<h3 class="post-title entry-title"></h3> <div class="post-header"></div> <div id="post-body-6902084831326254852" class="post-body entry-content"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>A headless white lady wandering in the ruins chills the blood of those who encounter her at Corfe Castle, Wareham in Dorset.</span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div> <table class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--m3ZeJkX5lI/TlpVdnTxlrI/AAAAAAAAEFQ/kgQEWS1P-nM/s512/Corfe_Castle_-_geograph.org.uk_-_170073.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--m3ZeJkX5lI/TlpVdnTxlrI/AAAAAAAAEFQ/kgQEWS1P-nM/s400/Corfe_Castle_-_geograph.org.uk_-_170073.jpg" border="0" width="400" height="300" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Corfe Castle</strong></span></td> <td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><br /> </strong></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><strong><span>&nbsp;(by Robert Goulden - Geograph Project Collection - CC A-S A 2.0 license)</span></strong></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Is she the spirit of the young woman who betrayed the Castle to Cromwell&rsquo;s Parliamentary troops during the Civil War?</span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The castle dates back to the 11^th Century although some form of stronghold predated the Norman Conquest. The reference to Wareham Castle in the Domesday Book is thought to refer to Corfe rather than the Wareham timber castle. William the Conqueror himself may have been the responsible for it being built.</span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Towers, halls and walls were added during the reigns of Henry I, King John and Henry II. In 1210 Maud de Braose and her eldest son William were walled alive in the castle dungeon where they starved to death. </span>Eleanor the "Fair Maid of Brittany" the rightful heir to the throne was captured in 1203 and taken to Corfe Castle where she remained a prisoner until her death in 1241.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The castle remained a royal fortress until sold by Elizabeth I to her Lord Chancellor. In 1635 the castle was bought by Lord Bankes, Attorney General to Charles I. During the Civil War while Bankes was away the castle was besieged twice by the Parliamentarian forces. The Parliamentarians withdrew after the first six week siege. The second siege lasted two months until it was betrayed by one of Lady Bankes&rsquo; (&ldquo;Brave Dame Mary&rdquo;) own garrison.</span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>After its capture the castle was undermined and blown up to ensure that nothing remained&ndash; it could never be used again as a royalist stronghold. </span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Subsequently there has been talk of ghostly encounters, flickering lights on the ramparts at night and the noise of a child sobbing in a cottage abutting the grassy knoll on which the castle stands. The most enduring spectre remains the castle&rsquo;s headless white lady &ndash; was it she who betrayed Brave Dame Mary in those Civil War day?</span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div> <table class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5AB7BOKzoyc/TlpVbccDHaI/AAAAAAAAEFM/faUqAx2zfy4/s512/450px-Corfe_Castle2.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5AB7BOKzoyc/TlpVbccDHaI/AAAAAAAAEFM/faUqAx2zfy4/s400/450px-Corfe_Castle2.jpg" border="0" width="300" height="400" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Corfe Castle</strong></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span>&nbsp;<strong>(By Robert Brook - CC Attribution 2,0 generic license)</strong></span></div> </div> <p>&nbsp;</p>

<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning /> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas /> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> <w:DontGrowAutofit /> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]> <object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id=ieooui> </object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">350 years ago on 30 January 1661 Oliver Cromwell was executed; 2 years after his death. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Cromwell died on 3^rd September 1658. His body was embalmed and lay in state from 18^th October to 10^th November before being interred in Westminster Abbey. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 Parliament decreed that men who had cheated the executioner in life were not to cheat him in death.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Cromwell&rsquo;s body was exhumed and transported to the Red Lion inn at Holborn. Tradition has it that Oliver&rsquo;s ghost haunts the spot.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Early next morning the body was carried on a hurdle from Holborn to Tyburn where, clad in green cloth, it was gibbeted until 4 o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon. When the body was taken down its head was hacked off; the executioner took eight blows to sever the neck. The trunk was consigned to a deep pit below the Tyburn gallows.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The head, stuck up on an iron-tipped oak pole, was exhibited until 1684 on the roof of Westminster Hall. Towards the end of the reign of King James II, it was blown down in a gale. The head passed from hand to hand before coming into the possession of Josiah Wilkinson and then a Canon Wilkinson.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Wilkinson left it to Cromwell&rsquo;s own college, Sidney Sussex at Cambridge University.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Eventually the head received a proper burial at Sidney Sussex where a plaque proclaims:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_HcW1R2xVTKA/TUUQ5BUNV7I/AAAAAAAACfo/5Kkb30fUYJk/s640/Cromwell_Head_burial_plaque.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="454" /><span style="font-size: medium;"> <br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The actual location is a closely guarded secret.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><em>Twelve years prior to Cromwell's execution&nbsp; on 30 January 1689, King Charles I was executed.</em></span></p>