page_title: Melbourne Castle
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Melbourne Castle / History / Early years
caption_attribution_description: English: End of the surviving wall section of Melbourne Castle
context_page_description: Melbourne Castle was a medieval castle in Melbourne, Derbyshire. It was built on the site of an earlier royal manor house that had provided accommodation for noblemen hunting in a nearby royal park in the reign of King John. Construction of the castle was started in 1311 by Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, and continued until 1322, shortly before his execution, but the work was never fully completed.
  From the early 14th century, Melbourne Castle was mainly in the possession of the Earls and Dukes of Lancaster or the crown. Improvements and repairs were made, particularly by John of Gaunt, and the building was in generally good condition throughout the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. John I, Duke of Bourbon, was kept at Melbourne for 19 years after his capture at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, and the castle was considered as a possible prison for Mary, Queen of Scots, although events led to her incarceration elsewhere.
  The castle was in decline by the end of the reign of Elizabeth I. Although the stonework was sound, minimal maintenance had led to significant deterioration of other parts of the structure.
context_section_description: Earl Thomas granted the manor to his steward, Robert de Holland, in February 1308. In 1311, Robert obtained a licence to crenellate from Edward II in order to fortify the manor house, and the more modest earlier building was converted into a castle between 1311 and 1322. Local tradition says that the stone was obtained from a quarry on the site of what is now Melbourne Pool. The records show £1,313 was spent on the project in the year 1313–14, of which £548 was paid to masons for dressing stone. Several masons working on the project were involved in an affray at Ravenstone in 1315. The important medieval buildings in Melbourne were constructed from the local bedrock, Millstone Grit. This is a coarsely grained sandstone which can be worked to produce good-quality ashlar. The village was centred around the church, castle and High Street until the late 18th century.
  Earl Thomas, with other barons, captured King Edward's favourite, Piers Gaveston, and killed him in 1312. Nevertheless, the King stayed at Melbourne in 1314. For a time, after Edward's defeat at Bannockburn, the earl, a friend of the Scots, controlled most of England, but by 1321 Edward had raised an army and driven Thomas from the Midlands. The Lancastrian castles at Melbourne and Tutbury were left deserted and looted by the local populace. Earl Thomas was finally defeated at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322. He was swiftly executed, and Robert de Holland was beheaded in 1328. The King sent a garrison to Melbourne and appointed a steward, Ralph Basset, to replace the incumbent, John de Hardedeshull. In March, those who had stolen from the castle were arrested, and by April Edward had withdrawn his troops. He appointed Robert Tocher and Roger de Beler in 1323 to help administer his possessions in Melbourne using money obtained from confiscations of rebel property in Staffordshire. Edward stayed at Melbourne again in 1325, and while there he issued a right to collect tolls to the men of nearby Swarkestone to repair the bridge over the Trent.
caption: End view of the surviving wall section
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