It appears to have been successively a Saxon Palace, then a Norman, and afterwards an Edwardian fortress. King Stephen besieged it in 1139, Earl Baldwin de Redvers having seized it for the Empress Maud. King John used it as an arsenal for military engines and stores, and here his foul crime of starving twenty-two knights and nobles to death, whom he had captured at Mireteau in 1203, was committed. The wretched ex-King Edward II. lived here for a time before his removal to Berkeley, and it appears to have been possessed by several important historical personages before it reverted to the Crown in 1552, when it was granted to Sir Christopher Hatton. That family sold it in 1635 to Sir John Bankes, the ancestor of the present owners. The notable defence of the castle for three years by Lady Bankes against the Commonwealth forces is one of those feats which stand out bravely against the somewhat sordid history of that period. The Castle occupies an area of about three acres. The Norman work consists chiefly of a square Keep occupying the most elevated part of the hill, where possibly the Saxon Palace had been situated, and, with its enceinte, formed the innermost ward of the Castle. It is about 60 feet square, and 80 feet high, with the usual flat pilasters; the masonry is remarkably good, formed of large squared stones obtained from some hard beds in the vicinity. The floors and apparently the roof were of wood, and have now disappeared, while the battlements also are missing. On the east side of the Keep are the remains of the Queen's hall of Early English work, and other buildings within the inner ward appear to be of the same date. The gateway of the middle ward was overthrown by undermining, part of it has sunk and moved out of the perpendicular. The great curtain wall reaching between this gateway and the Keep is comparatively intact, and forms one of the finest defences of that description now remaining in Britain. The entrance to the outer ward has been sadly wrecked; the two drum towers have been blown forwards by the explosive force of gunpowder, the vaulting is rent, and the adjacent wall to the west overthrown. More than half of the tower called the Buttavant Tower has been blown clean away, while the minor bastions and the encircling wall generally have either disappeared or been thrown out of the perpendicular. The order to "slight" the Castle, _i.e._ to dismantle it, was issued by the Parliament in 1646, and perhaps no fortress exists in Britain where the decree was so thoroughly carried into effect. Unnecessarily large charges of gunpowder appear to have been used, not only dislodging the masonry but shattering it; while in many places the effect was obtained by undermining and propping up with wood, which when subsequently burnt brought down the superincumbent mass, similarly to the proceedings at the Keep of Raglan Castle. [Illustration: CHEPSTOW CASTLE.]