Belvoir Castle
 Castles |
Belvoir Castle lies on an isolated spur of the Lincolnshire Wolds and its battlemented outline of towers, turrets and crenellations, viewed from the surrounding lowlands, is at once spectacular, presenting the idealised vision of a romantic castle. Those few who have had the privilege of living on this hill-top have enjoyed an unparalleled vista across the Vale of Belvoir, toward the shadowy grey outlines of Nottingham Castle in one direction and Lincoln Cathedral in the other. In their turn they have also borne witness to 900 years of English history ebb and flow about them.
The first Belvoir Castle had been built by Robert de Todeni late in the 11 th century. He was the standard bearer for William the Conqueror and his coffin is displayed in the present castle, having been removed from its earlier resting place in the priory, another of his constructions. The name Belvoir appears for the first time as Belvedere in a document of 1130. When Robert de Todeni received William I he offered him a golden key to the Staunton Tower, and to this day the custom is continued - the key having been presented to more than one king who has arrived in peace or war. William de Albini, who succeeded to the castle in the late 12 th century, was one of the barons who signed Magna Carta in 1215, but was himself ousted by King John (1199-1216).
In 1247 Belvoir Castle fell to the De Ros family, who strengthened its fortifications; it is just possible that the Staunton Tower retains something of the medieval castle. Belvoir's chequered history took a turn for the worst during the Wars of the Roses (1455-71) when it suffered severe damage. After the last member of the de Ros family had been hanged by Edward IV (1461-83), the castle came over to Lord Hastings who hurried its demise by using its stone for his own residence at Ashby. When the Manners family of Etal in Northumberland inherited Belvoir in the 16 th century it was almost completely ruinous. The first Earl Manners of Rutland began the rebuilding in1528, but this castle suffered the fate of previous endeavours. During the Civil War (1642-49) the Royalist occupants withstood a siege, before Cromwell's troops ‘razed it to the ground' in 1649. With the restoration of the monarchy came the restoration of Belvoir, to the same plans and on the same foundations. But, the new structure built by the eighth Earl, with the help of John Webb in the years 1654-68, was more a mansion than a castle, a solid four-square block of large size with hardly any decoration.
When Elizabeth, wife of the fifth Duke of Rutland, came to Belvoir on her honeymoon in 1800, fresh from her father's stately Castle Howard, she is supposed to have remarked how little like a castle was her new home. The Duke and Duchess decided to remodel this house into a sham medieval castle, and to this end they commissioned the services of James Wyatt, who worked at Belvoir till he died in 1813. The work was completed in 1816 under the supervision of the Duke's friend and chaplain the Vicar of Bottesford, Sir John Thoroton. In 1816 a fire destroyed much of Wyatt's work and rebuilding began once more, this time under the supervision of Thoroton.
Whites Directory of 1846 calls it "by far the most superb architectural ornament of which Leicestershire can boast". The style adapted throughout is Mixed-Medieval from Wyatt's large porte-cochere to the boldly projecting principal tower by Thoroton. The round towers have Norman windows, but for the more ornate parts, such as Wyatt's chapel façade with its polygonal turrets and Thoroton's principal tower, Gothic details are freely employed. Throughout most of the interior Thoroton displays more elegance, as seen in his entrance hall, grand staircase and ballroom. Along the major part of the south-west front runs the Regent's Gallery, completed in 1813 for the visit of the Regent himself.
The picture galleries display scores of family portraits. Van Dyck painted the Duchess of Buckingham, a daughter of the house; Reynolds painted the delightful Lady Tyrconnel, sister of the fourth Duke, and Hogarth painted the Duchess of Somerset. Here also is one of the finest Holbein paintings of Henry VIII. There are many other paintings and portraits of famous men, miniatures, furniture, ancient manuscripts and the priceless Gobelin tapestries.
Outside, the Duchess's Garden is full of terraces and stone statues of gods, goddesses and Father Time. The Duke's Walk to Spring Gardens comprises an entire valley filled with flowerbeds and trees. At the foot of the hill are the slight remains of the priory founded by Robert de Todeni, built at the same time as the original castle 900 years ago. On Blackberry Hill, an avenue of firs and trees leads to the Mausoleum, a marble memorial to the Duchess of Rutland who died in 1825; all the dukes of Rutland are buried in the Mausoleum, the last being the eighth. Behind the castle are the stables, untouched since their construction in 1704-5 and still in the 17 th century style with cross-windows, high-pitched roofs and dormers.