Northampton Castle was built under the stewardship of Simon de Senlis, the first Earl of Northampton

Earl of Northampton

Earl of Northampton is a title that has been created five times.-Earls in for the Honour of Huntingdon, first Creation :*Waltheof *Maud, Countess of Huntingdon** m. Simon I de Senlis** m...

, in 1084. It took several years to complete, as there is no mention of it in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

, a great survey of England completed in 1086.

The castle was situated outside the western gate

City gate

A city gate is a gate which is, or was, set within a city wall. Other terms include port.-Uses:City gates were traditionally built to provide a point of controlled access to and departure from a walled city for people, vehicles, goods and animals...

, and defended on three sides by deep trenches

Moat

A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...

. A branch of the River Nene

River Nene

The River Nene is a river in the east of England that rises from three sources in the county of Northamptonshire. The tidal river forms the border between Cambridgeshire and Norfolk for about . It is the tenth longest river in the United Kingdom, and is navigable for from Northampton to The...

 provided a natural barrier on the western side. The castle had extensive grounds and a large 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...

. The gates were surrounded by bulwarks made of earth, used to mount artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

.

History

In the reign of Henry II

Henry II of England

Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...

, the castle was in the hands of the Crown

The Crown

The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...

. In the civil wars between King John and his barons, the latter used it as a stronghold. When the King prevailed, the castle was entrusted to Foulk de Brent, whom the King admired for his courage during the war.

In 1164, Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...

 was tried at the castle before a great council. Having escaped by dressing as a monk

Monk

A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...

, Becket then fled to France.

In 1264, in the wars between King Henry III and his nobles, the castle was owned by the confederate barons and governed by Simon de Montford

Simon de Montford

Simon de Montford was an English nobleman who had the manor of Coleshill passed onto him from the de Clinton family. He built moated manor houses at Coleshill and Kingshurst...

. When the King defeated the garrison, the castle again reverted to the Crown. It remained so until three years into King Edward III's reign, when Thomas Wake, who was then sheriff of Blisworth

Blisworth

Blisworth is a village and civil parish in the South Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England. The West Coast Main Line, from London Euston to Manchester and Scotland, runs alongside the village partly hidden and partly on an embankment...

, claimed it belonged to the county

Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...

 under his jurisdiction.

In 1452, thirty years into King Henry VI's

Henry VI of England

Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...

 reign, the castle was rented to Robert Caldecote for 20 years, at the annual rate of £5. The rent of the castle included:
At the time of the restoration, it was in the hands of Sir Arthur Haselrig

Arthur Haselrig

Sir Arthur Haselrig, 2nd Baronet was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1640 and 1659. He was one of the five members of Parliament whom King Charles I tried to arrest in 1642, an event which led to the start of the English Civil War...

, who shared it out to several individuals that set up houses on the trenches. A public chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

 dedicated to St. George was set up within the castle.

In 1662, by orders of the King, parts of the castle, as well as the walls and gates of the town, were demolished. Up until 1675, this fortress was used as the county jail, and the two courts of justice were held here.

Up until 1879, the castle's foundations could still be traced on the southern and western sides, and part of a round bastion

Bastion

A bastion, or a bulwark, is a structure projecting outward from the main enclosure of a fortification, situated in both corners of a straight wall , facilitating active defence against assaulting troops...

 on the southern side, formerly the prison, was also standing. However in that year the castle and its foundations were demolished by the LNWR for the extension of Castle Station. The only remains now surviving are some earth banks beside St. Andrews Road and the repositioned postern gate embedded into the station wall.

A volunteer group called the Friends of Northampton Castle has been established to publicize the Castle and provide information about the history of the site and the Castle itself.

Further reading

• The Castle Of Northampton by Rev. R. M. Serjeantson, 1908
• An hour among the echoes of Northampton Castle by Rev. P. M. Eastman, 1879
• Historical Memorials of Northampton by Rev. C. H. Hartshorne, M.A., 1883
• the Friends of Northampton Castle