Hello to all my Gold and Silver Level Templar knights and I hope the summer heat isn’t proving to be too distressing - we are hitting all time records here in London, UK. So let me take your minds off the planet burning up with some Roman - and medieval - history. I have been hiking along Hadrian’s Wall and on this leg of the journey found a medieval castle with a tragic history.
I left the town of Once Brewed and headed towards Gilsland. I was promised a huge amount of Roman remains and boy, did I get them! Mile after mile of Roman wall across the English countryside.
And then I chanced upon the imposing ruins of a medieval castle. From the 12th century, the Thirlwall family plundered the Roman wall to build their impressive fortress. It still dominates the landscape.
But it’s in a sorry state. One reason is that in the 1450s, Sir Percival (“Percy” to his friends) Thirlwall made the fateful decision to support King Richard III against the usurper Henry Tudor. You’ll recall that Richard III was portrayed by William Shakespeare as a murderous hunchback. The arguments about that depiction still rage on today.
Anyway, things came to a head at the Battle of Bosworth in 1453 when Richard faced off against Henry Tudor and lost. He was killed on the battlefield - as was Sir Percival. But before breathing his last, Percy held the king’s standard aloft. Well, as high as he could because by then, his legs had been lopped off by an enemy sword.
This was the standard he held pictured below. Henry Tudor went on to found the Tudor dynasty and his son was the notorious Henry VIII. The Thirlwalls never quite regained their former glory and the castle has been falling down for the last two hundred years.
So join me in looking at the castle of the Thirlwalls and some amazing Roman ruins…