The story of Warwick Castle is a long one - more than 1,000 years of history have played out within its fortified walls and towers. But what about the castle's women? I had a look through the sources to see what I could find of princesses, queens, countesses and others that would have known the castle's towers and corridors.
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| Warwick Castle |
Aethelflaed
A Saxon princess, Aethelflaed was the daughter of Alfred the Great, and was born in the ninth century. She is credited with the early establishment of the building that would later become Warwick Castle. She commanded armies against Viking invaders and on. the death of her husband became Lady of the Mercians, ruling her own territories. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle records that Aethelflaed established a defensive and military settlement at Warwick in 914AD as part of a network to provide a local and more permanent defence against her realm. She died in 918AD and was buried in the now-ruined St Oswald's Priory in Gloucester.
A Saxon princess, Aethelflaed was the daughter of Alfred the Great, and was born in the ninth century. She is credited with the early establishment of the building that would later become Warwick Castle. She commanded armies against Viking invaders and on. the death of her husband became Lady of the Mercians, ruling her own territories. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle records that Aethelflaed established a defensive and military settlement at Warwick in 914AD as part of a network to provide a local and more permanent defence against her realm. She died in 918AD and was buried in the now-ruined St Oswald's Priory in Gloucester.
Gundreda de Warenne
Before 1130 Gundreda de Warenne married Roger de Newburgh, 2nd Earl of Warwick. The couple were supporters of the Empress Matilda during the Anarchy following the death of Henry I. Roger was a crusading knight, and lived between England and Normandy, his father having been granted the earldom by William the Conqueror. On her husband's death Gundreda transferred the castle to Matilda's son, the future Henry II. According to the genealogist George Cokayne, she was living in 1167. They had an heir, William, who became the 3rd Earl of Warwick on his father's death in 1153. William died on Crusade in 1184.
Katherine Mortimer
Effigy of Katherine Mortimer, St Mary's, Warwick |
Wife of the 11th Earl of Warwick, Katherine was the daughter of the disgraced Roger Mortimer who worked with Queen Isabel to depose Edward II. She married Thomas Beauchamp in 1319 in an arranged marriage - Katherine was just five years old at the time, and Thomas was six. Katherine would have organised and maintained the family estates while Thomas was serving the king in a military capacity overseas. Married for fifty years, Warwick Castle was their family seat and they are buried together in St Mary's church in Warwick, in a beautiful tomb complete with effigies of the couple.
Isabel Despencer
Isabel Despencer was a wealthy medieval heiress, and married Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick in 1423 as his second wife. She had a powerful background, as Baroness Burghersh in her own right and also descended from Edward III through Constance, the daughter of the king's fifth son Edmund, Duke of York. She would have seen her husband's work in governing the young Henry VI after Henry V's sudden death overseas, and his continuing role as a key advisor. She was likely also present, with her husband, at the coronation of Henry VI. Richard embarked on an active career in military service in France and England and he died at Rouen in April 1439. He was interred in a grand tomb with effigy in St Mary's church in Warwick, which can still be seen today. Isabel died 26 December 1439, but was buried at Tewkesbury Abbey with her first husband. Edward Beauchamp Earl of Worcester, Richard Beauchamp's cousin.
Margaret Talbot
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| Margaret Beauchamp, Met Museum PD |
Eldest daughter of Richard Beauchamp from his first marriage to Elizabeth Berkeley, Margaret married John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury at a ceremony at the castle. They were a formidable couple who were not afraid to pursue their own interests, indulging in threats, kidnappings and showing military strength. Margaret was destined to become Countess of Warwick in her own right, but the earldom passed to the children of her father's second marriage to Isabel Despencer. She was said by John Rous, a Warwick historian and writer, to have been very pious and hated swearing or blasphemy among her servants, for which she would punish them by providing only bread and water for their food. You can find out more about Margaret's active role in the Wars of the Roses and some of the sculduggery she and John indulged in, in my book, here.
Anne Beauchamp
Anne is one of the matriarchs of the Wars of the Roses. She was said to have been fair and quite a motherly figure, but was certainly resilient and tough, too. Anne was born in Caversham in Berkshire and at an early age married Richard Neville. On her accession to Countess of Warwick, her husband became earl, the famous 'Kingmaker' of the Wars of the Roses. Together they navigated the early years of the Wars, her husband switching sides in the late 1460s to the Lancastrian cause. Anne was known in Warwick, with local writer John Rous giving details of her personality in his Rous Roll, a record of the earls and countesses of Warwick made in the late 1400s. On Warwick's death at the Battle of Barnet in 1471, she found the name disgraced, and bolted into sanctuary for her protection, at Beaulieu Abbey in the New Forest. She petitioned Edward IV for her lands, particularly those of her mother's side of the family. Anne never remarried, and died in 1492. Find out more about here.
Isabel Neville
Daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, Isabel knew the castle in her childhood and lived here during her marriage to George Plantagenet Duke of Clarence. Clarence was one of the sons of Richard Duke of York, and the marriage was intended as a pact of loyalty between the two most prominent families of the Wars of the Roses. They couple had two children, Margaret Pole, later Countess of Salisbury and Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick. Isabel died in 1476 giving birth to a third, a son, at Warwick. Her sister Anne Neville later became Queen of England, as wife to Richard III.
Ankarette Twynhoe
Gentlewoman to Isabel Neville, Ankarette was a grandmother from Somerset who was in attendance during Isabel's confinement. She was, in 1477 and without any actual evidence provided, suspected of poisoning the duchess and Clarence had her hauled to Warwick to be imprisoned and tried for the crime. Her trial took place in the Guildhall, later incorporated into part of Lord Leycester's Hospital. Ankarette served Isabel at Warwick Castle as part of a tight-knit and regimented household which included chaplains, maids and other serving ladies. Midwives and nurses would also have been present during Isabel's confinement and the birth of her son. After a brief trial she was hanged, and her grandson later petitioned Edward IV for a post-humous pardon on her behalf, which he granted. The event is a tragic but typical example of the corruption and paranoia of the age. Find out more about Ankarette here.
Jane Dudley
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| Carving at the Tower of London, said to have been made by John Dudley |
Wife of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, Jane was a central figure in mid-Tudor politics, later becoming Duchess of Northumberland on her husband's accession to the title. Her husband became Lord Protector of the kingdom in 1549, responsible for ruling the country during the young Edward VI's regency government. John and the couple's children were imprisoned in the Tower of London, and there's evidence that Jane interceded on their behalf. She formed links with various Spanish officials, and her son Robert Dudley future Earl of Leicester credited King Philip for saving his life. He later went to serve in Philip's army on his release. John Dudley was executed for his part in establishing Lady Jane Grey's role as queen following Edward's death, and a carving on the wall inside the Tower is said to have been made by him, showing the bear and ragged staff emblem of the Warwick earls. Mary, Henry VIII's eldest daughter and Edward's half-sister, seized control over the crown in 1553. Warwick Castle was the family seat, and the earldom was inherited by their son, Ambrose Dudley.
Daisy Brooke
A socialite and, by all accounts impeccable hostess, Daisy became Countess of Warwick in 1893 when her husband Francis Greville Lord Brooke succeeded his father as the fifth earl (in the post-medieval creation). They lived at Warwick Castle, where she ordered improvements to be made to the grounds and gardens and lavishly entertained the up and coming aristocrats of Victorian society. Although they brought up a young family at the castle Daisy embarked on a number of love affairs with prominent men in political and military careers, and her children were fathered by some of these. She later stood as a member of the Labour Party in 1923 and established educational institutions, particularly in the field of agriculture, in Reading and Warwickshire. She died in 1938 in Essex.
Like this? You might also like A Day and Night at Warwick Castle, Warwick Castle During the Wars of the Roses and The Tragic Murder of Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke
You might also like my book, Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses, published by Pen and Sword Books. It discusses a number of women crucial to the fifteenth century conflict but generally (and sometimes totally) ignored. Order your copy here.
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