The only masonry that can possibly be old is a small rectangular mass on the south side of the mound, and which now carries a modern summer-house. The ragstone of the country, of which this fragment is comprised, weathers so rapidly that it is difficult to form an opinion upon its age; but, though possibly old, it may be of recent date.
Looking to the position of the mound as regards the river, and to the low and flat character of the ground about it, it is evident that the great strength of the place must have been derived from the Ouse, here deep and broad, and from banks of earth and ditches filled from and communicating with the river. The entire absence of masonry and the disappearance of all but a trace of the surrounding banks and ditches, commemorated in the Chronicles as once so high and deep, are fully accounted for by the circumstances recorded of the famous siege by Henry III.
Bedicanford, or Bedford, was well known to the Saxons, and a town probably of Saxon origin. Here, just outside the town, was buried in 796 the Saxon Offa, king of Mercia, in a chapel long since swept away by the flood waters of the Ouse. Early in the tenth century the town was attacked by a party of Danish settlers from the five burghs, who were beaten off by the townspeople, and shortly afterwards Edward the elder repaired the place, and erected what some call the suburb of Mikesgate, and some a strong place, on the southern side of the river, possibly a cover for the “ford,” which contributed towards the name of the town. Bedford was, without doubt, an important town under the Saxons, and, as at Tamworth, Leicester, Wareham, and Wallingford, had a citadel at one angle of the enclosure, upon the river.
The Barony, also called the Honour, of Bedford, was conferred by William Rufus upon Payn, second son, but eventual heir of Hugh Beauchamp, a companion of the Conqueror, and possibly allied to the greater family of that name, who afterwards held the earldom of Warwick. Hugh was the recipient of many manors in Buckingham, and about twenty in Bedfordshire. Payn is the reputed builder of the Norman castle, described as of great strength, with ditches and ramparts of earth, and which descended to his son Simon, steward to King Stephen. The family, however, afterwards took part against the king, who seems to have attempted to settle the fief upon the daughter of the eldest brother, married to Hugh, surnamed “Pauper,” brother to the Earl of Leicester. Milo de Beauchamp held the castle against King Stephen in 1137. The siege lasted five weeks, and was pressed with great energy. It was finally taken by starvation. The author of the “Gesta Stephani” describes the castle as having strong earthworks, “editissimo aggere vallatum.”
Simon de Beauchamp held the castle through the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I., until his death, about the 8th of John. It appears from the red book of the Exchequer that he held 36 and 5–10ths knight fees of the old feoffment, and 8 fees of the new, all in the barony of Bedford. In his time the castle seems to have been held against Henry II. since in the second year of that king, 1155–6, those burgesses of Bedford who were in the castle against the king were fined twenty marks, of which sum they rendered account in 1157–8. In 1190 Simon fined £100 for the governorship of the castle.
William, son and successor of Simon, is described as lord of the strong castle of Bedford, the “caput” of the Honour. He took part with the rebel barons towards the close of John’s reign, and in 1215 admitted their forces into his castle. In consequence it was attacked by the well-known Falk de Breauté, and, not being relieved, was surrendered in November, after a seven days’ siege. John was himself present at Bedford thrice in that year, in all for eight days. He granted the confiscated Honour to Falk.
Falk strengthened and held the castle into the reign of Henry III., and thence ravaged the country below the Chilterns. At first a supporter of the young king, he afterwards resisted his authority, and, at the instance of his oppressed neighbours, Henry de Braibroc was sent to Dunstable in 8th Henry III., 1224, to try their complaints, when thirty verdicts were found against the baron, and fines imposed of £100 under each of them. In revenge, Falk kidnapped the judge and lodged him a prisoner in Bedford Castle, treating him with much indignity. His wife complained to the Parliament then at Northampton, and the king ordered him to give up the judge, but in vain. Henry was probably glad of the opportunity of crushing a very turbulent subject, and appears to have lost no time in punishing the affront. In June, 1224, commenced a series of orders, issued by the king himself, and which show the greatness of his preparations for a siege, and the vigour with which he pushed them forward. On the 22nd of June, Henry was at Bedford in person, and there remained during the siege until the 19th of August, nearly two months. The preparations were both extensive and minute, and the mandates, always described as pressing, were issued to a vast number of sheriffs and other persons as far south and west as Corfe Castle and St. Briavels. They require men, money, arrears of scutage, cord, cable, iron, steel, hides, leather for slings, twine for strings, mangonels, petraries, balistæ, quarrells, stone shot, quarrymen, masons, miners, carpenters, saddlers, wagons for conveying the royal pavilions, and almonds, spice, and ginger for the royal still-room. All the smiths in Northampton who can forge quarrell bolts, or feather them when forged, are to work day and night until 4,000 are ready and despatched. Large quantities of wine from the royal stores in London, at Northampton, and elsewhere, are to be forwarded with speed to Bedford. Knights performing castle guard at Lancaster are ordered up: greyhounds are sent for for sport. The sheriff of Bedfordshire is to supply quarrymen and masons with their levers, hammers, mauls, and wedges, and everything necessary for the preparation of stone shot for the mangonels and petraries. Miners come from St. Briavels, in the Forest of Dean. Windsor supplies its master-carpenter and his mates. Cambridge sends cord and cable. Charcoal comes with the iron and steel from Gloucester, and the adjacent abbey of Newenham spares a large quantity of raw stone to be converted into shot.
The details of the material supplied are recorded in the close rolls of the period. The particulars of the siege itself have been preserved by the neighbouring monks of Dunstable, from whose town, and probably from whose monastery, the judge had been taken, and whose fellow-townsmen played an important part in the siege. The king brought with him the Archbishop of Canterbury and divers bishops and abbots, by whose interest was granted to him two men from every hyde of their church lands to work the siege engines; an aid of “carucage” or a mark from each caruca or plough land of demesne, and 2s. from each held in tenancy, gifts which were guarded against being drawn into a precedent by special charter from the king.
Falk left his brother to abide the attack, and sought aid on the lands of the Earl of Chester, Ranulph Blundeville. The earl, however, was with the king, together with Peter de Rupibus, bishop of Winchester, William de Cantelupe, Brian de l’Isle, and Peter de Maulay. All were suspected of disaffection, and in consequence the earl and the bishop left the camp, although the earl was afterwards brought by the Bishop of Chester to his duty. Falk remained at Northampton until he fled to Wales.
The siege operations included on the east front a petrary and two mangonels, which daily battered the opposite tower; on the west front, two mangonels bore upon the old tower; on the north and south fronts were two mangonels, one on each, and each breached its opposing wall. The operations of these seven pieces of ordnance were materially aided by two large wooden turrets, tall enough to command the whole castle, and supported by other smaller turrets, all charged with archers and crossbow-men. There was also the timber covered-way, known as a cat, by the aid of which miners were able to undermine the wall, while the bowmen cleared the battlements above. These works were thickly covered with hides, rendering them proof against fire; and the slingers, of whom there were many, probably kept up a general and incessant shower of pebbles upon all who dared to show themselves on the ramparts.