Henry, like Rufus, commenced his reign with the taking of Winchester with its treasures. Flambard, who had been entrusted with the great episcopal castles of Durham and Norham, was imprisoned in the keep of London. The outlawry of Robert Malet and Robert de Lacy, in 1101, gave Henry their castles in Yorkshire and Suffolk; and in 1102 Ivo de Graintmaisnel was driven from his mound at Hinckley, and forced to flee the country. Also the King obtained, by forfeiture, the castles of William de Warenne, though these were afterwards restored. Henry, in 1103, laid his hands upon Arnulph de Montgomery’s castle of Pembroke, and on those of Robert of Poitou, his brother, between the Ribble and the Mersey. The death of William Earl of Moretaine brought in the almost impregnable hill-castle of Montacute, with Trematon, Launceston, Tintagel, Boscastle, and Restormel, and other Cornish fortresses. The fall of Robert de Belesme gave the crown the castles of Arundel,—a lesser Windsor in its plan, and scarcely inferior in its position; of Shrewsbury, the mound of which still towers over the Severn, and dwarfs even the extensive and incongruous railway-station at its foot; of Bridgenorth, where a fragment of the keep shows what it must once have been; and of Carreghova, of which the very traces are well-nigh effaced. Belesme retired to Normandy, where he is said to have been lord of thirty-four castles; but the fragments of his power only betrayed him into further rebellion, so that he ended his life a prisoner and an exile on the castled mound of Wareham.
There still remained, indeed, in private hands a considerable number of castles, the owners of which found it convenient to give way, and thus to retain a portion of their influence. Such were Bourne in Lincolnshire; Malton, held by Fitz-John, in Yorkshire; Beaudesert in Warwickshire; the episcopal castles of Newark and Sleaford, and that of Oakham. There were also Warblington in Hampshire; and in Cumberland, Egremont and Cockermouth.
The rebellion of 1118 gave to Henry the castles of Hugh de Gournay in the west, of Stephen of Albemarle at Scarborough, of Eustace of Breteuil, of Richard de l’Aigle, and of Henry Earl of Eu; together with the Mowbray castles of Thirsk, Malzeard, and Burton in Lonsdale. Nearly the whole of the strongholds thus acquired were retained by Henry in his own hands, and Suger states that in Normandy the principal castles were by him either destroyed or held: “Fere omnes turres et quæcunque fortissima castra Normanniæ ... aut eversum iri fecit ... aut si dirutæ essent propriæ voluntati subjugavit.” In either country he laid hands on the castles; but where the delinquents held in both, it was upon those in England that the forfeiture was most rigidly enforced. Among the exceptions were William de Roumare, who was allowed to hold Lincoln; and similar protection was shown to Ralph de Conches, William de Tancarville, William de Warenne, Walter Giffard, and William d’Albini. Among their castles were Ryegate, Lewes, Coningsburgh, and Castle Rising, Buckingham and Arundel.
It has been said that Henry did not himself construct any new castles. This is probable enough, as all the sites of importance had been occupied by his father; but it is not improbable, judging from the internal evidence afforded by their remains, that he completed such of his father’s castles as were left unfinished. Of baronial castles, the grand fortress of Kenilworth, by far the most important strong place in the midland counties, was constructed in this reign, though very probably upon an English site, by the founder of the house of Clinton. In this reign also were probably constructed the masonry of Northampton Castle, by Simon de St. Liz, and that of Old Sarum and Odiham by Bishop Roger. The keep of St. Briavel’s, now destroyed, was reconstructed, or built of masonry; and Ralph Flambard laid the foundations of and seems to have completed the keep of Norham.
The issue of the contest between Matilda and Stephen turned very much upon the castles over which each had control. It was again by the seizure of Winchester Castle and its treasure that Stephen was able to celebrate his coronation in the adjacent cathedral. It was under the walls of Reading Castle, strongly placed between the meeting of the Kennet and the Thames, that he trusted himself to meet Matilda’s adherents, and with them to lay the corpse of her father before the altar of the great Abbey that he had founded, and the ruins of which have long survived those of its secular neighbour. From Oxford, strong in its walled city and partially water-girdled keep, Stephen issued his first charter, so full of promises to his new subjects; and thence he went to Durham, one of the strongest castles of the North, to meet David of Scotland, who had wasted the border from Carlisle to Newcastle, and taken Alnwick and Norham, though foiled before Wark and Bamborough. One of David’s principal concessions was the castle of Newcastle. On the other hand, he obtained the confirmation to him of that of Carlisle, long the gate of Scotland. The two, posted one at each end of the lines of Severus and Hadrian, are still tolerably perfect, as is the impregnable Bamburgh, the Norman keep of which, in Stephen’s time, was new.
From Oxford, still his central stronghold, on his return to the South, Stephen conceded his second charter, less distinct in its promises as the danger of his position seemed less pressing. On the report of his death in 1136, it was trust in their strong castles of Exeter, Plympton, Okehampton, Norwich, Framlingham, and Bungay, that encouraged Baldwin de Redvers and Hugh Bigot to rise in arms. Bath had then a castle and was a walled town. Stephen laid siege to and took the castle, and thence, with two hundred horse, rode to Exeter, where Rougemont, its citadel, was strong and well garrisoned. The siege was a remarkable one, and the warlike machines employed both within and without were of a formidable character. The citizens were with Stephen, so the attack was on the city front. The bridge from the city, still standing, was one point of attack. A “malvoisin” was constructed, whence stones were poured in upon the garrison; the walls were ruined, and the towers much injured. Finally the well ran dry, and the garrison surrendered upon terms. Plympton also capitulated, and Norwich was taken.
On Stephen’s arrival from Normandy, in 1137, he secured the castles of Bourne, Wareham, and Corfe, the two latter held by Fitz-Alured and Redvers. A second rising, in 1138, timed with an invasion by the Scots, turned in some degree upon the strength of the castle of Bedford, then including a pair of moated mounds on the opposite banks of the Ouse, of which one is entirely removed, and the other remains deprived of its masonry, and shorn of its fair dimensions. This castle was held by the sons of Milo de Beauchamp, its owner, and only surrendered after a long and severe siege conducted by Stephen in person, which terminated in a blockade. The defence was very able, and the surrender upon fair terms.
Meantime David, linking the interests of Matilda with his own claims to the great earldom of Huntingdon, twice crossed the border in the spring of 1128, retiring as Stephen approached, but a third time returning in August. He took Norham, and much injured its superb keep, built by Bishop Flambard in 1121, a noble ruin which still frowns over the Tweed, and is rich in historical recollections. Bamburgh, Alnwick, and Malton were held for Stephen by Eustace Fitz-John. Parts of the wall and inner gate of Alnwick are of about this date; but Malton has disappeared, though the earlier Roman camp may still be traced. David’s progress was also checked by Clitheroe, a very strong castle, of which the Norman keep, one of the very smallest extant, crowns the top of an almost impregnable rock.
At this period Stephen’s position was most critical. Against him, on the Welsh Marches, Talbot held Goderich and Hereford, while Ludlow and Dudley, Shrewsbury and Whittington, were in the hands of Paganel, Fitz-Alan, and William Peverel. Further south, the barons of Somerset were encouraged against him by William de Mohun from his hold at Dunster, strong naturally and by art; and by Fitz-John at Harptree, a castle in the defiles of the Mendips; while Maminot both held and strongly augmented Dover. Stephen, however, was active and he was brave. Leaving Archbishop Thurstan to muster and encourage his northern supporters, he himself marched south, strengthened the garrison of Bath, and threatened Bristol. Thence he entered Somerset, and took by siege the Lovel seat of Castle Cary, of which the earthworks cover a hillside; secured Harptree by surprise, and thence doubled back upon Hereford, which won, he next recovered the old British and English fortress of Pengwern or Shrewsbury. Bristol alone held out, strong in its newly-built keep, and in the presence of Robert Earl of Gloucester, its builder.
The “battle of the Standard,” a.d. 1138, was fought in the open field, under the leadership of D’Aumâle; but it was also named from North Allerton, where, intersected by the railway, are still seen formidable earthworks far older than Bishop Puiset’s castle which surmounted them, and which was afterwards entirely razed by Henry II. The victory of North Allerton was enhanced by the capture of Dover by Stephen’s Queen. The castle of Carlisle still remained in the possession of King David, and thence he renewed the war, and in the following year obtained for his son Henry the earldom of Northumberland; with the exception, however, of the castles of Newcastle and Bamburgh.