The medieval history of Greasley Castle and the downfall of its owners, the de Cantilupe family, would make a good film. The plot is straight out of Game of Thrones, the Sopranos or Robin Hood.
Even by 14th century standards, this tale of knights, murder, sex, kings and queens, bitter family feuds, political plots, raiding parties and evil sheriffs is extraordinary.
The full details have only recently been unearthed by careful academic research of medieval law records by the University of Aberdeen.
The end of the family came spectacularly. The de Cantilupe dynasty would be wiped out by a knight's unfaithful wife and a murderous, revengeful plot and the castle at Greasley would fall into disrepair and ruin.
The local de Cantilupe knights were involved in some of the greatest episodes in English history. They were descendants of one of the most powerful and illustrious families of the time.
Nicholas de Cantilupe of Greasley Castle, the founder of Beauvale Priory, was one of King Edward 3rd's most trusted knights and diplomats. He was a pious and loyal baron to the king.
In 1330 King Edward, aged just 17, had seized the throne from his mother, Queen Isabella, at Nottingham Castle when he and 30 or so local knights crept in through the rock tunnel now known as Mortimer's Hole and arrested Isabella and the acting king Roger Mortimer. Mortimer was tried and gruesomely executed at Tyburn in London.
In 1346 he fought victoriously with King Edward at the battle of Crécy against a far larger French army. The French were routed, the de Cantilupe family crest of 3 lions proudly decorating his battle armour. Crécy established the effectiveness of the English longbow as a dominant weapon on the Western European battlefield and it's fitting that this weekend, held in the grounds of Greasley Castle, the longbow was still in use during the Nottinghamshire country archery championships.
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| Queen Isabella - ousted by her son in a coup d'etat |
Grandson Nicholas's marriage into the powerful Paynel family of Caythorpe in Lincolnshire was a disaster from the start.
In 1368 his new wife Katherine Paynel, aged just 17, requested an annulment from the archbishop’s court in York because her husband had ‘insufficient genitals’ and could not consummate their union. Nicholas contested this and, in an attempt to force his wife to abandon her case, he had Katherine kidnapped ‘weeping and wailing’ and held her against her will in Greasley Castle.
Her father Ralph Paynel led an armed attack on Greasley Castle to rescue his daughter. This is the only historically verifiable raid on Greasley Castle.
The annulment was granted and Nicholas died aged 28 in Avignon trying to petition the Pope to reverse the annulment.
Meanwhile his brother William, duty bound to the king, had spent years away fighting in France. He had started legal proceedings to reclaim 3 castles from the Paynels after his brother's death which only added to the bad blood between the families. Back home at his manor in Scotton, Lincolnshire his wife Maud started an affair with Ralph Paynel's ally, the local sheriff, Sir Thomas Kydale and a murder plot began to hatch.
Although the de Cantilupe family's main residence was Greasley Castle, in the spring of 1375 William was staying at the manor of Scotton. This estate had come to him through his marriage to Maud, daughter of Sir Philip Nevil of Scotton. It was very much his wife's family territory. In March 1375 William was betrayed and murdered in his own bedchamber. The body was dumped and the murderers fled to Paynel's estate in Caythorpe.
The murder trial was a cause celebre of the time. Multiple members of the household were indicted for the crime but only 2 were found guilty. Hardly surprising as Maud's lover, sheriff Kydale was in charge of the case.
It was the end of the de Cantilupes. Their estates were broken up and by the 15th century Greasley Castle, once a great baronial mansion, was a neglected ruin plundered for building stone.
The mock-up picture of the castle is based on the existing walls and moat, a floor plan of the castle unearthed during a 1933 architectural dig and a contemporary 14th century fortified manor house in Shropshire. I have another article called "Greasley Castle - what did it look like?" that explains the science behind the mock-up picture.
Nor is this dry, inaccessible history. The recumbent stone effigy and chest tomb of William's ancestor Sir Nicholas de Cantilupe (d.1266), still exists today for all to see in St Mary's Church, Ilkeston 755 years after he died.
The academic paper that this article is based on is linked in the notes below and explores the possible medical reasons for Nicholas's disfigurement and early death in France. The full story of his ill-fated marriage and dubious gender identity is also in this video by Dr. Pedersen.
Update May 2023 - I received a lovely letter from Dr. Colin Pounder about his recollections of Greasley Castle and the recumbent Cantelupe knight in Ilkeston church....
Dear Mr Appleby,
When I was a boy, over seventy years ago, I was in Ilkeston St Marys church. Canon Reginald Foskett, the vicar told me about the tomb of de Cantelupe. They were not sure if he was William or Nicholas an ancestor of Nicholas of Greasley Castle.
The tomb originally stood in front of the altar. The Victorians moved it to its present position. They opened the tomb and removed the skeleton. Rev Foskett said that one of the workmen held the lower jaw up to his own face – it fitted over his own!
The Victorians being mostly ‘improvers/vandals’ did not put the bones back into the relocated tomb but buried them out in the churchyard. The face on the tomb has been worn away – as children we were told that it being gritstone it served to sharpen the scythes used by men tidying the churchyard. I very much doubt that – probably some puritan or some character who did not like the Cantelupes.
Your page on Greasley Castle is magnificent. When Mr Noon died the land agent allowed myself and daughter to explore the house and look out of the upper windows at that weeping Beech tree. A man who had worked for Mr Noon showed us inside the buildings at the arches and other remains of the castle. In the cellar is a walled up arch way. I’ve often wondered if the new owners have found what is behind it.
Yours Dr. Colin Pounder
Notes and Sources: Transactions of the Thoroton Society 1933; Dr. Frederick Pedersen, University of Aberdeen
Video of interview with Dr.Pedersen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ep1pkYDnk&ab_channel=Medievalists
Original Peace Roll records of this case are online here
All of the other "Tales From Watnall Hall" in the series are available here
Mortimer's Hole - Nottingham Caves Survey 3D flythrough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAXqzxeZ46c&ab_channel=NottinghamCaves
Crecy - The Battle of Crécy, 26 August 1346 - Neil Faulkner analyses the first great victory of Edward III’s new tactical system in the Hundred Years War. https://the-past.com/feature/the-battle-of-crecy-26-august-1346/
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