An adventure of castle-tastic proportions.

You can't swing a dirty tube sock in this country without hitting some kind of historic building. They are everywhere - churches, castles, pubs, houses - I would wager that there are entire towns which predate all of U.S. history. Often, when the foundations for new buildings are being constructed, they will hit some previously unknown ruins or artifacts which require the archeologists and historic societies to come in (who you gonna call? Hist-OR-ians!) to preserve or excavate the most important bits before they can proceed with the build. I guess that's what happens when a society exists for thousands of years on one island - the deeper you go, the more layers of history you encounter, kind of like a big English onion. Or not.

What that means, though, is that there is something to see and tons of history to explore no matter where you are in the UK. A few weeks ago, my flatmate Nick had a car for the weekend, and we decided to take the opportunity to embark on a castling adventure - which we could do without even leaving Leicestershire! The giddy excitement of my first close-up castle encounters resulted in about 200 photos (don't you just love digital cameras?). I tried to pick out just a few to post, but it was hard to narrow it down (consider yourself warned). Yes, I got a bit carried away... but they were real-life, honest to goodness CASTLES people. So cool...Our first stop of the day was the "Ashby de la Zouch" Castle, or the ruins of said castle. It was originally built as a wooden manor house in the 12th century, but was later expanded and redone in stone by Alan la Zouch, achieving "castle" status in the 15th century (a medieval castle, this one).
Once the Zouch family line ended, the castle changed hands many times. Often (much more frequently than one would like to imagine) this change took place because someone beheaded the owner. Personally, I'd rather have my head than a castle, no matter how many tapestries - or fireplaces large enough that I (or a nice big roasting pig) could fit inside - it boasted.
Especially since Nick didn't really fit...
But then again, I guess he is a bit taller than most medieval people, except maybe the Saxons.
In any event, in 1474, Edward IV bestowed the castle to Lord Hastings (William, to his friends) who built a few new towers and got the thing up to the height of its splendor. Then he went and got himself beheaded as well. Apparently, Hastings was one of the big-wigs under Edward's rule, but when Edward died in 1483, Hastings joined up with Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Edward's brother), against the family of Edward's wife (the Woodvilles).
However, proving to be a bit of a back-stabber, Richard decided he wanted the throne for himself and had Hastings arrested for treason and beheaded at the Tower of London without a trial (probably when Hastings disagreed with some brash and nefarious plan to seize the throne from Edward V, who was only twelve). Richard, who was the young heir's Lord Protector (ironic?), later "escorted" Edward V and his younger brother to the Tower of London for their "safety," - and they were never seen again (the "Princes in the Tower" is apparently one of the great mysteries of English history, as no one knows what exactly happened to them). He had the two young princes declared illegitimate (Edward V hadn't been coronated yet), putting himself next in line for the throne, and was crowned King Richard III shortly thereafter.
He got what was coming to him two years later in the Battle of Bosworth Field, however, when a revolution of Lancastrians led by Henry Tudor (who became King Henry VII) were able to defeat Richard's troops and surround and kill Richard. Then they paraded his naked body through the streets and later buried him in good ol' Leicester. According to Wikipedia, his body may currently reside under a car park (parking lot in American-speak) somewhere in the city. That's what you get for being a power-hungry nephew killer, I suppose. See! Complicated, depraved, treacherous and fascinating history EVERYWHERE. But, I digress.
Back to the Ashby de la Zouch Castle; Richard must have had some small sense of propriety or morality or something, as Hastings' wife and sons were still allowed to inherit his lands and properties (castle included) and Hastings himself was buried next to Edward IV in St George's Chapel in Windsor. Hastings' beheading is famous because it was the first carried out and recorded at the Tower of London. Which is saying something, considering how famous the Tower is for all of its high profile executions, including that of Sir Walter Raleigh (the namesake of our capital in North Carolina), Anne Boleyn, Queen Catherine, Guy Fawkes, and William Wallace.
The castle itself was famous for hosting some very important figures of the time - Henry VII, Charles I, James I, and Mary Queen of Scots (twice!). During the Civil War, it was a Royalist stronghold, but finally surrendered, defeated by plague and lack of food, to Parliamentary forces (after a year-long siege!) in 1646. It had been too strong to storm, so it survived the siege just fine. Only later (1648) did Parliament decide to render the castle unusable by blowing up part of it (the aftermath of which you can see below). Who knows how they could justify that.
We did get to climb to the top of the remaining part of the tower, and the long way up (90 something stairs!) was peppered with all these great little windows for firing arrows out of...
And we got to explore this fabulous dark, damp, and claustrophobia-inducing passageway that led underground for some tens of meters before popping up in the kitchen area. Good for making an escape. Or for pretending to send someone to the dungeons.
All in all, a very nice little trip down English history lane, although it was absolutely FRIGID outside. We found a pub nearby (the White Hart) to have some lunch (I had an absolutely delicious chicken/bacon/cheese/BBQ sauce sandwich... YUM) and warm up in, and then headed out through the English countryside on our way to castle number two. We didn't stop at the pub below, but as I come from a family of greyhound owners, I couldn't help snapping a picture as we drove by. There really are some great pub names in this country.
Our second (and final, unfortunately, because it started getting dark and even colder by the time we arrived, around 4:30pm) stop was at Kirby Muxloe Castle. This one is only open in July and August, so we couldn't go inside. That didn't prevent us from walking around the outside of the moat (which was VERY effective in keeping us out, so served its purpose well) and taking lots MORE pictures (which again, I narrowed down).
This one, coincidentally enough, was built by Lord William Hastings (our protagonist from above), or at least commissioned to be built, in 1480. It was originally a stone-fortified manor house, but Hastings decided to turn it into a full blown castle. Sadly, construction stopped in 1483 when he was beheaded. It would have been quite grand had it been completed, but only the gatehouse and one corner tower were finished, as can be seen from this aerial photo I took from a hot air balloon (or as some people call it, the internets).
I was quite impressed with the stone windows (on both castles, actually) and with the fancy brick work. Apparently, the bricks (100,000 of them) were all fired on-site instead of using locally quarried stone, making this build quite unique; it was one of the first brick castles built in England, but also one of the last of its type (the quadrangle design with four corner towers).
And so I decided to claim it for my own. Except I didn't have a flag. (No flag? No country. Those are the rules.)
And so with no flag, and no castle to call my own, we simply walked around and took pictures and froze a bit more.
But as stated, the moat was impressive.
And the ducks looked happy.
And the sky was pretty.
And a good time was had by all. Especially since Nick understands my need to stop for food and drink frequently on any excursion, historic, cold, or otherwise. Our adventure ended next door to Kirby Muxloe at The Castle Pub with hot chocolates and spicy Thai peanuts. And then we went home where I climbed under the covers and pushed the boost button on my thermostat about nine times or so until I could feel my fingers and toes again. Thanks for the adventure, Nick!

And now I'm realizing that I've spent most of the afternoon researching the history of these two castles instead of pollution and resource use life-cycle assessments like I'm supposed to for my current assignment. Oops. This was more fun, anyway. And if you've made it to the end of my impromptu, slightly excessive meander through history, I applaud you. Yay for history! And Yay for castles!