Alnwick castle stands majestically atop the steep right bank of the River AIn, at the northern end of the town. There has been a castle of some description on this site for nearly nine hundred years, but its history goes even further back for bronze instruments and Roman coins have been dug up. Claudius Ptolemy, the second century Egyptian geographer, knew of the river - he thought it was the only one between the Forth and the Wear - but the town of Alauna which he placed on its banks could have been either the infant Almnouth or Alnwick.

According to the Alnwick Abbey Chronicle, a high-born Anglian called Bisbright Tisonne held Alnwick long before the Conquest. He was dispossessed by King William 1, who gave his lands to Gilbert de Tesson or Tyson, allegedly the king's standard bearer at Hastings. The similarity of the Anglian and Norman names cannot fall to fuel speculation on the truth of the ancient records, but Gilbert Tyson was real enough and held Alnwick until 1096. He survived the bellicose attention of Malcolm Ceann Mor - King of the Scots Malcolm Ill - who invaded Northumberland five times before being caught and killed in 1093 on a ridge about a mile north of Alnwick. This was the work of Arkle Moreal, Earl Robert de Mowbray's commander at Bamburgh, who was rewarded with a manor at Old Bewick. Such generosity may have influenced Tyson to support Mowbray in his struggle with King William 11, but it led only to the sequestration of his property.

The king selected Ivo de Vescy, a Norman nobleman, to be the next holder of the Alnwick estate. He became the first Baron of Alnwick, liable to provide twelve knights should the king ever have need of them. He built a motte and bailey castle on a mound above the river, and there he died in 1134.

Ivo's only offspring, Beatrix, married Eustace fitz (son of) John, an energetic man both as a builder and as a supporter of the Empress Matilda, King Henry I's daughter who aspired to the throne. In the former capacity he surrounded his father-in-law's earth and timber stronghold with stone walls, then levelled the mound and constructed on it an imaginative type of keep comprising several stone towers in a continuous ring round an inner courtyard. The complex occupied practically the same area as does today's castle and bits of the original exists in the curtain wall still standing. As a fighter, Eustace was not so successful, suffering defeat with his ally, Scots King David I, at the Battle of the Standard in 1138. He managed to make his peace with King Stephen soon afterwards, however, and when he died in 1157 his son William was able to inherit both the barony and the title; using his mother's name, be became known as Baron de Vescy.

.Another Eustace succeeded in 1184; he was one of the twenty-five barons appointed in 1215 to enforce King John's observance of Magna Carta. When he joined a group of Northumbrian gentry who paid homage to Scots King Alexander II he suffered King John's vengeance and had his castle set alight. The damage was superficial and was soon repaired.

Two generations later, Baron John Vescy managed to forfeit the castle for fighting King Henry 111 in the second Barons War of 1265. It was returned to him before he died in 1288, and his brother William succeeded. He died in 1297, leaving only one son known as William de Vescy of Kildare who, because he was illegitimate, could not claim the title or property. Provision for this had been made, however; the boy was left manors in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and Alnwick was granted unconditionally to Anthony Bek, Bishop of Durham.

In 1309 Lord Henry Percy bought the barony from the good bishop and started the Percy-Alnwick association which has continued, with a few hiccups, to this day. Henry was a descendant of William de Percy who had come to England with the Conqueror in 1066 and had been awarded large estates in south and central England. The family originated in west Normandy, in a village called Percee, or 'forest Glade'. Henry had spent most of his early life in Yorkshire but he was no stranger to the Border, having assisted King Edward I during his tussles with William Wallace, a service which had earned him at least two large Scottish estates.

The new baron's first job was to rebuild his castle and to make of it a stronghold of fourteenth century efficiency. He kept to the original basic plan, even copying the unusual keep design by constructing seven semicircular towers round the inner courtyard, but he managed to include in it some elements designed for creature comfort, like a great Hall and kitchens. A lot of this work is still in existence.

His son, the second Lord Henry Percy, succeeded in 1315 and added the two octagonal towers which guard the entrance to the keep. Alnwick castle was now a very strong military fortification, but, inspite of the improved domestic arrangements, it was still not the acme of luxury and Henry preferred to live in Warkworth castle which the Crown added to Alnwick barony in 1332. Indeed Warkworth was the principal seat of the Percys until 1576 and Alnwick was used mainly as the march wardens' headquarters.

All the early Lord Percys were fond of a fight and gave distinguished service in the Scottish and French wars. Because of this the fourth lord, another Henry who held the barony from 1368 to 1409, was created the Earl of Northumberland. He soon managed to blot the family's copybook in two ways, by fathering a headstrong and rather foolish son who earned the sobriquet 'Hotspur' when only twelve years old, and by joining a rebellion against King Henry IV. For the former indiscretion he was given a short term of imprisonment; for the latter he had his property confiscated in 1404, and in 1409 he was killed.

The barony was granted to the king's third son, John of Lancaster who later became the Duke of Bedford. He held it for five years, until Henry V was crowned in 1414, when it was awarded to Hotspur's son, who thus became Henry Percy, the second Earl of Northumberland. He was also General Warden of the Marches so was a prime target for Scottish invaders, but Alnwick castle proved to be unassailable. Not so the town of Alnwick, unfortunately, which was burnt in 1424 and again in 1428. A licence to enclose it with a defensive wall was issued in 1433 and when eventually it was completed it spotted four gates, each guarded by a tower. Clayport and Bailliffgate have disappeared, Pottersgate was replaced in 1768, but the original Bondgate and its Hotspur Tower still stand, the former controlling the traffic into the town as its southern end.

The third earl, 1455 to 1461, lost his life and all his property while fighting for the Lancastrians in the Battle of Towton. The earldom was granted to Lord Montagu, brother of the Earl of Warwick, the 'King-maker'. Alnwick castle changed hands four more times in the Wars of the Roses, but it ended up still in Yorkist hands, with Montagu still in charge. When the fighting was over, however, King Edward IV became apprehensive about the growing, powers of Montagu and Warwick, so he sacked the former and restored Alnwick and the Northumbrian earldom to the Percy family. Yet another Henry became the fourth Percy earl in 1469, and he remained so for twenty years until murdered by a mob of tenants for imposing an unpopular tax.

The Battle of Flodden was fought during the tenure of the fifth earl, but he was otherwise engaged in France at the time and took no part in it. The castle was used as battle headquarters by the English army, however.

The sixth earl voluntarily handed his inheritance to the Crown in exchange for a life annuity. It seemed a good idea to him for he had no children, his relationship with his brothers was strained and he was always short of money. For twenty years the earldom lay dormant. The castle was used by march wardens but the Crown did little in the way of maintenance.

Towards the end of the short reign of Edward VI, the young and sickly son of King Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick got control of the country. Described as "a man of no principle except selfish ambition", Dudley granted himself the Dukedom of Northumberland in 1552, and then persuaded the king to nominate Lady Jane Grey as heir to the throne. Poor Jane had been married against her will to Dudley's son, so had his machlavellian plan succeeded he would have achieved an invincible position. Edward died that year and Jane was duly proclaimed queen, but she reigned only nine days before Queen Mary disposed of her - and Dudley.

Queen Mary was good to the Percys who, like herself, were Roman Catholics. The Earldom of Northumberland was restored to Thomas, a son of one of the rebels executed after the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1537, but he also ended up with his head on the chopping block in 1572 for supporting the Rising of the North. By then the Protestant Queen Elizabeth was on the throne and the Rising was a pro-Catholic rebellion.

The next Earl took the hint and professed to being an ardent Protestant, but he failed to convince the queen so spent much time in the Tower of London, in 1589 he died there with a bullet in his heart. The next Earl was well acquainted with the Tower as well because of unproven complicity in the Gun Powder Plot. When released in 1621 he was forbidden to live in the north. The power of the Percys was declining rapidly. Their position as Northumberland's leading family and largest landowners was being challenged with growing success by the Radcliffes of Dilston.

When the eleventh earl died in 1670 he left a daughter, Elizabeth, but no sons. In compliance with the laws of inheritance, Elizabeth became the Baroness of Alnwick but could not don the earldom, which became dormant. She married three times: her first two husbands died within a year of their wedding, but the third was more resilient. He was Charles Seymore, Duke of Somerset, and between them they produced a son, Algernon, who managed to revive the northern title. He was created Earl of Northumberland with the proviso that the title would pass to his son-in-law should his daughter ever provide one. This she did in 1750 when she married Hugh Smithson of Stanwick in Yorkshire. With Parliament's approval, he changed his name to Percy, so after eighty years in the wilderness there was again a Percy earl owning Alnwick - a Percy revitalized with new blood.

His refreshing enthusiasm was directed almost immediately towards overhauling and modernising the administration and methodology of the former barony, now called the Northumberland Estates, and in bringing new life to the castle, which had fallen into considerable decay since the demise of the Border wardens.

The external renovation of the castle was entrusted to Vincent Shepherd, a local architect who worked in close collaboration with the celebrated Robert Adam. The professionalism of these two was baulked to some extent by the exuberance of the owner and his wife, and consequently instead of enhancing a medieval Border stronghold they managed to produce a Gothick palace which equated with current taste but not with history. The palace theme was continued internally, where Robert Adam excelled himself. Lancelot (Capability) Brown made a good job of the river bank below the castle which, according to Canatello's painting, had previously been rock and rough pasture. John Adam, Robert's brother, designed the Lion Bridge and a Mr Johnson of Stamfordham provided the final touch of fantasy, the stone warriors standing on the battlements.

Earl Hugh Percy was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for King George Ill, and for this and other services he was created the first Duke of Northumberland in 1766, twenty years before his death.

The flamboyance of the castle offended some of the later dukes, and the fourth, sixth and seventh, covering the years between 1847 and 1918, carried out extensive alterations, mainly to the designs of Anthony Salvin. A modicum of Border ferocity returned, but unfortunately at the expense of nearly all Robert Adam's internal work.

I really dislike the practice of cutting out the pages or the pictures of any book.

I always seem to have other business when I head south