Alnwick

In those days when there was no regular army or corps of professional officers at the disposal of the crown, governors and captains of castles and of garrisons had to be chosen from the local gentlemen.

Thus the strong northern castles, Banborough, Alnwick, Dunstanborough, were in charge of northern gentry whose loyalty to the new king was not proof against an appeal to their old allegiance.

Although the country as a whole did not rise, the great castles opened their gates.

They appear to have been badly victualled for a siege, but nothing short of treachery or lack of spirit on the part of some of the defenders could have made them yield so quickly.

Margaret put Lord Hungerford in charge of Alnwick.

The Duke of Somerset and Sir Ralph Percy, both of whom had come to her standard, were appointed to hold Banborough.

Dunstanborough was committed to the Lancastrian Sir Richard Tunstall, whose brother Sir William Tunstall was a Yorkist and had been in charge of Banborough.

Nevertheless the castles were vigorously besieged from December 11th by Edward's captains.

It was a heavenly night, sweet and tranquil as the loves of angels.

A gentle breeze whispered among the honeysuckles which bloomed above us, and the full moon tinged with her sliver liked the divine towers of Alnwick.

It was then that for the first time I gave him my hand, and I swore that I never would give it but to him.

It was then that for the first time he pressed his lips to mine, and I swore that my lips should never be pressed by another.

Your ear is deaf to complaint.

Your doors are barred against the poor and wretched.

Not so are the gates of Alnwick Castle.

They are open as their owner's heart.

My name's Nikki from the North East Folklore Society.

And today, you get a massive treat because we are being taken around the gorgeous historical town of Alnwick with Miss Alnwick herself, Rosie Bush of Alnwick Walk and Tours.

And we don't just get one folklore tale, we get, I think it might even be, like, three or four folklore tales about the ghosts and legends that are hidden in these streets that we walk through every day and barely even think about it.

There is a jump scare in there as well, which you will find, so apologies if that is loud through your earphones.

So how's your day been so far? You're-

It's been good.

So I've been in to Alnwick already.

So as you know, we do the ghost tours.

The Earl of Northumber, castles and manors: Cockermouth in Cumberland, a seven hundred lee by year.

Alnwick, Warkworth Castle, Langley and Prudhoe in Northumberland.

Rothbury, lordship on Cockett, a seven miles above Alnwick, where is such a town as Corbridge.

Corbridge lordship, where appear great tokens of buildings by square stones.

Chatton lordship upon Till, a mile from Chillingham.

On the same side is the fair castle standing upon a hill, longing with the town to the Lord Dacus of Gilsland.

The town is long and meetly well builded with low houses, the streets paved.

It is far fairer town than Alnwick.

Others argue that Edward the Confessor, Margaret's great uncle and former king, used the marriage as a means to extend English influence northwards.

The real question is: How did Malcolm act on these diplomatic gifts? He took an army into Northumberland in 1093 and fought against the Normans for control of the Anglo-Scottish border, ultimately paying the price when he was killed at the Battle of Alnwick.

The chronicles, specifically those of John of Worcester and the Scottish Chronicle of Melrose, give us conflicting reports about his final battle, which illustrates how little reliable evidence survives from that period.

Meanwhile, Margaret was a pious woman who would go on to be canonized almost two hundred years after her death.

In medieval terms, a dynastic bridge, as historians refer to it, often meant that wars would be fought over overlapping rights in multiple territories.

A deeper analysis reveals how the Scots used Margaret's lineage as diplomatic capital in subsequent treaties.

The eleven oh seven Treaty of Alnwick, for instance, granted lands to Norman barons in exchange for Scottish military assistance.

Historians argue that this was a direct continuation of Malcolm's policy to intertwine with the feudal order.

Landowners argued they needed clear ownership to improve yields, but many commoners saw it as theft of their rights.

This conflict would erupt into riots and protest in towns like Alnwick and Canterbury during the seventeenth century.

By the mid-eighteenth century, the enclosure movement had become a national policy, with Parliament passing a series of Enclosure Acts that formalized the process.

Farmers now owned contiguous pieces of land, allowing them to experiment more freely with new techniques.