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
Henry, like Rufus, commenced his reign with the taking of Winchester
with its treasures. Flambard, who had been entrusted with the great
episcopal castles of Durham and Norham, was imprisoned in the keep
of London. The outlawry of Robert Malet and Robert de Lacy, in 1101,
gave Henry their castles in Yorkshire and Suffolk; and in 1102 Ivo
de Graintmaisnel was driven from his mound at Hinckley, and forced
to flee the country. Also the King obtained, by forfeiture, the
castles of William de Warenne, though these were afterwards restored.
Henry, in 1103, laid his hands upon Arnulph de Montgomery’s castle of
Pembroke, and on those of Robert of Poitou, his brother, between the
Ribble and the Mersey. The death of William Earl of Moretaine brought
in the almost impregnable hill-castle of Montacute, with Trematon,
Launceston, Tintagel, Boscastle, and Restormel, and other Cornish
fortresses. The fall of Robert de Belesme gave the crown the castles
of Arundel,—a lesser Windsor in its plan, and scarcely inferior in
its position; of Shrewsbury, the mound of which still towers over the
Severn, and dwarfs even the extensive and incongruous railway-station
at its foot; of Bridgenorth, where a fragment of the keep shows what it
must once have been; and of Carreghova, of which the very traces are
well-nigh effaced. Belesme retired to Normandy, where he is said to
have been lord of thirty-four castles; but the fragments of his power
only betrayed him into further rebellion, so that he ended his life a
prisoner and an exile on the castled mound of Wareham.
There still remained, indeed, in private hands a considerable number
of castles, the owners of which found it convenient to give way, and
thus to retain a portion of their influence. Such were Bourne in
Lincolnshire; Malton, held by Fitz-John, in Yorkshire; Beaudesert in
Warwickshire; the episcopal castles of Newark and Sleaford, and that of
Oakham. There were also Warblington in Hampshire; and in Cumberland,
Egremont and Cockermouth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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