In Northumberland, very close to the Scottish border, Chillingham Castle was for centuries a front-line fortress, guarding the road between England and Scotland. A strategic position and often besieged, it welcomed in 1603 the Stuart royal family at the moment when the two kingdoms were at last uniting.
A fortress of the border
The seat of the Grey family, Chillingham held a strategic position on the England-Scotland road: it served as a base for the English armies launching their campaigns north, and was regularly besieged during the border wars. Its quadrangular fortified structure bears witness to centuries of conflict between the two kingdoms — that 'bloody border' where raids, battles and incursions shaped life. For a long time, to be master of Chillingham was to hold a lock against Scotland.
The Union of the Crowns (1603)
Everything changed in 1603 with the Union of the Crowns. On 6 June of that year, Queen Anne of Denmark, wife of James VI of Scotland become James I of England, and her children stayed at Chillingham on their way to London — a poem of welcome was probably dedicated to them by her secretary, the Scottish poet William Fowler. That the Queen of Scots should now be received as a friend in an English fortress built precisely to repel the Scots says all the reversal of 1603: the border of war became a road of peace. James I passed through again in 1617, moving freely between his two kingdoms. To see: the quadrangular fortified structure, the Great Hall (set of the film Elizabeth, 1998), the Italianate garden and its urns, the wild herd of Chillingham cattle (~130 head).
Did you know?
Chillingham holds a living treasure unique in the world: a herd of wild white cattle, isolated in the park since the Middle Ages (around 1270) and never crossed with other cattle. These some 130 beasts, remaining wary and undomesticated, are genetically apart — a 'fossil' herd that has grazed the same meadows for more than seven centuries, a living witness of the time when Chillingham guarded the Scottish border.
Notes
Chillingham Castle lies at Chillingham, Northumberland; the (inhabited) castle and park open to the public; the wild herd is visited separately. Hours to check.
Quiz
- What function did Chillingham fulfil?
- A fortress of the Anglo-Scottish border
- A trading port
- An abbey
- Who stayed here on 6 June 1603?
- Anne of Denmark and her children
- Henry VIII
- Mary Stuart
- Which living treasure does the park hold?
- A herd of wild white cattle
- Lions
- Golden peacocks