Places: Middleham Castle, North Yorkshire, England

Richard III comes down through history as a miserable and maligned human being with little happiness, love or sympathy.  Underneath the stories, rumors, legends and allegations was a flesh and blood person, and even Plantagenets needed a little humanity once in awhile.  For Richard, probably some of the happiest times of his life would be spent at Middleham Castle, near Wensleydale, North Yorkshire.

Robert Fitzrandolph, an Anglo-Norman baron, acquired the land on which was an earlier Saxon motte-and-bailey structure.  He began building the Castle in 1190.  In 1270, it came into the hands of the Neville family, and became one of their ancestral seats.  Richard "The Kingmaker" Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, inherited the Castle and some of his children, including future Queen Anne Neville, were born here.  After the death of Cecily Neville's husband, Richard of York, her sons George, Duke of Clarence and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, came into the care of their cousin Warwick.  This was a common practice for high-born young men at time, to be sent to a ranking noble family to learn the practical skills of soldiering and knighthood.  It was also common for young sons who were without a father to be taken into the care of an adult male relative even if their mother was still alive.  Thus, Richard and his future bride Anne would have been raised around each other. 

Later, after Warwick turned against Edward IV, the man he'd helped make King of England, Edward was imprisoned here.  In 1471, Warwick was killed at the Battle of Barnett and Middleham Castle fell to Anne's inheritance.  She and her new husband, Richard of Gloucester, made Middleham their home base while he served as Edward's Governor in the North.  Their only known son, Edward of Middleham, was born here in 1473 or 1476.  When Richard became King in 1483, he left Middleham behind for other castles.  Middleham remained in royal possession, but it wasn't a destination on any progress list.  It was finally sold during the reign of James I and eventually crumbled into ruin.  It's run by English heritage today and rumored to be haunted.  Apparently, Richard's still at home.