Warwick Castle
Warwick Castle, seat of the Earls of Warwick for a thousand years, is a place that’s seen more than the odd skirmish. A dive into Britain’s violent history will make you glad you live today, despite the climate crisis, the pandemic and the economic meltdown.
You might wonder when they had any fun in medieval times. It seemed a constant battle to avoid the ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’, not to mention the swords and cannonballs, incarceration in the Tower of London, torture, burning at the stake, beheading – most of it due to supporting the wrong team or having different beliefs. And if you avoided those fates, you faced the constant threat of bubonic plague or random pestilence and your children dying young.
After William I had conquered England and began divvying up the spoils of war among his Norman barons, he delegated the building of a stone castle in the English Midlands to Henry de Beaumont. Twenty years later William II, the Conqueror’s son, created Henry the first Earl of Warwick as a reward for his support in the Rebellion of 1088.
De Beaumont’s descendants over the next 400 years were involved in the Crusades, the Barons’ Wars, the Welsh and Scottish Rebellions, the Hundred Years’ War, and the Wars of the Roses. When they weren’t fighting battles they were plotting and scheming with or against other members of the nobility. With few exceptions, kings’ reigns tended to be short and every time there was a change of king, a power struggle ensued.
The experiences of the Earls of Warwick were typical of many peers of the realm. During the Wars of the Roses, 29 members of the nobility were executed ‘for being a Lancastrian’ and 12 ‘for being a Yorkist’. From the 15th to the 17th centuries, around 150 dukes and earls were executed by grisly means. Up to the end of the 17th century, the average age at death of an Earl of Warwick was 47.
On the death of the 14th Earl in 1446 at the age of 21, his two-year-old daughter, Anne Beauchamp, became the 15th Countess of Warwick. Sadly, she died at the age of five. Her father’s sister, also Anne Beauchamp, was married to her mother’s (Cecily Neville) brother Richard; they became the 16th Earl and Countess of Warwick. Richard Neville’s titles also included 6th Earl of Salisbury, 8th Baron Montagu, and 7th Baron Monthermer. Their younger daughter Anne married both Edward, Prince of Wales (son of Henry VI) and Richard III. Her sister Isabel married George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV and Richard III. Their two surviving children were executed later in life – Edward (who was 17th Earl of Warwick) at the age of 24 and Margaret at the age of 68 – by Tudor kings.
Richard Neville
In the 1450s Richard Neville, known as Warwick the Kingmaker, was at the heart of English politics. Originally a supporter of King Henry VI, Warwick later sided with Richard, Duke of York. Political conflict turned into full-scale rebellion – the Duke of York was killed in the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, as was Warwick's father, 5th Earl of Salisbury. York's son was crowned King Edward IV with Warwick's support but the two later fell out. After a failed plot to crown Edward's brother George, Duke of Clarence (Warwick’s cousin and son-in-law), Henry VI was restored to the throne.
How are you going, keeping track of all this? With no social media it would have been a challenge to keep up with all the Status Updates. Perhaps there were many social gaffes: Forsooth! I thought you were married to ... Your title was … You were a friend of … your child was still alive … any of which might result in losing your head if your companion was particularly temperamental and easily offended.
There can’t be many twenty-somethings today who have suffered the trauma of Anne Neville’s short life. Born at Warwick Castle in 1456, she was aged five when the King – her future father-in-law – was deposed in favour of Edward IV – her future brother-in-law – at the instigation of her own father. At the age of 14, she was married to the restored King Henry’s only son Edward.
The following year, with Edward IV back on the scene with an army, her father Warwick and her 17-year-old husband were both killed in battle and her father-in-law murdered in the Tower of London. In 1472, she married the new king’s brother, the future Richard III; their only son Edward was born the following year. In 1476, Anne’s only sister, Isabel, died giving birth, the child a few weeks later. Two years afterwards, King Edward executed his own brother, Anne’s brother-in-law. In 1483 after the King’s sudden death, Anne’s husband seized the throne of England. A year later, Richard and Anne’s adored only son died at the age of ten. Anne herself died the next year at the age of 28.
Her early death at least spared her the anguish of losing a second husband by violent means a few months later – at the Battle of Bosworth.
Life was still precarious throughout the next 200 years, especially for those in public office who refused to change their religion or otherwise displeased their sovereign, but tolerance gradually increased. In 1746, the English fought their last battle over who should legitimately occupy the throne.
Earls of Warwick were still resident at the castle for most of the 20th century but in 1978, Warwick Castle was sold to Madame Tussauds. It is now under the banner of Merlin Entertainments, one of the largest operators of tourist attractions around the world. A day out at the castle usually includes displays of medieval falconry, archery and jousting, and the chance to explore the Great Hall, state rooms, the towers and ramparts. Have some fun within the walls that have witnessed so much drama – and delight in our 21st-century diversions.
Activities are currently subject to restrictions.
