In August, 1171, Henry landed at Portsmouth, and early in September was in South Wales, where he took Caerleon from Iorwerth ap Owen, and went on to Pembroke Castle to meet Prince Rhys, to whom he made over a large part of Cardigan. From Pembroke, or rather from Milford, he went, in October, to Ireland, whence he returned, by St. David’s and by Cardiff, to England in April, 1172, and thence embarked from Portsmouth for the Continent in May.
In April, 1173, the confederacy between the King of France and Prince Henry, who carried with him the discontented party among the English barons, broke out into open war in both countries. Henry the elder remained at Rouen, and with the doubtful exception of a short visit to England was content to leave the conduct of the war there to the faithful and able Richard de Lacy.
The English rebellion was of a very grave character. Among the rebels were the Earls of Chester and Leicester, Ferrars Earl of Derby, Mowbray, and Paganel. Ferrars held Groby, Tutbury, Burton, and some other castles; Mowbray held Kinnard’s Ferry Castle in Axholm, Thirsk, and Malzeard, which seem again to have been repaired or rebuilt; David of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon, held that castle; as did Bishop Puiset Norham and Durham. These northern castles were strong, and supported by the Scottish levies; but the great body of the baronage was with the king, and even in the North his party preponderated. It included Umfraville of Prudhoe, De Vesci of Alnwick, Ros of Hamlake, Bruce of Whorlton and Skelton; and in the south almost all the great barons. Lacy laid siege to and burned Leicester town; but the castle seems to have held out. He also, accompanied by Bohun, marched into the North and wasted the border country and the Lothians. The royal castles generally were ordered to be victualled and garrisoned.
In September, Robert, Earl of Leicester, landed at Walton in Suffolk with a body of Flemish mercenaries. Suffolk was, no doubt, selected for the landing as being opposite to the Flemish ports, and under the local influence of the house of Bigot, who held the castles of Framlingham and Bungay, and were hereditary Constables of Norwich, an office often forfeited, but which gave them great influence in the city. Leicester and his Flemings were at once received at Framlingham, and thence besieged Haganet Castle, governed for the king by Ranulph de Broc. This they took; but failed before the walls of Dunwich, and thence marched towards Leicester. Meantime Lacy and Humphrey de Bohun had hurried back from the Scottish border, were reinforced near Bury by the earls of Arundel, Cornwall, and Gloucester, and in October came up with the Flemish army at Fornham St. Geneviève. The invaders were routed, and Leicester and his countess taken and sent prisoners to Normandy. Lacy’s work was, however, but half completed. Mowbray still held Axholm, and Earl David, or probably for him, Anketil Mallori, held Leicester Castle. The King of Scots laid siege to Carlisle, while his brother took the castles of Knaresborough, Brough, and Appleby. In May, 1174, Leicester Castle was still untaken, and the Scots had reduced Warkworth and laid siege to Prudhoe and Alnwick. Lacy was engaged in the siege of Huntingdon, aided by St. Liz, who claimed it. But a second body of Flemings had landed, had attacked Norwich, and much injured Nottingham and Northampton. The Bishop of Lincoln had, however, taken Axholm.
In the midst of this critical state of affairs, Henry landed at Southampton in July, 1174, with his prisoners, whom he sent to Devizes. His arrival coincided with a sudden and material improvement in the state of his affairs. While Henry was engaged in an act of penance at Becket’s tomb, William, King of Scots, was taken before Alnwick. After a short illness in London, Henry went to Huntingdon in time to receive the surrender of the castle, and thence to Framlingham, which, with Bungay, was surrendered to him by Hugh Bigot. Prince Rhys, then in alliance with Henry, besieged and took Tutbury, and the Mowbray castle of Malzeard was also taken. At Northampton, in July, Henry received the submission of the Bishop of Durham, with the castles of Durham, Norham, and Northallerton. Thirsk Castle was given up by Roger de Mowbray; Tutbury and Driffield by Earl Ferrars, with Leicester, Mount Sorrell, and Groby.
Henry’s success was complete; but the rebellion showed how dangerous were the great castles to public order, and how necessary it was to dismantle a large number of them, and to keep the rest, as far as possible, in the hands of the Crown. This policy he continued to act upon to the end of his reign, treating all conquered rebels with great clemency as regarded their persons and their estates, but retaining their castles in his own hands. Even Richard de Lacy, to whom the hundred of Ongar was granted in 1174, was not allowed to retain the castle.
In May, 1175, Henry was in England, and in June received the surrender of Bristol Castle from William, Earl of Gloucester. In January, 1176, was held the council at Northampton, at which the kingdom was divided into six circuits, with three justiciaries for each circuit. Among the edicts which they were to enforce were those relating to castles. A strict inquisition was to be made into the tenure by castle-guard, and how far its duties were discharged.
It does not appear to what extent the new regulations were carried out; but the general effect of the new system was to check marauders, and to render insurrections more difficult and less frequent. Northallerton, more than once dismantled, was at last (1177) entirely destroyed; and the Bishop of Durham, its owner, had to pay a fine of a thousand marcs for his share in the last rebellion. Such castles as Durham, Norham, and Scarborough, which it was expedient to preserve, were attached to the Crown, and placed in the hands of faithful castellans. Bamburgh was entrusted to William de Stuteville, and Norham to William de Neville, Scarborough to the Archbishop of York, Berwick to Geoffrey de Neville, and Durham to Roger de Coniers. The assize of arms, by which, in 1180, it became the duty of each freeholder to provide himself with arms and armour according to his means and condition, rendered the commonalty more capable of resisting tyranny, and on the whole tended to strengthen the hands of any not very unpopular sovereign against the barons.
The general result of Henry’s domestic policy was undoubtedly successful, and his latter years were untroubled by any serious outbreak. In 1177, he returned to Normandy; but both there, and during his subsequent visits to England, he paid great attention to the castles of each country, visiting many of them, appointing and changing the castellans, and causing the defences to be kept in proper order. In February, 1187, he visited the very singular castle of Chilham by Canterbury. He died in the castle of Chinon, July, 1189.