In Norfolk, Castle Rising raises one of the finest Norman keeps in England amid vast earthwork fortifications. In Tudor times, this ancient fortress entered the patrimony of the Howards, Dukes of Norfolk — the most powerful Catholic family in the realm — and followed the decline of the medieval castles become symbols more than places of war.
A Norman keep come to the Howards
The keep of Castle Rising, raised around 1138, is a magnificent example of Romanesque architecture: pilaster buttresses, blind arcading, careful carved decoration, surrounded by three earthwork enclosures covering some five hectares. Under the Tudors, the old fortress changed hands: in 1544, Henry VIII granted it to Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, one of the greatest lords of the realm. The castle thus joined the vast patrimony of the Howards, a dynasty that dominated East Anglia and embodied the old Catholic nobility against Tudor power.
A fortress become a symbol
Under the Howards, Castle Rising gradually ceased to have a real military function: like so many medieval fortresses, it became a seigneurial holding and a symbol of status rather than a place of defence. The great family that held it knew, moreover, under the Tudors a turbulent destiny — the 3rd Duke of Norfolk narrowly escaped execution at Henry VIII's death, and his son, the poet Surrey, was beheaded in 1547. The castle remains attached to this line to this day. To see: the Norman keep with pilaster buttresses and Romanesque arcading, the three earthwork enclosures (5 ha of fortifications), the remains of the Norman chapel.
Did you know?
Castle Rising has remained, through the centuries, linked to a single great line: the Howards. Since 1998, its management is even entrusted to the Baron Howard of Rising, a descendant of the same family that received it from Henry VIII in 1544. Rare are the fortresses whose keeping still falls, nearly five centuries later, to the heirs of those to whom a Tudor king had given it.
Notes
Castle Rising Castle lies at Castle Rising, Norfolk; a castle managed (on behalf of the Howard family), open to the public. Hours to check.
Quiz
- To whom did Henry VIII grant Castle Rising in 1544?
- Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
- Thomas Cromwell
- Walter Raleigh
- Which great family was its master?
- The Howards (Dukes of Norfolk)
- The Boleyns
- The de Veres
- What did the castle become under the Tudors?
- A seigneurial and symbolic holding (declining military function)
- A war harbour
- An abbey