The Matriarch of Cluny Castle (1282-1323) Mary Bruce was supposed to be safe at Kildrommey, her brother’s only fortress. Her brother was the rebel king of the Scots who had seized the throne and dared to challenge England for his […]
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The Matriarch of Cluny Castle (1282-1323) Mary Bruce was supposed to be safe at Kildrommey, her brother’s only fortress. Her brother was the rebel king of the Scots who had seized the throne and dared to challenge England for his […]
The Spirits of Dunskey Castle The sun of the Scottish Enlightenment broke slowly in the 18th century. While leading intellectuals in Edinburgh denounced religion and superstition alike, belief in witches, demons, and a devil who walked among us died slowly […]
Thomas Bellingham and the Protestant elite gained power in Ireland during the rule of Cromwell in the late 1600s by displacing Catholic landowners. In 1649, Irish Catholics rose up and murdered the Protestant landowners sparking violence. Thomas Bellingham’s father was rewarded with an estate in County Louth, during Cromwell’s Conquest of Ireland, where they constructed Bellingham Castle. When William and Mary, the Protestant king and queen, took the throne, Catholic Jacobites attacked the Protestant elite, burning Bellingham Castle in an attempt to regain power. Thomas Bellingham joined the king’s army in the Battle of Boyne and his knowledge of the terrain helped give William and Mary the upper hand and ensured victory for the Protestants. The Battle of Boyne marked the last significant challenge to Protestant Ascendancy that defined Irish life for centuries. Thomas Bellingham rebuilt his castle as a symbol of Protestant power and Protestants built monuments to commemorate their victory. When the Irish War of Independence broke out, Catholics tore down the monuments in an act of defiance.
A Rebels’ Bomb Factory at Fitzpatrick Castle Fitzpatrick Castle, once known as Killiney Castle, is a bucolic country retreat from Dublin. But in the late 1930s, it overflowed with dismembered alarm clocks and explosives stowed away in flour bags. Teenage […]
Ostrich Feathers, Diamonds, and White: Debutantes Arrive at Buckingham Palace The Rubens at the Palace overlooks Buckingham Palace Road, where in centuries past, shivering debutantes in short-sleeved white dresses once sat for hours in carriages waiting for their presentation at […]
From Slave Ships to Regattas: A Self-Made Man Presides over Storrs Hall John Bolton, the teenage son of a rural druggist, arrived in the West Indies with no money to his name and only a sailor’s shirt on his back. […]
Fenton Tower, a Castle Built for Anarchy Patrick Whitelaw and his wife, Margaret Hamilton, built Fenton Tower to defend themselves from the anarchic violence of the Borders. For nearly four centuries, men called “reivers” dominated the swathe of the ungovernable […]
A Family Divided: Dalmunzie Castle and the Jacobite Uprisings The MacKintosh Clan stood divided when the Jacobites rose up against the British crown in the 1700s. The Stuarts, a Scottish dynasty that ruled over all of Britain, had been toppled […]
An Irish Dynasty at Dunskey Castle Robert Fitzgerald landed on the shores of Scotland without family, friends, or money. He was the banished son of a powerful, Norman family in Ireland, but he broke the sacred laws of chivalric hierarchy […]
Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, was born with his father’s reputation for treason hanging over him; when the Tudors came to power, his family regained favor with the monarchy, though Buckingham was seen as dangerous due to his partial royal blood. Buckingham was known to be wealthy, and hosted extravagant parties; he was granted a license to fortify his manor at Thornbury Castle, and began building there in 1511. The castle was designed with crossbow loopholes and gun ports, in the style of a Medieval fortress, and he had planned to include four towers, but he was not able to complete it due to his untimely death. Buckingham and his wife lived in luxurious apartments overlooking an ornamental garden.
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