WEBVTT - Season 6 Episode 13 Extra: A Field in England 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:14.400 Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClain Smith, where 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:16.640 for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.160 and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:22.840 it into the previous show. In last week's episode, A 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:26.080 Place of Forgetting, we spent a few nights at Leppe 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:30.600 Castle in County Offy in Ireland, considered by some to 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:35.080 be the country's most haunted property. The episode was largely 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:39.120 adapted from a story written by Mildred Derby, published in 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:43.879 Belgravia magazine in eighteen ninety eight, titled A House of Horrors. 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:48.800 Some time after the story was published, Derby, who lived 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:52.120 at Leppe Castle with her husband Jonathan and their four 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:55.760 children for close to thirty years, claimed that it was 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:58.800 in fact based on many true events that she and 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:03.120 her friends had experience inst during her time there. It 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:07.120 is said that roughly nineteen ghosts reside at Leppe Castle, 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:10.800 all of which are supposedly linked in some way to 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:14.759 the O'Carroll clan, for whom Lepp was once the family seat. 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:18.680 The clan are often referred to as a bloodthirsty bunch 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:22.319 who would stop at nothing, not even murdering members of 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:26.720 their own family to assert their authority. In one story, 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:30.080 the clan's leader, at some time in the sixteenth or 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:34.319 seventeenth century, is said to have invited thirty nine compatriots 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:37.240 from the O'Neill clan to join him for a feast 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:41.319 at Leppe Castle. The feast was supposedly an offering of 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:45.360 thanks to the O'Neills after they apparently helped the o'carrolls 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:50.080 in a fight against invading English forces. However, that night, 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:53.480 the o'carrolls are said to have slaughtered the O'Neills and 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:57.120 their men in cold blood to avoid having to pay 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:02.080 them for their services. With stories, you might be forgiven 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:05.480 for thinking that the invading British forces who sacked and 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:09.079 confiscated the castle from the bloodthirsty o'carroll's in the mid 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:13.280 seventeenth century were actually doing the people of Ireland of favor. 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:18.000 The amateur historian in me, however, can't help but think 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:20.800 some of this smacks a little of the old adage 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:25.640 that history is written by the victors. Although these dubious 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:29.760 O'Carroll stories may well be completely true, it's interesting that, 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.120 at roughly the same time as the o'carrolls are said 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:35.959 to have massacred thirty nine of the O'Neills and their men. 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:48.200 Another O'Neill massacre took place in fifteen seventy four. The 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:51.480 first Earl of Essex, Balter Devereaux, who was in the 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.000 north of Ireland at the time on a mission to 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:58.399 colonize it on the orders of English Queen Elizabeth I, 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:02.040 was invited to a feast by Sir Brian mcfillum O'Neill, 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:06.040 an Irish lord of Lower Clander Boy in the province 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:10.160 of Ulster. O'Neill, who had been forced to strike up 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.560 an uneasy alliance with Queen Elizabeth in order to retain 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:16.959 some of his power in Ireland, was concerned by Walter 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:20.640 Devrow's recent arrival in the country and invited him to 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:24.959 dinner to discuss it. Apparently fearing that it was a trap, 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:29.359 Devereaux attended the feast only to have his men slaughter 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:33.000 two hundred of the O'Neill's clan and their followers, including 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:37.920 a large number of children, halfway through it. Perhaps it 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:41.400 is just coincidence that two groups of O'Neill should be 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:45.960 so unfortunate, or perhaps with the English Derby family being 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:49.520 given ownership of the confiscated Lep Castle and its land. 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.160 It isn't such a coincidence that only the atrocities of 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:56.440 the O'Carroll family and their affiliates, and not those of 0:03:56.480 --> 0:04:00.840 the English invading forces, take center stage the ghost stories 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:05.040 that they liked to share about the castle. Might it 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:09.840 be even that the horrid, unnamable thing that Mildred Derby 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:13.600 claimed stalk to the castle's halls was not the latent 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:17.400 evil spirit of the O'Carroll clan, but rather a deep 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.360 subconscious guilt at being gifted such an ill gotten property 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:27.040 in the first place. This, of course, is mere speculation. However, 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:30.760 the theme of guilt and remorse as a catalyst for 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.920 the emergence of ghosts seems to be a regular one 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:36.520 in the many ghost stories that arose out of the 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:41.360 turbulent period encompassing the English and later British invasion of Ireland. 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:46.800 The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in sixteen forty nine, as 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:49.839 it is often referred to, which ultimately led to Lep 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:53.880 Castle coming into the possession of the Derby family, formed 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:56.960 part of a series of conflicts that took place between 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:01.640 sixteen thirty nine and sixteen fifty three. Known collectively as 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:06.080 the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. These complex and bloody 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:10.120 conflicts were mostly initiated by the ruling powers of England 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:13.520 in an effort to assert their dominance over the neighboring 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:18.880 states of Scotland, Ireland and Wales. However, arguably the most 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:21.680 bloody conflict of them all was the one that took 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:25.599 place amongst the English themselves, as the two ruling factions 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:29.480 of Parliamentarians, those who advocated for the laws of the 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:33.760 land to be dictated by members of Parliament, and Royalists, 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:37.000 those who advocated for the king to be the ultimate 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:41.839 power elected to resolve their irreconcilable differences on the battle field. 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:45.720 The death toll from the English Civil War, which was 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:49.080 eventually won by the Parliamentarians, is said to be around 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.839 two hundred thousand, which equates to close to five percent 0:05:53.160 --> 0:06:03.719 of the entire English population at the time. Perhaps the 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.000 most extraordinary ghost story to arise from the English Civil 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:11.400 War took place in December of sixteen forty two. It 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.599 was sometime between twelve and one am in the morning 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:18.560 of December twenty fourth that shepherds working in a field 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:22.799 near the village of Quinton in Warwickshire, Central England, heard 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.080 the distant sound of war drums. As they stood in 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:31.239 confusion listening to the strange, ethereal sound, another sound started 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:35.840 to emerge alongside it, the painful cries of men seemingly 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:41.160 lying wounded somewhere nearby. This was in turn overwhelmed by 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:45.200 more cries, followed by the sound of gunshot and horses 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:49.920 charging through mud, the sounds of a great battle being waged. 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:53.960 As the men grew suddenly terrified that they were about 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:58.400 to be overrun by violent warring forces, a vision suddenly 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:02.240 appeared in the sky above them, men in the battle 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:06.120 colors of the Royalists and Parliamentarians charging at each other, 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:11.480 some with muskets, blasting others with swords, and some even 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.360 on horseback in the throes of what appeared to be 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:18.840 an epic fight. The shepherds are said to have watched 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:23.680 the strange spectral battle play out for almost three hours before, 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:28.320 with the Royalists defeated, the men and horses simply vanished 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:32.000 from the sky. The shepherds are then said to rush 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:35.600 to the door of the local Justice for Peace, William Wood, 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:39.920 who in turn woke up the local minister, Samuel Marshall 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:44.360 so they could relay the story to him. Also, the 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:48.160 following night, the men returned to the same spot, where 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:53.240 incredibly it happened all over again. Though nothing was seen 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.880 for the next week, the epic ghostly battle was seen 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:01.320 again over the course of the next two weekends. As 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.360 word of the event began to circulate, many from the 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:07.240 local area were said to have gone to witness it 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:12.480 for themselves. Before long, even King Charles himself, the royal 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.560 head of state at the time and leader of the Royalists, 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:18.840 heard about it and apparently sent six of his most 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:22.800 trusted men to investigate. The men are said to have 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.800 returned to the King reporting that not only did they 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.320 see it, but that they even recognized friends of theirs 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:33.360 amongst the ghostly apparitions, all of whom had been killed 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.079 in the Battle of Edge Hill, which had taken place 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:40.640 in the area only two months before. Some believed, on 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:44.160 hearing news of the apparent apparition, that it was a 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:48.560 sign of God's wrath towards the land, angry at the 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:59.560 persistence of war. In June sixteen forty five, with the 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:02.800 outcome of the war still very much hanging in the balance, 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:07.560 Sir Thomas Fairfax, commander in chief of the Parliamentarian Army, 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:10.640 prepared to lead an assault on the city of Oxford, 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:15.640 the wartime capital of King Charles's Royalists. At the same time, 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:18.800 Charles was leading an attack on the city of Leicester 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:23.320 to the north. Sensing an opportunity to cut Charles's army 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:27.400 off and inflict a fatal blow on Royalist chances of victory, 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:31.160 fair Facts abandoned the assault on Oxford and marched his 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:36.880 army north towards Leicester. Instead. Knowing that Fairfax's army was 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:40.120 on its way, Charles had to decide whether to engage 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:43.280 in battle or take the opportunity to move his army 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:46.640 to safety so they could rest and recuperate and possibly 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:51.080 gain reinforcements. Charles is said to have first been confident 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:55.760 about confronting fair Facts until one night, about two hours 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.120 after he'd gone to bed, his attendants heard a horrible 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:03.480 cry coming from his room. Rushing in, they found the 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:06.680 King sitting bolt upright in bed, with a look of 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:11.640 great terror on his pale face. As he explained he'd 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:14.800 just awoken from a terrible nightmare in which he was 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:19.200 visited by the ghost of Thomas Wentworth, the Earl of Strafford. 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.800 Wentworth apparently scolded the King and told him under no 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.720 uncertain terms that if he were to fight Fairfax's army 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:32.680 he would lose the war back in sixteen forty one, 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:35.880 Thomas Wentworth, who'd risen to become one of the king's 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:39.800 most trusted advisers, was beheaded on the orders of Parliament, 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:42.920 worried that he was trying to persuade the King to 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:47.360 use military power to assert his authority. With the King 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:50.560 not wanting to draw Parliament into a full scale war 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:53.240 at the time, he felt he had little choice but 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:55.640 to sign off on the death of his friend and 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:59.719 trusted ally. Evidently the guilt of having to do this 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:03.720 had never quite left him. The next morning, after his 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:08.480 apparent visitation from Wentworth, King Charles prevaricated on whether to 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:11.319 engage fair Facts or not, and spent the rest of 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:15.480 the day debating the issue with his advisers. The following night, 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:20.840 he was apparently visited by Wentworth again. In the end, 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:24.640 King Charles decided not to fight and had his army 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:29.800 marched north in the hope of securing reinforcements from Scotland. However, 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.640 having taken too long to make his decision fair facts 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.920 and his army quickly caught up with him, giving him 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:40.480 no choice but to stay and fight, and so on 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:44.560 the foggy morning of June fourteenth, the Battle of Knavesby began, 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:49.480 with Charles his army tired and hopelessly outnumbered. They were 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.400 obliterated by the Parliamentarian forces to a point from which 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:58.680 the Royalists never recovered, precipitating their eventual collapse and defeat 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:01.640 in what was the first of two stages of the war. 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.360 As for King Charles, as many will know, he was 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:10.680 eventually captured and imprisoned in sixteen forty seven, before being 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:16.320 executed on the thirtieth of January sixteen forty nine. It 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:19.840 is said that shortly before his death, Charles stated that 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:24.400 God had allowed his execution as punishment for consenting to 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:34.120 the death of his friend and adviser Thomas Wentworth. Unexplained. 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:37.440 The book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:40.240 before been covered on the show, is now available to 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:44.240 buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:49.120 and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements have unexplained, including 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:52.280 the show's music, are produced by me Richard McClane Smith. 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:55.800 Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts, 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:58.280 and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:00.920 or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:03.679 Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:07.080 to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:11.960 dot com or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:15.839 Facebook dot com. Forward slash Unexplained Podcast