Cirencester Castle

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Today the site of the former Cirencester Castle is built on with residential buildings.

Cirencester Castle was a castle in the town of Cirencester in the English county of Gloucestershire .

The castle was originally built from wood in the 11th century. In 1107 a stone donjon was added. The castle was primarily of local importance as it was very small. During the early years of the conflict during the civil war of anarchy in the 12th century, the castle was taken on behalf of Empress Matilda by Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester . In 1142, King Stephen's troops took the castle in a surprise attack and then set it on fire.

The further story is a matter of dispute among historians. Most nineteenth-century historians believed that William de la Dive , a retainer of Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester , and then a supporter of Empress Matilda, had the castle rebuilt and kept it. When Robert de Beaumont came to an agreement with King Stephen at the end of the Civil War, William de la Dive left the castle to the king. During the revolt of the barons against King Henry III. the castle was again garrisoned and used against the king. When it was taken again by the royal troops, King Henry ordered its final destruction. However, the historian EA Fuller stated in 1890 that this later story was the result of a misinterpretation of place names, and said that the history of the castle ended with its destruction in 1142.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cirencester Castle . Historic England. Pastscape. English Heritage. Retrieved February 18, 2016.
  2. ^ A b Norman John Greville Pounds: The Medieval Castle in England and Wales: a social and political history . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1990. ISBN 978-0-521-45828-3 . P. 52. ( Preview in Google Book Search, accessed February 18, 2016).
  3. ^ A b c d e Benjamin Clarke: The British Gazetteer: Political, Commercial, Ecclesiastical, and Historical . Collins, London 1852. p. 662. ( Preview in Google Book search, accessed February 18, 2016).
  4. ^ EA Fuller: Cirencester Castle in Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society . Issue 15 (1890). P. 118. Retrieved February 19, 2016.

Coordinates: 51 ° 42'58 "  N , 1 ° 58'13"  W.