Grimsthorpe Castle was originally a Tudor country house in Lincolnshire, 4 miles northwest of Bourne on the A151. It lies within a 3,000 acre (12 km²) park of rolling pastures, lakes, and woodland landscaped by Capability Brown. While Grimsthorpe is not a castle in the strict sense of the word, its character is massive and martial – the towers and outlying pavilions recalling the bastions of a great fortress in classical dress. Grimsthorpe has been the home of the de Eresby family since 1516. The present owner is Jane 27th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, granddaughter of Lady Nancy Astor, who died at Grimsthorpe in 1964. Allegory of the Tudor dynasty (detail), attributed to Lucas de Heere, ca 1572: left to right, Philip II of Spain, Mary, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Elizabeth The Tudor period usually refers to the historical period between 1485 and 1558, especially in relation to the history of England. ... In Britain (and also in Ireland) the term country house generally refers to a large house which was built on an agricultural estate as the private residence of the landowner. ... Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs) is a county in the East Midlands of England, traditionally the second largest after Yorkshire. ... Lancelot Brown ( 1716 - 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English landscape gardener, now remembered as the last of the great English eighteenth-century artists to be accorded his due, and Englands greatest gardener. He designed over 200 parks, many of which still endure. ... Nancy Witcher Astor, Viscountess Astor (May 19, 1879 - May 2, 1964) was a socialite politician and a member of the prominent Astor family. ...

Grimsthorpe was the site of of a castle built in the early 13th century for Gilbert de Gant, Earl of Lincoln. King John's Tower, one of the original battlemented towers still remains as the southeast corner tower of the present house. The title of Earl of Lincoln was created in the Peerage of England in 1572 for Edward Clinton, Lord Clinton, who served as Lord High Admiral under Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. The title was from the 18th century until the 1980s held by the Duke of Newcastle...

In 1516, Grimsthorpe it was granted by Henry VIII to the 10th Baron Willoughby de Eresby on the occasion of his marriage to Maria de Salinas, kinswoman and lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon. Their daughter Katherine inherited the title and estate on the death of her father in 1526, when she was aged just seven. In 1533, she became the fourth wife of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, a close ally of Henry the VIII. In 1539, Henry VIII granted Charles Brandon the lands of the nearby suppressed Vaudey Abbey, founded 1147, and he used its stone as building material for his new house. Brandon set about extending and rebuilding his wife's house, and in only eighteen months it was ready in time for a visit by King Henry, on his way to York in 1541 to meet with his cousin, James V of Scotland. Seemingly the additions were hastily constructed, as substantial repairs were required later due to the poor state of the foundations, but much of this Tudor house can still be seen today. Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England and Lord of Ireland (later King of Ireland) from 22 April 1509 until his death. ... The Barony of Willoughby de Eresby (pronounced Willuhby Deersby) is a barony by writ in the Peerage of England, dating to 1313. ... The recently-widowed young Catherine of Aragon, by Henry VIIs court painter, Michael Sittow, c. ... The title of Earl of Suffolk has been created several times in the Peerage of England, most recently in 1603 for Thomas Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Walden. ... Vaudey Abbey was an English Cistercian abbey founded in 1147 by William, Count of Aumale and Earl of York. ... James V (April 10, 1512 - December 14, 1542) was king of Scotland (September 9, 1513 - December 14, 1542). ...

By 1707, when Grimsthorpe was illustrated in Britannia Illustrata, the 15th Baron Willoughby de Eresby and 3rd Earl Lindsay had rebuilt the north front of Grimsthorpe in the classical style. However, in 1715, Robert Bertie, the 16th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, employed Sir John Vanbrugh to design a baroque front to the house to celebrate his enoblement as the first Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven. It is Vanbrugh's last masterpiece. He also prepared designs for the reconstruction of the other three ranges of the house, but they were not carried out. His proposed elevation for the south front was in the palladian style, which was just coming into fashion, and is quite different from all of his built designs. Sir John Vanbrugh in Godfrey Knellers Kit-cat portrait, considered one of Knellers finest portraits. ... Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens: dynamic figures spiral down around a void: draperies blow: a whirl of movement lit in a shaft of light, rendered in a free bravura handling of paint The Baroque was a style in art that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce... A villa with a superimposed portico, from Book IV of Palladios I Quattro Libri dellArchitettura, in a modestly priced English translation published in London, 1736. ...

The North Front of Grimsthorpe as rebuilt by Vanbrugh, drawn in 1819. Vanbrugh's Stone Hall occupies the space between the columns on both floors.

Inside, the Vanbrugh hall is monumental with stone arcades all around at two levels. Arcaded screens at each end of the hall separate the hall from staircases, much like those at Audley End House and Castle Howard. The staircase is behind the hall screen and leads to the staterooms on the first floor. The State Dining Room occupies Vanbrugh’s north-east tower, with its painted ceiling lit by a Venetian window. It contains the throne used by George IV at his Coronation Banquet, and a Regency giltwood throne and footstool used by Queen Victoria in the old House of Lords. There is also a walnut and parcel gilt chair and footstool made for the use of George III at Westminster. The King James and State Drawing Rooms have been redecorated over the centuries, and contain portraits by Reynolds and Van Dyck, European furniture, and yellow Soho Tapestries woven by Joshua Morris around 1730. The South Corridor contains thrones used by Prince Albert and Edward VII, as well as the desk on which Queen Victoria signed her coronation oath. A series of rooms follows in the Tudor east range, with recessed oriel windows and ornate ceilings. The Chinese drawing room has a splendidly rich ceiling and an 18th century, fan-vaulted oriel window. The walls are hung with Chinese wallpaper depicting birds amidst bamboo. The chapel is magnificent with superb 17th century plasterwork. The North Front of Grimsthorpe as rebuilt by Vanbrugh as drawn in 1819. ... The North Front of Grimsthorpe as rebuilt by Vanbrugh as drawn in 1819. ... Audley End House (grid reference TL524381) is largely an early 17th-century country house just outside Saffron Walden, Essex, south of Cambridge, England. ... The garden front of Castle Howard John Vanburghs complete project for Castle Howard, which was not all built. ... George IV (George Augustus Frederick) (12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom and Hanover from 29 January 1820. ... Her Majesty Queen Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria) (24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom from 20 June 1837, and Empress of India from 1876 until her death. ... George III (George William Frederick) (4 June 1738 – 29 January 1820) was King of Great Britain, and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until 1 January 1801, and thereafter King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. ... Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Francis Charles Augustus Albert Emmanuel, of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha branch of the House of Wettin) (26 August 1819 - 14 December 1861) was the husband and consort of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ... His Majesty King Edward VII (9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King of the Commonwealth realms, and the Emperor of India. ...

It was originally the southern edge of the great Lincolnshire forest, and its medieval deer park and Tudor oak park are crossed by fine avenues of trees. Oak trees recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 were growing in the park when drawings of the park were made in the early 18th century. Some of these ancient trees were reportedly still alive in the 20th century. The present Grimsthorpe Castle park was designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown (1771) and implemented by his patron, the Duke of Ancaster. The garden contains a knot garden, hedged rose gardens, a terrace with herbaceous and shrub borders, and a summerhouse designed by Vanbrugh. The formal flower and topiary garden leads imperceptibly into the woodland garden, and provides a fine setting for the ornamental vegetable garden and orchard, created in the 1960’s by the Countess of Ancaster and Peter Coates. Intricate parterres marked with box hedges lie close to the Castle, and a dramatic herbaceous border frames views across the lake. Domesday Book (also known as Domesday, or Book of Winchester), was the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William the Conqueror, that was like a census by the government today. ...

External link

• Official site (http://www.grimsthorpe.co.uk/)