The above entries show much attention to the lodging of the King and Queen, and but little to those of any one else, or to the fortifications. The old hall is probably that which preceded the present structure, and was no doubt Norman. The cellar under the oriel is mentioned. The magna turris was probably the keep, and the drawbridge that which crossed the keep ditch. The barbican was no doubt a timber structure outside one of the two outer gates. The old chapel, probably that in which the council met, was destroyed, and a new one erected. The new hall seems to have been in progress 8–9 Edward I.
The history of Rockingham is closely bound up with that of the forest, of which its constables or castellans were almost always seneschals. It has been shown that the Conqueror here ordered a castle to be made, and probably therefore he visited the spot. In 1095 it was selected by Rufus as the place of meeting for the nobles and prelates of the realm to discuss with Archbishop Anselm the important question, “Utrum salvâ reverentiâ et obedientiâ Sedis apostolicæ posset Archiepiscopus fidem terreno Regi servare, annon”? When the King arrived from Normandy, 29th December, 1094; he found Anselm about to accept his pall from Urban II., whom the king had not acknowledged as pope, and the question arose whether the recognition of Urban was consistent with fidelity to the crown. The meeting took place at Rockingham on the fifth Sunday in Lent, 11th March, 1095. They met in the chapel, when Anselm called on the prelates for their advice. The prelates inclined to the feudal rather than the ecclesiastical view of the question, which they rather avoided, and decided that Anselm had treated the king with disrespect. The meeting was adjourned to the Monday, when the prelates agreed that the assembly was one of vassals of the crown, and not a synod, and they and the nobles advised Anselm to submit himself to the king. On the Tuesday a deputation of the prelates met Anselm. They persisted in regarding the difference from the secular point of view only, offering an opinion that as a vassal of the crown the Archbishop was in the wrong, but declining to go further, or to pass any censure upon their ecclesiastical superior. The meeting then broke up, Anselm refusing to give way. Soon afterwards the king acknowledged Urban and received his legate, but without consulting or informing Anselm. All this shows that Rockingham was then an important place. The chapel must have been more than a mere oratory in the keep like those of Arundel or Lincoln, and there must have been some sort of accommodation for the assembly, composed as it was of laymen of high rank and of bishops, in an age when men of that order were not remarkable for asceticism.
The forest is said anciently to have extended to Northampton, but the boundaries, as fixed by various perambulations from Edward I. to Charles I., limit it to Oxendon and Stamford bridges. It was divided into the Bailliewicks of Rockingham, Clive or Clyffe, and Brigstoke, each under a bailiff and verdurers, and in each of which was a forest lodge, kept in repair by the crown. At Geddington on the Ise was a larger residence, often visited by the sovereigns, where a great Curia Regis was once held, and where still remains one, the most perfect, of the memorial crosses set up by Edward I. to his Queen. Many manors also were held of the castle by the tenure of castle-guard. There is no regular list of these, but it is known that among them were Little Billing, Cottingham, Aldwinkle, Cogenhoe, Harwedon, Hanington, Horton, Isham, Uphall, Wotton, and the Barony of Chipping-Warden, which itself had tenants holding by like services. Also an inquisition, 18th February, 18th Edward I., shows that the Manor of Wahul was held of the king per Baroniam by the service of one knight’s fee, and sixty-nine shillings each Michaelmas, for the ward of Rockingham Castle. The sums for which the service was commuted ranged from twenty pence to seventy-five shillings annually, and were assessed at five shillings for a knight’s fee. The collection of these sums was the business of a special officer who held half a virgate of land by this tenure, besides hous-bote and hey-bote in Cottingham wood, a right to grass his horse in the Abbot of Peterborough’s meadows at Eston, and his diet when the king or his constable were in residence. He seems to have been called the castle bailiff, and in Henry III.’s time, when Geoffrey de Rockingham held it, the office was hereditary. There was also a weyte or watchman, who mounted guard at night, and held the weyte fee by the tenure of castle-weyte. Simon de (la) Weyte held the office 36 Henry III.
In 1137 we are told in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle that the Abbey of Peterborough, under its indomitable abbot Martin, that “good monk and good man,” recovered from William Malduit, who held the Castle of Rockingham, the lands of Cottingham and Easton. Malduit was only constable, but in the lawless reign of Stephen the keeper of so strong a place must have exercised very independent powers. The castle was never actually alienated from the crown, and was frequently visited by the kings, together with Brigstoke and Geddington, and forest laws were very strictly enforced, through the Justice “in itinere forestarum.” In 1139–40 (5 Stephen) the king had a vinedresser at Rockingham, for whose livery was allowed thirty shillings, and twenty shillings were spent in procuring necessaries for the vineyard. In 1188, 11th February, a great assembly, “Curia Regis,” was held at Geddington to discuss the question of a crusade. In 1189–90 the Sheriff of Northamptonshire accounted for one hundred shillings for the rent of Rockingham.
In 1194 King Richard was here.
Henry II. and Richard I. allowed £4. 11s. 3d. for the castle porter and two watchmen. The custos or constable purchased his office. In 1157–8 Fulk de Lisoriis accounted for twenty pounds for the old rent of the forests of Rockingham and Selveston, and a similar sum was accounted for as the new rent of the same forests. In 1199 Robert Malduit paid for it one hundred pounds by four quarterly payments. He had already held it. King John was here at least fourteen times between 1204 and 1216, and dated many instruments from hence. In 1204, 5th May, the county of Rutland and the vill of Rockingham had been settled in dower by John on Queen Isabella. He probably retained the castle. In this settlement he followed precedent, for in 1209 Pope Innocent called upon him to restore to Berengaria, Richard’s queen, her goods, among which is specified “In Nordhantonscire Rokingham cum pertinenciis ejus” (Rymer). The dower was confirmed 5th May, 1215. In 1204 the Patent Roll shows that King John granted to Samson Wascelin, “our clerk,” the church of Rockingham with the attached chapel of Manneton, in free alms for life. In 1205, Scogernel, a king’s messenger, had ninepence for going to Rockingham. In October, 1207, Earl David (of Huntingdon) had paid the king in his chamber at Rockingham, by the hand of Peter de Stoke, £100 due on an imprest, and in 1208 Hugh de Nevil was to be prepaid his outlay, estimated by competent persons, on the king’s houses at Rockingham and Clyve.
In 1209 and 1210 occur divers entries in the Mise Roll concerning William Aquarius, who provided the king’s bath. Of eight baths, he had made one at Northampton. There is no bath at Rockingham. There are payments for the “roncini” [baggage ponies] of Thomas Marescal staying at Northampton and Rockingham for six days with the royal wardrobe, while the king wandered [‘spatiatum’] among the forests and rivers. He thus visited Geddington and Clyve, where he lost 4s. 10d. at tables with the Earl of Salisbury, and afterwards 4s. 11d. Also the keep of twenty-nine horses and twenty-four valets (garciones) for three days at Rockingham, with a workshop (fabrica), cost 24s. 5d.
The frequency of the royal visits was in some measure due to the necessity for supporting the household from the local resources; wine however, notwithstanding the vineyard, was imported and kept in store, especially at Southampton, and there delivered to the king when needed. Thus, in 1212, sixteen casks of wine were imported, of which five went to Rockingham, three to Clyffe, and four to Geddington; and John while here, 10th July, acknowledges the receipt of a coat of mail which had belonged to the Constable of Chester. Here also, according to the Mise Roll, John ordered 100 marcs given him by the burgesses of Nottingham to be expended in making a tower “in mota de Notingham.”
The castle was also a prison. In 1213, Gilbert de Gartington was to be set free from thence, with his chattels, on bail; also Robert de Mara, taken at Carrickfergus, was freed at the request of the legate. In 1214, the chancellor was directed to purchase five dolia of the best wine in London and to send them to Clyffe, Geddington, Rockingham, and Selveston. In this year £127. 8s. 6d. was allowed for works on the new tower and chamber in the castle, and Peter de Barr and Nicholas de Hugevill, foot crossbowmen, were sent to be employed in the defence of the castle, at six pence per day each. In January, 1215, the chancellor was to send more red wine. In March the king has restored to William, Earl of Albemarle, the manor of Rockingham, which had belonged to Alice his paternal aunt (amitæ suæ). This may be either Alice de Romeli his mother’s mother, or Alice Mareschal his sister. He is to have “homines, res, terras, et omnes possessiones.” In May, William de Harcourt is to be well received at the castle if he needs hospitality. It appears that the late custos had been enclosing, for the king gives to Roger de Nevil the whole assart of Rockingham which Hugh de Nevil had assarted or cleared, and adds common of pasture in the vill for his stock, by the tenure of a pair of gilt spurs annually.
1216, 4th March, of the prisoners sent by Lady Nichole de Haya to Nottingham four are to be transferred to Rockingham. The custos of the castle seems to have been trespassing on the powers of the sheriff, which the king sets right. Probably there had been a disturbance at Rockingham for John directs the Constable of Nottingham to liberate on a fine a prisoner taken there. Later in the year the garrison must have been discontented, for the custos is ordered at once to pay their arrears of livery to the men who garrison the castles of Northampton and Rockingham, so that they may have no excuse for desertion. The constable is to retain for the use of the castle the manors of Geddington, Cliff, Brigstock, and Corby. He is to act as escheator in order to give seizin of Blaston and Weston to Ralph Fitz Peter. This is one of the first orders made in the new reign, and is witnessed by the Earl marshall “teste Comite.” Henry III. was probably at Rockingham many times, certainly in 1220, 1226, and 1229.