle is unusual in being one of only two castles mentioned in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
on 1086 as a source of income for their owners, due to the presence of a
market
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
*Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
*Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
Geography
*Märket, an ...
within the castle bailey, from which the owner drew revenue; the castle's market competed with the
Bishop of Norwich
The Bishop of Norwich is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers most of the county of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. The bishop of Norwich is Graham Usher.
The see is in the ...
's market at
Hoxne
Hoxne ( ) is a village in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England, about five miles (8 km) east-southeast of Diss, Norfolk and south of the River Waveney. The parish is irregularly shaped, covering the villages of Hoxne, Cross Street a ...
.
![Eye Castle plan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Eye_Castle_plan.jpg)
William Malet's son,
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
, was exiled and after his death at the
Battle of Tinchebray
The Battle of Tinchebray (alternative spellings: Tinchebrai or Tenchebrai) took place on 28 September 1106, in Tinchebray (today in the Orne ''département'' of France), Normandy, between an invading force led by King Henry I of England, and th ...
in
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
in 1106, Eye was confiscated by
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 became a royal castle for a period. Henry gave Eye to his favoured nephew,
Stephen of Blois
Stephen (1092 or 1096 – 25 October 1154), often referred to as Stephen of Blois, was King of England from 22 December 1135 to his death in 1154. He was Count of Boulogne ''jure uxoris'' from 1125 until 1147 and Duke of Normandy from 1135 unt ...
in 1113. Stephen succeeded to the English throne in 1135 and he gave the honour of Eye first to one of his lieutenants,
William of Ypres
William of Ypres ( nl, Willem van Yper; 1090 – 24 January 116524 January 1164 O.S., 1165 N.S.) was a Flemish nobleman and one of the first mercenary captains of the Middle Ages. Following two unsuccessful bids for the County of Flanders, ...
and then later to Hervey Brito, his son-in-law. At some point during the 1140s, Stephen then transferred the lands to his second son,
William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
.
[Brown (1994), p.28.] William was still young at the time, and it appears that until he came of age these lands were initially managed by Stephen's trusted Royal Steward,
William Martel
William Martel ( fl. 1130–1153) was a steward of the royal households of King Henry I and King Stephen of England. He was castellan of Sherborne Castle until 1143.
William Martel was of Norman descent. His grandfather and his uncle were she ...
.
[ Meanwhile, the civil war known as ]the Anarchy
The Anarchy was a civil war in England and Normandy between 1138 and 1153, which resulted in a widespread breakdown in law and order. The conflict was a war of succession precipitated by the accidental death of William Adelin, the only legiti ...
had broken out between Stephen and the Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda ( 7 February 110210 September 1167), also known as the Empress Maude, was one of the claimants to the English throne during the civil war known as the Anarchy. The daughter of King Henry I of England, she moved to Germany as ...
between 1138 and 1154; much of the fighting occurred in East Anglia, where the powerful Bigod family, headed by Hugh Bigod, attempted to expand their autonomy and influence. Eye Castle did not play a major role in the war as, despite some skirmishing occurring in the region, most of the campaigning was conducted to the west.
After coming to power in 1154, Henry II attempted to re-establish royal influence across the region. Partially as a result of the civil war, Hugh Bigod had come to dominate East Anglia by the late 12th century, holding the title of the Earl of Norfolk
Earl of Norfolk is a title which has been created several times in the Peerage of England. Created in 1070, the first major dynasty to hold the title was the 12th and 13th century Bigod family, and it then was later held by the Mowbrays, who w ...
and owning the four major castles in the region, Framlingham
Framlingham is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Suffolk, England. Of Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon origin, it appears in the 1086 Domesday Book. The parish had a population of 3,342 at the 2011 Census and an estimated 4, ...
, Bungay
Bungay () is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . It lies in the Waveney Valley, west of Beccles on the edge of The Broads, and at the neck of a meand ...
, Walton Walton may refer to:
People
* Walton (given name)
* Walton (surname)
* Susana, Lady Walton (1926–2010), Argentine writer
Places
Canada
*Walton, Nova Scotia, a community
** Walton River (Nova Scotia)
*Walton, Ontario, a hamlet
United Kingdom ...
and Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24,340 ...
. As part of this effort, Henry confiscated the Bigod castles from Hugh in 1157. Despite having made earlier promises to protect him, Henry still saw Stephen's son, William, as a potential claimant to the throne, and the king confiscated the castle of Eye as well at the same time. William died in 1159, allowing Henry to formally acquire and thereby legitimise his control of Eye Castle.
Hugh then joined the revolt by Henry's sons in 1173. Eye was attacked by Hugh Bigod in 1173. Although the attack failed, the castle had to be rebuilt. Two square towers were built on the north side of the inner bailey in the late 12th century, possibly contemporaneously with Framlingham Castle
Framlingham Castle is a castle in the market town of Framlingham in Suffolk in England. An early motte and bailey or ringwork Norman castle was built on the Framlingham site by 1148, but this was destroyed (Slighting, slighted) by Henry II of E ...
. The castle was protected using the castle-guard
Castle-guard was an arrangement under the feudal system, by which the duty of finding knights to guard royal castles was imposed on certain manors, knight's fees or baronies. The greater barons provided for the guard of their castles by exacting ...
system, under which local lands were granted to minor lords in exchange for the contribution of knights and soldiers for the defence of the castle.
The castle was attacked and sacked in 1265 during the Second Barons' War
The Second Barons' War (1264–1267) was a civil war in England between the forces of a number of barons led by Simon de Montfort against the royalist forces of King Henry III, led initially by the king himself and later by his son, the fut ...
; it was subsequently largely abandoned.[Suffolk HER EYE 016]
Suffolk Historic Environmental Record, accessed 24 June 2011.
14th–21st centuries
By the 14th century, Eye Castle lay largely in ruins, although parts of the castle continued to be maintained as a prison.[ Despite the ruined nature of the castle, the local estates previously subject to the castle-guard system continued to return their dues, now converted into monetary rents, to the owners of Eye Castle for many years. A ]windmill
A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called windmill sail, sails or blades, specifically to mill (grinding), mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and ...
was built on top of the motte between 1561 and 1562.[Eye Castle, List No. 1316598]
, National Heritage List, 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 ...
, accessed 28 June 2011. In the early 17th century, like many other medieval Suffolk parks, the park of Eye around the castle was broken up and turned into fields.
In the 1830s a workhouse
In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...
and a school were built inside the castle bailey.[ In 1844 the owner, Sir Edward Kerrison, demolished a later windmill that had been built on the motte, and replaced it with a domestic house.][ Kerrison had the dwelling built for his ]batman
Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
, who had saved his life at the Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...
in 1815.[ The house resembled a ]shell keep
A shell keep is a style of medieval fortification, best described as a stone structure circling the top of a motte.
In English castle morphology, shell keeps are perceived as the successors to motte-and-bailey castles, with the wooden fence arou ...
, and was built of flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...
and had living quarters built into the walls on the south and west.[ The building fell into ruins, being damaged in high winds during 1965 and collapsing further that year.][ It is now sometimes now referred to as Kerrison's ]Folly
In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings.
Eighteenth-cent ...
.Suffolk HER EYE 016
Suffolk Historic Environmental Record, accessed 24 June 2011; Pettifer, p.233. The mound and some stone fragments of the original castle still remain intact, and the site is 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 and d ...
and a Grade I 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 Irel ...
.
See also
*Castles in Great Britain and Ireland
Castles have played an important military, economic and social role in Great Britain and Ireland since their introduction following the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Although a small number of castles had been built in England in the 10 ...
*List of castles in England
This list of castles in England is not a list of every building and site that has "castle" as part of its name, nor does it list only buildings that conform to a strict definition of a castle as a medieval fortified residence. It is not a li ...
References
Bibliography
* Brown, R. Allen. (1962)
English Castles.
' London: Batsford. OCLC 1392314.
* Brown, Vivien. (1994)
Eye Priory Cartulary and Charters, Part 2.
' Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. .
* Creighton, Oliver Hamilton. (2005) ''Castles and Landscapes: Power, Community and Fortification in Medieval England.'' London: Equinox. .
* Davis, R. H. C. (1977)
King Stephen.
' London: Longman. .
* Hoppitt, Rosemary. (2007) "Hunting Suffolk's Parks: Towards a Reliable Chronology of Imparkment," in Liddiard (ed) (2007)
* Kenyon, John R. (2005)
Medieval Fortifications.
' London: Continuum. .
* King, D. J. Cathcart. (1991)
The Castle in England and Wales: An Interpretative History.
' London: Routledge. .
* King, Edmumd. (2010)
King Stephen.
' New Haven, US: Yale University Press. .
* Liddiard, Robert. (ed) (2007)
The Medieval Park: New Perspectives.
' Bollington, UK: Windgather Press. .
* Page, William. (ed) (1911) ''The Victoria History of Suffolk, Vol. 1.'' London: University of London.
* Pettifer, Adrian. (2002)
English Castles: a Guide by Counties
'' Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. .
* Scarfe, Norman. (1986)
Suffolk in the Middle Ages.
' Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. .
* Wall, J. C. (1911) "Ancient Earthworks," in Page (ed) (1911).
*Warren, W. L. (2000)
Henry II.
' New Haven, US: Yale University Press. {{ISBN, 978-0-300-08474-0.
Castles in Suffolk
Ruins in Suffolk
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...