The next heirs were the Fitz-Urses. Reginald, Becket’s murderer, had a daughter and heiress, who married Robert, and had William de Courtenay, Lord of Montgomery, who died 1214, childless, leaving Ada a widow with dower, who died 1217. The next heir was the descendant of Margery, sister of Reginald Fitz-Urse, who married Richard Engaine, 1177–85, and had Richard, 1185, father of Vitalis Engaine, 1217, who claimed the Honour on the death of William de Courtenay, but only obtained a portion of it. Thomas de Erdington was a rival and more successful claimant. He held the castle, 1215–18, but much of the Honour was granted, in 1216, to William de Cantilupe, with certain reservations. In 1225 the king, who had all along treated the castle as a royal fortress, claimed the Honour as an escheat, and the whole was taken by the Crown, the dowers being allowed. Erdington, who had been the custos of the king’s castles of Shrewsbury, Whitchurch, Shawardine, Morton, Clun, Montgomery, Moreton, and other Shropshire strongholds, was repaid the outlay he had made upon them. Some sort of castle undoubtedly occupied the rock of Montgomery between 1102 and 1225, and it is said to have been twice taken and destroyed by Llewelyn, who, on the death of John, gained some advantages in Wales, and was allowed the custody of all the land that had belonged to Gwenonwhyn in “Wales and Mungumer,” of which he had been disseized during the war between John and the Barons. This he was to hold till Gwenonwhyn came of age. Probably the result was that when Henry entered he found the rock laid bare, for, from that time the Sheriff’s accounts show annual and very considerable payments for military works there for many years, and we read of the king’s new castle of Montgomery. As early as 1225, when the Welsh war made the place of great importance, nearly £1,000 is paid out; £1,100 in 1224; and above £500 in 1225. Master carpenters are sent to construct defences of timber, brétasches, to strengthen the castle, and miners or quarrymen from the Forest of Dean, no doubt to prepare stone, and to hew out the cross ditches. A fit chaplain is to be appointed to serve in the castle chapel, under the parson of Montgomery, and the king is to decide about the emoluments or “obventions” of the chantry. These were afterwards allotted to the mother Church, that is to the parish church of Montgomery, which was the mother church of the chapel; of the whole district Chirbury was the mother church. To the parson was also given the corn tythe of the land newly cultivated, of which he already had the small tythe. Sums of money are also allowed for assisting in clearing the lands of underwood and harbours for robbers; and on one occasion the king alludes to the time “when we took in hand our castle of Montgomery.” Henry himself was there in 1224, and all the masonry now standing is pretty evidently his work, and of this period.

1223 was the year of Llewelyn’s submission, and Godescal de Maghelines was castellan, and received drafts of miners and carpenters, and quarrels from St. Briavel’s forges. Henry, the king’s brother, and other knights, formed the garrison; and the chapel was in use.

In 1224 the king granted an annual fair in “our manor of Montgomery,” and Hubert de Huse was coupled with Godescal as custodes of the castle, honour, and vale of Montgomery, and soon after Baldwin de Hodnet was seneschal, and William de Cantelupe had seizin of the fees of the knights and free tenants annexed to the Honour. A fair was also proclaimed to be held under the castle, and protections were granted to those attending.

In 1227 Henry changed his policy, and granted the castle to Hubert de Burgh, with 200 marcs yearly for its custody for life, and an augmentation in war time, which speedily occurred; for in 1230, Llewelyn, having hanged William de Braose, marched towards Montgomery, the garrison of which suffered from an ambuscade near Kerry, whither they had gone to cut down a large wood. The Welsh followed them to the castle, and besieged it. Henry came to their relief. In 1233 de Burgh lost Henry’s favour, and with it Montgomery, and a constable was appointed by the king. A windmill was erected near the castle, to grind for its use. In 1235, a tower beyond the castle wall had been repaired, as had the town walls, for which nine wooden turrets were provided. Wine and various stores were sent to the castle, which, in 1245, was attacked by the Welsh under David, and, notwithstanding all the money so recently spent upon it, was found not to be in good repair, as appears from an inquisition held upon it in 1249, which specifies particularly the donjon or keep; the chamber and chapel; the wooden turret or brétasche, and the bridge near the chapel; the balister’s house; the wooden turret next the town; the stable; the wooden turret beyond the outer gate; the grange and wall round it; the pentiscie, pent-houses, or lean-to’s, carrying the woodwork belonging to five wooden turrets; the small tower or garrit, outside the gate; the “barrier” (jurullum) near the chapel; and the porter’s lodge. For the repairs of these is wanted £59. 3s. 8d. At this time there is also a water-mill connected with the castle, “Stanlawes Mill,” which only worked in winter.

In 1254 Henry granted Montgomery to Prince Edward, who, with the consent of the king and council, appointed a custos. In 1264, after Lewes, Henry, then in durance, ordered Adam Fitz-Philip to surrender the castle. Adam, however, refused, unless the order was backed by Prince Edward. In 1267, 29th September, Henry was here, and received Llewelyn’s homage, and recognised his principality, for which he was to pay 30,000 marcs.

Edward I. let the castle in farm to Bogo de Knovill, for £40 per annum, which rent was mostly expended upon the town defences, the town being a royal borough, under a charter from Henry III., in 1227, strengthened by one from Hubert de Burgh, by which leave was given to enclose it within a wall and ditch, of which the four gates remained in Leland’s days. In 1274 Prince Llewelyn was summoned to meet Edward’s Commissioners at the ford of Montgomery, a favourite trysting-place in that reign: but the Welsh prince did not attend.

MONTGOMERY CASTLE.

The reduction of the principality by Edward I. necessarily destroyed the value of the castles along the march, as bulwarks against the Welsh, and the strong domestic government of that sovereign put an end to the continued rebellions of the Marcher Barons. Under these circumstances the border castles were either allowed to fall into decay, or were employed only as county prisons. In any case they had little or no military value; nor, with the exception of a few passages in the reign of Edward II., and for a while, during the Glendower rebellion, were they regarded as defensible or so employed. Long afterwards, indeed, during the wars of Charles and his Parliament, such of these castles as remained tolerably perfect were garrisoned, defended, usually taken and retaken, and finally slighted or blown up by the prevailing party. Montgomery seems to have had its share of these misfortunes, and no doubt its walls and towers suffered; but in all probability, here, as elsewhere, far more damage has been done by the use of the ruins as a quarry in modern times of peace and prosperity than by the violence attendant upon war. Here, as in most other border castles, the military history of the building closes with the reign of Edward I., up to which point, or nearly so, all that can be said of the castelry, honour, and descent of the castle, has been collected from the original records, combined, digested, and recorded by Mr. Eyton, in his admirable “History of Salop.” For the later history of the castle, may be read with advantage a paper by the Rev. George Sanford, recently printed in the Montgomery Transactions.