Belvoir Castle: A Gothic Revival Ducal Residence in England
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- British
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page10 sections
History
Belvoir Castle is a historic castle in the United Kingdom, established by Norman builders in 1067 on a steep hill in northeast Leicestershire. The present building is an early nineteenth-century Gothic Revival reconstruction, while the site’s history reaches back to the Norman Conquest, the takeover of England by William, Duke of Normandy, in 1066. From its elevated position above the Vale of Belvoir, the castle became the long-standing home of the Manners family and the seat of the Dukes of Rutland.
Norman foundation and medieval inheritance
The first castle was built on land belonging to Robert de Todeni, whose ownership is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. This survey of landholding and resources was commissioned by William I after the Norman Conquest. Belvoir stood within the wapentake of Framland, an administrative and judicial district, and overlooked the neighbouring wapentake of Winnibriggs in Lincolnshire.
The property later passed to William d’Aubigny and then to his granddaughter Isabel. Her marriage to Robert de Ros around 1234 transferred the inheritance to the de Ros family. Belvoir remained a royal manor, meaning an estate held directly by the Crown, until it was granted to Robert de Ros in 1257. In 1267 he received a licence to crenellate, or legal permission to add battlements and associated fortifications.
By 1464 the Norman castle was described as being in ruins. When the male line of the de Ros family ended in 1508, the manor and castle passed through the maternal line to George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros. His son, Thomas Manners, became the 1st Earl of Rutland in 1525.
The Tudor manor and royalist stronghold
Thomas Manners began building a large Tudor manor house at Belvoir in 1528. The work was completed in 1555, creating a new residence in place of the ruined Norman fortification. During the early seventeenth century, the household received members of the royal and diplomatic elite. The retinue of James VI and I stayed at Belvoir in April 1603, while Prince Henry and the Venetian ambassador Antonio Foscarini visited in August 1612.
The household was also connected with a notorious witchcraft case. Joan, Margaret, and Phillipa Flower, servants associated with Belvoir, were accused of murdering two young sons of the 6th Earl of Rutland through witchcraft. Joan died in prison, and Margaret and Phillipa were hanged.
During the English Civil War, the conflict between supporters of King Charles I and Parliament, Belvoir served as a stronghold for the Royalists, who supported the monarchy. Charles I spent a night at the castle while travelling toward Lincolnshire. Because of the Manners family’s Royalist allegiance, Parliamentarian forces destroyed the Tudor building in 1649.
Rebuilding and the ducal seat
A new family residence was begun in 1654 to replace the destroyed Tudor house. Designed by John Webb, it was completed in 1668 at a cost of £11,730. In 1703 the 9th Earl of Rutland became the 1st Duke of Rutland. Belvoir has remained the Manners family home for approximately five centuries and has been the seat of the Dukes of Rutland for more than three centuries.
In 1799 the 5th Duke of Rutland married Elizabeth Howard, later Duchess of Rutland. She chose James Wyatt to transform Belvoir into a romantic Gothic Revival castle. Gothic Revival was a nineteenth-century movement that revived medieval forms such as towers, battlements, irregular massing, and historically styled details. The project was financed partly through the sale of seven villages and their surrounding lands.
The rebuilding was nearly complete when fire struck on 26 October 1816 and almost destroyed the castle. Paintings by Titian, Rubens, van Dyck, and Reynolds were among the losses, which were estimated at £120,000. Belvoir was rebuilt largely according to Wyatt’s designs, with an additional cost of £82,000. Sir James Thornton, the Duke’s friend, chaplain, and vicar of nearby Bottesford, was chiefly responsible for the reconstruction, which was largely complete by 1832.
Later associations and continuing ownership
Anna, Duchess of Bedford, is associated with the popularisation of afternoon tea after visiting Belvoir in the 1840s. She found that tea with cakes or sandwiches provided a light meal between luncheon and the evening dinner customary at the time.
A museum of the Queen’s Royal Lancers, representing the 17th and 21st Lancers, was established at the castle in 1964. It left Belvoir in October 2007, and the Royal Lancers and Nottinghamshire Yeomanry Museum is now housed at Thoresby Hall.
The Manners family traditionally used St Mary the Virgin’s Church at Bottesford for burial, and the church contains monuments to eight Earls of Rutland. After the family acquired the dukedom in 1703, most Dukes of Rutland were buried at Belvoir. The ducal mausoleum beside the castle was built by the 5th Duke after Elizabeth Howard died in 1825. Belvoir remains the private property and residence of David Manners, 11th Duke of Rutland, with parts of the castle serving as the family home and other parts open to the public.
The approximately 15,000-acre Belvoir estate became the headquarters of the Belvoir Hunt, established in 1750. Belvoir Castle was designated a Grade I listed building in 1953, a status reflecting the exceptional importance of the early nineteenth-century castle and supporting protection of its historic fabric.
Remains
Belvoir Castle occupies the summit of a steep hill overlooking the Vale of Belvoir. Its present form is a mock-medieval Gothic Revival castle rather than a surviving medieval structure. The site has been rebuilt at least three times: the Norman fortification gave way to the Tudor manor begun in 1528, the Tudor building was replaced after its destruction in 1649, and the later residence was transformed from 1799 before being rebuilt after the fire of 1816.
The castle and principal interiors
The central tower has been described as recalling Windsor Castle. The early nineteenth-century reconstruction contains the Elizabeth Saloon, named for Elizabeth Howard, wife of the 5th Duke; the Regent’s Gallery; and a Roman-inspired State Dining Room. A substantial collection of works of art remains associated with the castle, although the 1816 fire destroyed paintings by Titian, Rubens, van Dyck, and Reynolds.
The Tudor manor completed in 1555 was built partly with stone taken from Croxton Abbey and Belvoir Priory after the dissolution of those religious institutions. The later residence designed by John Webb was constructed between 1654 and 1668. These successive buildings form the architectural history behind the present castle, whose surviving fabric largely follows the designs used in the post-fire rebuilding.
Belvoir Gardens
Elizabeth Howard designed and landscaped Belvoir Gardens in 1799. The grounds include a natural amphitheatre facing the estate, formed by glacial moraines and supplied by freshwater springs. The springs were intended to support flowering plants throughout the year, and the gardens became the first site of mass spring-flower bedding, a method developed by the head gardener, Mr Divers. A root house, or summer house, also survives. The gardens are being gradually restored through the Friends of Belvoir Gardens volunteer programme.
Ducal mausoleum
The ducal mausoleum stands beside the castle and contains funerary monuments relocated from Bottesford, together with the recorded burials of members of the Manners family. Those buried there include John Manners, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Dukes of Rutland; Charles Manners, 4th Duke; John Manners, 5th Duke; Violet Manners, Duchess of Rutland; Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich; Diana Cooper, Viscountess Norwich; and Charles Manners, 10th Duke of Rutland. A mausoleum is a substantial above-ground burial building containing tombs or monuments.
Briery Wood Heronry
Briery Wood Heronry lies within the grounds. It is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a statutory protection for land with notable ecological or geological importance, and forms part of the biologically important natural features associated with the estate.
