Carisbrooke

Isle of Wight, England, United Kingdom

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Carisbrooke, locality on the Isle of Wight, historic county of Hampshire, England. It lies just southwest of Newport. The locality’s chief landmark is a great castle on a steep hill that shows three main periods of building—Roman, Norman, and Elizabethan. The remnants of a 3rd-century-ce Roman fort became the site of a Norman castle in the late 11th century. Further walls were added over the centuries, and the castle was enclosed by an elaborate outer fortification in the 16th century. The English king Charles I was imprisoned in the castle in 1647–48 before his trial and execution.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.