View of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, with passers-by and cattle with a milkmaid in the foreground

The castle of Ashby-de-la-Zouch was first built by the Beaumonts, Earls of Leicester, in the mid-12th Century. In the 15th Century, William de Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings, Lord Chamberlain and progenitor of George, 1st Earl of Huntingdon, was licensed by Edward IV to impark three thousand acres in Ashby, and subsequently ordered the considerable enlargement of the castle. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Ashby-de-la-Zouch was temporarily the prison of Mary, Queen of Scots. The castle was slighted in 1648, during the Civil War.