Earl Geoffrey having thus purchased his liberty, employed it in burning the castle of Cambridge, the mound of which, sadly reduced in size, still, from the interior of the Roman camp, overlooks the river. While in pursuit of the Earl, Stephen is said to have built certain new and probably temporary castles. More probably he refortified with timber some of the moated mounds, such as Clare, Eye, and Bures, of which there are many in Essex and Suffolk. Works in masonry he certainly had neither time nor means then to construct. Soon afterwards the Bishop of Winchester ceased to be papal legate, and found it convenient to support his brother’s party, and persuaded him to refuse permission to Archbishop Theobald to attend the new Pope at Rheims. Theobald, however, defied the King, and on his return took shelter within the unusually lofty walls and strong earthworks of Framlingham, a Bigot castle in Suffolk. About this time mention is made of castles at Cricklade in Wilts, at Tetbury and at Winchcombe in Gloucestershire. At Coventry also there was a castle, and another at Downton in Wiltshire, still celebrated for its moot-hill.
In 1149, York opened its gates to young Henry of Anjou, who assembled a considerable force, with which he met the royal army at Malmesbury, though without an actual collision. Of 1151 is on record a curious convention in which the Earls of Leicester and Chester were concerned, under which no new castles were to be built between Hinckley and Coventry, Coventry and Donnington, Donnington and Leicester; nor at Gateham, nor at Kinoulton, nor between Kinoulton and Belvoir, Belvoir and Oakham, Oakham and Rockingham. In 1152 occurred the celebrated siege of Wallingford, held for Matilda by Brian Fitz-Count. Enough of Wallingford remains to show how strong it must formerly have been; and the temporal was fully equalled by the spiritual power, for the town, always small, contained just twice as many churches as apostolic Asia. Stephen, unable to approach the Castle from its landward side, threw up a work still to be traced at Crowmarsh, on the left bank of the river, and there posted his engines. Young Henry, holding Malmesbury, Warwick, and about thirty other not very distant castles, marched to the relief of Wallingford, and invested the lines of Crowmarsh, besieging the besiegers. Stephen advanced to their aid from London, and Henry seems to have moved into the town, holding the passage of the river at the bridge by a special work. Wallingford was thus saved, and Henry, early in 1153, laid siege to Stamford, where, as at York, Hertford, and Buckingham, two mounds commanded the river; and stormed Nottingham, where were similar works upon the Trent. Stephen, falling back into the eastern counties, took Ipswich, a castle of which even the site is lost.
The death of Eustace, Stephen’s son, in August, 1153, paved the way to an arrangement between the rivals. Stephen was to remain King, and Henry became his acknowledged successor. William, Stephen’s surviving son, was to retain the Warenne castles and estates, which included Ryegate, of which traces remain; Castle-Acre, with its mound and other earthworks, placed within a Roman encampment; Castle-Rising, one of the least injured and most remarkable Norman keeps in England; Lewes, with its double mound and strong natural position; and Coningsburgh, an English site of excessive strength, though not then as yet celebrated for its noble tower. He also had the castles of Wirmegay and Bungay, Norwich, and the castle and honour of Pevensey. It was also agreed that the garrisons of the royal castles generally should swear allegiance to Henry and to Stephen; and the castellans of Lincoln, London, Oxford, Southampton, and Windsor gave hostages that on Stephen’s death they would give them over to Henry. It was also agreed at a conference at Dunstable in 1154, that all castles built since the death of Henry I. should be destroyed (a clause which may be taken to show that no absolutely new castles of very great importance had been built by Matilda or Stephen); and that all mercenary troops should be sent back to their own countries. The office of sheriff, as representing the crown in the counties, was to be strengthened.
Stephen died in October, 1154, and his rival ascended the throne as Henry II. without opposition.
CHAPTER V.
THE POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF CASTLES IN THE REIGN OF HENRY II.
HENRY II. was a great builder, and especially of military works. “In muris, in propugnaculis, in munitionibus, in fossatis, ... nullus subtilior, nullus magnificentior, invenitur.” This, however, does not so much refer to new castles, of which he built but few, as to the completion or addition of new keeps to the old ones, such, for example, as Dover.
A few days after his arrival in England he received the fealty of the magnates of the realm at Winchester Castle, and was crowned at Westminster, 19th December, immediately after which he granted to William, Earl of Arundel, the castle and honour of Arundel and the third penny of the county of Sussex. This was probably for life, for upon the Earl’s death in 1176 the castle and county reverted to the Crown, and were re-granted. Notwithstanding this beginning, Henry was fully determined to carry out the policy agreed upon at Wallingford in the face of the nation. A few days later he attended a council at Bermondsey, at which it was decided to order all foreign mercenaries to quit the kingdom on pain of death, and to raze all castles erected in the reign of Stephen. This decision was felt on all sides to be absolutely required; and it was, to a great extent, at once acted upon. Of these “castra adulterina” he destroyed, by some accounts, 375; by others, 1,115. Unfortunately, their names and sites have rarely been preserved, and can only be inferred where a castle played a part in the wars of Stephen and Matilda, and is not afterwards mentioned. These castles were, no doubt, built usually by men of limited means, and in haste; but even a small and badly-built castle of masonry would require some labour and outlay of money for its destruction. Possibly many of these buildings were of timber, upon the existing mounds. Also there are found slight earthworks of no great height or area, the plan of which seems that of a Norman castle, and which not improbably belong to this period. At Eaton-Socon, in Bedfordshire, and Lilbourne, in Northamptonshire, are such earthworks. Farringdon and Mount Sorrel Castles, and those of Stansted and Hinckley, Coventry, Cricklade,and Winchcombe, are thought to have been dismantled at this time. Drax Castle, in Yorkshire, stood out, and was destroyed, as, though far less completely, were Bungay and Tutbury, Thirsk, Malzeard, and Groby. Under the pressure of the times even ecclesiastical buildings had been occupied as castles. Ramsey and Coventry Abbeys were so used by Geoffrey Glanville and Robert Marmion, and the fine church of Bridlington by D’Aumâle.
Henry strove to carry out the new policy without respect for rank or party; but when he threatened the strongholds of the great nobles his difficulties began. Hugh Mortimer and Roger, son of Milo Earl of Hereford and High Constable, old supporters of Matilda, refused to surrender Wigmore, Cleobury, Bridgenorth, Hereford, and Gloucester. Henry at once took action. Leaving Wallingford Castle in the spring of 1155, he laid siege to Bridgenorth, whence one of his letters is dated “apud Brugiam in obsidione.” He also took by siege Cleobury and Wigmore. This success caused the Earl of Hereford to surrender Hereford and Gloucester, where Henry had received much of his education; and on his protestation of submission, the Earl was allowed to retain Hereford. Henry, Bishop of Winchester, Stephen’s brother, was forced to flee the country, and his castles were ordered to be destroyed; and that this order was executed appears from the charge for the work entered in the Pipe Roll for 1155–6. In like manner D’Aumâle, a baron of the house of Champagne, whose power lay in Holderness, and who had commanded at Northallerton, was forced, in January, 1155, after a short resistance, to give up Scarborough, the strongest castle in Holderness, and Skipsea, not far its inferior. Henry also visited Northampton, Nottingham, Lincoln, and York, and some of the western castles and counties. At Windsor the “fermor” of the castle expended £4. 15s. 5d. in his reception “in corredio regis.” According to Mr. Eyton, 140 castles were destroyed in the course of 1155. William of Ypres, a turbulent leader of Flemish mercenaries, who had been created Earl of Kent by Stephen in 1141, was banished. He was one of the “pseudo Comites.”