King Edward I stayed overnight in 1292 and John de Clavering, descendant of Roger fitz Richard, made the Crown his inheritor.

With the outbreak of the Anglo-Scottish Wars, Edward II invested in castles, including Warkworth, where he funded the strengthening of the garrison in 1319.

The fourth earl remodelled the buildings in the bailey and began the construction of a collegiate church within the castle, but work on the latter was abandoned after his death.

Under the treaty Henry of Scotland became Earl of Northumbria in exchange for ceding control of the castles at Bamburgh and Newcastle to the English.

In 1157 Malcolm travelled to Peveril Castle in Derbyshire, where he paid homage to the new King of England, Henry II.

When the Scots invaded Northumberland in 1173, although Roger fitz Richard was in the county Warkworth Castle was not defended by its garrison.

Roger died in 1249 when his son Robert was one year old, and a guardian was appointed to care for the family's estates: William de Valence, half-brother of King Henry III.

The castle, characterised by this time by the chronicler Matthew Paris as "noble",[10] remained under the guardianship of Valence until 1268, when it reverted to Robert fitz John.

The English king was asked to mediate in a dispute over the Scottish throne and laid his own claim, leading to the Anglo-Scottish Wars.

Parliament declared such contracts illegal in 1331, but after initially relinquishing his claim Percy was granted special permission to inherit.

[13] In 1377 the fourth Baron Percy, also named Henry, was made the first Earl of Northumberland (becoming the first family from northern England to be granted an earldom)[14] in recognition of his extensive power in the march areas along the Anglo-Scottish border.

[19] With a network of contacts and dependencies, the Percys were the pre-eminent family in northern England in the 14th century "for they have the hertes of the people by north and ever had", in the words of contemporaneous chronicler John Hardyng.

[23] The earl's 14-year-old son claimed that he was loyal to the king but was not empowered to formally surrender the castle, and it remained under control of the Percys.

[22] The castle was forfeited to the Crown, and was used by one of the King's sons, John, Duke of Bedford, who was appointed to rule the area.

[26] On 1 August 1464, as a result of suppressing Lancastrian rebellions in the north for the previous three years, the title of Earl of Northumberland was given to The 1st Marquess of Montagu, a Yorkist, and with it, the castle.

[27] His brother, The 16th Earl of Warwick, used Warkworth as a base from which the Lancastrian-held castles of Northumberland – Alnwick, Bamburgh, and Dunstanburgh – were attacked and their sieges co-ordinated.

Sir John Forster, Warden of the March, ordered those inside to leave[29] and the castles were surrendered to his control.

[31] In 1574, Elizabeth granted Henry Percy permission to inherit the family's property and assume the title of 8th Earl of Northumberland.

[33] With the unification of England and Scotland under a single ruler, the earls of Northumberland had no need for two great castles near the Anglo-Scottish border; they maintained Alnwick at the expense of Warkworth.

[34] The details surrounding Warkworth Castle's role in the English Civil War are unclear, but the conflict resulted in further damage to the structure.

The south-west tower was falling apart and around 1752 part of the curtain wall east of the gatehouse was demolished (it was rebuilt towards the end of the century).

The town and its historic ruins were by now attracting interest as a tourist destination, largely due to Bishop Thomas Percy's poem, The Hermit of Warkworth.

[37] In 1922, The 8th Duke of Northumberland granted custodianship of the castle to the Office of Works which had been made accountable for the guardianship of ancient monuments.

English Heritage, who now manage and maintain the site, succeeded as the castle's custodians in 1984, and three years later the Duke's Chambers were given over to their care.

[39] The castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument,[40] a "nationally important" historic building and archaeological site which has been given protection against unauthorised change.

Slits on the other sides of the gatehouse, and along the entrance passage, allowed the gatekeeper to watch people approaching and entering the castle.

Goodall suggests that the keep was used only for short periods, and the west range, including the great hall, was the lord's preferred residence for prolonged visits to Warkworth Castle.

[63] The ground floor was used predominantly for storage of food and wine, but there was also a room with access to a basement chamber roughly 9 feet (2.7 m) square.

[66] In the 19th century, while the rest of Warkworth Castle was in ruins, the rooms of the second floor were re-roofed and occasionally used by the duke on visits.

An engraving of a painting of the castle by Thomas Allom with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838.