Systematic Slighting

Castle numero doo-ey was Raglan Castle and it wasn't too far a drive from the first castle on our journey, White Castle. While White Castle was falling into ruins, Raglan was becoming the castle that now stands today -- around the middle of the 15th century the building that stands partly in ruins today was being built. The castle was built during the time when bows were being replaced with cannons -- in some pictures you will see cannon holes along side arrow slits.


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Raglan has some interesting history to it. The future King Henry VII (Henry Tudor) spent his boyhood there when he was moved for his safety during the War of the Roses. During the English Civil War, Raglan held out until 1646 when a siege by renewed Parliamentarian forces brought about the castle's final surrender. The castle was slighted and large portions were destroyed after the siege.

Check out the plan of the castle here.



And lastly, Raglan has shown up in a couple of movies, including the Led Zeppelin movie slash rock video slash trippy fantasy adventure with bad acting, "The Song Remains The Same". It took some digging but here is the YouTube clip featuring Robert Plant's sword fight in the Raglan Great Tower. There are many pieces of this movie on YouTube -- this was part 7 that I found. If you can't stand to watch more than necessary, fast forward five minutes into the clip.



Cheers!