Staunton Harold. ([Page 135.])
The property was held by Sir Hugh Burnett for about twenty years, when James Butler, Earl of Ormond (a Lancastrian noble), by some means or other, obtained possession of the land, he was executed at Newcastle after the battle of Towton Moor in 1461. In that year Edward, Duke of York, became King, and rewarded his partisans with titles and grants of land. Among them was Sir William Hastings, whom he created Baron Hastings of Ashby, &c., Steward of Leicester, and ambassador, with the Earl of Warwick, to treat for peace with Louis XI., King of France, who gave him a pension of 2000 crowns per annum. The first payment was made in gold, which Lord Hastings is said to have received with these words, “Put it here into my sleeve; for other testimonial (receipt) you shall get none: no man shall say that King Edward’s Lord Chamberlain hath been pensioner to the French King.” This may be the origin of the crest of the Hastings’ family, a maunch or sleeve. King Edward also gave him “licence to enclose and impark 3000 acres of land and wood at Ashby-de-la-Zouch,” and to erect and fortify houses, &c., there and elsewhere. In the year 1474 he built Ashby Castle, nine years later the Protector (Richard, Duke of Gloucester) accused him of high treason, and, without trial, had him beheaded on a log of wood on Tower Green. His remains were interred in Windsor Castle, where a splendid monument was erected to his memory.
As we are not writing a history of the Hastings family, we must confine ourselves to those members of that family connected with the history of the place, which for two centuries centred round its castle and church. Ashby Castle was, as we have seen, built by the first Lord Hastings in 1474. It stands on the south side of the town. Judging by its ruins, it must have been indeed a stately pile. Entering from the west we see the remains of the kitchen, with its fire-places, &c.; it had a groined roof, over which were rooms, with another storey over them, access to these was obtained by a spiral staircase in the north-east corner of the kitchen. The west front of this block has been destroyed, so nothing can be written about its chief entrance, its height is about seventy feet, the dimensions of the kitchen are fifty feet long, by twenty-seven broad, and thirty-seven feet high.
In the kitchen are two doorways leading into the “servants hall,” from this two doorways lead into the Great Hall, and from this admission was obtained to a “drawing room.” At the end of this room, a little to the south, is the chapel, lit by four windows, on either side, and an east window. At the west end, over the west door, is a gallery, to which a spiral staircase leads. Adjoining the east end, to the south of it, were rooms for the chaplain. On the south is a courtyard formed by the chapel, chaplain’s rooms, a thick wall, and the Great Tower. This tower must have been an imposing building of, at least, four storeys, with cellar, kitchen, dining hall, drawing room, and sleeping apartments. Its southern half is destroyed, but what is left on the north side—turrets, windows, fire-place, armorial bearings, &c., prove how richly the fabric was sculptured over. Very probably there was a wall from the Great Tower on its west side, like that on its east side, which met a wall built out from the kitchen. The ground plan of the Castle would form a parallelogram with kitchen, servants’ hall, great hall, drawing room, and chapel on the north side, chaplain’s room at the east end, Great Tower, with walls on the south side, and a wall and kitchen at the west end. A subterraneous passage connects the kitchen with the Great Tower.
The chief historical events connected with the Castle are the visit of Mary, Queen of Scots, in November of the year 1569. She was on her way from Tutbury to Coventry. Anne, wife of James I., and Prince Henry were entertained at the Castle in June, 1603, and King James himself paid the Earl a visit in the year 1617. The expenses of this visit were so great, the Earl’s income became seriously diminished, as one of his descendants, Lady Flora, daughter of the 1st Marquis of Hastings wrote, a propos of the visit,
The bells did ring,
The gracious King
Enjoyed his visit much;
And we’ve been poor
Ere since that hour