Chillingham Castle-John Sage
As the war was coming to an end with the Scots, John Sage wanted rid of the Scottish prisoners being held in the castle so he rounded up the men, women and older children took them to the courtyard and put them all onto a huge bonfire. The younger children were kept in the Edward room and could probably see their parents being burned alive, they will have heard the screams and will have been able to smell the burning flesh. Sage knew that if he released the younger children they would return when they were older to seek revenge, so he took a small axe and went to the Edward room and hacked the children, some as young as one year old, to pieces. The axe can be seen today on the stair well. The Edward room is one of the most active rooms in the castle and people often say they see the chandelier hanging from the ceiling swinging without it being moved. The room has a foul smell and a strange atmosphere.
In the torture chamber there is also a torture rack, this particular device proved to be the undoing of John Sage, for Sage had a girlfriend Elizabeth Charlton, and one night they were having sex on the rack when Sage started to strangle Elizabeth to heighten her sexual pleasure, unfortunately he took it too far and killed her. Elizabeth's father was a member of the Border Reivers, a group of tribal leaders, broken men and outlaws. They were not to be messed with, and of course they wanted Sage killed.
The Border Reivers were a very powerful organisation who commanded a vast, highly skilled and experienced fighting force. It is recorded that the Reivers met with Edward Long Shanks and instructed him that if he did not have Sage killed they would join forces with the Scots and launch an assault on Chillingham castle. This time the Scots would probably win due to their backing from the Border Reivers.
As Long Shanks was virtually penniless due to the war against the Scots, he was forced to call for Sage to be hung. Sage was captued and hung in front of an enormous crowd, in the grounds of Chillingham Castle. As he hung the crowd started to take souvenirs, cutting off Sage's toes, fingers, testicles and nose whilst he was still alive. Its not known how long Sage hung there mutilated before he died. The ghost of John Sage has been seen wandering the castle by many people. Others claim to have heard footsteps followed by the sound of someone dragging something.
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