In the heart of beautiful Dorset, a county in southern England, is the beautiful stone built village of Corfe. Towering above Corfe are the huge remains of Corfe Castle.
Corfe also boasts a station on the private Swanage steam railway...
In 1090, King William "The Conqueror"began the construction of Corfe Norman Castle. For the next 600 years, successive English Kings enlarged Corfe castle and so it became one of the five strongly defended Royal Castles in England. King John kept his crown jewels here. Edward II was imprisoned here. Much torturing and murder took place within it's walls...
In 1635 Sir John Bankes, who was Lord Chief Justice to King Charles I, purchased the castle with his wife Lady Mary. In 1642 the first English Civil war broke out between the "Royalist" or "Cavalier" supporters of King Charles and the Parliament whose "New Model Army" (the "Roundheads") was led by Oliver Cromwell.
We have little record of how the castle looked at this time, but you can gain a very good impression of it's enormous size from this bronze panel depicting the castle under siege by Cromwell's troops.
Because of her husband's absence while serving at the King's battle headquarters, it was left to Lady Bankes ("Brave Dame Mary") to defend the castle in 1643 and 1645 through two sieges laid by Parliamentary troops. During the second siege she held out with only 50 defenders against 600 "Roundheads".
Neither siege was successful in taking the castle but Lady Mary was finally overcome by the treachery of one of her own officers, Colonel Pitman, who allowed Parliamentary soldiers entry to the castle pretending that they were reinforcements for Lady Mary's own garrison.
Although Lady Mary and her 14 children were set free and given safe passage from the defeated castle, following an Act of Parliament, the Castle was then blown up from the inside and undermined from below by Roundhead engineers who destroyed it's massive structure.
The massive size of pieces of the castle walls can be seen here...
Each year, re-enactment enthusiasts dressed as members of "Lord Hopton's Regiment of Foote" recreate the scenes of the second fateful siege and the treachery of Colonel Pitman. In the photo, below, we have (right) the Royalist (denoted by the red sash) Governor of St. Michael's Mount in talks with the regimental standard bearer.
With other officers and foot soldiers.
Attended by their camp followers.
Musket and pike exercises are performed to the barking orders of the NCOs.
And the staccato instructions from the regimental drummers.
"Brave Dame Mary" herself - after release from the Parliamentarians.
and one of her 14 children....
The treacherous Colonel Pitman (boo, hiss)...
The artillery pieces are hardly daunting by today's standards...
On guard at the castle gateway.
We shall next meet "Brave Dame Mary" when she emerges as the remarkable mistress of Kingston Lacy, of which more in part 2!
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