The Lordship of the Three Castles, Skenfrith, Grosmont, and White Castle, were part of the Marcher defences against the Welsh— a people the Normans would eventually subdue. Specifically, the castles were built to defend the Monnow valley, a key route to Hereford. Now they make for a nice walk, but if you dig beneath the stones, there are stories to be told.
Even so, you can see at a glance the fertile lands it dominated and controlled.
White Castle, penetrated further into Wales and faced with increasing threats was heavily fortified in readiness. No attack came, not surprising when you see the strength of the walls and surrounding moat, which perhaps illustrates the truism 'if you want peace, prepare for war.'
White Castle, Grosmont and Skenfrith eventually fell into the hands of one of the most significant power-brokers of the C13th, one now who is largely unheard of.
Hubert de Burgh is a character who could carry off a TV series, a major film, or prize-winning novel. With characters like King John and pirates like Eustace the Monk, what could go wrong? Great dramas and award winning books have been written about Cardinal Wolsey and his successor Thomas Cromwell, but who on God’s earth has heard of Hubert de Burgh?
Born, probably in Norfolk, he emerged from obscurity to become King John’s fixer in chief and remained loyal to the king through thick and thin. There was only one known instance when his loyalty wavered. In 1203, Duke Arthur of Brittany, a dangerous rival* to the English throne was captured and held in one of Hubert’s castles. John’s reaction was swift. He ordered the young duke to be castrated and blinded; this, for Hubert, was an order too far. From there the story becomes a little confused. Hubert told the king the deed had been done, and outrage, based largely on rumours followed. At that point Hubert confessed to the king he hadn’t been able to go through with it, and yet, nevertheless, Arthur disappears from history and is never seen again.
Hubert’s brief loss of nerve, or perhaps a flicker of scruple was forgiven, and he rose to become the most powerful man in England and continued to be so after John died. Hubert became regent and guardian of the nine-year-old heir – the future Henry III.
Looking back, Hubert de Burgh provided a masterclass in political manipulation, especially when it came to exploiting marriage. Apart from using his own children and others as marriage pawns, he was quite the gamer himself.
In 1209 he married the widowed Beatrice de Warrenne and thus began his steady acquisition of land and estates. In 1217 he married Isabella of Gloucester, King John’s former wife and acquired even more land. Conveniently or otherwise, Isabella died a few weeks after the marriage.
Four years later, in 1221, he married the Scottish king’s daughter, Margaret, making him brother in law of the young Henry III who’d married her sister, Joan, in the same year. In the process, he made powerful enemies. He was accused of siphoning royal revenues and surrounding the young king with middle-aged advisors, all of whom had served under King John and were loyal to Hubert de Burgh.
Like other over powerful royal advisers, Hubert met his nemesis in the thwarted ambitions of others allied to the king, who may have been flighty, resentful or petty; to my mind, all three. And yet despite several near misses where his life hung by a thread, Hubert survived albeit diminished.
Unlike the later Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell, Hubert enjoyed a prosperous old age, no doubt looking back on years of states-craft, warfare, and skullduggery. His fall deserves its own story but this, just one of the many castles and estates he held, bears mute testimony to a key but little known figure in English history.
*said to be King Richard’s preferred choice as his successor
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