Bristol Castle
Bristol Castle is a ruined castle from the Norman time in the city Bristol in the English county of Gloucestershire . The remains, including the side gate , can now be seen in Castle Park near Broadmead Shopping Center .
history
The first castle in Bristol was a wooden moth , probably built at the behest of King William the Conqueror , who owned the city of Bristol. One of Wilhelm's closest allies, Geoffroy de Montbray , Bishop of Coutances , seems to have taken control of the castle on behalf of Wilhelm. The Domesday Book says that he received part of the king's income from the borough . The castle is first mentioned in 1088 when Geoffroy de Montbray used it as a base for his rebellion against William Rufus .
After the triumph of Williams, he redistributed the English rebel lands among his followers. Among them was Robert Fitzhamon , who received a large chunk of Gloucestershire, including Bristol Castle. His eldest daughter Mabel married Robert , an illegitimate son of King Henry I. After the death of their father in 1107, the lands and titles of Gloucestershire were transferred to Robert. So he became known as the Robert of Gloucester .
It was then that the first wave of Norman wooden castles was replaced by stone castles. Bristol Castle was a fine example of this; it received a curtain wall and a donjon . It appears that Robert of Gloucester was responsible for this. The new castle was built in a strategic location on the east side of the city, between the Avon and Frome rivers . The Frome was partially diverted to fill the moat .
The fortress was to play a key role in the civil wars that followed King Henry I's death. Henry's only legitimate son, William, drowned in 1120, and so Henry declared his only legitimate daughter, Matilda, to be his heir. But her cousin Stephan von Blois usurped the throne of England after Heinrich's death in 1135. Matilda's half-brother Robert of Gloucester became her right hand man - the commander of her troops. The rebels rushed to his castle in Bristol.
Stephan had Bristol scouted in 1138, but then decided that the city was impregnable. One chronicler wrote: "On the one hand, where it seems more exposed to a siege and more accessible, a castle rises on a broad mound, reinforced by walls and battlements, towers and various devices that prevent the enemy from approaching." After his arrest in 1141, Stephan was imprisoned in Bristol Castle until Robert of Gloucester had also been captured and an exchange of prisoners took place.
The castle and title of Earl of Gloucester passed to his son, William FitzRobert , after Robert's death . When Henry the Younger and his brothers Richard and Geoffrey rebelled against King Henry II in 1173 , Earl William supported their cause. The rebellion was put down the following year and Earl William was punished by deprivation of Bristol Castle, which came under royal control. It became one of the most important royal castles in the country. King Henry III , who was raised at Bristol Castle, invested a lot of money in the castle, adding a barbican in front of the west gate, a gate tower and a great hall . From 1224 Eleanor of Brittany was interned in the castle under relatively comfortable circumstances and lived in the donjon.
The two young sons of Dafydd ap Gruffydd , the last princes of the Kingdom of Gwynedd , were imprisoned for life in Bristol Castle after the conquest of Wales by the English King Edward I in 1283. William le Scrope , Sir John Bussy and Sir Henry Green were executed there in June 1399 by the Duke of Hereford , who was soon to become King Henry IV , without trial after the latter had returned from exile.
The first detailed description of the castle dates back to 1480. By 1540, when the historian John Leland visited Bristol Castle, the castle was showing signs of neglect. It had “two courtyards, and in the north-western part of the outer courtyard is a large keep with a dungeon which is said to have been built of stones brought by the red Earl of Gloucester from Caen , Normandy . In the other courtyard there is an attractive church and many residential buildings with a large gate on the south side, a stone bridge and three ramparts on the left bank that leads to the mouth of the Frome. Many towers are still standing in both courtyards, but they are all in great danger of collapsing. ”In the 16th century the castle was no longer used, but the city council had no control over the royal property and the area became a refuge for law breakers. In 1630 the city bought the castle and when the English Civil War broke out the city sided with the parliamentarians and had the castle partially repaired. But royalist troops occupied Bristol and afterwards Oliver Cromwell ordered the demolition of the castle.
The castle was demolished in 1656 , according to Millerd's Map of Bristol (see above right). An octagonal tower remained until it was demolished in 1927. Samuel Loxton made a sketch of it in 1907. There are some remains of the banquet hall that have been incorporated into a building that still stands today, called Castle Vaults . In 1938 the Castle Vaults served as a tobacco shop.
The moat was covered in 1847 but still exists today and is largely navigable. It is located under Castle Park and pours into Floating Harbor . The western part of the trench is dry. A sideline gate into the moat near St. Peter's Church has been preserved to this day.
The site was opened to trade and commerce and was later destroyed by the Bristol Blitz during World War II. After the war it became a public park, Castle Park .
A 16 meter long exit tunnel runs under the southwest part of the castle.
today
The remains of Bristol Castle are now considered a Scheduled Monument .
Individual evidence
- ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle .
- ↑ GE C [okayne]: The Complete Peerage . 2nd Edition. Published by: V. Gibbs, London 1910–1959.
- ^ S. Watson: Secret underground Bristol . Bristol 1991. ISBN 0-907145-01-9
- ^ Marjorie Chibnall: The Empress Matilda . Blackwell, Oxford 1991. p. 83.
- ^ KR Potter (editor and translator): Gesta Stephani . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1976. pp. 37-38, 43-44.
- ^ William of Malmesbury, KR Potter (translator): The Historia Novella . T. Nelson, London 1955. p. 50.
- ^ HM Colvin, RA Brown: The History of the King's Works . Volume II: The Middle Ages . Chapter The Royal Castles 1066–1485 . Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London 1963. pp. 578-579.
- ^ GREEN, Sir Henry (c.1347-1399), of Drayton, Northants. . The History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved December 22, 2015.
- ^ William Worcestre: The Topography of Medieval Bristol . Volume 51. Bristol Record Society, 2000. No. 396, 422.
- ^ John Chandler (Editor): John Leland's Itinerary: Travels in Tudor England . Sutton Publishing, Stroud 1993. pp. 178-179.
- ^ History and Archeology of Castle Park . Bristol City Council. Retrieved December 22, 2015.
- ↑ George Frederick Stone: Bristol As It Was And As It Is . Bristol 1909. p. 99.
- ↑ Andrew Foyle, David Martyn: Bristol: City on Show . The History Press, Bristol 2012.
- ^ Bristol Castle . Fortified England. Retrieved on December 22, 2015. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ David M Wilson, Stephen Moorhouse: Medieval Britain in 1970 (PDF) 1971. doi : 10.5284 / 1000320 . Archived from the original on February 5, 2014. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Castle Park . Bristol City Council. Retrieved December 22, 2015.
Web links
- Jean Manco: The Impregnable City . Bristol History. May 22, 2005.
- Bristol Castle . Historic England - Pastscape. English Heritage.
- Bristol Castle, City of Bristol - Excavation History . Historic England. English Heritage.
Coordinates: 51 ° 27 '21.2 " N , 2 ° 35' 17.9" W.