CAPTURING the CASTLE

One of the greatest stars of Netflix drama The Crown is Belvoir Castle. Her Grace, The Duchess of Rutland tells us about her custodianship of this stunning stately home

- FELIX ROWE

Perched on a hilltop on the Leicestershire border, with impenetrable walls and imposing turreted tower, Belvoir Castle (pronounced ‘Beaver’) ticks all the boxes for a medieval fortress. Except it isn’t really a castle at all. It’s a grand 19th-century country house designed to dazzle and impress, rather than hold its own in battle.

But that’s not to say it doesn’t seep heritage from every battlement. The estate’s very existence is owed to the greatest battle in English history. Belvoir’s story stretches back 1,000 years, and features a king at war with his nation, alleged witchcraft and murder.

The current ‘castle’ is actually the fourth incarnation of Belvoir to stand on the site. The first stemmed from the Norman Conquest, thrown up as a symbol of the new management following William the Conqueror’s victory at Hastings.

The second castle, built using stone from local monastic houses dissolved by Henry VIII, saw its share of action. During James I’s reign three former servants were tried as witches for the death of the two male heirs, Henry and Francis Manners. Belvoir was an active Royalist stronghold during the English Civil War, and Charles I even spent a night there during the conflict, an event which no doubt sealed the building’s fate. It was torn down by the victorious Parliamentarians in 1649.

Its replacement, a modest country house built during the Restoration of Charles II, was also razed to the ground – this time by its own inhabitants, to make way for the grand Gothic Revival home that sits there now. And grand it certainly is.