Donnington Castle
History
Richard de Abberbury built Donnington Castle in the 1380s. He was a knight in the service of Edward of Woodstock (the Black Prince) and later Edward's young son, King Richard II.
Donnington Castle began as a fortified residence after Thomas de Abberbury purchased Donnington Manor in 1287.
Richard Abberbury, served under the Black Prince during the Hundred Years' War, commanding companies at Crécy and Poitiers. After the Black Prince died in 1376, Richard Abberbury became guardian of his son, Richard, future King Richard II, and steward of his lands.
In 1380, Richard de Abberbury negotiated King Richard II's wedding to Anne of Bohemia and was appointed her chamberlain in 1382. As a result of his service, he became a wealthy landowner in Berkshire and Oxfordshire. In 1386, King Richard II granted Richard de Abberbury a license to crenelate. Donnington Castle was one of many castles established around this time, profiting from England's war with France. The castle was constructed sometime between 1386 and 1399.
When Richard died in 1399, his son, also Richard de Abberbury, inherited his father's estates, including Donnington Castle. The young Richard served John of Gaunt and his son Henry Bolingbroke, future King Henry IV. He accompanied Henry on his crusade to Eastern Europe. He stayed abroad for most of Henry's reign, returning to England in about 1415.
Richard sold Donnington Castle and five other manors to Thomas Chaucer, son of the famous poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who purchased it as a gift for his daughter Alice. She received the castle around 1415, when she was about ten. She was the castle's longest-standing resident, holding it for almost 60 years. Alice was part of the royal court with her third husband, William de la Pole, who became the Duke of Suffolk in 1448. William enlarged the castle.
William de la Pole was the King's first Minister responsible for crown policies, which made him unpopular. The House of Commons impeached him in 1450, and Henry VI let him go into exile to avoid trial. Rebels intercepted his ship, and he was murdered, with his body left on the beach at Dover.
When Alice died in 1475, her son John inherited the de la Pole estates. His marriage to Elizabeth of York made their son Edmund the chief heir to the Yorkist claim to the throne after the deaths of the two Princes in the Tower, Richard III, and Edmund's elder brother John.
Edmund was in a dangerous position when the Tudors took the throne. In 1503, he was charged with treason, and the crown seized his estates, including Donnington Castle. Henry VIII had Edmund executed in 1513 and granted Donnington Castle to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, the previous year.
Charles Brandon later married Henry VIII's sister, Mary Tudor, in secret. When she died in 1533, Brandon exchanged Donnington Castle with Henry VIII for other property. Henry visited the castle in 1541. His son, Edward VI, stayed at the castle briefly in September 1552 to hold a meeting of the Privy Council, and later granted the castle to his half-sister Elizabeth, future Queen Elizabeth I.
Queen Elizabeth visited Donnington Castle in 1568. In 1590, she granted the keepership of the castle to Elizabeth Cooke, Lady Russell, likely the first woman to hold that position in England. However, in 1601, the Queen gave the manor and castle to Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, who commanded the fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. This created a dispute over control of the castle between Lady Russell and the Earl of Nottingham, which the courts eventually ruled in Nottingham's favor. In 1632, Nottingham's daughter sold the castle to John Packer, clerk of the Privy Seal, who owned it until he died in 1649.
Donnington Castle held a strategic location overlooking two major roads north of Newbury. Shortly after the first Battle of Newbury on September 20th, 1643, King Charles I sent John Boys to Donnington with over 200 men to take possession of Donnington Castle from Packer, who had sided with the Parliamentarians. They took control of the castle and garrisoned it with troops. Outer earthworks with bastions were added as artillery defenses to defend the castle against cannon fire.
In July of 1644, the Long Siege of Donnington Castle began. Parliamentarian forces brought up artillery and bombarded the castle, causing major damage, but the garrison held out. The siege lasted 20 months before the garrison surrendered with permission from King Charles. Afterwards, John Boys and the castle garrison were allowed to leave the castle.
In 1646, Parliament voted to slight Donnington Castle, and most of the castle was demolished, leaving only the gatehouse intact.
In 1907, the estate was split, and in the 1920s, Mr. E. Festus Kelly, grandson of Frederic Festus Kelly, founder of Kelly's Directories, purchased the remaining Castle House estate, including the castle ruin.
In 1952, the last private owners gave the castle to the Crown, and the state began managing it. English Heritage now manages Donnington Castle as a scheduled ancient monument.
Castle Highlights
Most of what remains today of Donnington Castle is the twin-towered gatehouse. Features like the vault over the gatehouse passage suggest that the King's master mason, William Wynford, may have had a hand in the design, though Richard Abberbury's limited budget meant it was built from flint rubble and chalk. The gatehouse is an impressive sight, capped with battlements and standing three stories high.
Behind the gatehouse are the remains of the rest of the castle, enough to show the size of the courtyard and surrounding curtain walls. The castle had round corner towers around a rectangular courtyard, with the gatehouse at one end. Halfway along the east-west curtain walls were two square towers.
The inner courtyard likely contained other timber-framed support buildings such as a stable, chapel, hall, and kitchen. However, no record of archaeological work within the courtyard to identify any buildings has been found.
Outside the remains of the curtain walls, the Civil War-era earthwork bastions can still be seen. This makes the castle interesting to visit as both a late medieval fortress and a Civil War site.
Donnington Castle can be visited in an hour or two and should be paired with another castle to make a full day of castle-hopping. Wallingford Castle is relatively close, but parking is difficult and not much remains. Highclere Castle is south of Donnington Castle, but only open on limited days.
Donnington Castle is also haunted.
