page_title: Odiham
section_title: Odiham Castle
hierarchical_section_title: Odiham / History / Odiham Castle
caption_attribution_description: English: View of Odiham Castle (also known as King John's Castle), North Warnborough, Hampshire. This is an octagonal castle that was originally built for King John between 1207 and 1214. The castle was besieged for two weeks by the French in 1216, following which it was largely rebuilt. The castle was then the home of King John's youngest daughter, Eleanor, before she was exiled to France after her husband, Simon de Montfort, was killed in the Battle of Evesham. Edward I spent Christmas here in 1302; Edward III gave the castle to his queen, Philippa of Hainault, as a hunting lodge; and David II of Scotland was imprisoned here for three years in the 1350s. The castle was abandoned in the 14th century. This is a photo of listed building number 1092165. (More images)
context_page_description: Odiham is an historic village and civil parish in the Hart district of Hampshire, England. It is twinned with Sourdeval in the Manche Department of France. The 2011 population was 4,406. The parish in 1851 had an area of 7,354 acres with 50 acres covered by water. The nearest railway station is at Hook, on the London and South Western Railway. The village had its own hundred in the nineteenth century, named The Hundred of Odiham. The village is situated slightly south of the M3 motorway and approximately midway between the north Hampshire towns of Fleet and Basingstoke, some 41 miles southwest of London.
  RAF Odiham, home of the Royal Air Force's Chinook heavy lift helicopter fleet, lies to the south of the village.
context_section_description: King John decided in 1204 to build Odiham Castle and it was built during the years 1207 to 1214 at a cost of over £1000. He already had some ninety strongholds all over the country, and he may have chosen Odiham because it is halfway between Windsor and Winchester. In 1216 the French Dauphin Louis VIII besieged King John in the castle for two weeks.
  King Henry III, son of King John, gave the castle to his sister Eleanor in 1236, so when she married Simon de Montfort in 1238 the castle became the de Montfort family home. However, Simon was killed in the Battle of Evesham in 1265 when he led the rebellious barons to fight against the king; Eleanor was sent into exile.
  During the fourteenth century the castle played a role in several significant events, including a sitting of Parliament, and the imprisonment of King David II of Scotland in the castle for eleven years. during the reign of Edward III of England. However, by the fifteenth century its only use was as a hunting lodge.
  The castle was described in 1605 as a ruin, which it remains to this day.
caption: Odiham Castle ruins
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