Mediæval Military Architecture in England, Volume 1 (of 2)Clark, George Thomas
History
Mediæval Military Architecture in England, Volume 1 (of 2)
Clark, George Thomas
Architecture -- England; Architecture, Medieval; Military architecture
The Manor of Arundel, with others in this immediate neighbourhood, was
given by Alfred, by will (885), to his brother’s son. It was held by
Harold, and afterwards by William, who about or before 1070 granted to
Roger de Montgomery the castle and honour of Arundel, with 84½ knights’
fees. Roger, who was of kin to the Conqueror, and commanded the Norman
centre at Hastings, became Earl of Arundel and Shrewsbury, and held the
Castle about twenty-three years, till his death. Domesday describes the
Castle of Harundel as having, in the time of King Edward, paid annually
for the mill, 40s.; for three “convivia,” or entertainments, 20s.; and
“pro uno pasticio,” or pasty, 20s. There was also the church of St.
Nicholas, or the parish church, and St. Martin’s, probably the chapel
of the castle. There was also another mill which paid ten bushels of
corn. The burgh, port, and shipping paid £12 or more.
It is curious that Arundel, Chichester, Shrewsbury, and the Norman
Manor whence Roger derived his territorial designation, each possessed
a mound. On William’s death in 1088, Earl Roger gave his support to
Robert Curthose, whom he invited to land at Arundel. The Prince’s
sluggishness alienated his English followers, and the Earl tendered his
aid to Rufus. At Earl Roger’s death, in 1094, he bequeathed his Sussex
earldom, called also “of Chichester,” to his younger son Hugh, the
Hugh Goch of the Welsh, who held both Arundel and Shrewsbury, stood in
opposition to William Rufus, and was slain while repelling pirates from
the north Welsh coast in 1098. His successor in the English earldom was
his eldest brother, who already held the family lordships in Normandy.
This was Robert, Earl of Belesme in la Perche, who received at Arundel
William Rufus on his arrival from Normandy in 1097.
Earl Robert, the wicked son of a wicked mother, was a bold soldier,
and an able, though a very cruel man. He built with great rapidity the
strong castle of Brugge or Bridgenorth, and that of Montgomery, called
by the Welsh Tre-faldwin, from Baldwin, its early seneschal. His career
in England was violent and short. Bridgenorth was besieged and taken by
Henry I., who brought the wooden turret known as a malvoisin to bear
upon its walls. The Earl went into exile in 1102, and died in 1118.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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