The issue of the contest between Matilda and Stephen turned very much upon the castles over which each had control. It was again by the seizure of Winchester Castle and its treasure that Stephen was able to celebrate his coronation in the adjacent cathedral. It was under the walls of Reading Castle, strongly placed between the meeting of the Kennet and the Thames, that he trusted himself to meet Matilda’s adherents, and with them to lay the corpse of her father before the altar of the great Abbey that he had founded, and the ruins of which have long survived those of its secular neighbour. From Oxford, strong in its walled city and partially water-girdled keep, Stephen issued his first charter, so full of promises to his new subjects; and thence he went to Durham, one of the strongest castles of the North, to meet David of Scotland, who had wasted the border from Carlisle to Newcastle, and taken Alnwick and Norham, though foiled before Wark and Bamborough. One of David’s principal concessions was the castle of Newcastle. On the other hand, he obtained the confirmation to him of that of Carlisle, long the gate of Scotland. The two, posted one at each end of the lines of Severus and Hadrian, are still tolerably perfect, as is the impregnable Bamburgh, the Norman keep of which, in Stephen’s time, was new. From Oxford, still his central stronghold, on his return to the South, Stephen conceded his second charter, less distinct in its promises as the danger of his position seemed less pressing. On the report of his death in 1136, it was trust in their strong castles of Exeter, Plympton, Okehampton, Norwich, Framlingham, and Bungay, that encouraged Baldwin de Redvers and Hugh Bigot to rise in arms. Bath had then a castle and was a walled town. Stephen laid siege to and took the castle, and thence, with two hundred horse, rode to Exeter, where Rougemont, its citadel, was strong and well garrisoned. The siege was a remarkable one, and the warlike machines employed both within and without were of a formidable character. The citizens were with Stephen, so the attack was on the city front. The bridge from the city, still standing, was one point of attack. A “malvoisin” was constructed, whence stones were poured in upon the garrison; the walls were ruined, and the towers much injured. Finally the well ran dry, and the garrison surrendered upon terms. Plympton also capitulated, and Norwich was taken.