Framlingham Castle, featured in Ed Sheeran's song "Castle on the hill", besieged by King John in 1216 and Mary Tudor's refuge in the succession crisis.
/Framlingham is a great castle to discover and has a fantastic story to tell as well as having a song written about it by Ed Sheeran in 2017 featuring its part in his upbringing. It was successfully besieged by King John and was Mary Tudor's refuge in the succession crisis. It is surrounded by beautiful parkland that was once the hunting ground of the dukes of Norfolk and has a great wall walk that enables visitors to wander three quarters of the length of them in safety. It has a small informative museum and a cafe which offers a good range of hot and cold seasonal meals, baguettes as well as choice of delicious cakes, snacks and good quality coffee. It also caters well for children, vegetarians and vegans. On certain week-ends, English Heritage will stage small historical themed festivities to enhance visitors’ experiences. It is well worth a visit and will occupy a few hours.
The entrance is only a short walk to the gatehouse but keep hold of your tickets from the kiosk because they will be checked as you enter the castle. As you are nearing the gate look left and right to see the dry moat. At this point you would have originally been standing on a lowered drawbridge if you were considered to be friendly.
Above; looking to the left at the gatehouse.
Below; Looking to the right at the gatehouse. As you can see, the surrounding ditch is deep today and would have been even deeper when it was created.Around the top of the castle walls are crenellations that would protect archers on the wall walk.
Above; At the beginning of the 16th century the gatehouse was redesigned and the coat of arms of the Howard family was placed on the wall.The red and green arrows point at a rampant lions and the black arrow points at the Tudor Rose.
Below; a metal version of the Howard Coat of arms. Today, coats of arms may not seem very important to most people but in Henry VIII’s time they made a big statement. Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey added a cross with three pointers at each end to his coat of arms and was subsequently executed. This type of cross was the emblem of King Edward the Confessor and so Howard was trying to state that he had royal ancestors. If this was correct, he could officially lay a claim to the throne and there was no way that Henry would tolerate any future challenge to the throne!
Above; inside the gatehouse you can see bricks have been used which shows us that the gatehouse is no longer entirely medieval. Tree ring dating has been used to date the door and a result of between 1496 and 1528 has been allocated.There would have been a portcullis here as well as the thick door to prevent any enemies from entering.
Above; the is what you will see as you enter the inner bailey. The tower on the left, is known as the “Western Tower” that was built around about 1190 and was built to defend the western side of the castle and a secondary, smaller, gate known as “Postern Gate”.
The little brick house was known as the “Red House” and was built in 1664. It was used as a workhouse, focussing on spinning and weaving and a school for the children of the poor of Framlingham. The building beyond it was the main part of the workhouse built in 1729 which now now occupies an area once used for the “Great Hall”. This would have been the major building in the castle and where feasting would have taken place.
Above; A view of the Red House from across the bailey. To the right of the Red House is the part of the workhouse built in 1729 and to the right of that, with a white wall, is what is left of the 12th century medieval “Great Hall”.
Above and below; two medieval carved stone heads that possibly came from the “Great Hall” but now are on the walls of the workhouse.
Above and below; some excellent information boards in the 1729 workhouse. The first one features Thomas Howard and his dealings with Henry VIII. The second one features Mary I .
Below; A Tudor costume display.
Above: what you would see to the right as you entered the bailey.
W stands for the highly important well. This would be a vital source of water if the castle was besieged. A siege is where the castle gets surrounded by an enemy army that does not allow any supplies to taken inside the castle with the plan that after a few weeks, the people inside the castle are starved into submission. Apparently, some besieged people have been so desperate that they have even tried to bury themselves up to their necks and try and absorb water! Others have even resorted to drinking animal blood!
D is where the eastern window of the chapel was situated with the rest of the chapel projecting into the bailey. The chapel was always an important building in a castle but doubly so when the castle was under attack.
C is where there was once a 12th century chamber block that like the chapel, projected out across a part of the bailey.This is where the lord and his lady would sleep along with key guests. Above and below the letter C you can see fire places to heat the various rooms.
Above the letter R you can see grooves where rafters were once placed and which left an impression in the masonry when the curtain wall was built higher for greater protection.The holes above them were for floor joists which would have carried the floorboards for the room above.
Either side of the letter F are 12th century stone chimneys, which were extended with fashionable brick chimneys in Tudor times when they were the “must have “ items if a lord wanted to look cool in his castle or manor house.
Below; An English Heritage information board shows how the chamber block and chapel’s outline would roughly look at the time.
Above; a closeup of the chimneys. You can see that looking at the lower halves of the middle two, they were originally built of stone when the castle was first built of stone around 1150 AD. When the castle was given a Tudor makeover, the tops of these two were given rebuilt to give the impression that they were fashionable Tudor chimneys. Another working Tudor chimney, linked to a fireplace, can be seen on the right. All the other Tudor chimneys are fakes , ie not linked to a fireplace and were just for show. This many chimneys must have made the castle a very impressive building to a visiting Tudor gentleman.
The Dukes of Norfolk in Tudor times came from the Howard family and succeeded in their desperation to be close to Henry VIII. In 1553, Mary Tudor, Henry VIII’s eldest daughter stayed at the castle on the death of her brother, King Edward VI and waited to be declared Queen of England. An English Heritage information board, states that beds were “hung with crimson silk and given purple velvet bedspreads.” In the great hall it states, “ a huge tapestry of the Roman god Hercules greeted visitors”. The Duke of Norfolk did manage to gain enough influence to help topple, the King’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell and persuade Henry to marry Norfolk’s niece, Catherine Howard. Unfortunately for the Duke, when this marriage failed, Henry wanted to behead the him. However, Henry died before the execution could be carried out.
Above and below; two Tudor style chimneys with different brick patterns.
Above; This is possibly what is called a garderobe ie a castle toilet. There were several of these at Framlingham and they would empty out into the moat/ditch surrounding the castle. Below are two photos of where the toilet chutes would empty out. They were called garderobes because they believed that clothes hung in the toilet would be protected from moths. From here we get the word wardrobe today, ie wards off moths that would lay eggs in the clothes natural fibres which would hatch little grubs that would eat the cloth. It was thought that ammonia released from human excrement would deter moths and fleas.
Above; to the west of the castle is a lake known as ‘The Mere”. It may seem large today but it was five times larger in medieval times. On a crisp winter’s sunny day it would reflect the castle and made it look even more impressive and probably bigger. It had the very import ion function of supplying fresh fish to the castle. Fish, such as trout, tench, bream and perch, were bred in special fisheries and then set free in the Mere to be caught later on when required. It also supplied ducks and geese.
Famous people and events linked to Framlingham castle.
The first man of note is Roger Bigod 1 the sheriff of Norfolk who was granted the manor (estate) of Framlingham by Henry 1 in 1101. He probably built a wooden motte and bailey castle here as his first powerbase. To make certain that his family would thrive, be seen to act in the proper manner and enhance his chances into getting into heaven, Roger built a priory (similar to a monastery) at Thetford and this became the family burial place until the 16th century. He probably believed that this holy act would get him favour with God and the friars would have to regularly pray for his soul in order for it to quickly go through purgatory and into heaven. Failure would mean an existence suffering torture for eternity.
Roger died in 1107 and the manor was inherited by his eldest son, William. He died in 1120 and so the manor passed to Roger’s younger son, Hugh.
However, in 1135, on the death of Henry 1, England plunged into chaos or, as it was later known as, “The Anarchy”. Henry’s only legitimate son, William drowned in 1120, leaving Henry’s only other legitimate child, Matilda. Henry declared Matilda to be his heir and made his barons do homage to her ie a ceremony in which the barons promised to support her claim to the throne on Henry’s death. Unfortunately for Matilda, when her father, Henry 1 died, Henry’s nephew, Stephen of Blois, came to England and seized the throne. Matilda responded by creating an army and a civil war between the two sides ensued.
For barons such as Hugh it was now a question of which side to support and how many opportunities would he be able to exploit. Initially he supported King Stephen but by 1136 he had switched sides and attempted to seize Norwich castle. Despite rebelling twice against Stephen, he was bribed to remain supporting the king with the title Earl of Norfolk.This was short lived and he again supported Matilda and strengthened his control over East Anglia. Peace came when Matilda and Stephen agreed that Matilda’s son, Henry would be Stephen’s heir.
In 1154, Stephen died and Henry II was crowned with Hugh supporting him. Henry II however was determined to assert his control over the whole country and reduce the power of the nobles who had illegally built castles and set themselves up as powerful warlords or “mini-kings”. This led to Henry confiscating all of Hugh’s properties and installing mercenaries in Framlingham Castle to maintain his control. In 1165, Hugh was given back his castle but Henry began building a royal castle at nearby Orford to keep overall control of the area. In 1173, Hugh again rebelled against the King, lost and Henry set in motion plans to destroy Framlingham castle’s defensive walls. At this point, Hugh must have thought he needed to beg for God’s forgiveness and decided to go on a long pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This was never completed by Hugh who died sometime between 1176-7.
On Henry II’s death, “Richard the Lionheart” became king and gave Hugh’s son, Roger Bigod II, the title of Earl of Norfolk and allowed to rebuild the castle. When Richard died, Roger welcomed the new king, John I, to Framlingham but like the rest of John’s barons, he too fell out with him and demanded that John signed Magna Carta. John’s response was to order that Framlingham Castle to be besieged. Within two days the castle had given in. Possibly this was because earlier, John’s forces had attacked Rochester Castle by battering its walls with five siege engines and then bringing one of its towers by mining under it.
Carrying on the family tendency to fall out with Kings, Roger Bigod III argued with Henry III and Roger IV had a dispute with Edward I over taxes and ended up bankrupt and having to bequeath Framlingham castle to the king.
It eventually passed to Margaret Brotherton who was created duchess of Norfolk in her own right ie not through a husband.
In 1397 her grandson, Thomas Mowbray was made the first duke of Norfolk by Richard II but once more was in royal trouble and was exiled to Venice for treason!
In 1405 his son was also executed for treason but Framlingham remained in the hands of his relatives and eventually
Thomas Mowbray’s grandson, John Howard, was made the Duke of Norfolk but he too made the wrong decision by siding with Richard III and commanding his troops at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. He lost his life as did Richard III and England saw the beginning of the Tudor Dynasty.
John Howard’s son, Thomas Howard, was placed in the Tower of London for a short while but soon got into Henry VII’s “good books” and gained the title of Earl of Surrey as well as get all the family lands back. He became one of Henry VIII’s key ministers and aged 70 defeated the Scots in the Battle of Flodden in 1513. Victory here secured him the old family title of (Second) Duke of Norfolk and he died at Framlingham Castle in 1524 aged 81.
He was succeeded by Thomas the third duke of Norfolk, uncle of Henry VIII’s wives, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard. He continued to own Framlingham but preferred to live in Kenninghall, Norfolk which he turned into a “mini palace” with seventy richly decorated rooms and an indoor tennis court. Unfortunately for him, his scheming eventually upset Henry VIII and was sentenced to death. However, luck was on his side because Henry died the day before Thomas’ intended execution and his punishment was altered to losing his title and his properties including Framlingham Castle.
The new king, Edward VI, passed the castle over to Princess Mary, the eldest daughter of Henry VIII and it was here, that Mary heard that her brother, Edward VI had died in 1553. At this point, Mary was in grave danger because Edward’s chief minister, the Duke of Northumberland had planned for the throne to be passed to Lady Jane Grey. Jane was the great grand daughter of Henry VIII, and the niece of Henry VIII. Mary was a devout Catholic and as a consequence, Jane a Protestant, was considered a better heir by the dying Edward than Mary. The Duke of Northumberland was desperate to capture Mary but at Framlingham Castle, she raised an army and thousands of her supporters rallied to her call, thus making her bid to become the next queen successful.
As Queen, Mary I released Thomas Howard, the third Duke of Norfolk and returned Framlingham to the Howard family. However, Thomas continued to live at Kenninghall and allowed Framlingham to slide into disrepair. On his death, it went to his grandson, Thomas Howard, the fourth Duke of Norfolk who, inherited a castle that was described as being in a ruinous state.
The Howard history of poor choices was not over however, when Thomas got involved in a plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Mary I’s successor. The rebels’ plan was for Mary Queen of Scots to be set free and marry Thomas, with the final aim to depose Elizabeth. Needless to say it was a failure, resulting in both Mary Queen of Scots and Thomas being executed.
Again, Framlingham was taken by the Tudors, this time, Elizabeth I. However, her successor, James I, gave it back to the Howard family and the new owner, Theophilus Howard, was deep in debt and so he sold it. The buyer,Sir robert Hitcham, did not have any children and so, on his death, he left instructions for the buildings to be used for the benefit of the poor and hence, the creation of the workhouse.
Essential information
Getting there.
By Car
Post code Postcode : IP13 9BP. It is in Framlingham on the B1116
Parking charges apply to non-members. Parking free for members. Car park is 300 metres from the entrance of the castle. Room for 30 cars on gravel. If the castle car park is full visitors can park in the following nearby car parks:
Market Hill Pay and Display car park, Market Hill, Framlingham, IP13 9AN
Fore Street Pay and Display car park, Fore Street Framlingham, IP13 9DY
The Elms Pay and Display car park, New Road, Framlingham, IP13 9EHClick here for train and bus information.
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Framlingham is a great castle to discover and has a fantastic story to tell as well as having a song written about it by Ed Sheeran in 2017 featuring its part in his upbringing. It was successfully besieged by King John and was Mary Tudor's refuge in the succession crisis. It is surrounded by beautiful parkland that was once the hunting ground of the dukes of Norfolk and has a great wall walk that enables visitors to wander three quarters of the length of the surrounding walls in safety. It has a small informative museum and a cafe which offers a good range of hot and cold seasonal meals, baguettes as well as choice of delicious cakes, snacks and offers a good quality coffee.