The UK’s incredible abandoned castle where England’s ‘worst ever king’ lived

Castle ruins are an intrinsic part of the rural landscape. Each have their own unique and .

But there is one such place in the East Midlands that has become infamous for being the place where a often called the country’s worst ever king perished.

Newark was a very important location during the English Civil War in the 1640s, as used it as a key stronghold and communications centre.

The Nottinghamshire town was besieged three times, and eventually surrendered to Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarians in May 1646.

Although, more than 400 years earlier, Newark’s castle was the scene of the dramatic end of King John.

The sovereign, who came to power in 1199 after his brother, Richard I, also known as the ‘Lionheart’, died. He became unpopular by raising taxes on his subjects and the Church in an effort to fund his attempts to regain lost territories in France.

He is perhaps most famous today for signing the Magna Carta, a landmark document that curbed royal power.

It stipulated that the monarch must adhere to the rule of law, particularly as regards taxes and land ownership, and outlined rights of the individual.

The Barons’ War then began in 1215, which saw two thirds of the king’s nobility marched on London demanding that he stuck to the charter’s conditions after a decree from the Pope that he had not adhered to them.

Amidst the fighting, the autumn of 1216, King John contracted dysentery – an infection of the intestines that causes diarrhoea.

He was brought to Newark Castle to recover. But, on October 19, he died.

After the king’s death, a violent thunderstorm raged above the town, which many at the time believed was the sound of the gates of hell opening to receive him.

King John was then embalmed by an anonymous monk from Croxton Abbey, and his body was then removed from Newark Castle and interred in Worcester Cathedral.

It is said that his heart was embalmed separately and buried at Croxton Abbey.