page_title: Melbourne Castle
section_title: Lancastrian improvements
hierarchical_section_title: Melbourne Castle / History / Lancastrian improvements
caption_attribution_description: English: John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (1340-1399)
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: The castle, still unfinished at the time of Thomas' execution, along with its lands, remained as crown property until it was bestowed on Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, Earl Thomas' brother, in 1327. In turn it passed to Henry's son, the fourth earl, who became the first Duke of Lancaster. At the time of the duke's death in 1361, his constable was Ingram Fauconer, who received an annual life stipend of £10, a further £5 going to his wife. Henry's heiress was Blanche, wife of John of Gaunt. Duke John confirmed Fauconer's pension when he came into possession of the Lancastrian lands. Catalina, the three-year-old daughter of John by his second wife Constance of Castile, was given her own room and a Castilian attendant at the castle in 1375.
  Peter Melbourne was made keeper of the Melbourne estate in 1377 with an annual income of £10. He was granted another 66s 8d in 1386, and 10 marks (£6 13s 4d) in 1395. The last award was conditional on his not meddling with the offices of constable and keeper of the parks, which had passed on to his son, also called Peter. The younger Peter Melbourne was involved in the upbringing of the future Henry IV during the reign of Richard II. He was again appointed constable and steward of the Derbyshire manor in March 1399, although he gave up his office in April in return for an annuity from King Richard, who had confiscated the Lancastrian estates when John of Gaunt died earlier that year. Upon Henry's seizure of the throne, Peter was confirmed as constable, and in October 1399 his annuity was increased from £10 to 100 marks (£66 8s); in the following year he was awarded land in Derbyshire confiscated from Thomas Merke, Bishop of Carlisle, co-leader of plot against the King.
  The Duchy of Lancaster continued to improve and expand the property through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. John of Gaunt had windows glazed in the Communal Hall and the Great Chamber in 1392/3, along with other works. He repaired a drawbridge in 1393/4 and made plumbing improvements in 1399/1400, using lead acquired as a forfeit two years earlier.
  For 19 years, the castle served as a prison for John I, Duke of Bourbon after he was taken at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. His custodian was a Nicholas Montgomery the Younger. Nineteenth-century local historian John Joseph Briggs claimed that during the Wars of the Roses, the castle was partially dismantled by the Lancastrian forces of Margaret of Anjou, but since her campaign was along the line of the Great North Road, it was Melbourn, Cambridgeshire she sacked, not its Derbyshire namesake.
  In 1545, antiquarian John Leland reported to Henry VIII the property was in good enough shape that it was described as "praty and yn meately good reparation" perhaps following repairs in the reign of Edward IV, when Sir Ralph Shirley, a commander at Agincourt, was governor of the castle.
caption: John of Gaunt made significant improvements to the castle in the late 14th century.
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