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Bedford Castle was a large medieval castle in Bedford, England. Built after 1100 by Henry I, the castle played a prominent part in both the civil war of the Anarchy and the First Barons' War. The castle was significantly extended in stone, although the final plan of the castle remains uncertain. Henry III of England besieged the castle in 1224 following a disagreement with Falkes de Bréauté; the siege lasted eight weeks and involved an army of as many as 2,700 soldiers with equipment drawn from across England. After the surrender of the castle, the king ordered its destruction (slighting).
Although partially refortified in the 17th century during the English Civil War, the castle remained a ruin until the urban expansion in Bedford during the 19th century, when houses were built across much of the property. Today only part of the motte still stands, forming part of an archaeological park built on the site between 2007 and 2009.
By the early 12th century the castle was controlled by the royal castellan, Simon de Beauchamp, the son of Hugh de Beauchamp who had helped conquer England in 1066. The borough of Bedford: Castle and barony, A History of the County of Bedford: Volume 3 (1912), pp. 9–15, accessed 7 July 2011; King, p. 83. Contemporaries described the castle around this time as "completely ramparted around with an immense earthen bank and ditch, girt about with a wall strong and high, strengthened with a strong and unshakeable keep". Bedford Castle, Bedford Borough Council, accessed 3 July 2011. Simon died in 1137, and King Stephen agreed that Simon's daughter should marry Hugh the Pauper and that the castle would be given to Hugh, in exchange for Stephen giving Miles compensatory honours and gifts.King, p. 83; Bradbury (2009), p. 63. Miles and Payn de Beauchamp, the children of Simon's brother, Robert de Beauchamp, declared that the castle was rightfully Miles' and refused to hand it over to Hugh.King, p. 83.
Meanwhile, civil war had broken out in England between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda, resulting in a period of chaos known as the Anarchy. Matilda's uncle, David I of Scotland, invaded England during 1137 in support of her claim.Harsthorne, p. 2. Although Miles de Beauchamp declared himself in support of Stephen, the king decided to retake Bedford Castle before marching north. Stephen formed an army to besiege Bedford Castle but Miles gained advance warning of the attack and took in considerable supplies, preparing for a long siege. Stephen was unable to storm the castle and left a force under the command of Hugh to starve it into submission whilst he marched north to tackle the Scots invasion.Hartshorne, p. 2.
Henry of Blois, the Bishop of Winchester, intervened in an attempt to produce a negotiated solution. Henry reached an agreement whereby after five weeks, the castle finally surrendered; the garrison were allowed to leave peacefully but the castle was handed over to the king.Hartshorne, p. 2; King, p. 83. The deal struck by Miles and Henry appears to have left the surrounding estates in the hands of the Beauchamps, however, and in 1141 Miles returned and retook the castle itself, although no details are available as to how he achieved this. The borough of Bedford: Castle and barony, A History of the County of Bedford: Volume 3 (1912), pp. 9–15, accessed 7 July 2011; King, p. 224.
Miles subsequently supported the Empress, and in 1146, Ranulf, the Earl of Chester and temporarily on the side of the king, attacked and took the town of Bedford, but was unable to take the castle, which continued to be controlled by Miles until his death several years later. The borough of Bedford: Castle and barony, A History of the County of Bedford: Volume 3 (1912), pp. 9–15, accessed 7 July 2011; Hartshorne, p. 2; Bradbury (2009), p. 152. Towards the end of the war, Bedford Castle may have been attacked again; Henry II, during the final year of the conflict in 1153, marched through Bedford and documentary evidence shows damage to the town at this time. Historians are divided as to whether the castle was besieged at the same time.Bradbury (2009), p. 178, 182; Baker, p. 17; Warren, p. 50.
After the war, Falkes made Bedford Castle his headquarters and he expanded it considerably, resulting in what David Baker has described as a "major refortification".Baker, p. 17. Falkes destroyed the neighbouring churches of St Paul's and St Cuthbert's to make space for a new bailey, reusing the stone for the castle.Pounds; Baker, p. 17; Liddiard, p. 17. The exact form of the castle after this expansion remains uncertain. The castle appears to have been quadrangular, with the western edge running along the rear of the modern High Street and the northern edge running along the modern roads of Ram Yard and Castle Lane.Albion Archaeology, p. 32. The castle had a new barbican; an outer and an inner bailey, with the inner bailey in the south-east corner, protected by an internal ditch and a stone-lined palisade; further stone lined ditches lay around the castle; and a new keep was built on the motte.Baker, p. 17; Brown, p. 161. Brown suspects that the new keep was probably a shell keep with a tower, similar to those built at Launceston or Bungay Castle. The stone-lined palisades and ditches built at Bedford were very unusual in England – their closest equivalent are those found at Skenfrith Castle in Wales.Baker, p. 21. The castle had a postern watergate facing towards the river, and a great hall within the inner bailey in the middle, at least 13 m (43 feet) wide and 40 m (131 feet) long.Baker, pp. 18–21. There was possibly a large stone gatehouse positioned on the outer bailey wall. A mound in the north-east corner of the castle probably supported a large tower.
The siege of Bedford Castle required huge resources.Brown, p. 162. Siege engines were brought from Lincoln, Northampton and Oxfordshire, while carpenters built others on site using timber from Northamptonshire; ropes from London, Cambridge and Southampton; hides from Northampton and tallow from London. Labourers from across Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire were gathered by the relevant sheriffs, and miners from Hereford and the Forest of Dean.Brown, p. 163. Crossbow bolts were ordered from a depot at Corfe Castle and from the provinces; 43,300 crossbow bolts are known to have been ordered by the king.Brown, p. 163; Amt, pp. 112–3. Local trees were cut down, and stone quarrying begun to provide ammunition for siege engines.Amt, p. 108, 111. Tents and pavilions for the King were sent from London along with supplies of luxury foods and wine, also for the King. In total, Henry's wage bill for the siege came to £1,311; it is uncertain exactly how large Henry's army was, but potentially there were between 1,600 and 2,700 men present at any one time.Carpenter, p. 364; Amt, pp. 115–6. To support the siege, Langton instructed his bishops to mobilise one man from every 24 hectares (60 acres) of land they owned and levied a special tax on the churches' estates.Bradbury (1992), p. 140; Carpenter, p. 364.
With these resources, Henry erected a number of siege engines around the castle; one probable trebuchet and two were set up to the east of the castle; two mangonels were placed on the west side, to attack the keep, and one mangonel on both the north and south sides. Two siege-castles were established to observe the occupants of the castle. William was confident, however, that either his brother would return and relieve the siege, or that the pope would intervene, and held on despite the artillery attacks. The losses in the royal army began to mount; chronicler Ralph of Coggeshall suggests that seven knights, and over 200 soldiers and labourers were killed as the siege dragged on.Brown, pp. 160–1.
Bedford Castle finally fell through a sequence of four attacks.Brown, p. 161. Royal forces first captured the barbican and then stormed the outer bailey, seizing most of the castle's supplies but taking considerable losses. Miners, operating under the protection of a "Siege engine", then gained access to the inner bailey by collapsing part of the wall.Liddiard, p. 92. Finally, on 14 August, the miners attacked the keep itself, lighting a fire under the walls, cracking the stone and filling the building with smoke. The female members of the household, including Falkes' wife, and Henry de Braybrooke were released, the royal standard was raised over the tower, and the next day William and the garrison surrendered.
A discussion ensued about the fate of the garrison; near contemporary accounts suggest that the prisoners asked the Archbishop for assistance, but that this was declined. Henry then had all the male members of the garrison hanged, except for three knights who agreed to join the military order of the Knights Templar.Liddiard, p. 92; Powicke, p. 27; Amt, p. 114. Three days after the fall of Bedford Castle, the Pope wrote a letter demanding that Henry cease his campaign against Falkes, but this intervention had occurred far too late to be of use.Liddiard, p. 93. Alexander de Stavenby, the Bishop of Coventry, convinced Falkes to surrender after the fall of the castle; he handed over his remaining castles at Plympton and Storgursey and was absolved by Langton, going into exile shortly afterwards.Brown, p. 164; Carpenter, p. 367. Historian R. Brown has noted that the 1224 siege of Bedford Castle was remarkable in that the castle's garrison was able to hold out against "the concentrated military resources of the whole kingdom" for an impressive eight weeks.Brown, p. 164. David Carpenter argues that the fall of Bedford castle "concluded the triumph of central government" over the previously uncontrollable forces of the local barons.Carpenter, pp. 369–70.
At the outbreak of the English Civil War, Bedford sided with Parliament; the town was temporarily captured by Prince Rupert of the Rhine in 1643 and the castle was refortified for the duration of the war.Albion Archaeology, p. 18. A probable wooden fort and prison were built on the remains of the motte and defended by a hundred-man garrison.Albion Archaeology, p. 46. After the war the motte became used as a bowling green until the 19th century. In 1804 the north-east tower of the castle was turned into a hexagonal building for the local militia unit.Albion Archaeology, p. 53. Bedford began to spread eastwards in the late 19th century and the castle baileys became desirable property for housing; in 1851 the last parts of the barbican were destroyed to make way for the construction of cottages.Albion Archaeology, p. 32; Bedford Castle, Bedford Borough Council, accessed 3 July 2011.
In 2004 Bedford Borough Council commissioned artist Gary Drostle to create a mosaic map of Bedford depicting the castle and Bedford's medieval history in front of the castle mound.
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