One of my favorite castles is Raby Castle in County Durham, England. Raby is a reinforced manor house from the 13th Century. It was the ancestral home of the Neville family, to whom I have relations through my Conyers line.

I’ve been reading a book on the design and technology of castles, and I wondered if Raby had every been under siege. Naturally, the first place I looked was Google.

I found references to a siege at Raby in 1648, …