Mediæval Military Architecture in England, Volume 2 (of 2)

by George Thomas Clark

9 John, 1207. On the 23rd June the king was at Odiham; and on the 29th, John Fitz-Hugh was to take and hold the manor until the men there had paid the debt due to the king. 10th August, the same John was ordered to have 20 marcs from the king’s treasure for the works at Odiham; and 26th October, a new bed was ordered for Woodstock and another for Odiham, in which, no doubt, King John slept when there in December for three days. There also was an order for payment for making the ditches there at the king’s command (Close Roll, p. 94 b). In 11 John, £50 was ordered for works there. In February, May, and October, of the same year, 1210, John was at Odiham; in 14 John, 1212, he went from Lambeth to Odiham, and arriving on Sunday, 6th May, tested documents there. On Monday, 3s. were paid for the hire of three carts, travelling two days and resting one, conveying the wardrobe from Lambeth; also 13d. to Ferling the huntsman and Thos. de Porkericiis, with the hounds, for their expenses and sleeping one night on the road. John then left, but returned to Odiham on the 10th. While absent on the 8th at Freemantell, he paid 6s. for the heads of six Welshmen,—ghastly trophies sent to him. On the 10th, 5d. were paid for cords bought at Winchester to string the cross-bows, besides expenses for hiring carts. John was seven days at Odiham in the May of this year, and afterwards in December. On 25th May, he paid 5s. to Stephen de Guildford for a wolf caught by his master’s dogs at Freemantell.

15 John, 1214. Money had been spent by John Fitz-Hugh on repairs of the king’s castles of Windsor and Odiham. The king was at the latter place in January.

Magna Charta was tested 15th June, 1215, 17 John. In the preceding May the king was at Odiham, from the 21st to the 25th, and from the 28th to the 30th, seven days. On the 29th, he addressed the letter to Pope Innocent, in which he pleaded the contumacy of the barons as the reason why he could not go to the Holy Land. On the same day the castle of Devizes was ordered to be repaired, and Hugh de Beauchamp’s lands were to be taken possession of if he was with the rebels. From the 31st of May to the 3rd of June, the king was at Windsor. On 4th June, he was at Odiham, whence he went to Winchester and was there from the 5th to the 8th. He thence paid a hasty visit to Merton, but was at Odiham on the 9th, it is said, with seven knights only. On the 11th, he was at Windsor, and there remained, visiting Runnymede, from thence to grant the charter, and returning to Windsor till the 21st, when he was again at Runnymede. And so to and fro till the 26th, when he was at Odiham for a day. In that year there was also a charge for putting garrisons into Odiham and other castles.

At this time John seems to have been preparing for the struggle by collecting what he had portable of value. The prior of Reading brought to him at Odiham, on the 26th June, a silver cabinet and an ivory cabinet with precious stones and reliques, a gold cup given him by the Pope, much silver and silver-gilt plate, various rolls of the royal chamber and of the Exchequer and his seal, all which had been deposited in Reading Abbey. On the following day he was at Winchester, and there received by Adam, the cellarer of Merton, more plate and jewels, sapphires, balas rubies, &c., which had been in keeping of the convent there, and again on the same day a very much larger quantity also of plate and jewels, brought by Michael, a canon of Waltham, from the custody of the house there. The details of all these valuables are given at length on the Patent Rolls. From Winchester he went to various places in Wiltshire and the south of England.

In the following year, 1216, 17 John, the king was at Odiham for the last time for five days in April, and on the 15th ordered twenty tuns (“dolia”) of his prisage wines to be sent there from Southampton. He issued thence an immense number of instruments, and finally left for Farnham on the 18th. On 21st April, the manor of Odiham was to be transferred by Bartholomew Peche to the seneschal, Engelram de Cygoyn, or his attorney, who seems to have been John Fitz-Hugh, to whom it was again transferred on the 29th. The transfer, however, was confined to the manor, for by a mandate of the 31st of May, directing seisin to be given to Fitz-Hugh, the castle was specially retained in the king’s hands.

How strong the place was appears from the resistance it opposed in this year to the Dauphin Louis and the invading army. Marlborough, a very strong castle, had surrendered, when the French appeared before Odiham. The tower, says Wendover, was held by three knights and ten soldiers, who were besieged in form. On the third day when such engines as were with the army were in place, and an assault had been made and failed, the garrison sallied out and captured a number equal to their own as prisoners. After eight, or, as some accounts say, fifteen, days, the thirteen surrendered on terms, retaining their horses and arms and their liberty. Wendover says the tower belonged to the Bishop of Winchester, but all the evidence seems to show that neither the castle nor domain were ever alienated from the Crown.

The first mention of Odiham in the reign of Henry III. is an order to de Cygoyn to allow Bartholomew de Peche to hold the rents of the vill for his sustenance in the king’s service (18th April, 1 Henry III., 1217). John Fitz-Hugh appears to have been in opposition and to have been dispossessed, for on 12th August he returns to his fidelity, and is allowed seisin of the manor and hundred of Odiham. The great earl marshal’s policy was to pardon and reward all who gave in their adhesion to the new sovereign. The castle was kept up, even to storing the ditches with fish, for John de Venuz was ordered (4th April, 1222, 6 Henry III.) to allow to de Cygoyn twenty breams from the king’s marsh of Woolmer for stocking “our ditches at Odiham.” On 2nd May, 1222, 6 Henry III., two tuns “dolia”) of the king’s prisage wines were ordered from Southampton to Odiham. 16th November, 1222, 7 Henry III., the king had let the manor of Odiham to farm for £50 per annum, but regard was to be had to the rights of the “Men of Odiham.” 15th January, 1224, 8 Henry III., the Archbishop of Canterbury, who holds the castle of Odiham, is directed to give up to Engelram de Cygoyn all his chattels and farming stock at the castle (Close Roll, p. 581); and again, on 20th February, the constable of Odiham is directed to permit Engelram to remove all his chattels, stock, mares, &c., from the park of Odiham, and what he bought with his own money. This done, the king seems to have taken to farming on his own account, for on 23rd February following, the treasurer is directed to pay to Walter de Kirkeham and Walter de Brackel £100 to defray their expenses, and to Ralph Brito 50 marks for the purchase of oxen for the king’s ploughs at Windsor and Odiham, and for seed for the lands there. Further, on the 5th of May, by virtue of an order directing the distribution of wine from Southampton to certain of the royal residences, a tun (“dolium”) of spiced wine was sent to Odiham. On 4th June, in the place of Henry de Feslegh, deceased, Gilbert de la Dene is appointed a verderer in the forest of Odiham, and is to take the usual oath.

In 18 Henry III. the royal forests of Windsor and Odiham were committed to the care of Engelram de Cygoyn—then a very old servant of the Crown, and (20 Henry III.) he had also the park of Odiham. In 21 Henry III., Alianor, Countess of Pembroke, the king’s sister, had the castle, and afterwards (33 Henry III.), as Countess of Leicester, the manor. Meantime, however (28 Henry III.), her husband, Simon de Montfort, held the park as the king’s tenant. In the same year, de Cygoyn had a writ of “allocate” for £40, due to the king for two years’ rent of the manor of Odiham; also in the same year, however, de Cygoyn was dead, and the sheriff was to receive from his executors all his ploughs and stock, and to deliver them to de Montfort.

In 30 Henry III., Richard le Male held the manor. The Bishop of Bath and Wells had a grant of three acres of land out of Odiham to augment the park of Dogmersfield. In 34 Henry III., John, the representative of the de Beninges family, long connected with Odiham, had been outlawed, and inquiry was directed as to what he held in chief there, which appears to have been three virgates. In 35 Henry III., William de Synago had a grant of Stapelegh in the parish of Odiham, and Gilbert de Eversley appears among the tenants, as (38 Henry III.) does William Villiers for two acres.

It appears from a document of this reign, printed by Rymer, that upon William, the son of Durandus Nanus (the dwarf), proposing to become a monk, the king allowed his land to pass to his cousin Margaret, wife of Alexander de Barentin. The land lay in Warnburn (Warnborough) and Odiham, and had been purchased by Durandus “de suffacio” in the time of Henry I. with the king’s consent. The land carried with it certain rights of herbage, cutting firewood, enclosing within hedges, &c., and the whole was evidently held direct from the Crown.