Castles
The passion for building castles in England had begun before the
Norman Conquest; but during the Norman period a great many castles
(about eleven hundred, it is said) were built in various parts
of the country. They were not all of the same size, strength, or
importance. Some were royal castles, belonging to the king, who
placed each one in charge of a constable or warden. These were
necessary for the defence of the country. We should expect to
find important castles, for instance, at such places as Carlisle,
Ludlow, Gloucester, Dover, and London. We can, too, trace lines of
castles along the Scottish and Welsh borders; and there were no
fewer than twenty-five in the county of Monmouth alone.
Many castles were placed on the sites of Saxon strongholds, and
of strongholds dating from still earlier times. Others were built
where the overlord thought they would be of service to him in
protecting his interests and keeping his tenants in order. So it
often came to pass that the castles were built close to, or in the
very heart of, a town or city. Frequently the castle was at once
the protection and the terror of the neighbourhood.
It is curious to note that some of the greatest castle-builders of
the time were bishops. There was Bishop Gundulph of Rochester, who
built the Keep of Rochester Castle and the White Tower in the Tower
of London. There was Bishop Henry de Blois of Winchester, who built
a number of castles on lands belonging to his bishopric. Strange as
it may seem to us that bishops should be great rulers and leaders
of armies, it did not strike the people of those days as at all
extraordinary or improper. A bishop was as much a ruler as the
king, and had territories to look after and keep in order. In those
days he was quite as able to carry out these duties as the boldest
baron of them all, and could give and take hard knocks with the
best of them.
[Illustration: _Rochester Castle: The Keep_
_Rochester Castle was built by Bishop Gundulf between 1077 and
1108, under the order of William Rufus. The magnificent Keep (70
feet square and 104 feet high) was added about 1126._]
The great castle-builders had no love for the traders in towns and
cities; indeed they looked down on that class. But they found them
very useful. Towns attracted traders by land and by water; and
every town, every bridge, and every ferry belonged to some lord or
other. No goods could be brought into or taken from a town, or
carried across bridge or ferry, without paying toll and custom to
the overlord. But he had certain duties to perform in return, in
protecting the town and its trade; and the better the protection
the more traders came to pay toll, and the better it was for
everybody concerned.
So we find, near many of our ancient towns and cities, a castle, or
its ruins--or perhaps only the site is left--where the lord of the
town kept a number of men to protect the town and district, even
when he was not there himself.
If there was no love lost between the lord of the castle and the
townsmen, there was still less between the latter and the soldiers.
The soldiers were inclined to take liberties, and to be insolent
and oppressive. As they had it in their power to "make trouble", if
not kept in good-humour, the townsmen put up with much for the sake
of peace and quietness.
[Illustration: _The White Tower, Tower of London, built by
Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, 1078. The exterior was restored by
Wren, but within the Norman work is little altered_]