Château de Framlingham – Wikipedia
The château de Framlingham is located in the town of the same name in the county of Suffolk, in England.
Originally, it was a Norman castle with or without a castral motte, built in 1148 on the Framlingham site, but it was destroyed by Henri II of England following the revolt of 1173-1174.
Roger Bigot, then count of Norfolk, built another to replace it but its structure was unusual for the time: instead of the traditional dungeon placed in the middle, there was a curtain connecting thirteen wall towers used to defend the central part of castle. But despite this, King John of England managed to take the castle in 1216 after a short -term seat. At the end of XIII It is A century, the Château de Framlingham had become a luxurious place, surrounded by a large park in which many deer was brought in and then playing hunting games.
To XV It is And XVI It is A centuries, the Château de Framlingham was at the heart of the properties that the powerful families of Montbray and Howard owned. Two artificial lakes were built around the castle which was itself enlarged in brick, a very chic material for the time. Before the needs of these large and rich families, the castle bought provisions throughout England and luxury goods from international markets.
Inside the castle, large pleasure gardens were built and the old parts were redesigned to allow visitors to appreciate new views. However, at the end of XVI It is A century, the castle fell into ruins and, following the financial difficulties that Theophilus, the last owner of the Howard dynasty, was sold, it was sold, as was the various fields around.
In 1636, a philanthropic gesture was accomplished, it resulted in the donation of the castle of Framlingham to the Pembroke College. Consequently, the internal buildings were demolished to allow the construction of a house house inside the site. The castle was used for these purposes until the closure of this structure in 1839; He then served as a military training location and County Court (in) . In 1913, Pembroke College donated the work police station (in) .
During the Second World War, the Château de Framlingham was used by the British army as one of the regional means of defense against a possible German invasion. Today, it is ranked Grade I, it belongs to the English Heritage which manages it as a tourist attraction.
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The population of Framlingham, in Suffolk, suddenly increased after the Norman conquest of England, when the village turned into a small town of at least 600 inhabitants, surrounded by land of value and located in one of the parts more prosperous in the country.
The owner of this region was the powerful Hugues d’Avranches, count of Chester, who in turn yielded it to Roger Bigot, then Sheriff of Suffolk. A castle with or without a castral motte was first built at XI It is century or at the beginning of XII It is century in the northern part of the interior courtyard of the current castle. Although the first document alluding to the Château de Framlingham appeared in 1148, doubts remain as to the actual date of its construction and three possible options were suggested by academics. The first of them indicates that the castle was built by Roger Bigot at the end of XI It is A century or around the 1100s, at the same time as Bigot castle was built in the small town of Eye located nearby.
A second theory argues that the son of Roger, Hugues Bigot, built him during the English civil war in the 1140s on the very site where a manor was held; The castle would then resemble the fortification built by Bigot in the city of Bungay. A third possibility is that there would be two castles in fact: the first having been built at the end of XI It is century to then be demolished by Hugues Bigot in the 1160s in order to be able to erect a more recent and larger one.
Historian Magnus Alexander hypothesizes that the castle would have been built on Anglo-Saxon buildings of high prestige which already existed, a common practice in other places of East Anglia, perhaps echoing the rules in vigor in the village of Castle Acre; This hypothesis would be very likely if we fixed the construction of the castle at XI It is century.
At the end of XII It is century, Suffolk was under the domination of the Bigot family who had obtained the title of count of Norfolk and which owned the castle of Framlingham and three others of considerable importance: that of Bungay, of Walton (in) a thetford (in) .
The first stone buildings, including the first large room, were built inside the castle during the 1160s. However, during this period, tensions persisted between the crown and the Bigot family. Hugues Bigot was part of the group bringing together the dissident barons during the English civil war during the reign of King Etienne of England and, when Henri II came to power, he tried to restore royal influence through the region. Among the measures taken to achieve this, Henri II dispossessed Hughes in 1157 of the four castles belonging to the Bigot family but made the castle of Framlingham as well as that of Bungay in 1165 against the payment of a significant fine whose amount amounted to 666 pounds.
Hughes then joined the revolt of 1173-1174. The attempt to overthrow Henri II failed and, as a punishment, the king ordered the destruction of several castles belonging to the Bigot family including that of Framlingham. Between 1174 and 1176, Alnoth, the King’s engineer, destroyed the fortifications of Framlingham and filled the moat, although on the contrary, the interior stone buildings were probably consolidated. The son of Hughes, Roger Bigot, did not enjoy the good graces of Henri who initially refused to grant him the title of count as well as properties like that of Framingham. Roger again obtained the favor of the king when Richard I is succeeded the Crown in 1189. Roger then decided to build a new castle on the Framlingham site – the works were carried out relatively quickly and, in 1213, the castle was certainly finished.
The new castle consisted of the interior courtyard, defended by thirteen wall towers; With an adjacent lower courtyard made up of smaller stone and towers and a larger wooden surrounding wall, used as a defense. At that time, a guard system was in place at the Château de Framlingham, according to which lands were granted to local lords who provided in exchange for knights or soldiers to keep the castle.
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It was in 1215 that the first war of the barons began opposing King John of England and a faction of rebel barons who did not approve of his regime. After having expressed his disagreement on the requirements of King John concerning the enrollment of the troops, Roger Bigot became one of his main opponents. The royal troops stood the properties located around and the army of King John arrived at the , followed by the king himself on the day after. On the 14th, after King John agreed, messages from the castle were sent to Roger who, influenced by the fate of Rochester Château the previous year, agreed for the garrison made up of 26 Knights, 20 sergeants, 7 crossbowmen and a priest go without opposition. The forces of King John continued their progress in Essex and it would seem that Roger recovered his castle and that his grandson, another Roger, inherited in 1225.
A park for dams, called the Big park , was created around the castle. Its creation date is set in 1270 although it may go up some time before. The area of this large park was 243 hectares (600 acres), extending to 3 km north of the castle. The moat and the slopes that defined the limits of this park were very characteristic and were a frequent means of delimitation elsewhere in England but very little usual in suffolk. A goalkeeper house was built inside this park and later, a garden for leisure activities were created. Like the other parks of that time, the large park was not only used for hunting but it was also exploited for the widest resources it owned: it is for example noted that wood was carbonized for wood for Obtain coal in 1385. Four other smaller parks were also near the castle, thus expanding hunting grounds forming a long belt of delimited land extending from east to west.
In 1270, Roger Bigot, then 5 It is Count, received the castle as a legacy and undertook important renovations there, when he himself had a very luxurious lifestyle. Although still extremely rich, the Bigot family had to borrow increasingly important sums first from the Jewish community of Bungay, then, following the expulsion of the Jews, to Italian merchants. At the end of the century, Roger also owed a lot of money to the king Édouard I is . Consequently, Roger took the head of the barrons group opposing the requirements of Édouard I is who claimed more taxes and support for the wars he led against France. The reaction of King Edward was to grasp the lands of Roger and to give them up to him only on the condition that his death, it is the crown that benefits from it. Roger agreed and, when he died in 1306, the Château de Framlingham became property of the Crown.
At the end of XIII It is A century, the castle was endowed with a large prison which had probably been built in the northwest corner of the lower courtyard and which was dominated by the prison tower. Among the prisoners incarcerated during the medieval period were local poachers, then at XV It is century, religious dissidents including sympathizers of the movement led by the Lollards.
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Édouard II donated the castle to his half-brother Thomas de Brotheton, count of Norfolk. Archives show that at that time, the castle of Framlingham was only partially furnished, although it is not really known if it was because it was little used or because the owner, when he moved , took the furniture to its new castle, or perhaps it was still because the castle was being furnished.
However, the castle and its outbuildings continued to prosper and, on the death of Thomas in 1138, it was first of all his widow Mary who inherited it, then the Ufford family in 1362. It was William d’Ufford, count of Suffolk, who directed the castle during the peasants’ revolt of 1381 and, it was around Framlingham that most of this revolt happened. After the Ufford family, it was first Marguerite de Brotheton, the alleged “Countess Marshall”, who became the owner of the castle, then it was Thomas de Mowbray’s turn, Duke of Norfolk. It is from the castle of Framlingham that the Mowbray family seems to have mainly exercised its authority for a large part of the XV It is century.
Hosting up to 83 people at the same time, the castle played a major role at that time in the surrounding economy. Large quantities of food and drinks were bought to provide for the needs of people who lived in this place. In 1385-1386 for example, more than 1 000 books were spent over a period of twelve months for the purchase of 129 870 liters of Ale and 70,321 breads. At XIV It is century, through merchants based in London, the castle bought goods throughout Western Europe, including wine from France and deer, driven out in distant parks of Northamptonshire. We even brought in Far East spices. The castle also bought goods, such as salt, at the Stourbridge Fair (in) In the city of Cambridge located nearby and, at that time, this fair was one of the major economic events in Europe.
Part of these costs were covered by the manor attached to the castle, a property belonging to the crown which was made up of 168 hectares (420 acres) of land and which required 5,000 days of work carried out by serfs subject to the feudal system. At the end of XII It is century, vines were planted at the castle and, at the end of XIV It is A century, a bakery and a mill were built inside a horse inside. The mansions located in the surroundings also supplied the castle which, in twelve months, from 1275 to 1276, received from the whole region the sum of 434 pounds.
Two large lakes were created along the castle, ending a local stream. The lake located to the south, still visible today, found its origins in a smaller natural lake; Once contained, it covered 9.4 hectares (23 acres). There was an island on this lake on which a lobby was built. We used these lakes for fishing, for boat trips and, the aesthetic attraction they aroused was not negligible. Doubts remain as to the exact date of the initial training of these lakes. A theory argues that they were trained at the start of XIII It is century, although it was only in the 1380s at least that a document attesting to their existence appeared. Another theory suggests that their creation dates back to the first part of the XIV It is century, approximately at the same time when the lower courtyard was built. A third hypothesis indicates that it was the Howard family who had presented the idea of forming lakes at the end of XV It is century as an integral part of their desire to modernize the castle.
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In 1476, the castle returned to John Howard, I is Duke of Norfolk, who was probably at the initiative of a succession of actions intended to embellish the castle during the reign of the Tudor. The Howard family considerably modernized the castle; Parties of the latter were renovated using brick, a chic material for the time; Decorative chimneys were added; The size of the ramparts was reduced in order to exaggerate the apparent height of the walls, and the coat of arms of the Howard family was added on the guardhouse. The large room was probably built at that time through the interior courtyard, connecting the large room to the chapel and to the rooms located on the eastern facade of the castle and, in 1524, at least 29 different rooms were counted in the castle.
The Pont-Levis, located outside the guardhouse, was replaced between 1524 and 1547 by the current permanent bridge and, at that time, a defensive and half-moon-shaped structure was built for the defend. At XVI It is Century, a pleasure garden was built in the lower courtyard, one could see several decorative ponds and terraced passages intended for pedestrians. This garden was also probably with fruit trees, aromatic herbs and fountains. Another pleasure garden was born inside the surrounding wall and, to access it directly from the interior courtyard, a second bridge was built to pass over the moat. The prison tower was redesigned to serve as a gallery for the new French gardens located just below.
During the Deux-Roses War at XV It is A century, we attended prolonged fights between the Lancastre and the York to obtain control of the English throne. John Howard, a sympathizer from the house of York, was killed during the Bosworth battle in 1485 and thereafter, his son Thomas, II It is Duke of Norfolk, was the victim of a decree of confiscation of goods and civil death, thus losing as well as his heirs his rights to property and his titles. It was sent to the Tower of London.
Following his victory during the battle of Bosworth, the Lancastre Henri VII ceded the castle of Framlingham to John de Vere, but Thomas ends up enjoying the good graces of Henri VIII after having fought at the battle of Flodden Field in 1513. The castle of Framlingham returned to Thomas and the Duke spent his retirement there; At the castle, he decorated his table by depositing silverware in gold and silver which he had taken from the Scottish in Flodden. Much money was spent on the decoration and style of the castle was at this time sumptuous, we could for example see tapestries, velvet and money inside the chapel and luxurious bedding. A hundred complete armor were kept in the castle and the stables sheltered more than thirty horses.
The 3 It is Duke of Norfolk, which was also called Thomas, used the castle much less, choosing to reside mainly in the village of Stoke-by-Nayland then in that of Kenninghall. Thomas was also the victim of the decree of confiscation of goods and civil death for having supported Marie I re in his claim to access the throne; Henri VIII died the day preceding the date on which Thomas was to be executed at the tower, and his successor, Édouard VI, the half-brother of Marie, granted him a stay but kept him in the tower, giving the castle of Framlingham to Marie . When Marie grabbed power in 1553, she gathered her forces at the Château de Framlingham before walking in London successfully. Marie returned to Thomas his freedom as a reward for his loyalty, but he retired to Kenninghall rather than Framlingham. The castle was rented at lease but when the 4 It is Duke, another Thomas, was executed for betrayal by Elisabeth I re In 1572, the castle returned to La Couronne again.
From the 1540s, the repairs made to the castle seem to have been minimal, and, when Marie left the castle, he declined quickly. An investigation dating from 1589 underlined that masonry, wood and brick required rapid maintenance, at a cost of around 100 pounds. In 1580, the limits of the large park were disappeared which became only a simple field. While religious laws against Catholics were more and more numerous, the castle was used from the 1580s as a prison; In 1600, the prison of the castle contained 40 prisoners, priests belonging to the Catholic church and challenges.
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In 1613, Jacques I of England returned the castle to Thomas Howard, but the castle was then in such a state of ruins which the latter chose in place of living in a manor bearing the name of Audley End House. Thomas’ son, Theophilus Howard, heavily in debt, sold the castle, the estate and the old big park for 14,000 pounds in Sir Robert Hitcham (in) In 1635. As was the case for several other existing parks, such as that of Eye, Kelsale and Hunton, the large park was divided in order to create distinct fields. Sir Robert Hitcham died the following year, leaving the castle and the manor at the Pembroke College, located in Cambridge, on the condition that the latter destroys the buildings inside the castle to build a house house, s ‘thus supporting a system of laws for the poor recently voted in Parliament.
Following the collapse of the authority owned until then by the Howard family, it was at XVII It is century an oligarchy of the Protestant gentry which took control of the county of Suffolk which did not play any major role during the first English revolution which took place between 1642 and 1646. The castle of Framlingham escaped the destruction suffered by many other castles English roughly at the same time. Meanwhile, following confusion, the legacy of Sir Robert Hitcham dragged in the courts and, the work concerning the house-god did not start before the end of the 1650s, at which the internal buildings of the castle were demolished by blocks of stone intended for resale; It was according to this principle that the chapel was destroyed in 1657.
In Framlingham, we ended up building the first house house, the “Red House”, which we used to house families in need; This establishment turned out to be unsatisfactory and, because of the mismanagement of its funds, it was closed and used it instead as an advertising. It was about that time that the lakes were stopped maintaining and, a large part of this area was again transformed into a meadow. In 1699, a new attempt was made to open a house house there, with the consequence of the destruction of the large chamber in around 1700. This establishment was also dedicated to failure and, in 1729, a third try – the great room was demolished and in its place, the current house -Dieu was built.
The opposition to the system of laws for the poor becoming more and more important, in 1834 there were new laws in order to reform the system; At the castle, the Maison-Dieu was closed in 1839 and, the residents were transferred to the workhouse located in the village of Wickham Market.
The castle continued to perform several other local functions. When the black plague appeared in 1666, the castle was used as a place of isolation for patients who contracted the disease and, during the Napoleonic wars, the local regiment of the voluntary soldiers of Framlingham deposited its equipment and its reserves there. Following the closure of the house house, the castle then served as a place of military training and county court But it was also in this place that the local municipal prison was and that the shackles were practiced.
In 1913, the Parliament voted the ancient monuments consolidation and amendment act 1913 (in) And Pembroke College takes the opportunity to donate the Château de Framlingham to the work police station (in) . The current form of the former inverter inner courtyard results from a leveling operation being part of the maintenance work undertaken by this police station.
During the Second World War, the Framlingham site was an important defensive place for the British forces; At least one concrete case was built near the castle depending on the plan provided to counter any German invasion, prefabricated huts were erected and a parking park for trucks in the interior courtyard were created.
Today, the Château de Framlingham, the owner of which is the English Heritage, is a classified historic monument of grade I. It is managed as a tourist attraction and, we can find inside the Lanman museum retracing local history . It is the college of Framlingham which is the owner of the lake located at the castle but it is the Suffolk Wildlife Trust (in) who manages him.
Framlingham castle is located on a promontory overlooking the Ore river (in) . Today it is made up of three distinct parts, the interior courtyard, the surrounding wall and the lower courtyard. It is surrounded by the lake, which still exists, and cultivated land.
The surrounding wall is south of the inner courtyard, itself surrounded by a wall. Originally, it was surmounted by a wooden palisade and earth fortifications, only the latter survived. This surrounding wall could be crossed by a door located on the east side and, inside there was a row of buildings including probably a sergeant room, another for knights, the large stable, barns and an attic. Today, visitors enter the castle, crossing the surrounding wall by the south side, it is at this place that is also the current parking lot of the castle.
The interior courtyard, or the castle, is on the other side of the surrounding wall. You can access it by crossing a bridge dating from the XV It is century which replaced the old pont-levis which was in the same place. The tower located at the entrance to the castle and allowing to enter is of a relatively simple appearance dating from the XII It is A century: the body of guard, in a much magnitude style, is a fashion that started shortly after. However, Thomas Howard, 2 It is Duke of Norfolk, had this entrance reshaped at XVI It is century by adding its coat of arms and additional decorations on the walls. The interior courtyard is located around a courtyard made of local flint stone and stone formed by concretion. It is 10.5 m height and 2.3 m thick and is protected by thirteen square wall towers with open funds, each of them measuring approximately 14.3 m high and having sandstone corners. A way around allows you to travel the top of the towers and the wall.
Originally, several buildings were built around the Courtine. By moving in the direction of the needles of a watch, starting from the entrance to the inner courtyard, one can still distinguish on the curtain the shape of the chapel of the castle dating from the XII It is century. At that time, an agreement required that a chapel be placed on a northeast / southeast axis. In order to respect this, the chapel was to extend considerably in the interior courtyard, one could also see this same conception to White Castle , another castle. The chapel adjusted the place where the first large stone room of the castle was located, built in around 1160. To XV It is And XVI It is A centuries, the chapel tower was also probably used as a cannon.
On the other side of the interior courtyard is the house house, built on the location in which was located, at XII It is century, the great room. La Maison-Dieu is made up of three wings: the red house dating from the XVII It is century to the south, the middle wing dating from the XVIII It is century and the north end in which part of what was once the great room was located. The entire building was concerned by renovation works at XIX It is century. Five heads of the Middle Ages, sculpted in stone, are encrusted on the walls of the house house. They come from buildings from the old castle. Near the house-god is the postern called ” Posters gate “Driving the prison tower or” Western Gate ». The latter is an important defensive work, it was redesigned in XVI It is century to allow the creation of larger windows. In the middle of the interior courtyard is the castle well whose depth is 30 m .
Around the interior courtyard, you can see a certain number of engraved brick chimneys, dating from the period of the Tudors, each of them having a different style. However, with the exception of three of them, they are purely decorative and the historian R. Allen Brown describes them as a “regrettable” element for the castle from an architectural point of view. Two of the Tudor functional chimneys are formed of conduits initially appeared in the middle of the XII It is century; These two chimneys are of circular shapes and are the first structures thus constituted to resist in England.
West side of the castle, you can still see one of the lakes in XVI It is century, there were two, much larger than today and were completed by a quay located right next to it. This use of water in order to reflect the image of the castle is a process used in several other castles at that time, as in Bredwardine castles (in) ET of Ravensworth (in) . Originally, from the large room which was in the interior courtyard, one could see the gardens of the lower courtyard which, at that time, were surrounded by a lake and the large park located further. Today, the area surrounding the castle remains a drawn landscape which is not abandoned. Although the large park is now covered with fields, the panorama always gives an idea of the way the last owners of the Middle Ages were to perceive the castle and the landscape.
The defensive works of the Château de Framlingham dating from the XII It is century have been the subject of long discussions among specialists. The historian R. Allen Brown affirms, for example, that they were relatively advanced for the time and that they represented a change in the contemporary way of considering military defense. The Château de Framlingham did not have a dungeon, for example, which was previously a characteristic that was very frequently found in Norman Anglo-Saxon castles, it counted on the contrary simply on the courtyard and the murals to defend itself, breaking So with tradition. In Framlingham, the model of the loopholes placed at ground level, was also innovative for the time, allowing to practice flanking and blocking the advances of the attackers. The way in which defensive works were designed was very much like the innovative structures set up by Henri II to the castles of Dover and Orford.
The defensive architecture of the castle also has various weaknesses. The interior courtyard is for example dominated by the surrounding wall; The northern part of this courtyard is widely exposed, while the positioning of the loopholes located in the Courtine does not protect most of the castle. The murals with open funds whose construction was obviously better market than closed towers, could not be easily defended once the wall was crossed and, overlooking the wall that very little, the options they allowed for the firing In a row against the attackers located near the wall were very thin. These weaknesses were used by historians such as Robert Liddiard to affirm that the architecture of castles like that of Framlingham was influenced by cultural and political requirements as well as by a purely military design.
If we focus on the cultural and political use of the architecture of the Château de Framlingham, the historian D. Plowman highlighted a revisionist interpretation of this architecture at the end of the Middle Ages. Plowman suggests that the entrance to the castle was planned at the northern end of the lower courtyard, visitors then crossed the pleasure gardens, then pass the door of the tower of this interpretation, the latter being more Associated with a barbican than a tour- and finally find themselves in the interior courtyard. This architecture offered visitors having an important status of the spectacular views of the castle, thus strengthening the political prestige of the owners. The historian Magnus Alexander disputes the realization of this plan, although admitting that the route would have been more convenient to go to the woods located around to make hunting games.
In his single Castle on the Hill (2017), Ed Sheeran talks about this castle as one of his childhood memories, he was born in Halifax but quickly moved to Framlingham.
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