88 Mr. Tate on Dunstanburgh Castle. 



castle and the field of Emeldon on the west, and for four 

 perches of the same foss, in breadth forty feet and in depth 

 four feet, £21 19s. 7d. are charged ; wages for various persons 

 for quarrying and carrying stones amount to £20 16s. l|d. ; 

 two cart horses cost 22s. ; for 49 stones of Spanish iron 

 48s. 5|d. were paid; wages of carters amount to £7 19s. 8d ; 

 hay and corn for horses and oxen cost £12 5s. ll^d. ; 159 

 stones of Spanish iron for hatchets, trowels, chisels, &c, 

 amount to £4 13s. ; other expenses are for lime, coals, &c. ; 

 and £65 10s. were paid to Master Elia, the mason, in part 

 payment of £254, for making the gate-house of the height 

 of eighty feet, with one tower on each side of the gate. There 

 is no mention of a dongeon or keep. Three years after the 

 commencement of the building the earl, in 1316, obtained a 

 license from Edward II. to crenelate or fortify his mansion 

 of Dunstanburgh ; * and soon after this the whole had been 

 completed. At the same period, or it may be three or four 

 years earlier, Alnwick Castle was repaired and partly rebuilt 

 by the first lord Percy of Alnwick, in the style of the period ; 

 and indeed it seems that, part at least of both, had been built 

 by the same masons ; for many of the masons' marks on 

 the stones are, according to Hartshorn, the same in both 

 castles. 



The builder of Dunstanburgh was an important historic 

 personage — of royal descent, and distinguished above all sub- 

 jects by the extent of his possessions, as he held, at the same 

 time, the earldoms of Lancaster, Salisbury, Leicester, and 

 Derby, besides being the lord of Pontefract Castle. He 

 became, however, a keen opponent of the weak favouritism 

 of Edward II. ; and joining other barons to drive the Spencers 

 from power, he was made general of the confederate army ; 

 but being defeated by the king at Burton-on-Trent in 1321, 

 he endeavoured to seek refuge in his castle of Dunstanburgh, 

 in hope of receiving aid from Scotland. Intercepted in his 

 northward march at Borough-bridge, he was taken prisoner 

 in March, 1322, by Sir Samuel Ward and Sir Andrew 



* Cal. Rot. Pat. 9 Edw. II. m. 25, p. 79. The following is a copy :— Pro 

 Thoma Comite Lancastriae. — Rex omnibus ad quos etc. salutem. Sciatis quod 

 de gratia nostra speciaii concessimus pro nobis et haeredibus nostris dilecto 

 consanguineo et fideli nostro Thomae comiti Lancastriae, quod ipse mansum 

 suum de Dunstanburgh in com. Northumbr. muro de petra et calce firmare et 

 Eernellare, et illud sic firmatum et Kernellatum tenere possit sibi et haeredibus 

 suis imperpetuum, sine occasione nostri vel haeredum nostrorum, ballivorum seu 

 ministrorum nostrorum quorumcumque. In cujus, etc. T. R. apud Linc- 

 [olniam], 21 die Aug. 



