Geoffrey de Mandeville: A study of the AnarchyRound, John Horace
History
Geoffrey de Mandeville: A study of the Anarchy
Round, John Horace
Great Britain -- History -- Stephen, 1135-1154; Mandeville, Geoffrey de, earl of Essex, -1144
"Gundulfus ... illis contulit beneficium ... _castrum_ etenim, quod
situm est in pulchriore parte Hrovecestræ.... Regi consuluerunt [duo
amici] quatinus ... Gundulfus, quia in opere cæmentarii plurimum sciens
et efficax erat, _castrum_ sibi Hrofense _lapideum_ de suo
construeret.... Dixerunt [Archiepiscopus et Episcopus] ...
quotiescunque quidlibet ex infortunio aliquo casu in _castro_ illo
contingeret aut infractione muri aut fissura maceriei, id protinus ...
exigeretur.... Hoc pacto coram Rege inito fecit _castrum_ Gundulfus
Episcopus de suo ex integro totum, costamine, ut reor, lx
librarum."[983]
Though _castrum_ is the term used throughout, Mr. Parker in his essay on
_The Buildings of Gundulph_, 1863, assumed that a _tower_ must be meant,
and wrote of "Gundulf's tower" in the Cathedral: "This is probably the
tower which Gundulph is recorded to have built at the cost of £60."[984]
So too, Mr. Clark wrote:—
"As to his architectural skill and his work at Rochester Castle, ...
the bishop [was] to employ his skill, and spend £60 in building a
castle, _that is, a tower_ of some sort. What Gundulf certainly built
is the tower which still bears his name.... It may be that Gundulf's
tower was removed to make way for the new keep, but in this case its
materials would have been made use of, and some trace of them would be
almost certain to be detected. But there is no such trace, so that
probably the new keep did not supersede the other tower."[985]
Mr. Freeman guardedly observes:—
"The noble tower raised in the next age by Archbishop Walter (_sic_) of
Corbeuil ... had perhaps not even a forerunner of its own class.
"Mr. Hartshorne showed distinctly that the present tower of Rochester
was not built by Gundulf, but by William of Corbeuil.... But we have
seen (see _N. C._, vol. iv. p. 366) that Gundulf did build a stone
castle at Rochester for William Rufus ('castrum Hrofense lapidum'
[_sic_]), and we should most naturally look for it on the site of the
later one. On the other hand, there is a tower seemingly of Gundulf's
building and of a military rather than an ecclesiastical look, which is
now almost swallowed up between the transepts of the cathedral. But it
would be strange if a tower built for the king stood in the middle of
the monastic precinct."[986]
Thus the problem is left unsolved by all four writers. But the true
interpretation of _castrum_, as established by me above, solves it at
once. For just as William of Corbeuil is recorded to have built the
"turris" or rectangular keep,[987] so Gundulf is described as
constructing the _castrum_ or fortified enclosure.[988] We must look,
therefore, for his work in the wall that girt it round. And there we
find it. Mr. Clark himself is witness to the fact:—
"Part of the curtain of the _enceinte_ of Rochester Castle may also be
Gundulph's work. The south wall looks very early, as does the east
wall."[989]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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