Time isn't timeless...It has an end date, certainly where humans are concerned anyway. We don't come with use by dates of course, but we certainly don't last forever; Nothing really does.
I wonder if the people who lived here, in what is now a ruined castle, ever thought their structure of stone would survive forever. I guess at the time they didn't think that far ahead as we do not now generally.
This is Wardour Castle, constructed late in the 1300's and located in the County of Wiltshire, England, UK. we visited not too long ago when on holiday in the UK.
It was owned by a family called the Lovell's, until they fell into disfavour during the War of the Roses (1455-1487), and passed to the ownership or Sir Thomas Arundell around 1544, after passing through the ownership of a couple other un-noteworthy people.
The Arundell's were an ancient and prominent Cornish family but that wasn't enough to save Sir Thomas from execution for the crime of treason in 1552. Wardour castle was confiscated by the Crown, its ownership moving out of the Arundell's family altogether.
Twelve years later, (1570) the Arundell family re-acquired the castle when Sir Matthew, son of Sir Thomas, bought it back into the family ownership. The Arundell's would have been pleased, I'm sure, but like all things time brings change.
Seventy three years after Sir Matthew bought the castle back, the year 1643 brought that change and it was to have devastating effects.
The 2nd Baron Arundell of Wardour (Thomas Arundell) was away serving the King and had left his wife, Lady Blanche Arundell, at the castle with 25 men-at-arms and an order to defend it.
The 2nd Baron a staunch Royalist, and key figure in the English Civil War (1642-1651) between the Parliamentarians and Royalists considered it unsafe to leave the castle undefended whilst away fighting himself; He was right too.
Parliamentarian supporter, Sir Edward Hungerford, and his 1300-strong parliamentarian-force arrived there seeking admission to search for Royalists within. Blanche refused of course, and a siege began. Sir Edward threw everything at it, guns and mines plus his 1300-strong force but the defenders defended and the castle held.
Five days later though the numbers were overwhelming and Lady Arundell surrendered with safe-passage being offered to her and her men.
At this stage her husband, the 2nd Baron of Wardour, was dying of wounds he had sustained at the Battle of Stratton and after his death his son Henry, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour, was left with the responsibility to regain the families' castle, and honour.
March 1644 saw Henry arrive home and lay-siege to the castle to win it back from the Parliamentarian's. He devised a cunning plan to do so, but it seems he outsmarted himself.
Henry tunnelled below the castle wall and laid a massive mine beneath the walls. Of course, he wasn't about to blow his own castle up, but the threat of it should do the trick, or so his logic must have gone. Surrender and live, or we'll blow the castle up, enter and kill you all.
He delivered the ultimatum and sat back to wait for the response.
This is where his plan went wrong.
The mine was set off prematurely, by accident and the huge section of the walls collapsed. Yes, his own castle was blown up, by his own men, by accident.
Left with no choice but join in battle they attacked and defeated the Parliamentarian forces within the castle. The 3rd Baron Arundell had his castle back, but at what cost?
The castle was extensively damaged, completely unliveable and was left abandoned. Even today one can see the rubble from the explosion, although much of it was pilfered for use elsewhere.
Henry Arundell managed to raise funds to build the New Wardour Castle across the valley; It is visible from the old, destroyed castle.
The destruction ended 254 years of history. The many lives that called it home all moved away and finally died, as did the solid construction itself, like all things.
Much of the loose stone and rubble was repurposed over at New Wardour Castle, and other construction sites, with the remaining walls left intact for us to visit today. Eventually the wooden beams that once held floors, ceilings and the roof collapsed and the castle's long life came to an end.
It was a peaceful but sad place to me. It had been a place of great turmoil and strife, violence and death, but also life, happiness and joy, I'm sure; I felt the humanity of it, as if the hopes and dreams of those who lived there permeated the very stone. I felt connected to those whose lives played out in and around the castle, those whose fates were entwined with that of the structure itself and were shattered along with it.
We cannot cheat time; All things come to an end, each of us also. We have the choice to wait for it to come, inactive and disengaged or to take a different path.
We have the chance to acknowledge our time will end someday, like Wardour Castle, but take an active role in the life we have within the moments of it. Both options end in the same place, but the journey of each along the way will be vastly different.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
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