Sir Richard Abberbury

The Abberbury family had owned the large manor of Donnington since 1287, when it was bought by Thomas Abberbury. He was an ordained clergyman who had risen through the church hierarchy. By the mid 14th century the family owned several manors in Oxfordshire and Berkshire, and around 1353 Richard Abberbury (c.1330–1399), the builder of the castle, inherited the Berkshire properties.

Richard Abberbury had served under the Black Prince (Edward, Prince of Wales) during England’s wars in France, where he commanded companies in numerous campaigns. On the Black Prince’s death in 1376 Abberbury was made guardian of his young son, the future king Richard II, and steward of his lands. He was also given charge of the property of Joan of Kent, the prince’s widow.

In Richard II’s reign (1377–99), Abberbury was a highly trusted courtier. He made several important diplomatic missions, including in 1380 negotiating the king’s marriage to Anne of Bohemia, and in 1382 was appointed her chamberlain. For his services he was rewarded with a substantial income and grants of land, and he became a considerable landowner in Oxfordshire and Berkshire.

He evidently regarded Donnington as his main residence, and in 1386 was granted a licence to crenellate (fortify) his house there. There is no direct dating evidence for the castle, but it was probably built between then and Sir Richard’s death in 1399. It appears to have been built in a single campaign, but there is evidence that the east curtain wall came first, with the gatehouse added later. This probably represented a change of design during construction.

Alice Chaucer

Alice Chaucer’s third husband, William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk (1396–1450), was another long-serving commander in France. Steward of the Household to Henry VI, he became the king’s first minister and was created Duke of Suffolk in 1448. Alice became part of the inner court circle. After Suffolk negotiated Henry VI’s marriage to the French princess Margaret of Anjou in 1444, Alice became one of her ladies-in-waiting.

William’s responsibility for Crown policies made him highly unpopular, and in 1450 he was impeached by the House of Commons. Although Henry VI allowed him to go into exile to avoid trial, rebels intercepted his ship and he was murdered, his body dumped on the beach at Dover.

As the widow of a discredited minister Alice then endured further difficult experiences, being put on trial herself in 1451. She survived the Wars of the Roses – fought between the houses of York and Lancaster for possession of the English throne – by going over to the Yorkist side in 1455. Her son, John de la Pole (1442–92), became brother-in-law to the future Edward IV and Richard III by marrying their sister Elizabeth, daughter of Richard, Duke of York.

A highly educated woman, Alice was a notable patron of the arts and intellectual, who owned an extensive library. In 1437 she and her husband founded an almshouse, called God’s House (which still exists), at Ewelme, Oxfordshire, their main residence. They also refounded the hospital at Donnington.

On Alice’s death in 1475 she was buried in St Mary’s Church at Ewelme. She had been Donnington Castle’s longest-standing owner, holding it for 60 years, and probably visited it regularly.

Donnington’s female keeper

As queen, Elizabeth is known to have visited Donnington in 1568. In 1590 she granted the keepership of the castle to Elizabeth, Lady Russell. The role of keeper – which Lady Russell was probably the first woman to hold – required that person to make the castle and its weapons available to defend the realm when required.

In 1601, however, the queen gave the manor and castle to a national hero, Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, who had commanded the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. This provoked a bitter and sometimes violent dispute over control of it between him and Lady Russell, which was eventually resolved in court in Nottingham’s favour.

Lord Nottingham’s daughter Elizabeth, Countess of Peterborough, inherited Donnington in 1624, and she appears to have sold it. In 1632 it became the property of John Packer, clerk of the Privy Seal and former secretary to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. He owned the manor until his death in 1649.

A historic landmark

After the siege, John Packer recovered the manor of Donnington, but all that remained standing of the castle was its gatehouse. Thereafter Donnington Castle House, at the foot of the hill to the south-east (and probably formerly the keeper’s official residence), was developed as the main manorial residence. Following Packer’s death in 1649 the estate passed down through generations of his family.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the gatehouse attained a degree of fame as a historic landmark. Several prints and engraving of it show it in a ruined condition through the 18th century. Repairs were carried out to patch up the worst of the damage, in red brick, at an unknown date.

A one-storey cottage with flint facings and Gothick windows was added, probably in the early 19th century. A lean-to building abutting the back of the gatehouse, it was linked by a short passage to a square block in the north-east corner of the former bailey. The owners maintained the gatehouse as an ancient monument, and the cottage was apparently built to house a custodian or caretaker for it.