Henry III stayed and Edward I was based here for some time, as he vanquished William Wallace. In 1344 Sir Thomas Grey was licenced to extend the Castle and by 1348 it was broadly of the present day form. By the early 1500's the Grey family controlled a number of local castles, in 1513 they lost four of them to the Scots, fleeing to the safety of Chillingham. They later joined the force of 20,000 English troops who defeated 36,000 Scots at nearby Flodden Field. In 1536 failure to join the rebellion against Henry VIII saw much of the East wall and towers fall to the then newfangled heavy cannon of their rebel neighbours, the Percy family of  Alnwick.   Since then, the history of the English and Scottish thrones and politics have been closely bound up with those who lived in this amazing place. In the 17th Century it was a Grey who signed the death warrant of Charles I only to pay for the privilege with his own head upon the restoration of Charles II. With such history, no surprises that Chillingham is one of the most haunted buildings in the country, at least two of the ghosts being based on historic fact. Incredibly over 900 years on, the present owners still have a direct family descent from the 15th Century Sir Ralph Grey.