Speaker 1: Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClain Smith, where
Speaker 1: for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories
Speaker 1: and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make
Speaker 1: it into the previous show. In last week's episode, A
Speaker 1: Place of Forgetting, we spent a few nights at Leppe
Speaker 1: Castle in County Offy in Ireland, considered by some to
Speaker 1: be the country's most haunted property. The episode was largely
Speaker 1: adapted from a story written by Mildred Derby, published in
Speaker 1: Belgravia magazine in eighteen ninety eight, titled A House of Horrors.
Speaker 1: Some time after the story was published, Derby, who lived
Speaker 1: at Leppe Castle with her husband Jonathan and their four
Speaker 1: children for close to thirty years, claimed that it was
Speaker 1: in fact based on many true events that she and
Speaker 1: her friends had experience inst during her time there. It
Speaker 1: is said that roughly nineteen ghosts reside at Leppe Castle,
Speaker 1: all of which are supposedly linked in some way to
Speaker 1: the O'Carroll clan, for whom Lepp was once the family seat.
Speaker 1: The clan are often referred to as a bloodthirsty bunch
Speaker 1: who would stop at nothing, not even murdering members of
Speaker 1: their own family to assert their authority. In one story,
Speaker 1: the clan's leader, at some time in the sixteenth or
Speaker 1: seventeenth century, is said to have invited thirty nine compatriots
Speaker 1: from the O'Neill clan to join him for a feast
Speaker 1: at Leppe Castle. The feast was supposedly an offering of
Speaker 1: thanks to the O'Neills after they apparently helped the o'carrolls
Speaker 1: in a fight against invading English forces. However, that night,
Speaker 1: the o'carrolls are said to have slaughtered the O'Neills and
Speaker 1: their men in cold blood to avoid having to pay
Speaker 1: them for their services. With stories, you might be forgiven
Speaker 1: for thinking that the invading British forces who sacked and
Speaker 1: confiscated the castle from the bloodthirsty o'carroll's in the mid
Speaker 1: seventeenth century were actually doing the people of Ireland of favor.
Speaker 1: The amateur historian in me, however, can't help but think
Speaker 1: some of this smacks a little of the old adage
Speaker 1: that history is written by the victors. Although these dubious
Speaker 1: O'Carroll stories may well be completely true, it's interesting that,
Speaker 1: at roughly the same time as the o'carrolls are said
Speaker 1: to have massacred thirty nine of the O'Neills and their men.
Speaker 1: Another O'Neill massacre took place in fifteen seventy four. The
Speaker 1: first Earl of Essex, Balter Devereaux, who was in the
Speaker 1: north of Ireland at the time on a mission to
Speaker 1: colonize it on the orders of English Queen Elizabeth I,
Speaker 1: was invited to a feast by Sir Brian mcfillum O'Neill,
Speaker 1: an Irish lord of Lower Clander Boy in the province
Speaker 1: of Ulster. O'Neill, who had been forced to strike up
Speaker 1: an uneasy alliance with Queen Elizabeth in order to retain
Speaker 1: some of his power in Ireland, was concerned by Walter
Speaker 1: Devrow's recent arrival in the country and invited him to
Speaker 1: dinner to discuss it. Apparently fearing that it was a trap,
Speaker 1: Devereaux attended the feast only to have his men slaughter
Speaker 1: two hundred of the O'Neill's clan and their followers, including
Speaker 1: a large number of children, halfway through it. Perhaps it
Speaker 1: is just coincidence that two groups of O'Neill should be
Speaker 1: so unfortunate, or perhaps with the English Derby family being
Speaker 1: given ownership of the confiscated Lep Castle and its land.
Speaker 1: It isn't such a coincidence that only the atrocities of
Speaker 1: the O'Carroll family and their affiliates, and not those of
Speaker 1: the English invading forces, take center stage the ghost stories
Speaker 1: that they liked to share about the castle. Might it
Speaker 1: be even that the horrid, unnamable thing that Mildred Derby
Speaker 1: claimed stalk to the castle's halls was not the latent
Speaker 1: evil spirit of the O'Carroll clan, but rather a deep
Speaker 1: subconscious guilt at being gifted such an ill gotten property
Speaker 1: in the first place. This, of course, is mere speculation. However,
Speaker 1: the theme of guilt and remorse as a catalyst for
Speaker 1: the emergence of ghosts seems to be a regular one
Speaker 1: in the many ghost stories that arose out of the
Speaker 1: turbulent period encompassing the English and later British invasion of Ireland.
Speaker 1: The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in sixteen forty nine, as
Speaker 1: it is often referred to, which ultimately led to Lep
Speaker 1: Castle coming into the possession of the Derby family, formed
Speaker 1: part of a series of conflicts that took place between
Speaker 1: sixteen thirty nine and sixteen fifty three. Known collectively as
Speaker 1: the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. These complex and bloody
Speaker 1: conflicts were mostly initiated by the ruling powers of England
Speaker 1: in an effort to assert their dominance over the neighboring
Speaker 1: states of Scotland, Ireland and Wales. However, arguably the most
Speaker 1: bloody conflict of them all was the one that took
Speaker 1: place amongst the English themselves, as the two ruling factions
Speaker 1: of Parliamentarians, those who advocated for the laws of the
Speaker 1: land to be dictated by members of Parliament, and Royalists,
Speaker 1: those who advocated for the king to be the ultimate
Speaker 1: power elected to resolve their irreconcilable differences on the battle field.
Speaker 1: The death toll from the English Civil War, which was
Speaker 1: eventually won by the Parliamentarians, is said to be around
Speaker 1: two hundred thousand, which equates to close to five percent
Speaker 1: of the entire English population at the time. Perhaps the
Speaker 1: most extraordinary ghost story to arise from the English Civil
Speaker 1: War took place in December of sixteen forty two. It
Speaker 1: was sometime between twelve and one am in the morning
Speaker 1: of December twenty fourth that shepherds working in a field
Speaker 1: near the village of Quinton in Warwickshire, Central England, heard
Speaker 1: the distant sound of war drums. As they stood in
Speaker 1: confusion listening to the strange, ethereal sound, another sound started
Speaker 1: to emerge alongside it, the painful cries of men seemingly
Speaker 1: lying wounded somewhere nearby. This was in turn overwhelmed by
Speaker 1: more cries, followed by the sound of gunshot and horses
Speaker 1: charging through mud, the sounds of a great battle being waged.
Speaker 1: As the men grew suddenly terrified that they were about
Speaker 1: to be overrun by violent warring forces, a vision suddenly
Speaker 1: appeared in the sky above them, men in the battle
Speaker 1: colors of the Royalists and Parliamentarians charging at each other,
Speaker 1: some with muskets, blasting others with swords, and some even
Speaker 1: on horseback in the throes of what appeared to be
Speaker 1: an epic fight. The shepherds are said to have watched
Speaker 1: the strange spectral battle play out for almost three hours before,
Speaker 1: with the Royalists defeated, the men and horses simply vanished
Speaker 1: from the sky. The shepherds are then said to rush
Speaker 1: to the door of the local Justice for Peace, William Wood,
Speaker 1: who in turn woke up the local minister, Samuel Marshall
Speaker 1: so they could relay the story to him. Also, the
Speaker 1: following night, the men returned to the same spot, where
Speaker 1: incredibly it happened all over again. Though nothing was seen
Speaker 1: for the next week, the epic ghostly battle was seen
Speaker 1: again over the course of the next two weekends. As
Speaker 1: word of the event began to circulate, many from the
Speaker 1: local area were said to have gone to witness it
Speaker 1: for themselves. Before long, even King Charles himself, the royal
Speaker 1: head of state at the time and leader of the Royalists,
Speaker 1: heard about it and apparently sent six of his most
Speaker 1: trusted men to investigate. The men are said to have
Speaker 1: returned to the King reporting that not only did they
Speaker 1: see it, but that they even recognized friends of theirs
Speaker 1: amongst the ghostly apparitions, all of whom had been killed
Speaker 1: in the Battle of Edge Hill, which had taken place
Speaker 1: in the area only two months before. Some believed, on
Speaker 1: hearing news of the apparent apparition, that it was a
Speaker 1: sign of God's wrath towards the land, angry at the
Speaker 1: persistence of war. In June sixteen forty five, with the
Speaker 1: outcome of the war still very much hanging in the balance,
Speaker 1: Sir Thomas Fairfax, commander in chief of the Parliamentarian Army,
Speaker 1: prepared to lead an assault on the city of Oxford,
Speaker 1: the wartime capital of King Charles's Royalists. At the same time,
Speaker 1: Charles was leading an attack on the city of Leicester
Speaker 1: to the north. Sensing an opportunity to cut Charles's army
Speaker 1: off and inflict a fatal blow on Royalist chances of victory,
Speaker 1: fair Facts abandoned the assault on Oxford and marched his
Speaker 1: army north towards Leicester. Instead. Knowing that Fairfax's army was
Speaker 1: on its way, Charles had to decide whether to engage
Speaker 1: in battle or take the opportunity to move his army
Speaker 1: to safety so they could rest and recuperate and possibly
Speaker 1: gain reinforcements. Charles is said to have first been confident
Speaker 1: about confronting fair Facts until one night, about two hours
Speaker 1: after he'd gone to bed, his attendants heard a horrible
Speaker 1: cry coming from his room. Rushing in, they found the
Speaker 1: King sitting bolt upright in bed, with a look of
Speaker 1: great terror on his pale face. As he explained he'd
Speaker 1: just awoken from a terrible nightmare in which he was
Speaker 1: visited by the ghost of Thomas Wentworth, the Earl of Strafford.
Speaker 1: Wentworth apparently scolded the King and told him under no
Speaker 1: uncertain terms that if he were to fight Fairfax's army
Speaker 1: he would lose the war back in sixteen forty one,
Speaker 1: Thomas Wentworth, who'd risen to become one of the king's
Speaker 1: most trusted advisers, was beheaded on the orders of Parliament,
Speaker 1: worried that he was trying to persuade the King to
Speaker 1: use military power to assert his authority. With the King
Speaker 1: not wanting to draw Parliament into a full scale war
Speaker 1: at the time, he felt he had little choice but
Speaker 1: to sign off on the death of his friend and
Speaker 1: trusted ally. Evidently the guilt of having to do this
Speaker 1: had never quite left him. The next morning, after his
Speaker 1: apparent visitation from Wentworth, King Charles prevaricated on whether to
Speaker 1: engage fair Facts or not, and spent the rest of
Speaker 1: the day debating the issue with his advisers. The following night,
Speaker 1: he was apparently visited by Wentworth again. In the end,
Speaker 1: King Charles decided not to fight and had his army
Speaker 1: marched north in the hope of securing reinforcements from Scotland. However,
Speaker 1: having taken too long to make his decision fair facts
Speaker 1: and his army quickly caught up with him, giving him
Speaker 1: no choice but to stay and fight, and so on
Speaker 1: the foggy morning of June fourteenth, the Battle of Knavesby began,
Speaker 1: with Charles his army tired and hopelessly outnumbered. They were
Speaker 1: obliterated by the Parliamentarian forces to a point from which
Speaker 1: the Royalists never recovered, precipitating their eventual collapse and defeat
Speaker 1: in what was the first of two stages of the war.
Speaker 1: As for King Charles, as many will know, he was
Speaker 1: eventually captured and imprisoned in sixteen forty seven, before being
Speaker 1: executed on the thirtieth of January sixteen forty nine. It
Speaker 1: is said that shortly before his death, Charles stated that
Speaker 1: God had allowed his execution as punishment for consenting to
Speaker 1: the death of his friend and adviser Thomas Wentworth. Unexplained.
Speaker 1: The book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never
Speaker 1: before been covered on the show, is now available to
Speaker 1: buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
Speaker 1: and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements have unexplained, including
Speaker 1: the show's music, are produced by me Richard McClane Smith.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts,
Speaker 1: and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts
Speaker 1: or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like
Speaker 1: to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast
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