Beaudesert


The castle has disappeared apart from its earthworks and buried foundations - as a Time Team dig showed.  Originally it lay in the 5 hides of land in the vill of Preston Bagot.  These had been held by Brictnoth before 1066.  By 1086 this land had passed to Count Robert Beaumont of Meulan (d.1118) who had enfeoffed a certain Hugh in part of that land by 1086.  At this time Robert's land had risen in value from 30s to 40s.  The lordship, which was to become known as Beaudesert, then consisted of 3 carucates of land.  In 1086 the count had 2 slaves and half a plough there, while elsewhere was a villager, 3 smallholders and a plough.  Robert Beaumont had become count of Meulan in 1081 and earl of Leicester in 1100.  His main castles were Leicester and Beaumont-Roger in Normandy.  His tenant Hugh has been associated with Hugh Fitz Constantine, a man who certainly held other estates in 1086.  Those he held of the count of Meulan were just Loxley and allegedly Preston Bagot.  He also held Morton Bagot and Ruin Clifford in Warwickshire and Oaken and Patshull in Staffordshire of Robert Stafford (d.1088) as well as Spernall in Warwickshire of William Bonvallet.  However, the land of Preston Bagot certainly had a different tenurial history to that of nearby Loxley which was later held by Robert Fitz Odo (d.1196).  It is therefore possible that the Hugh mentioned under Preston Bagot is in fact Hugh Montfort (d.1089), the progenitor of the Montforts of Beaudesert and not Hugh Fitz Constantine.  Further research into the tenurial history of Fitz Constantine's other holdings may help explain this problem, but it seems possible that this Hugh was in fact a man of the Montfort family and that he founded the castle that was standing by 1141.

The early genealogy of the Montfort lords of Beaudesert is murky.  They are recorded at Preston in Rutland and Beaudesert in Warwickshire, while their connection with the Beaumont earls of Warwick strongly suggest that they are members of the family of the same name from Montfort sur Risle in Normandy.  These 2 Montfort families also share the names of Robert, Hugh and Thurstan.  The first ‘English' Hugh Montfort (d.1089 as a monk) held 124 English estates in Essex, Kent, Norfolk and Suffolk in Domesday as a tenant in chief and a further 94 as undertenant.  He was lord of Montfort sur Risle castle, which lies some 17 miles from Beaumont-Roger castle, the caput of the Beaumonts.  However, Hugh's descendants in the main line proved disloyal to the subsequent English kings and were disinherited, dying out after being banished in the early twelfth century.  The name of Hugh Montfort was re-established by Hugh's grandson who was actually the son of Gilbert Gant (d.1095) and Alice Montfort, the daughter of Hugh (d.1089).  This Hugh took his grandfather's name of Montfort and sometime, probably before 1118 and certainly before 1123, married Adelina Beaumont, the daughter of Earl Robert of Leicester (d.1118) and niece of Earl Henry Beaumont of Warwick (d.1119).  He then took part in the rebellion of the Beaumont twins and was captured by King Henry I (1100-35) at the battle of Bourgtheroulde on 26 March 1124.  He was still imprisoned at the time of Henry's death in December 1135, but appears to have been released soon after.  He was still living in 1151, having made a charter in Normandy before 1147 which mentioned his grandfather, Hugh Montfort (d.1089) and witnessing a charter for Duke Henry of Normandy in Rouen during 1150/51.  The death of his grandson, Hugh Montfort sur Risle in 1204 ended the line and no certain link can be shown with the Montforts of Beaudesert.

The Beaudesert Montforts are found as men of earls of Warwick.  Earl Henry Beaumont of Warwick (d.1119) was the brother of the count of Meulan who held Preston Bagot in 1086.  In 1330 a survey found that Preston in Rutland [a Montfort holding] had been held by King William I (1066-87), until he gave it to the earl of Warwick for the service of 1½ knights.  It then remained in the hands of the earls until one of them gave it to Thurstan the ancestor of Peter Montfort who was killed at the battle of Evesham when it passed to his widow as dower.  Peter, like his ancestors, was said to have had the right of gallows there.

From this brief comment made some 250 years after the events it claims to portray, it is possible to sketch a plausible scenario for how Beaudesert came to the Montfort family.  Hugh Montfort of Montfort sur Risle (d.1041) was the son of Thurstan Bastembourg and had at least 4 sons.  One of these was Hugh Montfort (d.1089), but another was called Thurstan after his grandfather - a common occurrence at the time.  This Thurstan is recorded as the father of Abbot William Montfort of Bec (d.1124) by a granddaughter of Count Waleran of Meulan (d.1069).  Count Waleran was also grandfather to the Beaumont brothers, Earl Robert of Leicester (d.1118) and Earl Henry of Warwick (d.1119).  It seems feasible that another son of this Thurstan Montfort, might have been the Hugh who had received Preston Bagot by 1086.  This Hugh Montfort died a little before September 1130 when his son, Robert, paid £3 for confirmation that the men of Preston in Rutland would pay him the services there that his father had received.  Quite obviously this Hugh Montfort had therefore died before September 1130.  If he had held Preston Bagot in 1086 he would have been born before 1070, which would have made him in his 60s in 1130.  As Preston in Rutland and Preston Bagot, aka Beaudesert, made up the core lands of the Montfort family of Beaudesert it seems likely that this supposition that this Hugh was the first lord and therefore probable builder of Beaudesert castle is correct.  The 1330 survey was therefore probably wrong in assigning Thurstan (d.1170) as the first lord of Beaudesert, that honour probably going to his father, Hugh (d.1130).  Similarly there was no earl of Warwick under William the Conqueror, the title only being given to Henry Beaumont in 1088, a year after the Conqueror's death.

The Montfort of Beaudesert descent then continued in the male line until 1369.  Sometime probably after 1130, but before 1139 when he died, Robert Montfort, acting with his brother Thurstan (d.1170), gave half the manor and church of Wing in Rutland to Thorney abbey.  After Robert's death in 1139 Thurstan resumed the gift until forced by King Stephen (1135-54) to relinquish it again.  The latter act was confirmed at the time by Thurstan's son, another Robert (d.1185). 

Dugdale himself held a charter which showed that Hugh Montfort's son, Thurstan (d.1170), adhered to the Empress Matilda's cause.  This charter was probably made after the capture of King Stephen on 2 February 1141 and as the Empress was at Winchester on 2 or 3 March.  The text ran:
the Empress Matilda, daughter of King Henry, to Earl Roger of Warwick (d.1153) and all his faithful men, French and English, of Warwickshire, greetings.  Know that we have conceded to Thurstan Montfort to have a Sunday Market at his castle of Bellodeserto.  We therefore wish and firmly command that all those who go, stay and return from the aforesaid market may do so in firm peace.

This document was witnessed by Miles Gloucester, the lord of Brecon.  The earl of Warwick subsequently returned to his royal allegiance, but the further actions of Thurstan are pretty murky.  He inherited Great Ayton in Yorkshire from his Murdac wife and conformed with King Stephen's desire for him to return Wing to Thorney abbey.  This suggests that he reverted to Stephen's allegiance after the king's release from prison late in 1141.  After King Stephen's death in 1154, Thurstan paid allegiance to King Henry II (1154-89).  In September 1156, Thurstan owed 20m (£13 6s 8d) for his lands in Rutland, a sum he paid the next year.  In 1159 he was fined and pardoned by the king 30m (£20) for waste.  As this was in Warwickshire it seems certain that this referred to Beaudesert.  In 1166 Thurstan owed 50m (£33 6s 8d) through the pledge of Geoffrey Newburgh, who was probably the uncle of the earl of Warwick.  This sum was pardoned by the king in 1169.  Thurstan also was mentioned in the 1166 Cartae Baronum where he was recorded as holding an undefined lordship of 10¾ fees of Earl William Beaumont of Warwick (d.1184). 

It has never been explained how Domesday Beaudesert passed from the overlordship of the Count Robert of Meulan (d.1118) to the descendants of his brother, Earl Henry of Warwick (d.1119).  Whatever the case, the grant of the Empress in 1141 strongly suggests that the overlordship was held by Earl Roger of Warwick (d.1153) by that date.

By 1169, Thurstan's son, Robert (d.1185) was obviously of age and acting for Henry II (1154-89) in the Welsh war in Shropshire for this year he received £34 12d and 17s 8d by the gift of Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury.  Thurstan is last recorded in September 1170, while his son, Robert, appears in the pipe roll from 1169 onwards.  In the war of 1173-74, Robert seems to have taken the Young King's side, with a consequence that his Gloucestershire land of Weston was in the sheriff's hands in 1176, while he owed £200 for his misdeeds in Wiltshire, although the sum was required under Warwickshire - no doubt from his caput of Beaudesert.  In Warwickshire this sum was wrongly accounted for as £300, although it was further recorded that Robert paid £33 11s 7d of his debt and therefore owed £166 8s 5d.  Robert seems to have suffered exile, for the year 1177 saw £35 11s 4d taken from the profits of the lands of Robert Montfort which were in the king's hands.  This left his debt standing at £140 17s 1d, before a further £9 was delivered to the treasury through the hands of Simon Basset, reducing the debt to £131 17s 1d.  Robert must have got around in the earlier fighting for he also owed 50m (£33 6s 8d) for his misdeeds in Yorkshire, which he paid.  The same year we also find William Percy fining for 200m (£133 6s 8d) for having his right to the land of Wharram Percy recognised against Robert Montfort.  Eventually in 1181 this fine seems to have been quashed with the words, ‘but he did not have the right' (sed non habuit rectum).  In the same year the 10m (£6 13s 4d) debt of Robert Montfort for unjust disseisin in Warwickshire was also noted against his brother, Henry. 

Similarly to last year it was noted that 20s had been paid to the Crown from the profits of Uppingham in Rutland, which had belonged to Robert Montfort and which was to be computed against his debts in Warwickshire.  The same year it was recorded that Henry, the brother of Robert Montfort, owed £131 17s 1d and paid £84 13s 4d and so owed £47 3s 9d which was paid off the next year.  From 1179 to 1182 the sheriff of Warwick and Leicestershire accounted for £20 from the farm of Wellesbourne Mountford (Welleburn) which had belonged to Robert Montfort.  Possibly Robert was now dead, but as it was not until 1185 that Henry took over Wharram Percy, so it is also possible that Robert was simply disabled and had passed control of the barony over to his younger brother.  That said the sheriff of Warwickshire, Bertram Verdun (d.1192) of Brandon castle, accounted for 7s 6d from the inquisitions (prequisitionibus) held at Beldesert.

In 1180 it was recorded, but marked for deletion, that Richard Malebisse owed 40m (£26 13s 4d) for justice in having the land of Eton in Yorkshire against Roger Mowbray and Henry Montfort.  However it was only in 1185 that Henry took the place of his elder brother Robert in the Yorkshire vill of Wharram Percy.  In 1190 Henry reclaimed Wellesbourne Mountford from King Richard I (1189-99) for £100 after he had been disseised of it by King Henry II (1154-89).

Henry Montfort died in 1213, leaving a widow, Rose, and several children.  His heir was another Thurstan Montfort who in 1214 was ordered to accompany King John on his Angevin campaign ‘because he was a knight'.  By 6 March 1216, Thurstan seems to have been in rebellion for on that day he, Robert Roppeley and Robert Gresley were given letters of safe conduct with other rebels.  They obviously did not appear and the order was reissued on 15 March.  Consequently by 19 May 1216, Walter Cantilupe (d.1254) was in control of Thurstan's Rutland lands of ‘Rammcham' and Preston.  Thurstan died before 9 July 1216 when his lands were passed to William Cantilupe (d.1239); the earl of Warwick, the overlord of Beaudesert, being ordered to make sure this was done.  Before 28 August 1216, the lands which had belonged to Henry Montfort (d.1213) in Gloucestershire were given to the custody of Thomas Malmains (d.1219).  These lands seem not be mentioned again in relation to the Montforts of Beaudesert, so possibly they were the dower of Rose the wife of Henry Montfort (d.1213) and she was a Malmains.  On 12 February 1217, William Cantilupe (d.1239) was further given the right to marry off the heir of Thurstan Montfort.  This again would suggest that Thurstan's wife had been a relative and possibly the daughter of William.

William Cantilupe (d.1239) would seem to have been in control of Beaudesert when on 3 July 1221 Peter Montfort was given a 2 day fair at his manor of Hanley [in which Beaudesert castle stands] and a weekly market on Mondays, the earl of Warwick being informed of this fact.  This grant was expanded by William Cantilupe on 9 February 1227 when he gave 15m (£10) for the confirmation of the manor of Aston which King John had given him and for having a market each week on Mondays at the manor of Peter Montfort of Beaudesert and a 3 day fair there on the eve, feast and morrow of St Giles.  Quite clearly Peter was underage in 1227 and therefore must also have been  in 1221.  Peter had obviously come of age before 1236 when he was recorded as owing 5½ fees to the earl of Warwick.  This was no doubt for Beaudesert castle and barony.  Nothing is recorded of the castle during this period, but Peter Montfort (d.1265) played a large roll during the Barons' War and the Welsh war that preceded it.  On 27 September 1257 Peter was put in charge of Shropshire and Staffordshire with the castles of Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury.  Over the next 2 years Ellesmere and the ruined Church Stretton were added to the fortresses in his possession.  Despite this, Peter was instrumental in helping Earl Simon Montfort in his opposition to the Crown.  Peter was amongst the 7 barons who stood against Henry III (1216-72) at the Mad Parliament of Oxford and helped draw up the Provisions of Oxford, being the first recorded speaker of parliament.  In 1262 he was in charge of Abergavenny castle and barony and he played a prominent part in the subsequent battle of Abergavenny on 3 March 1263 where he commanded a force of 80 barded horses and 3-4,000 foot at a greater expense than a baron of his lowly status could afford.  He was by this point increasingly associated with the baronial opposition to King Henry III (1216-72).  As a consequence as early as 22 June 1262, the sheriff of Staffordshire was ordered that:
Since no one should build a castle or fortress in our kingdom without our special license, and as Roger Somery makes to fortify a certain castle at Dudley in your county, as we have certainly understood, we charge you to go to the aforesaid Roger in your own capacity, and on our part to prevent him from presuming to strengthen a castle or a fortress there, lest we should be obliged to stretch out heavier hands for this purpose. 

A similar order was sent to the sheriff of Warwick concerning Beaudesert castle which belonged to Peter Montfort.  Whether the castle was strengthened or not during this time Peter certainly played his part in Simon Montfort's rebellion.  Peter had been removed from command of the royal castles of Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury before July 1262 and in April 1263 he and those barons who sided with Earl Simon were declared public enemies.  Despite this he was granted charge of the royal castles of Corfe and Sherbourne in July after a reconciliation.

On 28 February 1264, Peter was one of the barons who helped take Worcester for the barons, before he and his son, Peter, were subsequently captured at the battle of Northampton on 5 April 1264.  They were only released from Windsor castle after Simon's victory at the battle of Lewes in May that year.  Peter was then strongly associated with the baronial movement and became one of the 9 member council governing the realm.  He also became constable of Whittington and Hereford castles on 20 December 1264 and helped negotiate the Treaty of Pipton on 12 June 1265.  Peter and his sons marched with Earl Simon and Henry III during the subsequent war against Prince Edward (d.1307) that ended with death of both Peter and Earl Simon Montfort at the battle of Evesham on 4 August 1265.  According to one contemporary source, Peter Montfort, Ralph Basset and others of the most renowned men, surrendered to the English knights and were summarily put to death.  If the family tree for Peter expounded above is correct, both Earl Simon and Peter were descended from Thurstan Bastembourg, being 6th cousins, 2 times removed.

With the death of Peter and the wounding and capturing of at least 2 of his sons it might be expected that Beaudesert castle would have surrendered to the royalists.  However, that didn't happen and the castle itself appeared to be still holding out in late February 1266 when the king commanded the abbot of Bordesley (Bridley) and the prior of Studley to make an extent of the manors of Beaudesert, Whitchurch, Wellesbourne Mountford and Edstone (Eleston), late held by Peter Montfort, the king's enemy.  The king went on to explain that he had lately commanded the sheriff of Warwick to do this, but that he had been able to do so due to the resistence of the king's enemies therein.  It would seem that the castle soon afterwards succumbed.  Possibly around 28 June 1267, when Robert Montfort of Rutland and Peter Montfort were forgiven their trespasses by the award of Kenilworth and renewed their fealty to King Henry III.  Later on 24 March 1268, the king confirmed that Peter Montfort had received his lands back as per the form of the peace of Kenilworth.  As the Time Team excavation seemed to uncover a 2 phase site with a demolished ‘Norman' structure built over by a thirteenth century building, this may suggest that the site was destroyed in the late 1260s and then rebuilt.  In the same Time Team programme it was claimed that in 1306 the castle was rebuilt as there had been a license to crenellate given that year.  However, this clearly refers to the ecclesiastical Beaudesert Hall in Staffordshire and not Beaudesert in Warwickshire.

In 1315, Peter Montfort (d.1367), held Preston and its members, Uppingham, Wing, Ridlington, Glaston, Martinsthorp and Lyndon in Rutland of the earl of Warwick for 6 fees.  Nearly a decade later, King Edward II (1307-27) may have been entertained by Peter at his fortress between 4 and 9 January 1324 when the exchequer rolls were based at Henley.  Before this he was at Kenilworth and afterwards at Worcester, which makes it certain that this was Henley in Arden and not Henley on Thames.  In 1327 Peter Montfort (d.1367) founded a chantry in Preston Bagot church of which a stained glass window bearing his arms as well as those of England, Lancaster and Beauchamp survived until after 1658.  In 1347 Peter married Margaret Furnival.  In the ensuing entail the lordship was said to consist of Beaudesert, Henley, Whitchurch, Ilmington and Wellesbourne Mountford with other lands in Nottinghamshire, Rutland and Surrey and would fall to the earls of Warwick if there was no issue from the marriage.  Further Montfort activities at Beaudesert are unfortunately unknown and his estates passed to his overlord, the earl of Warwick between 1367 and 1369. 

Beaudesert castle was still maintained into the fifteenth century and in 1411, according to an account roll, insignificant payments were made for its repair by it's constable.  These consisted of 18d paid to a carpenter for mending the hall porch and 16d for felling the timber for these repairs.  Both constable and these minor repairs suggest that the castle was still a going concern.  In 1547 the manor of Henley in Arden, alias Henley Bewdesert with its 2 parks, late the possessions of Earl Richard of Warwick (d.1471), were granted to Earl John of Warwick.   The lack of mention of the castle has been taken to mean that the fortress had been abandoned by this date.  When the site was inspected around 1656 by William Dugdale (1605-86) he found:
that now there is not only any one stone visibly left upon another, but the very trenches themselves, notwithstanding their great depth and wideness are so filled up as that the plough has sundry times made furrows in every part of them...

The site would appear to be in a similar condition today, except for the fact that the grass has grown over the rubble, denying any appearance of masonry.

Description
The castle is usually described as a motte and double bailey castle, although it has no motte.  More accurately it is a scarped hill with 2 baileys.  In this respect of being misnamed it is similar to Radnor castle, which is also often erroneously described as a motte.  The main castle and its 2 baileys lie on a promontory which runs from the northeast to southwest and ends at St Nicholas church.  The inner ward consists of the elongated conical flat top of the hill, scarped and ditched.  The fall of the hill making the ditch quite impressive, it being some 50' wide due to the slope.  The ward within the ditch is some 280' long by 180' wide.

Excavation has shown that the defences consisted of an irregular stone curtain about 5' thick and set slightly down the current hill top.  Entrance was gained centrally to the west via a causeway over the ditch from the bailey, although nearby traces were uncovered of an internal palisade holding the rampart in position.  Possibly this was the first phase of fortification on the site.  Excavation also recovered within the ward the remains of what was claimed to be a pilaster buttressed great hall to the north-east running inside the curtain as well as traces of the curtain wall which was uncovered to the north in Time Team's Trench 1.  Interestingly what appears to have been a 2 storey hall lay on top of an earlier stone structure.  The latter had tiled floors, which may have been decorated with the Montfort's arms of a lion rampant which was found on the site.  The hall also had a stone tiled roof and painted glass windows.  Areas around the bailey would seem to have been paved, although no evidence was uncovered for the curtain towers added on the Time Team ‘reconstruction'.

Southwest of the inner ward lay a rectangular bailey, divided from the main ward by a 30' wide ditch.  The bailey is slightly larger than the inner ward being some 280' long by 210' wide.  It is divided from the outer ward by another ditch.  The outer ward is much smaller and triangular, filling in the last portion of the ridge top.  The defences of these last 2 wards are highly denuded - no doubt the work of destruction noted by Dugdale when this area had been brought under cultivation.  Some 500' north of the castle are 2 fish ponds which no doubt once supplied the castle with its Friday needs.

North-east of the castle are the remains of a small quarry cut into the hillside.  Probably this supplied stone for the castle masonry.  The strategic usefulness of the site is confirmed by the fact that a buried observation post has been set in the ditch between the inner and outer wards, showing that the site was defensively relevant centuries after its foundation.

Cooper, W. Records of Beaudesert, records a moulded capital recovered from the site as well as wooden pipes, whose decay had caused some of the ground to give way, swallowing up cattle.
 

Copyright©2023 Paul Martin Remfry