Greasley Castle Revisited - what it looked like, why it was built and the dark deeds that happened there...

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Two recent academic projects have given us a much richer picture of what Greasley Castle looked like, the colourful characters who lived there and the disturbing events that actually happened inside its walls...

In 2021 the owners of Greasley Castle commissioned a "buildings archaeology survey" of the site, the results of which have helped update our interpretation of what the castle would have looked like when it was first built by soldier and politician Nicholas de Cantilupe around 1340. 

The survey concluded... "Although a pale shadow of its former glory, Greasley can now be understood as a turreted courtyard castle with a fine great hall and associated services. The site was built for a socially rising aristocrat whose architectural patronage fitted well within the experience of his Midland peers. It is intriguing to consider that Greasley may once have rivalled the rightly famous Haddon Hall in its heyday."

Other research, by Aberdeen and Cardiff universities, into 14th century court records has revealed more about the events of Greasley's dark past. It's a tale about a kidnapped daughter, a transgender knight with "insufficient genitals" and a father's gallant rescue mission, the only historically verifiable raid on Greasley Castle. More about that after we've looked at the buildings themselves... 

What Greasley Castle could have looked like today had it survived,
based on the latest survey evidence

Greasley Castle revisited
The latest thinking is that the 1340 castle had a square-shaped courtyard structure. The north outer wall (the one seen from the B600 road) has the remains of two angular turrets, the stubs of which still protrude from the wall today. This mock up picture shows them in their correct positions and the outer "curtain wall" between them . There were likely to have been similar turrets at the other corners but there is no archaeological evidence for these (yet!). There was definitely a large defensive moat.

Triskele Heritage's schematic of the layout of Greasley Castle.

Before the Castle

The Greasley Castle of 1340 was built on the site of an earlier medieval village settlement⁵. Evidence for this has been found in the surrounding fields in the form of hut and building platforms. It would have had a simple manor house perhaps built by the De Gresele family who owned the manor prior to the De Cantelupes. 

Medieval Greasley's outer earthworks⁵ would perhaps have been topped with a wooden pallisade to protect the villagers in their "wattle and daub" thatched huts inside. The extensive fishponds⁵ that are such a prominent feature of Greasley's present day remains are also from this earlier period. They would have been stocked with fish to provide year-round, easy access protein for the inhabitants. They are some of the largest medieval fishponds known to have survived in the country.


Greasley-like Maxstoke Castle
Today's B600 road didn't exist in 1340 so the castle's main entrance would have been on the opposite side, facing south towards Ilkeston along the medieval farm track to the fields. Greasley Castle's creator, Nicholas de Cantilupe (c.1301-55), was lord of the manor of Ilkeston as well as Greasley and there is a magnificent stone tomb effigy of one of his knightly ancestors still inside St Mary's Church on the hill top there. Nicholas himself was one of King Edward III's most trusted barons and his immediate ancestors had been influential churchmen and royal stewards who had cultivated close personal relationships with both kings and great magnates. 
In 1340 he'd obtained a "licence to crenellate" from the king meaning he could develop and fortify the old manor house. Based on the recent survey, the resulting building would have resembled Maxstoke Castle (built in 1345) in Warwickshire and, like Maxstoke and neighbouring Codnor Castle, it probably had a very fancy and imposing gatehouse similar to those shown here. After all, what's the point of a moat if you don't have a cool gatehouse too? Remnants of sophisticated stone roof vaulting have been found at Greasley similar those inside Maxstoke's grand entrance archway. The top junction piece (crown) of a six-armed stone roof vault has been prominently re-used to decorate the gable end of one of the modern farm buildings³. That's the work of a high tech team of stone masons.

His Cantilupe predecessors had built earlier incarnations of these Greasley-type moated mansion-castles at Eaton Bray in Bedfordshire and in their French ancestral homeland at Château de Chanteloup, Normandy. The place-name, from which their de Cantilupe name derives, is common throughout France and signifies "wolf-song" (chant de loup) which at such places was regularly heard.

Entrance to Greasley's Great Hall
The Survey
Triskele Heritage, funded by the Castle Studies Trust, inspected all the current buildings, including the "in situ" stonework & original walls and the "ex situ" curiosities robbed from the castle superstructure that decorate the farmyard buildings and farmhouse. Their findings confirm that Greasley became a very elaborate, high status powerhouse built to showcase the wealth and prestige of Nicholas de Cantilupe. It was not so much a traditional castle or military stronghold but one of the country's very first grand medieval mansions, fortified⁵ but not impregnable (as we'll see later), fit to entertain his influential patrons from the world of politics, the Church and the military.

Tracery window remains at Greasley
Inside the open courtyard were doors leading off to the Great Hall, the service rooms (kitchen, pantry, buttery) and various household apartments. The picture above show historic building surveyor Dr. James Wright of Triskele Heritage inspecting the in situ remains of the arched entrance door from the courtyard (in which he would be standing) into the Great Hall beyond. To the right of the door is one of the tracery windows detailed in the picture. The Great Hall was the centrepiece of a medieval mansion and was used for large meals and entertainment. Greasley's was similar in size those at Haddon Hall or Stokesay Castle, with elegant stonework and fine tracery in the windows which still exist in situ today as you can see in the pictures. 

The Great Hall at Haddon Hall

Priest house, Lincoln Cathedral showing
Cantilupe and Zouche coats of arms
Nicholas de Cantilupe's Other Buildings
Nor was Greasley the only grand architectural project that Nicholas was planning. In 1343, almost concurrent with Greasley Castle, he built Beauvale Priory just a mile away over the hill in his Greasley parkland¹. It housed 12 monks and a prior and later expanded to include a convent. And in Lincoln, snuggled by the magnificent cathedral, he built the intriguing priest's house of the Cantilupe Chantry. The house still stands today and illustrates several of the architectural quirks that most likely also decorated Greasley Castle itself. The delicate window tracery, the crenellations and the de Cantilupe Coat of Arms carved in stone relief, proudly facing across the Minster Yard to the cathedral's great south door. It is also possible that the same team of stonemasons were used for all three buildings. The Coat of Arms of his cousin and influential main patron William la Zouche (1299–1352), the Archbishop of York, can be seen on the opposite side of the oriel window.

Priest house, Lincoln Cathedral showing same
tracery windows and crenellations as Greasley

Greasley's Saints and Sinners
Nicholas de Cantilupe of Greasley Castle, like many wealthy men of his time, employed the priests at Lincoln Cathedral to say prayers and hold masses on his behalf even after his death to cement his place in God's good books, a kind of "spiritual investment plan". His great uncle Thomas Cantelupe had been a very prominent Bishop and Chancellor of England with connections to Rome and Lincoln. He died in 1282 and was then canonised in Nicholas's lifetime becoming Saint Thomas Cantilupe of Hereford. Quite an exceptional honour for the Cantilupe family. 
St.Thomas
de Cantelupe 

Nicholas's father William was taken under his uncle Thomas's wing as a young man. Thomas paid for his education at Oxford and took his nephew with him on one particularly prestigious journey to the papal Council of Lyon in 1274. No doubt his father's tales of his pious uncle influenced Nicholas to carry out his own religious "great works" like Beauvale Priory. Thomas's personal austerity (he habitually wore a hair shirt), his zeal as a reforming bishop and an intrepid defender of the rights of his church created a devoted following for him. Thomas was also a Provincial Grand Master of the Knights Templar. He died while travelling to the papal court at Orvieto, Italy in 1282. His supporters created a shrine to him at Hereford Cathedral that became an immensely popular pilgrimage destination and started a long campaign to make him into a saint. This, together with over 400 claimed miracles reported at his tomb⁸, lead to Thomas being canonized in 1320. St Thomas de Cantelupe’s feast day was fixed, for reasons not fully apparent, on 2 October. He was the penultimate figure of English history to have achieved official, papal, canonization during the Middle Ages. 

Thomas's shrine in Hereford Cathedral
Pilgrimage Shrine and the Mappa Mundi
In 1320, the young Nicholas went along to the ceremony at Hereford Cathedral to mark his great-uncle's newly-bestowed sainthood. He would also have visited Thomas's popular Lourdes-like shrine and pilgrimage destination in the cathedral alongside the famous Hereford Mappa Mundi. This medieval world map is one of the oldest maps and the largest in exitance and is still on display at Hereford today. It was custom-made for Thomas's shrine around 1283 and pays secret tribute to Cantilupe via a series of hidden codes and symbolic references to him⁶ and his earthly miracle working. 

Mappa Mundi at
Hereford Cathedral
Still visible to this day is the mark on the wall of the cathedral, next to the shrine, where the map originally hung for the enlightenment of the thousands of pilgrims who travelled from far and wide to see the shrine. Any "miracles" attributable to the dead Bishop Thomas were carefully recorded by his supporters as evidence that was later used in his official canonisation bid⁸. 

Religious relic,
the skull of St.Thomas de Cantelupe
In an obvious mark of respect for his saintly relative, in 1349 Nicholas organised the relocation of the relics of St.Thomas⁹ (the earthly remains of his body including his skull) to the Hereford shrine where they could be revered by Thomas's many devoted pilgrims alongside the Mappa Mundi. The Mappa Mundi itself, like the de Cantelupes of Greasley Castle, has connections to the important ecclesiastical city of Lincoln. The map shows Lincoln in some detail (its creator was from there) and also shows next door Nottingham by its old Saxon name of "Snotig'hm" (see note 7 below). Between the two cities, the River Trent is marked  as "Fluvi Trenta" over which the brand new Trent Bridge, then on the outskirts of Nottingham, was an important river crossing. It was upgraded c.1280 with stone pillars⁷ replacing the old wooden bridge. This new stone bridge which today we call "old Trent Bridge" would have been a familiar and welcome landmark to travellers to and from Lincoln. It was demolished when the modern bridge was built in 1871 although two stone piers still remain in situ in the undergrowth.

The 1280 stone-built Trent Bridge along the current one built in 1871

Nicholas's cousin William la Zouche, as the Archbishop of York, was himself in the middle of building the gothic masterpiece of York Minster at the same time. No doubt this was further inspiration for Nicholas. William was guest of honour at Greasley for one of its greatest events.

On the 9th of December 1343, William was head of the party of dignitaries present at Greasley Castle for the signing and witnessing of the Foundation Charter for Beauvale Priory¹, one of Greasley's and Nicholas's most auspicious days. One can imagine the contrasting scenes that day, winter outside, a roaring fire in the Great Hall, a feast on the table and the grandly dressed visitors, the Archbishop in his robes, being welcomed and warming themselves by the fire. Over the hill in Beauvale at the austere Priory, the monks in their thin, white robes shivering alone in their unheated stone cells contemplating God and eternity. It's the perfect picture of religious patronage and devotion. 
The party of dignitaries and their retinues made an imposing company which included, as well as the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of Durham, Lincoln, and Lichfield, the Earls of Derby, Northampton, and Huntingdon, Sir John de Grey of neighbouring Codnor Castle, Sir William Deincourt and Sir William de Grey of Sandiacre, knights who Nicholas de Cantilupe would fight alongside at Crecy in 1346, William his son and heir (at least for now) and his grandson also called Nicholas. He's the ill-fated transgender knight we'll deal with below... 

Dark Deeds and the Transgender Knight

Nicholas de Cantilupe's mutilated tomb
When Nicholas de Cantilupe died in 1355 he was buried in Lincoln Cathedral and commemorated with an ornately carved tomb effigy, a likeness of his full body clad in armour, usually painted in full colour, but now sadly dull and mutilated. He was only the third of all his illustrious ancestors to be afforded the honour of a cathedral burial especially at such a prestigious one as Lincoln. He'd expect that his path to heaven had been secured by his piety and good works but he'd have been horrified by the subsequent deeds of his immediate heir and grandson, also called Nicholas (1342-1371). There's a potential Netflix drama here to rival Game of Thrones for sexual intrigue...!  

Young Nicholas's father, William, was passed over in the line of inheritence so that his son could marry into a powerful local dynasty, the Paynels of Caythorpe in Lincolnshire. Young Nicholas's new wife was to be Katherine Paynel, aged just 17. He was 26, a stocky, bearded young man but strangely lacking in stamina and the subject of certain unsettling rumours within his family. On the night of the wedding, Nicholas's cousin Elizabeth de Strelley approached Katherine and teasingly said "My lady, I will give you a penny if you ever have joy of your husband..." What could she mean? 

Katherine was threatened with
imprisonment at Greasley 
The marriage was a disaster from the start. Nicholas showed no marital affection for Katherine at all. One night when he was asleep, she slipped her hand down gently to his groin. She later described in court what she found there... "It was as flat as the back of a man's hand". Things did not improve and in 1368 Katherine requested an annulment from the Archbishop’s court in York because her husband had "insufficient genitals" and could not consummate their union. A no-doubt embarrassed Nicholas contested this and, in an attempt to force his wife to abandon her case, had Katherine kidnapped from her father's manor in Caythorpe "weeping and wailing" and held her against her will in Greasley Castle. He allegedly showed her the leg irons and dungeon that he'd lock her up in if she didn't swear before witnesses that his manhood was in fact, quite sufficient.

Medieval raiding party

Katherine's father, Sir Ralph Paynel, led an armed attack on Greasley Castle to rescue his daughter. This is the only historically verifiable raid on Greasley Castle but it was an inside job as Katherine's maid let the gallant knights in and Katherine was whisked away to a friendly castle in Roxby, north Yorkshire, well away from her husband's men. Nicholas refused to undergo a physical examination and the annulment was eventually granted. He refused to accept the verdict and decided to petition the Pope, in person, to reverse the annulment. He needed to travel to Avignon, then the principal Papal city but Nicholas died there, 2 years later, aged 28. A post mortem showed possible signs of arsenic poisoning.

Recent re-examination of the case by academics at Aberdeen and Cardiff Universities, has produced an intriguing new theory, that Nicholas was transgender, intersex or even female, suffering from a hormonal condition called Congenital Adrenal Hypoplasia (CAH). This causes the body to make too many male hormones so girls with this condition are stocky and muscular with deep voices, ambiguous genitalia and extra body hair. To the medieval mind, the enlarged clitoris would look like as a small penis. One form of CAH results in low salt production, especially under stressful circumstances, meaning a lack of stamina. If untreated it leads to death with symptoms similar to arsenic poisoning. 

Katherine Paynel's effigy at Broughton 
Today, CAH is treatable with hormone replacement therapy but with medieval medicine, poor Nicholas didn't stand a chance. CAH was lethal. It could also explain Nicholas's lack of a military career, which would have been expected of an elder son, and why he did not participate in the raid on Caythorpe to bring his wife back to Greasley. His younger brother William inherited Greasley but he too was dead by 1375 murdered by his cook and squire. However, it was suspected that his wife,  her lover and Katherine's father Sir Ralph Paynel were behind it but that's a convoluted whodunit tale for another day... 

We'll give the final word to Katherine Paynel. She married again (and again) and went on to have many children with her new husbands, so securing the Paynel bloodline². She even has her own tomb effigy that preserves her image for posterity in the church of Broughton, Lincs. There she lies with final husband, the well-endowed Sir Henry Retford.


If you want to read more about the history of Greasley Castle or it's neighbour Watnall Hall there is plenty to go at on the "Tales from Watnall Hall" website here https://watnallhall.blogspot.com/



Sources:

Triskele Heritage - http://castlestudiestrust.org/blog/2022/04/25/greasley-castle-a-misunderstood-castle/
Professor F. Pedersen, Aberdeen University - Interview https://youtu.be/Z0ep1pkYDnk?t=383
https://www.academia.edu/187393/Murder_Mayhem_and_a_very_small_Penis
Melissa Julien-Jones, Cardiff University - various papers and books on Cantilupe history incl.
https://www.academia.edu/6659308/Strategy_and_Spiritual_Investment_the_Cantilupes_in_Lincolnshire

Notes:

A Beauvale monk's house and garden,
based on fragments found on site
1 - Beauvale Priory - Founded by Lord of the Manor of Greasley, Nicholas de Cantilupe, in 1343, a mile or so away from his family's main seat of power Greasley Castle. It was a monastery of the Carthusian Order, owing allegiance to the Grand Prior of Chartreuse in France. By 1357 there was also a convent on site. The Cathusians were a silent order and Beauvale's location was in a quiet and secluded part of the Greasley estate. 
Nicholas's patronage and gifts of land and rental income to the Priory were a kind of "spiritual investment plan" to ensure that prayer should be continually offered, for the glory of God, for the welfare of his king and archbishop, for the souls of his father and mother and first wife Typhonia, and for himself and his wife Joan, at the “Pulchra vallis in parco de Greseleye.” (Beautiful valley in Greasley park). In return he expected a exulted place in history for his family and a pious place in heaven for himself. Full history, dissolution and martyrdom of its leaders can be read here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauvale_Priory
At its dissolution in 1539, when the prior was hanged, there were 19 monks and revenues estimated at £196. The most ancient of the bells at nearby Greasley church, of an exquisite tone with an inscription in black lettering, is said to have belonged to Beauvale Abbey. Source - Kellys Directory of Nottinghamshire 1891

Mount Grace Charterhouse in North Yorkshire has
a layout and location very similar to Beauvale

The monks themselves had an extremely spartan life. They were the strictest and most austere of any of the religious orders and the most reclusive. Each white-robed monk lived in his own separate dwelling, and none of them were allowed to go out of the bounds of the monastery except the priors and proctors, and they only to attend to the necessary affairs of the house. Unlike other monastic orders they renounced all guests and community work. They were also a silent order, not being allowed to speak except for a brief conversation once a week. They ate alone, their meal delivered through a hatch in the wall although there was one communal meal once a week. They lived a solitary, contemplative life, were required to study and to work with their hands, their labour consisting of cultivating the fields and gardens, chopping wood and transcribing books. They gained a reputation for scholastic learning and literature. Even their worship was plain and simple. No gold or silver vessels or ornaments, no instrumental music, just singing. There were high walls around the entire site cutting off the outside world.
A Beauvale monk is reputed to have been the anonymous author of one of the most influential works of Christian mysticism from the Middle Ages, advocating an almost Buddhist approach to finding God. "The Cloud of Unknowing" suggested the seeker of enlightenment be courageous enough to surrender one's mind and ego to the realm of "unknowing", at which point one may begin to glimpse the nature of God.

The use of meat was absolutely forbidden at all times, even to the sick. However fish was permitted once a week and the remains of the large fishponds can still be seen today at Beauvale. Other than that, their diet was very simple: salad, bread, a great many soups. Meals were distributed to the hermetic monks through a window in the wall of their cells, while they are immersed in reading or in prayer. 

Even today Carthusian monasteries are closed to the outside world but one rare visitor said... 
"On the one hand, the silence is bewitching; on the other, it is oppressive – at least to an outside observer. Not even gesturing with one’s head is customary. Only when one of the monks takes food to the cats that prowl around does he allow himself a slight jesting conversation with them, which helps lighten the burden."
 
There is a rather unusual music video takes us through the daily routine of a Carthusian monk. It was filmed around 2003 at the Grand Charteuse monastery in France. Customs seem to have relaxed over the years. Today's monks at Chartreuse are allowed a weekly communal hike in which conversation is permitted and where laughter abounds. Don't miss the rather incongruous "ski-ing" scene at the end! Click here to watch it. The video was inspired by a full length and virtually silent movie about life at Grand Chartreuse called "Into Great Silence". It is on YouTube here.

The Carthusian order was founded in the remote alpine valley of Charteuse in 1084 by Bruno of Cologne. The way of life did not suit all who were drawn to it. One early recruit, Alexander of Lewes, found the order’s regime and the harsh reality of solitude altogether too much for him. He contrasted the Carthusians’ solitary lives with those of other monks...

"The whole land is full of communities of monks, and the mutual support provided by the communal life supplies us with a sufficiently good example of religious perfection. Here [at Witham], alone and without companionship, we become torpid and dull through boredom, seeing no one for days at a time whose example can inspire us, and having only the walls which shut us in to look at."

Alexander eventually joined the more forgiving Cluniacs in Lewes, his native town. 

The buildings at Beauvale occupied a rectangular area, 470ft. from east to west, and 290ft. from north to south, surrounded by a wall, now only remaining on the east side.  At Beauvale as at other Carthusian priories, the monk's individual living cells were arranged around the outside of the main cloister as shown below where the archaeological survey of Beauvale has been superimposed on the modern map. The sketch above shows a rough 3D version of Beauvale although the main gatehouse into the complex, an imposed double or triple arched structure, is now thought to have been in the nearer wall. The foundations of it were recently unearthed near the present day tea shop.
There is a fine register or chartulary of the Carthusian Priory of Beauvale compiled by Nicholas Wartre, who was prior of this house in 1486, which is in excellent preservation. It is like a long term diary of the significant events of the priory. You can read it online here. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/notts/vol2/pp105-109

Each monk lived alone in a cell (shown here) with a living room and small garden

English Heritage take care of England's best preserved Carthusian house Mount Grace Priory. They have reconstructed a typical monk's cell and garden. It is well worth a visit. You can read their articles on a monk's life here https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/mount-grace-priory/history-and-stories/carthusian-life/
Beauvale also has an extensive and detailed Thoroton article from 1908 available here https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-5534-1/dissemination/PDFs/1908/TTS_012_1908_04_069-094.pdf

2 - Sir Henry de Retford and Katherine Paynel's effigy at Broughton - there were 2 Katherine Paynels to consider and identify, mother and daughter. A record of a 1385 fine clears up which one married Sir Henry de Retford...

"The 1385 fine which you have quoted does not state that Katherine, wife of Henry de Retford, knight, was the widow of Ralph Paynell. Quite clearly from the fine they were two different women, since Katherine wife of Henry de Retford was to inherit after the death of the Katherine, widow of Ralph Paynell. I would also like to point out that Katherine, widow of Nicholas de Cauntelo (died 22 Feb 1371) married secondly before 3 December 1371, Sir John Auncell, knight, who died some time before January 1380". https://groups.google.com/g/soc.genealogy.medieval/c/4-wXuL-OFno?pli=1

1385 Fine Reference: http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/fines/abstracts/CP_25_1_143_145.shtml
CP 25/1/143/145, number 47.
County: Lincolnshire.
Place: Westminster.

Sir Henry Redford / Retford of Castlethorpe manor c1354- 1409, a lion at his feet, with 1st wife Katherine Paynell.
He was possibly the son of Ralph de Retford dc 1375 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/3rP51H of Castlethorpe in Broughton and also (held of the Neville fee) the manors of Irby on Humber and Rothwell.
He m (pre Easter 1385) Katherine daughter of Sir Ralph Paynell dc1374 & heiress to his estates of Caythorpe and Carlton Paynel and also estates in Broughton, Lincoln, Appleby Parva and Scawby
Katherine was the widow of Nicholas de Cantelowe d1371 & Sir John Auncell d 1379

Children
1. Henry dsp 1460 ++++ m 1432 Ellen ...... d1461 widow of a gascon treasurer of Harfleur
2. Elizabeth d1471 m pre 1420 Sir Maurice Bruyn, of South Ockendon d1466 (great grand parents of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk)
3. Eleanor m William Lawe of Enville (parents of heiress Constance Lawe who married Peter Assheton & Eleanor Cornwall )

Sir Henry m2 Mary ....... d1458/9 who m2 Sir John Heron d1420 of Eschot, Eppleton, Twizel, Durham & Sawbridgeworth, Herts and m3 Sir William 4th Lord Clinton d1431
Mid 17c their effigies were moved from an earlier north chapel when the Anderson monument was built www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/45k8e7 , and replaced another effigy on a chancel chest-tomb carved with 3 shields between rampant lions.
"Of violent and uncertain temper" in his youth, Sir Henry was probably the Henry Retford of Worlaby near Castlethorpe who obtained a royal pardon in November 1377 for murdering one of his neighbours followed by another pardon for a second indictment for murder, both pardons influenced by the Black Prince and his wife Joan of Kent. Previously in February 1376 he and 3 others were bound over in sureties of £20 to keep the peace towards Robert Thresk, whom they had ‘threatened as to life and limb’
He seems to have reformed later as In 1384 he served on a number of royal commissions and was knighted.
After serving with Richard II on an ill-fated Scottish campaign in 1385 he accompanied John of Gaunt in 1386 on his expedition to Spain.
In November 1393 he joined the royal household, being retained by Richard II as a knight of the body at an annual fee of 40 marks payable for life. Together with a personal bodyguard comprising 1 esquire and 3 mounted archers, he accompanied the King to Ireland in September 1394 - He so impressed Richard that he was one of the ambassadors to Avignon & Rome in the failed attempt to end the papal schism. To his personal advantage before leaving Rome, he and his wife were given a papal indult allowing them to use a portable altar; and 2 licences for the plenary remission of sins at the hour of death, and for the upkeep of a private chapel with a baptismal font.
Under the lancastrian kings Henry served as High Sheriff of Lincolnshire 4 times and represented Lincolnshire in parliament as Knight of the Shire for 1400, and in 1401 & 1403 was summoned to the privy council.
In 1402 he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons. .
He died shortly before 16 June 1409, his son being still a minor. .++++ Sir Henry Retford the younger became sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1427, and was later made mayor of Bordeaux. Going over to the Yorkist side, he fought on the losing side at the battle of Ludlow in 1459, and was duly attained for treason by the Coventry Parliament, his estates being forfeit. He is thought to have died at the battle of Wakefield in 1460 again on the Yorkist side.
His sisters seem to have been co-heiresses of his lands.

3 - Crown of sexpartite roof vault re-used to decorate the gable end of one of Greasley's modern farm buildings. Below it an original mullioned window head has been turned round 90 degrees and re-used as a vertical window support. Roof vaulting of this sophistication indicates a highly skilled group of stonemasons were used.



5 - Greasley Castle is a nationally important example of a high status, fortified manor house with associated village, communal agricultural system and fishponds. It's Historic England listing explains its significant features...

Fortified houses were residences belonging to some of the richest and most powerful members of society. Their design reflects a combination of domestic and military elements. In some instances, the fortifications may be cosmetic additions to an otherwise conventional high status dwelling, giving a military aspect while remaining practically indefensible. They are associated with individuals or families of high status and their ostentatious architecture often reflects a high level of expenditure. The nature of the fortification varies, but can include moats, curtain walls, a gatehouse and other towers, gunports and crenellated parapets. Their buildings normally included a hall used as communal space for domestic and administrative purposes, kitchens, service and storage areas. In later houses the owners had separate private living apartments, these often receiving particular architectural emphasis. In common with castles, some fortified houses had outer courts beyond the main defences in which stables, brew houses, granaries and barns were located. Fortified houses were constructed in the medieval period, primarily between the 15th and 16th centuries, although evidence from earlier periods, such as the increase in the number of licences to crenellate in the reigns of Edward I and Edward II, indicates that the origins of the class can be traced further back. They are found primarily in several areas of lowland England: in upland areas they are outnumbered by structures such as bastles and tower houses which fulfilled many of the same functions. As a rare monument type, with fewer than 200 identified examples, all examples exhibiting significant surviving archaeological remains are considered of national importance.

Medieval society was supported by a communal system of agriculture based on large, unenclosed open arable fields. These large fields were subdivided into strips (known as lands) which were allocated to individual tenants. The cultivation of these strips with heavy ploughs pulled by oxen-teams produced long, wide ridges and the resultant `ridge and furrow' where it survives is the most obvious physical indication of the open field system. Individual strips or lands were laid out in groups known as furlongs defined by terminal headlands at the plough turning-points and lateral grass baulks. Furlongs were in turn grouped into large open fields. Well-preserved ridge and furrow, especially in its original context adjacent to village earthworks, is both an important source of information about medieval agrarian life and a distinctive contribution to the character of the historic landscape. It is usually now covered by the hedges or walls of subsequent field enclosure.

The wealthier members of the community, in addition to regulating the communal agricultural system, often maintained fishponds for their own private supply of meat. Fishponds were an expression of wealth and status during the medieval period and later and are usually attached to monastic institutions or the main manorial complex.

The building of fishponds began in the medieval period and peaked in the 12th century. The difficulty of obtaining fresh meat in the winter and the value placed on fish in terms of its protein content and as a status food may have been factors which favoured the development of fishponds and which made them so valuable. The practice of constructing fishponds declined after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century although in some areas it continued into the 17th century. Documentary sources provide a wealth of information about the way fishponds were managed. The main species of fish kept were eel, tench, pickerel, bream, perch and roach. Most fishponds were located close to villages, manors or monasteries or within parks so that a watch could be kept on them to prevent poaching. Archaeologically fishponds are important for their association with other classes of medieval monument and in providing evidence of site economy.

Greasley Castle is a relatively well-preserved and important example of a fortified house. The standing, buried and earthwork remains will retain important archaeological and environmental information. The fishponds, the moat and the bank and ditch defining the larger enclosure, are particularly conducive to the accumulation and preservation of artefactual, environmental and ecofactual material and may retain important waterlogged deposits. The importance of the site is increased by the survival of spatially associated features. Taken as a whole Greasley Castle will contribute greatly to the knowledge and understanding of fortified houses and their position in the medieval and post-medieval landscape.

https://ancientmonuments.uk/119134-greasley-castle-greasley?fbclid=IwAR0Feuig94BiGRWyIpmqRgReCD1ISXOVt43jVmHVquvPGLzq3mvotGxL-oU

6 - The Original Placement of the Hereford Mappa Mundi and the shrine of St Thomas Cantilupe - DAN TERKLA
ABSTRACT: Although antiquarians, historians of cartography, palaeographers and art historians have written about the Hereford mappa mundi for more than three hundred years, we know little about its original placement or use. This paper relies on new masonry and dendrochronological evidence and the system of medieval ecclesiastical preferments to argue that this monumental world map was originally exhibited in 1287 next to the first shrine of St Thomas Cantilupe in Hereford Cathedral’s north transept. It did not function as an altarpiece, therefore, but as part of what I call the Cantilupe pilgrimage complex, a conglomeration of items and images which was for a time one of England’s most popular pilgrimage destinations. In this location, the map would have added to the complex’s attractive power and served as a multi-media pedagogical tool.

Theory of the hidden symbolism connected to Thomas Cantilupe and Richard Swinfield
The Hereford Map: Its Author(s), Two Scenes and a Border Valerie I. J. Flint

Nicholas would certainly have visited the shrine perhaps several times during his lifetime. Almost certainly for the canonisation ceremony in 1320. In later years, Edward II and Edward III (Nicholas's staunch ally) patronised the shrine too; Edward II pushed for Cantilupe’s canonization by writing to the pope and cardinals throughout his reign and supporting the Hereford Chapter in gathering money for a new shrine at Cantilupe’s original resting place; Edward III attended the translation of the Cantilupe relics to this new shrine on 25 October 1349. Royal patronage of this shrine and its appropriation into the personal devotion of the three Edwards meant, unsurprisingly, that the nobility of England also adopted St Thomas of Hereford as their intercessor.
The cult was a great leveller of society, in which one can find the kings of England in pilgrimage alongside the populace of the locality. Those who were destitute might end up rubbing shoulders with the wealthy, with the cult bringing them down to the same level, clearly shown by Gilbert de Clare when he joined the populace of the city in penitential bare-footed pilgrimage to the shrine of his former enemy. For the various Mortimer tenants, therefore, Thomas was the great intercessor, delivering them from death or debilitating illness. For the soldiers like Edmund Mortimer’s knightly tenant, Robert le Boteler, or Hugh Mortimer’s constable, William, Cantilupe’s martial spirit was made blatant by the fourteen emblazoned knights in various states of repose and victory carved on his shrine. For nobles such as the Mortimers themselves, Cantilupe was an equal; a Marcher lord whom held land as a tenant-in-chief, had commanded an armed retinue whilst bishop of Hereford, and was descendant from a Norman lineage. Cantilupe’s cult, therefore, directly appealed to each strata of society in turn and continued to do so for many years and it was this which allowed the small city of Hereford to hold host to the second largest saintly cult after Canterbury; a place where pilgrims still come to this day. 
A list of miracles and items left behind at the shrine...

7 - On closer examination it may not be the old Trent bridge depicted but a tower with dome and a neighbouring tower with flat roof. Both icons are used elsewhere on the map to show church/castle I think. Also there is a "cloud" icon below the castle/church buildings perhaps denoting hills?
Historic England Research Records - Old Trent Bridge
Hob Uid: 317555
Location : Nottinghamshire,Rushcliffe, Non Civil Parish
Grid Ref : SK5826038130
Summary : The first bridge across the River Trent at Nottingham, built about 924 by Edward the Elder to supersede a ferry which existed in the time of the Danes, consisted on stone piers with timber beams and flooring. About 1156 in the reign of Henry II, this was replaced by a stone bridge of seventeen Gothic arches. Several arches were rebuilt by Edward I, and others had to be reconstructed in the 17th century, following the damage done during the Civil War and by a great flood in 1683. Other arches and piers were rebuilt from time to time, so that the old bridge in its final form contained little of the original structure. However, two arches apparently dating from the 12th century may still be seen at the south east end of the present Trent Bridge. Prior to demolition in 1871 there were 15 arches, most of which were built between 1272-1307. The two arches were restored in 1957. Scheduled and Listed Grade II.
More information : The first bridge over the Trent at Nottingham was the 'Heathebethe Brigg' which was timber built in the early part of the 10th cent. The second bridge was built of stone, and from the form, character, and arch construction, the earliest portion can be dated mid 12th cent. Prior to demolition in 1871 [when the present bridge was built] there were 15 arches most of which were built c. 1321 - 23 [19th cent. photographs substantiate this date], but those at the northern end [the west bank] were rebuilt
in the 17th cent. Two arches were restored in 1957. (1-4)  Two 14th c arches are now maintained by West Bridgford Council; they are enclosed by gardens on the centre of a major roundabout at SK 58263813. Modern restoration has been in sympathy with the original stonework save that the carriage way is modern paved.
(See AO/64/58/1-4). (5)

The Hereford Mappa Mundi of c.1283 showing "Fluvi Trenta" at "Snotig'hm"



Old Trent Bridge c.1815

Old and new Trent bridges 1871

8 - Recording of Bishop Thomas de Cantilupe's miracles - The Original Placement of the Hereford Mappa Mundi DAN TERKLA https://www.academia.edu/9955952/The_Original_Placement_of_the_Hereford_Map

We know that Cantilupe’s relics made Hereford Cathedral an immensely popular destination for thirteenth- and fourteenth-century pilgrims. The Acta Sanctorum, a multi-volume compendium of primary documents and commentaries related to the lives of saints, provides us with accounts of the miracles worked by the Cantilupe shrine and so gives us an idea of its popularity. R. C. Finucane’s work bears this out: ‘Although nearly 500 miracles were recorded by the tomb-custodians between 1287 and 1312,the peak occurred when enthusiasm was at its height at the start of the cult during April 1287,when some seventy-one miracles were listed’. The Register of Thomas de Cantilupe provides more evidence of his shrine’s attractive power. As the Reverend W. W. Capes wrote in his introduction:‘[T]he royal family and great nobles visited the[1287] tomb, and the excitement spread for eighteen years with unabated force’. He also tells us that ‘pilgrims with their offerings were then thronging around the tomb, making it impossible for building operations to be carried on’. That is, the shrine’s popularity seems to have interfered with the enlargement of the north nave aisle, which Bishop Swinfield commenced during his episcopacy (1282–1317), to allow pilgrims easy access to the north transept and the Cantilupe complex. In addition to ‘producing a modern setting for the pilgrim route’, the renovations were undertaken ‘with the aims of ... promoting the status of the bishopric, and creating an eye-catching skyline of towers to help proclaim these functions’ to visitors approaching the building.

Rededication of the restored shrine in 2008 with newly painted panels

The miracles of Bishop Thomas Cantilupe

9 - The story of St. Thomas Cantelupe's relics 
No relics of St Thomas Cantilupe1 were discovered in his tomb when it was opened by Dean John Merewether during restoration work at Hereford Cathedral in 1846.2 This occasions no surprise in view of their history since the desecration of the shrine at the Reformation,3 when the saint’s broken and scattered remains were rescued and hidden for safe keeping in local Catholic houses in and around Hereford. The relics were concealed throughout the reign of Elizabeth I and well into the seventeenth century,4 their whereabouts being known only to a few loyal and trustworthy recusants. The clandestine network necessary for the success of this hazardous activity would have been aided considerably by the local Jesuit and Benedictine missions and chaplaincies, which long remained active in the town despite the risks involved.5 on one occasion the efficacy of the relics was tested when they were carried in a nocturnal torchlit procession through the streets in an attempt to protect the city from plague,6 apparently successfully and without interference from the authorities. During the Civil War many of the relics were surreptitiously removed from Hereford, firmly Royalist in its allegiance, to prevent their confiscation and destruction by besieging Parliamentarian troops under the command of the earl of Stamford.7 A local Catholic, a certain Mrs Ravenhill, is credited with safeguarding an arm bone (now lost), which eventually found its way to the English Jesuit College at Saint-omer in Artois, north-east France (previously Flanders, as part of the Spanish Netherlands),8 where it apparently remained until 1762. Thereafter, its history is uncertain, though it may have been taken to Bruges following the suppression and relocation of the College that year, and then later to Liège before being finally returned to Bruges...

1 The saint’s life and cult are discussed in Chapter 14, Principal Hereford cults/St Thomas Cantilupe, with references. Relevant to this Appendix is Dom Illtud Barrett, ‘The relics of St Thomas Cantilupe’, in Jancey (ed.), St Thomas Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford: essays in his honour (1982), 181-5 [henceforth Barrett, ‘The relics of St Thomas Cantilupe’].






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