Thirsk Castle was a defensive
Medieval castle in the town of
Thirsk, in
North Yorkshire, England. The castle was one of three held by the
de Mowbray
De Mowbray is the surname of:
Nobles
* Alexander de Mowbray, 14th-century Scottish noble
* Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk (1472–1481), child bride of Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower
* Eleanor de ...
family in
Yorkshire.
History
Thirsk Castle belonged to the
de Mowbray
De Mowbray is the surname of:
Nobles
* Alexander de Mowbray, 14th-century Scottish noble
* Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk (1472–1481), child bride of Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower
* Eleanor de ...
family, who possessed two other castles in Yorkshire, at
Burton-in-Lonsdale and
Kirkby Malzeard. Additionally, the de Mowbray family had a fourth castle at
Epworth Epworth originally referred to Epworth, Lincolnshire, a town in England that was the birthplace of John Wesley and Charles Wesley, early leaders of the Methodist religious movement. The town's name has since been used for other places and instituti ...
on the
Isle of Axholme (now
Lincolnshire).
Thirsk Castle is believed to have been built in the 1090s, with the castle becoming a holding place for the gathering fighters for the
Battle of the Standard
The Battle of the Standard, sometimes called the Battle of Northallerton, took place on 22 August 1138 on Cowton Moor near Northallerton in Yorkshire, England. English forces under William of Aumale repelled a Scottish army led by King David ...
at nearby
Northallerton. The massed fighters set out for the battlefield from Thirsk Castle.
The date of the castle's construction has been the subject of some debate, with writers in the 19th century believing it to predate
the Conquest, however there is no evidence of this. In the late 1130s/early 1140s, monks who had lost their lands in
Cumbria to Scots raids, were offered sanctuary at the castle before being given lands by the de Mowbray family at
Byland for their own house.
Roger de Mowbray lost favour with the king (
Henry II of England), and rebelled against him in the
Great Revolt. Henry later besieged Thirsk Castle, and de Mowbray was forced to give up his castles, including Thirsk in 1175. Henry II ordered that the castles at Kirkby Malzeard and Thirsk be destroyed in early 1176. Roger de Mowbray left to
Crusade
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were i ...
in the Holy Land, dying after being taken prisoner after the
Battle of Hattin
The Battle of Hattin took place on 4 July 1187, between the Crusader states of the Levant and the forces of the Ayyubid sultan Saladin. It is also known as the Battle of the Horns of Hattin, due to the shape of the nearby extinct volcano of t ...
.
The castle was said to have covered , being quite prominent on the skyline in Thirsk, and commanding the road north from
York.
After its destruction, material from the castle was said to have been used in the construction of the
church in Thirsk, (which can be seen in the background of the image).
The de Mowbray family still owned the land, and a manor house that was built upon the site was supposedly destroyed in a Scots raid in 1322. Excavations on the site have determined that the Bailey rampart was about in length, which had a ditch on the outer side some wide, and deep. The site is now scheduled monument.
Notes
References
Sources
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External links
{{Castles in North Yorkshire
Historic Gateway description
Castles in North Yorkshire
Scheduled monuments in North Yorkshire