Chartley Castle
Encyclopedia
Chartley Castle lies in ruins to the north of the village of Stowe-by-Chartley
Stowe-by-Chartley
-External links:...

 in Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, between Stafford
Stafford
Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies approximately north of Wolverhampton and south of Stoke-on-Trent, adjacent to the M6 motorway Junction 13 to Junction 14...

 and Uttoxeter
Uttoxeter
Uttoxeter is a historic market town in Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. The current population is approximately 13,711, though new developments in the town will increase this figure. Uttoxeter lies close to the River Dove and is near the cities of Stoke-on-Trent, Derby and...

 . It is a Grade II* listed building

The motte and bailey castle was built by one of the early Earls of Chester
Earl of Chester
The Earldom of Chester was one of the most powerful earldoms in medieval England. Since 1301 the title has generally been granted to heirs-apparent to the English throne, and from the late 14th century it has been given only in conjunction with that of Prince of Wales.- Honour of Chester :The...

 circa 1100 CE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...

 as a safe stop over for their journeys to places like Tutbury
Tutbury
Tutbury is a large village and civil parish of about 3,000 residents in the English county of Staffordshire.It is surrounded by the agricultural countryside of both Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The site has been inhabited for over 3000 years, with Iron Age defensive ditches encircling the main...

.
The present Chartley castle was built on the site of one of the first wooden castles to be built in United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 circa 900
900
Year 900 was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.- Asia :* April 21 – Namwaran and his children, Lady Angkatan and Bukah, are granted pardon by the Datu of Tondo, as represented Jayadewa, Lord Minister of Pila, which released them of all their debts as inscribed in the...

  AD, and was rebuilt in 1220 by Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester
Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester
Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester and 1st Earl of Lincoln , known in some references as the 4th Earl of Chester , was one of the "old school" of Anglo-Norman barons whose loyalty to the Angevin dynasty was consistent but contingent on the receipt of lucrative favours...

, who died in 1232. It then passed by marriage to William de Ferrers
William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby
William III de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby was an English nobleman and head of a family which controlled a large part of Derbyshire including an area known as Duffield Frith....

, Earl of Derby
Earl of Derby
Earl of Derby is a title in the Peerage of England. The title was first adopted by Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby under a creation of 1139. It continued with the Ferrers family until the 6th Earl forfeited his property toward the end of the reign of Henry III and died in 1279...

. It remained in the Ferrers family for more than 200 years and in 1453 passed to Walter Devereux
Walter Devereux, Lord Ferrers of Chartley
Walter Devereux, jure uxoris 7th Baron Ferrers of Chartley was a minor member of the English peerage and a loyal supporter of the Yorkist cause during the Wars of the Roses. He was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field, fighting for Richard III.-Family:Walter was born in Weobley, Herefordshire...

 through his wife Elizabeth, the Ferrers heiress. Walter was created Baron Ferrers in 1461 and was killed at the Battle of Bosworth
Battle of Bosworth Field
The Battle of Bosworth Field was the penultimate battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the House of Lancaster and the House of York that raged across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 August 1485, the battle was won by the Lancastrians...

 in 1485. The castle was then abandoned as a residence and Chartley Manor, a moated and battlemented timber mansion, was built nearby but was destroyed by fire in 1781 What is now known as Chartley Manor was in fact known as Chartley Manor Farm until the 1980s

Substantial remains are still present today, including a rare cylindrical keep
Keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...

, a curtain wall
Curtain wall (fortification)
A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two bastions of a castle or fortress.In earlier designs of castle the curtain walls were often built to a considerable height and were fronted by a ditch or moat to make assault difficult....

 flanked by two half-round towers, a twin-towered gatehouse
Gatehouse
A gatehouse, in architectural terminology, is a building enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a castle, manor house, fort, town or similar buildings of importance.-History:...

 and an angled tower. A survey conducted in the nineteenth century identified five towers ranging from 35 to 41 feet external diameter, and the keep, 50 feet in diameter . One author has noted similarities of the plan to Montlhery
Montlhéry
Montlhéry is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located from Paris.Inhabitants of Montlhéry are known as Montlhériens.-History:...

 near Paris, France, which Ranulph de Blondeville may have been familiar with. M.W. Thompson has noted numerous architectural similarities between Chartley, Bolingbroke Castle
Bolingbroke Castle
Bolingbroke Castle is a ruined castle in Bolingbroke Lincolnshire, England.-Construction:Most of the castle is built of Spilsby greenstone, as are several nearby churches. The local greenstone is a limestone that proved to be porous, prone to rapid deterioration when exposed to weather and a...

, Lincolnshire, and also Beeston Castle
Beeston Castle
Beeston Castle is a former Royal castle in Beeston, Cheshire, England , perched on a rocky sandstone crag above the Cheshire Plain. It was built in the 1220s by Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester, , on his return from the Crusades...

 in Cheshire, all thought to have been built under de Blondeville .

Chartley Manor was one of the last places of imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots. She spent almost a year there. After her long confinement at Tutbury Castle
Tutbury Castle
Tutbury Castle is a largely ruinous medieval castle at Tutbury, Staffordshire, England, in the ownership of the Duchy of Lancaster. It is a Grade I listed building...

only a few miles to the east. "On the 25th of September (1586) she was removed to the strong castle of Fotheringay in Northamptonshire." where she was beheaded on 8 Feb 1587.
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