Qualla: Knaresborough Castle https://qualla.com/knaresborough-castle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:24 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Knaresborough Castle https://qualla.com/knaresborough-castle Knaresborough Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/knaresborough-castle/ On 29 December 1170, four knights murdered Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. They expected Henry II's gratitude. What they got was excommunication, exile, and the king's hasty distancing from the act he had perhaps once invited. The leader of those knights was Hugh de Moreville. The four fled north and took refuge in a castle on a cliff above the River Nidd, a stronghold of Norman work overlooking the small Yorkshire town of Knaresborough. For about a year they hid there in plain sight, watching the river run far below them, while Christendom debated whether they were to be killed, forgiven, or sent on Crusade. Knaresborough Castle was already old when it sheltered them. It would survive another 480 years before Parliament finally tore most of it down.

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/g/knaresborough-castle-wp/gcwg-knaresborough-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Knaresborough Castle: A Fortress for Kings https://qualla.com/knaresborough-castle/ The castle was first built by a Norman baron on the cliff above the River Nidd. Documentary evidence dating from 1130 records works carried out by Henry I, suggesting an earlier fortification on the site. After Becket's murderers used it as their bolt-hole in the 1170s, the castl...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/g/knaresborough-castle-wp/gcwg-knaresborough-castle-a-fortress-for-kings.mp3 0:06 2 full Knaresborough Castle: The Favourite of Edward II https://qualla.com/knaresborough-castle/ Between 1307 and 1312, Edward I and his son Edward II spent £2,174 - a staggering sum - rebuilding Knaresborough, including the great five-sided keep whose ruined eastern walls still impress visitors today. Edward II had a particular fondness for the place. He gave it to Piers Ga...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/g/knaresborough-castle-wp/gcwg-knaresborough-castle-the-favourite-of-edward-ii.mp3 0:06 3 full Knaresborough Castle: Demolition by Order https://qualla.com/knaresborough-castle/ Parliamentarian forces took the castle in 1644 during the English Civil War. The fighting did little damage. The real destruction came in 1648, when Parliament ordered the dismantling of all Royalist castles - a systematic slighting designed to ensure no king would ever again com...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/g/knaresborough-castle-wp/gcwg-knaresborough-castle-demolition-by-order.mp3 0:06 4 full Knaresborough Castle: The Crow Who Speaks Yorkshire https://qualla.com/knaresborough-castle/ Knaresborough Castle has kept ravens since 2000, one of them gifted from the Tower of London. Among them is Mourdour, an African pied crow whose Yorkshire accent went viral in 2018 when a tourist filmed her saying "Y'alright love?" to passers-by. The video reached news broadcaste...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/g/knaresborough-castle-wp/gcwg-knaresborough-castle-the-crow-who-speaks-yorkshire.mp3 0:06 5 full