The most famous resident of 800 year-old Carisbrooke Castle, close to Norton Grange, was King Charles I. Captured and licking his wounds after defeats at Marston Moor and Naseby, freshly escaped from Hampton Court Palace, the King found himself on the Isle of Wight in the mistaken belief that he had a friend in Carisbrooke’s governor.
Despite trying to smuggle coded messages to friends on the mainland and even an attempt to escape through his prison bars, all was lost. Charles remained at the castle for 14 months while Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell went through the motions of what was always going to be an open-and shut case. And in Whitehall in 1649, the royal head was duly relocated.
