Arundel Castle

“ It became, with Arundel, the property of the D’Albinis, and was destroyed by order of King John, after which the third Earl of Arundel founded on its site the Grey Friars, of which the house was probably built with the materials of the castle. It is said that upon the mound stood a circular or polygonal keep, as at Arundel, and that the traces of its foundations were long visible on its summit. The mound has survived all its Norman additions, and is the only relic of the ancient fortress that is extant. The city, within which the castle stood, is also an early strong place. ”

“ Castle, cathedral, church—these are Arundel; the town itself is secondary, subordinate, feudal. The castle is what one likes a castle to be—a mass of battlemented stone, with a keep, a gateway, and a history, and yet more habitable than ever. So many of the rich make no effort to live in their ancestral halls; and what might be a home, carrying on the tradition of ages, is so often only a mere show, that to find an historic castle like Arundel still lived in is very gratifying. In Sussex alone are several half-ruined houses that the builders could quickly make habitable once more. ”

“ The old Irish soldier, humorous and bemedalled, who keeps watch and ward over the fane, is not the least of its merits.
Although the chancel of the parish church has been closed, permission to enter may occasionally be obtained. It is rich in family tombs of great interest and beauty, including that of the nineteenth Earl of Arundel, the patron of William Caxton. In the siege of Arundel Castle in 1643, the soldiers of the parliamentarians, under Sir William Waller, fired their cannon from the church tower. They also turned the church into a barracks, and injured much stone work beyond repair. ”

“ The English are great lovers of animals,—a taste in which I entirely sympathize. Thus, in many parks you find colonies of rooks, which hover round the house or castle in vast flights, and are in very good keeping with an ancient castle and its towering trees; though their cawing is not the most agreeable music in the world. The interior of Arundel Castle has nothing very distinguished. The numerous painted windows are modern; and among the family pictures only one struck me,—that of the accomplished Lord Surrey, put to death by Henry the Eighth, the costume of which was very singular. ”

“ Before I arrived, Lady Arundel had made Basil privy to a great secret, with warrant to impart it to me. In a remote portion of the castle's buildings was concealed at that time Father Southwell, a man who had not his like for piety and good parts; a sweet poet also, whose pieces of verse, chiefly written in that obscure chamber in Arundel Castle, have been since done into print, and do win great praise from all sorts of people. ”

“ My wife made very good friends with them all, and passed a very happy time, occasionally making excursions to neighbouring places.
Among the excursions that we made from Littlehampton I will mention one or two. The excursion to Arundel was exceedingly pleasant. The Arundel Castle, one of the oldest in England, was of course duly inspected; the new and magnificent cathedral built by the Duke of Norfolk (a Roman Catholic) was visited; and the drive through the lovely park of the Duke, with herds of deer grazing therein, was delightful indeed. ”

“ Rochester Castle—the stately ruins of which, hard by the Medway, still attest its ancient grandeur, and recall the days when it stood in feudal pride, guarded by moat, and rampart, and lofty battlements—was deemed a place of immense importance; and Robert Fitzwalter and his confederates had intrusted it to the keeping of William Albini, Earl of Arundel, a great noble whose family had long maintained feudal state at Castle Rising, in Norfolk, and whose ancestor had acquired Arundel with the hand of Adelicia of Louvaine, the young widow of Henry Beauclerc. ”

“ The popular belief that the dignity is "an earldom by tenure" and is annexed to the possession of Arundel Castle, is based on the petitions of John fitz Alan in 11 Hen. IV. and of Thomas Howard in 3 Car. I. This view would be strenuously upheld, of course, by the possessors of the castle, but neither their own ex parte statements, nor even the tacit admission of them by the Crown, can override the facts of the case as established by the evidence of history. ”

“ It was winter again; and the winds blew harshly and wailingly around the Castle of Arundel. In the stateliest chamber of that Castle, where the hangings were of cramoisie paned with cloth of gold, the evening tapers were burning low, and a black-robed priest knelt beside the bed where an old man lay dying.
“I can think of nothing more, Father,” faintly whispered the penitent. “I have confessed every sin that I have ever sinned, so far as my memory serveth: and many men have been worse sinners than I. I never robbed a church in all my wars. ”

“ Berkeley Castle appears to have been founded by Roger de Berkeley, soon after the The castle. Conquest; but various important additions were made to it during the reigns of Henry II., Edward II., and Edward III. The form of the castle approaches nearest to that of a circle; and the buildings are included by an irregular court, with a moat. The keep is flanked by three semi-circular towers, and a square one of subsequent construction: its walls are high and massive: the entrance into it is under an arched doorway, with ornamental sculpture in the Norman style, similar to one at Arundel Castle. ”

“ With regard to the title of earl of Arundel, taken by this Philip, eldest son of Thomas, duke of Norfolk, the following passage from Collins's Peerage affords a very ample explanation: "The title of the duke of Norfolk being, by the attainder of this Thomas, thus taken away, Philip, his eldest son, was called earl of Arundel, as owner of Arundel Castle in Sussex, by descent from his mother; it having, in II Henry VI. been adjudged in parliament to be a local dignity, so that the possessors thereof should enjoy that title of honour. ”

“ The sunshine of thine own heart sheddeth, I ween, a radiancy on the plain walls and the unadorned gardens greater than nature or art can bestow. I cry thee mercy for this malicious surmise, and give thee license, when I shall write in the same strain touching my lord's castle at Arundel to flout me in a like manner. Some do disdainfully style it a huge old fortress; others a very grand and noble pile. If that good befalleth me that he doth visit me there, then I doubt not but it will be to me the cheerfullest place in existence. ”

“ The history of Arundel has been written by Dallaway in his Western Sussex, and by Tierney in a specific work. Whatever may be the value of either production for the history and descent of the lordship, neither gives a full plan of the earthworks of the castle, nor enters at all scientifically into its details from either the military or architectural point of view. ”

“ Hopton took Arundel Castle on December 9, 1643, and was forced to surrender on January 6 (Clarendon, vol. iii, pp. 330-5) . Aubrey says that Chillingworth 'dyed of the morbus castrensis after the taking of Arundel castle by the parliament: wherin he was very much blamed by the king's soldiers for his advice in military affaires there, and they curst that little priest and imputed the losse of the castle to his advice'. (Brief Lives, ed. A. Clark, vol. i, p. 172) . ”

“ The Queen's request was granted, and the Empress retired to Bristol.
To conclude. No place in England deserves more notice than the Castle of Arundel—a grand pile of buildings, modern for the most part, and not capable of supporting criticism; but the ivy-grown keep, at least as old as the days of Henry I., may challenge comparison with any of the same date in this country. The castle has not withstood sieges as others have; it is but too well known for its surrender to Sir William Waller, who took from it seventeen colours of foot, two of horse, and a thousand prisoners. ”

“ The young earl of Arundel, lord Windsor, Philip Sidney, and Fulke Greville, the four challengers, styled themselves the foster-children of Desire, and to that end of the tilt-yard where her majesty was seated, their adulation gave the name of the Castle of Perfect Beauty. This castle the queen was summoned to surrender in a very courtly message delivered by a boy dressed in red and white, the colours of Desire. On her refusal, a mount placed on wheels was rolled into the tilt-yard, and the four cavaliers rode in superbly armed and accoutred, and each at the head of a splendid troop ”

“ The shell keep, being invariably connected with early earthworks, might be supposed to be the older form; and Arundel, the only castle mentioned in Domesday as existing in the time of the Confessor, has a shell keep; but a tolerably close examination has failed to discover, either at Arundel or elsewhere in England or in Normandy, any masonry of very early character, probably none that can safely be attributed to the eleventh century. ”

“ Upon the opposite, or south face, is the postern leading to the moat and defended by a massive square tower, being one of nine in all surrounding the enclosure. The interior is now simply an empty shell, all the domestic buildings having been destroyed by Sir William Waller in 1643, after the siege of Arundel, although the Chapel and the chief apartments are capable of being located. We have therefore simply the outer walls remaining of a particularly fine castle of the Perpendicular period. ”

“ Arundel, the great midland castles of Warwick, Kenilworth, and many others, fall under this category.
So far as gunpowder is concerned the part which it played in causing the abandonment of the feudal castle is strangely varied and dependent upon local circumstances. A well-found castle with an efficient and adequate garrison, [Pg 152] supported by an army in active operation in the field, had no more to fear from an attack in the fifteenth century than it had in the thirteenth, perhaps not so much. ”

“ The Castle of Arundel, and the lands, that had been given to my Lord of Kent when my Lord of Arundel was execute, were granted to Queen Isabel shortly after his ’heading. I think they were given as sop to keep him true to the Queen: not that he was man to be bought, but very like she thought all men were. Dear heart, what strange gear are we human creatures! I marvel at times whether the angels write us down greater knaves or fools.
Note 1. The crystallised juice of the aspen. Earl John of Hereford seems to have been a valetudinarian. ”

“ Cranbourne, the fine old house of the Salisburys; and Wardour, with noble cedars too closely overhanging the ruins of its castle. Lord Arundel lives in the Park at Wardour, in an immense house which he is too poor to keep in repair. He has another place somewhere near the sea, where his grandfather went to reside, to the great discomfiture of a gang of smugglers, who had previously had sole possession, and who tried to frighten him away by ghostly sights and sounds, but in vain. One night Lord Arundel was sitting in his room, having locked the door, when some one knocked. ”

“ When Richarville and his detachment approached the castle, he found the Béarn [Pg 60] man ready to perform his promise; and they all entered, except a few who were left to guard the horses. They instantly made themselves masters of the greater part of the castle, and particularly the great tower, which was well supplied with stores.
The earl of Arundel and many English were in bed in the castle, most part of whom saved themselves as well as they could over the walls: the others retired within the town, but not without leaving several killed and wounded by the French. ”

“ They found the hill in the burning sun rather fatiguing, but were rewarded when they reached the top by finding that part of the inside of the castle was in deep shade, and that overhanging the moat there were two fine old trees, which looked very inviting. Baskets, wraps, and hampers were quickly deposited, and the young people soon spread over the ruins in every direction.
Mrs. Arundel, with Nellie's help, aided by the two servants, now began to unpack the hampers. Tom, very interested, lay looking at them, suggesting where the viands were to be put. ”

“ We were particularly struck with the neatness of the cottages; most of them were covered with roses or vines, and the grapes were much more forward than they were in France. Everybody looked so genteel and nice, and the children so pretty. There is a steep hill going into Arundel, and one has a very fine view of the castle. Before Mrs. Howard's house there is a small terrace full of flowers; there were geraniums, and large myrtles growing out of doors, though in France [Pg 181] they are obliged to take the laurels into the house in winter. ”

“ From the east the approach is not easy: it lies over the rolling spurs of the Downs. From the south there is only one narrow passage on the shelf of the Downs as they slope down to the Arun. It is a tradition in the county that the two castles of Arundel and Amberley were linked together in their system of fortification by an underground passage, and stories are told—with what authority the present writer cannot say—of men who have attempted to explore either end of this passage and succeeded for a certain distance. ”

“ The lower and perhaps original bailey is only 2 acres in extent. Round the top of the motte is a slightly oval wall, of the kind called by Mr Clark a shell keep. We have elsewhere expressed our doubts of the correctness of this term. [255] In all the more important castles we find that the keep on top of the motte has a small ward attached to it, and Arundel is no exception to this rule; it has the remains of a tower, as well as the wall round the motte. The tower is a small one, but it is large enough for the king’s chamber in times which were not extravagant in domestic architecture. ”