The Haunted Mitford castle On the hunt for sir Gilbert de Middleton notorious kidnapper PXB 07 SPIRIT BOX USED

1318: Sir Gilbert Middleton, son of iniquity

January 26th, 2016 Headsman

On this date in 1318, for kidnapping and robbing some churchmen, the Northumberland knight Sir Gilbert Middleton was condemned to be “hanged and drawn in the site of the cardinals which he had robbed” — the sentence thought to have been executed immediately.

The mid-1310s were a deep slough for King Edward II:* his political power faltered, his finances sank, and the Scots gave him a thrashing at Bannockburn. So low was Edward’s prestige that a pretender turned up claiming to have been switched at birth with the unsatisfactory king.

A “Poem on the Evil Times of Edward II” from that time enumerates the woes of Britons. It reserves several stanzas for the disreputable knights afoot in the land.

The author of this verse would have recognized Gilbert Middleton for sure, but before we come to the unkinde blod, appreciate the dastard’s situation. Post-Bannockburn, Robert the Bruce raided into Northumberland with impunity. Estates in that zone could suffer the pillage or pay the Scots off, but in either event they had no protection from the crown … since King Edward had his hands full in a virtual civil cold war against the powerful Earl of Lancaster.

In this tense situation, Middleton shockingly attacked the king’s cousin Lewis de Beaumont on September 1, 1317 while the latter was en route to be consecrated Bishop of Durham. Seized in the same party were Beaumont’s brother Henry, plus two Italian cardinals they had escorted back as emissaries to hammer out a truce between England and Scotland. (The papacy’s interest here was to redeploy Britain’s armed men to Crusading.)

The reasons for this attack have always been mysterious: the Pope blamed those marauding Scots for putting Middleton up to it, but Lancaster was also an ally of the errant knight as well as the promoter of a candidate for bishop rival to Lewis de Beaumont.

However it was intended to play out, the ambush quickly went pear-shaped. Perhaps raiding and holding for ransom was the sort of elbow one could throw in intra-elite politicking of the 14th century, but the presence of the cardinals changed everything.

Middleton might even have been unaware such august dignitaries were in the party when he first attacked it, and one chronicler reports that his party “at first spared the cardinals and their men, for they were not seeking to injure them” until this clemency started leading Beaumont’s retainers too to assert “themselves to be servants of the cardinals, and neither the cardinals nor others were spared, but all were despoiled.”** Regardless of how they came to do it, the sacrilegious rapine of holy cardinals and their retinue was the shocking crime that would thrust Middleton beyond the pale, either of friendship in his rebellion or of reconciliation afterwards. (Beaumont had not yet been consecrated, so the indignities he suffered were all in a day’s work.)

The Beaumonts became Middleton’s unwilling guests at Mitford Castle.† The cardinals had their effects restored and, after enduring their now-excommunicate captors’ unavailing petition for a suitable penance, were given over to Lancaster; they returned all the way to London under his safe conduct … and as they went they “published a terrible sentence upon their assailant and upon all in any way adhering to them … demand[ing] execution of this sentence through all England.” Before September was out, there was a royal proclamation against Middleton’s “sons of iniquity.”

This rebellion, whatever its dimensions, lasted for a vague span over the autumn and winter months. Sir Gilbert and his too-few friends held some fortifications in Northumberland and Yorkshire; where possible they added more noble types to his collection in Mitford but in spite of the tense situation in England no wider rising materialized.

And living by plunder quickly caught up with Gilbert Middleton.

The captive Middleton was shipped to London and there condemned to “be dragged through the city to the gallows and there be hanged alive, and alive be torn apart and afterwards be beheaded … heart and organs to be burnt beneath the aforesaid gallows, also the body of the same Gilbert be divided into four parts, so that one quarter of his body be sent to Newcastle, another to York, the third to Bristol, and the fourth to Dover, there to remain.”

* Of course, worse times were yet to come.

** Quoted (as are many other period citations) in this useful public domain biography of Middleton. This author’s take was that Lancaster was behind the affair, believing “that it would be popular in the North of England, and would make a signal for a general rebellion throughout the country. The presence of the cardinals ruined the scheme” — and Lancaster himself had the wit and the pull to dissociate himself before it all came down on Middleton’s head. Mitford Castle is an English castle dating from the end of the 11th century and located at Mitford, Northumberland. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade I listed building, enlisted on 20 October 1969.[1] The castle is also officially on the Buildings at Risk Register. The Norman motte and bailey castle stands on a small prominence, a somewhat elliptical mound,[2] above the River Wansbeck. The selected building site allowed for it be to natural hill scarped and ditched, producing the motte.[1]

Mitford Castle was the first of three seats for the main line of the Mitford family constructed on manor lands. Following the destruction of Mitford Castle, Mitford Old Manor House (nearby and to the northwest) was used from the 16th century until the construction of Mitford Hall in 1828. Mitford Hall stands in an 85-acre (340,000 m2) park to the west of the castle ruins. Prior to the 1066 Norman conquest, the castle was held by Sir John de Mitford, whose only daughter and heiress, Sybilla Mitford, was given in marriage by William the Conqueror to the Norman knight, Richard Bertram.[3] In the late 11th century, it was an earthwork fortress of the Bertram family, and of record as William Bertram's oppidum in 1138. In 1215, it was seized by John de Balliol, King of Scotland's troops.,[1] which was clever of him as he didn't become king until 1292. In 1264, the castle was held by the third Roger Bertram, but in that year, it was seized from him and committed to the custody of William de Valence, 1st Earl of Pembroke, King Henry's half-brother.[2] It was held by Alexander de Balliol, the son of John de Balliol and the elder brother of King John, in 1275. During the rebellion in Northumberland set in the 1310s, Mitford Castle was seized from the Valence family by Sir Gilbert de Middleton.[2] In 1315, Mitford Castle was used by Sir Gilbert for kidnappings and as a prisoner hold, when Ralph de Greystock seized de Middleton for treason.[4]

There are conflicting accounts over the castle's destruction. One theory is of a fire during Middleton's rebellion. Another theory is that it was destroyed by the Scots in May 1318 during Middleton's imprisonment in the Tower of London. It was certainly destroyed by 1323 as records of an inquest held that year after the death of Sir Aymer de Valence state Mitford Castle to be " entirely destroyed and burnt."[2] At the time of his death in 1335, Mitford Castle had been seized from its then holder, David de Strathbogie, 12th Earl of Athol, 2nd baron.[5]

The estate, including the castle, was purchased by the Bruce Shepherd family in 1993 from the Mitford family.[6] English Heritage grants in the 2000s were offered towards repairs, restoration and preservation, and some of the work has been completed.[6][7] The castle ruins are ashlar quality squared stone construction. The inner ward was built in the early 12th century. The western section of the inner ward is on a stepped plinth and includes a large rounded archway. The eastern section of the inner ward wall has a rounded round arch to the outer ward of 19th-century reconstruction. The inner ward contains an unusual pentagonal keep that stands to the first floor and dates from the early 13th century. The keep was built on the highest point at the northernmost area of the castle with each of its five sides being of a different dimension,[2] and its internal area measuring approximately 22 sq ft (2.0 m2). The triangular outer ward to the south and east was built in the late 12th century. The divided basement contains two barrel-vaulted chambers that may have been used as cisterns.[1]

The chapel, built in the mid 12th century and largely destroyed in the early 19th century, is also of squared stone. A sanctuary or chancel arch remain.[8] A cemetery was uncovered in 1939 north of the chapel with headstones dating to the 12th century. At least one stone was moved to the Mitford churchyard with others removed or vandalised.[9]

Remains of a 12–13th century east curtain wall of squared stone include a gateway to a barmkin, mural chambers, garderobe, and a round arch.[10] This east curtain wall area is flanked by a semicircular breastwork; the strongest part of the building.[2] The west curtain wall and structures are also of the 12–13th century and squared stone, with different builds and masonry types found across three different sections.[11]

An inner courtyard used as a garden and orchard measured approximately 340 ft (100 m) by 340 ft (100 m).[2]