The Ghostly Intrigue of Okehampton Castle
Stepping into the ruins, you can feel the weight of bad decisions made centuries ago. Okehampton was never built to hold territory; it reminded everyone about who held the purse strings and the sword. Baldwin de Forde threw up the first motte right after William the Conqueror carved up England. Still, it was the Courtenay family, Earls of Devon, who turned it into a palace of excess and paranoia during the 14th and 15th centuries.
The Courtenays developed the castle as a hunting lodge complete with a deer park and fish ponds. However, they played high-stakes political roulette — eventually, the house took everything.
During the Wars of the Roses, backing the wrong king became a habit. Earls were captured, attainted, and beheaded with grim regularity. But the fatal hand was dealt during the reign of Henry VIII. Henry Courtenay had the royal blood of Edward IV in his veins. It was a dangerous currency around a Tudor king. Henry Courtenay was implicated in the Exeter Conspiracy in 1538, accused of treasonous correspondence with Cardinal Pole. The King didn’t just have him executed on Tower Hill; he stripped the family of their titles, seized Okehampton, and ordered the castle dismantled.
Walking through the roofless Great Hall, you can almost hear the rustle of silk turning into the sharp scratch of an executioner’s warrant. After 1539, the castle was left to decay. The grounds had occasional use and provided artistic inspiration. The weather took its toll, and vines covered the ruins. Nature took its course.
Okehampton is a reminder that political ambition in Tudor England was a game with no second-place winners or participation trophies.
Then there are the ones who never left.
My Ladye hath a sable coach, with horses two and four. My Ladye hath a gaunt blood-hound, that goeth before. My Ladye’s coach hath nodding plumes, the driver hath made no head. My Ladye is an ashen white — as one who is long dead.
The legend that clings closest is that of Lady Frances Howard, a 17th-century heiress with four dead husbands. Somehow she was blamed for murdering her husbands and children. As penance, every night at midnight, she rides a carriage made of human bones — guided by a headless driver — for 16 miles, from Fitzford House near Tavistock up to Okehampton Castle. Once there, she must pick a single blade of grass from the castle mound, and return to Tavistock. She must repeat the journey until every blade of grass on the hill is gone. Only then will her penance end.
We stood on the mound and looked at the grass. The Lady still has a long way to go before it is removed. There may have been harsher punishments. She travels in style. The nightly ride gets her out of the house. She can scare anybody who comes across her and has to pick a single blade.
However, it may be unfair. One version has it as a case of mistaken identity: Mary Howard became confused with the Lady Frances Howard. Another version states that the Earl of Tavistock became drunk on greed and terrorized the people with his fits of rage — leaving his daughter to pay the price.
It is also possible that there are others about. With all the plotting and executions, it would be likely to find other spirits. Indeed, some visitors report cold spots and strange sounds. It’s the kind of place that even if there were originally no ghosts, one would have to move in.
My Log: Okehampton Castle
This might be more of a manor or lodge rather than a full castle, but it was one of my favorites that we visited. The shape of the upper ruins has inspired artists and legends.
The Courtenays could have enjoyed hunting for deer, eating fresh baked delicacies, and collecting taxes from the commoners. But they seem to have exercised bad judgement. Their lands were periodically confiscated when they chose the wrong side. This should have convinced them to get out of the plotting business. It just does not seem that they were very good at it. By the time Henry VIII came around, they should have noticed that Henry’s wives kept disappearing and realized the same thing would happen if they did not lay low. They could not keep from plotting and tbe ruins here are the result
Still all the mishaps of history, failed struggles and uprisings put down, led to the castle ruins. I don’t have much interest in restored castles or those that never needed restoration. It is the ruins that touch upon something beyond a castle wall. Perhaps the ruins give hope for the future. Even the powerful and rich will pass. It is the people who ultimately will prevail.
My Log: Dartmoor Myths and Legends
We visited Okehampton Castle and wanted to take a short walk on the nature trail. A few of the trees reminded me of home. I imagined that the maidens of the castle would come to the riverbanks, perhaps sneaking out so they could frolic without being seen by unscrupulous knights.
And then there was the story of Lady Howard. The story here says that she was accused if murdering her four husbands. Now she must pay penance for endless ages.
Only accused? Penance in the face of an accusation is an over reaction. Accusations are nothing. What happened to the burden of proof? Shouldn’t there be an hearing? And there were only four. Anything she did was probably a public service. What did she endure at their hands? Perhaps there needs to be a movement to free her from her fate.
Every geocache in Dartmoor should include the slogan “Free Lady Howard.” Or something like that.
08/06/2024
