Gloucester Castle

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The keep of the castle used as a prison in the 18th century. Drawing from 1819

Gloucester Castle was a castle in the city of Gloucester in Great Britain . The castle served as a royal residence for a time in the 13th century and played an important role during the Second War of the Barons .

history

Norman castle after the conquest of England

Gloucester Castle was built as a royal castle, presumably after the Norman Conquest, as earth and wood fortifications on the southwest corner of the Roman city walls to rule the city. The builder of the castle was probably the Sheriff of Gloucestershire , Roger de Pitres . It is mentioned for the first time in the Domesday Book of 1086; 16 houses in the city had to be destroyed to build the castle. Before 1100, the location of the castle was moved by Walter de Gloucester further west outside the former Roman city walls on the banks of the Severn . At this point there was previously a garden of the St Peter Abbey , eight houses had to be demolished for this purpose. The massive, square Keep was probably built around this time . During the anarchy following the death of King Henry I , the castle under Miles de Gloucester was one of the main bases of the Empress Matilde's party and was reinforced accordingly. After the death of Miles de Gloucester, his son Roger Fitzmiles, 2nd Earl of Hereford, inherited the office of constablers of the castle. After Roger Fitzmiles died in 1155 without male heirs, the castle fell back to the crown.

Expansion under King Heinrich III.

King Henry III used the castle several times as a residence from 1233 at the latest. Around this time the castle was surrounded by a moat and a curtain wall with several towers and three gates. The keep was raised in 1230, and a new living hall, a chapel and other buildings to accommodate the king and his court were built in the 1240s and 1250s. The keep temporarily served as an apartment for Eleanor of Brittany , the king's cousin who was held captive because of her claim to the throne.

Contested castle at the beginning of the Barons' War

During the Second War of the Barons, the strategically important castle was contested several times. In 1262 the castle was held for the king by the French knight Maci de Besile (Mathias Bezil), sheriff of Gloucestershire and constable of the castle. The first fighting of the Second War of the Barons began in 1262, when a force of the rebel barons conquered the sparsely occupied castle and captured Besile. However, Besile escaped from captivity and returned with a royal force. With this he was able to quickly recapture the castle and capture William de Tracy, the constable used by the rebels. In June or July 1263 the castle was again conquered by an army of rebels under John Giffard, 1st Baron Giffard and Roger de Clifford after a heavy four-day siege. Although the crew could still retreat into the keep under Besile, it was finally stormed and Besile had to surrender. The rebels now appointed Roger de Clifford as constable of the castle, but after a visit by the heir apparent Edward in December 1263 he changed sides and handed the castle back to the king.

Siege from early 1264

In February 1264, an army of rebels under Henry and Simon de Montfort , two sons of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester , leader of the rebellion, and under John Giffard and John Balun marched to Wales to join their army with the troops of Unite Welsh Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd . They decided to attack Gloucester, and by a ruse Giffard and Balun were able to occupy a city gate. The rebels were able to conquer the city, but they failed to storm the castle held by Clifford. The heir to the throne, Prince Edward , immediately moved with a relief army from Oxford to Gloucester in early March . He first tried to storm the western gate of the city, but despite a failure of the castle garrison, the attack failed. Thereupon he had a part of his troops set with a ship over the Severn so that they could relieve the castle over the river from the west. After the royal troops were able to get into the castle in this way, they shelled the city with siege engines from the castle , so that the rebellious barons had to agree to an armistice. Simon and Henry de Montfort eventually withdrew from the city. Prince Edward had the castle strengthened and the moat renewed. To do this, he had numerous houses demolished in the forefront of the castle in order to give the castle crew a free field of fire. The owners of the houses, including Llanthony Secunda Priory , were not compensated for this destruction until 200 years later under King Henry VII . After Prince Edward had improved the fortifications of the castle in this way, he increased the castle's crew to up to three knights, 21 men-at-arms , 14 crossbowmen and 60 Welsh and English infantrymen. This strong garrison held the castle for the king under Clifford even after the decisive victory of the rebels in the Battle of Lewes in May 1264. It was only in December that Gilbert de Clare and Montfort were able to persuade Clifford to vomit. Clifford did not join the rebels but went into exile in Ireland .

Siege of June 1265

After Prince Edward, who had come under the control of the rebels at Lewes, escaped from captivity in May 1265, Montfort sent an army of over 300 men to Gloucester to strengthen the garrison. Just one day after their arrival on June 10, 1265 a royal army under Prince Edward reached the city and immediately began to siege the city and castle. After violent attacks, the royal troops were able to overcome the city wall in the north. The garrison under Grimbald Pauncefoot and Geoffrey de Lacy withdrew into the castle. Then Prince Edward began to siege the castle. He first had the access roads to the castle cordoned off with barricades. He then had the castle bombarded with mangonels from the town , while it was bombarded with stones and incendiary from several trebuchets from the western bank of the Severn . After three weeks of siege, the castle was badly damaged, and the keep was also destroyed by fire. The attackers began to backfill the trench to the city in order to destroy the main gate with fire. The gate was finally broken open with the help of a battering ram . The crew, worn down by the bombardment, ultimately had to surrender. Prince Edward granted the crew free withdrawal on condition that they would not take up arms again within 40 days. He even knighted the opposing castle commander Grimbald Pauncefoot.

The conquest of Gloucester had a decisive impact on the further course of the war. Montfort, who was west of the Severn, was blocked by the conquest of the castle and the passage over the river and could not unite with the troops of his son Simon of the same name. He first tried to cross the Severn further south of Gloucester, but could not find enough boats. Prince Edward, however, marched with his army to Kenilworth , where he defeated the younger Simon de Montfort. The strong castle garrison of Gloucester was able to join the royal troops under Roger Mortimer shortly before the Battle of Evesham . With their approach from the west, these troops prevented Montfort from escaping westwards across the River Avon .

Plaque on the outside wall of Gloucester Prison

The castle after the Barons' War

After the victory of the royal troops at Evesham, Prince Edward had the damaged castle and the city walls renewed. The two upper floors of the keep burned out during the siege of 1265 were probably not repaired until the 14th century. After that, the castle was only slightly changed. After the death of King Henry III. it served as the widow's seat of Queen Eleonore and after the death of King Edward I as the widow's seat of Queen Margarethe . It also served as a prison. In the 14th century the castle was so neglected that King Richard II stayed at Llanthony Secunda Priory on a visit to Gloucester while his entourage was housed at St Peter's Abbey. Under King Edward IV the castle was repaired again after 1460, but after the end of the Wars of the Roses it had lost its military importance. It only served as a prison and has been neglected again.

Decay and demolition of the castle in modern times

At the end of the 15th century, the office of constable of the castle was linked to the office of prison overseer. From 1489, parts of the castle served as a quarry. After the buildings in the castle courtyard had first been torn down, the curtain wall was demolished in the 1630s and 1640s. Around the middle of the 17th century, only the former keep, which was used as a prison, and the main gate remained of the castle. After the detention conditions in the medieval tower were criticized, a new prison was built on the former castle grounds by 1791. The demolition of the old keep began in 1787. Due to extensions in the 19th century, the former castle grounds were further built over by the prison buildings. These buildings were renovated several times until the prison closed in 2013.

Gloucester Prison on the site of the former castle, photo from 2007

investment

The first Norman castle was on what is now Barbican Road and was a moth . Excavations in the 20th century revealed that the castle hill had a diameter of up to 50 m and was surrounded by a moat. To the east of the castle hill was a rectangular courtyard about 111 by 90 m further. The castle was fortified with a wall and a ditch up to 8 m wide, the castle gate was on the eastern side.

The second castle was on the western corner of the old Roman city wall on the east bank of the Severn and controlled the town's dock. It consisted of a mighty stone keep, which was surrounded by an irregular curtain wall with several towers and up to three gates. The circular walls enclosed an area around 100 by 120 m. The main gate was in the northeast of the castle and was secured by two gatehouses. To the west of the castle was another small gate from which a bridge spanned the Severn. On the western bank of the river there was probably a stone forework. To the south a gate led to a road to Llanthony Secunda Priory. The circular walls are said to have been up to 10 m high and 2 m thick, and the wide inner courtyard was probably divided by further walls. The curtain wall was removed in the 17th century in favor of a simpler prison wall. From the end of the 18th century a new prison was built on the castle grounds, for which the keep was also laid down. There are no visible remains of the castle.

literature

  • Henry Hurst: The Archeology of Gloucester Castle. A Introduction . In: Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Vol. 102 (1984), pp. 73-128

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David Walker: Gloucester and Gloucestershire in Domesday Book . In: Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Vol. 94 (1976), p. 111
  2. ^ JN Langton: The Giffards of Brimpsfield . In: Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 1944 (65), pp. 105–128 ( online, pdf )
  3. ↑ BBC News: Gloucester prison closure. Criminals buried underneath. Retrieved June 13, 2015 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 51 '54.3 "  N , 2 ° 15' 2.6"  W.