CARISBROOKE, a town in the Isle of Wight, England, I m. S.W. of Newport. Pop. (1921) 4,767. The valley of the Lugley brook separates the village from the steep conical hill on which stands the famous castle. There are remains of a Roman villa in the valley, but no reliable mention of Carisbrooke occurs in Saxon times, nor does the name appear in the Domesday Survey. The castle is mentioned in the Survey under Alvington, and was probably raised by William Fitz Osbern, first lord of the Isle of Wight. From this date lordship of the island was always asso ciated with ownership of the castle, which thus became the seat of government. Henry I. bestowed it on Richard de Redvers, in whose family it continued until Isabella de Fortibus sold it to Edward I., after which the government was entrusted to wardens as representatives of the crown. The keep was added in the time of Henry I., and in the reign of Elizabeth, when the Spanish Ar mada was expected, it was surrounded by an elaborate pentagonal fortification. The castle was garrisoned for Maud in 1136, but was captured by Stephen. In the reign of Richard II. it was un successfully attacked by the French ; Charles I. was imprisoned here for fourteen months before his execution. In 1904 the chapel of St. Nicholas in the castle was reopened and reconse crated, having been re-built as a memorial of Charles I. The remains of the castle are imposing: parts are inhabited, but the king's apartments are in ruins. The church of St. Mary has a beautiful Perpendicular tower and transitional Norman portions. Only the site can be traced of the Cistercian priory to which it belonged. This was founded shortly after the Conquest and origi nated from the endowment which the monks of Lyre near Evreux held in Bowcombe, including church, mill, houses, land and tithes of the manor. Richard II. bestowed it on the abbey of Mount grace in Yorkshire. It was restored by Henry IV., but was dis solved by act of parliament in the reign of Henry V., who be stowed it on his newly-founded charter-house at Sheen. Caris brooke formerly had a considerable market, several mills, and valuable fisheries, but it never acquired municipal or representa tive rights, and was important only as the site of the castle.
See Victoria County History: Hampshire; William Westall, History of Carisbrooke Castle (185o).