he ordered Roland Bloett to "cause the castle of Cnappe [Knepp], without delay, to be burnt and destroyed". In addition to John the castle had a succession of royal visitors, including Henry III in 1218, Edward II in 1324 and Richard II in 1384. Simon de Montfort seized Knepp Castle from William de Braose, and later returned it. Subsequently, it fell into decline and deteriorated. Later history A skirmish may have taken place near Knepp Castle during the English Civil War, referred to as the 'Battle of Knepp' by Sir Charles Burrell. The event was related by James Charles Michell, a member of the Sussex gentry, in the early 19th century as a piece of oral history handed down from his father. According to Michell a parliamentarian force defeated a royalist force on 19 July 1648. Michell also reported that a cannonball had been found near the castle, but did not state when or give a precise location. Historian Richard Symonds suggests that the event caused considerable damage to the castle and contributed to its abandonment, though the Victoria County History of Sussex notes that it is unclear when the castle was destroyed. The bulk of the castle had been pulled down by the 1720s. Ownership of the castle was linked to the manor of Knepp. In 1788 the manor was purchased by Sir Charles Raymond, and descended through the Burrell family. Antiquarian Francis Grose visited the ruins in 1775, and wrote "so completely has been the work of demolition in the instance of this castle, that a reasonable conjecture cannot be hazarded from a view of the ruins themselves, as they then appeared, of its original form and extent". About 55 years later the Rev. Edmund Cartwright observed that the ruins had further deteriorated, with stone from the castle taken to be used in roadmaking. In the early 19th century the remnants were reinforced and fenced in by Sir Charles Burrell to protect them from further deterioration. The name 'Knepp Castle' is also applied to the castellated Gothic Revival mansion built nearby in the early nineteenth century by Sir Charles Merrik Burrell, to the designs of John Nash, and currently the home of Sir Charles Burrell, 10th Baronet. In 1951, the castle was designated a scheduled monument, a scheme intended to protection nationally important archaeological sites. The protected area covers the whole of the mound and a section of