Archæclogy .

ARCH ? CLOGY .

ROCHESTER CASTLE . [ THE following paper , describing the " Siege and Capture of Rochester Castle , by King John , " in the year 1215 , ivas written by G . R . CORNER , Esq ., F . S . A ., for the late meeting of the Kent Archaeological Society . ] The history of Rochester Castle is written in every history of the county and of the city . I . propose merely to give an account ofthe

siege and capture of the castle by King John in 1215 , with notices of some of its defenders who were made prisoners ivhen the castle Avas rendered to the King . The Great Charter bears date the 15 th of June 1215 ; in a feiv days after the King ' s plans ivere laid . He sent agents , amongst whom were William Geron , Hugh de Boves , and Geoffrey de Nevillinto PranceGermanyand Flandersauthorising them to

, , , , promise grants of the estates of the opposing barons ( which he intended to confiscate ) to such adventurers as ivould enter into his service , giving to his agents poiver to make formal grants beforehand . These foreign troops AA-ere ordered to be in readiness at Dover ] by Michaelmas . Matthew Paris says that the King counterfeited the bishops' seals , and wrote in their names to all nationssaying that all the English ivere become apostatesand to

, , any AVIIO ivould invade them the King ivould give the lands of those apostates . 'The King also raised as much money as he could , borrowing 1100 marks of the Master of the Templars , and 2000 marks of Hubert de Burgh , his justiciary ; and he sent for all his jewels and plate from various abbeys and monasteries , where they had been deposited for safe custod y , in order to raise money . At the same time he sent WalterBishop of "AVorcester ( his

Chan-, cellor ) , John , Bishop of Norwich , and Eichard de Marisco , to the Pope , to inform him of the coercion which had been put upon him by his subjects , whereby he hud been forced to grant a charter , the articles of ivhich lie represented to be subversive of the regal poiver , and in consequence detrimental to that of the Holy Father as Lord Paramount , entreating the Pope to absolve him from his oath , that he might with a safe conscience use his

endeavours to free himself from tlie concessions ivhich he had made to his people . Waiting the effect of these measures , the King retired to the Isle of Wight , where he spent his time as gentlemen from "London sometimes do in modern days , lounging by the sea side , yachting , conversing with the fishermen , and passing away the time as well as he could until his foreign levies should arrive . The King ' s to the

appeal Pope was eminently successful ; he absolved John from his oath , and annulled the charter . At the same time he enjoined the barons to renounce the grant ivhich they had enforced from their sovereign , threatening them ivith all the consequences of his anger and indignation in thc event of their disobedience to his mandate . But the sturd y English barons were not intimidated bthe fear of invasion bforeimercenaries or of

y y gn papal excommunication , and they took measures to defend themselves and support their cause in the best manner that they could . One of the strongholds of AA-hich the barons possessed themselves at this critical period Avas Rochester Castle , AA-hich belonged to the king , and had been usually in the custody ofthe Archbishop of Canterbury . King John , in the third year of his reign , had restored the possession of the castle to Hubert , Archbishop of

Canterbury , and it ivas in the possession of his successor at the period of which I . am speaking , ivhen the King , by his writ , required the Archbishop to give up the possession of the castle to him ; but the Archbishop , Cardinal Stephen Langston , an Englishman , who had been put into the sea by the Pope in opposition both to the King and to the Dean and Chapter , and ivho , in this emergency , took part with the barons against the King , delivered it to the barons

, who placed in it a strong garrison commanded hy William de Albini , of Belvoir Castle , a valiant baron and military commander . They found there a large quantity of ammunitionfry which Ave must not understand gunpowder , shells , congreve rockets and cannon balls , but boivs and arroiva , crossboAvs and bolts , stones for casting by engines , and such like old fashioned gear , whicli had been provided by the King for the defence of tie castlethe

- — knowledge of which ivas doubtless an additional inducement to the barons to possess themselves of a place so strongly fortified by nature and art . The foreign troops arrived at Dover by the end of September Uiey came in great numbers from Brabant , Flanders , Normandy J- orctou , and Gascony . The troops from Brabant and Flanders were commented by Walter Buck , Gerard Sotini , and Godeschall ; omi nr Y ascoliy aud -Poictou by Savaric de Mauleon , Geoffrey < md Oliver de Buteville , brothers . A large body , no less it is

said than forty thousand mcrr , under the command of Hugh de Boves , perished in the sea on their passage ; but notwithstanding this great loss , King John had force enough to enable him to overcome the opposing barons , and he immediately led his army to Rochester , which he invested . The barons had endeavoured to throw some succours into the castle , but without success . NeverthelessWilliam de Albini and his brave companions ,

, hoping that Robert Fitz Walter and the confederate barons ivould be able to relieve them and raise the siege , resolved to hold out to the utmost , and courageously defended the castle from the 1 : 1 th of October during a siege of eight weeks . King John attended the siege of Rochester in person , and was there from the 13 th of October until the 5 th of December , five days after the castle had been rendered to him .

Geoffrey de Yinsauf , in his "Itinerary of Eichard , King of the English , and others to the Holy Land , " gives us an authenticaccount of the siege of Acre in 1191 , only twenty-four years before that of Rochester , some short extracts from which will give a notion ofthe manner of conducting the sieg-e of a fortified place before the invention of guns and gunpowder . He says : "The King of France caused to be constructed mangonels and

other machines , ivhich he determined to apply day and night ; and he had one petraria ( or stone-caster ) of vast force , to AA-hich the army gave the name of Bad Neighbour . The Turks also had one which they called Bad Kinsman , which , by its violent casts , often crippled Bad Neighbour ; but the King of France repaired it again and again , until by many bloivs he had broken down a part of the city wall ,-and had shook the toiver Malcdictum . On ^

one side was pliedthe petraria of the Duke of Burgundy , on another that of the Templars , ivhile the engine of the Hospitallers never ceased to scatter dismay around . Besides these there ivas one petraria , built at the common expense , which they styled God ' s Petraria . By means of this engine a part of the w-all of the toiver Maledictum was at last hurled down for about ten yards in length . Thc Count of Flanders had also a large petrariaand also a smaller

, one , which two were plied incessantly close to one of the gates ; but the great machines ivere tAi'o , of choice material and workmanship , which Avould throAV stones to a distance almost incredible , and these King "Richard had erected . He had likewise another very firmly built , ivhich they called Bcrefred ; it had steps to mount it , was covered with raw hides and ropes , and , being of most solid wood , was neither to be destroyed by the force of blows

nor burnt by the streaming Greek fire . He also erected two mangonels , one of ivhich Avas of such force that what it burled reached the market-place of the city . These engines ivere plied night and day , and it is Avell knoAvn ( says the chronicler ) , that a stone from one of them killed twelve men at a blow . These engines hurled such stones and flinty p ieces of rock that nothingcould withstand them , for they shattered in pieces whatever they strnck , and , indeed , ground ifc to powder . The sappers of King Richard mined a toiver ivhich was at the same time assaulted bv

the engines , and ivhen it began to totter Richard offered first two . then three , then four pieces of gotd for every stone torn from its walls . Very many failed in this undertaking , while others were driven back by fear of death , for the Turks above manfully withstood them , and neither shields nor arms availed to protect them . " Acre , hoivever , like Rochester , was at last taken by the besiegers ; and if you substitute the city of Rochester for that of

Acre , Rochester Castle for the toiver ' Maledictum , ' King John for King Richard , Savaric de Mauleon for the King of France , and William de Albini for the Sultan Saladin , Yinsauf s account of thc siege of i \ . cre may very well serve for that of Rochester ; lor by similar appliances and means of attack , and probably with the assistance of the . King ' s ships in the Medway , ivhich ( as at Acre ) blockaded thc harbourand cut off all liesand

pre-, supp , vented any assistance to the besieged from the sea , the siege of Rochester Castle was carried on vigorously until the jiOth of November , ivhen tbe governor and his companions , finding no hope of relief , and that the outward walls were thrown down and their provisions exhausted , surrendered tlie castle and themselves at discretion .

On taking the fortress which had been so valiantly and perscveringly defended , King John ivas so much exasperated , that in his rage he hanged all the ordinary soldiers except the crosslroivmen , and he would have put all his prisoners to death ; but better and more prudent counsels ( or perhaps avarice ) prevailed . AVe shall see that tbe King- made a good speculation by the sums ivhich he exacted from such of his prisoners as could pay heai-y ransoms for their lives ; and he Avas persuaded by some of his friends and partisans , and amongst others by the Poictevin leader , Savaric do Mauleon . to exercise a reluctant clemency , for