Spofforth. a favorate ruin.

 Spofforth castle a recently discovered ruin. We went here on the way back from Knaresborough.
This was the main seat of the great Yorkshire family the Percys and  where the Magna Carta was drawn up in 1215. It was signed at Runnymede which was a place my mum used to take me as one of her favourite places .
Spofforth is on the way to Wetherby . We went there the other day a different way to our usual and I spotted it on the road signs. It was one of my " we have to go there moments"as we passed I could see the village and church tower and just knew it was Norman. I did not know about the castle either until I saw the English heritage notice road sign........

 Spofforth just by Stockheld and Harrogate just near the fabulous Allerton Mauleverer castle. On the river Crimble a tributary to the river Nidd from Knaresborough earlier in the day.
William de Percy was a great favourite of William the Conqueror and so was given lots of lovely lands in this area as a reward. He became very powerful with his family and cousins owning and controlling much of Yorkshire as his strong hold.

 the ruins survive today in the middle of the village in view of the church surrounded by the most gorgeous cottages and houses. it is totally unspoiled by modern times. stepping into the castle or fortified manor house as it was is a step back into times past along with a little imagination.

 I had visions of horses and men in chain mail galloping towards this ruin with standards flying.....
Aragorn from lord of the rings and king Theodon sprang to mind. anyway ....this is my day out and my blog so I can imagine it any way I like. I think I will bring some of my Lord of the rings dolls for a photo session in fact !!!!and yes I do have most of the dolls from the film......silly question.....and I have just about every book from the making of the film as well just so you know.

 Spofforth castle. this is what I came to see. Lee came with me. Lee likes a good ruin and is a tiny bit of an expert himself spending his childhood climbing Kirkstall abbey ruins. he knows his spiral staircases and turrets does Lee.
This is the view as we approached the ruins. The original building can clearly be seen and it was built into the rocks already here in the 14th century.
The percy estates were confiscated after the rebellion against king Henry 1V in 1408 and given to Sir Thomas Rokeby,
Sir Thomas turned out to be an arch enemy of the Percys . He was high sherriff of Yorkshire. Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland marched into Yorkshire against Henry1V king of England and was stopped by Thomas Rokeby and a local army... at Knaresborough. they met at the battle of Bramham Moor  where Rokeby was victorious having killed Percy. He then took over his manors and lands which were awarded to him by the king.

 Thomas de Rockeby also served in the army of Henry V in France  at the battle of Agincourt in 1415...most of the seize of Rouen  1418-1419 and marched through Paris in triumph in 1420......he married a daughter of Sir Ralph Eure by the way.

The Percy Rebellion went like this....

1402 the battle of Homildon Hill in which Henry Percy fell out big time with the king Henry. In the aftermath of this battle over an invading scottish army. Percy had captured a large number of Scottish nobles. as was tradition in those days the captives were held to ransom and Percy would have made a huge bunce of cash from this. The scots would have paid huge ransom to release these hostages.

 King Henry took the spoils of this war for himself as he was short of cash. He had alot of trouble with unruly lords of the manor both at home and abroad and this had depleted his treasury. So he kept all the money himself. The Percys ruled Yorkshire and Northumberland and this greatly hacked off Percy who then declared his support for a new king. the pretender Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March. he repeatedly rebelled against the king until his son was killed at the battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 and himself defeated at Bramham moor.
the consequences of this were that Percy was defeated and killed. His ally Thomas Bardolf 5th Baron Bardolf was mortally wounded and later died. a few of the soldiers escaped and  to Scotland. The Bardolf estates were forfeited and the power of the Percys was broken.

 The North became the domain of The Neville family , the head of the family was Ralph Earl of Westmoreland.
The Percys did make a comeback and regained their standing and lands during the Wars of the Roses.
unfortunately they supported the loosing side in the Wars of the roses. their estates were restored to them in 1408 and then lost again by 1461.
Spofforth was eventually returned to the Percy family and remained inhabited by their steward until 1604. the castle was reduced to ruins during the civil wear...1642-1646.

 We walked all around the outside of the ruins and then.....

 inside we went,,,,,to discover a lot of the main layout to be still standing.

 We entered through the original "back door".....

Lee

 Lee discovered what was a spiral staircase that reachehed the top of the turret.......

 I think there would have been stained glass in these fancy windows.....

this is the great hall as it is now.......

this is a very useful notice here, it shows how it should look.......

 this house had it's own chapel too.

 and where it was carved from the roch can clearly be seen......

 this photo was taken standing in the old chapel looking to the great halls.....

 solid carved rock!!!!

 This photo was taken from above........

We came up these steps and it was possible to look down on the main hall and take some more photos.

We reluctantly walked back to the fonz car past some cyclists who had stoppewd for a rest and to the waiting Monza dog.

The Percy family have a long a juicy history. the high lights from my point of view are these......

Henry Percy the sixth Earl of Northumberland, loved  Anne Boleyn. and married her in secret. Henry V111 was set up by the Boleyn family for Anne to "enchant" and the marriage was annulled and buried. Northumberland went on to marry the Earl of Shrewsburys daughter as his family planned.....

there after were plots and sub plots ...the rising of the North...plots to liberate Mary Queen of Scots when she was a prisoner in the North....and of course the gun powder plot....the Percys were involved in all of this.
the 8th and 9th earls consequently spent much time in the tower of London and the 10th earl fought for king Charles in the civil war.