Castles 3

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Castles

Later Medieval Castles

Dudley Castle gatehouse

Dudley Castle Gatehouse : SV-IV-94b
© Trustees of the William Salt Library. By kind permission.

Ralph de Stafford was created 1st Earl of Stafford early in the Hundred Years War, which saw the family rise into the great nobility. The Earldom was awarded partly because of Ralph’s diplomatic and military exploits on behalf of Edward III in France. His wealth came from the estates of the childless Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Hereford and Gloucester, whose possessions were divided up between his three surviving sisters. Margaret, the second sister was married to Hugh Audley. They had one daughter, also called Margaret, who stood to inherit everything.

After the death of his first wife, Ralph led an armed raid on the Audleys’ house at Thaxted in Essex and abducted the young Margaret. Edward III seems to have condoned this behaviour, perhaps because he and Ralph knew each other well through many years fighting together in France. With an income twenty times larger than his own, the Stafford's seemed to attract wealth for a long time after.

When Ralph died in 1372 he was a wealthy man, the inquisition post mortem suggested he was worth £1,432 per annum – great wealth at the time! His two sons, Ralph and Hugh, made successful marriages into two of the great noble families, Lancaster and Warwick. Hugh received many rewards under Richard II. He died on his return from pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1386, one year after the death of his eldest son Ralph in a brawl with the Earl of Huntingdon, during the Scottish campaign of 1385.

Ralph of Stafford decided to rebuild a castle in Stafford on the site of the old motte and bailey site which had fallen into disrepair due to lack of money and the lack of time the Stafford family actually spent in Stafford. Here is the indenture that Sir Ralph sent to master builder John of Burcestre.

"This indenture is made between Monsieur Ralph, baron of Stafford, on the one hand and Master John of Burcestre, mason on the other. Witness that it is settled between them that the said Master John will build a castle on the motte in the manner of length and breadth and height, with towers, halls, chambers, chapel, garderobes, chimneys, vices, windows, doors, and gates, together with vaults, according to the device and ordinance of the said Monsieur Ralph.....
The said Monsieur Ralph will transport stone, sand, and lime as far as the foot of the motte and...[he] will find scaffolding, ladders, hurdles, barrows, buckets, gins, cables, and vessels necessary for the work, fuel for his lodgings and that of his [John] people, and hay for his horse and the said Master will transport the stone, sand and all other things necessary pertaining to the work, from the foot of the motte to the summit at his own cost..."

This is an artists impression of what he thought the castle might have looked like by the early sixteenth century. Castles by this time were more robustly built and were great feats of architecture, dominating the countryside and towns even more than the mottes and baileys did.

Keep of Stafford Castle 1521