Pleshey

William the Conqueror gave Pleshey, in the parish of High Easter (southwest of Braintree) to Geoffrey de Mandeville in appreciation for his services; Mandeville was one of the battle commanders at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Here, Mandeville built his caput (center of administration and main home) of the many villages in Essex given to him by the king. Later, his grandson, another Geoffrey was made Earl of Essex by King Stephen.

Pleshey Castle was originally a motte and bailey castle, which consisted of a wooden palisade and tower on a high man-made hill (motte) surrounded by the bailey (castle yard or ward), which at some time in the castle's early history was surrounded by a moat. Later, probably in the 12th century, the motte was fortified with a castle of stone. The motte at Pleshey is now about 15 meters high, and is one of the largest mottes in England.

Little remains of the castle today, apart from its earthworks, but for a long time it was an important place in the history of England. Through inheritance, Pleshey Castle became the main castle of Henry de Bohun, 1st Earl of Hereford, and his wife, Elizabeth, the daughter of Edward I, King of England, where some of their children were born.

Between 1361 and 1384, the de Bohun family sent a group of Augustinian friars to work on de Bohun manuscripts at Pleshey Castle. Here they completed eleven books, one of them a Psalter to celebrate Mary de Bohun's marriage to Henry Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV, King of England. The Mary de Bohun Psalter is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Image:Pleshey castle mound and moat.jpg

Pleshey Castle motte and moat

Eventually, the castle passed (through marriage) to Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, the youngest son of Edward III. His nephew, Richard II, outraged by his uncle's opposition, had him arrested at Pleshey and shipped to France, illustrated here

Two years later the Duke of Exeter was taken to Pleshey Castle and executed for plotting against the king.

Pleshey Castle's claim to fame includes Shakespeare's play "Richard II" in which the widow of Richard asks Edmund of York:

         Hid him - O, what?
         With all good speed at Plashy [sic] visit me.
         Alack, and what shall good old York there see,
         But empty lodgings and unfurnished walls,
         Unpeopled offices, untrodden stones?

[edit] External links

Pleshey - White's Directory of Essex, 1848

view • talk • edit The towns and villages of Chelmsford borough, Essex in the East of England:
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