Thornbury Castle

It is perhaps a moot question if we should include among the castles of England a structure like Thornbury, where the military element is obviously subservient to the domestic: a magnificent mansion designed for the enjoyment of life with all the refinements attainable in the early decades of the sixteenth century. As stated, however, by Mr. E. A. Freeman, the exterior walls are clearly meant for defence, though the defences are not very strong; and the effect is somewhat that of a house built within a castle, whose machicolated walls and eyelets rendered it capable of being speedily put into a state of military holding, which certainly cannot be said equally of mansions like Cowdray House. Inside the external walls stand the facade of the house with its well-known range of superb oriels and bay-windows. The front is unfinished, but it has been carried up a sufficient height to judge of the general effect of the design. A noble gateway is in the centre of the range, containing a single broad arch with smaller side doorways, while on either side are reared polygonal towers of various sizes, each end being terminated by a very massive one. The whole of this facade, with its windows and chimneys, is said to be unsurpassed by any other example of English domestic architecture, while the masonry and workmanship are most perfect and beautiful. The inscription on the front of the gatehouse is thus given by Leland:

There was a very full and accurate survey made of the castle in the reign of Elizabeth (A.D. 1582), printed in Leland’s “Collectanea” (vol. ii. p. 658), and another description, written immediately after the duke’s execution, has been recently found in the Public Records, and is given at length in Parker’s “Domestic Architecture” (vol. ii. p. 264). The gardens and ground and orchards are described, with the singular adjunct of a long gallery or “cloister”, paved with brick, surrounding these gardens, and leading to the parish church of Thornbury, outside which it terminated in a “fair room with a chimney and a window into the said church, where the duke sometimes used to hear service”.

Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, the builder of this beautiful fabric, was the son of Duke Henry, beheaded by Richard III., in 1483, and was fifth in descent from Thomas, sixth and youngest son of Edward III. He inherited from the Bohuns, together with the earldom of Hereford, the office of Lord High Constable of England. Having allowed, as one story has it, some expressions to escape him relative to a shadowy claim which he professed to have to the Crown, in the event of there being no heir to Henry VIII., but according to a more probable version, being a victim to the combined malice of Wolsey and a scoundrel steward, named Knevet, whom he had dismissed, and who accused him falsely of a design against the King’s life, Buckingham was tried at Westminster, found guilty, on false evidence, of high treason, and beheaded on Tower Hill, in 1521. The beginning of Wolsey’s enmity is said to have been thus: It chanced once that the Duke held a basin for the King to wash his hands, when, Henry having completed his ablution, the prelate dipped his fingers into the water. This was more than the proud Duke could endure of the butcher’s son, and he flung the contents of the basin over the red shoes of the Cardinal, who, much incensed, vowed he would “stick to the Duke’s skirts”. It was on hearing of this atrocious murder that the Emperor Charles V. exclaimed, ” A butcher’s dog has killed the finest buck in England”. The office of Constable was never after revived. When this attainder took place, the works at Thornbury were stopped, and the structure has never been completed. It is said that a castle existed in early days near the church of Thornbury, perhaps a Royal residence, but there remain no traces of it.

In 1824. the castle and manor of Thornbury came into the possession of Mr. Harry Howard, father of the present owner (1896), Mr. E. Stafford Howard, who restored the buildings and much improved the property. (Castles Of England, Sir James D. Mackenzie, 1896)