FORGOTTEN BIG OWN CASTLE

Evening Star, Issue 22448, 19 September 1936, Page 26

FORGOTTEN BIG OWN CASTLE

The ruined castle at Minister Lovell, near Witney, Oxon, is traditionally t]>e setting for the “Mistletoe Bough’’ legend, although it has many rivals (says the ‘ Evening Standard ’). There is, however, a much better authenticated story associated with the ruin, with a similar theme.

It concerns a fifteenth century nobleman named Francis Lovell, of Pole Manor, Ufton, near Reading. He attached himself to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and shared in his unpopularity when he became King Richard 111.

A rhyme of the time— The cat, the rat, and Lovell the dog Rule all England under the Hog—cost Collingwood, its author, his life. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered on Tower Hill. The cat was Catesby and the rat Ratcliffe.

When Henry VII. succeeded Richard Lovell/shared in .the obloquy heaped

upon all the adherents of the hated ' Crookback. He was attained of high treason and all his estates —including Pole Manor —were forfeited to the Crown. Lovell joined other malcontents who were plotting against the new king, and in 1486, almost succeeded in taking Henry prisoner during a royal progress near Ripon. Later he espoused-the cause of Lambert Simnel, who impersonated Edward Plantagenet, son of George, Duke of Clarence. Ho rallied his forces at Stoke, near Newark, but was routed by the King’s men and Lis supporters put to flight. Lovell himself was seen to plunge into the Trent, and it was thought that he was drowned. He was never seen again. There is a gap in the story for more than 200 years, and the scene shifts to Minister Lovell in the year 1708. While building a new_ chimney at the castle workmen found in a vault underground the skeleton of a man seated at a table with papers and pens before This was evidently the remains of Francis Lovell, of whom all traces had vanished after the waters of the Trent had closed over his head two centuries before. It is clear that Lovell died the slow death of starvation—forgotten in his own castle.