The sheer magnificence of Arundel, photo by David Urrutia

Arundel Part 1

Part 3 of a series of articles on Arundel Castle

William D’Aubigny (also D’Albini) retained possession of Arundel Castle until his death when it reverted to the crown. Henry II (1154–1189) stayed at Arundel often and spent a prodigious amount of money on mainly domestic improvements, like a new range by the south bailey.

Henry II of England

In 33 years, Henry II spent well over 20,000 pounds sterling on repairing and/or refashioning at least 90 castles in his realm in a massive defensive strategy that focused on building in stone. The plan also included dismantling primarily motte-and-bailey castles built in England without license in the previous twenty years.

The D’Albini family, clearly pining after the lost castle, regained it under Richard the Lion Hearted, paying more than one “fine” for the reinstatement.  Such “fines” were thinly veiled means by which Richard, the absentee Crusader king (who spent less than a year of his reign of ten years actually in England), could raise money for his Continental ventures.

The last D’Albini died in 1243, at which point the castle passed to John Fitzalan, who had married Hugh d’Albini’s daughter, Isobel. The Fitzalans held the castle until Mary Fitzalan married the fourth Duke of Norfolk in 1555.  This is how the the Fitzalans and the Howard family are joined (be ye descended from either or both, make note!).

The third Duke of Norfolk’s infamy lies primarily in his manipulations to marry his two nieces–first Anne Boleyn, then Katherine Howard–to Henry VIII. Both wives were eventually beheaded on charges of treasonous adultery that, at least in Anne’s case, were trumped up.  

In 1572, Queen Elizabeth beheaded the fourth  Duke of Norfolk, who owned Arundel, for his  alleged involvement in the Ridolfi plot. In that  plot (which Norfolk at first resisted) papal agent  Ridolphi had embroidered upon earlier plans for  a marriage between Mary Stuart and Norfolk  aimed at restoring Mary to the Scottish throne  and persuading Elizabeth to recognize her as a  successor.

Ridolphi altered these plans so to  entail a full-scale Catholic invasion of England  that naturally included the overthrow of  Elizabeth. Mary Stuart and Norfolk would be the  new, Catholic regents.

While Thomas Howard,  Duke of Norfolk, was apparently reluctant to convert to Catholicism, his son, Philip Howard, proved a most devout Roman Catholic. In 1589, Philip led a public mass for the success of the Spanish Armada against his own countrymen, for which crime he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he died six years later from poisoning. (He was canonized by Rome as a saint in 1970.)

James I restored Thomas, son of Philip Howard, as Earl of Arundel in 1604. Thomas built vaults under the Fitzalan Chapel and brought his father’s body from the Tower to be interred therein.

Tags: Anne Boleyn, Arundel Castle, Duke of Norfolk, henry II, Mary Stuart