Place: Corfe Castle, Dorset, England

The various Houses on Game of Thrones aren't the only ones who can dish out vicious punishment on anyone who crosses them up.  House Plantagenet was no joke when it came to anyone who refused to pay their debts or keep their little whispers to themselves.

Corfe Castle sets on the Isle of Purbeck, which is actually a peninsula in Dorset, England.  The castle guards a gap in the Purbeck Hills, hence the name ceorfan, in Old English.  William the Conqueror realized the strategic value of this castle right away, since he insured that, like the White Tower in London, it was built mostly of stone.  Henry I also spent time and money fortifying the castle, which held out against King Stephen during the Anarchy.  The first three Plantagenet monarchs, Henry II, Richard I and John didn't do much refurbishing but John in particular used it as a prison.  His niece, Eleanor of Brittany was imprisoned there by John and Henry III until her death in 1222.  At least she was maintained alive.  Two other members of a prominent family that aroused King John's wrath weren't quite so lucky.

The Braose family were Marcher lords, guardians of vast territory on the Welsh Marches, or borders of England.  They had been loyal to the Plantagenet dynasty.  William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber, was a personal friend of John's, which probably accounts for John's loan of 5,000 marks to de Braose.  Perhaps because of the loan, the King began to suspect that de Braose might be wavering in his loyalty.  He demanded that de Braose hand over his oldest son, also William, as a hostage for his continued loyal behavior.  De Braose refused and he was backed up in his refusal by his wife Maud.  Maud was a redoubtable woman who often had to defend her husband's castles against Welsh sieges, and administer his estates, including ordering renovations on their properties, such as Hay Castle, when need be.  The legend that she was over six feet tall and wore armor is probably an exaggeration, but befits the woman.  She prepared her castles for war and, when John sent an army to take William, Jr., fled with him to Trim Castle in County Meath, Ireland.  William, Sr., meanwhile had dressed himself as a beggar and fled to the Continent, hoping to seek asylum in France.

Maud and her son were tracked to Ireland, where Maud is said to have remarked in the hearing of several people that she and her son weren't about to surrender to a King who killed his own nephew.  This in reference to Eleanor of Brittany's older brother Arthur, Duke of Brittany, who died in about 1203 of circumstances unknown.  One thing the Plantagenets did not tolerate was anyone nosing into their business or calling their family drama into question.  Maud and her son were captured by an Irish earl loyal to John and turned over to him.  He had them imprisoned in Corfe Caslte where, unlike Eleanr, they simply disappeared.  Most likely, they were allowed to starve.  Situations such as this, where the King imprisoned without trial nobles or their families may have indirectly led to Magna Carta, one of whose provisions was that "no man should be taken, imprisoned or outlawed...except by judgment of his peers or the law of the land."

Corfe Castle remained in royal hands until Elizabeth I sold it to her favorite, Christopher Hatton.  It withstood two Parliamentary sieges during the English Civil War, both commanded by the then lady of the Castle, Lady Mary Banks, wife of Charles I's Attorney General.  She ultimately had to surrender during the second siege in 1645, at which time the castle was slighted, or partially destroyed.