Baynard's Castle - New Site

New Site

A "Hospice called le Old Inne by Pauls Wharfe" is listed in the possessions of Edward, Duke of York, who was killed at Agincourt in 1415. He may have acquired the house by his marriage to Philippa de Mohun, widow of Walter Fitzwalter (d. 1386).

A declaration of 1446 appears to identify this building with a town-house built on land reclaimed from the river, 100 metres (110 yd) southeast of the original castle. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester rebuilt the house after a "great fire" in 1428, there were four wings in a trapezoidal shape around a courtyard. Excavations have shown that the Roman riverside wall, on the south side of the medieval Thames Street, formed the foundation of the north wall of the new house. It seems that the nearby waterfront was known as Baynard's Castle even after the original castle was destroyed, and the name was transferred to the building on the new site.

Gloucester died within days of being arrested for treason in 1447. The house passed to the crown before being occupied by Edward's nephew Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York by 1457. The former Lord Protector kept 400 gentlemen and men-at-arms at the castle in his pursuit of his claim to the throne, but was killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460. This London powerbase allowed York's son to take the crown in the hall of the castle as Edward IV whilst Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou were campaigning in northern England. Edward gave the castle to his mother on 1 June 1461, a few weeks before his coronation, and he put his family there for safety before the decisive Battle of Barnet. After the deaths in 1483 of Edward and the Princes in the Tower, Edward's brother assumed the title of King at Baynard's Castle, as depicted in Shakespeare's play Richard III.