From Arne to Wareham, a distance of some four miles, there is a rough road, by following which we complete our circuit of this interesting district—the Isle of Purbeck.
CORFE CASTLE
By Albert Bankes
HERE is reason to believe that a castle existed at Corfe in the reign of King Alfred, but in his time this structure, which afterwards became so large as to vie with the noblest royal habitations in the kingdom, consisted probably of only a single strong tower on the summit of the hill constituting one of the defences of Wareham, which in Saxon times was a very important town and port.
In 875 Wareham Castle, then the strongest place in all Wessex, was surprised and taken by a Danish general, and it was not until 877, two years later, that King Alfred succeeded in driving his Danish foes out of Wareham. To prevent the return of the enemy was the object of building a fortress at Corfe (“Corfes-geat,” as it was then called), a break or pass in the lofty range of the Purbeck hills. To quote from Hutchins’ History of Dorset:
Whatever may have been the size or construction of the castle in the days of King Alfred, it was greatly extended and embellished in the century next following under the direction of the magnificent King Edgar.
With Elfrida, the infamous Queen of King Edgar, commences what is important in the history of this castle. King Edgar, who died in the thirty-third year of his age, bequeathed this Castle of Corfe to her as a dowry mansion, and in this princely residence, which her royal husband had with so much cost and care prepared for her, she plotted and accomplished the murder of his son. On the death of Edgar (975) there was a contest between two parties in the state, the one supporting the claim to the throne of Edward, son of the late King by his first wife, the other seeking to place the crown on the head of Ethelred, the son of Elfrida. Edward’s cause, which was supported by Dunstan, succeeded; but he only reigned, as we shall presently see, four years.
Corfe Castle.