120 DUFFIELD CASTLE. 



of a character hitherto undreamt of by the inhabitants, as it rose 

 course by course, would almost by its very existence on such a 

 spot crush out all hopes of a successful rising. 



The building of the Dufheld stronghold seems to have been 

 begun very soon after the Conquest. Henry de Ferrers, by his 

 wife Bertha, had three sons, Engenulph, William, and Robert. 

 This great nobleman was very frequently in attendance on his 

 sovereign, and towards the end of his life seems to have preferred 

 to reside at Tutbury, where, in the Priory church of his founding, 

 his remains were buried on his death in 1089. To his eldest son, 

 Engenulph he entrusted the charge of Dufheld castle,* and there 

 Engenulph resided until his death, which almost immediately pre- 

 ceded that of his father. The second son, William, accompanied 

 Robert Duke of Normandy to the Holy Land ; he, too, died in 

 the lifetime of his father. 



Robert de Ferrers, the third and youngest son, succeeded to 

 the great estates of his father, and was, like his father, a man of 

 supreme importance in the councils of the nation. He was one 

 of the witnesses to the laws put forth by Stephen, in the first year 

 of his reign. In the famous battle fought against the Scotch, on 

 August 22nd, 1 138, near Northallerton, Robert de Ferrers com- 

 manded a powerful contingent of Derbyshire men, who played no 

 small part in securing a definite victory to the English. The en 

 gagement is well known as the Battle of the Standard, from the 

 remarkable character of the erection round which the troops rallied, 

 and which was constructed according to the directions of Thurstan, 

 Archbishop of York. It consisted of the great mast of a vessel 

 strongly secured to a waggon ; in the centre of the cross which 



* Of absolute documentary evidence of this we have no first-hand proof, 

 having hitherto searched in vain for it ; but the secondary evidence is strong, 

 and we know of no reason whatever to doubt it. Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt, in the 

 introduction to the Domesday Book of Derbyshire, says : — " Henry de Ferrers 

 . founded the church of the Holy Mary near the castle at Tutbury, and 

 built Duffield castle." And again : — "Engenulph had Duffield castle." 



That singularly accurate writer, the late Sir Oswald Mosley, says in his 

 History of Tutbury, when enumerating the children of Henry de Ferrers, — ■ 

 " Engenulph, to whom he gave a castle at Duffield." The footnote that he 

 gives to this statement is unfortunately very vague ; it is merely — " MSS. in 

 Due. Lane. Off." 



