90 Mr. Tate on Dunstanburgh Castle. 



Dunstanburgh also fell into her hands. "They," says Wark- 

 worth in his Chronicle, " were victualled and stuffed with 

 Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Scotsmen." A large army 

 raised by Edward IV. commenced in December, 1462, the 

 siege of "these castles. Dunstanburgh had a garrison of 120 

 men, and was besieged by the earl of Worcester and Sir 

 Ralph Grey ; but this, as well as the other Northumbrian 

 castles, was soon given up to king Edward. So that, " he 

 was then possessed of all England except a castle in North 

 Wales called Harlake."* 



Another effort was made in Northumberland in 1464, by 

 the heroic queen Margaret, at first with fair prospects of 

 success, to restore her husband to the throne ; Alnwick, 

 Bamburgh, and Dunstanburgh castles fell into her hands ; 

 but at the battle of Hexham, fought on May 15th, 1464, the 

 Lancastrians were totally defeated ; and soon afterwards, on 

 June 13th, 1464, the earl of Warwick, " with the puissance 

 came before the castle of Alnwick and had it delivered up to 

 him by appointment ; and also the Castle of Dunstanburgh, 

 where my said lord kept the feast of St. John the Baptist.f 



Tradition says, that queen Margaret sought refuge in this 

 castle and occupied the south-eastern tower, which has hence 

 been called St. Margaret's tower ; and that she embarked 

 from the narrow rocky cove beneath the tower, and escaped 

 in a fishing boat into Scotland. Historical evidences do not 

 confirm this tradition ; but it is probable that, while in the 

 north, in 1462, she may have visited the castle and occupied 

 apartments in the tower, which bears her name. Injured by 

 the sieges it had sustained, the castle, after this period, became 

 ruinous. 



Being a royal castle, it was surveyed along with Wark- 

 worth, Harbottle, and Bamburgh castles in 1538, by Bellasis, 

 Collingwood, and Horsley ; and from this survey we learn, 

 that Dunstanburgh was then a very ruinous house and of 

 small strength ; there were no lodgings standing but the 

 dongeon, which had two little towers joined on either end, 

 the dongeon being 35 yards long and 12 yards broad ; the 

 roofs of the whole required " the lead to be new casten and 

 made with guts, spouts, and fillets ; " but a roof and two 

 floors were needed for one of the towers, the timber for which 

 must be had in Chopwell wood and framed in Newcastle ; 



* Warkworth's Chronicle, p. 2. 



f MS. College of Arms L. 9, Warkworth's Chronicle, 



