Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, who wrote towards the close of the eleventh century, mentions the three burhs (_tria castra_) of Buckingham, Bedford, and Huntingdon. The castle is mentioned several times in Domesday. It was within the borough of Huntingdon. The Bishop of Lincoln had a residence (_mansio_) in the place of the castle (_in loco castri_). In the place of the castle were twenty residences (_mansiones_). “Besides these were and are LX. ‘mansiones’ waste ... and on account of these are VIII. ‘mansiones’ waste.” William the Conqueror was at Huntingdon 1068, when he ordered a castle to be built, evidently on the site of the old fortress restored by Edward the Elder in 918. The names in Domesday show how complete had been the removal of the larger English landowners. The new castle was probably built by, and in the hands of, Eustace, one of the most rapacious of the Norman sheriffs; but the earldom was given to Judith, the king’s niece, and descended to and through Maud, her daughter, by Earl Waltheof. Maud married, first, Simon de St. Liz, in her right Earl of Huntingdon. The earldom, on his death, was held by David, afterwards King of Scots, Maud’s second husband, and, with the castle, was long a subject of contention between the two families, until David, the third son of Henry, son of Maud and David, laid siege to and took the castle, on which Simon de St. Liz, the son of Maud, retook it. The result was that Henry II. had the castle demolished, nor does it appear ever to have been rebuilt. The town occurs from time to time in the public records, and the honour remained attached to the earldom. The king also had a prison there; but there is never any allusion to a castle. In 1205 King John granted to Robert Rufus the demesne and mill at Huntingdon, and in 1218 and 1219 the sheriff had order to give seizin, under certain limitations, to Alexander, King of Scotland, as custos of the honour. The junior branch of the house of Hastings took the title of Huntingdon, to commemorate the descent of the elder line from the Scottish earls. It is difficult to suppose that Henry would, within a century of its construction, demolish a first-class castle, commanding a shire town, and posted upon the edge of a very strong and inaccessible tract of country. The usual course with an important structure was to attach it to the Crown. And yet, whatever stood there was certainly then demolished, and Huntingdon Castle is not again heard of. Was there really a castle built there, or was it, as was often the case, a mere strengthened form of the older English work in timber? It is difficult, after this lapse of time, to say, though an excavation judiciously conducted would no doubt set the question at rest.