Places: Raby Castle, Durham

Baronial families during the Plantagenet era depending on their strings of impressive castles both as a means of defense, as residences, and as leverage in the constant power play between the throne and the great landowners.  Titled landowners were called barons because of their rights over their lands and the tenants of those lands, even if their actual title was duke or earl.  The Neville family, who were titled as barons of Raby Manor near Staindrop in Durham, began building the castle in 1367-1390.  At the time, it was their main seat of power.  Cecily Neville, the Rose of Raby, was born here in 1415.

The Barons Neville of Raby, later Earls of Westmoreland, were closely linked to the Lancastrian branch of the Plantagenet family.  That is, until Cecily married the Yorkist claimant and gave birth to sons who would later further the Yorkist claim.  The Nevilles remained Catholics long after many other leading families converted to Anglicanism.  In 1569, the 5th Earl of Westmoreland led the failed Rising of the North, a plot to rescue Mary Queen of Scots and place her on the throne instead of Elizabeth I.  Incidentally, both were great-granddaughters of Cecily through her son Edward IV and granddaughter Elizabeth of York.  The Rising failed and Queen Elizabeth seized Raby Castle.  In 1626, cash-strapped Charles I sold Raby and another former Neville castle, Barnard, to Sir Henry Vane the Elder.  The Vane family made several changes over the years, altering the castle from Medieval fortress to great house.  The Vane family were collectors of fine paintings and objects of art, and were eventually made Barons Barnard by the Crown.  Today the castle remains in the Vane family as Barons Barnard and is open for tours on a seasonal basis.