Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire

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Bolingbroke, now called Old Bolingbroke, is a village near Boston in Lincolnshire, England. (Another village 10 km south west is called New Bolingbroke.)

William de Roumare, Earl of Lincoln (born circa 1096) built Bolingbroke Castle in the 13th century : a classic motte and bailey castle, with a wet ditch, the type of castle stereotyped by Hollywood 700 years later. John of Gaunt, the son of Edward III, acquired the castle; and in 1367 it became the birthplace of John's son Henry, known as Henry Bolingbroke, who became King Henry IV of England. The castle underwent a Civil War siege in 1643, as the Royalists used it to garrison troops prior to the Battle of Winceby (11 October 1643). The last remaining structure fell down in 1815. The site eventually became a grassy hillock, which archeologists excavated in the 1970s.