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