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Melbourne Castle was a medieval castle in Melbourne, Derbyshire. It was built on the site of an earlier royal manor house that had provided accommodation for noblemen hunting in a nearby royal park in the reign of King John. Construction of the castle was started in 1311 by Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, and continued until 1322, shortly before his execution, but the work was never fully completed. From the early fourteenth century, Melbourne Castle was mainly in the possession of the Earls and Dukes of Lancaster or the crown. Improvements and repairs were made, notably by John of Gaunt, and the building was in generally good condition throughout the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. John I, Duke of Bourbon, was kept at Melbourne for 19 years after his capture at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, and the castle was considered as a possible prison for Mary Queen of Scots, although events led to her incarceration elsewhere. The castle was in decline by the end of the reign of Elizabeth I. Although the stonework was sound, minimal maintenance had led to significant deterioration of other parts of the structure. The manor was purchased in 1604 by Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon, who had his own castle in nearby Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The Melbourne property was then demolished and used as a source for building materials. All that remains of Melbourne Castle today is a section of wall about 15 m (50 ft) long and 4 m (13 ft) high and some foundations; nothing is known of the internal layout of the former building. The ruins are grade II listed and the site is a scheduled monument. There is no public access to the site. == Background == Melbourne is a town in South Derbyshire close to the River Trent, which may have originated as buildings associated with the royal manor to the south of the nearby settlement at Kings Newton.〔 Melbourne Castle was constructed on the site of an earlier manor house of unknown date; there is an old tradition that the manor was originally established in about the year 900, during the reign of Alfred the Great, but there is no evidence for this.〔Briggs (1852) pp. 43–49.〕 As recorded in the Domesday Book, the manor of Melbourne and its lands were the property of King Edward the Confessor prior to the Norman Conquest. The property then passed into the hands of William I of England.〔Derbyshire Archaeological Society (1895) pp. 92–93.〕 After creating the Diocese of Carlisle in 1133, Henry I gave the manor for life to Æthelwold, the first bishop. Some time later, the diocese built a palace nearby on the site of what is now Melbourne Hall.〔Stroud (2002) pp. 1, 5.〕 When Bishop Æthelwold died in about 1156, the manor reverted to the crown. A royal hunting park close to Melbourne was probably created by King John around 1200,〔Heath (2005) pp. 1–2.〕 and the King is known to have stayed at the manor house on at least five occasions.〔 John gave the manor and its lands to Hugh Beauchamp, although they appear to have soon reverted to the crown,〔Lysons (1817) pp. 209–210.〕 being gifted by Henry III to Bishop Walter Mauclerk of Carlisle in about 1230. The estate returned to the crown on the bishop's death in 1248, and Henry granted the land to his son, Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster in 1265.〔 At some later date, the manor appears to have been granted to a Philip Marc,〔 before passing to Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, the King's son. This was in 1298 when he came of age, his father having died two years earlier. Early references to the house itself are rare, but there are records of repairs to the gutters in 1246 and to the roof of the King's Chamber in 1248.〔Usher (1991) pp. 126–133.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Melbourne Castle」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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