Chance to discover stories of medieval power and revolt at Skipton Castle

Using the voucher in the March 5 print version of the newspaper, two adults and up to three children can take a tour of one of the finest castles in the north.

A second voucher in the paper offers free parking at the newly opened Bailey car park, which is open Monday to Saturday from 8am to 6pm and on Sunday from 11am to 5pm. The vouchers are only valid for this weekend.

Here, with the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta approaching, reporter Clive White explores how Skipton Castle came to be linked to one of the most significant moments in the development of the country’s constitution and democracy.

IN JUNE 1215, King John succumbed to pressure from a gang of barons, disgruntled by heavy taxation spent on fighting the king’s battles in France, and signed a legal agreement which historians claim is the first written constitution in Europe.

Having been recently trounced at the battle of Bovines in France, where he lost all his French lands, his arm was well and truly twisted up his back.

So he didn’t have much choice when he agreed to put his seal on Magna Carta, a list of 63 clauses which reduced his power by granting liberties to his subjects.

It has to be said that at this point in British history, those freedoms applied essentially to the upper classes.

For your aspiring sokeman – a form of medieval tenant with some rudimentary rights – or, even lower on the social scale, your serf living in his wattle and daub, one-room hovel, there was no real change.

It was signed at Runnymede, on the banks of the River Thames, on June 15, and witnessed by 25 barons.

Standing among the pack of nobles, no doubt inwardly smiling with satisfaction, was local baron and owner of Skipton Castle, William de Forz or Fortibus.

It is to this man that we owe much of the ancient splendour of the building we see at the top of High Street. It is the result of work he set in motion after his father’s death.

William, holder of the Norman title Count of Aumale, has the distinction of being the second baron to be named on Magna Carta behind Richard, Earl of Clare.

The 25 barons had gathered at Runnymede to see King John agree to the 63 clauses, which included perhaps two of the most significant pledges putting a brake on the monarch’s power.

Clause 52 had the king agreeing to submit to the judgment of the barons if he deprived any of them of lands, castles, liberties or rights.

In another, John pledged that if he offended any of them, the barons “shall distrain and distress” castles, lands and possessions until amends had been made.

Perhaps it is understandable if John felt unhappy. He was for all intents and purposes being de-throned.

William Forz’s relationship with John started on a bad footing upon the death of his mother, the Countess Hawise, when the King refused to grant him his lands in Skipton, in 1214.

But it was to appease Forz’s powerful friends in the north that John relented and William got his estate – and a bride at the same time.

William’s problem was his character. He was a fickle fellow and could not keep friends very long, even the king. He soon fell out with John, joined his friends in the north and challenged the king’s authority once again.

Not content with that, he soon switched sides again, swearing allegiance to John, and was made commander of a number of castles, including Scarborough. In December 1215, he was marching north on the king’s side.

John was nothing but belligerent in character and the barons must have known that, despite his seeming agreement to Magna Carta, he would kick back, especially after the document was annulled by the Pope. And he did.

Employing mercenaries, and with William now on his side, he set about a countrywide assault on his baronage and sparked a revolt.

It was while on campaign in Lincolnshire that he fell ill – people blamed his gluttony – and after losing the ‘crown jewels’ in the Wash, his health continued to deteriorate and on the night of October 18, 1216, he died.

William, however, continued along in his own sweet way, next falling out with the young King Henry III and his wards over a number of issues relating to his possessions and actually leading a rebellion in 1220 which resulted in his excommunication in January 1221.

A royal army, with siege engines, was mustered against him as he fled north to Skipton, which historians believe had been considerably fortified in the early years of the 13th century.

But he was denied refuge in any of his strongholds, so took sanctuary in Fountains Abbey.

He had no choice but to negotiate his surrender, and luckily he still had some loyal friends among the baronage who vouched for his good behaviour.

It did not, however, spare him from retribution and a number of his castles were demolished, although the gatehouse at Skipton, built by his father, remained essentially to provide a roof over the heads of king’s bailiffs and officers from where they could administer the Craven estates.

Remarkably, this slippery character was able to avoid the worse punishment - six years in exile in the Holy Land.

William’s greatest legacy was in his pioneering work at Skipton, where he constructed one of the first keepless castles.

He added to his father’s gatehouse with a residence protected by four round towers and curtain walls. The building was oblong in shape with an enclosed central courtyard, the northern side along the rocky ledge overlooking Eller Beck, much as we see today.

The present castle owner, Sebastian Fattorini, is to celebrate William Forz’s celebrity with a special weekend, on June 27 and 28, in which a heritage group will re-create those critical times at Skipton Castle as the barons, revolt bubbling, prepared to meet King John at Runnymede.